Bill Johnson · Bethel Church · Published June 8, 2026
0:00 Your shadow will always release whatever overshadows you. Whatever you have set your affection upon will affect the environment that you invade. If that affection, that attention of the heart is on worry, fear, etc., then I will carry anxiousness into any environment that I go. 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 times has really stirred some things in my heart. So I want to kind of go back to some very fond territory.
0:37 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. 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.
1:30 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. 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.
2:28 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. 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.
3:41 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. 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.
5:07 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. So for that reason, I'm gonna 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.
6:01 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. 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.
6:40 All right. How many of you, when you were kids, had a magnifying glass and you'd go out in the sun 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. Just this. 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.
7:48 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. 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.
8:42 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 manifestation of the face of God before his people. 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.
9:35 It always rests on people. And yet when they made this horrible mistake, they didn't seek God as to order and to 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. David got horribly depressed. He took the ark, put it in Obed-Edom's house. Everything that Obed-Edom touched for months turned to gold. 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.
10:28 He's got a tunic on. It's a linen. 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. 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 presence, mindsets, resist, reject, despise extravagant displays of worship.
11:58 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.
12:19 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.
13:16 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.
13:40 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 1. 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? Here's what it comes down to. 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.
15:28 What is the number one greatest reality in heaven? It is the presence of God. Everything is literally permeated, saturated, inundated with the glory of his presence. Everything is connected. It would be like the reference point. Everything is tethered to this one value, and that is the celebration and value of the presence of God. God is so present everywhere that there's not even a shadow in heaven. He is everywhere at once shining. There's not even any shadows. So here is this glory all through heaven that somehow has to affect how we do life here on earth.
16:13 I don't think it does you any good to talk to your boss or your neighbor or some other business leader about their need to value the presence. I don't think that's our message. I think our message is to become a people of the presence so that when they are with them, they will say to you, something is different when you walk in the room. Or they will say, why is it I feel so safe around you, but I don't feel safe around these other individuals? Why is it that there's such a peace? I walk into your house, and there's this incredible peace here that just, what is that? What is that all about? That's what I think the impact of being a presence-oriented culture is like. From there, it exponentially increases to where shadows heal, etc. But right now, let's just keep it at its most basic form, all right? So David is a presence-oriented man.
17:09 Go with me to 1 Kings 3. as we will read in a few minutes, Solomon had certain experiences in God that I think are unparalleled. Some of the things he experienced, you may be able to find a few others in history that had that experience. But when you put all of it together, I don't know that there was anyone who had as much exposure to the glory, to the presence as Solomon did. That can be debated, but it's just an opinion. I believe that the Lord set Solomon up. If you can remember the inheritance thing, internal victory, the next generation inherits internal victory and now inherits the land. So in other words, it's increased. I believe what the Lord had planned for Solomon was that he would inherit a presence-oriented culture from his dad that would permeate all of life and literally would see for the first time in all of human history, and the only time in human history, is heaven on earth in a city structure.
18:21 I talked with you a couple weeks ago about, several weeks ago now since I was gone for two, about this passage in 1 Kings 5 verse 4 where Solomon writes this letter and he says, he says, we don't even have an adversary. How many were here for that one? We don't even have an adversary. That word adversary is Satan. We don't even have a devil. which tells me that wisdom is so profound in its effect that the enemy loses anything to hold on to but then there was a phrase i didn't develop somebody just sent me a letter and they they did a word study for me and it just really impacted me really so whoever's listening out there that sent this bless you um they said uh this verse says um they have no he says we have no adversary, nor do we have evil occurrence. That word evil occurrence can actually be translated nothing would happen because of fatherlessness.
19:25 God. Goodness gracious. When you look at the ills of society that we face as a nation that are exponentially increased because of the pain and the trauma of fatherlessness. Solomon is saying, listen, we lived in such beautiful, perfect harmony that there was no fatherlessness. There wasn't even a devil. And he's describing on earth in an Old Testament context before people were even born again. A heaven on earth culture. So if there's anything that should cause us to become a convinced and convicted group of people to what God intends to do. I don't mean the perfection of humanity. I mean giving him a place where presence dwells and permeates culture so much that it actually arrests the hearts of people. And we learn to live in cities that love God well.
20:22 That, I believe, is really the heart of the Lord. I believe that's the heart of the Lord. All right, let's go. 1 Kings chapter 3, are you there? Yes, five of you, that's enough. Verse 3, Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places. He loved the Lord like his dad, except he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places. This is a very critical beginning in Solomon's story, and let me describe why.
21:01 What Solomon would do is he would sacrifice and burn incense on high places, on mountains, logical places to reach God easier. All the surrounding nations did it to the false gods. Solomon did it to the one true God. the problem with it is sacrificing on high places is something God said not to do, number one. So that's automatically not a good idea. Number two, it represents self-will that infects worship. And it's in the foundation stones. How many of you know you can have a foundation that's slightly tilted and it's not going to make a big difference now, but the taller your building gets, the more disastrous that slip in the foundation becomes. And it's exactly what you see in the life of Solomon is what started with just a slight off kilter foundation. God shows up to him twice openly, visibly so that he sees besides the glory that came at the dedication of the temple, which we'll look at. These encounters with God, I believe were given to Solomon to help him adjust that foundation so that it became solid enough to build something extraordinary on. But instead, something happened in Solomon's heart where it seemed to just fuel the independence, the self-will part of worship. And self-will may not look real nasty right here on this foundation level, but the higher you build that thing, the more profound and destructive it becomes.
22:37 The whole issue of worship, when David said, God's not interested in the blood of bulls and goats, He's interested in what? The contrite heart, the yieldness, the nature of worship is to recognize value in God and at a place of brokenness. And I don't mean brokenness because I'm a jerk. I mean brokenness in the sense of I'm before one who is so overwhelmingly perfect that I yield everything breathless to a point of breathlessness. I yield everything just to exalt and to honor this one. He never shows up to humiliate. He always shows up to bring it to destiny. But part of that process is you realize his significance and your insignificance without him. And without that reality, you and I get weird. Especially you.
23:27 That was a joke. That was completely a joke. Completely. How did that come out? All right. Just jump right out there. All right. All right. I want you to go now to chapter 8. Chapter 8 has the dedication of the temple. This is one of my most favorite set of verses in the scripture. Chronicles has the same event. It actually has better detail on some of it than this version, but we'll read this one anyway. All right. Begin with verse 1. Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the city of David, which is Zion. In other words, they're going to take the Ark that is in the tabernacle that David built, they're going to take it from the temporary structure to this multi-billion dollar facility that Solomon has just built for the presence. All right? And so they're going to, the priests are going to carry this Ark of the Covenant, because the presence does not rest, as you recall, does not rest while on ox carts. David found that out miserably.
24:38 In other words, the presence does not rest on the vehicles that people create. It rests on the shoulders of the people he created. You and I were always designed in the fear of the Lord to live with and to carry the presence. That's part of the design. And so they bring the Ark of the Covenant into this temple that Solomon built, all right? Then verse four says, they brought up the ark of the Lord, the tabernacle of meeting, the holy furnishings that were in the tabernacle, the priests, the Levites, they brought them up. King Solomon, all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for the multitude. Listen, if you can be in the presence of God and not give an offering, you maybe don't recognize the presence of God.
25:32 And I'm not talking about your wallets. I'm talking about, you know what? There's something that happens. If you could picture this, Isaiah 6. Isaiah says, I see the Lord. He's high. He's exalted. His train fills the temple. And then God starts talking to himself. He says, who am I going to send? What does Isaiah do? He says, send me. What's the point? When you see the presence, you become a living offering. It's an automatic response. If you don't see the glory and become an offering, then I question what you see. Amen, Bill. That was a very, very... Trying to strengthen myself in the Lord here. All right.
26:16 Let's move. Verse 6 says, The priest brought the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to its place into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the most holy place under the wings of the cherubim. All right. Jump down to verse 10. It came to pass when the priest came out of that holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priest could not continue ministering because of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. This is a passage, actually the Chronicle passage is more of a favorite because it says, When the 120 trumpets blew and the people lifted up this shout to the Lord, then the glory came and filled the house. And somebody didn't stand up and say, I sense the Lord present. I suggest all of us kneel before the Lord. I mean, it wasn't that kind of an event. It was, he's here, bam, on my face.
27:12 That's what happened in that passage. There was no, let's express reverential attitude and awe towards this king of glory. There was none of that stuff. It was everybody on their face, trembling before the presence of the Lord. That's what's described here. So Solomon now has led this dedication of the house, and God responds. God loves Solomon. Now, he ended stupid. But he didn't start that way. He started brilliantly. And yeah, it's bad. It's bad where he ended. But at this moment, things are going well. And the glory has showed up in such an overwhelming way. Here's what I want you to see. All of this is setting the prophetic pattern for transformational culture. If the presence of God does not become a practical influence in our personal lives, our families, or corporate gathering, we have no business using that template for changing of a city.
28:21 This is the wrong term. I've been saying we need to be able to learn how to measure. I don't mean measure in a sense of quality or quantity. I mean measure in a sense of recognize, to attribute, to be able to say, oh, he's here, or oh, there's this present. Some ability to recognize God in the room that is tangible in a way where there are results because he has shown up. And I believe with all of my heart that is at the heart and soul of a transformation of culture. Here's the problem. Solomon became a man of extraordinary principles. David, his father, was a man of the presence. Solomon was supposed to become the man of principled presence. But he became the man of principle.
29:20 Why is that dangerous? Paul tells us later in Corinthians, he says, knowledge puffs up. Knowledge automatically brings arrogance into a life. Now, notice, when Paul says this to the church at Corinth, he doesn't say carnal knowledge makes you proud. He doesn't say knowledge of secular matters. Worldly things. He doesn't say that. The context is to believers. Knowledge makes you proud. What's the only thing that keeps knowledge from making us proud? The only thing is that when knowledge comes with a divine encounter. take Paul on his donkey God knocks him off the donkey he has an encounter he doesn't walk away from that experience going wait until you see all the books I'm about to write he doesn't walk out of that experience strutting he comes out tail between his legs the servant of all delightfully embracing the privilege to be beaten and persecuted for this one he saw.
30:31 That's different. That's different. The Bible says that you and I are the fragrance of Christ that changes an atmosphere over the world that makes ready the knowledge of the Lord. It's the fragrance of the knowledge of the Lord. Fragrance is what? Fragrance is an experience. Knowledge is cognitive. These two words together mean that you and I are to carry the presence of God so significantly that we become, we present to people an experiential knowledge that leads them to Christ. I believe we're going to see, in fact, Chris, I think, prophesied this a number of years ago. I believe this is God.
31:28 When we started having those clouds and the gold type stuff up here, that we're going to be seeing some of those unusual manifestations in public places, in businesses. because I tell you, I feel like God is just getting a people who value the presence more than anything else, get them ready to be initiators, if you will, or targets of God or something where you and I in public place, God begins to show up. I already know of it happening, but I think it's going to become somewhat regular. People will often say, you know, I just don't hear his voice, but I feel his peace. in John 1 verse 14 Jesus it says of Jesus he is the word of God made flesh anytime you sense presence the word is there it may not have touched your intellect but it is touching your spirit man sometimes we wait for external voices to affirm, confirm or give clear direction when the Lord is actually revealing himself to us.
32:41 I just sense his peace. He's speaking. He's engaging with you and he's imparting an awareness of who he is and with him comes clarity concerning the will of God. Sometimes we minister out of the emotion, the emotional response to the anointing. everything that we do in worship is filtered through our soul David said bless the Lord oh my soul our mind our will our emotions the emotional response to God it proves we're alive it's the response to his person response to his voice his word response to a testimony. We are responding to who he is, but that emotion is not the anointing itself. And sometimes we make the mistake of when we're praying for people, we sense this incredible emotion and don't realize that we're not cooperating with the anointing.
33:52 We're cooperating with our response to the anointing. Let me try to illustrate this. Let's say that you had, your rent was due. It's past due. You need $1,000 by midnight tonight, or you're going to be evicted from your house. And somebody comes to you tonight, and they give you $1,000. You begin to jump up and down. You shout, thank you, Jesus. You give this person a hug. You run around the sanctuary. That's the emotional response to the gift. When you go to the landlord, your emotional response won't pay your rent. eventually you'll have to cooperate with what was given to you and learn to transfer that to the landlord so that the rent is paid the anointing is a person and we can sit here and respond to the person which is legitimate it's important it's it shows we're alive when we the joy, the celebration, the raised hands, the laying on our faces, all these things that we do are responses that filter through will and intellect and emotion. These are the offerings that we give him. They're extremely vital. But when it comes to ministering to somebody who needs a miracle, that emotion will not change their situation.
35:18 that's where the focus gets turned back to the gift that was given to us when you lay hands on people you're not laying hands on them as a sympathetic gesture it is not we want to just have that human touch that has value but it doesn't release a miracle we actually lay hands on people because of what is in us. Touch, voice, and prophetic act releases what is in us into the environment we're wanting to change. in John 7 the Holy Spirit is described as a river in us when we lay hands on people there is actually a release of presence when it is a touch in cooperation with that gift we've been given we're paying the rent so to speak we're cooperating with a gift we've been given to make sure this debt is canceled.
36:33 learning what is in us is not introspection it is through the scriptures we find we sang it tonight i've got a river of life flowing out of me as i have said many times through the years the holy spirit is in us and he wants out he's in us as a river not a lake he's in us to flow from us to alter the geography around us. Cooperation with him from the beginning, the father has set his heart to find those made in his image who would co-labor with him. It's that my hand, excuse me, my hand is stretched out in obedience to him, which is then covered by his hand stretched out. That's what makes it powerful.
37:27 It's the child trying to loosen a nut on a bolt and it's just too hard. And dad's hand goes over the top of the hand of the child and suddenly that bolt gets loosened. The point is, is our obedience, the co-laboring is what attracts him into the environment to display who he is. the resurrected Christ the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us and he looks for opportunities to flow through us so touch we don't lay hands on people simply because we want to massage their neck or just let them know I'm here for you that that has value I I I I will do that all the time. Just, I'm with you. But when we're releasing kingdom, touch is literally to release eternity into time. It's to take the impossible breaking presence that is in me, release into that situation.
38:29 we see it in so many different settings throughout scripture we see them line the streets with sick people when peter walked by Forgive me for repeat, but I need to set the stage for where I want to take you. We see the shadow touching. There's no substance to a shadow. your shadow will always release whatever overshadows you. Whatever you have set your affection upon will affect the environment that you invade.
39:14 If that affection, that attention of the heart is on worry, fear, et cetera, then I will carry anxiousness into any environment that I go. Fear is misplaced worship. fear is misplaced worship fear is actually the enemy touching the strings of our heart that were designed to express affection and trust to him and they are now removed from him towards circumstances that are so extremely inferior to him that it's dishonoring it's not a reason for shame, but it is a reason for repentance. To realize that when I embrace anxiety and fear, what I've done is I have used the tool God gave me for worship, and I've put my affection on the inferior.
40:18 affection sounds like it's probably the wrong word to use because affection is you know we look at a child and our affection is turned up on towards this child we just want to hug and we find ourselves making faces at this little infant that we wouldn't make to another human being on the earth because that affection was stirred up and and there's that connection where i'm with my wife and sitting you know we'll watch a tv show together and uh you know four or five times in the evening, I'll just turn to her and just say, honey, I love you. I love you so much. And just there's that burning affection. And it just, it needs to be expressed. It's not that kind of affection. It's... you can tell what I value by what I think about.
41:07 If a problem has captured my attention and has taken me into fear and anxiety, then it is misplaced worship. how many I've asked you this question before how many of you have had something trouble you so much it just kept you awake at night it was just hard to go to sleep you know my hands legs are raised so we know that we know how to meditate we just have to shift what we set our heart on what we meditate on God's economy is transferred.
42:07 His currency is word and presence, which are two sides of the same coin. He spoke everything into being that is in existence with one exception. He didn't speak man into being.
42:28 He fashioned man of what he spoke into being. Sometimes he likes to work with what's already there. Loaves and fishes. Could have created new food, but he wanted to co-labor. He would much rather co-labor with what he has made than to start over. he easily could have manifested himself to Mary the virgin who was about to bear the Christ child and explained to her what was about to happen. But instead he sended Gabriel, the messenger angel, because God actually delights in what he has made operating in its design. He is glorified by every facet of his creation functioning in their design.
43:29 fear keeps us from functioning in our design and the Lord looks to cooperate to co-labor with those who have embraced
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