Do thanksgiving and joy affect mental health? Bill Johnson teaches how thanksgiving and joy are keys to mental and emotional health. Staying thankful reminds us of God’s goodness and fills us with hope for the future. Joy comes from hope. Is there anything in our lives that God does not already have a solution for?
um as i have mentioned the last few
times i have uh spoken that i have felt
at least for me uh it’s a season of
review um especially with the unusual
nature of the last 18 months
that i have felt for me personally it’s
just really really critical just to
review what got us here
and um
last let’s say it would be december of
2019
i had
an unusual uh experience with the lord
um
i’ve had i’ve had him speak to me in the
night where he’s he’s awakened me with
his voice twice
so what i don’t want to do is create a
picture that i have these encounters in
our every other month uh there’s like
five in 50 years so you do the math
that’s not real common but it happens
but this particular time it was instead
of a voice
coming to me it exploded within me i
don’t know how to describe that but it’s
what happened
i i was
dead asleep
and i i was awakened with a thought
in my sleep which i don’t think in my
sleep i i sleep
and i intentionally ignore anything
important so that i can sleep i
i just do
so
but i was awakened with this thought
a walled city without gates is not
entirely safe
just out of new world that’s not even a
thought i would have come up with
certainly not for that time of night a
wall city without gates and it startled
me and and i was awakened and i i laid
there for i don’t remember now i’m gonna
guess it was now from anywhere from an
hour and a half to two hours i laid
there wide awake pondering what in the
world just happened and what is he
trying to say
a walled city without gates
is not entirely safe
50 years ago 48 years ago
when benny and i were married i remember
soon after we were married i had i had
purposed to study two specific books in
the bible and to give myself to study
those two books for an extended period
of time what that means for me is i will
read a book like ephesians is one of
them i will read it and i’ll read it
i’ll read it i’ll read it every day
ongoing for six months i may read other
things too but i keep that constant in
my in my diet so to speak
but the second book that i had given
myself to for at least six months it was
it was somewhere i’m guessing between
six and eight months now
it was the book of nehemiah well
nehemiah is about rebuilding walls
around the city of jerusalem
ezra is about rebuilding the temple
and those two books together give us a
profound picture of salvation where the
holy spirit comes to dwell in us and
then he begins to rebuild those parts of
our life that have been broken down and
have been destroyed and uh and so it’s
just a great great picture so i was
familiar with the language of walls and
gates but i certainly didn’t have
didn’t have that in my mind so a walled
city without gates is not entirely safe
i want you to go with me to isaiah 60
and we’re going to take two portions of
scripture
it’s not always
smart to take a a biblical theme from
one book to the other
because sometimes they don’t translate
well but i do believe
that what i’m going to share with you
today i’ll have several references
and it it’s a constant theme old and new
testament so i um
i’ll let you figure that out on your own
all right
so
another interesting experience i had
with the lord was in may it was a
thursday afternoon of 1979
i was in weaverville i was walking in
the back of the sanctuary praying it was
my custom to just walk i find i don’t
fall asleep when i walk and pray so
it’s a great great
thing yeah
so i i was walking in the back and i
remember i was reading out of isaiah 60.
and i think that’s just where i happened
to be in my in my reading for that
time
and the lord began to speak to me i had
a real encounter with him out of isaiah
60.
one of the most profound two most
profound encounters of my life one was
word centered the second was the middle
of the night at a divine encounter with
with the power of god
and but this one was word centered and
it has shaped my thinking and my values
ever since that thursday afternoon in
may of 1979.
it was the first 19 verses what i want
you to do is we’re just going to take a
phrase i i’m not going to teach out of
this chapter
i just want to take you to a phrase and
this phrase is what i began to ponder
you got to remember now i’m laying in
absolute pitch dark and i’ve got this
phrase
a walled city without gates not entirely
safe so i’m trying i’m pondering verses
that i know about this subject to see if
if i can get some help understanding
what the lord is speaking to me
and uh and my mind went to this because
this is one of the passages that would
be in my repertoire so to speak verse 18
violence will no longer be heard in your
land neither wasting nor destruction
within your borders here’s the part that
came to mind but you will call your
walls salvation
and your gates praise
you will call you walls salvation and
negates praise back to the thought a
walled city without gates is not
entirely safe this is very significant
and i’ll tell you why
a walled city without gates is not
entirely safe your wall shall be called
salvation that’s what god does for you
your gate should be called praise that’s
what you give to him
the strength of our life is not based
only on what he’s done for us it’s all
based on because of what he’s done for
us
but there’s a responsibility
and this statement isn’t to breed a
paranoia a fear about not being safe
it’s a summons into responsibility
it’s that we have we have a role to play
in our own safety many people
face continuous ongoing spiritual
battles
because of their own compromise
and they they actually through their
compromise welcome into their life
ongoing conflict that they’re not born
for they’re not designed for and
actually dislocates them like a
arm out of a socket it dislocates them
from their purpose and their design
and they are constantly aware of
spiritual warfare so they think that’s
the nature of their life and that’s not
the nature of their life
if this were a walled city figuratively
speaking this this sanctuary
you can have people outside throwing
arrows and shooting you know throwing
spears at the walls we would never know
it not if we’re in here and we’re and
we’re safe
and there are things that happen in the
walled city so to speak there are things
happen that happen in the life of a
person who has gotten
their life healed up the broken parts
restored the places of strength that
used to be weakness or no strength
there are times where we sit in the
middle of intense conflict and we’re
completely unaware that there’s conflict
it’s not denial it’s just
there’s a strength that surrounds us
that
that doesn’t force us to remain devil
conscious all the time
so here’s this thought your walls
are called salvation
god saved me that’s what he did for me
the gates are called praise
then my mind went quickly to
another passage in revelation
i forget no i think it’s chapter 20 but
it could be it’s in the last three
you’ll find it
it says it’s talking about the heavenly
jerusalem
chapter 21 thank you in the heavenly
jerusalem
wall city with gates and it says and
your gates will be made out of one solid
pearl
now if ever there was a weird
metaphor in the bible
it’s got to be that a pearl
is a gate
a pearl is a gate so we’ve got this
gigantic pearl 12 of them to the city of
jerusalem
those pearls are gates
so now you have to stop and think all
right now how are pearls formed
they’re formed out of irritation
oh so the gate of praise the gate isn’t
formed
because i gave praise
for a raise
at work
it’s that in the middle of difficulty i
gave praise
then you start pondering about this
nature of this
gate first of all we’re talking about
safety now so we’ve got these a walled
city we’ve got these gates that are now
in place they’re called gates of praise
those gates of praise
are two things number one they provide
protection from the onslaught of the
enemy
that what he intends to use against us
is now removed from his hands
the weapons of the enemies are destroyed
through thankfulness
it actually removes the tool that he was
going to use to destroy it removes it
from him because now you’re playing with
god’s tools
now we’re playing with god’s instruments
that gate
psalms 24 lift up your heads or ye gates
that the king of glory may enter in so
here’s a gate that the lord can come in
through and the enemy can’t
the same gate invites one and repels the
other
praise
go with me to thessalonians first
thessalonians 5 and we’ll
spend the rest of our time in this
chapter
that last statement i made about
thanksgiving thankfulness
i kind of butchered it and i’m going to
butcher it just a little bit more
but i i want to i want to give it give
the statement of context because if you
understand this
i i didn’t prepare it to have these
scriptures ready so you can you can look
them up on your own but there’s this
interesting dialogue that paul has on
two occasions about food and what we’re
to eat
in one of those occasions he he says he
says hey if your neighbor is sacrificing
some animal to this demon god
and you know that they sacrifice that
meat to the demon god and they know that
you know don’t eat the meat
and he says it’s not because it will
harm you it’s because it’ll violate
their conscience
but then he goes on and says but if they
don’t know then eat it
elsewhere paul says
all foods that you receive with prayer
and thankfulness
is sanctified
follow the logic here
so here’s this big chunk of meat
my neighbor just offered it to some god
he doesn’t know that i know but i
watched
and then he invited me over for dinner
and i saw these demon powers surround
him as he offered this offering and i
know that the enemy wants to destroy me
through this that i’m about to eat
and i receive it into my life
and i give thanks
my thankfulness just sanctified
what was previously
empowered by the enemy to bring
destruction to my life
did that make sense
thankfulness sanctifies so when you’re
in the middle of a horrific situation
thankfulness in the middle of that it’s
not about chasing the devil around it’s
simply about turning our heart towards
the celebration of who god is in every
situation
and it anchors our soul into that that
absolute victory that has been promised
to to each one of us
thankfulness so here we’ve got this
portion of scripture that
um
i remember in fact just look at verse 16
rejoice always
pray without ceasing and everything give
thanks
i remember reading that as a young
pastor in weaverville days i remember
reading that verse like man i could
spend the rest of my life every day the
rest of my life on those three verses
and i would have my hands full i would
have a full-time job just learning those
three simple statements
say it with me rejoice always
pray without ceasing
and everything give thanks
let’s say it together rejoice always
pray without ceasing
in everything give thanks say it again
rejoice always
pray without ceasing
in everything give thanks
i’m i’m not sure that
that we
see the effect
of thankfulness on the human heart
or thankfulness
on the spiritual atmosphere or
surroundings around our life
there there is a sanctifying a cleansing
a purifying work that takes place simply
by thankfulness why number one
thankfulness is automatically a position
of humility
thankfulness is not us dictating
something to god or to somebody else
it’s coming in low in honoring him
for what he has done
thankfulness
is uh
is connected to the acts of god the
works of god
uh says of of israel and moses it says
israel was acquainted with the acts of
god but moses was acquainted with his
ways
israel with the acts of god
moses with his ways
there’s an interesting graduation in
in perception and experience in those
two areas
many people experience the works of god
but they don’t know anything about his
nature
about his person
and all the revelation or experiences of
the works of god are invitations to
discover who he is
moses
prayed this prayer in exodus he said let
me know
let me know your ways let me know your
your works your ways that i might know
you in other words
god i want to see what you’re like
because i want to follow that invitation
into relationship into encounter
in other words we’re not gathering
information for a test
we’re not we’re not gathering
information to pass the quiz
we’re we’re seeing glimpses of what he’s
like
so that we can take each glimpse as the
invitation or open door opportunity to
come into relationship
when he revealed himself to abraham
as the provider jehovah jireh it wasn’t
to make him more well-rounded in his
theological approach to god’s resource
he was revealing himself as the one he
was about to provide for him instead of
him sacrificing isaac there was a la ram
caught in the thicket the point was god
his provider just revealed himself
that provision was to be experienced
thanksgiving will take you places
nothing else can take you will take you
places in god
so here he says rejoice always
pray without ceasing everything give
thanks
as i was
laying there again i’m i’m making
reference to something i’ve shared with
you before but
i was as i was laying there in this kind
of middle of the night thing my head is
spinning with these verses and these
thoughts
i wanted to make sure i got what he was
trying to say it was giving me uh
let’s give me an insight but it was a
warning too walled city without gates is
not entirely safe in other words i have
a role to play we have a role to play
over the safety of our own households
our own house of faith
as a church family
and so as i laid there i started
meditating on this particular passage
rejoice always pray without ceasing and
everything of thanks if you don’t
meditate on the word
then you’re actually restricting your
own capacity for learning
because he actually wants to speak
to you
it’s true he wants to speak through your
thought process
he wants to become a part of your
thought process so that as you ponder
what he has said in his word
you’ll have an idea that you know
you didn’t come up with
but it’ll feel like you did
all right that’s a good point bill i
know exactly what you mean i know i just
keep working at it all right rejoice i
always pray without ceasing everything
give thanks so as i’m laying there
i start having this sense
that the key then to emotional health
is rejoicing always
the key to emotional health
here’s the strange thing about in fact
let me give reference to thanksgiving
because it’ll be more uh
more visual um
i’m i’m not a great golfer i
it’s been here since i’ve gone
i have some funny stories about my
golfing expertise but anyway
i
i use this as an analogy the ball’s here
you’ve got a back swing
you meet the ball it goes on
this
is yesterday
this is today
the momentum shows you where you’re
going tomorrow i don’t know if that made
sense you’ve got your back swing
you meet the ball
your club doesn’t go that way
it goes that way there’s a momentum
created when you are thankful god you
provided for me when i didn’t deserve it
i blew i made dumb decisions financially
you covered me anyway you provided you
healed my body here god you use a doctor
there
i was in crisis here i expected you to
show up in a certain way you didn’t but
you never left me and you walked me
through that into triumph and you go
through all these things what’s
happening is you are reviewing your
yesterday and god’s faithfulness and you
automatically pick up a sense of where
you’re going does that make sense you
automatically pick up a sense this is my
tomorrow why because before there’s a
problem he creates a solution
one of the most astonishing uh things in
scripture from to me
is where it says jesus was crucified
from before the foundations of the world
jesus was crucified
before the foundations of the world so
before there was all this created
including humans
he was crucified the point is before
there was sin there was a savior
before there was a problem there was a
solution
so what is it that you could come up
with in your life that he didn’t already
have a solution for
the reason for thankfulness is is really
quite astonishing thankfulness is what
helps to create hope and you know what
hope is hope hope is where
the best definition i’ve seen of
biblical hope not not of the the
cultural word hope
the best definition that i know of is
the joyful anticipation of good
joyful it’s excited now for what’s about
to happen what that means then
is that hope actually gives us the
opportunity to enjoy the emotional
benefit of a miracle before the miracle
happens
that we actually have the opportunity
to explore the emotion of victory before
the victory actually happens
it actually we actually get to feed from
the emotion of victory hope gives us
access to that and it’s thanksgiving
that creates that momentum so here we
have this issue rejoicing
is the key to emotional health
rejoicing in any situation every
situation
i i believe strongly
that these kinds of expressions require
physical response
it requires physical response
he didn’t say shout for joy
all you extroverts
[Laughter]
and all you introverts you just think
happy thoughts i’m good i’m good
just feel warm and fuzzy about me i’m
fine i’ll work with that
it didn’t say that he says shout for joy
shout for joy period
there’s something about the expression
that changes
our capacity to experience what god is
doing and what he’s about to do there’s
something that is transformed in us
through the physical outward obedience
sometimes it’s kneeling sometimes it’s
laying on your face sometimes it’s
raising hands sometimes it’s a dance
sometimes
goodness i’ll never forget first time i
i danced before the lord i was alone
in a house
and i i was worshiping
and i felt like the lord said dance
i was so embarrassed
i was i was embarrassed this could be i
made sure all the curtains were closed
because i knew that all the news
networks were there they were wanting to
film
this great event that was about to
happen
i did i actually i went i made sure all
the curtains were closed
everything and i’m the only one in the
house the lights are very dim you can
hardly see
and i’m in this house and i go
[Applause]
i have to admit i actually felt kind of
good inside so i did it again and again
and again and eventually you don’t care
what anybody thinks but at that time
it it it really mattered it mattered to
me there had to be some sort of a
physical response i like wigglesworth
says
my body doesn’t tell me how it’s feeling
since i tell my body how it’s feeling
[Applause]
and there are times where
there’s just there they’re not
monumental things they’re not
you know
they’re not god commanding us to do some
impossible thing sometimes it’s a simple
thing
raise your hand
sometimes it’s lift
your voice
sometimes it’s give
what’s in your pocket to that person you
need
it it’s just it’s
none of them are a huge noble task but
they all require some sort of external
obedience and rejoicing is just like
that i think rejoicing takes great faith
i think it’s easier to hang your head
and sing a song about god’s worth than
it is to celebrate his worth
because you actually have to have some
sense of confidence that you are
accepted to rejoice
and he says rejoice always
the second part of that
experience that we join us always the
second was
in everything give thanks
and i i really felt strongly that he
that he impressed he impressed on my
heart that the key to mental health was
giving thanks and everything
i remember hearing a talk show this
psychiatrist or psychologist i forget
whoever now
was uh being interviewed and they made
some statement i won’t get it exactly
right but it’s basically this that 90 of
all mental illness is the result of
trying to avoid pain
90 of all mental illness as a result of
trying to avoid pain
somehow facing the difficulty with
thankfulness
it’s not denial it’s not pretending
something doesn’t exist it’s owning up
to this you know it’s it’s joseph with
his brothers who sold him into slavery
and he says you know you did this to
destroy me however
god looked ahead and he put me here it
was like i’m owning up to the challenge
of the moment but i am i’m liberated and
i am free in this moment and being able
to be free in that moment with
thanksgiving or with rejoicing is the
nature of the christian life and i tell
you we’ve got to get it now because i
mean it’s crazy out there
it’s crazy they don’t know what bathroom
to use this is getting
this
oh don’t get me started
but here’s the issue if i move in a
fence
i then will fight the challenge
with their tools
which puts us on a level playing field
and whenever you fight the devil on his
field you lose
it’s moving into the grace gifts of
god where i refuse to live in offense
but i but i also refuse to live
irresponsible
and i recognize flesh and blood is not
my enemy
this person believes a lie
but me yelling at him is not going to
change him from believing a lot
reaccusing or doing whatever it doesn’t
fix anything it just helps the person to
feel better for a moment
until god convicts you
are you getting what i’m trying to say
moving into a place of of
of bringing about change requires a
couple of things and i think the the
safeguard here is profound on bringing
transformation it’s rejoicing always and
everything give thanks
those two things emotional mental health
if there’s anything that
that that the world is crying out for
right now because it’s it seems to be
dissolving
you know
quicker than shasta lake
[Laughter]
evaporating
is this this sanity of life this mental
health emotional health and yet you have
an inside track i don’t mean that you’re
better than i i don’t mean in any way i
mean
taste of the favor of god because it
will be useful in bringing others into
that same blessing useful to bring
others into the same sound mind sound
heart rejoice always
pray without ceasing and everything give
thanks
so a key to emotional health is
rejoicing
always every gift everything give thanks
is key for mental health and the last
one is to pray without ceasing
i i believe that that command to pray
without ceasing is the key to heart
health
heart health how important is that
jesus
dealt with a heart
in many different ways he says
adulteries
uh jealousies
all these things come from the heart and
he brings us as a word of correction
then he also says blessed are they pure
in heart for they shall see god
so he he deals with both ends of the
spectrum the point is is the heart is a
big thing it’s that seat of emotion is
the affection it’s the place of
affection is a place of values that are
established from this this place of the
of the human heart where what what we do
with our life is determined in that
place
and proverbs 4 verse 23 says watch over
your heart with all diligence because
from it flow the issues of life
the issues all the issues of life
you have a family you have a job you’ve
got your own personal health you’ve got
all these things going on we’ve all got
a
million plates spinning on sticks you
know and and all these issues of life
watching over this one thing it’s like
having one
idiot gage on your dashboard
that you just watch this one thing and
it’s what helps to keep everything else
functioning
this one gauge make sure you’ve got gas
your oil’s right all pressures right
water everything is correct when you
watch this one thing and that is the
significance of this one command in
proverbs 4 23 watch over your heart with
all diligence i’ve told you before it’s
it’s the way we we raised our children
our discipline was based on on heart is
on attitude we would if we could correct
something when it was an attitude form
we could prevent bad conduct
and it’s the same with us
i’ve invited my wife on many occasions
honey you know all i want to do is
please jesus that’s all i want to do if
you see i’m careless with my speech or
my attitudes any of those things
i’m not just giving you permission i’m
inviting you please point it out to me
it’s i’m determined to recognize never
paint any of those things that happen
but i invite you please point it out to
me because i don’t want that in my life
watch over your heart with all diligence
put extra effort in this one thing why
because everything it affects every
single area of your life so here is what
i believe to be the command of the lord
that keeps us in the place of great
strength as it pertains to our heart
you know what do we want the
adulteries and
envies and jealousies from the heart or
the pure in heart who see god this is
obviously what we want so he says this
he says pray
without ceasing
in other words
view prayer
as your ongoing
primary occupation
if you’re an evangelist you can only
evangelize so
much during the day
if you pray for the sick you can only
pray for the sick so much if you’re a
school teacher you’re only in the
classroom so long
but pray without ceasing
i have found that when i create a
momentum throughout my day i actually
wake up in the night praying
and one of the things that’s important
for us to recognize is we don’t know
what we’re doing
with prayer
anybody on this side would agree with me
we don’t really know what we’re doing
that’s why the bible says we don’t know
how to pray as we are that’s the bible
so it’s best to put your bet with the
bible the bible says you don’t know what
you’re doing
but here’s the cool thing
in romans chapter 8 it says
the holy spirit intercedes for us
a few verses later it says jesus
intercedes for us
my uncle pointed this out to me a bunch
of years ago
holy spirit intercedes for me
jesus is interceding for me and right in
the middle of those two verses is the
statement all things work together for
good
i wonder why all things work together
for good i’ve got the holy spirit i’ve
got the son of god they’re both pleading
my case before the father
i may not know what i’m doing but the
holy spirit who lives in me knows
exactly what he’s doing
and many people pray enough to ease
their conscience but not enough to
change any circumstances not enough to
make a difference
and prayer is the is the full-time
responsibility of the believer
it’s not just that time in the morning
when you get on your knees and you’ve
got your bible open those are wonderful
but it’s more than that
it’s the fact that i i’ll drive down the
road i’ll see
a car go by that reminds me of a friend
i went to school with i just take that
as a signum to pray for them
it’s just automatic reminder
i’ll be i’ll remember
a conflict a conversation ahead that was
very uh challenging for me um that’ll
come to mind i’ll be driving downstream
it’ll come to mind and as soon as it
comes to mind
within moments
i will say
i lay down my right to be offended at
that and i pray now for my friend
that you would so touch his life or
whatever it might be but the point is is
we have a full-time occupation
of interacting with god now here’s the
here’s the deal
i would like in the next couple minutes
if i could somehow paint a picture for
you of the heart of what i believe is
the heart of the father
i believe that the father wants the
earth to be filled
with the fruitfulness
of of the the fruitfulness in answer to
your prayers
in in other words
you were designed
to meet
with the creator of all the life giver
to meet with him
and to make petition and request to make
decrees in proclamations
and as a result
see the course of history changed and
the answers of god sprinkled all over
the earth that there is to be a
fruitfulness i don’t think it’s yet
come to our heart and mind how much god
looks for fruitfulness
he looks for increase
he looks for increase in the simplest
thing
you know the talents you know
he they use the talents and and
the miners they use the minds got 10
more the guy who didn’t use it buried it
the landowner says why didn’t you put it
in the bank at least you would have got
interest in others i’m looking for
increase
god’s not going to give you insights for
prayer to increase your
knowledge the insights for prayer is to
make you more fruitful
god’s not going to give us insights for
prayer so that we can write a book about
prayer
is to make us fruitful so that the earth
would be filled with the fruitfulness of
the answers to prayer of the saints
that this situation it was impossible
and jesus changed it this family they
were so destroyed they could never
recover but the mercy of god came and
they’ve been healed this business was
past
being lost and god raised it up again
home after home situation after
situation why because somebody who loves
a father is willing to pray until he
shows how to pray
i think
i think the fruitfulness that god wants
for us
from prayer
is he on the other side of us laying
down our offense
for so many things not being answered
prayer is an engagement with a person
where we are changed that’s the whole
point
if i take an hour to pray i don’t leave
that hour changed that i wasn’t praying
i was complaining
it’s an engagement with a person why
because i am learning to think like him
how many know you can pray the same
prayer a thousand times have nothing
happen you prayed a thousand to one and
a breakthrough takes place it’s that
it’s that moment where jesus says throw
the net to the other side do it again i
know you did it all night but do it one
more time
sometimes it’s that one more time of
doing the right thing but this time you
did it in the presence this time we did
it in the command of the lord this time
his hand was on my hand making the the
what we were doing effective and
powerful
that’s prayer
it’s the invitation of god to come into
a place where we actually make a
difference in the course of history
because we pray
so here it is rejoice always
pray
and don’t stop
in everything give thanks
emotional mental health
heart health
and the pure and heart will see god
don’t you stand we’re going to pray
together
[Applause]
i keep i keep coming back to the subject
of prayer i think honestly to be honest
with you i feel like i keep coming back
to it the last six eight months because
i need it
and uh
i keep i keep getting glimpses
of of god’s heart
and you can’t not pray
when you see his heart
you know he he’s
he’s the one he’s the one who said
abide in me
let my words abide in you can ask
whatever
you want and it’ll be done for you
four times in three chapters he gives
this invitation
of world changing
involvement with god through answers to
prayer that change everything
partnership right
something happened here 25 not quite 25
we’ve been seeing this
wonderful outpouring for 25 years but
something happened maybe 23 years ago
where there was a corporate anointing
that came on the house for healing
and we have seen thousands and thousands
and
and and we’ll see a lot more
but i feel like this just could be that
hour where he’s now releasing a
corporate anointing for prayer
where we find ourselves you may feel
like well i really don’t know what i’m
doing
good because if you did you’d mess it up
there’s something about praying in the
holy spirit there’s something about
praying with some there’s something
about there are times i get before the
lord and i have nothing i’ll pray in
tongues i pray in my prayer language
that’s important part but he still wants
oftentimes he wants something said from
my understanding
and i can just take a pot shot and i can
find a verse and quote this and quote
that but there are times where he wants
me to see something i’ve never seen
before so i can decrease something i’ve
never decreed before
so i can i can declare
and i feel like there’s this school of
prayer that god is
is releasing over us as a church family
right right now
i i pray that you wake up because of
dreams
i pray that you’re troubled by dreams i
pray you’re excited by dreams
i pray the voice of the lord awakens you
i’ve had it happen twice where the voice
of the lord just startled me awake
i pray that happens for you i pray i
pray that you can’t get away from the
great privilege
of filling the earth with fruitfulness
in your answers to prayer
father i pray for that that you would
multiply the effectiveness our online
family as well god that you’d release
the grace
for the miracle anointing and prayer all
we want is what you’ve commanded us
kingdom of god come
will of god be done on earth
as it is in heaven that is our cry and i
pray that you awaken in in the heart in
the life of every single person in this
room
every person their significant role of
affecting history simply by praying what
you pray
declaring what you declare believing
what you believe
i pray all of this in jesus name now if
you could hold your place for just a
quick moment
i know anytime there’s this many people
in a room the odds are very high that
there are people here that don’t know
jesus you don’t have a personal
relationship with jesus you don’t know
what it is to be forgiven you don’t know
what it is to be born again as the bible
would say
and it doesn’t matter to me whether
you’re in the building you’re watching
online there’s a way for you to respond
right now
and i i want to say for everyone in the
building if there anyone here in that
position right now that say i don’t want
to leave the building until i know that
i’m at peace with god and that i know
what it is to be brought into a family
where i truly become a disciple of this
one named jesus
if that’s in your heart
you say bill i don’t want to leave the
building until i know this for certain
then i want you to put a hand up where
you are because we’re going to pray and
believe for that great great miracle for
you put it up high so i see
does it anyone at all you know those who
are online
i know we have people we have had so
many people come to christ online
um just write in the blog we have
pastors online with you be able to to be
able to talk and to pray with you so put
in the chat room uh the chat box that
you want to receive jesus and people
will pray with you
all right
how about you do this who’s coming up
chris come on up and help me lift up one
good shot of thanksgiving
[Applause]