Breakthrough is Birthed in the Presence of God - Bill Johnson Sermon | Bethel Church

0:00 The presence of the Lord is to become the womb out of which dreams are birthed. The presence of the Lord is to become the atmosphere out of which that which has been impossible becomes released into the earth. That what God has called you and me to become would become manifest through this engagement of the presence. Good morning. Wow. What a wonderful morning. How many of you appreciated the worship team this morning? Martin, daughter. Bless you guys. Thanks so much. Best news I heard all day was that they feel at home here. I'm liking that word. You should have a home in America. I think it ought to be right here. Why don't you, whole family, stand up so everyone can see who you are. Would you guys bless Martin Smith and Anna and the kids, the whole tribe? Stand up.

0:55 Bless you, bless you, bless you. I know the kids are especially fond of this kind of attention. Sorry, I apologize now. Help me. We've got a new book released. How about that? You haven't heard that for at least a couple weeks or maybe a week. I don't know. but this is different from all the others Joshua Frost on our team here for a number of years he's written a book or helped to compile a book called The Sons of God's Generals and it's chapters written Eric did a chapter oh goodness let me Crystal Roland and Heidi's daughter did a chapter it's all on these people who are sons and daughters of different leaders.

1:50 It wasn't as painful as it sounded. Justin Gall, James Gall's son, did a chapter. John Arnott's, I believe, daughter wrote. Randy Clark's son wrote a chapter. It's stunning. Anyway, it's available out there, and Joshua's going to be signing these. Would you find someone that looks like they could use that? Tom, go give it away. Just look pitiful. Just look pitiful while he walks by. That'll help.

2:24 How about that? You looked pitiful enough apparently. Congratulations. I saw a funny one this week. A recent study has found that women who carry a little extra weight live longer than the men who mention it. That's a very profound scientific study, I'm sure. Is this going to work? Are we having problems here? Is this, uh, we'll just keep going. Eric, could you toss me the water there? Water, thank you.

3:07 Thank you. Yeah, I know, I know. The problem when you have water in a handheld is I have tried to drink out of the mic, and I've tried to talk into the water. I have. I have. I get confused. All right. We have somewhat of a brief time this morning, but it'll be enough, a brief time to talk to you. We've got a worship school going on, which is such a wonderful event. Of course, Smiths are here with us for that.

3:39 Yep. you only get two chances and then grace ends right there so i'm gonna i'm gonna use the hand hill so just hopefully i won't drink out of it our worship school is such a great event for us we have 34 countries i think it is or 38 countries 44 states something like that represented. And I don't teach on worship very often anymore. I used to do it a fair amount, but just being in the school this last week a couple of times has really stirred some things in my heart. So I want to kind of go back to some very fond territory and talk to you about just the presence of the Lord. Worship is based entirely on His worth. I don't want to talk to you about principles for breakthrough. A lot of the things that I would normally teach on. I want to approach it a little bit different today.

4:41 oftentimes as believers we settle for theological answers without experiencing answers in other words the concept satisfies instead of draws us into a breakthrough and revelation from the word is supposed to lead us into an encounter with god We study the scriptures so that we become endeared to the one who works wonders. And that connection is just an extremely vital part of our life. We were designed not to live with theory. We were designed not to be classroom Christians in the sense that we walk around with concepts and theories. We were designed to be people of ever-increasing breakthrough. I love how the Lord works. And it's confusing to me, to be honest with you, because just about the time I get accustomed to him doing it one way, he changes it and does it another way.

5:41 And I love being involved in the work of the Lord. I love being involved in the miracles, for example. I love to stroke my faith and contend for a breakthrough and to see the cancer disappear, to see the deaf ears open, whatever it might be. I do. I love it. But I love as much and sometimes more when he sovereignly shows up and does something without any human participation. And I think both are necessary. And it's a great mistake to define God by either of those instead of both. Because it's the two together that helps us to live in that tension. Like, is there something I'm supposed to do? Or is this one of those moments where I stand by and I see the salvation of the Lord? Really, he never needs my help, but he loves my help. He never needs me to participate, but he has made things in such a way that all of us find our identity by taking risk and doing what we were designed and born to do.

6:43 Our own identity gets solidified in those moments where we learn to just trust God and to believe God in the middle of a tough situation. So this concept of the presence of the Lord, I don't like to see people just live with the theology of it and not have the ongoing experience. So let me illustrate it in this way. There are measures, there are dimensions of the presence. starting place is the Bible says that he holds all things together. In him, all things consist, Colossians 1. That means that he actually holds every cell of my being together. He holds the trees, the earth, everything is held in place because of the abiding presence of the Lord. So in one way, we could say an unbeliever, a person who doesn't know the Lord already has the Lord in him in the sense that the presence holds his being together. Is that true? Yes. But there's more. When a person is born again, places faith in the work of Christ for forgiveness of sin, the Holy Spirit comes and takes up residence in that individual. Now, God was here before, but he comes in a different way to mark as a personal possession the temple of that person's body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. Now, the Bible says when two or three of us gather together in his name, he is there in the midst. But wait a minute. He was already in me before you showed up.

8:17 Why do I need to be with you in harmony to have the presence of God? Because he's already with me. Are you following my logic here? All right. So he says if two or three of you gather together in my name. I'm there in the midst. Well, he was already with me. But what he's doing is he's inviting us into another level of manifested presence. And the point being is that every believer should have an ongoing ache in the heart, if I can put it that way, a desire, a passion for the increased manifestation of the presence of God until we discover that very thing we were born for. and that is the manifestation of his presence. It's the actual glory of the Lord that we see and interact with continuously all throughout eternity. There'll be no veil. You will see clearly. How much of that can we have now? I don't know, but it's more than we have. It's all I know.

9:13 So for that reason, I'm going to fight for more. All right. So he says, two or three of you gather together in my name. I'm there in the midst. Well, he goes on to say in scripture that if I lift up praise to him, he inhabits my praise. So here we are, two or three gathered together. He's already here, but he says he would establish his throne upon the praises of his people. Well, why do I need to lift up praises? Because he's already here. the point being is that the Lord is a God of order and protocol. We enter gates with thanksgiving, courts with praise. There's something about the manifested presence and the heartfelt response of worship. It's the intimate response of a believer to God himself. The Lord has given us this invitation to be a part of the ever-increasing manifestation of God's presence. Here's the thought.

10:08 how many of you have heard or you've made this statement before in praise, I magnify your name. Magnify means to make big. How can you make God bigger than he is? He's already quite large. It's impossible to make God bigger.

10:28 All right. How many of you, when you were kids, had a magnifying glass and you'd go out in the sun Thank you. and you'd look for bugs, I mean wood, straw, things of that nature, and you'd hold that magnifying glass just right, and that little critter would just fry it like that.

10:54 The sun was already there. What you did with the magnifying glass is you took what already existed and gave it a focused place of contact. And when we praise God in the middle of a tragedy, a difficulty, a conflict, disappointment, you fill in the blanks, we actually lift up a magnifying glass to the one we can't make any bigger than he is but we give him a place of focused invasion until that situation is reversed and turned. Praise is just one of those. Yeah, give him praise. Go ahead, do that. We do bless you for that. So here's this idea that I'm going to try to present pretty quickly. So let's look at three scriptures in the Bible.

11:49 The first one, let's go to 2 Samuel 6. The second one will be Isaiah 54. And the third one will be Psalms 84. there's an interesting picture given in these three very very different verses but i do think they're connected the first one is i've got to take a long glorious story and reduce it pitifully down to a very simple action david longed for the presence of god he really had a heart for the heart of God. He had a heart for the presence of God. By the way, in the Bible, whenever you see the word presence, the literal word there in Hebrew is face. So when we talk about the presence of God, we're not talking about some abstract something that fills the air. We're talking about face-to-face encounter with the Almighty God. That was the longing of his heart with you, and it's in your heart to have with him. So the presence of the Lord is the actual a manifestation of the face of God before his people.

13:02 So here David longs for the presence and he brings the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem and on the way, because it's on an ox cart, Uzzah tries to steady it when an oxen stumbles. Long story short, the presence of the Lord was always to rest on priests, not on the machinery that man makes. It never rests on organizations or ministries. It always rests on people. and yet when they made this horrible mistake they didn't seek God as to order into direction God actually struck Yuzah dead for trying to manhandle the presence which the presence of the Lord is never to be manipulated or handled for our benefit our glory or in our control we are always to be in his control Yuzah did that he was struck dead got David got horribly depressed He took the ark, put it in Obed-Edom's house. Everything Obed-Edom touched for months turned to gold.

13:57 He just prospered in every possible way. David says, I think we need to try this again. But this time we'll look in the owner's manual. We'll see the right way to do this. He consulted the Lord and found out what to do. So here they bring the ark of the Lord into the city of Jerusalem. And on the way, David is dancing wildly. He's stripped down. He's got a tunic on. It's a linen. Again, priests were never allowed to wear wool because they would sweat. The whole idea of being before the presence of the Lord based on our works was forbidden of the Lord. It was always by the grace, even Old Testament, always by the grace of God. And so David is dancing absolutely wildly before the Lord. And Michael, everybody in Israel is lined up along the streets to watch their several mile journey. And they're all lined up to watch this incredible event. And they are shouting, they're celebrating. The musicians have been training for an extended period of time so that they could play with excellence.

14:53 The vocalists, everybody has been geared up for this monumental moment, this monumental day, when God's presence, the glory, would actually be ushered into Jerusalem and be a place of habitation. So here David is dancing wildly before the Lord. Everyone showed up for the event. The soldiers are there. Everyone's there except for one lady. It was David's wife, Michael, who was the daughter of Saul. She's off in the palace and she's looking out the window and she sees her husband dancing wildly before the Lord. She's embarrassed for him. She despised him in her heart. Religion and political spirits both want worship to be measured and controlled, reasonable. Both those mindsets resist, reject, despise extravagant displays of worship. sacrifice is a step beyond convenience it's vital that everybody in this room step into realms of sacrifice on a regular basis beyond what comes natural or normal.

16:08 When the Lord says lift up a shout of praise in scripture, he didn't say for those of you that are outgoing, those of you that have aggressive personalities, this is your moment to shine, lift up shouts of praise for your quiet ones. If you just think happy thoughts, I'll be quite satisfied with your happy thoughts. He doesn't say that. He says, shout for joy. Why? Because he knows how we were made. And we sometimes have a self image of ourself that says, well, that's not my personality. And we've actually believed a lie. And so when he leads us into the shot of praise, it's because he knows who we are, how he made us, and he would never have us violate his design for our life. So what happens when we step into that shot of praise is we actually become what he designed us to become. We actually experience transformational encounters where we are shaped and changed.

17:05 So here is Michael up in the palace looking down through the window and she despises him in her heart. Now look at 2 Samuel 6 verse 23. Therefore Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no children to the day of her death. this is the conclusion of the chapter that I don't have time to cover that normally I would try.

17:29 Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no children to the day of her death. Either it was because of intimacy stopped between her and David, or she became barren. I don't know what it is. Probably somebody knows. I don't. All I know, she didn't have any more kids. And it happened because of despising worship. Now look at Isaiah 54 passage, because this is almost like the antidote. In fact, it is the antidote to that particular concept. Isaiah 54 verse one, Sing, O barren, you who have not born, break forth into singing, cry aloud, you who have not labored with child. For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman. What is the concept here in Isaiah 54? In 2 Samuel, it was despising, extravagant worship brought barrenness. Isaiah 54, you already have someone who's barren. And this person is to give shouts of joy while they are barren. And they get plugged into a supernatural process of reproducing where they actually bypass those who have been having children every year. They bypass them and end up having more children than the ones who've been having children all along. And what was the thing that brought the breakthrough? It was the shout of joy in the middle of barrenness. Are you following? Are you following? Here's what it comes down to. The presence of the Lord is to become the womb out of which dreams are birthed.

19:02 The presence of the Lord is to become the atmosphere out of which that which has been impossible becomes released into the earth. That what God has called you and me to become would become manifest through this engagement of the presence. so we got barrenness from despising extravagant worship we have the shout of joy before pregnancy and it caused that barren one to end up with more children than the one that's been having children all along look at one more passage the passage i mentioned excuse me Psalms. Psalms 84. Did I tell you Psalms 84? If I didn't, I meant to.

19:49 Psalms 84. I love this Psalm. I love teaching on it. It's been a number of years since I've done it, but I love the whole Psalm because it describes, part of the Psalm describes how you actually change drought into abundant rain. It actually describes how you take loss, turn it into gain. It's a brilliant psalm, but I'm not going to take you that far. I just want you to see the first few verses. All right. Verse one, how lovely is your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts, tabernacle, dwelling place of the Lord, where the manifested presence is. Verse two, my soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, a swallow, and the swallow, a nest for herself, where she may lay her young. Even your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house. They will still be praising you. Blessed is the man whose strength is in you, whose heart is set on a pilgrimage. All right, we'll just stop right there. You get the point.

20:59 This psalm is a psalm of just ongoing praise, prophesying breakthrough. And in the middle of it is this weird little verse that talks about birds laying eggs. And it has nothing to do with the whole psalm, except that it does. He's declaring the greatness of the Lord. He says, even sparrows find a place to lay their young on your altar. And then it goes back into giving praise. What's the point? The presence is supposed to be that place where things are birthed. You study the presence of the Lord throughout Scripture, you find that the sons of Asaph wrote this passage, Psalm 73, where they were frustrated. They were frustrated because it looked like everything the wicked did prospered, everything they did was stunk.

21:56 And so they decided to write a song about it. Not all the songs do I want to repeat. and they sang this, and they said, you know, they get pregnant, they give delivery, they don't even have birth pangs, you know, they're just singing this song, and finally he says, I perceived that they had no consequences for their evil choices until I came into the sanctuary, and then I perceived their end. What's the point? Sanctuary presence. In the presence, perspective is clarified. It's changed. In the presence is where you see clearly. So many run like Jonah in conflict instead of coming deeper into the heart of God to gain a clear perspective of what we're facing, what challenge is actually before us. In Psalm 60, it talks about the presence of the Lord is where the voice of the Lord becomes clear.

22:59 In Psalm 16, it says, in your presence is the fullness of joy. And so the presence is that place where things happen inside of us, where we change from the inside out, giving full expression of who he is. the presence of the Lord, the face, is supposed to be that place where things get birthed. And I don't want to make this overly spiritual, to be honest, as spiritual as it is. I want to keep this as practical as I know how. And this is what happened to me. A number of years ago, I found out I would be praying. I would take some time to pray, and I'd remember, oh, I need to make this phone call, and oh, I need to visit this person, and oh, I forgot to pay this, and oh, and all this stuff would come when I'm praying, and I'm thinking, man, the devil is just interrupting my prayer time. I'm wanting to worship God. I'm wanting to intercede for the nations. I wanted to see revival and miracles, and I get all this other stuff coming to me, and it's, and it was just annoying, and I just, you know, I would swing at the devil a few times, found out I was shadow boxing, but I would get so angry and rebuke and do this and that and pray and fast and do all the stuff, but nothing changed. And then I realized there's this verse out of Mark 11 that says, whatsoever things you desire when you pray, believe that you have them and you will receive them. Whatsoever things you desire when you pray, what are your desires when you're praying?

24:27 what are you dreaming of when you're in the presence and then I started to find out oh those times of prayer he was actually interacting with me I'd committed myself to accomplish his purposes and so he was reminding me of a phone call I promised to make that I totally forgot and I'd remember oh thank you Lord you want to protect my own reputation you reminded me of a bill that I forgot I need I forgot I should pay and oh yeah Charlie and Julie Harper back here I remember years ago I taught on this probably 35 years or so ago and during worship one Sunday Charlie came up to me afterwards and while he was in worship he had an idea come to him on a specific kind of vacation to take with his family see we don't think he's good enough to want to talk to us about that stuff.

25:28 But he is. It's in those moments, things come, things happen. He interacts with us. It's this engagement with presence. It's a place of birthing. And at that moment, in fact, he came to me after the meeting and planned a vacation, a certain vacation with his family. See, it's supposed to be that every part of our life is unto the Lord. There is no secular part and sacred part. Everything is under the Lord. And so this interaction that we have in the presence, in the worship service, you stand here shouting the greatness of the Lord, the praises of God. All of a sudden, he drops a relative's name in your mind. What do you do now? I just always have a pen and paper with me. I just write the name of it down. I've committed, done what I'm supposed to do. Now I'm just going to worship the Lord. And at a given time later, I will follow up on the assignment that God's given me. What are the things you desire when you pray?

26:24 In that place of interaction with God, you are the most prone to be, you're the most likely to manifest yourself the way he designed you. it's where you are the most honest and it's where you are the most real and it's where you are the most, you're accepted, you're beloved, you've delighted in him more than anything else. It's not the stuff. It's not even the miracles as much as we like them. It's the fact that I have a father that fully, fully, completely embraces me. and in this interaction, I get ideas and he likes them. He likes them. It's why he gave us the promise. Ask what you desire and it will be done for you.

27:19 He's the one who gave us the covenantal promise because he knew there would be a day coming where we would be free enough to think. We'd become free enough to dream. I love church history. I love reading about it. And I'm impressed with so many different periods of time throughout history. But I'm not confident that the world has ever seen, has ever seen a church that was free to dream in partnership with the Lord. to where his heart through his people would become fully manifest for their sake, for their benefit. I don't know that it's ever been seen. I think through individuals, I can show you times in history where this person or that person, but what would it look like for just a group of people this size in one city to be so enamored with the presence that we can honestly say, and apart from you, there's nothing on earth I desire.

28:24 I'm not selling out my confession of Christ so that I can build my earthly kingdom. But I also know that as I serve you, bounty comes. And I want the bounty to be for the sake of the nations and the peoples around me. What would it be like if every time you came into the presence of the Lord, it may be a simple idea, an idea, I've had a hard time just getting through to this child of mine. And you just get this idea. Oh, if I did this game, maybe that would. so you write it down. You just make a note. Because why? God's interacting with you. There's this exchange that takes place because the presence is supposed to be the birthplace of the breakthrough. Michael had no children from that point on despising worship, but something happens to those who give themselves extravagantly for the glory of God. they surpass all natural boundaries of reproduction and start multiplying and i feel like what the lord wants to do in in the church in this season in this hour is multi-level but it basically comes down to this he designed you with a beautiful beautiful position and place in this world to represent him well. And there's dreams that he wants you and me to be free to dream, free to have, and that he would become manifested in and through us in ways that reveal the redemptive nature of a perfect father to cities and to nations all around us. It's practical. It's real. But it all happens because of people who are willing to give him praise while I'm barren.

30:06 I'm going to magnify the Lord. I'm going to take what already exists. That's the covenantal presence of God that is upon me. And I'm going to magnify the Lord. I'm going to hold the magnifying glass right over my situation that I need changed. And I'm going to declare His greatness. I'm going to give physical expression. I'm going to do so until I move into sacrifice something that costs me that lifestyle is a transformational lifestyle why don't you stand and we'll pray

30:46 see I can talk a half hour or less it's a miracle that's amazing man tonight's going to be so fun it's just it's just a wonderful wonderful day Martin is leading again tonight. Is that right? Is that the rumor? Maybe. Maybe. Brian told me you were. He committed you. Yeah, you don't have to though. If you have a voice left, you can. Ray Hughes is going to minister. It's going to be so great. So fun. Wow. What a great friend of this house. But right now is the moment I'm most concerned about. We're going to pray. and I realize this is probably the hundredth time I've prayed this prayer, but I'm gonna pray it again because I feel like the Lord's breathing on this thing of releasing people to discover the exchange that takes place in the presence.

31:49 That interaction, that, how many of you have had what you thought was the enemy interrupting your prayer times and this morning you just found out God was talking? Isn't that a relief? it just you know it just it helps me to enjoy the process and to work with them instead of fight against them so i want to pray for that i want to pray that this would be a real release of a creative anointing to hear from the lord and uh and then uh and then we'll wrap this up father i do pray for this i ask that that grace for creativity that grace to dream just the ability to think, to think untethered thoughts. Not bound up by religion and politics and all the crud, but real, real free thoughts because of your kindness, your goodness, because of who you are. I pray for that gift to be given to this body of people at a whole other level.

32:45 In Jesus' name. Thanks. We've got a ministry team. I'd like for you to come on down if you would. Ministry team, if we could come. and if I could have people hold their places, please give me a moment to get to the back door. We have, hold on just a moment, just ministry team right now move. I know there are people in this room that need to get right with God and I want to ask the question, only the ministry team moving to the front, please. If there's anyone here that would say, Bill, I don't want to leave here until I know I am right with God, then I want you to put a hand up because we're going to have somebody just pray with you real quick. If that's you, put a hand up right here. Right over here is another one. Right over here is another. Back over there. Two more right here. All right. Anyone else?

33:38 All right. I'm going to ask all of you that just raised your hand, quickly come right down here. I've got some friends right over here that I know and trust and they're going to come. They're going to talk and pray with you. Come on down. We've got a half a dozen or so people that are coming to meet Jesus today. Come on over here to my right, this way. Come over here this way. Yeah, come right over here. We got a banner up over here. Perfect. Right over there. Right over there. Church, would you extend your hand towards them and just pray for great, great blessing to come upon them. God's going to provide a miracle. Everything changes as a result of what's happening today. I want a guy on a guy, a gal on a gal. I want you to begin to get around them and begin to minister to them. And we just pray that blessing that today would be the day of great breakthrough, that not only would people be born again, but there would be baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire.

34:34 Let the presence of God come mightily upon these folks. We pray for this in Jesus' wonderful name. All right, you guys go ahead and pray for them, minister to them, and come and give us some directions here. Ministry team, we need as many of you down here as we can. Thanks.