God knows your heart, and you can trust Him with Your desires. In this short clip, Bill Johnson shares examples from his own life of how God has cared for and rewarded him. As you steward your heart to desire the things of God and put Him first, you will be delightfully surprised as God fulfills other desires in your heart. He is a good FatheGod knows your heart, and you can trust Him with Your desires. In this short clip, Bill Johnson shares examples from his own life of how God has cared for and rewarded him. As you steward your heart to desire the things of God and put Him first, you will be delightfully surprised as God fulfills other desires in your heart. He is a good Fathe
here’s here’s one of my main goals for
today
is that everybody in this room could
come to a place where we would say i
only want what comes from his hand
i will not pursue anything in life
that is not his heart his plan his idea
for me
i
i had a there was a season in in our
life where i could take you through my
house and i could show you
you know this couch and this table and
this and everything seemed to represent
a season and it’s that way again today
but it’s it’s uh it’s a different uh
time in our life
but i remember back
when benny and i were first married
probably married a year or two
i was uh
wanting to buy a hunting rifle and if
you’re against hunting pretend it’s a
camera i’m going to shoot i’m going to
shoot photographs of wildlife
and then for some strange reason eat the
photograph but anyway we’ll just leave
it
[Applause]
so i had saved up i saved up money
and i was going to buy i was going to
buy a
hunting rifle
and uh we had some bills come up and i
mean i’d even say birthday money and all
this you know how you do and we were
we just
yeah we just needed help so i saved
enough to buy a nice little hunting
rifle and
and these bills came up and i thought
yeah
i mean who wants to be responsible when
you can have fun that’s kind of like my
my approach is why be responsible when
you can have fun
but jesus got the best of me and i
i just sucked it up and paid the bills
and
and tried to be happy in the fact that
we no longer had those debts
i don’t know if it was that week it was
two weeks later but it’s right in that
immediate period of time
one sunday night here at bethlehem’s
back goodness 1974
probably
one of the older guys in the church it
was a wonderful wonderful man he had
become a real good friend of ours
after after the service came up to me or
during this before the service he came
up to me says bill
you need a rifle
[Laughter]
yes yes
thus saith the lord yes
and uh
and he says come to my house after after
church tonight
so i went by his house and
he brought out this pre-64
winchester
oh yeah pistol grip
30 30 peep sight it was just it’s a
classic old gun
and he gave it to me
and
that gun
means a lot more than
a gun because it actually came from the
father’s hand
through one of his
special chosen ones
and it was very interesting some years
later i was in weaverville somebody
got into our house we were gone for a
few days and they stole i had three or
four guns there and they stole them
and that gun was with the others but
they didn’t take it
and it was it was i mean it’s literally
they’re all together in one bunch
and it was like the lord
just said no you’re not touching that
one
that is a prophetic
emblem this is a monument to prophesies
we had fellowship here we have agreement
here we had covenant here and this is
where i met with my son and
see what i want for my life is i want
that i want the word of god because it’s
so much more fun
when you stay in your lane
so many of you would be more than happy
if you had your present condition and
you were put in some broken and
impoverished part of the world because
you would be doing so well as compared
to everybody else
let’s be honest but because of your
relatives that have more
or your neighbor or the person you work
with
the issue of comparison
is the problem here the desire for other
things it’s put anything else on the
list you want it’s pursuing things
outside of the dominion of god
is if i could just have this position if
i could just have this marriage if i
could just have this title if i could
just have this education if i could
drive this car i know i would be happy
amen if i could just
have this or have that if i could buy
that house
and what happens is the appetite for
other things to satisfy we we pray for
it because we want it to be in god’s
will but the appetite has pulled us out
of our lane
and the appetite itself fuels the beast
that chokes the promise of god over our
life
that sometimes actually has the very
fulfillment of the thing we ate for but
because the appetite has taken us out of
our lane does that make sense to anybody
the appetite pulls us out of our
assignment out of our lane out of the
sense of god’s timing then suddenly the
very hunger that i have that could be
fulfilled by the hand of god
is now the very thing that works to
choke the promise of god over my life
years ago i had
a a friend of ours in weaverville i’ve
i’ve shared the story i think i shared
it recently
um
he had a a
friend
uh his wife’s his
i’ve been on vacation my mouth is not
yet ready to talk let’s let’s just be
honest i’m still in vacation mode and i
just all i want to do is talk about
sure it’s hot out there
you know anything beyond that’s just
challenging to me at the moment so just
just give me a break
my friend received a phone call
from his friend’s wife
who one day called and said hey
if i could schedule it would you take my
husband fishing they’d love to fish
and so without her husband knowing it
she scheduled for him
to have several days off
with his boss everything and send him to
weaverville and he’d spend several days
with our friend tom
and tom would take him fishing for
several days
and but the guy didn’t know it
the wife scheduled talked to the boss
packed the gear packed his clothes went
and picked him up at work and said
you’re going to have to see tom in
weaverville and you’re going fishing for
the next several days he said wait i’m
supposed to go to work nope you’ve got
tomorrow off what about that you’ve got
next day off she arranged everything so
every
every what if was answered
now
how much more fun is it
to go up there
her sponsoring the trip
than him demanding his right as a
husband
to be able to go fishing
which is more fun
which is more fun you having that
promotion at work from god’s hand
or because you’re manipulated
and whined
and complained until you got it the
point is is the desire for other things
actually chokes the actual destiny of
god over our life
it has to do with appetite it has to do
with stewardship
it has to do with the divided mind these
are the areas that monitored well keep
us in our lane so that by the end of our
life we can say with solomon and
everything that came into his heart came
to pass that’s what i want to see i’ve
been praying that over my own life this
week god everything that you have
promised i want to see come to pass
not just for
for my sake i want
i as as clearly as i know how to say
this
i want to see every word he has promised
fulfilled that he would be revealed for
who he is
that he would be revealed
i pray that over you i pray that the
lord would help us as stewards of the
word i hear so many people say it i
don’t know i’ve got all these promises
over my life and they just don’t come to
pass
not you it’s them other folks it’s when
i travel i’ll be honest this is when i
travel
those are the people
the problem is never on his end of the
equate equation
and it’s not a time for guilt and shame
but it is a time to be able to say
god my appetite is for your dominion to
be fully realized over me
i hunger for your will
i’ll make any adjustment necessary
because i want to see you exalted and
revealed for who you are in the earth so
i pray that over us as a church family
right now