When You Pray, Heaven Comes - Bill Johnson Sermon | Bethel Church

0:00 I believe the primary mandate over our lives is to pray on earth as it is in heaven, to cry out for the will of God be done in this situation. This is equipping time for the transformation that takes place out there. Thank you.

0:29 How many Brazilians do we have here? We've been invaded. It's beautiful. It's good to see you. I'm glad we get to do this together.

0:50 The world missions thing is really a big deal. I feel like one of the most important things we can do. We've got two things before us today. this youth camp thing is I love giving into that every year to help some of our young people get to camp because it's there's such a divine encounter that takes place so that marks them for the rest of their life and then of course the world missions one of the things that I I really want to emphasize to us as a house as a family I think it's really important to be able to to choose to support on a continual basis things for which we get no personal benefit.

1:33 It's important that we think in terms of nations, that we think in terms of people groups outside of how we benefit. Because the church in America largely gives, it's generous, but gives for ourselves, for our children, our youth, as we should, for our buildings, all the stuff that we do. and it all has purpose, but I found in my own life to have on a regular basis, since I was, before I was ever married, just to have that regular monthly support for world missions. Does something for how you think, because your heart follows your dollars, and it's important that we think in terms of nations. So I really want to encourage you, next week will be an important offering.

2:22 This guy said, he says, I got problems. He said, every time I go to bed, I think there's somebody under it. How many of you remember as a child, you thought some alligators, snakes, something would be under your bed? Nobody else, it was just me. All right, well, I did. I'm confessing. He says, I think there's someone under my bed, and I'm scared. I think I'm going crazy. A doctor says to him, just put yourself in my hands for a year. Come and talk to me three times a week. we should be able to get rid of those fears. He says, well, how much do you charge? He says, $80 a visit. He said, I'll sleep on it. Six months later, the doctor met him on the street and said, why didn't you come to see me about all those fears you were having? He said, well, $80 a visit, three times a week for a year is over $12,000. My neighbor cured me for free. I was so happy I saved all that money, I went and bought a truck.

3:18 Is that so? With a bit of an attitude. how did your neighbor cure you? He told me to cut the legs off my bed. Ain't nobody under there now. That's so dumb. That's so dumb. Oh, well, that's what you get today. Sorry.

3:39 Grab your Bibles, if you would. Open to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6. I'm going to cover one of the most familiar portions of Scripture, probably for the church around the world, and I'm going to talk to you a little bit about what is referred to often as the Lord's Prayer. I've told you before, I think it's a poor name for the Lord's Prayer, for this prayer, because in it is the confession of sin, and he had no sin. Jesus had no sin to confess. So he was giving us model prayer. I don't even think he was trying to give us a prayer that we'd memorize to pray, although I do that constantly. Sometimes I pray that prayer many times literally in the middle of the night, and I enjoy praying this prayer.

4:38 But mostly I think it's a pattern for prayer. but the reason I mention this I don't think it's I've said in the past I don't think it's it should be called the Lord's prayer it should be called the Disciples Prayer but it just hit me it's not even a good Disciples Prayer because it starts with our Father it's a son or daughter's prayer Jesus said in John 16 he said in that day you will ask me nothing most assuredly I say whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you think about this I'm not saying it's incorrect to pray to Jesus I'm just Jesus made a point here in that day you won't come to me and ask me for anything.

5:34 In that day, you will ask the Father, and whatever you ask for, he will give you. What's the difference? There's a difference between coming to the Savior, where your identity is, a sinner saved by grace, and coming to a Father, where your identity is a son or daughter. our prayers change with our identity. The effectiveness of our prayers change with identity.

6:05 Jesus actually works to correct something in prayer in this particular prayer where he starts by saying, it's vain for you to repeat a prayer over and over and over again, thinking that with many words you're going to be heard. and he actually tries to bring correction to that because that's what you do when you don't believe that a father is watching over you. many repeated prayers. There's a way of thinking that violates this sense of son, father, daughter, father. And that is that if I pray a prayer enough times, he'll hear me. He's not the caretaker of an orphanage. who promises to give you a coat in the winter, a cot to sleep on, and three hot meals a day.

7:02 He's a father who's actually interested in the inner workings of your heart, your soul, what you were born for, what you dream of. And it's this father that we are talking to in this prayer, and he gives us very specific ways to pray that bring about real effectiveness. I want to start with verse 5. I'm going to major on verse 7 later if we have time at the end. But let's start with verse 5 of chapter 6. When you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they like to pray standing in synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have the reward. It's important to recognize prayer has a reward, either from people or from him. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

8:07 This is a very significant thought that I want to make sure we have established before we get into this prayer. Where is the Father? He's in the secret place. where is his attention? It's to the prayers prayed in secret. What does that mean? It doesn't mean you have to go into your clothes closet and close the door. It means that what you want to do in meeting with the Father, it's a relational journey. You shut down all the exterior noise, everything that competes for your affection, everything that competes for your attention. Why? Because to build the identity as a son or a daughter with a heavenly Father isn't done in busyness. It's done in focused time with the Father. Something is built in the secret place, the quiet place, the alone place that you can't build anywhere else.

9:02 I'm thankful that we have the privilege of praying in the craziness of life, in the busyness of life. I'm just saying there's a muscle developed, if you will, a muscle developed in our soul about identity as a son and a daughter that requires quiet before Father. The discovery of who he is changes how we pray. The discovery of who we are changes how we get answers to prayer. And everybody in this room, you were actually designed, created, to pray for effect, to pray for results. He never assigned us to pray to keep us busy. He's not looking to increase our spiritual activities so that we feel significant. The purpose of prayer is to release His hand into the broken situations of earth.

9:56 if I own a home in this town and you're renting from me, even though I own the title deed to the house, even though I have the key, the master key to open the door, I cannot come into that house without your invitation, without your permission. The scripture says he made the heavens for himself, but he made the earth for man. And he created this design, if you will, of this co-laboring role of the one who's seated in the heavenlies and yet he's invited us to carry his heart into the earth and pray. And when we pray, things happen here that otherwise only happen in heaven. Amen. Amen.

10:49 Amen. And your Father who is in the secret place, your Father who sees in secret, that tells you where his attention is, will reward you. I hear people say, I'm not in this for reward. You will be. I understand the reaction as we hate this idea of manipulating God for personal gain. I get that. But he is a father. again, he's not the caretaker of an orphanage. He's a father who actually looks for opportunities to give rewards. I remember when my oldest, Eric, turned 40, I thought as he was approaching his 40th birthday, I thought 40 should be significant. I think I'm now going to make a rule that on the 40th birthday, each of my kids get a very special gift and their spouses.

11:46 So when they all turn 40, They all got a very special gift. Why? Because I'm a dad. And by nature, we reward. We look for excuses. It's not that I need them, but I'll make one up if I need to. Verse seven, when you pray, do not use vain repetition as the heathen do, for they think they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them, for your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask. So please recognize here, we are talking about repeated prayers that are connected to what our needs are. Make that distinction in your thinking. For me to pray for God to provide food for me and to labor in prayer and to cry out to God for food is a vain prayer because he's a father.

12:53 I don't know if this makes sense to you. For me to labor in prayer for what he's already promised is a waste of energy. How about laboring in prayer for what might be possible? We'll look at that a little more in a few minutes. So here he says, it's vain for you to repeat, repeat over and over and over again, because your father knows what you have need of. So he's not just one who is attentive to need, he's attentive to desires, and that's what we'll get into in a moment. But let's go through this prayer. It starts verse nine, in this manner, therefore pray, our Father who is in heaven. This identity of God as our Father is where we start in this. this issue is so critical that the first Adam, Adam and Eve, when they were in the garden, the serpent came to tempt them, and the temptation, first temptation was not to partake of the forbidden fruit. The first temptation was to question what God said, because the serpent came in and said, has God said? Jesus is the last Adam. He's not just the second Adam. He's the final, the last Adam. And when the serpent came to him after his 40 days of fasting, he said, if you're the son of God, turn the stone into bread. So the two primary temptations that encompass everything we face in life are represented in these two temptations given to Adam and Eve and then to Jesus. The first one is to question what God has said. The second one is to question who you are, if you're the Son of God.

14:37 And interestingly, it was the last thing Jesus heard the Father audibly speak as he came up out of the water in water baptism, you are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. What God says over your life is the target of the enemy. Don't be shocked when the promise over your life is what receives the greatest opposition. God wants to reveal the strength of his word, number one, but number two, he wants to reveal himself as the rewarder. When you are faced with an option, do I believe this word or do I believe an alternate reality? The reward comes for those who stick to his word. So the second temptation, the one that Jesus faced was if you're the son of God, This identity as sons and daughters of God is absolutely essential because you think different, you pray different, your expectations, your dreams are different.

15:35 People who are raised in a household with unlimited resources naturally think different than those who live with lack. we live in a household, regardless of what your personal finances are like, we live in a household of unlimited resource.

16:02 The revelation of a father in a person's life helps to establish identity, purpose, destiny, and an awareness of unlimited resources. It's the effect of a father on a soul. And I realize a lot of people were raised in horrible homes, and this whole concept of fatherhood, you react to it. Forgive me if this sounds cruel, but get over it. He's a father, and he's better than you think. So adjust your experience to what he has provided for you. I don't mean in any way to be rude. I just mean, wake up to the fact he's not going to change his identity because you had a bad past.

16:51 All of us have been disappointed. All of us have been hurt. All of us have experienced rejection. But he comes to us as a loving father to give us a full healing embrace and recalibrate our souls to what fatherhood looks like. By the time I get to the last service, I'll figure out a better way to say that. But you're stuck with this one, so all right. All right, so in this manner, therefore, pray, our Father in heaven. I've been learning the last few years the importance to live with a continuous awareness of heaven itself. Awareness of eternity is probably the greatest antidote to stupidity. awareness of eternity awareness of heaven makes you allergic to stupidity That really was a good point, Bill.

18:05 It was better than their response, but it's all right. It's all right. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Interesting. The name of the Lord is the name in which every knee will bow and confess. Jesus is Lord. The name is more than a title. It's actually a dwelling place. Did you know the name of the Lord is a tower that we actually run into and we hide, we're safe. And that when we come to the Father, we actually come in the name of Jesus. That doesn't mean I add in Jesus' name at the end of my prayer.

18:40 That's not a bad way to pray. It's just that doesn't mean my prayer was in Jesus' name. To pray in Jesus' name is to pray in his identity as Jesus would pray to the Father. is to carry what he carries to the Father. To pray in his name is actually to pray with his authority, not our own. We are not independent of him. We are completely dependent upon him. But in saying that, aggressiveness takes place in that posture of prayer because we know whose we are and who we are. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed, revered, celebrated is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

19:34 Here's a pattern that we see throughout the scripture. The desire of God for the nature of his world to shape the values and the realities, the things that we experience in this world. His world has no lack. His intention for you is to have no lack. His world has no torment. His desire for us is to have no torment. see because there's no torment there i actually have not only a privilege but i have the responsibility to bind torment that i run into in my life in my place of influence to bind that torment to the authority of scripture that says i have authority over all powers of darkness The scripture declares that we will tread upon the lion and the cobra and all the powers of darkness, all the spiritual forces of wickedness.

20:38 We have the responsibility and the privilege to bind that demon to the contract given in blood in scripture that says, I've been given authority. So if you buy a car, you decide not to make the payment, the bank is going to say, we have a binding contract. In other words, we're going to hold you to the contract. So when that torment exists in somebody's life, We come in the authority, in the name. We're in this name. We're in a name that's above all names. And we come to that torment. We say, I'm going to hold you to the contract that says, I am a delegated authority from the King of Kings. And my responsibility is to now hold you to the contract that says, I have authority of you. And it is my privilege and responsibility to trample on the powers of darkness.

21:24 In his name. so our father who art in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven your kingdom come that's interesting to me because in matthew 6 i'm to pray for the kingdom to come but in matthew 10 i'm to announce it's already come In Matthew 6, it says to pray for the kingdom to come, but in Matthew 10, it says to announce. Why? Because prayer is supposed to precede decrees.

22:00 Prayer is supposed to precede the radical actions that attract the hand of God into broken situations. We pray and intercede, but we don't stop at the end of the prayer. There must be actions. There must be specific things we do in obedience to the Lord that release the hand of God. I'm not saying God is somehow tied to what I pray.

22:27 It's a messy area. Let me just put it this way. We pray and he does stuff. and why would he inspire me or direct me or tell me to pray in a specific way if he was going to do it anyway The absence of prayer sets the stage for the absence of the will of God manifested.

22:58 What is his desire on earth as it is in heaven? that's not a figurative, you know, that's not speech that's to inspire us. It's a military given mandate to children because it's children that pray our father on earth as it is in heaven, on earth as it is in heaven. We know there's no torment there. So we bind that here to the word of God. There's no cancer there. There's no disease of any kind. There's no poverty. there's no hatred, there's no resentment. All that stuff has been dealt with there. It remains the pattern, the blueprint for this earth.

23:46 Everything that we do in life is to be inspired by the reality of that world. We know what exists here that's not there. We know, for example, we know there's no addiction there. We know there's no disease. We know that that stuff doesn't fill heaven. We know that that's true. So we instinctively know what to bind, what to rebuke in this world.

24:09 But in Luke's gospel, he says, when a house is clean and swept, it needs to be replaced. What was driven out needs to be replaced with, if I can use this term, godly furniture. Replace what was removed from the house. Replace it with right things. Because when it doesn't, the enemy comes back seven times worse. So what's the point? Is we know what binding is like, but we don't always know what to loose. Because he says you bind here, what's bound there, and you loose here, what's already loose there.

24:44 See, it's a replacement. It's like I'm getting rid of something, but I can't just get rid of something that's wrong. I actually need to replace it with something that's right. Why? Because when the right thing occupies a space, it can't be re-inhabited by the enemy. Is this making sense? Our prayer lives actually have that kind of responsibility to bind here what's bound there and to lose here what's loose there. so we know what to bind but without understanding experience if you will an ongoing increase of personal experience awareness of eternity awareness of heaven it's that experience that helps us to understand what is available to be released into the earth through our prayer lives Jack Taylor, our wonderful, wonderful friend who's now in heaven, but he would come here and minister and I would minister with him in different places around the country, around the world actually.

25:53 A great, great man of God. He would send me notes every week and sometimes daily just to encourage. He just took it on himself to be an encouragement to me. And goodness, I just owe him so much. Great Southern Baptist pastor and teacher, author. He taught on this passage, once your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And he told us the sentence structure in the original language actually lends itself to this interpretation. So let me explain it. He said, it can be translated like this. kingdom of God come will of God be done now it's not God being directed by us it is us being convinced of his intention and yielding our voice and the authority he's given to us to partner with him to release his hand into the broken situations of life that he has already determined to repair. He's already revealed the will of God through Jesus. Read the gospels.

27:05 He never ran into a storm that he blessed. he never ran into a problem like that and says well just bring destruction it'll teach them to pray that's how the church sometimes does it but that's not how he did it Thank you. That just felt good to say, I don't know. On earth as it is in heaven. So here's this prayer, and I oftentimes will wake up in the night, and I pray this throughout the night, and I'll lay there in bed, and I just pray, kingdom of God, come.

27:45 Will of God be done on earth in my home, on earth in my body. on earth, in my family, on earth, in this city, as it is in heaven. It needs to be prayed, it needs to be declared, and then followed with radical obedience. Because in Matthew 12, 28, when the person gets delivered from evil spirits that are oppressing and dominating their life, Jesus says at the end of that deliverance, the kingdom came upon you. So what does it look like for the kingdom to come? It comes whenever you see somebody set free, whenever you see somebody healed, whenever you see somebody converted, they come to Christ. The kingdom has actually come. The reality of the dominion of Almighty God has come in that moment. And every time there's one of these kinds of supernatural events that take place, the Bible describes in John chapter 2 that the glory of the Lord is actually manifested in and through that miracle.

28:49 How do you think the glory of the Lord is supposed to fill the earth? It's not just because we sit in church every week. as important as this can be, this is equipment, equipping time for the transformation that takes place out there. It's the fact that you, me, as the people of God, take this thing, this mandate, we've been given, I believe the primary mandate over our lives is to pray on earth as it is in heaven. To cry out for the will of God, be done in this situation that reveals nothing but chaos, but it's not your heart. give us this day our daily bread. That's the daily needs. It's interesting to me, he knows what we have need of before we ask, but he still wants me to pray it.

29:43 He just doesn't want me to approach him as a slave owner or as an orphanage caretaker, but as a father who's confident. If my kids, if I find out, Even as adults, if I find out that my kids don't have food, that's a no-brainer. I'm going to do anything I can to give food to them.

30:05 What I enjoy is paying attention to their dreams. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. I like approaching this, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. So my forgiveness is connected to my willingness to forgive anyone who hurts or offends me. Here's the approach. I like this as a daily prayer. Why? Because daily I wake up with a commitment, God, I refuse to live under offense. I am going to live as a forgiver. I will not be unoffended. I'm going to be unoffendable today. and it's that daily covenant before the Lord that says I am not going to be one that's going to be pointing fingers in my thinking against other people. forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

31:02 Lead us not into temptation, which is a strange prayer when the scripture teaches us that it's impossible for him to tempt us. So why would he have that in the prayer? Lead us not to temptation. I don't know. There's probably a better answer, but I know what it means for me. For me to come to him and say, God, don't lead me into temptation. I am saying, God, you know where I'm vulnerable. You know where I got blind spots. Blind spots are things you don't see. You know where I have things that are broken in me that I'm completely unaware of. You know that. You know where I could be made vulnerable to things I have no grace for. Please protect me from those things. All I'm doing is I'm acknowledging I have the capacity for stupid choices, and I don't want them. So I'm asking God, I am completely dependent upon you.

31:57 Any mistakes I made, I will never blame you. But I am asking you, please, in your grace and your mercy, keep me from the things that I have no grace for.