Bill Johnson · Bethel Church · Preached September 20, 2026 · Published September 25, 2026
0:00 Two million people missed what they were born for. Two million because 10 brought a report that emphasized the size of the problem and not the size of the promise. Thank you. I took a break.
0:45 We love you too. Thank you. Thank you. It's good to be back. We got married one month and two days ago. So I've had one month and two days of heaven on earth. Such a wonderful, wonderful time. Thank you. We watched when the announcement came that I was getting married. We played a little video in here. and you all cheered and brought tears to my eyes. So thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you. You can be seated, thanks. I understand Gabe had you pray for me because I was rusty.
1:45 So we'll see if your prayers worked or not. I'm thankful for Bethel TV and the ability to watch online but I miss so much worshiping with you. And I can worship along with you on TV but it's not the same. I'm glad to be in the house and looking forward to much more encounters with the Lord.
2:25 I had a, I don't want to call it an experience. I had just a moment with the Lord where I was reading the story of Israel in the wilderness and their entrance into the promised land. That story has fascinated me my entire Christian walk because it's such a prophetic picture of our life in Christ. And so it provokes me every time I have the chance to go through it. So anyway, a couple months ago, I was going through the book of Numbers, and I just got struck with something that I don't remember ever thinking before. And it's what I'm going to talk to you about today. It has to do with the spies that were sent into the promised land. We don't know for sure how many Israelites were in the wilderness. Some say as many as 2 million. So for illustration's sake, let's just use that number.
3:20 So Israel has a couple million people released from Egypt. They have been released into a place where God cares for his people. It's important to remember that because God promised to take care of them didn't mean they were going to be without problems. Didn't mean they were going to be without lack. What it meant was God would fix all those things, but they would come in his time. And the Lord is actually building out of all of us a lifestyle of trust. It's like the supreme value that he has. because he is faithful, I should be full of faith because it's actually connected to his nature, his character. And so anyway, Israel is in the wilderness and the Lord took care of them. I mean, they were without food, so he put man on the ground every day.
4:18 And they were without water and they complained and God brought water out of a rock. And so it wasn't that they did have crisis. it was that in every crisis God was there and met them and healed them or provided for them whatever the situation might have been. God gave a promise to them. In fact, we just know the promise as the promised land. It was a territory of complete, absolute fulfillment for why they were alive. It was like stepping into a room, except nations, stepping into a place where you actually become all that God intended you to be. But you needed to be in that place to know it. you needed to be in that atmosphere to discover it and so the Lord gave promise to them that they would inherit these lands and two million people heard the promise and none of them entered except for Joshua and Caleb it's interesting because there are so many believers I run into this constantly around the world so many believers that are struggling because they have promises from God and no fulfillment.
5:35 And it would be easy to think, well, God just didn't keep his word. Larry Randolph helped me with this years ago. He told us, he said, God will keep all of his promises, but he's not obligated to keep our potential. He keeps his promise, but there are a certain percentage, I don't know what it is, but a certain percentage of promises he gives us that are actually completely dependent upon us doing or becoming what he designed us to become to inherit it.
6:09 Some things I'm thankful he does without my cooperation. He just does it because he's good. but many people define the Christian life as that and never discover what God intended for them because they never pressed beyond what was comfortable in receiving to push into what was possible. So here's Israel. They've got this land of promises in front of them and God gives them instruction. We're going to read through this. If you want to turn to Numbers 13, we're going to read through that in just a little bit.
6:42 God talks to Moses and he tells Moses that he's to pick a leader from each tribe and to send them, or it's what Moses does. He picks a leader from each tribe. God told him he's to send spies into this land of promise and then bring back a report. And so he does. He picks a leader, a primary person, a standout person from every tribe. There's 12 of them. And he sends them into the line of promises. And they're to bring back a report that would help to strengthen Israel's resolve to go in and possess what had been promised to them.
7:30 But instead of these spies bringing back a report that would build faith and courage, they brought back a report that discouraged them and actually moved them into resistance to what God had planned for their life. Ten spies brought back an evil report. Two spies, Joshua and Caleb, brought back a positive report.
7:56 Think about the odds of this. Ten people persuaded two million. Ten people, it's how easy negativity spreads. It's how easy unbelief becomes contagious.
8:22 But it never, unbelief never shows up as unbelief. It shows up as wisdom. and other things. So 10 people, through their bad report, through their emphasis on the size of the problem, instead of the emphasis on the size of their God. Fear became a self-fulfilling prophecy. And 10 people persuaded 2 million to resist what God had promised them. it's a crazy story because God had intended them to inherit something that they would grow into and become a significant people and yet they resisted and rejected that very word.
9:27 I want to read to you this part of the story because I want you to see a few things because here's my point is the 10 spies are still alive. the ten spies are still alive So are the two. There are voices that when you hear them, provoke you to want to go kill a giant, so to speak. And there are voices that when you hear them, you think it's wisdom to withdraw and play it safe. let's look at this passage in numbers 13 says in verse one it says the lord spoke to moses saying send men to spy out the land of canaan which i'm giving to the children of israel from each tribe of their fathers you shall send one man everyone a leader among them so moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, and all of them men who were heads, and all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel. Now jump over to verse 27.
10:51 Then they told him, this is after they came back from the land, they told him and said, we went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong. The cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. Those are the giants. Verse 30. Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once. Why did he say at once? Because delayed obedience is disobedience. If you stop and analyze, you'll talk yourself out of the lifestyle God called you into. There's a difference between acting presumptuously and acting immediate to the voice of the Lord. And he's looking to raise up a body of believers that live immediate in response to the voice of the Lord.
11:51 Because I can analyze something to death and kill all the life that was in that word that the Lord gave. All right. Verse 30. Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and take possession for we are well able to overcome it. But the men who had gone up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people. They are stronger than we. They gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land, which they had spied out saying the land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants, the descendants of Anak, who came from the giants. And we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight. Let's take that for a moment. We're going to read a little bit more out of chapter 14.
12:50 Thank you. it's interesting what the 10 spies, I'm gonna use that figuratively, as the voices of caution that will keep you from your destiny. Wisdom, caution is often regarded as wisdom. If you can imagine being in the two million and these 10 spies come to you and they tell you about the giants and they tell you about the fortified cities and they tell you about the land that devours its inhabitants. They start giving you the report of what they saw.
13:31 These 10 spies suddenly become your heroes because they saved you from destruction. Picture yourself in that moment. You're there, a part of the people. You've heard this thing from Moses for a long time now. And finally, somebody had the courage to stand up and oppose the leader driven by fantasy and warn the people of impending doom. And suddenly you got 10 people who are the heroes of a nation. you can just imagine the conversation brother thank you i had that sense in my heart that we were not supposed to do this and you you saved us thank you thank you for having the courage to stand up against that one who's been leading us all this time it would have been better we died in the wilderness than to face this Thank you.
14:31 none of that language appeared to be a language of unbelief. It all appeared to be a language of courage. It all appeared to be what God was bringing to the surface for them, to warn them of impending doom. But the reality is, the bad news bears. kept them from what they were born for. Two million people missed what they were born for. Two million because 10 brought a report that emphasized the size of the problem and not the size of the promise. You can tell by people's conversation how much they live under the influence of a promise or not.
15:33 it says in verse 2 of chapter 14 it says and all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron the whole congregation said to them if only we had died in the land of Egypt or if only we had died in this wilderness you can tell what influences a person alive by their conversation complaining is the land of Egypt you cannot complain and live conscious of a promise it's near impossible to complain when you live in the abiding presence of the Spirit of God. those aren't meant to be moments of just high experience that you're getting some revival meeting somewhere.
16:34 They're actually designed as a lifestyle. And I've got this conviction that this could be the generation that could enter into what God has had on his promise list for 2,000 years that has never yet been touched. Is that fantasy? Or did God actually promise things that we've not yet seen? people find comfort in bad counsel because it reaffirms their unbelief. Bad counsel will keep you comfortable with unbelief. It won't be offensive.
17:26 It's the righteous counsel of two spies that we need in our lives. I have certain people I need in my life because they provoke me out of thinking that is so inferior to what God has purposed for my life. I purposefully expose myself to what they have to say, what they think, because I need, I need to be, I need those subtle moments of drifting into ease and comfort as a primary goal instead of marching into risk as a primary goal. If there were two things I could say about this house as a family, I need to be careful only because I don't want to communicate the wrong thing, which I sometimes unintentionally do.
18:24 I believe every local church has a unique call. I also believe there's a commonality. There are so many things that we have in common with all the other local churches around Reading and around the world, really. And I love visiting these places. In fact, I went to two Catholic masses on my sabbatical up in Canada. And I'll tell you what, don't let me forget where I was in my message because I am now chasing a rabbit. But this is a fat rabbit. I want you to hear. The first mass I went to, Linda's French Canadian, and we went first for her son's graduation, graduated from aeronautics engineering school,
19:08 smart one, and wanted to be there to honor him. And then we went back two weeks before our wedding because her father died. And so both trips got to go to Catholic mass. And the first one, the Catholic priest stood up and said, we are followers of Jesus. We're supposed to be doing what he said we're to do. We're supposed to be doing what he did. don't look to me as the priest. This is all of our responsibility. We're supposed to lay hands on the sick. We're supposed to cast out demons. He just starts going after it. I thought, where am I? Where am I? I got translated to home. I love this. It was cool. Every church has a unique call. I believe that. I really do.
20:00 And I don't know that every local church has the same demand put on them. But I can tell you who we are. If there's two things I could say to describe the nature of who we are as a church family. I realize we have guests. I realize we have people here that are just for a short season. I get that. but who we are as a core, as a body of believers, two things. Number one, we prioritize the presence of God. It's about welcoming and giving place to the Holy Spirit to do as he pleases, number one. But number two, we are a people of risk. We are people of risk. If I say to you, I can quote the scripture, nothing is impossible with God, but I don't believe it if I don't follow it with risk. Come on. It's just a comfortable doctrine if I don't follow with risk. It's risk that proves I burn with the conviction that for him there is nothing impossible.
20:56 And I owe it to him to give opportunity for him to display who he is. See, the lifestyle of risk gives opportunity for God to come and reveal himself. In Scripture, on two occasions, End of Mark and somewhere else. It's Acts chapter 4. In both places, Mark 16 and Acts chapter 4, God responds to the boldness of his people. They weren't bold because he responded. so many people pray for strength so they can act courageously no act courageously and watch the strength come watch God show up and reinforce reaffirm what he's called you to do to be You can tell. people that are under the influence of 10 spies by their complaining.
21:56 and that includes you and that includes me. I don't live under that influence, but there are times. There are times. See, there's counselors, millions of them all over the world.
22:16 The Bible talks about not subjecting ourselves to ungodly counsel. Have you discovered yet that you can actually get godly counsel from an ungodly person? That's terrifying. What's even more terrifying is you can get ungodly counsel from a godly person. There's a lot of godly people that don't want you to take risk. There's a lot of really good people that want to keep you from the despair of something not working. they want to keep you from the pain of getting your hopes built up. 30 years ago, one of the first things I spoke when I came here, I said, listen, if things have to work good for you every time you experiment with something, if it has to succeed every time, you will not want to follow me.
23:19 Because it just doesn't work that way. We try stuff, it doesn't work. We repent, we fix it, and we go back at it again. Many people would like to see us withdraw right now. it's not going to happen we're upping the ante it's not going to happen It's time for great risk, but I'll tell you what. If you live with great risk, you need community. If you don't live with great risk, community is a luxury. that was so good that was so good if you live with great risk you need community why? because that's what keeps us healthy keeps us honest keeps us responsible ah I gotta fix I didn't mean to do that mess but I did fix that but if you don't live with risk community is just something that helps to make you feel warm and fuzzy whenever you need it Thank you.
24:20 God has made us a body of believers, a community of believers who live with a mandate, value presence, and live with risk. So many people define their ministry by what they're good at. In other words, their ministry is defined by their skills. No, your ministry is defined by the call of God. Yeah, but I felt called to do this and I'm not good at it. Awesome. Now you have to depend on God. He said, pursue earnestly spiritual gifts. If it comes automatically with your skill set, why do you need to pursue it earnestly? You pursue it earnestly because God called me to be this and I don't know how to do it.
25:15 And I need these gifts functioning in my life for me to be successful. So now I have to put myself on display before the Lord for him to do something in me to make me qualified to carry out what he's called me to do. Does that make sense? Risk is what you were born for. here's something that stands out to me in verse 27 of chapter 13 now these are all 12 spies come back with this report specifically 10 carried this message verse 27 they told him that's moses we went to the land where you sent us it truly flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit . my first trip to Israel, little sideline, my first trip to Israel, I only wanted, you know, there's so many souvenirs you can buy. I mean, you can have a house full of amazing and interesting and unique souvenirs from the Holy Land. But when I went there, I actually saw only one thing that I wanted. And it was a little tiny statue. It was on a piece of marble. It was a brass sculpture.
26:34 of two men with a pole on their shoulders and a huge bunch of grapes. The whole thing's about this big. It's in my office to this day. It prophesies to me promised land. Promised land is the language of the people of God who live with purpose, who live with understanding there is more.
26:58 You drew a picture of the, yeah. Yeah, he did. I've inspired art coming out of Chris. Which is a miracle. This is a bonafide miracle right here.
27:21 So here it says, we went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey. And here is its fruit. and the story goes on, two men with pole on their shoulders carrying a bunch of grapes that was so large it required two men to carry it. That's the testimony. So now follow me here. The 10 spies saying, truly the land flows with milk and honey. Where do the 10 spies start their language into your life and mine? It's by agreeing in measure with truth. Here's the 10 spies.
28:00 I'm not saying God doesn't heal today. but I'm not saying that joy isn't a result of the Holy Spirit's work. However, this laughter thing. I'm not saying there aren't actually prophets today, but... Yeah, yeah, good.
28:42 Embracing a partial promise is actually enough just to ruin you. I don't know if that made sense. It made sense in my head, but I'm sure it came out right. The land truly is flowing with milk and honey. However, nevertheless. The 10 spies have butts.
29:11 and those butts get in the way of the will of God I wasn't going to say that on the streaming service. My apologies to our international friends. Does it make sense to you that 10 spies want to come into enough agreement with a promise that their conscience doesn't kill them, but resist it when it comes down to practical application? We call it protecting our reputation of having a good name with the community. But it's actually a pride that says, I want to make sure I look successful and good.
30:08 The very reason we live with a lifestyle of risk is sometimes we don't know what we're doing. That may not have sounded right. Let me put it differently. in Weaverville years ago we didn't know, we had prophet friends and so we groomed ourselves by being trained by those we knew and trusted in the prophetic. But we didn't know anything about healing. And so we just bought videos and just we would watch them and take risks we'd do what they did on the video, we'd just copy them. And sometimes somebody got healed, sometimes they didn't. But we didn't know what we were doing. So we had to try to experiment. We had to try to, well, maybe this will work. Maybe that'll work. Years ago here, this is some of the craziest stuff we've had happen. Some of our people would go, they would draw a picture of a human being, and then they would pray and get a part of the body that's hurting. They'd draw a circle and a red line through it. Then they'd walk around downtown.
31:05 They'll tell them they found someone that had that part of their body hurting. They'd look at the picture saying, sir, does your right shoulder hurt? Yeah. How did you know? Well, it's here on the picture. Is that something we recommend doing? No, no, I've never told anyone to do that. But we have people that are willing to live with risk enough to say, you know what, let's give God an opportunity to be glorified by him doing something that seems unreasonable. And then that person would be healed right on Main Street. Our history is filled with that stuff. So here's, let me get to the point. I believe the Lord is bringing us to a place of reaffirming our covenant. It's a covenant to live with courage. It's a covenant to live with risk. It's a covenant to live in community so that we can succeed together.
32:04 And that's who we are. We value the Holy Spirit. not just as someone who comes to massage my ego, but as one who comes to make me like Jesus. And that's the ambition. so Father I pray that for us as a people right now I do I pray that you would enable us give us the grace to be a risk oriented people driven by your voice driven by your heart driven by the wind of your presence your Holy Spirit in such a way that miracles take place, that the church, the body of Christ, we can enter in to the promised land you earmarked for us, you designed for us, you planned for us since the beginning of time that we would be a generation to enter fully into what you described for us.
33:11 You said greater works than these would we do. It's not happened yet, but God, let this be a generation because of a willingness to obey you at a level where we lose all sense of personal pride, but a willingness to glorify you. Let this be a generation that steps fully into what you've promised. I ask in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. We're gonna pray together a bit more in a minute. I want you to watch a video that is just so fun to watch. I've seen it twice now today and once yesterday or the day before. And I love it so much. I want you to watch it. Then we're going to stand. We're going to pray together. Our worship team is going to help us in just a moment as well. Watch the video.
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