This full sermon was shared at Bethel Church during the COVID-19 shutdown. In this message, Pastor Bill shares about the strength when two or three are gathered in His name and our need for the felt presence of God.
beautiful good morning good morning good
to see you
here we have a few people in the room
which is kind of cool
that way i don’t have to talk to empty
chairs and by faith i see all of you
out out and about um
i love the fact you know this is a weird
season let’s be honest but
but it’s been amazing to see how many
people can be
impacted through through vidi video
so many people that i don’t think did
anything online
previous to this season are now becoming
pros
professionals they can dial up anything
and uh and that’s
it’s been really uh really refreshing
for me
uh the encouraging thing has been the
impact to see
the measurable impact on individual
people’s lives on homes
on honestly cities cities and nations
this last week i
i spent a bit of time with leaders from
iran iranian leaders ministering to them
and what my goodness what an honor to
sit in to talk with these folks and to
share with them a bit
and pray together and you know you
wouldn’t have been able to do that you
know a few months ago but now we’re kind
of geared up for that
and uh and it just it works you know
there’s no space
there’s no distance in god uh
there’s just no distance and living with
that realization really helps us
to be able to grab hold of our moments
um
right after i was through with the
leaders the iranian leaders
i got to minister to a whole bunch of
leaders from the uk
so i i had an international trip and got
no miles for it
i got no miles but i also have no
fatigue and it was just wonderful you
know so i didn’t i didn’t uh
have to eat any of the weird food on the
plane and
although they’re trying to get better
i’m just thankful for all kinds of
things so
all right um a funny uh story
i heard a while back is a a police
officer
a highway patrolman pulls over these
three little old ladies in their car
and they’re going 35 miles an hour on
the freeway and he pulls him over he
says
hey you guys can’t go this slow the
driver says i was going the speed limit
the sign said 35. he said he started to
laugh he said no
that’s highway 35. highway 35 the speed
limit is actually 70.
she said oh he says by the way why
your passengers look so terrified oh
because we just got off of highway 105.
and so that makes a lot of sense
all right i want you to open your bibles
to uh matthew
chapter 16. uh last week i
i i had uh the chance to talk uh to you
and talked about uh
prayer and some things that are pretty
critical for us
and um and i postponed something that
i’m going to
uh begin to try to crack open today uh
for those of you that did
our our study our small group study on
my book way of life
you will have touched upon this subject
in that book
i think one of the most important books
of this era
is a book by a dear friend ed sovoso
called
ecclesia l e ekk
i a ecclesia and um
it’s it’s a profound insight in
scripture
and a profound strategy for bringing
transformation
to this world i i in some ways i feel
like it’s the most important book of
this era
of this particular period of time and uh
and he’s stirred up some stuff we we
have uh i think most of us have grown up
in an environment
where we knew that the church was not a
building
we knew that church was much bigger and
different than that we knew
i grew up my dad saying all the time the
church isn’t building
it’s not a denomination it’s none of
that it is
actually the people of god that have
gathered together in his name
but there are some very specific things
that if we have them
in mind as we do life it changes
everything
for example the great commission go into
all the world preach the gospel did you
know that the active
verb in that verse is not go it’s
actually to disciple
the word actually the act the word
actually means as you go in other words
you’re going to be going here and there
throughout life as you go do this
it’s already determined you’re going to
travel on vacation to this city it’s
already been determined as you do
business you’ll be dealing here and
dealing there
it’s already determined that your life
is one of going so
as you go do this
and when you see the weight of
authority and responsibility that god
puts upon the people of god
i i don’t know what happens to you when
i realize oh this is my responsibility
suddenly i become very sober-minded
about what i the opportunity that is
before me
i live with a i think a fairly
heightened
sense of responsibility and
um and i i i pray that over every one of
us that
uh not the burdensome kind but the
challenging kind the invi
the invitational kind that says here
god says this belongs to you now go
occupied go take care of this
and and that’s kind of the mandate we’ve
been trying to live for
goodness 20 some years now and uh and we
we
keep trying again and learning another
lesson and
coming coming from different staff
members another layer of this truth upon
another
and so anyway um this is uh this is
what’s on my heart today i believe that
the lord is uh i’m gonna use the word
force
it may not be the kindest word but work
with me
he’s forcing us to learn
the strength of the church he’s forcing
us to learn where the strength is
i love the large gatherings i do i’ve
been
you know i’ve ministered in groups up to
goodness i think 60 or 70 000 that’s fun
i love when we get together just
getting a thousand crammed into this
room and overflow and i mean i love it i
just love that i love
i love all those kinds of things but
what’s happening right now
is the lord is forcing us to discover
the strength of the church is actually
the two or three gathered in his name
the strength of the church
the large gathering i believe is
critical i believe is very important
it creates identity which is huge we
belong to something that is bigger and
more significant
than our little world of influence
that’s important
there’s also a prophetic sense of
direction
that is given in the corporate setting
that i never hear in the smaller setting
i’m not saying it can’t happen
it’s just there’s something about people
coming together
in large groups with that prevailing
word
over a group of people that there is
that there’s that prophetic sense if you
will
of this is the mandate of the lord upon
us
i know for me since i was since i first
started in ministry i i remember going
to
to weaverville in 1979 i remember
we had a little business card i was on
staff here with my dad here for five
years
and i remember when i went up there i
wrote a little note on the back of my
business card from bethel
i just put this note and i kept it on my
desk
for i i think just about all of the
17 years that i was there i kept it on
my desk and it said whatever feeds me
feeds them so the responsibility was for
me
to be well fed into things of god
and then give away whatever he gives me
but make sure that processes through
through my lifestyle first through my
own experience through my own
devotion to christ let it filter through
that and then
offer that to the people that you love
and care for and serve
matthew chapter 16 we’re going to
actually read
a little bit out of here and we’ll jump
over to chapter 18
and we’ll i think we’ll end up in john
15 just to keep you busy
matthew 16 verse 13.
when jesus came into the region of
caesarea philippi
he asked his disciples saying who do men
say that i
the son of man m so they said some say
john the baptist
some say elijah others jeremiah or one
of the prophets
and he said to them but who do you say
that i am
simon peter answered and said you are
the christ
excuse me you are the christ the son
of the living god and jesus answered and
said to him blessed
are you simon barjona for flesh and
blood has not revealed this to you
but my father who is in heaven
and i also say to you that you are peter
and on this rock i will build my church
and the gates of hades
shall not prevail against it and i will
give you the keys of the kingdom of
heaven
whatever you bind on earth will be bound
in heaven whatever you loose on earth
will be loosed in heaven
let me take verse 19 again the new
american standard says this so much
better
and it’s a footnote in my bible
it says whatever you bind on earth will
be bound in heaven
a much more consistent translation
with the way jesus taught and lived is
whatever you bind on earth will have
been bound in heaven
whatever you loose on earth will have
been loosed
in heaven it’s it’s it’s it’s mirroring
that reality here and that is the
overall theme of jesus
when you pray your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven your kingdom come
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven so the
backbone of the commission
for every believer is learning how to
partner with god to bring the reality of
his reign
his dominion into the specific
areas of our human experience
and so um let’s go back uh through
through this uh
particular portion of scripture so i’m
gonna read that verse again but i’m
gonna read it the way
i think it should be written how’s that
let’s go right to verse 15 who do you
say that i am
peter answered and said you were the
christ the son of the living god
jesus answered and said in blessed are
you simon barjona for flesh and blood
has not revealed this to you
but my father who is in heaven this
wasn’t a slap or a put down
jesus was acknowledging that he just
heard well from the father
he was pointing out i i used to do this
with with my kids my
my kids would be playing on the floor
and one of them would treat the other
one with unusual kindness kindness and i
would stop and say
hey guys stop stop say eric do you know
what that was and he would look at me
like he was in trouble you know
and i said son that was a fruit of the
spirit that was kindness
and that’s what jesus is doing here he’s
he’s stopping the procession
and he’s saying peter you just heard
from the father
that’s what it sounds like when you’re
hearing from the father
blessed are you simon bird john for
flesh and blood has not revealed this to
you but my father who is in heaven
and i say to you that you are peter
peter is actually a word that means rock
but it’s a small rock
and upon this rock that word is the
massive rock
i will build my church i personally i do
not believe
that peter was the rock that the church
was founded on
it was an illustration the rock it was
founded on
is verse 16 you are the christ the son
of the living god
it’s the revelation of jesus as the
messiah
the son of the living god that is what
the church is actually built on
it’s built think about this the church
is built upon
revelation
the essence of your faith is
that you heard god speak and you
responded
there is no salvation apart from hearing
god speak people say i just don’t hear
from god
well you must have heard something
because that’s how you got born again
it’s the only way you can get in
is there’s an acknowledgement that god
has spoken i am convicted of sin
i i am he’s given me a gift to turn from
this way of life to follow after him
and it’s that invitation if you will or
compelling
uh exhortation by god that enabled us to
turn
in faith to him every
every part of our life is hinged upon
that willingness and ability to hear
from god
and every time we say i just don’t hear
well we’re shooting ourselves in the
foot
instead of acknowledging what we do well
we point to what we don’t do well i
don’t hear as good as
this person this person has open visions
this person is the slightest impression
i just don’t
hear that well well you must have heard
something because you’re alive man does
not live by bread alone but by every
word that proceeds from the mouth of god
there is life
continuously flowing in us and through
us because we hear from god
it would be much wiser for us to say i
hear from god but i’m
but not as good as i want to i’m
improving i’m on a journey
to increase my capacity my ability to
perceive
when god is speaking it’s a whole other
subject but his first language is not
english or spanish or whatever
else other language you speak there’s
this whole world of impression and
and pictures and and things that are
that are
otherworldly which is his language and
it’s how he
actually teaches us how his world works
another subject but you get the point so
here this revelation of jesus as messiah
is the foundation for the church but
look at verse 18 again he says upon this
rock i will build my church in the gates
of hades
shall not prevail against it i never
heard anybody
say that the gates here were the gates
of the church that kept us protected
from the devil but somehow when i grew
up that’s how i saw the verse
i i saw that god is going to keep our
gates strong and keep us protected from
that big bad devil that’s outside trying
to break inside the
church and steal and kill and plunder
and do all the stuff that he does
and that’s not it at all it’s the gates
of hades that will not prevail in other
words
the demonic kingdom and gates in
scripture refers to positions of
authority
so we’re not just talking about gates
like to a city or
something that get torn down so we take
the enemy’s possession that’s
that’s figurative but it’s it’s in the
picture
but it’s the gates of a city is where
the authorities of the city would be
seated
they would be sitting there to make uh
decisions
so when we talk about the gates of hades
we’re talking about
the hierarchy the ephesians 6
principalities and powers
we’re talking about the hierarchy of
this of the world of darkness
will not be able to stand against what
against this prevailing group of people
i’m just going to throw in here
something that is probably worthy of
studying
at another time please notice it doesn’t
say gates of hell
we actually talk about hell as a place
where the devil reigns from or rules
from or or has influence from
hell is his place of eternal punishment
it’s his place of eternal punishment
it’s it’s technically it’s not
it’s not you know the gates of hell will
not prevail it’s
it’s this realm of darkness that cannot
withstand
against a church that responds to the
assignment and the call that god has
given
and where we function as he has assigned
us to function
and in these verses he gives us the
beginning
strategy if you will on bringing
transformation to the world around us
so here we have um will not prevail
against at verse 19. i will give you the
keys of the kingdom of heaven
and whatever you bind on earth will have
been bound in heaven
whatever you loose on earth will have
been loosed in heaven
this is a very significant assignment
that jesus now gives
to every single one of us as individuals
now jump over to chapter
18 and the subject matter in chapter 18
is actually correction for people who
will not repent
and it’s actually given in that light
but there are principles in these verses
that i would like for you to grab hold
of
because they are they are they’re they
go far beyond the immediate application
he says in verse 18 again i say to you
whatever you bind on or
shall have been bound in heaven whatever
you loose on earth
shall have been loosed in heaven again i
say to you and here’s our verse
if two of you agree on earth concerning
anything that they
ask it will be done
for them by my father in heaven verse 2
20 for where two or three are gathered
in my name
i am there in the midst all right so
here’s the deal
when the lord said i will build my
church
he did not use a term that would have
been very
uh commonplace for the jewish culture
that this was taking place in
it was not a synagogue nor was it a
temple
the word is ecclesia it’s very important
boring for a moment but stick with me
ecclesia
is a group of two or three people
that are citizens of a particular
country or government
and whenever they gather together they
actually represent the government
of that country they are from so if you
have roman citizens that are
in greece and uh they get together and
they are
they work together say at a bakery and
they get together at lunch and they talk
together
they are actually representing the
government of
rome
that’s actually the term that is used
here
jesus used a secular term he was he was
known for using secular concepts i don’t
think he was
borrowing from the secular world i think
he was taking back what he inspired them
to think and to do in the first place
and he
he did this by using the term apostle
which was a greek and eventually a roman
term he did the same with ecclesia
these are secular terms these are
secular terms that refer to a gathering
of two or three people
that have the authority to make
governmental type decisions
and so when jesus uses this term
ecclesia
he’s actually using a secular term that
everyone in that known world would be
aware of because it was a part of their
culture
so he says when two or three of you
gather i am there in the midst
so here’s the deal the presence of god
is the mark of divine authority
the presence of god the manifested
presence of god upon
a couple a married couple the presence
of god
that rests upon that couple in unity
before
christ they carry a governmental
responsibility
to represent him and to bind here
what is not free to rule there and to
lose here
what is already loosed there it is a
god-given mandate and responsibility
it is it is the backbone of our dis of
our assignment to disciple nations
it is a very specific responsibility it
is not
this is not peripheral this is not uh
you know extra you know like you you buy
a car and you
you want something extra on why i want
the one with the sunroof this
is not this is not extra this is the
heart and soul
of how you and i were designed we were
designed and assigned by god to be on
this planet
as citizens of another world
and as citizens of that world i’m to
look for
the one or the two others with whom i
can meet and come
into a place of agreement so that the
manifested presence of god would settle
upon
our gathering together and then in that
position we make decisions
that actually shape the course of
history
now in john 15 this
i i’ve been messing with these verses
for so long i i don’t know if you’re
tired of hearing me talk about them but
john 15
is uh provokes me because
do you ever do this do you ever read a
portion of scripture that blesses you so
much but you know you don’t get it yet
yeah that’s that’s kind of how i
approach the subject of abiding in
christ
is i i know i get it and i know i don’t
know what i’m talking about
i i know that i have experience there
and i’m so thrilled with what i’ve
experienced but i also know
i’m in preschool and i have barely
started this journey and that’s how
that’s kind of how i feel with this
whole subject so just take one verse the
entire 15th chapter
is worth the read but we’re just going
to take the one verse
if you verse 7 if you abide in me my
words abide in you
you will ask what you desire and it
shall be done for you
goes on to say by this my father’s
glorified you bear much fruit the fruit
in this context i believe is answers to
prayer
so i owe god answers to prayer
the lack of answers to prayer is not on
his end of the equation
the lack of answers to prayer are on my
end of the equation and it is connected
to my
ability and willingness to abide
the felt presence of god is the
absolute key to continuous answers to
prayer
and living apart from that doing our
best to mimic god’s will doing our best
to
pray for things that we think ought to
happen
it’s not that the prayers are wrong it’s
not that what we have requested is
is against his will it’s just we’re
we’re missing the strength of abiding
when you have the manifested presence of
god upon you
on jesus and you come before the father
with request
there is this clout if you will
that we have been invited into abide in
me
let my words abide in you what is that
it’s the acknowledged
felt presence of god and it’s not just a
recognition of the almighty god being
here
but is it is my engagement with him
abiding
is an engaged participation with a
person
there is this there is this encounter
there is this
exchange there is this fellowship there
is this intimacy
there’s a connection that is
otherworldly
and in that connection i am positioned
to think different
to feel different to see different and
i’m sitting here with
another brother a sister family member
whoever whoever
and he says in that context the weight
of the government of my world
is upon your shoulders and for that
reason
you can bind anything here that’s
already bound there
in that position we’re much more prone
to see discern the reality of that world
we do okay with binding here what’s
already bound there we do because
we know for example that somebody
demonized we know that
that doesn’t exist in heaven we know
that uh
somebody addicted to alcohol or or drugs
or whatever we know that doesn’t exist
there so
so we we know the devils work well we
know what it is to bind we know that
if there’s death lost destruction we
know that’s the devil’s fingerprints
and so we know all right this addiction
has to end so you pray for
your cousin or whatever that is addicted
to drugs you pray
we bind here what is already bound their
addiction does not exist in heaven
and we pray i remember one sunday night
we had this uh
uh it was a fairly quick altitude about
20 people as i recall came
forward and they stood right here and
we just prayed they responded to an
invitation to get rid of addictions
and we prayed this corporate prayer over
them i don’t recall i don’t think there
was any laying on of hands
we just prayed over the group six months
later one of the indian
individuals came to me and said do you
do you remember when you had that uh
invitation for uh for for prayer
concerning addiction i said yeah i do
he said well me and another person both
have been addicted to heroin for over 20
years
and we were both instantly set free that
night in a corporate prayer
we sometimes we have degrees of
difficulty in our mind that he doesn’t
have in his
you know this this one’s easy this one’s
hard
it wasn’t any harder for god to set two
people free
of heroin addiction in a moment probably
a five-minute
moment of prayer wasn’t any more
challenging for him than it would be to
bring
encouragement to somebody who was
discouraged
it’s all in his wheelhouse so to speak
so what we do is we bind here so you’re
praying for that relative of yours or
or a close friend or whatever that has
that addiction we’re binding here
what has already been there we’re
familiar with that responsibility
in measure our problem is on the other
side of the responsibility
we’re supposed to lose here what is
already loose there and without heavenly
encounters and heavenly experiences
and heavenly perception we have no idea
what we’re supposed to release
in the place of what we just bound the
whole concept is i’m removing something
and i’m replacing it
jesus taught this in the gospel of luke
when he said when a house
is clean and swept it’s got to be filled
with something or the enemy comes back
seven times
worse so sometimes we we we have this
we have a perpetual problem because we
bind but we don’t replace how
do we know what to replace it’s you know
it’s not
uh forgive me for the hunting analogy
but a flock of ducks go by a lot of
hunters just shoot at the flock you
don’t get anything that way you have to
pick one out
it’s not it’s not guesswork it’s very
specific
very strategic addressing an issue
replacing it
there has to be ongoing increased
understanding
of how his world works and what our
responsibility is
we are not leisurely coasting downstream
we are aggressively going upstream
against the tide
because we represent another world and
we continuously run into things
that he has nothing to do with they
don’t exist in heaven
and sometimes you’ll see a dear friend
of yours a part of the very thing that
doesn’t belong here
sometimes i’ll see a well-meaning
believer a part of something and they
have no clue
most of the time
i feel that my responsibility is just to
go behind the scenes and pray
and try to break that thing because if
they saw the spirit that was behind what
they said yes to they would never
participate
but generally a debate doesn’t convince
anybody
it’s better that if you see there’s a
demonic power behind something
love the person but get behind the
scenes before god
and bind and lose
if you can see with me i i don’t think
it’s uh uh i i don’t think it’s a
careless
joining of unique scriptures matthew 16
matthew 18. both carry the theme
whatever you bind here
has to already have been bound there but
then the losing
the increased heavenly perception
where does that come from well i think
there are unique experiences
that people have before the lord i’m
actually reading a book right now in
heaven that it’s just
mind-boggling that i i love so much when
i’m
when i’m finished i’ll tell you what it
was maybe
if i remember i i love
seeing glimpses of how he works how he
thinks how his world works
because every glimpse of his world of
his ways
and then his world equips me
to release his influence in the earth
see there’s a lot of people that think
his influence in the earth is going to
be when he returns and it’ll be this
military invasion
who knows what that’s going to look like
all i do know
is that i have the assignment now
he didn’t give us authority to keep us
busy till he returned he gave us
authority to make a difference in the
world we live in
and most of the stuff is not dealt with
face to face with an individual
i’m not saying avoid conversation all of
that i’m just saying
so often the powers that be are demonic
realities
that are surrounding an issue and that’s
where we go to battle that’s where we
get on our knees that’s where
we make prophetic decrees we are not
fighting against people
every one of us have had a bad idea at
some time and we actually partnered with
the enemy and not with god
every single one of us and probably most
of us more than
once or twice and somebody was merciful
to me
so let’s let’s let’s show the same mercy
the enemy is not people the enemy there
are powers
behind realms of thought there are
powers behind they’re behind even
geographical areas
i don’t want to get weird and spooky on
you but i’m just telling you
there are certain places they are dark
in that area
because there is an individual that has
partnered
with the demonic realm at such a level
that that thing has to be broken over
that person’s life
you see it with a man of the gadarenes
jesus brought deliverance to this one
guy actually
the son of the gospel say there was two
the point was they got free
jesus brought deliverance to the one the
people were so freaked out
it says it says that this demoniac
you know he had so many demons that his
demons were possessed you know
he was he was set free it says he was
clothed and in his right mind and the
city was afraid
as long as the guy is writhing you know
and breaking chains and running around
naked everybody’s fine but somehow when
he gets freed people get concerned
you know it must be that cult it must be
that church down the road
and it says the people they were afraid
because there was a power
that operated outside listen every
people around you don’t mind a god who
looks like them
they will they will try to reduce the
nature of god to their nature
instead of having a god you must give an
account to
and the responsibility in this moment is
jesus brings a deliverance to this guy
the city gets afraid and it says they
chase jesus and his disciples out of the
area
sometime later it says that when jesus
came back to that area
every person from every village came to
hear him speak
what happened there was one credible
witness
one person upon whom the kingdom had
come
something was bound something was loosed
he was a living illustration
of what that world looks like he had
sanity
he had engagement with people he was a
different person
and when that leaven was put into the
lump of dough that entire
region that had rejected christ when
that leaven was put into that lump of
dough
when jesus came back they all wanted to
hear what he had to say
because something was bound and
something was loosed
david made this statement he said he
said daily
i set the lord before me
it’s a strange statement daily
i set the lord before me well
just so you understand you can’t grab a
hold of god and put him where you want
he wasn’t saying that i believe what he
is saying
is since you can’t imagine a place where
he isn’t you might as
well imagine him with you
is he everywhere yes that means he’s
here
what is abiding in christ it’s
acknowledging
the presence of god who is with you to a
point
of engagement relationship awareness
something happens in that heartfelt
connection with the presence of god the
spirit of god
who is with me and will never leave me
something happens
in that heartfelt connection
where i i live more aware of what he
wants
i live more conscious of his will
the way i like to describe it is i live
more aware of his mood and i don’t mean
he’s
he’s moody in some temperamental way i
mean i just mean i
i live more conscious of his mood of how
he feels about a given subject about
a given person we’ve talked before about
i remember years ago
somewhere as not that long ago maybe
three years ago now
i was looking through a magazine it had
all these different conferences
in this magazine and i don’t it was
horrible when i got to the end of the
magazine i realized that i had skimmed
over every conference because i just
i looked at the speakers that were in
the conference with almost a disregard
and i thought that kind of um
complacency of heart towards another
brother in the lord is not healthy
so i actually went back to the beginning
of the magazine and i slowly turned the
pages until i came to a conference
i looked at each speaker this took me a
while
i took i looked at each speaker until i
could feel the pleasure of the lord for
that individual
when i could feel the pleasure of the
lord for that person
then i turn the page and go to the next
one
feel the pleasure of the lord when i did
something
changed in my perception i found that i
was
can i say it this way i was careless
i’m embarrassed to even say it i was
careless
in my attitude towards those who were
not a part of our stream
it wasn’t it wasn’t a conscious thing
that was i didn’t know it was there
until it
till it surfaced as i was looking at
these speakers and i felt so embarrassed
and ashamed in a sense
i knew enough to not think critically
but the answer to not being critical was
just to ignore and that’s not kingdom
see the opposite of love is not hate
it’s complacency
finding that that pleasure if you feel
you can sense that
that heart of god for any given issue it
may be a politician it may be somebody
who’s
completely opposed to anything you think
and
and their decisions or whatever you take
just that extra moment to realize
here is someone made in the image of god
i have the responsibility to treat them
as one made in the image of god
policy issues those are other issues
they cannot color
my approach or value prayer felt
value for an individual
it’s a deception
the religious spirit the political
spirit are both vying
to capture our emotional condition
or both vying for influence to to
influence my perception of people
of groups of people
to discolor so because
if if a person
if there’s a person i find repulsive to
me or i want nothing to do with
then we’ve just cut off my ability to
demonstrate the love of christ
and he didn’t say bill you’re assigned
to a few and you can be mad at the rest
you know
you love this person love that person
but you can hate everyone else it’s just
silly
it’s the fact that whoever he puts me
before i have to be able to honor and to
celebrate so here we have this
responsibility
jesus said the ecclesia
the two or three people the work down
here at such and such a grocery store
they take their lunch break together
when they come together in jesus name in
that lunch
room and they have this predetermined
idea we will partner together for the
invasion of god’s blessing and presence
upon this
business that i don’t own a business
that i am here is a representative of
another world
the government of god is resting upon
the two or three
but not just the government the governor
the one who runs the government is with
us as we gather
if we had just a heightened awareness of
purpose
and the reality of presence we would
live think and pray differently
our decrees would be much more
intentional our decrees our
pronouncements our prophetic uh uh words
that we
release would be much more anchored in a
faith that sees a possible
outcome paul in romans 12 talks about
talks about people who would prophesy
according to their faith
faith is supposed to be the guiding the
guiding
power if you will behind the prophetic
faith by faith i see what is it
naturally visible
so i’m perceiving something that isn’t
yet but it’s about to be because i’m
about to speak it
i’m about to declare it so you take the
ecclesia you take the two or three
and maybe a husband or wife in our homes
i would encourage you
of that has a facebook page it’s
actually
it’s not about his ministry it’s just
the ecclesia everywhere i think it’s
called
ecclesia everywhere and then there’s
going to be a website and you just sign
up and say you know
my house is in ecclesia my place of
business isn’t ecclesia
you just sign up let them know that
there are thousands upon thousands
and i hope eventually we get well over a
million all scattered all over this
nation that says you know what
we’re tired of letting the enemy have
his way
we are here representing another world
god himself
the governor of that world is here
present with me and he says
if i’ll just connect my heart to him and
i’ll live aware of him and i’ll let his
the words that he breathes infect my
soul until i think what he thinks
i want what he wants i dream what he
dreams
and as that abiding presence becomes
that kind of an influence
in my conscious and unconscious mind i
can ask
anything anything
anything god and you as a majority
and in that gathering he says the gates
of hades all the powers of health that
are known for killing stealing and
destroying
they are no contest no contest
we get so overwhelmed and impressed by
the success of the powers of darkness
not realizing that all it takes is two
or three
but look at the movements that are
destroying this
yeah yeah thousands and sometimes
millions of people yeah
but two or three god’s there god’s there
and when god is there anything can
happen
to shift the focus the direction the
flow
of the life of an entire nation
i i think we’ve probably
known or thought or talked about some of
these things for
quite a few years so today what i’m
wanting to do is have an altar call not
where you come forward
but where you just acknowledge my house
is an altar
my house is an altar my wife and i
our kids we are in ecclesia
we have made a covenant before god that
we will learn to recognize his presence
we will learn to flow from that presence
my dream is to dream what he dreams
my passion is to think what he thinks
do you remember that passage in romans 8
it says all things work together for
good
yes shake your head yeah if you don’t
read your bible
all things work together for good those
who love god called according to his
purpose
great passage right before that the holy
spirit
intercedes for us right after that jesus
intercedes for us that’s why all things
work
and learning what they are praying is
the key
to our ongoing continuous breakthrough
in prayer
it is supposed to be that the will of
god invades
earth because we prayed
what you stand
i i know there are people that
participate with us online
i love this fact there are so many that
join with us
uh who are not a part of the bethel
family we’re just we’re just glad you’re
here we
we’ve got people all over the world that
consider themselves
we consider you part of the bethel tribe
the bethel family
we’re we’re honored to join with you in
any way we can
but there are many who just for whatever
reason maybe stumbled across us on a
youtube channel or bethel tv
whatever it might be and
you are in this moment very much aware
of your need for god and i believe that
the lord jesus himself
set the stage for you today to be able
to step
into life for the simple faith to
measure faith that every person
has been given according to scripture
that that faith would be placed
in jesus christ as lord as absolute
savior
and we’ve got pastors that are online
ready to talk and to pray with anyone
who would just simply express just write
it in the chat box just say i want to
know jesus
i want to be forgiven of sin i want to
be a disciple a follower of jesus
because you were born for something much
more significant than what
you have known up to this point
i remember many years ago uh one of our
dear friends in weaverville chris and i
were still in weaverville and one of our
dear friends buck steele he’s a what
what a great man
such such an unusual grace and gift on
his life
but i remember he prophesied once that
there would be an individual from a
particular city in our county trinity
county
that would be saved and that he would
become a key
to reaching many people in that city and
he prophesied this word
well he was at the office one day and we
got a phone call from the
sheriff’s department and there was
someone in the
cell the padded room who had just tried
to kill himself
and uh so buck was there i said buck you
want to go down and pray for buck
never resisted a chance to go pray for
somebody and to you know lead someone to
christ or whatever
so he went down there he did the most
unusual thing he went down there and he
found out this man is from the city i
just prophesied about and that there was
a key person about to be saved
that would be key for touching that
entire city and he came in
with this word that this individual was
chosen for such a time as this
and all of a sudden a guy who wanted to
kill himself suddenly realized i have
purpose i have a reason for being alive
i’ve got a reason for being alive i have
a chance to have a relationship
with god and that he would actually use
me to impact an entire city that i live
in
how many know when you find purpose you
don’t want to end your life you want to
start your life
and that’s exactly what anybody watching
right now and everybody in this room
this is it it’s engaging with divine
purpose there is
nothing greater there is nothing greater
so i encourage you online please just uh
in the chat box do whatever but
get help because there are people that
would love you and care for you
father i ask that there would be an
impartation
first for the realization of the
presence of god
second that in that discovery of your
manifest presence upon us
we would come to know more and more your
thoughts
your heart your mood what you feel about
different things that this partnership
with the almighty god and the two or
three
gathered in his name that we would see
in this abiding presence
the will of god being manifested on the
earth in ways
that have been thought to be impossible
impossible until now
incorporate us in this last days
plan to demonstrate the presence and
power and government of god
into every aspect of society
i pray this in jesus wonderful and
mighty name
amen amen
Strategies for transfomation is needed for ME!! i will listen to the message again and again. i am in a nursing home but Bill knows me from Dons Harvest Chapel curch were i met Bill. It has been yrs since i been to church but i call Don n Lori dailey. i miss bill n pray for him a lot. Bill i WILL seeyou in Heaven there we will NOT let time n place inturrupt us!! I follow JESUS still n want to daily look like HIM!! pray n love you Bill, nancy webb from harvest chapel!!!!
thank u Bill for praying for me!!