Bill Johnson - What We Owe the World
The Lord has positioned everybody in this room to reign in life. But reigning in life doesn’t mean you rule over people: it means you reign in life. It means that money doesn’t it means relationships don’t manipulate and control you, but you actually navigate through the ups and downs of our journey with people. And we use it in such a way that God is glorified. And, so, God has called us to actually reign in life, and it’s one of the vital things that illustrates a relationship with Jesus that would cause others to be drawn to him. I’m not gonna misuse the scripture, but it’s a little broader than my use.
In Matthew, Jesus said: «Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven». That’s life for the believer is to live in such a way that what we do actually whets the appetite of people, for God. It’s not to whet the appetite of people to applaud us. It’s actually to draw them to the Lord himself. And so, there’s a way that we live, there’s a way that we lay our lives down, there’s a way that we model life that actually invites people into the same kind of relationship with the Lord. And this is what the Lord’s desiring from us.
So, let’s just start by reading this passage out of Romans, chapter 5 verse 17. «For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ». Reigning in life isn’t a dominance over people. It’s not some secret way for us to build our empires and then people it’s actually using the authority, the grace that God gives us, for the benefit of people around us. A commonly repeated theme for us. Authority is always to be used to speak on behalf of those who have no voice, or very little voice. It’s never used for self-promotion. Anything you obtain through self-promotion you’ll have to sustain through self-promotion. It’s a constant trap of trying to keep something inflated that has a leak.
Self-promotion is nauseating. And, it’s a full-time job, where the Lord has invited us, actually, to partner with him in such a way that the power of his grace, the power of his righteousness positions every believer to reign in life, to rule, one of the things I like to draw our attention to is that you could pick any problem on the planet, whether it’s a personal problem, it’s a political, national, ecological, it doesn’t matter what the problem is: God already has the solution in mind. It’s already in mind. It’s already there and he just simply looks for one of his children to pursue the answer, the breakthrough. Because he actually has answers and wants his answers and solutions to be released into the earth. Reigning in life is where we take his answers for earthly problems and we illustrate, display them.
So, here’s the deal: my approach to life is we owe the world, probably a whole bunch of things, but there are three that are very clear to me, right now. The first is we owe people an encounter with God. We owe them a divine encounter. We owe them more than words. Words are important, but words are supposed to carry power. Effectively, they’re to bring people into a divine encounter. If it’s not through the declaration, through decree, personal ministry will bring people into a divine encounter. And the way that we do that most consistently is truly just to stay full of the Holy Spirit, filled with the spirit. That’s really what positions us to be successful, there, most consistently.
The second thing that we owe people is we owe them. We owe them divine solutions, heavenly answers for earthly problems. Heavenly answers for earthly problems. That’s where the wisdom thing really kicks in is that if you work at a particular corporation and there are issues, problems in the corporation, maybe in design, maybe in marketing, doesn’t matter what it is, but God has an answer, a solution for whatever dilemma is being faced. And as the people of God, as we take on more responsibility for what God is wanting to accomplish in the business life, the medical, the educational, all these different parts of communities, as we enter these realms and serve effectively, we actually bring heaven solutions to earthly problems. When we do that, we enable people to taste and see that God is good.
See is perception. When we bring people into an experience with God, we change their perception of what’s available through God. All right. So, there’s the second thing is the issue of, heavenly answers for earthly problems. But the third one is one I wanna take a few minutes to talk to you about. And that is the whole issue of the responsibility we have to live a blessed life. And I know it sounds self-serving, but it’s not by God’s design. It’s be blessed to be a blessing. You’ve heard that phrase. It’s been around for a long time. Be blessed to be a blessing. Psalm 67 says this: «God bless me», which, you gotta love any prayer that starts with that. Right. «God bless me and cause your face to shine upon me».
Now, the shining face of a perfect father is a face of delight and favor. So, he’s praying: God, increase not only your favor on my life, but increase the manifestation of your favor so everybody around me can see it. So, here’s the prayer: «Bless me. Cause your face of favor to shine upon me», listen to the next phrase, «So that your way would be known in the earth», that your way, «And your salvation to the nations». So, follow the sequence. God bless me. Cause me to carry your favor well. I want people to see your because if you do that, then they’ll see what you’re like. And if they see what you’re like, salvation will truly come to the nations. Your grace is the irresistible grace. And I want them to see it for what it is.
There was a squabble in Israel back in days of Moses. There was a fight between the leaders of the 12 tribes as to who should be in charge and who should have authority, etc. And, so, Moses told all the tribes to get an almond branch. And, so, they each have a dead almond branch, and they put the name of their tribe on it. And then, Aaron, representing the priesthood, puts his name on it. And they put these 12 branches before the Ark of the Covenant, before the presence of the Lord. And the next morning, they get up. The 11 branches are still dead, but Aaron’s rod sprouted, budded, blossomed, and bore ripe almonds. Sprouted, budded, blossomed, bore ripe almonds. What does that tell us? It tells us, first of all, that was God’s Mark of who he had anointed for leadership.
So, what that tells me is that God’s Mark for leadership is not ripe almonds in every area of life, but life in every area sprouts buds, blossoms, ripe some are perfect maturity. Others are just beginning. But there’s life there. Does that make sense to you? And so, the Lord illustrates his choice in people in that there’s life in all these areas of life, even though maturity may be in this area and not that area, if that makes sense. So, here we have this responsibility to be blessed. I think it involves money, but it’s not about money, if that makes sense to you. It’s about life. It’s: I’m handling all the different parts and aspects of life.
So, let me talk to you about four things that stand out to me. We probably could list a dozen or dozens. But there are four things that stand out to me this morning. The first one: to reign in life, you have to effectively, you have to view your past the way he views it. Viewing our past the way he is not just beneficial. It’s absolutely essential. To live the way he’s assigned us to live, we have to think in terms of who we are because of grace.
So, the first thing is just the way we relate to our past. The ideal life would be for anybody, anyone, I realize some have, you know, raised in church and your lifestyles are different than some who just had such horrible, horrible backgrounds. But, level playing field. Jesus just simply forgave us all. The ideal would be anybody from your past could walk into the room and there would be no shame. There would be no attachment whatsoever. Because of the awareness of the absolute forgiveness and grace of God, zero shame, zero cloud of, shame and guilt and all the junk that comes on people. So, regarding the past.
The second thing would be our thought life, the way we think. It’s one of the things that I’m working on constantly. 'Cause I found, in my life, because I found the real battleground for our life is between our ears. That’s where the real conflict is. And what happens is the enemy, let me put it this way: the devil is so nervous of your authentic creative expression that he tries to keep you in anxiety, fear, and shame to cut back your ability to creatively express who you are in Christ. It is the target. It is a primary target. Because the authentic nature of Christ demonstrated through the life of a disciple, through a life of a believer, changes the consciousness of humanity of what might be possible in a person’s lifetime simply because of how they do life.
What does anxiety, fear, shame, guilt, all that stuff do? It robs us of the creative expression. All of that is connected to our thought life. The scripture says that he’s not looking for our calamity: he’s looking for our welfare. I think it would probably shock us if we actually saw what God meditated on. He actually dwells, thinks, plans for long before we were ever created, which is fascinating that before he created man, who would sin, Jesus, the Lamb of God, was prepared to die. He had an answer before there was a problem. To think consistently with what God says is like, really, the mark of maturity for a believer. It’s called the mind of Christ.
It’s the reason that I carry the promises of God, the prophetic words, all these things about my life, about my family, about Bethel. I carry these things with me all the time. I review them regularly. Because I just can’t afford to think things he’s not thinking. I get into trouble every time I do. Every time I start entertaining thoughts, values, perceptions that are not his, they lead to problems. They lead to death. They lead to conflict and all the junk. So, the mind of Christ is that mind that is set on the welfare of the people of God. I don’t mean living in a palace somewhere. I’m talking about the well-being. It’s the fact that we truly live in the prosperity of soul until we reign in life, where the issues of life that used to beat us down, they don’t anymore: we mastered them.
And the Lord uses your personal victory to testify of his grace, to draw people to this perfect father. It’s the whole prayer of blessing so that people would know what he’s like. That’s why that internal victory is so critical. The battle for the mind. Why? 'cause it positions us to think with him and to release what he’s saying into the earth. It’s huge. The third area where we illustrate this life of reigning is in relationships. I saw, somebody had a, it was actually, I thought it was a cartoon. It was a t-shirt that said something like: «I’m a pastor. Let’s talk». You know. That’s 'cause he didn’t want anyone to talk to him when he got on the plane. You know, he just wear the… Which I think is very funny.
Let me be really honest: I value alone time. I really value alone time, where I can just settle my thoughts. It’s really important. I stay sane by protecting my alone time. But I thrive on together time. I travel all over the world. And, oftentimes, I will have teams with me: 10, 12, sometimes 15 people or more. And, my favorite time of every trip is when I get to sit down with that team and just spend an hour, two hours in Starbucks or in a church office somewhere, whatever, and just have that time to dialogue. I love together time. And, unity is only possible when there is diversity. Unity without diversity is uniformity.
And that’s not the same. It’s not good that we all look alike, act alike. We wanna have the same kingdom values, but there’s unique expression through every gift, through every position, through our history, our backgrounds, our upbringing, our nationalities. All those things are to be celebrated and protected. That uniqueness is not a problem, unless it conflicts with kingdom values. Then, we adjust to what God is saying, what God is doing. But the point is is that we were designed to be together. You know, it would be horrible if my entire body was one big toe. It’s not supposed to be. It’s supposed to be unique, every member. But here’s the crazy thing is every member contributes to the next member.
In other word, in fact, the Bible says there’s life in which every joint supplies. So, there’s actually the release of life in every point where there’s a connection. And, the body of Christ is designed that way. And so, there’s this whole concept, if you will, of making sure that we keep connections honest, keep the connections open. And, in a way, the way we reign in life is to navigate relationships well. You don’t get to just decide: «All right, I’ve decided I’m not going to be criticized anymore». If only that were possible. Or, we could say: «You know what? I was betrayed, but it’s never gonna happen again. I’ll never», no. You don’t get to choose that. You can choose to have it not affect you, but the only way you can do that is protect yourself from love.
So, if I insulate myself so much, where nobody can hurt me, well, then, nobody can love me, either. And so, to be vulnerable in life, to experience life together means: I will experience pain. So, the way I demonstrate reigning in life is how I navigate disappointment and loss. It’s how you navigate it. I don’t get to choose whether or not I’m gonna be criticized, or rejected, or embraced, or loved. I don’t get to choose that. I get to choose how I navigate what’s been thrown at me. I used the illustration a couple weeks ago, the whole adverse winds. A sailboat, by attacking, by using the sail and the rudder can actually advance against the wind.
And, oftentimes, our destiny is in the direction of adverse winds. And the Lord is simply inviting us to navigate relationships in a way where no matter what comes at you, you actually are making progress. And, sometimes, a strength is developed by making progress in adversity that gives us the maturity to live in the Promised Land, once we enter it, to live in it with maturity. In other words, we don’t handle it carelessly and lose what God actually released to us. So, there’s a relational, the last thing that I’ll mention about reigning in life is money, money itself. Money’s not evil in itself. Jesus said the love of money’s the root of evil. Learning how to navigate finances is such a big deal. Because it’s a problem for people, it’s a problem for ministries, it’s a taboo subject for so many.
There’s been so many abuses and so much junk that’s gone on in Jesus' name, in the area of money, that there’s just, like, «Hands off, don’t wanna touch it, don’t wanna talk about it,» all through the church. But we’ve gotta talk about it, 'cause it’s part of life. So, there’s four things I’ll mention to you about money. The first one is generosity. Generosity is the first step in kingdom finances. It just is. You just, you know, everything that God made gives and gives naturally. Man is the only one that has an option. Sun gives light. Leaves gives oxygen. Everything was created to contribute, but we alone have options.
And, to step into his design, living in a place where we are constantly contributing to the lives of people around us, including money, but giving ourselves, money just represents who we are, our gifts, our time, our ability, what we’re paid for. So, giving of ourselves to improve people’s lives. So, issue of generosity’s huge. The second one is contentment. I wanna see everybody just prosper, increase, promotions, all this stuff. But our problem is we live in a culture where if an athlete signs a $20-million-a-year contract, then the news does this thing on the house they bought and all this stuff. And we live in a comparison culture. And whenever you fall into the trap of comparison, you could be living in the blessing you prayed for last year, but no longer appreciate it because you don’t have what someone else has.
When you compare yourself, you’re always gonna be better than someone and less than someone else. comparison is a absolute trap. Doesn’t matter if it’s money, or if it’s character, if it’s gifting. «Oh, I just don’t have the gifts that they have». Stop comparing yourself. It’s an endless trap of absolute continuous disappointment and discomfort. Contentment is a huge thing. It doesn’t mean we don’t have an appetite for increase. Here’s the deal for me: seek first the kingdom and his righteousness. All these things will be added.
I want the increase in my life to only be him honoring my priority of the kingdom. I don’t want the blessing to come because I prioritized the blessing. And there’s a huge difference. One comes with divine favor. He says that he adds blessing to a person’s life and he adds no sorrow to it. When you get blessing apart from God’s favor, there’s always sorrow attached to it. It’s true. The third area is wise purchases. Just show a value for excellence in what you buy. Amen.
And then the last one is Deuteronomy 8:18 talks about him giving us the power to make wealth. Israel embraced that: the church hasn’t. I think 'cause the church thinks money’s evil or that was for Israel and not for us. And, again, the purpose is not to show spirituality by how much is in the bank or what I own. That has nothing to do with it. I don’t like that concept. I don’t like translating dollars into spirituality 'cause it doesn’t work. But I really do like being able to be effective in how I love and care for people. And, sometimes, it means dollars. But it always means heart. And the Lord has given the ability to create wealth to the people of God. Either it is used for his glory, or it’s gonna be misused and no use is better than misuse.