Lift Your Head Above the Waves - Bill Johnson Sermons | Bethel Church

0:00 Imagine Jesus looking at you face to face, nose to nose, mouth to mouth, eye to eye, saying, this is my promise to you. I will use every situation that you ever face. I'll use it for my glory and for your strength. You have that kind of a covenantal promise. Both favor and trial drive us somewhere. It's like a sailboat. Where the wind drives me is determined by the way I control the sail and the rudder. It's supposed to drive me deeper into God. but I've watched both favor and trial drive away from the Lord, but it was never designed for that.

0:48 Monitoring my heart, my value system, my attitude, my confession is really the setting of the rudder, the setting of the sail. What is supposed to favor, for example, what is supposed to take me and to become the best possible example of Jesus I could possibly be, when the rudder is wrong, favor moves me into self-promotion. But the wind wasn't designed to do that. My liberty, my freedom, my will enables me to distort divine purpose. This is this great passage in Exodus. Why don't you turn to it? Exodus chapter 13. We're going to look, I think, at two portions of Scripture tonight. So Exodus 13 is one.

1:41 I wave this bottle around so much that, well, it's sparkling. And so it baptizes me every time I open it. I think I'll leave the top off. There we go. All right. Exodus 13. Are you there? You have your Bible? Say, I love my Bible. I really, really, really, really love my Bible.

2:14 Some of you got the amount of real as you were supposed to get. Some of you shortcut it. It's all right. It's fatiguing. I know. All right. Exodus 13. verse 17 then it came to pass when pharaoh had let the people go that god did not lead them by the way of the land of the philistines although although that was near for god said lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war and return to egypt Thank you. verse 17 again it came to pass when pharaoh had let the people go that god did not lead them by the way of the land of the philistines although that was near for god said lest perhaps the people change their mind when they see war and return to egypt this is a I love this particular story this particular verse this season in Israel's history I love it because God was the one fighting their battles it wasn't like this victory against the Philistines depended on their wisdom and their strength but God knew his role would be limited by their fear that was a very good point there god knew that his role his place in the journey with his people would be limited or restricted or cut off by their fear and so he actually said i'm not going to take them the direct path the philistines are in the way they're too young even though god is the one who fights the battle for them and delivers the victory to them and sometimes through them.

4:13 He said, I'm going to take them another way because they may see war and become discouraged and go back to bondage. Wow. How many people I see go back to bondage because they don't know how to handle conflict. I don't mean just conflict, argument with a friend or something. I'm talking about the lifestyle that says, I was designed for something greater, and I keep running into this wall. We sang about it tonight. That wall, the wall that becomes a way. That's the challenge right there, is every time God leads us into a place, it's unto victory. So here in this passage, it would be reasonable to assume that God chose, in this case, they're young, inexperienced, probably become afraid they probably want to go back to bondage God says I'm going to direct them I'm going to take them around this enemy because I don't want them to face that prematurely so a month later they're going down the road and the Lord leads them into an enemy what's the implication they're ready They're ready.

5:31 A month ago, yeah, they're going to mess themselves. I'm just going to take them. I'm going to take them around. A month later, he takes them right into a war. And the implication is, I've thought this through.

5:51 They've been able to deal with stuff in the last 30 days. I'm just throwing out 30 days to illustrate. They've been able to deal with stuff in the last 30 days. I trust them I think it's never been a question of what God can what battles God can win that's not even a contest there's never been a contest between the devil and God Zero. And so when the Lord then leads Israel into a conflict, it's because not only were they designed for victory, they're ready for victory.

6:30 So when I choose fear instead of faith, I'm violating my design. When I choose fear instead of faith, I'm not acknowledging that this moment was divinely orchestrated that I might once again illustrate the victory of Christ in a given situation. How many of you believe Jesus raised from the dead?

7:05 Absolutely. Your victory proves it. your victory proves it I mean it's not as though he needs any evidence in your life and my life to validate it it's validated on its own but when you pray for the sick and that person's healed it's a demonstration of the resurrection power of Jesus when you defeat a personal addiction habit that thing changes in your life. It's a demonstration of the resurrection power of Jesus. When you face this mental battle, this conflict of the mind, and you resolve to obey the Lord no matter what, and you stick with that process till you come into ongoing victory, you're demonstrating the resurrection of Jesus.

7:58 So I want you to look at Mark chapter 4. We're going to look at a passage that I have probably, possibly taught more than any other in the last 10 years. but I want to emphasize a different verse than I've ever emphasized in this story. So Mark chapter four, are you there? How many of you still love your Bible? How many of you still love the person next to you? Good, good.

8:34 Don't, don't get weird on me now. Just leave them alone until we're done. All right. You may remember a while back I read to you that thing says, have you ever woken up in the morning, just happened to be alive, and you kissed the person next to you? And then he says, yeah, I just tried that. Apparently I won't be allowed to fly on that airline anymore.

8:58 Mark chapter 4, verse 35. On the same day when evening had come, he said to them, let us cross over to the other side. When they had left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was, and other little boats were also with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Then he arose and rebuked the wind, said to the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. But he said to them, Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?

9:53 Verse 39 and 40 again. And he rose, rebuked the wind, said to the sea, peace, be still. And the wind ceased. There was a great calm. And he said to them, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? I love this story because it illustrates for me this role of maturity that God requires from us. he did not design us to ask him to do everything for us he's not the cosmic bellhop waiting for us to ring the bell and he comes running to fulfill whatever requests we have him have of him i believe so strongly in the importance and power of prayer and i believe strongly that we are to bring petition a request of him so it's almost a contradiction but in lifestyle it's not Jesus has his disciples in this boat and they're in a life-threatening storm the boat is already starting to fill so they're afraid they're going to die it's a legitimate fear without God it's a legitimate fear and so they wake Jesus up ask him don't you care that we're perishing he stands he rebukes the wind says peace to the storm everything stops and then he says how come you don't have any faith my upbringing was we pray and he does stuff Here's the disciples.

11:23 They come to Jesus. and they make requests. Who is Jesus? He's God. What do we call petition? Prayer. So they pray. Jesus turns and answers their prayer and then says, how come you don't have any faith? That's a mind-boggling scenario to me because I grew up, the only thing that I had in my mind is that if I prayed good and I prayed effective, I'd get answers to prayer and things would happen. and in part that's true but it's not what Jesus was grooming his disciples for. He was grooming them to do what he would do if they were in his shoes which in this case was to speak to the storm. In this case they were to deal with the obstacle to God's will. I've heard people say that Jesus slept in the storm because he was exhausted.

12:24 I don't believe that's true. I don't believe that's true. I think the reason he slept in a storm is because the world he dwells in has no storms. He was illustrating what it is to live in the reality of communion with the Father. It's a heavenly realm that Paul would later find language for. we are seated in heavenly places in Christ.

12:49 Tragically, it's been reduced to a doctrine. It's an invitation to an experience. In all experience, it's an invitation to a lifestyle. What's initiated by an experience is a promise of a lifestyle should we want to pursue it. God never introduces us to joy, for example, holy laughter, and you get so filled with joy, you can hardly stand yourself. That was never given to you as an experience that was just to help heal up the wounds of the last 20 years, and then you go on struggling through life. He opened a door that gives you now legal access to this realm of inheritance anytime you feel you needed. when that sense of comfort or prophetic or whatever it is that comes upon us, we move into that moment.

13:46 Those moments are invitations to sustainable lifestyle. They are not tastes that we then have to ignore and just suffer through with life. So when the Lord opens up insight for us, an invitation for encounter, which is an invitation for our lifestyle. This particular psalm just was meat to my soul. And I would read, I would just ponder, I just give thanks to the Lord, you know.

14:14 But what really hit me is he says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil because you're with me. And I learned through this, it was actually probably a couple month long ordeal. I learned that there's a measure of his presence that you can't find except in the valley of the shadow of death. and what happens is if we if we you know we don't always i mean learned you don't you can't always control what you have to go through but you do get to control how you go through and there's something about fear and anxiety there's something about resentment all those things shut down my capacity to find him and he'll never take me where he's not there In other words, it looks, the enemy meant for evil, but I'm going to take you into a gold mine.

15:16 And that's exactly what he did. He took me into a gold mine of his presence. We're in the valley of the shadow of death, in this very traumatizing position to find him and to lay there not being able to do anything. to lay there and honestly, with joy, just celebrate his goodness, celebrate his kindness. There's something of his presence that can only be found when you say no to anxiety and you say yes to trust. I've told you right after I was able to come back, one of the main things that I learned in that whole ordeal was that bold faith stands on the shoulders of quiet trust. And what I could see the Lord trying to work into my soul was that issue of just steadfast trust that no matter what happens, I'm not going to change my focus.

16:17 And the bottom line is, I trust God. He's good. He's my Father. I trust Him. so I found that you can find him in strange places and one of the places that you find him is in the valley of the shadow of death Let me just, a little PS, if you have a friend that's dying, don't ever miss the opportunity to be with them. now obviously we always pray for resurrection we pray for healing we pray for all of that but sometimes just being there in that moment contending for breakthrough, but just understand you're walking through something and you'll discover something of his presence. we're accustomed to finding anointing presence in praying for the sick in worship we're accustomed to finding presence as we read the word and commune with him those are all the things we've known for years I just want to encourage you the enemy threatens you with death, God has a surprise.

17:35 He's going to be hiding in the shadows. He's going to be hiding in the shadows just for you. And if you'll do your best to say no to fear, no to anxiety, no resentment, no blame, and walk into that situation, you'll find him. Wow. Wow. There's another part of this psalm that says, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. I don't know that that's a spiritual warfare type verse. I'm going to use it that way. I love this verse. You prepare a table before me. A table is a place of communion. It's a place of eating. It's a place of fellowship. It's dining. It's celebrating. It's family. And what he does is he says he prepares a table for him to sit down with you and he makes the devil watch.

18:36 Now, if you're distracted by the devil, you won't discover who's at the table with you. Come on. So good. If you're distracted by the accusations, the lies, the intimidation, all he can do is study Nehemiah sometimes, and look at the tools he uses, accusation, manipulation. He uses these kinds of tools to try to get people to lose sight of the gold, of the gold, of the presence. and in this moment just coming through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies it's a place of rich connection with God Almighty in the most awkward place and if you won't be distracted by the enemy you'll find the presence in a measure you've never known but I want to add one more element and that's concerning we were all born for a battle.

19:44 I don't live devil conscious. I just don't. And people who do make me nervous. They make me nervous. I don't see a demon behind every bush, but if he sticks his head out, I do pull the trigger. but it says of David in Samuel it says of David in the springtime when kings were out to war he sat on his rooftop he saw a woman bathing and the story goes on he committed adultery with her and it was a great great collapse in his world he repented he got healed he got restored but such an unnecessary disaster that affected so many people the subject isn't adultery for me tonight it's not resisting temptation it's none of those things it's just simply this when you avoid the war you were born for you'll enter a war you have no grace for Wow! Wow!

21:06 Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Adam and Eve were planted in a garden surrounded by demonic forces and they were assigned to extend the boundaries of the garden till the entire planet was under the dominion of the delegated ones that had been commissioned by God to rule. He told them, be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth. In other words, humanity was born into a war. But even in the Garden of Eden context, you don't see stress. You don't see fear.

22:02 You don't see all the stuff that is typically associated with war. Instead, you see Adam walking with God in the cool of the evening. War. See, the greatest weapon of war you have is God with you. in the scripture it talks about lifting up this shout i think it's in isaiah 42 if i remember right chapter verse 10 lifting up this shout lifting up this praise and then finally after all this worship and praise is going on it says and the lord arouses himself as a man of war so here's the picture you and I are enjoying Jesus he goes out thrashes on the devil he comes back and says you guys are mighty warriors and we're going when did we go to war you've been doing it all night no we've just been enjoying you that's the point that's the point So there's warfare that you and I were born for.

23:11 Jesus taught his disciples, he said, wherever three or four of you are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst. So here's presence found in the valley of the shadow of death. There's presence found in war, conflict. any conflict you're in it's a table he's there get your eyes off the devil find him, find the Lord It's interesting, in Psalms 40, you guys doing all right, Pierre? I think it's Psalms 40. He says, sing to the Lord a new song, and the very next phrase says,

23:59 and the earth will fear the Lord. That's a strange connection in subjects. Sing to the Lord a new song, and there's going to be a whole bunch of people get saved. it's not it's not like let's get a stadium fill it with 100,000 people then we'll have Chris come up here and sing a new song and then we'll have a lot of people saved it's not saying that it's not saying let's get the worship team up here to sing some brand new prophetic song a lot of people getting saved he's not saying he's talking about lifestyle in the living room in your bathroom driving your car it's the song that nobody hears but what's happening did you see what happens in response to verse 10? The Lord arouses himself as a man of war. So you're driving down the street and you get hit with this fear thing about the doctor's report or about some issue at work. They're laying off people. Oh no, what if I lose my job? You start having that stuff going on, but instead of yielding to the fear, you take the stuff that's been thrown at you, you use it as fuel, and it becomes the lyrics of a song, and you begin to sing the new song that actually brings about the new day. Why does it bring about the new day? Because in that new song, God himself stirs himself up as a man of war, and he comes and he destroys the powers that have been set against you for your destruction. That's why things change. How does that affect your neighbor?

25:31 How does that affect the city? How does that affect the nation? It's easy. The Lord wreaks havoc on the powers of darkness that have influence over the thought life and value system of a community. So picture this. Here we are as the people of God spread all through the community just throughout the day, continuously throughout the day, just lifting up the new song, the spontaneous song, God, we give you thanks. We give you thanks that you are turning this into a city of great prosperity. We bless you for what you're doing, God. We thank you, Lord, that unemployment will be a thing of the past. We praise you, God, as the God of abundance, that you bring healing and cancer is being destroyed from our city. And you just take these things, you just begin to sing them. What happens? The Lord starts wreaking havoc on those powers of the air that have influence of the thought life. What happens? The people around you start having clear thoughts for the first time in their life.

26:27 That's why people turn to the Lord because they can see this is obvious. This is obvious. This one who gave himself for me is the only one with the right to rule my life. I had this little bout with sickness here recently.

27:00 And I talked about it last Sunday night, so if you have any interest in it, I don't like replaying the story, but I think it's available online somewhere if you want to hear it. But I got to work. I couldn't eat. I mean, I was sick. Sick, sick. And I ended up having a surgical procedure, and I'm doing really good. My health is just returning. I'm eating meat, which is really the main thing. The main testimony is that things have died to keep me alive, And I'm okay with that. I'm all right with that.

27:38 Totally all right. In fact, more things are going to die. So my strength is returning. This is my first Sunday back in the morning to actually speak. And I'm doing all three services, so we'll see how I do that. But I'm doing well.

28:04 But, you know, just in being just sick and doing so poorly, It was a gift to be able to sit at home in my recliner and just to read and just review the promises of God, to review the prophetic words over my life. And it's a regular part of my life, but I had extra time for it. And Benny and I would take communion most every day together.

28:32 We would just take communion and just give thanks for divine health. And it wasn't forced. It wasn't like, no, I don't want to, but I'm going to just grid it up by faith. No, it was something so rich in the presence of God that rests upon you. The peace that passes understanding comes to us when we don't demand to understand. And that that comes upon you, there's such a grace in it to do right things and good things. And so we would share communion and I would pray over one of the elements. Benny would pray over the other. And this is just a regular part of our life. And I remember there came a point where I could no longer eat anything. In fact, I went 10 days without even drinking water.

29:26 I couldn't drink anything. They just kept me plugged into intravenous feeding, which is, you can live a while on that. So that worked well for me. And I couldn't take communion. but she would take it for me and she would come next to the bed and she would take and we would pray together and what we gave thanks for the most was just the divine health the life that God had given us the victory that he had given us you don't have to beg him for what he already bought and paid for and put in your account what you want to do is just condition your heart to celebrate what's there and you know I have more questions than I've ever had but as I've stated before I will never sacrifice what I know about the goodness of God on the altar of human reasoning so that I have an explanation for why something happened I don't need an explanation I have a person who is with me and there's something about facing difficulty and not losing your peace that actually annoys the devil to pieces.

30:43 There's something about even experiencing loss or having things that go on that you just can't explain, you don't have a slot for. I don't need a slot for it. I have a person that I get to walk with. And there's something about becoming the people that just have said, this is the way I'm doing alive. In any and every situation, I will give him thanks. I will give him praise. I will take the very weapons that the enemy uses against me. And much like David took Goliath's sword and cut off Goliath's head. So I will take the very things that the enemy has thrown my way and they will become the lyrics of my offering of praise to God. God, I give you, I give you thanks for divine health. I give you thanks for abundance and breakthrough. We would just delight together in our family. Oh, you know, in those kinds of moments, and there's many of you who've gone through things way worse than I've ever gone through. I get that, but this was a pretty big challenging situation for me. I remember, you know, you don't lay there not being able to eat or drink or function, really. You don't lay there wishing you would have written another book.

31:55 You don't lay there thinking, oh, if I only would have preached in one more city, or if I would have gone to this nation. All you think about is family, friends. That's it. It's people. It's the gift of being able to serve Jesus with friends, with family. It's looking at my kids, my grandkids. It's seeing, it's just seeing the rich, rich life in God. It's just, it's real tough, real tough to get depressed. when you see blessing everywhere you look. You know, it's just, you know, you can look at some things that are unsettled, unanswered, but they don't fuel me. They don't fuel me because I'm a singer of new songs. And a singer of new songs just takes the information that comes and gives it as an offering and celebrates and declares its greatness. I honestly have tried to live that for just as long as I can remember.

32:57 But there are moments. There are things that happen to us that just are really tough. And it kind of challenges you at a new level. And so the Lord just kind of peels back the layer of that onion at another level, you know. And that's what happened for me this last couple months. But I'd like to say that the cool thing about this verse is that all my job was was to give him praise. And he's the one who fought the battle. It's the most beautiful thing because sometimes the Lord has you in a position where you rest. Sometimes he has you in a position where you fight. I talked about this more clearly last Sunday night. I believe in this. I believe the kingdom suffers violence, the violent take it before us. I believe in that. The prayer, the fasting, the yelling, the shouting, raising flags, shofar, pouring out oil, whatever you got.

33:49 Any Christian toy you have that you think will work, let's use it. Let's get that thing going. And let's just apprehend what's wrong and get it turned around. And I'm good. I'm good with all of it. Get the trumpets blaring. I mean, we've marched all over this property. We've marched up and down that street. We've waved the flags. We've had the horns. We've pulled oil. I go to my back door to my office, and there's oil dripping down the door. Somebody's been here just praying over. I don't know. I'm okay with it though. I'm not offended. It's just there. It's just one of the things that we do. Use everything you have, but there are times where there's not a thing you can use that will bring about a change. The only thing you can do is sit down and give thanks. Let him do this one for you. And this is one of those verses. This is one of those moments where he says, It's the Lord who becomes the warrior.

34:45 And all he did was respond to the brand new song of yielded heart that says, I'm going to take this about him and put it in praise. Isaiah 60 has been such a monumental portion of Scripture for me. I had what I refer to as one of the two most significant encounters I had with the Lord in my life. This one, it was on a Thursday afternoon in May of 1979. It's affected every day since then because it changed how I thought. and it was an encounter with the Lord where he showed me his heart in this chapter and it wrecked me.

35:29 So we see in verse 1, it says, Arise, shine, for your light has come. The glory of the Lord has risen upon you. And this tells me then that this chapter, at least this portion of the chapter, is for the church. It's for the church age. The reason we know that is that arise and take responsibility. get up, shine. Why? Because your light has come. In John chapter 1, it says Jesus is the light that enlightens every person that comes into the world. Jesus is the light that enlightens every person. The reason I believe that this is for the church age for us right now is because there is not another light coming. Jesus is the light that came. So then that means his coming automatically ignites in me a responsibility to carry out the mandate in this chapter. Arise, shine, your light has come. The glory of the Lord has risen upon you. It goes on, for behold, darkness will cover the earth, deep darkness the people, but the Lord will arise over you. His glory will be seen upon you. It's a wonderful promise that in the time of difficulty is often when the grace of God exceeds the difficulty and the light shines. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound, yes. And so we know that the Lord will sometimes, when things look the worst, is when he moves on the scene and he reverses the effect of stuff and God is then glorified. And it's not darkness and light coexisting, it's that one is defeated openly. So we have that part of this chapter. Verse three is a favorite of mine. New American Standard says, nations will come to your light, kings to the brightness of your rising. The reason that moves me so deeply is that that's only happened one time in history that I know of.

37:27 It was during Solomon's reign as king. He was so famous, if you can use that. He had such an incredible reputation for wisdom, divine wisdom, that people would pay any price to leave where they were to sit at his feet to hear and to learn wisdom. As Bobby would Connor, as Bobby Connor would say, it's not about somebody. It's about his body. This that is about to happen where the nations will literally feed on the solutions of God for the turmoil and difficulty and challenges of life, they will come not to a individual, but instead they'll come to the people of God that walk in this kind of wisdom. So this really moves me. But when you get down to verse 18, it was the last part that I remember reading where I really got wrecked in that Thursday afternoon in 1979. The last part of verse 18, he says, you will call your walls salvation and your gates praise.

38:30 You will call your walls salvation and your gates praise. Salvation is his part, praise is mine. there's a co-laboring here in this metaphoric wall and gates that God is describing here there is a role that God has he saves me I cannot save myself but my response is a response of praise he says your walls will be called salvation your gates praise interestingly if you follow this theme in Isaiah 60, by the time you get to chapter 62, which is only like 15 or 20 verses later, he says, and your wall, that wall of salvation will be like a torch that is burning.

39:18 I love Bible descriptions because they challenge me. So here we're working with walls that have now become fire. And I'm reminded of what the Lord said in Zechariah. He said, I will be a wall of fire around you. And so he, the wall of fire around us is our salvation. It's a beautiful picture, but there's still a personal responsibility and a personal mandate. And that is the gates of praise. When you get to Revelation chapter 21, you guys still breathing? Everybody's still alive? All right. Hopefully this will make sense here soon. When you get to Revelation chapter 21, In verse 21, it says, the 12 gates were 12 pearls, and each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass.

40:13 It's a very strange city. It's a very strange wall where you've got streets that are gold, but it's transparent. You have a wall of fire, the wall of salvation, and you have gates that are made out of, each gate is one pearl. I don't know how big is that gate, like the size of the building or something. It's very strange, but there's a picture here that's profound and important for us to catch. Pearls are developed through irritation.

40:46 Gates of praise are built by responding to difficulty and glorifying God. Anybody can give him praise when you've got a raise at work. And we should, we must. Anybody can give him praise when our favorite team wins the NBA championship or World Series or whatever. All of us know how to celebrate in those moments. The challenge comes when I have faced a challenge to my faith. I have suffered loss. I don't know why it happened. I don't know how it happened. I didn't do anything wrong. You know, this crisis happened. This tragedy happened. In those moments, to apprehend our moment and to give him praise in the middle of those, that's where the gate is built. And I tell you, it's hard for me to communicate well what I had a sense of in the middle of the night last night, because I don't want to be alarming. It wasn't a warning in a sense of, oh no, be careful what's happening. It wasn't that. It was, in fact, my wife actually sent me a text earlier today, helping me with language for something.

41:50 It's because of what's coming, we have to make sure that we've got this area taken care of. Because of what's on the way, we have to make sure that this mouth gate does not have salt water and sweet water coming out of the same fountain, out of the same spring. It's a biblical analogy. Salt water, the bitter water, the sweet water cannot come out of the same mouth.

42:18 If God, Psalms 22 verse 3 says, God is enthroned upon the praises of his people. Right? He's enthroned upon the praises of his people. So who is enthroned on our complaining? If God is enthroned upon the praises of his people, who then becomes enthroned, can I use the word empowered, through my criticism? the Bible reveals protocol it's not ritual it's not routine without purpose it's biblical protocol Psalms 100 I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart I enter his courts with praise I enter his presence with praise whose presence do I enter with complaining?

43:34 What gates open to me when I criticize? is not a light matter. Count it all joy. Count. Do the math. Count it joy when you face various trials. Now, the reason that doesn't sound reasonable... is because momentarily we stop believing the scripture that says all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. See, if I actually live with an abiding faith that that truth cannot be violated by any demonic power, by any circumstance, by any stubbornness of my own. The will of the Lord, the will of God, the word of God cannot be altered by any other power because he declared it's true and it's his covenant with you.

44:33 Imagine Jesus looking at you face to face, nose to nose, mouth to mouth, eye to eye, saying, this is my promise to you. I will use every situation that you ever face. I'll use it for my glory and for your strength. You have that kind of a covenantal promise. if let's give kind of a silly example let's say that you knew someone uh very very let's just let's go big a billionaire a billionaire who is actually the most integrous and kindest person you ever met and was so faithful to their word and after the service today they took you aside and said come to my office this friday i just felt of the lord today i'm to write you a hundred thousand dollar check. How many of you would wait till Friday to get happy? not a chance we would start dancing in the at the at the at the moment we would start rejoicing why because we believe in the one who gave us the promise we believe in their ability we believe in their integrity their their intention we don't think for a moment that they would ever change their mind they have the resource and they've chosen so here it is sunday i'm going to be rejoicing sunday probably won't sleep much tonight probably won't sleep much tomorrow night i'll be rejoicing every day till Friday. And when I get to check on Friday, I'm going to rejoice even more.

45:56 But the point is, the promise gives me permission to enjoy the emotional satisfaction of a fulfilled promise before it ever happens. That is actually what the word hope means biblically. We read the word patient today. It's a different word than in our culture. The word hope is completely different. In our culture, it's a wish. The biblical word for hope is the joyful anticipation of good. In other words, because I am certain good is going to happen, I'm experiencing the joy of that happening right now before it ever happens. I have permission to actually engage in with the celebration that I will be experiencing once it's fulfilled. I'm going to do it right now. Why? because I have hope. It's the biblical word hope. So here James comes to us with an insight. I'm going to put this in my terms.

46:53 If I truly believe that all things work together for good in my life, then I can look at any trial I'm facing and joy is the only logical response. I'll try over here. See if I can find some believers in the building.

47:23 Bad joke, bad joke. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Joy is the only reasonable response to seeing a problem with God's promise overwhelming it. I don't know when. I'm facing some stuff right now. It's absolutely impossible. Impossible. I'm facing more impossibilities at the moment than I've ever faced before, and they're not fixable. and yet apparently they are.

48:00 All things. All things get worked into the recipe until everyone tasting of that meal says it's perfect. All things. So if I believe in the integrity of Scripture, if I believe in the intentionality of His promise for me as an individual, that he will work all things, then it only stands to reason I actually have legal access to joy, not having to fake it, not having to pretend, but I actually have legal access to joy before I see the miracle. and the measure of joy that I express in the journey reveals the level of lordship I'm actually experiencing Ouch.

49:01 There's three areas that I want to address just to try to make this as practical as I can. finances relationships in our inner world us are self-talk self uh self-talk i i don't talk about the devil hardly ever and uh the only time i look at him is when i'm ready to pull the trigger if he's in my way i got i got the crosshairs then then then that's when i'm going to address him but but otherwise he doesn't fascinate me at all he's not worthy of conversation but Paul did say I don't want you to be unaware of his tactics so I will say this I've never seen a level of warfare over those three areas especially in the inner world the thinking the perceptions in people's lives I've never seen the level of conflict that I've seen in the last couple years I it's a mystery to me that and This is a metaphor that you could say white and the person you're talking to hears you say black.

50:17 They could see you turn left and square up and down you turned right. There's a twisting involved of information. And it's not just that, you know, it's not the stranger down the street that you don't care that much about. It's sometimes our closest friends. And learning how to journey through this stuff, realizing that there's another influence involved. It is not human. We battle not against flesh and blood. We know that. But somehow getting drawn into some of these areas of difficulty and challenge and conflicts is just the most challenging thing I've ever seen.

50:55 There actually has to be within the heart of the believer, the desire for reconciliation that is greater than the need to be proven right. Right. Come on. That's right. As I heard someone say recently, In the kingdom, there must be a desire for reconciliation, a desire for connection that is stronger than our need to be proven right. this that is happening in so many people's lives. I think is best fought by going through this narrow little door that says, count it joy.

51:54 I don't know. I don't know how this works. Count it joy. Go through this that seems so illogical, so wrong. Look at your problem, God's way, add it up according to his promises, count it all joy. In other words, do the math, add it all up. If you don't come to a conclusion of joy, then you did the addition wrong. Add it up again and keep working on it until you come to the conclusion, oh, the only logical response is joy. And somehow that expression of authentic kingdom joy that is birthed out of the promises and purposes of God, that realm of joy helps to dismantle the weapons that the enemy has used against us. It's when I try to fight, oh goodness, I'm not finding the words well today, so give me a little bit of grace. It's when I try to fight an argument with an argument when it's not a mental, it's not an argument battle. It's a warfare thing that is so twisted and altered, and it affects so many people.

53:04 You know, one of the most painful things in the world for me is to be wrongly accused. I mean, I've been accused of all kinds of dumb stuff, but I even had another funeral a couple weeks ago. It was awesome. Somebody sent me the clip, and yeah, apparently I died. I didn't even know it. Nobody told me. So I've had a 19-minute-long funeral service on there. I watched half of it. It was quite good. They said really nice things about me, too. It was amazing. So like Abraham Lincoln said, you can't believe everything you read on the internet. That's awful. Yeah, yeah. the lordship of Jesus is what's being fought over.

54:04 And where we experience it in our lives, those are symptoms. The fight is over authentic lordship of Jesus. What happens to Israel? Israel coming out of the wilderness, or out of Egypt, into the wilderness, as long as they experience the bounty of the Lord, there's great rejoicing. But when they're thirsty or Moses doesn't come down off the mountain in time and they become anxious and worried, they create a golden calf to worship. They create another answer besides the one God promised. And what happens when we become anxious and fretful, when we become distracted because of conflict or whatever, we're looking for solutions. And oftentimes while we'd never build an altar, a golden calf to bow to, we do create other solutions that are opposite to what God has promised. not you it's a church down the road we create things that are temporary solutions that help to bring a moment of ease to a problem that we face instead of being all in in trust of a loving father this is an interesting portion of scripture for so many reasons counted all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience that military resolve commitment intentional commitment to absolute triumph and victory patience that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing if you lack wisdom So apparently wisdom now and faith are essential parts of being able to take this journey that God has invited us into, this awkward journey to die.

56:03 You can only live where you've died. and to go through this narrow door of counting it joy when I'm facing things I don't like, I didn't ask for, I didn't sign up for, this isn't according to what was promised. I've fasted, I've prayed, I've done all these things, and still there seems to be no yielding of these circumstances, but going through the door where I can actually genuinely celebrate with joy the goodness of God and his faithfulness, in that moment, somehow the enemy becomes disarmed.

56:46 That which he used against me no longer works. No longer works. Because I've given myself to what? To the lordship of Jesus. Look at verse 5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. Why are those two phrases back to back? Because if I truly want to trust in God completely, my perception of things will undermine my trust.

57:15 Perception has to be given to us by God so that we see the way he sees and we see what he sees. We see what his promise before it comes to pass. that way our mental creative energies are directed towards the will of God and not warring against the will of God trust in the Lord with all your heart all your heart is a place of absolute surrender I have no personal interest in my own opinion as I've stated well Bill we need to be free to think for ourselves I get that and I and I want to always be free in my thinking but there's more freedom in his will than outside of his will and so I want to think consistent with his liberty in me. I want to think consistent with his promise over me. I'm not a robot that is to be programmed by commands. But in a relationship, your thought life is the offspring of who you commune with.

58:17 and I want to tap into the offspring, so to speak, God's inspired ideas over my life. So he says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. So it's a place of absolute surrender. Lean not on your own understanding. Why? Because your own perception of things is weak and misguided, and it will undermine what you've said you want from your life. That's the absolute trust and abandonment in Christ. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him. All your ways acknowledge him. It's interesting. For us, the word acknowledge means Chris is in the front row. I walk in the room and go, hey, Chris, nice to see you. I haven't seen you all week. Good to see you. Glad you're home. What have I done? I've acknowledged. But that's not this word. This word is the word that means to come to know in an experiential and or intimate way. This word is actually used to describe, it's the verse in Genesis, and Adam knew Eve as she conceived and brought forth a son.

59:27 I mean, you understand, Adam didn't walk into the room and acknowledge, wave at Eve. Hey, good to see you. Let's get together and move on. It wasn't that kind of acknowledgement. It was an experiential. It was an acquaintance. It was a coming together. This is interesting because God is actually giving everybody in this room an invitation to come to know him in all the different ways of our life. We have so many ways. It'd be, we'd take all day to even try to listen, but let me give you a few. Family life. That's one of the ways that we have in our life. It's our relationships, our friends. That's a way. It's our financial life. That's a part of our life. It's our ministry. It's our church life. It's our mental health. It's our emotional health. It's our area of faith. It's our area of business or work, gifting. We have all these things. All these are ways in our life. And what happens is we may have an area of maturity. Let's say that you just have a grace on your life where you just know how to raise children and your children are thriving. They're doing good. Your spouse is happy, your family. It doesn't mean we never have problems. Just you know how to weather them. You have a grace for that because you've come to know God in that part of your life. But when it comes to money, there's just constant fear, constant worry and anxiety. You know, worry and anxiety gives us the false sense of being responsible. It gives us a false sense that we're being responsible people. No, that's counterfeit responsibility because we're taking on a responsibility he didn't give us. It doesn't mean I don't take ownership of my decisions and my issues financially. It just means that worry, anxiety, all that stuff actually gives place for me to actually put my trust in something else. It's the holding to or despising. That's what happens in the life that goes down that road. So here we've got this issue, the issue of

1:01:32 in all your ways, acknowledge him. So what is he saying here? Let's say that your family life is good. Finance is a good, but when something happens, that's just out of the ordinary, the car breaks down, maybe a dear friend just betrayed you and just made up lies. They really hurt you. Those things are always going to hurt. They're always going to challenge our faith, but they devastate some. And it's never supposed to devastate a person's life. And so let's just say that in this situation, I go, man, I do so good for so long. And then something happens. Somebody says a lie about me. They post something online and I just get this emotional nosedive. And I don't like this emotional instability. God, I want to know you as the one who is emotionally stable because you are the creator of my emotions and you yourself are emotional.

1:02:30 It says his anger lasts for the night, but his favor lasts for a lifetime. There's emotion involved there. God, I want to know you as the creator of emotions. I want to come to know you in this area so that I can actually manage this part of my life. This is what he says. he says, in all your ways acknowledge, come to know him and he will direct your paths. He's not just saying here, I'll give you the direction that you seek for in your life. That's not it at all. There's two things. Number one, the word here for direct paths is to make straight. I'm going to take a crooked, crazy path that you're on, a horrendous, life-threatening past, nerve-wracking journey, and I'm just going to straighten that road out. We're going to take a treacherous trail and going to turn it into a four-lane highway. That's what we're going to do. And that's what the Lord is saying. He says, I'm going to make it straight. I'm going to make it straight. So pedal to the metal, you can go where you're supposed to go. But the second thing is, what is the path of the direction of the Lord? He would always work to take Israel into their inheritance, into their promised land. So when the Lord says, we say, God, I want to know you in my emotions. I want to know you in my finances. I want to know you. I don't want to just have ideas and run with them. I want to experientially encounter you as the God who provides. You are the one who with a word sustains all of life. You're the source of life. You're the sustainer of life.

1:03:56 I want you to be the sustainer of my economic well-being. I want to know you there. What happens? He says, awesome. Let's talk. And he begins to work with us and encounter us. Things begin to expand and our thinking, our expectations. What's happening? We're coming to know him as the God of finance. What happens then? He makes what was crooked straight and it takes us right into inheritance. It's the shortcut to breakthrough. In all your ways, come to know. Yeah, I'm so glad that you watched this video. I do pray that it's a great, great strength and encouragement to you. And I've got a verse that really is my cry for all of us. And it's Psalms 20, it's verse 4. May he grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans. That's my prayer.

1:04:49 That's my prayer is that this would be the season of rich, rich fulfillment. Thanks for joining us.