Bill Johnson - Listening to the Spirit - Part 2
In Luke, chapter 8. And I’ve talked on this a I was just with the crones, here, which I loved going down there this last weekend. I talked about this, there, so forgive me for repeat, but, this is what’s been on my heart of late. So, Luke 8. And this is the story of the parable of the seed and the sower. The whole parable is just worthy of study. This happens to be a Cornerstone parable. What that means is is that when you have understanding of this parable, that understanding redefines, it has a domino effect to other incidences and stories and parables it’s a Cornerstone.
So, you look for the pillars of thought and you embrace those, prayerfully meditate on those. Because, once you have the foundations in place, the rest of the building is attracted to the foundation. Let me put it differently: Revelation is attracted to the person who has a place to put it. If you don’t think that’s biblical, in Matthew 13, it talks about the parable of the it says the mysteries have been given to you. And then, he says whoever has, more will be given beside. It’s what you have that attracts the more. It’s what you have. It’s what you steward well that actually attracts Revelation. So, this whole story’s obviously worth studying, but I only wanna use one verse because of what’s on my heart. It’s been on my heart for the last little while.
Verse 14: «Now, the ones,» or «That fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity». Look at it again. The seeds «That fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity». I’ve already made this statement and I intentionally believe that every person in this room has great capacity to hear from God, and, because of that, great capacity for faith. Our problem with faith is not the inability to hear God’s voice: it’s our willingness to hear other voices.
Think about this: words are seeds. This rocky soil is soil with thorns which is what? Those are wrong plants that grow from seeds. And those plants compete for the nutrition of the soil. They compete for the sunlight that the seed needs. And as it actually begin to grow, according to this picture, those thorns actually choke the life out of the most powerful thing in the universe. That’s the Word of God. Just think for a minute, the most powerful thing. God says, «Let there be light,» and, the universes are still expanding at the speed of light. Because he spoke it once and he just never stopped it. I mean, his word is so powerful. He creates when he speaks. He declares a matter and it happens. The word is creative. It is so creative that when we were made in his image, he made it possible for life and death to be in the power of our own tongues. You wanna raise the dead? Stop speaking death.
So, here’s the most powerful thing in the universe, the Word of God that creates everything is actually choked by me giving attention to something God didn’t say. I give it my heart, I give it my attention, I give it my thought. I reconsider, maybe, the word over my life 'cause things aren’t working as I had thought they should. Maybe that word that was given to me, maybe I was just feeling too good that morning when I saw that scripture and I misinterpreted what God was actually saying to me. Maybe the prophet that prophesied over me, although I felt so confirmed at the moment, it hasn’t happened. It must not have been from the Lord. What are we doing? We’re actually entertaining other thoughts, other words. These are words from the enemy.
And the interesting thing about the words of the enemy is they can’t create everything. They have no power. They’re just simply nagging little thoughts. But these nagging little thoughts grow in their ability to destroy by the attention that I give them. And as I give them the affection, the thought, the contemplation of my heart, not because I treasure them but because they’re there and I don’t deal with them, they grow. And they actually come into a place in my life where, for a season, the Lord has allowed us to use our authority when we want to to undermine his word.
That’s in the Bible. It’s in Mark 7. Jesus said: you, through your tradition, make the Word of God of no effect. You, through your tradition. Tradition isn’t stained-glass windows and pipe organs. Tradition is any thought or plan that you have that is other than what God is saying. It may have been the great thing that he said last week, but he’s saying something different today. And what you heard last week will become the tradition that uproots and undermines the word many people fail to join in what God is doing because they won’t listen to what he’s saying.
Now, understand, I’ve gotta walk a tightrope, here, 'cause I wanna make sure that you hear my heart. I don’t believe he contradicts the word, but he oftentimes contradicts my understanding of his word. And I think, to be honest, between you and me, without him listening, he actually enjoys contradicting my understanding of his word. I think he likes to watch me squirm into a place of strength. It’s just a thought. It’s probably not right, though, is it? You get my point. So, here, he says: by your tradition, that that you value above what I am saying, value tradition, you render the Word of God powerless. Picture this: electric guitar up here. Eardrum-splitting volume. And the player walks over to the wall and he pulls the plug. And, suddenly, that which was breaking glass is now without sound. And he says: by your traditions, you go to the wall and you pull the plug on the most powerful thing in the universe.
So, in at least two situations, the Lord actually gives us a stewardship role over the Word of God that actually can end up to be negative. Now, I understand and I do believe there are certain things that are in the word, they are concrete, they are the word of the Lord, they will happen with you and me cooperating or not. They’re just gonna happen. Jesus is gonna return. You can vote yes, you can vote no, really doesn’t matter. He’s coming. He’s not taking a popularity contest to see when to do it. It’s just like, it’s on his own time. But there’s a part of the will of God that is his dream or his wish, his desire, but it cannot and/or will not be done without participation of those made in his image that he has given delegated authority to. And so, this falls into that category. So, are you guys still alive? A third of you? Well. All right.
So, he says: by your tradition, you render the Word of God powerless. Most powerful thing in the universe, powerless. And then, in this story, he says: other seeds were competing with the strength, the life that’s in the soil. Let’s say you receive a prophetic word from a valid ministry, and it’s in response to a prayer that you’ve been praying and that word is exactly what you’ve been crying into. And let me just illustrate, as I have many times. That word comes over your life, tonight. Somebody calls you out, ministers to you and says you are gonna walk in the measure of faith that Smith Wigglesworth walked in. You will see the dead raised as he saw the dead raised. You will walk in the miracle anointing as Wigglesworth walked in. How many think that’s a pretty good word, right there?
The bad news about this story is that in Matthew 13, he says «When tribulation or persecution arises because of the word». The Word of God attracts conflict. Why? Listen, character cannot be formed in us unless we have choices. If you’re in a room and you need to get out, and there’s only one door, guess what? You don’t have a choice. You understand what I’m saying? The Lord didn’t create a garden with no tree that they couldn’t eat from. He had to put one there he couldn’t eat from. Why? 'cause character is not developed apart from choices.
And so, the Lord puts a word over our life and a promise, Larry Randolph says it best. He says God will always fulfill his word over us, but he’s not required to fulfill our potential. He’s not required to fulfill our potential. So, that word comes over you, Wigglesworth anointing, and you pray for a few people and they’re healed. A dear friend of you that you love and care for, you pray for, they die. I would never say that God caused the loss, caused the death. But we live in a broken world and we experience this stuff. So, now, what do we do? We’ve got the word of the Lord. How powerful is it? Enough to create universes. Enough to create and form Jesus in me. That’s how powerful it is. All power’s here.
The devil says: it doesn’t look like you have the anointing of Wigglesworth. How powerful is that word? It has no power. Zero authority. The only way that word can have power and authority is if the person who has power and authority lends their heart to the word. Then, that word becomes powerful enough to undermine the word of the Lord. We are stewards of the voice. It’s not just what he says: it’s the fact that he says. It’s what Jenn said earlier, that I’m saying yes before you even ask me to do anything: I’m just saying yes. It’s that readiness, it’s that willingness to not only hear, but, to hear and obey. It’s not teachers, pastors, it’s not studying the book for sermons. It’s studying to learn. It’s studying to be changed. It’s studying to have an encounter with the God of the book.
Jesus says in this verse, he said the word gets choked because of cares, riches, and pleasures. The «cares» part is the worry-anxiety issue. The pleasures, the riches are actually some of, what happens in a person’s life who seeks first the kingdom. I don’t know if this makes sense to you, but he’s not saying that his abundance in your life is a wrong thing. It’s just that when you steward many concepts and ideas, it will be your appetite for more that works against you. Because the appetite is not for the kingdom: the appetite is now for the reward. And it’s a part of the defilement that happens to the heart of the kingdom-oriented person to change the focus from the king himself to the pleasures of the king. It’s the constant reminder that when I give place to what God is saying over my life there’s that simple devotion.
I’ve had this thing going through my mind, in recent days. But let me just quote it the best I can. When Jesus heard that John the Baptist died, he got in a boat with the disciples by themselves to go to a deserted place. When they got there, there was a crowd. So, Jesus got out, was moved with compassion. But, remember, when he heard that John was beheaded, he wanted to get alone. Remember that. The next scene, the crowd’s there. So, he moved with compassion. Then, it says he made the crowd go away, sent the disciples across the sea, and he went up to a mountain to pray. What’s the point? When you’re challenged, refine your focus. Don’t try to be the «I can do anything, everything all at once» person.
When you’re rattled, you need all of your strength in the one thing that you’ve been summoned to do the most. Put your priority in place. It may be that, in one season of your life, you can be involved in this and this and this, and it’s totally kingdom and it’s just overflow of life, it’s pleasure. But when the challenge comes, refine your focus. It’s time to get on the mountain, get things settled. Jesus was tempted in all points, as we are, yet without sin. Does that imply he struggled with some things when he lost the guy he just spent a chapter honoring in Matthew 11? As the greatest of all prophets, his own cousin. Is it possible that there was some effect in his own heart, in his own mind? I don’t know. I don’t know how much of that he dealt with.
What I do know is that, both times, he sought to get alone. And when he came off the mountain, if people just touched the clothing, they were well. It was such a profound effect on refining focus. Jesus taught about this in Matthew 5. He said: «If your eye is single». The word «Single», there’s two words. It means one voyage. If your heart, the eyes of your heart, is set on one voyage, you are alive for one thing! Your entire body will be full of light. Your entire being will be under influence of the presence and the glory of the Almighty God.
Everything about you will be immersed in the glory, if you are alive for one thing. And when challenges come, that’s the moment where we refine ourselves. I do it as a «Recreation» is the wrong word. But it’s almost recreational for me just to review the things I’ve heard God say. In recent days, I review. We just had some wonderful prophetic time over the last couple days. And I love to just sit and listen and to review and to hear what the Lord is saying to us, what he’s saying to me. I cherish it. I was sick last year. I had a real rough stretch. And I just sat in a recliner, eventually, a hospital bed, and I just played over and over and over again the prophecies over my life. I would read over the ones that I don’t have recordings of. And I just read them because I cannot afford.
This is a moment that is so critical. I can’t keep five plates spinning. I can only keep one. And I’ve gotta make sure that I’m on the mountain, hearing what he’s saying. I can’t afford to deviate one iota. I cannot deviate from what he said. 'Cause it’s such a critical moment. It wasn’t a bad moment. It wasn’t a depressing moment. It was just: you know, this is a moment where I can’t afford to make a mistake. I’m not afraid, I’m not anxious, but I don’t wanna get there, either. And I know I’m on a fine line, so I’m gonna live by what he has said. I can’t afford to think anything about what’s going on in my life that he’s not thinking. And so, you review and you review, you pray it, you declare it, you confess it, you sing it, you do everything you can to make sure that the soil of this heart is tender, pliable, receives the power of the seed so that it will bring forth the manifestation of Jesus through this life.
And it’s the simple thought that brought us into the kingdom. It’s whether you knew what you were doing or not. It’s what got you in, as you heard and you responded. And now, he’s wanting to transition us into a reformational role. Yesterday was the 500-year anniversary. It was really interesting. We were in a gathering. I was gonna get the picture to show you, but it was kind of a weird moment. On their little nametags, we had this, you know the old-style key? You see those old keys that used to unlock the big Wooden doors and stuff.
We had one of these keys on the nametag. And somebody went outside, just was takin' pictures of the scenery. And when they were lookin' at the pictures, there was a cloud formation of that key in the cloud. And one of the folks walks over to a vase in the house. And in that vase, somebody had put that key that was on the nametag that is now a cloud in the sky. And it’s like the Lord is saying, here’s what somebody in our group mentioned. They said: Luther nailed the «Ninety-five theses» to the door. God’s given us a key to go through the door. Agggggh! God’s releasing the key to go in. We got so far in the last one, he wants to take us farther than we’ve ever gone before. He’s releasing keys.
The keys are not obtained through anxiety. The keys are not obtained through working harder and stressed. They are obtained through yielding, through surrender, through hearing, receiving, pondering. It’s what Mary did. She pondered the word of the Lord. She treasured the word of the Lord. Everything was about God spoke, I heard, and it is now becoming something in me. It’s becoming something in me until Jesus became fully manifested to the earth through that word which was spoken. So, why don’t you stand? How many of you have received 10 prophetic words about the same thing and it still hasn’t happened?
It’s funny and frustrating. It’s funny and it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating 'cause, oftentimes, we wait for God to perform what he said when he’s waiting for us to act upon what he said. It’s the big challenge of our faith. It’s the big challenge of our walk is there are times we stand still, see the salvation of the Lord. Do you remember when Moses told Israel, «Stand still: you’ll see the salvation of the Lord»?
Then, the very next verse, God says, «Why are you crying out to me»? So, what does that tell you happened, what happened after Moses prophesied this great word, stand still: you’ll see the next scene, he’s going: oh, God: oh, God: oh, God… So, he gives this great word to Israel. God says: «Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to go forward». Going forward’s a little different than standing still. Moses thought they’d see the triumph from the shore. God says you’ll see it in the sea.