Pray Like This: On Earth as It Is in Heaven - Bill Johnson Sermon | Bethel Church

0:00 So he says pray like this on earth as it is in heaven. From the very beginning it was supposed to be that world's reality is to shape this way. Learning how to live from his realm of dominion towards life is the Christian life. I love you too. I think that's what you said. I hope it is. If it isn't, I still love you.

0:34 Oh my goodness. Good morning. So good to see you. This last week, I had the great privilege of taking a team from here to Springfield, Missouri, to James River Church, one of the, I think, the greatest churches in the, one of the greatest churches in the country. And they've had, in the last five years, they have written testimonies of over 6,000 miracles of healing. 6,000 in five, I think it's five years. And it's just so fun to be there. We had a whole bunch happen this week. In fact, I'm going to show you a little video in a bit of what the Lord did. So that was fun. And then the team came home, and I went on to South Carolina to visit Eric and Candace and the girls, my granddaughters. And it was just fun to be with them. They're doing so good.

1:25 And we rushed home because there was a wedding yesterday. This is the season for weddings, I want you to know. My grandkids, my nieces' nieces, it's like rabbits increasing. and so this is going to be a season for weddings so anyway we we rushed home three flights you know you can't yeah i don't know if you know this but redding is not a hub for anyone so we uh we we rushed to get home to the wedding and uh greenville to chicago chicago to denver denver to redding the denver to redding the plane broke down they had to get a new plane so thankfully they didn't have to build one they actually had one in their repertoire and so we were almost three hours late uh thankfully not three hours late to the wedding but late to the wedding in fact the wedding started while we were in the air and uh so we we landed and uh my secretary works at the united desk uh throughout the week part time and so I text her would you take my luggage we need to get right in the car and drive right to the wedding to the wedding and so we did we hopped in Michael my assistant dropped the car off at the airport for me hid the keys and we just walked right off the plane got in we as Linda and I walked right into the plane and rushed to Grover Ranch that's not right next door. That's down the road to Speck in Anderson.

3:05 We drove in. Of course the wedding was already going but we walked in and they were worshipping. And Anderson says that was done and the ceremony started. We miraculously, it may not seem like a miracle to you but it was a miracle to me. We worked so hard. We got up like 3.30 in the morning East Coast time to get there and worked hard to get there. Anyway, Jesus had mercy on us and And we went and had a wonderful, wonderful wedding. Fun to see. My kids are doing so good. They're doing such a great job in Greenville. And what a great city. I just, I love it so much. This happened a while ago in Dublin. Even though it sounds like an Alfred Hitchcock story, it's true. John Bradford, a Dublin University student, was on the side of the road hitchhiking on a very dark night. And in the midst of a storm. No cars were traveling that night. The storm was so strong he could hardly see a few feet ahead of him.

4:02 Suddenly he saw a car slowly coming towards him and stopped. John, desperate for shelter, without thinking, got into the car. As he closed the door, he realized there was nobody behind the wheel, and the engine wasn't on. The car started moving slowly. John looked at the road ahead and saw a curb approaching. Scared, he started to pray, begging for his life. then just before the car hit the curve a hand appeared through the window and turned the wheel John paralyzed with terror watched as the hand repeatedly came through the window but never touched or harmed him shortly thereafter John saw the lights of a pub appear down the road so gathering strength he jumped out of the car and ran to the pub wet and out of breath he rushed inside, started telling everybody about the horrible experience he just had. A silence enveloped in the pub where everybody realized he was crying and he wasn't drunk. Suddenly the door opened. Two other people walked in from the stormy night. They, like John, were also soaked and out of breath. Looking around, seeing John sobbing at the bar, one said to the other, look, there's that idiot that got into the car while we were pushing it.

5:20 It says it's a true story. Like Abraham Lincoln said, you have to believe everything you see on the internet. In January, I started a series that I'm going to try to finish, not today, but where our heart is, is we just really want to see cities, states, nations transformed. I mean, we're here for that reason. But it really is within reach. The Lord gives gifts and callings. They're irrevocable. what he has put on the state of California, what he's put on Nevada, Oregon, etc. is a mark that he puts. And he uses each of these people groups for a specific purpose. And California, as most of you would know, has lost her way.

6:24 And I believe that it is within the reach of a believing group of people to bring about a transformation, not just politically, because we need more than specific people in office. We need a transformation of heart, of mind, of values. And it's things that you live in. It's things that you carry. And I believe that the Lord is positioning us for that very thing. So that's what I'm wanting to do. I'm going to touch on it today. I did last week. And I don't know how and when I'm going to finish. But it's going to be soon because I have very specific things that I'm not prepared to lead us in today. But I will be when I finally take that last piece. Interestingly, this week I got a text from a friend. I can't tell if he's here or not. He sent me a text, sent me a picture of a woman holding up a sign, a sign with a rise and shine. And it was Isaiah 60. And if you know anything about my personal history, the two most significant encounters I've had with the Lord, one was a Thursday afternoon in May of 1979 I was walking and praying in the back of the church, had my Bible open, I was reading and the Lord began to speak to me out of Isaiah chapter 60 and it honestly marked the rest of my life. What He spoke to me, what He imparted to me in that period of an hour or whatever it was, just rocked my world.

7:55 So when somebody sent me the picture of Isaiah 60 I got excited and was thankful for the reminder. And then, I don't remember, I think it was maybe an hour later, one of the dear friends that I have, one of the officials at the Assemblies of God office in Sacramento, sent me, or left a phone message. And so I looked at the, I wasn't able to answer the phone, or I didn't answer the phone because of where I was. I opened the voicemail and saw in print, Arise Shine. the whole Isaiah 60 passage and I thought confirmation I don't need much more this is good for me and I rejoiced in those verses and pondered because when the Lord speaks to you he gives you, to me it's like an inheritance when he uses the passage of scripture in your life he's giving you an inheritance it's like a cabin in the woods you can go there anytime you want to rest and feed your soul and that's what was happening for me so I wrote him a text I said, hey, thanks for sending that text.

8:58 It was confirmation. I just got another message about an hour earlier. And the same thing, arise, shine, for your light has come. It's Isaiah 60. It's arise, shine, for your light has come. The glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth, deep darkness the people. But his light will appear upon you. His glory will be seen upon you. Nations will come to your light. kings to the brightness of your rising. And it goes on from there. So that's the passage. So I wrote him a text. I said, thank you. That was such an encouraging word for you to send to me. He wrote me back and says, I didn't send you that message. I went, wait a minute, you did too? So I looked at the voicemail and I took a screenshot of it and sent it to him. He laughed. He wrote back. He says, oh, you got that. I meant to send that to somebody else. So Jesus took his treasure and gave it to me.

9:55 and God is merciful in that way. He gave me the very thing I need, but here's the thought. Jesus, who is the light of the world, at one point said, you are the light of the world, and what fascinates me about this storyline that we see all through Scripture is that whatever part of God's nature or person touches you, it changes your capacity to represent him. John chapter 1 says Jesus is the light that enlightens every person that comes into the world. So when you respond to that enlightening that Jesus comes to call you to himself, to salvation, when you respond to that, you then become the light of the world. What touches you changes you. Are you with me? Yes, Bill, I'm with you.

10:47 John chapter 7 says, Jesus says, come to me and drink. Come to me and drink, and out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water. So it's fascinating to me that a drink can become a river. he exponentially increases our capacity to represent him well whenever we receive what he's doing in us.

11:18 Light touches us, you become light. You drink of him, you become a resource of drink. This passage, Isaiah 60, Arise, Shine, I believe so much is a prophetic word for the church. And the reason I don't put this off into the millennium, one of the most dangerous things we can do, theologically, is to take the great promises of Scripture and put them off into a period of time for which we have no responsibility. It's easy to say, well, that'll be in the millennium. That'll be here. That'll be there. That'll be in Israel. That'll be whatever. Stop it. read God's word looking for the promise that draws you into covenant, that draws you into relationship to see his purpose as accomplished in the earth. It's a responsibility. We're supposed to be apprehended by promise.

12:12 I used to sign my letters back when we had actually paper. I don't know. Have you seen paper? I haven't seen paper for a while. Paper. I used to sign prisoner of promise. Apprehended by promise. So the Lord has given us, he has put us on mission. None of us are to live by our own mission. Our mission has to be an expression of his assignment over our life. The commission, the commission. The one that is the most famous or the one that we would think of the most often for good reason is Matthew 28, 19. go into all the world, preach the gospel, disciple nations, teach them what I taught you. I'm with you always. Powerful commissioning that the Lord had for every follower of Jesus.

13:11 My personal conviction, though, is that the greatest commission is actually in the Lord's prayer. And the reason is, I should say the disciples prayer, the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. The reason is, first of all, it's a commission to pray. I think it was John Wesley that said, God does nothing in the affairs of man except in response to prayer. We know that God can do anything and everything on his own, but he has chosen to restrict his activity through the relationship with his covenant people. if I own a house here in Reading and you're renting from me, I can't go into the house whenever I want.

14:00 By law, I have to honor the fact you're renting it. And while you're there, while you're living in that home, I don't have legal access. The Lord made the heavens for himself, and the scripture says, and the earth for man. He comes at our invitation. and this relational journey is one where we learn how to cooperate with him through saying what he's saying, doing what he's doing, releasing his rule, his dominion, his spirit of breakthrough, if you will, into the broken conditions of humanity. We've been invited and assigned to that. We don't have a plan B. There's only plan A. And so Jesus brings us into that role in that great prayer that he taught his disciples. First of all is the commission to pray, but secondly to pray specifically. Your kingdom come, kingdom, king's domain. Your dominion come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

15:02 So what we have here is the responsibility to bring the reality of that world into this one until this one looks like that one. And we're going to look at this further when I do kind of the final stretch on this particular series. I'll try to get a little bit more specific. But the mandate is and hear me please, that's not a theory. That's not a command to keep us busy with Christian activities until He decides to come. It's an assignment to bring change. It's an assignment. He does not command us to pray something that he's not ready to answer. He's not interested in keeping us busy. He drafts us into keeping us purposeful, effective.

16:04 And the prayer, the mandate is on earth as it is in heaven. This started actually in Genesis chapter one when Jesus, when God creates Adam and then Eve, And in this original mission, he says, be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth.

16:31 Be fruitful is to be productive in your work. He didn't create a garden for them to sit in hammocks all day and do nothing. They were actually supposed to manage and steward what God put under their charge. and being responsible is one of the forgotten sources of joy in the kingdom when the steward of the talents and the minds, when they were faithful, enter into the joy of your master.

17:08 Responsibility, being productive and fruitful, not as somebody under stress, but under delightful service, actually gives access to a Roman measure of joy you can't access any other way. Enter into the joy of your master. So in that responsibility of entering to the joy of the Master, there's a transformative effect. so he says pray like this on earth as it is in heaven Matthew 16 whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven.

18:11 Whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. From the very beginning, it was supposed to be that world's reality is to shape this one. Paul said, what you can see is temporal. It's temporary. It won't last forever. What you can't see is eternal. It's the reason faith is anchored in the unseen. because it's too superior to be based on something that will burn. faith is anchored in the reality of the presence of God, the purpose of God, the voice of God.

18:50 Learning how to live from his realm of dominion towards life is the Christian life. So when he tells us to pray on earth as it is in heaven, he's giving us the mission, which he gave in the first place in Genesis 1. be fruitful be productive multiply, have children who have children who have children increase your capacity to manage subdue the earth that implies there's something of a dark nature outside the boundaries of this garden and your assignment is to increase in number until you can bring everything on the planet under the dominion of God it was always intended to do it through those made in his image God could do it in a heartbeat, but the design was he wants those made in his image to look like Jesus.

19:43 Responsibility, faithfulness, discipline, these kinds of things where there's this relational journey where we develop trust and become dependent on him. All of this is what conforms us into the likeness of his son Jesus, and that's the plan. This life is school. the length of this life is considered a vapor in comparison to eternity here and gone just like that and it's that vapor it's that temporary assignment to planet earth to this period of time that temporary assignment is school for eternity Jesus Christ became a curse so that you could reign with him forever. the assignment of us living in heavenly places, even as believers right now, is to learn the realities of that world.

20:47 it's not pretend, it's not imagination, it's a reality that's greater than everything we can taste and see. And learning to live from that is the invitation for every believer. And in that experience, a couple things happen. Number one is you increase in your appetite for heaven where nothing you see would ever draw you away into an inferior value system.

21:19 But the absence of that affection, that anchor of the soul into eternity, so many things become appealing that have really no significance or value. So he draws us into this reality, not because we're not to enjoy this life, but so that we can enjoy it effectively and bring transformation. He has a plan, and he has a purpose for California, and I want us to be an intentional part of that purpose and re-engage as much as we know how with that assignment.

21:57 So he gives us this prayer, this assignment, subdue the earth. bring what you're responsible for under the influence of the presence of God and the word of God Isaiah 60, if you would turn there, please. We're going to read a couple verses, I think four or five. And then I'm going to actually play a video for you. So it's not a video game, so don't get excited here.

22:33 I'm going to let you watch some testimonies of what Jesus did this last week. but Isaiah 60 arise shine I remind you there's not another light coming arise shine for your light has come the glory of the Lord is risen upon you for behold darkness shall cover the earth deep darkness the people that's a mental depression but the Lord will arise over you and his glory will be seen upon you my goodness I I'm so excited for that the fulfillment of that verse. His glory will be seen upon you. There have been times throughout church history where the glory of the Lord has been visibly seen. We have had situations, occasions where the glory of the Lord was visibly manifest upon the people of God. Over this building we've had people see the flames of God's glory coming out of the roof of this building in times past.

23:30 I look for him to put that mark of presence. Often when I pray for people in the last year or so. The thing to me is the greatest prayer I can pray is I say, God, mark them with your glory. Mark them with the manifested presence of King Jesus. for behold darkness will cover the earth deep darkness the people but the Lord will arise over you and his glory will be seen upon you Gentiles or nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising I believe so strong in the go of the gospel but I believe in the come of the gospel and this one proclaims that they shall come to you in the same way that you go to a garden to pick vegetables or to a fruit tree to pick fruit or to a river to drink water. So people are coming to the people of God, those in covenant with him because there's something to eat. There's something to participate in that fulfills the longing of their soul. I believe it's the reason Jesus called the church the city set on a hill.

24:41 Cities don't pick up and move. People go to the city. And so there's the go of the gospel into all the world preach the gospel, but there's also the come. And this has to do with the glory of the Lord marking God's people. So verse 4 in the scriptures here with 4 and 5 Lift up your eyes all around and see. They all gather together to come to you. Your sons will come from afar. Your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant. Your heart will swell with joy. Look at the first phrase of verse 4, lift up your eyes. The first phrase of verse 5, then you shall see. Lift up your eyes, then you'll see. A lot of people don't see. Listen carefully. When you were born again, God gave you the capacity to see. John chapter 3 says, unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. It's a perception of the dominion of God that comes with conversion. But the scripture teaches often, lift up your heads, lift up your eyes.

25:48 And here he says, lift up your eyes, then you'll see. There's many folks, believers, who have their eyes focused on everything that's wrong and everything that's not going well. And they think that they're being responsible when actually they're bearing their faith, they're bearing their gift under a bushel, they're hiding the very thing that God caused them to thrive in. Arise, shine. There's no mixture in that commandment. Arise and shine. Because of what he's done, I have a responsibility to arise and to shine. Why? Because my light came. This responsibility is a part of the transformational influence. and there's so many ways that we represent him obviously with kindness. Justice is a huge thing that I think we're going to see play out in the years to come.

26:42 It's going to be a very significant part of our intentionality to bring divine justice into broken situations. There's the whole character issue. People can see the nature of Christ and who we are but one of the other ways is through miracles. We're going to see a number of testimonies. testimonies prophesy if you have any of the conditions that are testified about we're going to pray for you when this video is over and if you just want to stand up out of faith you can stand up when it's given but we're going to pray for you at the end so watch the video