Overcome Your Enemy and Take Ground in the Spirit Realm - Bill Johnson Sermon | Bethel Church

0:00 That is still alive. The embers of that fire are still alive. And there must be a people that fan the flame through fervency, not just through the individual yes, which it starts with that, but it's the corporate yes that says, yes, we will pray. God, it's time that you heal our neighborhood. It's time that you bring deliverance. Thank you. Thanks, please. Please be seated. Good morning. How many of you were able to make it to any of Randy Clark's deal this week? And it was another good one. A lot of demons are depressed today. They're trying to get counseling, and there's no help for them. The Pope goes to New York.

0:59 He's picked up at the airport by a limousine. He looks at the beautiful limousine. He says to the driver, you know, I hardly ever get to drive. Would you please let me drive? The driver's understandably hesitant. And he says, I'm sorry, but I don't think I'm supposed to do that. But the Pope persists. Please? The driver finally lets up. all right, I can't really say no to the Pope. So the Pope takes the wheel, is rightly enjoying himself out there on the freeway. He enjoys himself a little too much, attracting the attention of a highway patrol officer who pulls him over. The cops walks up to the window and tells him to roll down the window. Startled and surprised, the young officer asks the Pope to wait a minute. He goes back to his patrol car, radios the chief. Chief, I have a problem. What sort of problem? Well, you see, I pulled over this guy for driving over the speed limit, but it's someone really important.

1:59 Important like the mayor? No, no, much more important than that. Important like the governor? Way more important than that. Like the president? More. Who's more important than the president? well he's got the pope driving for him so it must be God Open your Bibles, if you would, to the Gospel of Luke. We're going to actually study out of chapter 9 and 10, but the opening verse is actually out of chapter 11. so Luke go to Luke 11 we'll read a section there in just a moment let me tell you what what I have in my heart to do I've been actually unusually excited about today and for a few weeks because I felt that the Lord put a mandate on me a few weeks ago about I'm going to take three or four weeks to try to build this about how to influence unto transformation the entire state of California.

3:19 I feel like the Lord has a mandate on this state that is unusual, and it's critical that we recognize it. If you look at history, the Azusa Street Revival that has had fruit of I don't know how many. It's well over 100, and I think it's several hundred million believers out of that one move of God that continues for this day. If you imagine a rock thrown in a pond and the ripples go outward, the ripples from April 9th, 1906, the ripples from that rock dropping into the pond of God's works is still having effect into places all over the world. The Jesus People Movement started Southern California with Chuck Smith and Calvary Chapel, an incredible move of God took place as young people were coming to Christ so quickly, so easily, that I half-jokingly say you could yell peanut butter over a crowd and people would get saved.

4:22 It was just that kind of a movement. In fact, we had a ministry here, our youth pastor at the time, Chip Worthington, we were trying to start this street ministry to work with hippies and stuff. And this is back a while ago, in 1971, I think it was. and we tried to start this ministry and just failed at every attempt and the Lord told him to sit on it. So we did, we waited, I don't remember now, maybe six, eight months and one day he was in his office, the Lord spoke to him and said, today's the day. So he drove downtown Redding and he drove past this house and he looked at this house and the Lord spoke to him and said, that's the house because the house would be a place where people would live and then we'd do outreaches and counseling and that sort of thing from that place. and the Lord spoke to him said that's the house so he pulled the car over went up to the door knocked on the door a long-haired guy comes to the door looks at Chip and says you're the guy that's taking over this house aren't you because they've been actually the angelic realm has been chasing them around telling them they needed to give up the house because there was a higher purpose it was a drug center it was where people would stop driving coming from hitchhiking from Seattle to Los Angeles, they would stop at this particular place for drugs. And it was to be taken over by believers that would pray for healing and deliverance and all the stuff. And it was an extraordinary time. And that Jesus People Movement was birthed in California and went literally all over the world. Time Magazine, I have copies of Time Magazine and Life Magazine and the articles that they printed on this Jesus movement.

6:07 It started all favorable. I know it's hard to believe. All favorable articles recording on how many people are coming to Christ in that particular era. That came out of California and exploded to the nations of the world. Charismatic renewal, one of the most extraordinary things I've ever seen happen. And I used to go, I was on staff here at church, and I would go over to the Catholic church up by Benton Airfield. And down in the basement, they had these Catholic prayer meetings, Pentecostal prayer meetings. And I would just go in there and sit. And it was so wonderful just to sit and worship with Catholic brothers and sisters. And it was something so extraordinary because Episcopalians, Catholics, Lutherans, all the denominations, the Pentecostals would have normally thought weren't included in what God was doing were right at the center of what God was doing.

7:01 In fact, Bethel became a hotspot for that. My dad was leading the church into expressions of renewal and worship, and the church grew from several hundred down to 60, 65 I think it was, 65 the first Sunday after this big church split, and it began to grow from there based on a people that loved the presence. And that really was the decision made in that era and that time that has marked us to this day. But I remember the pews started to get filled with Episcopalians and Lutherans and Catholics and people from all different streams that just were hungry for God, and they would come. And I remember one Sunday we had a Catholic priest preach to us, and the next Sunday it was a Baptist evangelist. and you can't get two more unique individuals than those two individuals preaching to the church.

7:55 But it was the charismatic renewal. Then it was Dennis Bennett out of Van Nuys, California where this thing exploded and it was out of California. You take so many of the different moves of God through the years that the Lord is birthed. Not every movement was started here, but so many did that it's a significant, it's a sobering realization to find out you're in a family and in a location that is responsible to give birth to moves of God and then steward those moves under the transformation of society. And the scripture that I want to read to you is one of the most sobering passages for me in the New Testament. And so I want you to look at this with me. Luke chapter 11 verse 24. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest. Finding none, he says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. And then he goes and he takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. This is just kind of a strange description where Jesus is giving us insight as to how the spirit world works. First of all, he's describing a human being, a person, as a house for the demonic. It's a place that the enemy can reside in. And in this particular storyline, Jesus brings deliverance. He talks about somebody who's been delivered of these demons, and when it leaves, it tries to come back. So understand, if you get healed of a disease, and a week later you have pain that comes back, it's just the enemy knocking on the door to see if fear will give him entrance.

9:52 He cannot take over any territory he wants. He has to work by laws. And the laws of compromise, the laws of vile confession and statements, those things actually open doors for the enemy to come to kill, steal, and destroy. So wherever we find death, loss, and destruction, we see the fingerprints of the enemy. He has been at that location. And so here in this story, we have a person who is set free, but they haven't replaced, they haven't taken the space that the enemy occupied and replaced it with right things. Interestingly, in Proverbs, it talks about this house, and it talks about that house that is filled. Because of wisdom, the house is actually filled with right things.

10:42 I do believe that functioning in wisdom, let me use New Testament language, functioning in the mind of Christ helps to replace the spots that the enemy occupied in a person's thought life, in their habits, in their daily functions, in their relationship. The place the enemy occupied is now replaced with divine wisdom, is now replaced with the mind of Christ. And when the furniture of heaven fills a house, there is no longer a seat for the devil to sit on. And that's the picture that's given here. And tragically, what happens is when a person gets free, but they don't replace it, then the enemy comes back, and it's seven times worse. Now, we have this illustration in church history. I want to remind you or draw your attention to the fact that when the Bible talks about a house, in this case, it can refer to the human body. It can also refer to your home.

11:44 It can refer to your family line. The house of David. It's a term that is used about a nation. The house of Israel. It's a phrase that is used. So when it talks about without the grace of God helping us in Psalms 127, we cannot successfully build the house. It's building so many things. Nations and households and families and individual ministries. So here we have a house that is clean and swept. But because it's not sustained with replacement of divine things, the enemy comes back.

12:25 Jonathan Wesley, Charles Wesley, really gave birth to the Methodist movement. He had a slogan organized to beat the devil, Methodist. They were known for their emphasis on holiness. George Whitefield, at the same time, another great preacher that shook a nation, would preach, and they were known for holiness. And holiness is taken on a bad name. And I believe the enemy has worked hard to defile the name because the term actually represents the beauty of God. It's a term that actually represents that which is wonderful and beautiful about him that makes him different than everything else.

13:11 it's in the beauty of holiness, we are transformed. So here we have this movement that is known for holiness, known for purity. They developed small groups where they literally met together and they would say, all right, did anybody confess sin this week? And they would confess their sin together. They would partner together. It wasn't to mock, it wasn't to shame. It was to partner together so that we could grow in maturity. and he realized the strength of small groups. We live in an hour where independence and separation from people is almost a goal. It's almost considered a virtue, a trait. It's hard to get people to want to go to a store and shop when you can order online and you don't ever have to exchange, have conversation with anybody. It's a spirit. I'm not saying ordering from Amazon is a demon. At least I hope it isn't.

14:12 If it is, I'm horribly tormented. But what I am saying is there's a prevailing influence in attitude, values, and thought that drive us away from connection. And Jesus sent his disciples out two by two because two are better than one. Connection. The value of connection. Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I'm there in the midst. Wherever two or three of you agree as to touching anything in heaven, it will be done on earth. The value of the small group, the connection, the partnership with people, we just do better together. And the Wesley's understood that. They developed this movement of accountability. They developed this movement of partnership, of working together.

14:59 Today that movement is also known, no longer known for holiness. Known for ordaining homosexual pastors. So what happens? If you could imagine this, let's say that this part of the stage represents a jungle, represents a forest. Heavily thick plant growth. You can't live there. And so we go in and we clear out the land. We clear out area. We take care of the soil. We do everything we can so that we can actually start building community here. What happens in revival is you start taking over territory. I call them realms in God. Realms in God. So realms of anointing pertaining to family life. Realms of anointing pertaining to business life. Realms of anointing pertaining to anointing and ministry in the things of the Spirit of God for healing and deliverance.

15:50 These realms become accessible. They were once just recorded in a book, but now they're actually practiced in daily life. And these realms begin to be occupied by a body of believers. and what happens is this territory becomes occupied, let's say, by a house, a house of believers, a family line of believers begin to occupy this thing called holiness. But what happens is when you lose your first love, and this is where it starts, when the passion departs, slowly compromise begins to infiltrate thoughts, appetites, values. You don't jump from fervency into sin. You jump from fervency into a smaller fire, a more dim fire. carelessness, compromise, all those kinds of things are drawn into the complacent heart.

16:51 So the fervency, the first love has as one of its primary functions to keep us in a place where there is no chair for the devil to sit on, keeps us in a place where there is no point of contact, where the enemy has any kind of control or manipulation. Jesus made a profound statement when he said, Satan has nothing in me. He was actually declaring, there's nothing in my past, there's nothing in my present that the enemy has an attachment to where he can in any way manipulate me. We have many people in life, they function well in life. They do well until they get into a certain situation and then they don't do so good. I remember counseling this guy that seemed as normal as anybody could be. But as soon as a woman walked into the room, he would demonically manifest. He had such bitterness for his mother that he couldn't handle being in the room with another female.

17:47 So he was normal. You would never know it until the situation changed. And then suddenly he began to manifest in ways that were unreasonable. He ended up in prison for murder. But the point is that you don't sustain what you've been given through compromise. you lose first love, the compromise stuff starts to happen. What happens is there's now open doors for the enemy to come back. And so the whole Methodist movement that was once known for purity is now known for the opposite of purity. The enemy then occupies that territory and then begins to mock previous triumphs and victories. What happens to healing movements that back off? you look you studied in history filled with affliction it's just what happens.

18:42 When you have victory, it was never meant to be a place where we now pull the plug, turn off the engine, and just coast. It doesn't mean that there's this performance thing that we're supposed to do. It's not like we try to keep ourselves hyped up so that we please the Lord. It's not that at all. It's that we literally are designed by nature. He's given us appetite, designed to go from glory to glory, from glory to glory. You were not designed to do anything but that. The illustrations of scripture, of the talents, of the minas, those were sums of money, and they were used to illustrate the importance, the profound nature, the responsibility of every believer to steward whatever it is God gives us. It doesn't matter if it's insights, if it's relationship, if it's favor, if it's finances.

19:40 It's the fact that we are stewards of something, and it's always stewarding unto growth. Why does he prune us? All growth is rewarded with pruning. All growth is rewarded with pruning because he's interested in increase. He is interested in increase. So we have this unusual illustration that Jesus gives about a person being seven times more tormented after an honest deliverance because they didn't replace what was driven out with kingdom things. So here we are, a church family that are still, after several decades, are still attempting to press into the more of God.

20:40 And the responsibility that we have is to maintain the simplicity of devotion, not make it complicated. It's not entered through performance. It's all grace, but it is a responsibility. I must embrace the moment God's given me, and I must give Him opportunity to develop in me something that will increase to His glory. All right, that went over well. Let's go to Luke chapter nine and let's see if we can make sense out of this. What I wanna do is go to Luke chapter nine. I'm gonna read the first verse of this story, the first two verses of the storyline, and then I'm gonna read the final verse and then we'll fill in the blanks when we're through, all right?

21:36 Luke chapter nine, verse one. and he called his 12 disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. All right? Right after this, he sends them out two by two into their hometowns to do ministry. Now go to verse 17 of chapter 10.

22:04 Then the 70 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. We'll explain this story a bit more in a moment, but I want you to notice that Satan didn't fall like lightning when the 12 were sent.

22:35 It was when the 70 were sent. we'll look at it in a moment. Jesus empowered them to go and do the work of the ministry. And you'll notice he never trained them, taught them how to pull down principalities. He never taught them how to destroy the demonic strongholds in heavenly places. What he taught them was how to use authority and power to bring healing and deliverance to individuals. The man of the Gadarenes is one of my favorite stories in this storyline.

23:16 He was, it was so tormented that when he was finally delivered, the demons went into 2,000 pigs creating deviled ham, and they... It was all hogwash. And they committed suicide. And the whole economy went belly up.

23:57 It just gets worse. It just gets worse. Stop, Bill, stop. So the pigs enter the pigs. The demons enter the pigs. They jump off a cliff, go into the sea, and they die. So whatever he was tormented with was enough to kill 2,000 pigs. So this guy's got issues. He gets set free. It's a great story. He's sitting down, and the Bible records it this way. He's clothed and in his right mind. Clothed, number one, which means he wasn't clothed. He was the naked guy. He was the guy who ate the cats and dogs.

24:33 He was heavily tormented, probably for multiple generations. he's sitting and the Bible says he's clothed and in his right mind and the city was afraid I love that verse because long as the power of God's not present the city is happy with the church as soon as God shows up, it forces the community to make decisions. Not everybody's happy with the decisions.

25:06 So what they did is they actually chased Jesus. Here's this, imagine being on a mission trip to an area and you got one questionable convert. I mean, you know, you saw him set free, but who knows what he's going to be like tomorrow, right? So the city, they show up, all of them, and they chase Jesus and the disciples out of town. and the guy who just got set free is running alongside with them saying Jesus I'm with you those people are weird you should see what they did to me so he's with them and Jesus said you can't come you have to go back and tell them all the great things I've done for you well that reads really well but let's think about it he's been saved for like an hour Thank you. what is his testimony? I'm wearing clothes.

26:03 Sorry about your cats and dogs. That was done in poor taste. I know. I know. Maybe I'll get a sozo afterwards. I don't know. That's his only message. So Jesus sends him back to the community as the president of the Jesus Christ Evangelistic Association. He's the only member. He's the president, vice president, sergeant of arms. He's the whole deal. He's the only member, treasurer. Jesus honestly sends him back to this hostile town that chased Jesus and the disciples out of town. the next time Jesus comes to that region it says every person from every village came to hear him speak. What happened?

26:58 When Jesus brought deliverance to the man I believe the man was the point of contact for the demonic realm. It was the place of agreement. And when the place of agreement was broken by compassion touching a broken person it broke the heavenly alliance. And the next time Jesus came in, the dark cloud that influenced people's values, thoughts, and appetites was gone. Chapter 9. Jesus had sent his disciples out two by two again. Partnerships is what we're going to be looking at in the weeks to come because I feel like we have a very specific mandate and I believe that the Lord with us and thousands and hopefully millions of other believers will see a transformation of our state.

27:53 but he sends the disciples out and they have such extraordinary stories to report and this is the fruit of their success verse 46 then a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be the greatest and Jesus perceiving the thought of their heart took a little child and set him by him and he said to them whoever receives this little child in my name receives me. Whoever receives me receives him who sent me for he who is least among you all will be great. What Jesus sees here is the need for correction and the word for correction, the illustration of correction is actually it was demonstrated in the 15th chapter of John and Jesus says to his disciples but you are pruned already by the word I've spoken to you. Pruning is not the hard circumstances you face in life, I don't think.

28:57 I don't think the whale was pruning for Jonah. It got his attention so he could listen again because it's the word spoken that transforms the life. it's the circumstances that bring us to a place where we're once again hungry to hear we're once again hungry to learn we're once again yielding to whatever God has to say and in that moment he speaks so here we've got the disciples I don't know how this worked this is how I imagine it they were sent out two by two so you got Peter and Andrew looking over at James and John basically saying you know what we saw happen in the town we were sent to was the same as when Jesus went out. I mean, there's obviously no way God would have used you two the way he used us. So in humility, we are the greatest.

29:53 This success brought things to the surface that trials could not bring. Success will bring things up into the open that need to be dealt with that not even your biggest trial can bring out. And so here, their success in ministry actually brought something to the surface where they had this competition, this superiority over each other. And Jesus took his pruning fork, his pruning knife, and here's this branch that's never going to bear any fruit, just got a lot of leaves. And he comes and says, we'll trim this one back to here. You see the child, that's greatness. from that story, we go to verse 49. John answered and said, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow with us.

30:47 But Jesus said to him, do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side. this is how I see it. They're with Jesus and they say, all right, we got it. We are not better than each other, but we are better than them. So we told them, knock this kingdom stuff off because you don't hang out with Jesus enough to be able to do that. We have access to the master's heart. That's why we've been called. And Jesus said something unusual. He didn't say if they're not for us, they're against us. He said if they're not against us, they're for us. there's so many people in your life that are neutral that you think are neutral but the right word and the right action brings them out of neutral into drive, into pushing forward.

31:50 So Jesus prunes yet another vine that is growing wildly and will never bear fruit and that's that Randy Clark puts it best. He says, every stream thinks they are the river. where it would be very easy, Bethel, to think that we are it and we're not. We're a tiny, tiny, tiny part of a big plan that God has in the earth. It's important that we recognize it and value it and celebrate it, but it's never a competition with others. Now we come to the crowning touch of this chapter. It's chapter, verse 51. came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and sent messengers before his face. As they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for him.

32:46 But they did not receive him because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. And when his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them just as Elijah did. Now, if you're going to commit sin, it's good you have a scripture to back it up.

33:09 It works best if you have a biblical example that justifies you partnering with the demon of murder. Do you want us to, what kind of meetings did they have when they were sent out two by two that would make them think, and Jesus goes, oh yeah, good idea. If he just had their nod, they could actually call down fire. What did they experience that make them think they could actually pull this off? Lord, do you want us to come in fire, to come down from heaven and consume them just as Elijah did? He turned and he rebuked them. He said, this is a branch that needs a chainsaw. I'm going to prune this one of the chainsaws. He turned and he rebuked them.

34:05 He says, you don't know what manner of spirit you are of. In other words, you're going to have to go to a demonic realm to get the anointing to do what you want to do. you do not know what manner of spirit you are the son of man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them he went to another village a pruned back an unhealthy branch

34:36 that would only develop hostilities, separation from the very people they were sent to love and serve. Now, if I am formulating a discipleship program, let's say I'm starting a ministry school, the Bill Johnson Ministry School, and all I have is chapter nine, I'm not gonna use his plan because there's too many problems. I mean, let's be honest. They send them out. They come back thinking they're greater than each other. They're successful in ministry. they come back thinking their stream is the river. They come back thinking we have permission to kill people. I just went to Korea two weeks ago. If I came back from Korea and one of my staff met me at the airport and said, Bill, Bill, come here.

35:29 We tried to do an outreach in Red Bluff. And the city father said, you guys can't come here. You're from Bethel. So we've set up bombs all around the perimeter of the city. and if you just give us a nod we'll blow the whole place up at minimum, I will remove them from the ministry team. At minimum, at minimum, at minimum, at minimum, they're not going to be on the team up front here next week. At minimum, I'm going to be calling Donna, say, Donna, we got to do a deep dive into these people's lives for a so-so. We got to bring some inner healing because we got problems. I got staff that want to kill people. I mean, for real, they're asking for permission. What didn't work in my mind takes us to chapter 10, verse 1.

36:29 After these things, the Lord appointed 70 others also. Does your Bible read that? Do you have that in your Bible? After these things, what things? The arguing is two is the greatest. the forbidding other groups to participate, trying to murder entire cities. After those things, Jesus appointed 70 others. Now, I'm not condoning problems and messes. I don't like them any more than anyone. but I'm trying. I'm trying something. I don't want to get nervous about something he's not nervous about. We have to pastorally care for things. He actually created a situation in which what was in their heart would manifest so he could prune.

37:31 If you're not willing to prune, don't empower people. Wow, so good. So good, Lord. But the pruning is always for their benefit to bear more fruit, to become more successful. it was after that we go to verse 17 and the 70 returned with joy saying Lord even the demons are subject to us in your name and he said to them I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven behold I give you authority to trample on serpents, scorpions over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this. Don't find that your point of joy, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

38:30 Jesus didn't say, I saw demonic powers fall from heaven. He didn't say, I saw principalities fall. it said I saw the prince and power of the air that governs over all those principalities I saw he himself through your ministry fall like lightning it was not a gradual floating to the ground it was a destructive force as the powers of darkness fell because they were disempowered and it was disempowered not by just believing believers please catch this it was by companies of people it was the small groups of the Wesleyans. It was the pairs that Jesus sent out. It was the two or three that gather in his name. It was the two or three that make agreement in prayer in his name. It was the partnership together, the intentional joining our faith with the faith of another believer. It's hard to do because you only do it intentionally. You have to actually plan it. You have to purpose it. You have to carry it out even as a discipline. When you see stuff like this, you find out why in Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews calls fellowship a sacrifice. The effect of fellowship, the effect of partnership, the exchange of life, one member to another. I pour into you, you pour into me. It's not just hanging out having coffee, but it's actually growing in Christ together. It's that place of doing life together, of accountability.

40:20 It's in that place. It has to be done, and it's not always convenient. And so it's called a sacrifice. Sometimes sacrifices are pleasurable to me. Sometimes being able to give the offering to the Lord, the sacrifice of this or that, I find great delight in. Other times it's a great, puts a great demand on me. And fellowship has both. There are times where we celebrate to be together, and other times, man, it's just not really convenient, so I'm gonna do something else. is this making any sense to you? It's the intentional partnership of believers, at minimum two, that partner together as to touching this one thing to see not only your neighborhood change, not only the power of anger and addiction that seems to run in that neighborhood, see it change and transform, confronted, not because you yell at the sky, but because you start looking for broken people and you start bringing healing to the realm of demonic agreement where there's no longer agreement that empowers them to rule over the hearts and the minds of men.

41:25 It's the deliverance of a region. How did Satan fall like lightning? It's because 70 ill-qualified people did what Jesus told them to do. Satan himself fell like lightning because 70 said yes. 70. How many are in this room? How many are in the four services today, the five, the service tonight? it's the yes by companies of people that say yes I will be in partnership with other believers to see his kingdom come fully and manifest in broken situations. I will no longer make it about me. I will no longer make it about how I can improve in life. I'm going to make it about pouring myself out so that a city is free. So that a state comes back to its place of stewardship of a movement of young people that came to Christ. It was unusual in living in that period of time. You know, sometimes you don't realize the moment you're in until it's gone.

42:21 And that's what happened during that era. You could almost stand in a crowd and say, peanut butter, and people would get saved. It was the most unusual thing where just the appetite for God was just rampant. It was everywhere. That is still alive. The embers of that fire are still alive. And there must be a people that fan the flame through fervency, not just through the individual yes, which it starts with that, but it's the corporate yes that says, yes, I will partner with this friend at work, with this, my spouse, with this neighbor, and we will pray. God, it's time that you heal our neighborhood. It's time that you bring deliverance, that the addiction that this neighborhood is known for, that it ends. and you pray simple prayers. Read Nehemiah and just look at the prayers. Short but effective prayers that changed multiple nations.

43:20 My prayer is that the Lord would awaken what he put in us when we were saved. And that was a desire to connect with believers. He would awaken the desire, not just to connect for food and fellowship, which I love, but to actually connect with the intentionality of seeing transformation to a city, to a family, to a city, to a state, to a nation. I pray that the Lord would awaken this in you and me and that we would find ourselves functioning beyond our normal function with prayers of faith, prayers of great courage to actually believe that it's possible for California that was known for a wave of missionary involvement in Azusa Street, a wave of spiritual gifts and power through Azusa Street, a wave of the presence of God that touched nations of the world with hundreds of millions of believers in the kingdom because of what happened in Southern California, that that would happen again. But not just one Azusa Street, but that every street would be an Azusa Street. Every place would be a place in which God demonstrates his power, and his purity is left with you.

44:52 I want to ask you a question before I let you go. God has called us to himself, and the most incredible privilege that any one of us can have is to be invited by the almighty God to come into his family. unworthy people called not just to be a servant in the house, but a son and a daughter. And it comes through forgiveness. It comes through repentance. It comes through turning from whatever way of life you've lived, religious or completely vile. Makes no difference. Jesus is the one who qualifies us before this perfect father. And I want to invite anybody in this room that would say, Bill, I don't want to leave here until I know I have found peace with God until I know, until I know what forgiveness is.

45:49 I want to know what it is to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. If that's anybody in this room, please don't leave without making this commitment. I'm going to ask you to do this. I want to ask you just to put your hand in the air until I see you, and I want to make agreement with you that Jesus would completely transform your life from this day on. If that's you, put your hand up quickly. Those of you who are online, watching online, put it in the chat box. Put it in the chat room. Is that right over here? Yes, wonderful. Another one back over here. Wonderful. Anybody else? Over here's another light. I didn't see. Oh, way over here. Wonderful, another one. Yes, thank you, Lord. Another. Another here. Another light here. Wonderful. Amen. Another, yeah, thank you, Lord. If you're online, put it in the chat box.

46:42 One of our pastors will get to you. This is a day that you were born for. It's with purpose. It's with intentionality. It's with destiny. It's with design. We were designed to carry this king of glory into the nations of the world to see them healed. We live on a planet of orphans that are crying out if there's such a thing as a real father. And we have the privilege to illustrate who he is. I'm gonna ask you to stand. I'm gonna ask as well for the ministry team to come. And if you hold your places, it really does help us. And I wanna ask right over here to my left, everybody look over here, to my left is a banner. And I think we had five people that I saw that put your hands up to surrender to Jesus, regardless of what your history is, religious or non.

47:37 I'm gonna ask you to make your way. Maybe if one of you brought them as a guest, come with them, but bring them up here. We have people that we know and trust that I want to pray with you and help you to actually leave with the very thing you have an ache in your heart for. So make your way up to the front and come on up here.