Bill Johnson - Listening to the Spirit - Part 1
In Mark 14 is a story of Jesus walking on water. And I look at this story, oftentimes, and think it’s amusing and funny, because Jesus is walking on the water and the disciples are terrified. And then, Jesus says, «Don’t be afraid,» which seems to be what Jesus says whenever you really should be afraid. It’s kinda like: whenever he says that, you know you’re in a situation that’s rough, you know. And he says, «Don’t be afraid: it’s me». And Peter says, «If it’s really you, bid me to come». Jesus says, «Come,» and he gets out and walks on water. There’s something about the voice of the Lord. Everybody in this room is born again because you heard him speak. None of us were born again 'cause we sought the Lord: we were all born again 'cause we were sought by the Lord. He spoke, we responded. Everybody in this room can hear the voice of God. It’s the only way you can get born again.
We tend to evaluate how well we hear, and, certainty, all of us want to hear better. I get that. Count me in that number. But, oftentimes, we evaluate our capacity to hear and we measure our success and hearing from God on our ability and not his ability. If I’m speaking to somebody who doesn’t hear well, I talk louder. I make sure they’re looking at me. I do something to reinforce the fact that I want to be heard by them. The point is: I take it upon myself to be heard. In another illustration, Jesus said: if you, being evil, knew how to give gifts to your children, how much more? So, God is the how-much-more God. So, there’s these basic functions that we do in life, it’s called common sense: it’s called common courtesy.
And so, when we have someone that doesn’t hear well, we make sure we get their attention, we look them in the eye, they read our lips, they speak loud enough. It’s just what you do to be heard. The goal isn’t to keep them in mystery. The goal is to keep them in conversation. The goal is to engage. And, if I would do that, if you would do that, how much more would God make sure that when we need to hear, he makes sure we can read his lips? He makes sure we can read the context, the situation that we are in so that everything around us reinforces what he wants to make sure we hear. And so, we have this moment in Peter’s life, in the disciple’s life where Jesus is on the water. Peter said, «If it’s really you,» which, to me, is just a weird conversation, but, «If it’s really you, bid me to come».
Well, anything that’s out there can say, «Come». But, something happened when Jesus said, «Come,» because his words never just touch us on an intellectual level: they actually pierce the soul. It was the way, the voice of God was measured is because it was not just an idea. God speaks not just to increase our understanding. It’s valid, it’s important. But he speaks, actually, to release transformation into us. Every Word of God is the sperm of God. It carries the DNA of God. And every time his word is heard, every time we respond to what he says, there is something of his nature that becomes manifest in us. He deposits something in us that is to become fully manifest as a perfect representation of who Jesus is, perfectly representing the father.
And so, his voice is always to make deposit for the purpose of transformation. And he’s never just holding conversation in the sense of wanting to just keep dialogue going just wanting to make us smarter. I’m not sure God’s that concerned about our intelligence. I think he’s a lot more concerned about our surrender, our yieldedness. Faith, as you know, doesn’t come out of striving: it comes out of surrender. And so, he brings us to this place of rest, because that’s where faith functions. When I’m anxious is when I am prone to be presumptuous. It’s when I walk into peace that faith is activating and can function. And anything that’s done outside of peace is not pleasing to the Lord. It’s actually sin, according to scripture.
So, the issue of functioning in faith, the issue, if I can take it a second generation in thought, the issue of functioning and rest is central to walking in the Spirit. One of the most important things you and I can do in our life is protect our peace. When the peace is gone, when the anxiety is there, or the anger, or the whatever it might be, what I have to do is I have to back up in my day: «How long have I been dealing with this? How long has this been going on and I didn’t give it any attention»? And I go: «Okay, it’s been since 9 o’clock this morning I got that phone call. And, God, I can see I became anxious in the phone call, which basically means I feared what could happen would be outside of your observation and your concern. And so, my fear, my embracing of anxiety, was actually me questioning your quality as a father over my life».
So, repentance is needed when we see that being exposed to us. «God, again, you’ve showed me your goodness over and over and over again. And yet, in this moment, I became so fearful and so careless. And, really, the root of it, I can see it, right now, I was questioning your heart as a father over me». And so, what you do: you go back to your moment where peace wasn’t ever taken from us and we just exchanged it. We made a transaction. And so, we exchanged peace for anxiety. So, we go back in repentance and take back what God gave us as an eternal inheritance. Peace is power. It’s so different in the Kingdom of God than it is in our world. You know the language of peace. That peace is more than no noise. It’s not the absence of conflict. It’s not the absence of, I mean, we define it as absence of conflict, absence of war, absence of noise. But peace for us is the presence of a person.
And so, this peace actually does fine in the midst of war, conflict, and noise. It is superior because it is not subject to its environment. It actually has authority over the environment. It actually has the capacity to influence the environment so that the war stops, so the noise comes to a place of rest or the conflict reconciliation happens. Process that the disciples went through, Jesus was training them to live from what he said. Remember: man does not live by I wanna take you on a little journey, here, so just work hard to follow me, if you would. «Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God».
We actually live from his voice. If you could picture it this way: his voice is what releases life into us. It is his voice. And regardless of how well you evaluate your capacity to hear. You hear constantly. It would be better to assume you hear well than to criticize because if you hear well, if you believe that you hear well, then you’re at least leaning in the right direction. But if you think you don’t hear well, your focus is off of him and onto your gift. So, Jesus is talking, in John 6, very famous chapter. It’s where he taught the most offensive sermon of his career. It is church growth 101. There’s probably 15,000 people there. This is one of the places where the food was multiplied, and, they only counted the men, but there’s women and children. Which, by the way before the day of Pentecost, they only counted the men. From the day of Pentecost on, they counted men and women.
There’s a reason for that. So, Jesus is talking in this great chapter, and, this is the chapter where people become so offended they leave. And let’s just assume there is 15,000 people. And over the course of this sermon, he says, «You have to eat my flesh». They start arguing with one another, «This is gross: things were going so well». And then, he sees they’re arguing, so he just kind of ups it a notch, so he says, «Not only that, you have to drink my blood,» you know. So, every time they start gettin' mad at each other and fighting, and getting angry with him and leaving, he would just up it a notch, and, he just didn’t seem to want to draw people into a relationship with him so they’d be blessed. Blessing is the product: it’s not the purpose. And so, he brought this message and it divided the crowd, but he wasn’t careless. 'Cause he only says what the father’s saying.
So, he gets to the end of this, you know, 65, 70 verses, something like that in this chapter. We get right to the end of this thing, and it says this crowd, they had even his disciples had a hard time with this. So, everybody leaves and Jesus turns to his disciples and says: you guys going, too? So, remember, this is church growth. Fifteen-thousand-member megachurch in one sermon, drops to 12 people. Take notes. Take notes. This is how you find out who’s really with you. 'Cause, you know, as long as people are healed, the dead are raised, the food’s being multiplied, I mean, you don’t even have to have faith to enjoy that crowd. You’re in a good place. You’re in a place where you get to benefit from everything that’s going on. People are happy, they’re friendly. Everybody having a wonderful time.
So, Jesus decides to draw a line in the sand. And when he does so, people began to choose. They were forced to choose. So, anyway, he turns to the 12. He says, «You guys are going»? Peter speaks up. And this is one of the times that maybe some of us have not given him the credit for the profound answer that he gave. Because he nailed it again. We know he got many things wrong, and that’s why we like him 'cause most of us identity with him. But Jesus says, «Are you going, too»? And Peter says: «Where are we gonna go? You have the words of eternal life. When you speak, I come alive inside».
Let me, I’m gonna put my own language in here to explain what I see happening. It’s like Peter’s saying: I don’t know what you meant to teach all of us any more than I don’t understand it. What I do know is that even though I don’t understand what you said, I am alive inside because I’ve heard you say it. Life is imparted. Jesus explained this about three verses, four verses earlier. Because he said: my words to you are spirit and that spirit gives life. My word’s a spirit. So, here’s Jesus, the Word of God made flesh. But now, whenever he speaks, the Word of God is made spirit. So, when he talks, words that’s really huge. That’s why it can say he sent his word and healed them.
Back to the story in the boat. Peter says, «If it’s you, bid me to come». I’d like to suggest he wouldn’t have gotten out of the boat for a ghost, for some strange spirit that’s walking on the water, that’s conversing with them. 'Cause that by itself was terrifying them. But when he said, «Come,» something pierced through the storm, through the confusion, through all the turmoil of the moment they’re in, and he alive inside. And he walked on the water. We know he saw the wind, the waves, and he began to sing. But the point was he got out. And he walked on the word «Come». The Word of God is empowering. It enables. James put it this way in chapter 1. I think it’s verse 19 or 20. He says: «In humility, receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls».
So, think through this verse. First of all, he’s writing this to people who are already born again. So, when he says, «This is able to save your souls,» he’s not talking about their conversion. He’s talking about their transformation. He’s not talking about their conversion. He’s talking about their transformation. He’s talking about them being conformed into this likeness of Jesus. And so, James, it says «In humility». So, that’s soil condition. That’s heart. Soil condition. «In humility receive the word».
That’s the sperm of God. Receive that freshly spoken word, implanted into tender soil. Our job is soil. The life is not in the soil. I know that there’s nutrients in soil, but the life is in the seed. The life of God is in it is in what he said. It is in the words he spoke to you when he called you to be a pastor, when he sent you into the business world, when he brought you and your spouse together. That word that you heard, his nature is contained and revealed in what he said. And yielding to what he says actually manifests Jesus through us. Forgive the analogy, 'cause it may be offensive to some, but I really do think this illustrates this point better than any story in the Bible. The angel of the Lord shows up to Mary and says, «You’re gonna give birth to the Christ child». She says: «How can this be? I’m still a virgin». He says, «The spirit of the Lord will come upon you».
I’m not sure that helped her understand how it was gonna happen any more than a moment earlier. But, anyway. «The spirit of the Lord will come upon you». And then, she responded, she said, «Be it unto me according to your word». So, what did she do? She actually yielded tender heart, tender soil: no rocks, no other plants planted there, tender heart, only for the Word of God. The heart is only for the word. Tender heart. The angel spoke the word of the Lord. And she said, «Be it unto me, according to your word». Her receiving of the word of the Lord eventually manifested Jesus. And I realize we don’t have the same role, but yet we do. The manifestation of Jesus through your life and my life is entirely dependent upon our surrender to the Word of God. Entirely dependent upon us hearing, receiving, yielding to what God has said.
Jack Taylor, I was a part of an event that he did many years ago. And he took us to this passage in Luke, chapter 1. And it’s a part of that story where Mary was visited by the angel, then Elizabeth was visited by the angel, or the word got to, Zacharias came and Elizabeth became pregnant. So, it’s this section of story. And it’s a verse that we all know because it’s quoted often, it’s one of those high-standard verses that need to be repeated and declared. But the verse is: «Nothing shall be impossible with God». Say that with me. «Nothing shall be impossible with God». Say it again… Sometimes, we just need to declare that. Sometimes, we actually just need to say it. Do you remember when John the Baptist was prophesied over by his dad, Zacharias? He prophesied over him. He’s prophesied over him about his destiny. He’s 8 days old. How much of that word did he understand? How much did he remember? Zero. It just needed to be spoken.
Some things just need to be spoken. They just need to be spoken. Reinhard Bonnke made a statement here. I heard it in the last year or so. He said the Lord spoke to him and said the Word of God through his lips are as powerful as the Word of God through Jesus' lips. I’m glad he said it and not me, because, I would be called a blasphemer if I said it. But think through it. It’s the power of the word. The vessel is not the significant part. You understand? Jesus is the Son of God, right? You’re with me on that one? I have said more in the last few years than in all of my life combined. All right, so, here’s this verse: nothing shall be impossible with God. And Jack took us into a word study of this verse. It’s helped me so much. It’s verse, I think, 53, somewhere in there 54. «Nothing» is actually made of two words. It’s the word «No,» but it’s the word «Things,» the word rhema. Rhema is often translated as or implied to be that freshly spoken Word of God. It is not that which is in print: it is that which is spoken, is that which is highlighted.
And, for anyone who is new, just understand: when the Lord speaks to us, it must be consistent with what is written. So, no new books of the Bible. Yes, I believe Jesus is the Son of God. Wanna cover all my bases, here. I don’t mind defending, but I want it to be for a good reason. I don’t want, I don’t want, sorry. Anyway, back to, it’s taking a long time. I said I was gonna talk short, and, I’m just dragging out every story. Nothing, no rhema is impossible with God. The word «Impossible» means without ability. So, this is how the verse can be translated and this has helped me more than I can explain. No freshly spoken Word of God will ever come to you that does not contain its own ability to perform itself. No freshly spoken Word of God will ever come to you that does not contain its own ability to perform itself.
Now, that is consistent with James, who said, «In humility, receive the word implanted, which is able to save», let me put it in transformation language: «Which is able to make you like Jesus». Where is the ability? The ability is in the seed. The power, the life is in the seed. Environment is important. If you’re planting to do gardening, the soil is important, the watering, the sunlight, all those things have value, but if there’s no life in the seed, none of those things will work. And, sometimes, we do everything right externally to get a great breakthrough. But because there’s no life in the seed we carry, nothing happens, just a form of revival, but not the breakthrough that have it’s hearing the word of the Lord and acting upon what he has said that brings breakthrough.