We need to be people who recognize when God is speaking to us. God will not lead us into deception, and has given us keys to recognizing His voice. Bill Johnson teaches from the disciples experience after Jesus had risen from the dead, and their unbelief when Mary told them the good news. God speaks in many different ways, but as we come to know Him, we will recognize and discern the life on His Words, however He chooses to speak.
in other words you’re saying stuff we
don’t understand but we still feel life
in our soul whenever you talk that’s the
point is is I can be in a moment of
conflict I can be in a moment of
confusion I can be in a moment where I
don’t have a clue what in the world is
going on but whenever he speaks life is
stirring up inside of me I find out why
I’m alive there’s the confirmation of it
the right place at the right time I may
not know what to do but I don’t need to
at this moment all I need to know now is
the source of that word and he’s given
us the protection to not fall into
deception
verse 14 later he appeared to the eleven
Jesus appeared to the eleven as they sat
at the table he rebuked their unbelief
and Hardness of Heart because they did
not believe those who had been seen by
him after he had risen let’s read it
again verse 14. later he appeared to the
eleven as they sat at the table he
rebuked their unbelief and Hardness of
Heart because they did not believe those
who had seen him after he had risen
now here’s here’s something I think we
don’t agree on none of us we don’t want
to be gullible
you know we don’t want to fall
we’ve all heard people boasting certain
things we found out later we’re not true
you know they had this Vision this
whatever this promise it just didn’t
happen none of us want to be gullible
it would be cruel of the Lord for for
him to require me to believe any report
I heard I’ve heard
if there wasn’t
something in the report
that caused me to know its source The
Source was God or the source was not
in Jesus’s second most famous sermon
is most famous Sermon on the Mount
second one was John 6 eat my flesh rate
my blood
nobody bought the podcast after that one
nobody sent that to their mother-in-law
said listen to this one
at the end of this this message we’ve
got perhaps 15 maybe even as many as 20
000 people that are there because he’s
multiplied food extraordinary Miracles
and then he stands up to preach and it
decided to take a little different twist
because his other sermons weren’t quite
so offensive but this one
he nailed them you have to eat my flesh
drink my blood they start complaining so
he turns it up a notch he’d say every
time they started complaining he would
just make it more challenging you know
it’s great it’s John chapter six but by
the time we get to the end everybody has
left but the disciples
and Jesus turns to the twelve and he
says are you guys leaving too
now Peter got it right on several
occasions we need to give him credit
and he nailed it on this one he said
where are we going to go
you have the words of eternal life
listen to what he’s saying
where are we going to go
every time you talk we come alive inside
let me put it in my words
we don’t understand the sermon on eating
flesh and drinking blood any more than
the masses that left
but what we do know is when you talk we
find out why we’re alive
because there was something in the words
and Jesus later described it in chapter
six he says my words to you are spirit
so number one it’s presence number two
it’s life it gives life
so there is life to the words that come
from the Lord and there’s presence
when we become a people that recognize
what God is saying and doing by
recognizing the life from the words and
the presence that becomes manifest then
we can accept the something new that he
decides to do
verse 12 it says he appeared in another
form
to the two of them as they walked and
went into the country
and they went and told it to the rest
but they didn’t believe them either
he appeared in another form
he didn’t come like they expected
we all love the promise God’s about to
do a new thing we just hope he does it
the way he did it last time
everybody I know is crying out for a
great move of God they just want it to
happen
you know with some familiarity to it you
know
and the Lord has this habit
of not only repeating the testimony but
adding to it through something one more
additional thing that is offensive to
the it is to the you know when he added
tongues that offended a lot of people
he just he he he
won’t violate his word but he doesn’t
mind violating my understanding of his
word
I personally think he Delights in it I
can’t prove it just my personal opinion
so here we have this story where the
disciples
are disappointed they’re in great pain
why they’ve given three and a half years
of their life to somebody who’s now dead
and they’ve got nothing to show for it
they left everything to follow this one
intense disappointment great morning why
because they loved him
they loved him they were devoted to him
and he is now gone
somebody comes along with news that’s
too good to be true
sometimes
it’s true because it is too good to be
true
comes with the news that he is alive but
they are so much in pain
and not wanting to be gullible
they’ve already left everything to
follow him three and a half years ago
they don’t want to do that again
are you with me I don’t want to be
gullible
and so what happens when you try to
protect yourself from being gullible you
will overcompensate and keep yourself
from faith
you can either have dignity or you can
have faith
you can either have dignity you can
either work to preserve your your
dignity
or you can give yourself to Faith and
here’s why Jesus could rebuke and
correct them for not believing the
report because when the report was
spoken presence and life was released
but they were so anxious they become
unavailable became unavailable to what
God was actually doing
anxiety causes me to lose track of the
tools that God has put in my life
anytime we’re in a situation challenging
situation if the enemy works hard to
make us mindful of if I can use Peter in
the boat and walk down the water make us
mindful of the waves make us mindful of
the threats to our safety so that I take
my eyes off the one safe place onto all
the other possibilities and in that that
anxiety suddenly I can’t remember one
thing God’s taught me in the last two
years
and yet there’s not a person in this
room that is not facing something for
which God has not already prepared you
he listen to think you’re unprepared is
to call him a bad Steward of your life
just because you can’t remember it
doesn’t mean he didn’t put it there
and it’s fighting for that place of
peace
fighting for that place of acknowledged
presence in that place is where you
ReDiscover what God has placed there
that is the very tool the very
instrument that is needed for this next
assignment come on
[Music]
foreign
amen
our job is to recognize
when a word comes from the Lord or not
I remember there was a gal here I I want
to be very careful she had some uh
mental issues so I I need to be careful
but she would accuse me of weird things
it was just
we had issues
but I would love her but I just didn’t
want to be close
I love her from a distance
a hug but please don’t accuse me again
I mean well she accused me it was just
horrible
but she it was in her mind she made it
up she said she saw it right here in
public and it’s just crazy
I’ll never forget Sunday it was right
back where that camera is right there
she came up to me
with the word of the Lord again
but this time it was
see our responsibility
is to recognize the word of the Lord
our responsibility is not the approval
of the messenger
or the personality through which the
message was given
oftentimes our hunger is tested by him
putting what we are hungry for and the
group of people or the individual that
we want nothing to do with
that’s the good news
[Music]
because just follow me now because
presence is released in those Divine
moments where a word is shared it is the
responsibility of the hearer to say all
right he’s on this
I’ll need to figure out what he’s saying
exactly to me but I recognize this is a
Divine moment
thank you
I’m the head of my household
amen
I am
my wife is the neck
she turns me any way she wants
[Applause]
and how’s the head of my household
my responsibility is to recognize the
word of the Lord when we hear it
sometimes it comes to me sometimes it
would even come from my children yeah
yeah obviously off many times through my
wife
but I remember a certain time in my life
pastoring in Weaverville
I was pretty certain
that it was the will of God for me to
have a new car
I was pretty I was pretty certain
and I was pretty certain I knew which
car it was too
since I had been shopping in the
magazines you know we didn’t have the
internet down by shopping and I found
the one I’d seen I thought well that
this looks nice it’s a good car
so I had scheduled a time for Benny and
me and the kids to come down to reading
and to test drive this car
but before I left Weaverville
the Lord spoke very clearly to me in no
uncertain terms you are not to buy a car
hahaha
I thought
but I should probably test drive one
just so that if it ever becomes your
will we know which one to get
we all know God needs a lot of help on
these things yeah yeah so I so I I
talked myself into it and and dulled
down that conviction to stay away
so we cut down to the car lot
and I I get in the driver’s seat
salesman is here my family’s in the back
start the car
and Brian starts singing
be careful little eyes what you see
be careful of the lies what you see
there’s a father up above looking down
in Tender Love so be careful little eyes
but you see
I would have turned the car off right
then but I had to do something for the
sake of the salesman so I drove around
the block that one tiny block back in
parked it turned the key off said thank
you very much and we left worst test
drive ever
I couldn’t tell you one thing about that
car because it was ruined
might as well had John the Baptist in
the backseat prophesying to me
a child’s voice with all of Heaven
behind it saying be careful little eyes
what you see
[Music]
I remember when I I could two weeks ago
I talked to you a little bit about some
of my personal story and I remember
in February of 1995 I made my first trip
of many to Toronto Toronto is a place
where there was a mighty mighty
outpouring of the Holy Spirit still
continues but it spread
diversely really all over the world
right now the critics of the Revival
would say well where are all the souls
if it was a Revival well just from three
people that I know that were
dramatically touched in that Revival
they’ve each LED over a million people
each to the Lord that’s just three
people that I know there’s countless
millions of people have come to Christ
the story goes on and on and on but it
was a very unusual visitation of God
at first one of the things that made
people so mad is that people were
laughing that didn’t deserve it
isn’t that kind of what Grace is
anyway I so I I went I went the first
night you have to get there early I mean
my goodness sometimes you stand out in
the snow early morning five o’clock four
o’clock in the morning and you stand
there for hours waiting to get in
freezing I mean people would just wait
forever to get into these they’re just
hungry from all over the world and I
remember getting there the first night
and I sat somewhere back over like in
that section of the building and and uh
it’s quite a while before you know you
get there an hour two hours before the
meeting starts and it’s quite a while
before the meeting starts but there’s
already 5 000 people there and there’s
so much stuff going on in the room the
meeting hasn’t even started I mean you
got people falling on the floor and
laughing and crying and got everything
you can think of going on in that room
and it was sensory overload now I could
look at any individual and say I had
seen that before I’d seen that before
but I’d never seen 5 000 of that before
and it was honestly it was it was
overwhelming to me I wasn’t afraid I
wasn’t thinking of running out I just I
didn’t know what to do with it and I was
just trying to sort through God I’ve
been hearing that this is you
what’s going on here so I stood I
actually stood uh i i people are all
over the place I stood in front of my
chair and I just stood there just like
this I looked around saw all that was
going on and I just closed my eyes
as soon as I did I recognized okay this
is the same presence the same Glory
that we’ve been experiencing at home
what’s the point
he will appear differently
and you have to adjust to him he doesn’t
adjust to you
but the Safeguard is he will let you
know him by presence and by life
that you can recognize the source of a
word of a a miracle a a an action
activity whatever it might be a group of
people you recognize the source why
because you can recognize all right this
is the one I’ve been meeting with for
these years
this is the life I’ve been feeding every
time I read this word this is the life
that I feel coming off the pages of this
book it’s here as this person shares
this story with me
he didn’t set us up to fail he didn’t
set us up to fall into some deception
through being gullible what he did is he
set us up for life but he said you’ll
have to learn to recognize it this way
it won’t be because I keep doing the
same thing the same way it will be that
when I do something new you’ll know it’s
me because you’ll know me
you know I’m the one that came into the
room I’m the one that spoke that word
the bra such life to your soul
in that sermon
of Jesus is eat my flesh drink my blood
Peter are you going to leave too where
are we going to go you have the words of
eternal life in other words you’re
saying stuff we don’t understand but we
still feel life in our soul whenever you
talk
that’s the point is is that I can be in
a moment of conflict I can be in a
moment of confusion I can be in a moment
where I don’t have a clue what in the
world is going on but whenever he speaks
life is stirring up inside of me I find
out why I’m alive there’s the
confirmation I’m at the right place at
the right time I may not know what to do
but I don’t need to at this moment all I
need to know now is the source of that
word and the source of that worth is
that comes from the throne room of God
and he’s given us the protection to not
fall into deception and it’s not because
of our intelligence it’s because of our
recognition of a person learn to
recognize the person
yeah I’m so glad that you watched this
video I do pray that it’s a great great
strength and encouragement to you and
I’ve got a verse that it really is My
Cry for all of us and it’s Psalms 20
it’s verse 4. may he grant you your
heart’s desire and fulfill all your
plans
that’s my prayer that’s my prayers that
this would be the season of rich rich
fulfillment
thanks for joining us