Every testimony reveals the nature of God and his covenant with mankind. Bill Johnson, shares on the importance of dwelling on the testimony of God in our lives. It is time to remember the goodness of God.
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[Applause]
i’ll pay you later
thank you very very nice
and kelly’s album looks good and i
i ordered it during the last service i
downloaded it sitting right down here
thank you jesus it’s now here i shall be
listening to that on the way home today
hey i felt like uh something i was
supposed to do today
uh it’s like we’re pulling our car into
the
bay at the repair shop we’re going to
get a little tune-up something that
uh that we have pretty good training and
real good exposure
we’ve uh been working on for a lot of
years as
the concept of testimony and the
prophetic nature of a testimony
so to do this right i’ve got to take you
on just a little bit of a
personal journey oh goodness 30
i don’t know 38 years something like
that ago i was
pastoring in uh in weaverville and i was
in my office
and i was reading praying reading in the
morning i was going through the book of
revelation and i
came to this verse in revelation 19
10. it says the testimony of jesus is
the spirit of prophecy
and when i was reading through
revelation when i came to that verse it
just
it’s just one of those moments you know
that you have in god words it’s kind of
like
it’s on neon lights and like something
happened here
that i can’t explain i love learning
here first
because your heart can fit where your
head can’t fit so it’s
it’s uh he invites us into things that
we have perception of here that we can’t
comprehend
and it’s it’s a wonderful way to learn
so anyway i sensed
life on that verse and i actually
stopped i stopped my reading
i looked at that verse i said god
there’s something here
i know you want to teach me and i said
please show me what this means
show me what this means went on through
the
the morning and it was that afternoon
maybe you know
an hour two two hours three hours later
i was in uh
i was in in my office and uh just doing
work and one of the guys from the church
came and stood in the doorway from the
sanctuary my
uh this our church facility at the time
the sanctuary was here there was a door
came into my office
so he stood in the doorway and he walked
in he said
i said bill i said come on in sit down
he said no he says i’ve got to get back
to work
i just wanted to tell you of the miracle
that god has done
in healing my marriage and he stands
there in the doorway and he gives me you
know a three or four minute
synopsis of the miracle that god had
done
in his marriage and so i i thanked him
for the report
he turned to leave and he got about this
far away
and he turned around and he said you can
tell this story to anyone you want
you can tell my story to anyone you want
i knew in that moment that something
just happened
that was connected to my prayer that
morning i couldn’t have taught on it i
couldn’t have explained it but i could
tell
they were related they had just shared a
testimony with me
and he was giving me permission to
repeat that story
so let’s take the verse the testimony of
jesus is the spirit of prophecy
the testament of jesus say it with me
the testimony of jesus
is the spirit of prophecy let’s do it
again the testimony of jesus
is the spirit of prophecy all right
number one
the testimony of jesus is is a spoken or
written record of anything he’s done
all right so the testament of jesus is a
spoken or written record of anything
that he’s done
the spirit of prophecy is that prophetic
anointing prophetic mantle so what is
prophecy then
prophecy is in two realms that i
understand
one is to foretell the future a prophet
will describe
something is about to happen on such and
such a day but
i think predominantly the prophetic is
used not to foretell
but to do something else and that is to
change present
situations the prophetic will be used to
make a decree that actually
changes the reality that an individual a
family a church a city nation
is facing it’s the word of the lord is
released and it changes the situation
so think of it this way the testimony of
jesus
carries with the weight of heaven to
alter the reality of a problem or
situation that we’re facing
it carries that it’s written into the
dna of a testimony
that it has that ability to actually
change reality
change realities so i uh
i was in uh rochester minnesota i was
with a dear friend there assembly got
church
and um i i had spoken at a night meeting
i spent some time praying for a young
lady she had
uh she had been in a snowmobile accident
her ankle was put back together with
pins and
and you know metal stuff to make it work
and so she had pain she had restricted
movement she had all that going on in
her ankle
and so now i’m just telling you the only
way i know to
learn in some of these things is to
either have a mentor
or to experiment and since i didn’t know
anyone who knew anything about
the power the prophetic nature of a
testimony of jesus we had to experiment
so the safest way to experiment is with
people that you know and trust
that you live accountable to so that if
you overextend yourself
they reel you back in and you you clean
up your mess but
but you have you have to be you have to
be willing to experiment if you’re gonna
if you’re gonna try to
touch new things so so um this gal comes
to me
uh the nick i pray for this night she
comes to me the next morning and she
says
she said bill you prayed for me last
night i said yeah how how is your ankle
she said when i got up this morning i
was getting dressed
and my husband looked at my leg and said
hey
that wasn’t there before and she looks
down
she was actually missing a part of this
calf muscle because of this accident
and it grew back overnight it grew back
so it is it’s there it go back overnight
so i thought well that’s so cool i said
here tell her you know we’ve got
probably i don’t know 20 or 30 people in
this meeting it was a morning meeting
and
and so i said tell them the story and um
and so she tells the uh her testimony
that the accident
and the missing muscle and then it
actually grew back overnight
and so as soon as she starts going back
to her seat
there’s a gal sitting right here on the
front row from toronto
that was a friend of the house she was
but she was visiting she walked
right up to me after the scale leaves
she said she says to me
if god did that for her certainly he
would do that for me
now she had she had a brilliant
understanding of the kingdom
that number one god is no respecter of
persons what he’s done for one he’ll do
for another
he doesn’t have us in categories where
these people get special things and
these people get the crumbs it’s not how
he works
so she understood that number one number
two she understood that god is the same
yesterday today and forever
so something he’s done at another time
he’ll he’ll do again
so she says what uh if god did that for
her
certainly he would do that for me and so
i called the girl that just got healed i
called her back he said come back
here and then the pastor’s wife they
came up they prayed for her
they watched she had had been in an
accident and had to actually
go through therapy to learn to walk
again because she’s missing a part of
this muscle
in in the leg she actually had to learn
how to walk again
so that’s why she wants prayer so the
pastor’s wife
and this young lady come up they lay
hands on her and they watch and before
their eyes
the muscle forms and is is recreated
it’s a creative miracle
in the moment in that instant
that’s that’s amazing two other women
came up it’s like an epidemic of calf
muscle problems you know
it’s like how do you get that many
people in that small of a crowd that all
have
something similar with their with their
leg muscle so two other gals come up one
had been kicked by a horse
and destroyed a portion of the muscle
she had a growth in its place and the
other one i don’t remember the details
but they prayed they watched the the
growth the tumor disappeared the muscle
fell on the
the fourth one the same thing so uh we
of course we
we celebrated just the kindness of the
lord in doing such unusual things in
such a
such a small group of people it’s just
amazing i flew from there to another
city
in tennessee and um
i don’t remember the name of the town
though it wasn’t nashville it wasn’t a
place that i normally go to
and uh i was with there with a with a
good friend
and so i gave them the stories of these
healings these of these four uh leg
muscle things
and a medical doctor was there who had
broken his leg a year earlier
uh the muscles had atrophied he had
restricted movement a lot of pain
and so he he won a prayer so he came up
and i had a bunch of students with me
they prayed for him
and he came to me sometime later in the
evening and wanted to give me a report i
said
i said what’s going on with your leg he
said he said the pain is all gone he
says i’ve got all the movement back
but i was curious about the muscle thing
you know because we we gotta we got a
roll going here
of muscles just going back i said how
how’s the muscle the atrophied muscles
in your leg
he said i can feel the skin stretching
so i i flew home and i shared those five
stories
here on a sunday morning probably and
there was a gal here
that i think it was two weeks later we
were in a small meeting we used to
uh we were taking some time to pray over
some folks
and in a separate private meeting there
was maybe uh 15 or 20 of them we were
praying
and she says but uh she says i need to
tell your story she said
two weeks ago do you remember when you
gave the testimonies of
the of god healing the legs the muscles
i said yeah i do
she said i broke my leg a year earlier
the muscles had atrophied i had
restricted movement
um and and pain and while you were
giving the testimonies my leg turned hot
and we have since learned hot is good
her leg turned hot and she was
completely healed without anybody
praying
so so what happened is uh
i started stewarding these stories and i
would experiment
um would i would give a story and then
we would find out what god was doing now
how many of you have heard testimonies
before uh in church you know uh
deliverance from drugs healing of bodies
whatever it might be
uh the stories i grew up on hearing them
and they were always so
encouraging and so exciting but i don’t
remember one time
in all my years of growing up where a
testimony was given
and a miracle followed as well as a
result of the story
and yet it is in god’s plan
it’s in his dna so
adjusting how we think actually puts us
in line for how he moves
adjusting how we think adjusting what we
expect
i was on the coast with uh once again
with a bunch of our students and
we were uh we had a meeting there that
ended up
it’s i think it’s the only meeting in my
life i lost complete control of
and i’m not a control freak i just
control freak but i like to direct the
traffic you know i like to make sure
this person is healed
and this person gives testimony and
stuff but i i lost control of everything
i finally i did i finally quit i finally
just got into the fray because it was i
realized
i can’t get this meeting back so forget
it they’re having all the fun and i’m
trying to direct
traffic so
so i uh i got down into the into the
fray with people
and i mean we this is where we’ve got uh
empty wheelchair we’ve got a wheelchair
being passed up over people’s heads up
to the front and
a gal with uh permanent nerve damage
down the right side of her
or one side of the body i forget which
side uh was completely healed blind eye
was open deafness was
open all kinds of stuff so the students
come to me and they said
we just prayed for this little boy uh
with club feet
and god healed him i said well bring him
to me i want to see him
so they went got this little guy’s three
years old and his feet are like this
and he’s got scabs on the tops of his
feet because they were
on the bottom of the feet where he would
he would drag them
and he’s three so a little guy named
chris so he’s bending over
he’s playing with the scabs he’s
touching the scabs
because they were out of view before you
know now now he sees so he’s touching
the scabs and one of his little friends
comes a little girl comes up to him says
run chris run so he takes off in this
like this 20-foot circle he runs he
comes running back to
this little girl and he says i can run
i can run his eyes are like this you
know
his his face is lit up with joy oh man
it’s just enough to wreck you you know
for the rest of your life you never
forget the look on that face
so he comes back he says i can run i can
run so
we we bring the story home of course and
i i share the story here
we had somebody visiting us from out of
state and they had
i think three children if i remember
right and one of them was a little girl
almost two years old her feet were
turned in so severe
that she would trip over her own feet
when she would try to run
she was in her child care
and so i taught on the concept of the
testimony
and then i gave the testimony of the
club feet
she hears the concept that god intends
to duplicate
miracles did i mention this the hebrew
word the old testament word for
testimony comes from a word that means
do
again that the very nature when he says
keep a testimony
keep a record of what i want to
duplicate of what i want to do again
it was never meant to be a historical
factor
that pointed to an old event it was
supposed to be a present tense reality
that releases the activity of god into
present situations
and so i i taught on that just briefly i
shared the testimony
she she says in her heart she says i’ll
take that for my little girl
when the meeting is over she goes over
to get her little girl
and her little girl’s feet are already
straight nobody prayed for it
nobody paid for it come on
wow
[Applause]
that hurts a friend of mine would say if
that doesn’t light your fire your wood
is wet so
yeah that’s that’s amazing so
i take that story those two stories and
i
i was with mahesh and bonnie shoved how
many you know the shavdas in north
carolina wonderful people dear friends
of ours were
we we ministered there every year with
them and they’ve been here many many
times
so i was there and i was talking about a
series of
it happens to be one of the times i was
teaching on the concept of the testimony
and giving them stories and in giving
the stories
i talked about the club feet i talked
about the little girl
and some other leg issue stories so
uh after the meeting we spent a little
bit of time with mahesh and bonnie
and and then our we have a driver
someone who takes us
from the hotel to the meeting from the
meeting back to the hotel
so he’s from brazil so he he meets us
at the end of the meeting and we get
into the car and he says
i just got a phone call from and i don’t
remember now if it’s his sister-in-law
or her sister
he says i just got a phone call and my
sister let’s say it was my sister
was watching tonight’s meeting on on the
internet on live tv
and she has a little girl about 10 or 11
years old that has deformed feet she’s
a beautiful young lady but not only the
inconvenience of a problem with the feet
but people just stare at their feet so
it’s
it’s not only a natural issue it’s an
issue emotionally
and so the mother is watching online she
hears the story the series of stories
and at the end of it she calls to her
daughter who’s down at the other end of
the house
she calls her name the little girl comes
into the hallway and says yes mommy
and the mother looks at her daughter and
says take your shoes off
she removes her shoes and she says come
here
as she walks towards her mother god
heals her feet completely completely
you know it’s it’s it’s not a tool that
we use to manipulate it’s the
it’s the privilege to broadcast the
nature of god because every testimony
reveals the nature of god and reveals
his covenant with man
the nature of god and his covenant with
us
i was in the modesto and i was
a wonderful assembly we’ve got church
there which is
which is my history so i have a special
fondness
uh for the assemblies and i was i was i
was in this
uh and it ended up it was another
healing meeting and great stuff’s
happening
but this gal comes up to me towards the
end she just walks up to me she said
her first words out of her mouth the
voices stopped
i went all right um
help me understand give me give me some
story here she says the voices stopped
i said okay tell me what was happening
at that point her father walks up who’s
a retired surgeon
and he begins to explain to me she has
bipolar
she’s had bipolar she’s on medication
she her
particular issue she was constantly
hearing voices and
now nobody prayed for this was during
worship the voices stopped
and the voice has stopped she’s trying
to figure out what do i do because she
has this lifestyle of many many years i
think
i memorized 13 years of medication
treatments whatever
so now both the dad and the daughter are
talking to me want to know what do we do
and so i try to give them advice how to
navigate this uh this that the
that god is doing and so
that was a i believe it was a thursday
night not the next sunday but a week
later should be ten days later i was
standing right back there
and this gentleman walks up to me says
do you remember me is
i was in modesto you you uh talked to me
about my daughter
and his his words to me were i have my
daughter back
i have my daughter back absolutely no
effects no medication nothing
she is completely restored in every
possible way
and it was during worship it’s during
worship so i
i stood up here and shared the testimony
that we have this
case of bipolar being healed there were
two men in the room at that time that
both had
had both had bipolar for over 20 years
each and the moment it came out of my
mouth
instantly they were both healed
instantly healed
sometimes this process but in this
situation it was instantly they were
healed
we quit counting about 10
10 maybe 12 years ago the bipolar
healings
but for a season there we were just kept
counting them and there was something
like 60 or 65
of them but i think only three or four
were actually prayed for all the rest
were healed
either in worship or in a testimony just
hearing the report of the lord
now the testimony of jesus is the
spirit of prophecy old testament
testimony comes from a word that means
to do again
new testament it is the prophetic nature
of the work of god
i want to read a quote to you how many
of you know charles spurgeon
was one of the great great heroes of the
faith an amazing
pastor from england and
he made this comment
july 17 1859 and no i was not there
but uh but it was it was it was recorded
all right
there we go i have to lean you know
that’s my crutch all right
here’s what he said he he preached a
message called the story of god’s mighty
acts and here’s the statement he made
he says when people hear about what god
used to do
one of the things they say is oh that
was a very long while ago
i thought it was god that did it has god
changed
is he not an immutable god the same
yesterday today and forever
does not that furnish an argument to
prove
that what god has done at one time he
can do at another
nay i think i shall push it a little
further
and say what he has done once is a
prophecy
of what he intends to do again
whatever god has done is to be looked
upon
as a precedent let us with earnestness
seek what god would restore to us
in the the faith of these old men that
we may richly enjoy the grace as in the
days of old
so here in 1859 the body of christ has
an
opportunity to step into a reality that
i don’t think was very common i’ve never
read
one other person write or talk about
this reality and yet it’s as plain as
can be in scripture
the nature of testimony and the and the
spirit of prophecy and revelation
and yet spurgeon makes this announcement
with incredible
influence and i don’t know what happened
but it appears to me
it just got reduced to a good sermon
instead of an invitation to explore what
might be possible if we actually
treasured
the record of what god has done so now
fast forward
the book of deuteronomy is the is the
book
um that uh from what i understand uh
young men jewish young men would
would uh need to learn and memorize and
it’s kind of the cultural book of the of
the uh
the books of law and um and i i love i
used to read it and read it read it
reread it
because in it was the instruction to
train your children raise them up in
specific ways and
which is a huge part of my life so um
i i was reading through and he says in
deuteronomy 6 he says
keep the commandment keep the statutes
and keep the testimony keep the
commandment
keep the statutes keep the testimony
okay we know what it means to keep a
commandment
he says you worship on this day you
worship on this day so he would give
them specific commandments you offer
this kind of an offering this kind of a
sacrifice you just do what he says
so keeping a commandment a commandment
is to obey god
what is keeping a statute keeping the
statutes of god
is where he is teaching us his value
system
so in a commandment he is telling you
what to think but in a statute he’s
telling you how to think
that was better than your response
in a commandment he’s telling you what
to think in the statutes he’s telling
you how to think he’s actually showing
you
his perception on reality and how he
how he how he navigates wants us to
navigate life so
he says keep the commandment keep the
statutes and then he says keep the
testimony how do you keep a testimony
i mean it’s not like doing something you
know it’s not like
sacrificing an ox or something it’s it’s
it’s you’re supposed to hold on to
something
and my conclusion uh through studying
especially
in the gospel of mark uh in the the
lifestyle of jesus
that keeping the testimony basically
means this to me
is that i hold the record of god’s
interventions
among people so close to me
that they become the lenses through
which i see present problems or
challenges
in other words i interpret them through
a history with god
a prescribed history with god has now
given me lenses through which to see
possibility in a problem instead of just
a problem
the nature of god in a situation how is
god going to become triumphant now
in this situation
oh it’s amazing
it’s it’s amazing but because we
actually have the ability
to steward the record of god’s
supernatural intervention
so well that they become how we see
they become the place from which we
think the place from which we see the
place from which we act
the place from which we pray testimony
it’s not just an exciting encouraging
moment just a moment in a service or
in our life we we just kind of get a a
boost of encouragement strength
it’s much more than that it is imagine
elijah standing in front of you
prophesying that’s what a testimony is
it is
prophesying this is the heart of god
this is the nature of god
this is the covenant of god and it is
available to you
that’s what a testimony is i want you to
look with me
at psalm 68 if you would
i had a guy come up to me once
at a conference he said i i said um he
said i’m 34 years old 25 years ago when
i was nine i broke my leg
when it healed it grew past the other
one an inch and a half
and i’ve got problems with my back now
i’m a contractor i’ve got issues with my
back because my
broken leg when it healed it just got
happy and went past the other one
happy was my turn that is and he said
have you ever
seen a leg shrink before because he’s
wanting to know if there’s a testimony
for
so i figure if we haven’t there’s always
got to be a first time right
so i paused for a moment i thought you
see
yes i have i’ve seen it happen i was in
an italian restaurant with a pastor
friend of mine in sacramento
he had been in a snowmobile accident
when they put him back together
apparently they had too many parts
because he had a leg that was too long
so he’s telling me in the restaurant i
said i’ll just turn your chair aside so
in the
italian restaurant you know the nice
lining table claws and everything we
just i just
give me your leg so we’ll lift his legs
up and i command a long leg just to
shrink so it just shrinks just like that
he goes back to the therapist told me
later he said therapist said it’s
perfect everything’s just right
so i so i told the guy yes i’ve seen it
happen
i said get a chair and of course if
we’ve never seen it get a chair anyway
because there’s got to be a first time
so he sits down and i’m holding his leg
and sure enough he’s got a leg that’s an
inch and a half longer than the other
one sorry i’m laughing
i’m holding i’m holding his legs up and
and sure enough one is is an inch and a
half longer than the other
and i just had this moment where i
thought
should i shrink the long one
[Applause]
or should we see if god would call them
the normal one no it it took me 10
seconds to ponder but
i i just kind of surprised myself by
saying
you know to the normal leg to grow it’s
kind of like the guy who says
i don’t want to think before i speak i
want to be as surprised as everyone else
and that was
that was kind of how i how i was in that
moment i found myself saying to the
normal leg i said in jesus name
grow and we just watched oh
it’s this one’s too long i’ve got to
watch my time here
this one’s kind of a weird story it
grows it grows and then it shoots past
the other one
i’m not kidding i i would give anything
to have a video of this moment
because the guy’s in pain how many of
you had growing pains when you were a
kid
yeah so did he 34 years old he got like
two years of growth
in in a moment his leg is
sticking out there and i’m on the
outside
i’m acting like oh yeah this happens
on the inside i’m saying oh jesus
i’m searching my heart how do i pray now
that’s honestly my question how do i
pray now and i remembered the word
shalom in the bible shalom the word
shalom is of course we notice the word
peace
but it is one of the fullest most
pregnant words
in the bible it’s sound mind it’s
prosperity financially
it’s divine health it’s all these things
anything you would ever ask for in life
it’s wrapped up in that word
so what i’m thinking is that word’s got
to cover this
so i prayed with all the confidence in
the world
jesus help me i just prayed now lord i
just pray that you release the peace the
shalom of heaven over this man
and and it just evened out perfectly
the testimony prophesies
sometimes you just do dumb things and
sometimes the lord just honors it anyway
i was
i was in another city there was a gal
there completely deaf
ear that opened up she had had bone
cancer
and they replaced this bone with metal
and and they made it she had the surgery
when she was 15 they made an inch and a
half too long
because they knew she’d grow into it or
she didn’t grow anymore
and so she’s got the same kind of issue
and so she asked for
her deaf ear open and then prayed for a
leg
having had a recent experience
with growing the wrong leg that whole
situation
it was fresh in my mind i thought i’m
not messing with this
so i she was laid out on the floor so i
got out on the floor and spoke to the
leg and it
it actually the metal part actually
shrunk came back into the line
she came to me the next day she said i’m
so glad that you
you had the metal leg shrink
i said why is that she said because if
you didn’t the doctors would have said
see
we told you you’d grow into it if i go
the other way
so sometimes you look good when you
don’t deserve it
that’s that’s my conclusion is i did not
know what i was doing
psalm 78 are you there we’ve got a few
minutes late
left one uh 78 is what i meant did i say
68
well you know what just have a good time
in 68 because it’s a great chapter
it’s let god arise his enemies be
scattered it’s a great chapter
but i’m going to be reading out of psalm
78.
so if you want to join me join me psalm
78
we’ll start what right with verse 3
is referring to dark sayings and
parables he says which we have heard and
known
and our fathers have told us we will not
hide them from their children
telling to the generation to come the
praises of the lord
and his strength and his wonderful works
that he has done what just happened
there
now think while you’re reading this they
are being exhorted
to train their children on not only the
report of the law of god the
commandments but to train him with the
report of his wonderful works which is
what
that’s a testimony yes
yes all right verse 5 he established a
testimony in jacob he appointed a law in
israel which he commanded our fathers
that they should make them known to
their children that the generation to
come might know them
the children who would be born that they
may arise and declare them to their
children
so if you can see this was a pattern of
a value system for the
spoken or written record of all that
god’s done to be given to this
generation
they would give it to the next
generation they’d give it to the next
generation
now it tells us why and this is
important verse
7 that they may set their hope in god
there’s something about the testimony
that conditions or positions
a child or an adult to position himself
to place hope in god when a trial comes
their instinctive response is i’m going
to trust god he’s the god who works
wonders
i don’t understand what he’s going to do
i don’t know how he’s going to do it but
i’m going to trust him
where did that come from it came because
the cloud of their heart so
so to speak was seated with this thought
that god is faithful
in impossible situations so here it says
it says that they may set their hope in
god and not forget his works the works
of god
keep his commandments are you guys still
alive you sure you’re still alive
all right what i want you to notice is
is not forgetting the works of god and
keeping the commandments
the testimony and the courage to obey
they’re connected
this is really a big deal because what
we do for ourselves what we do for our
children our grandchildren
we set the stage for them to have
courage because it takes courage to obey
god
it takes courage we want courageous
obedience radical obedience
out of my life that’s what i want so
here he says we keep the testimony going
multiple generations why
so they’ll put hope in god and that
they’re
there they won’t forget the works of god
and will have the courage to obey god
now he illustrates it in the next three
verses all right
verse nine that the children of ephraim
being armed and carrying bows turned
back in the day of battle
they did not keep the covenant of god
they refused to walk in his law
they forgot his works and his wonders
that he had shown them okay walk through
this
these three verses with me verse nine
the children of ephraim
are armed in other words they’re
prepared for battle they’re skilled
they’re trained for battle they’ve got
all the equipment necessary
he said the children of ephraim being
armed and carrying those turned back in
the day of battle
so why did they turn back in in why did
they become cowardly
when there was a conflict verse 10 tells
you
because they didn’t keep the covenant of
god they refused to walk in his law
how many know if you’re not walking into
obedience spiritual warfare is not where
you want to be
because you you become very vulnerable
so they turn back in a day of battle why
because they didn’t they had not been
walking in obedience why weren’t they
walking in obedience
verse 11. they forgot his works and the
wonders that he had shown them
there is something about the testimony
that instinctively
breathes into our soul a courage for
radical obedience
it’s a part of the process it’s how you
keep
strong in your confidence and faith in
god
what happens if if the the testimony of
the lord
if we decline in sharing testimony
then we see miracles less if we see
miracles less we expect them less
if we expect them less we talk about
them less
if we talk about them less we see them
less we expect there’s this downward
spiral
into the point where miracles have
become a mere
part of our history some time ago god
used to do such and such
which is where so much of the church is
right now it was in their history it was
in israel’s history it was in the
the book of acts it was it was the
memory of something that happened
back there but it’s not a current
reality it’s not a present tense
experience
and the testimony is supposed to become
that which invites us into this
relational journey where we learn how to
take
we learn how to take these things that
god has said and we simply trust god we
put our lives on the line to take risk
to see what he might do and it’s simply
because
i’ve been built up by the record of the
supernatural interventions of god
i love it when god will give us a
glimpse
of what he’s doing because it’s fun to
gain an understanding
but oftentimes he moves and i’m just
clueless
i’m a clueless observer that’s just
frantically trying to learn
i’m not a facilitator you know in the
sense that i made anything happen i’m
just i’m
i’ve told him i said god i just want to
be in the room it doesn’t have to come
from me i just want to be a part
and there are there are things that he
does the moment in dallas where
pray for this individual who with the
lightning of god literally goes through
him from head to toe and he’s completely
delivered and healed of schizophrenia
completely comes to me a year later in
his right mind completely
because god brought a miracle to him he
ended up
going to africa and ministered i think
he personally
was able to bring liberty and freedom
through his own testimony to about 40
people that were considered insane
mentally gone it’s a testimony it’s it’s
like
god has give imagine being given um
you know a priceless uh gem
uh how many know if you’ve been if
somebody comes to you and says i’ll give
you a million dollars if you can wear
this ring it’s worth 10 million dollars
you can’t lose it
but you have to wear it you can’t put it
hide it away how many of you think
you’ve got that ring on your hand you’re
going to be looking at it all day long
you’re going to be wrapping tape you’re
going to do all kinds of stuff to make
sure
we don’t lose this thing all right i’m
aware
of the value of what’s on my hand are
you aware
of the value of what’s in your mouth
it’s the record
it’s the it’s the revelatory
testimony of the heart the nature the
covenant of god
that actually invites people into a
personal relationship with jesus
paul when he was in trouble he would
revert to his personal story
into his own testimony it’s not just the
miracles of healing it’s the deliverance
salvation is the greatest miracle of all
and everybody in this room has that kind
of a story
i believe that god wants to give us an
upgrade
and this will sound a little strange but
but actually the whole thing’s been
rather strange so it’s
that’s if
if you want to if you want to change the
atmosphere of a room
go to you know say a restaurant you go
into a restaurant
three or four people sit down and take
the first 20 minutes only to share
miracle stories
i don’t mean miracle stories so that you
impress people around you i mean so that
the atmosphere changes because the
angelic realm
is fascinated by your perspective of
jesus the son of god
and they love hearing the stories of
what you’ve had happen what you’ve seen
what you know about him
they are enthralled with him but every
story we share
they catch another glimpse of what he’s
like through the eyes of someone who is
redeemed
simply sharing stories
i i feel like the lord would just give
us an upgrade in this area
we’re going to be touching you know i’m
thankful
beyond words on what i’ve seen happen
what we’ve seen happen we’ve seen happen
in this
room what we’ve seen happen in our city
is just it floors me sometimes i
i get in here early sunday morning i
just walk around and i just i just
remember oh
colon cancer was healed here a woman
after 50 some years in a wheelchair
gets out right there after a stroke she
walks
right over here um ms multiple sclerosis
was healed
west nile no m.e
this same person had several conditions
they were healed
just walk around this room the guy who
was run over by a 14-ton
truck completely crushed his ankle and
he receives prayer over here
there’s a pop his his ankle turns cold
there’s a pop and it’s completely
totally healed
completely here just go through the
story one after the other the woman who
who could hardly open her mouth just
very little movement because he broke
her jaw ten years earlier
and there was very little movement
extreme pain to open her mouth wide the
dentist
they didn’t have time to give her any
kind of
novocaine or anything because of the
pain she suffered with
and yet one sunday morning just simply
praying for those with broken bones
she’s instantly completely totally
healed
right back over here a man with prostate
cancer that’s healed a woman right down
here
a tumor in her breast just simply devol
dissolves and the stories go
on and on and on and on there are
hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
them
but none of them are
badges of honor they’re all records
of a of a god who is willing to work
in and through very imperfect people
he just he just looks for people that
have a value
for his nature and will give him an
opportunity to do what he does best
he works in the impossible
i’m there in the journey
and i believe in this fall season we’ve
got some stuff coming up in another
couple weeks three weeks maybe we’re
going to be targeting this
even more not the testimony side but the
miracle realm because i believe
it’s a season for an upgrade this season
and it’s honestly for everybody in this
room you know jesus
asked the questions of his disciples
once they were
they were bewildered by the challenge
that he had just given him they
they just it’s one of these moments
they’re they’re literally just beside
themselves bewildered
and so he then asked them this series of
questions and these series of questions
have helped me a lot
he asked his disciples because they were
they were concerned about not having
enough food after he just multiplied
food
you know like the day before which is
it just comforts me to see other people
that
that think as dumb as i do i just and
when it’s in the bible i just feel so
much better
and so they’re puzzled by this and then
jesus asks them a series of questions he
says can you see
and you can tell they’re not answering
so he says can you hear
and they’re still just staring and he
says can you remember
those questions have helped me
incredibly because there are times i’m
i’m tr i i’m always trying to see i’m
always trying to see what is god doing
i’m always trying to hear what is he
saying so i’m let’s just say in a moment
like this i’m
just trying to discern what is it the
lord is doing around the room and so he
comes to me he says can you see
and my heartfelt response is now i don’t
see anything
so then he says what can you hear well
my hearing’s better than my scene
but at the moment i don’t hear anything
and then he says can you remember
yes i can i can remember
i can remember i can remember flying
back from new zealand
after having spent some time with great
hero of the faith for me
winky pratty it had a stroke his brain
part of his brain literally just blew up
and he was completely
healed restored in his right mind i was
on the plane thinking about this miracle
of healing with the brain
and i recall to my mind roland baker a
wonderful friend of our house had
x-rays of his brain actually dying
and the lord completely healed him
raised him up so i’m thinking on the
plane flying back from new zealand
these are the two smartest men i have
ever met
and god restored their brains i’ll bet
god is healing brains
i’ll bet that’s what he’s doing can you
see i don’t see it
and i don’t hear it but i i can remember
and the
the more i remember the better i hear
and the more i hear the better i
see so we came in here on a sunday and i
called out i said god is healing brains
went right back here you remember this
kevin you were right back here praying
for
this young lady she’s in fact we have
the testimony in video
she was dying she was dying
terminal systemic lupus of the brain
chris had a word of knowledge but
somebody had a blow to the head
she’s right back there and she would
when she’d get up in the morning
sometimes she’d pass out and she’d be
unconscious for 30 days
30 days
she’s dying of this of this disease
and chris has this word of knowledge and
pray
here’s this moment god is healing brains
and what happens
she’s completely healed her mother looks
at her the next morning says you look
like you did before the accident
before the accident she then comes to
the school of ministry i think she’s in
oxford right now she’s in some
smart school because she’s a smartie
smarty
so the lord heals a young kid over here
he
had a head that was misshapen because of
abuse he was two years old i think he
was two
and it missed shape and he was very
disconnected he didn’t associate with
people he’d wake up in the morning he’s
very disconnected
and some of our students prayed for him
after this announcement god is healing
brains
and they pray for this child the next
morning the child comes into his mother
which is a miracle
comes into the mother and said i had a
dream
last night excuse me he was four so this
happened until the time he was two
he said i had a dream last night i’m
okay now
and they examined him and his head was
back to normal shape
god is healing brains
[Applause]
why don’t you stand
can you see yeah i’m not seeing much
can you hear i try sometimes i hear
can you remember can you remember
folks listen to me you have a
responsibility this is not a pastoral
issue
this is not a ministry team issue this
is a people of god issue
what have you seen god do here’s a great
news you may say i’ve hardly ever seen
anything happen
i mean my own testimony is a great
miracle but i’ve never seen healing or
deliverance or any of those things and
that’s you know that’s totally fine i
had a long season in my life where i’d
never seen anything
but there’s a verse in psalms 119 verse
111
and it makes this statement the
testimony of the lord is your
inheritance forever
think about it the testimony of the lord
is his uninheritance forever
what is the testimony of the lord it’s
the full record of anything he has ever
done
on planet earth he did it with moses
he did it with the elijah with david
with paul with whoever
it’s your it’s your story it’s your
testimony
no you didn’t get it the full record
of god’s activity with people is your
inheritance
why is that important why is that
important
because the scripture says they overcame
him
by the blood of the lamb there’s the
legal basis and the word of your
testimony
so now the word of my testimony is not
just what i have experienced in my life
but it includes what you’ve experienced
so i hear your story
that’s a part of my weaponry that’s a
part of the tools that i
use to ensure i walk in victory in this
present situation
so father i pray for a fresh fresh grace
that you would inspire us from the
inside out to treasure
the record the reports of the miracles
the interventions of god
that we’ve seen and that we’re about to
see that we would never treat them
carelessly or casually
but we could together again stand in all
and celebrate you for your kindness your
mercy
that would do such extraordinary things
with such simple simple people as we are
i ask this that the name of jesus would
be exalted
now before anyone else moves i’m going
to ask this
any time we’re in a room this size
there’s always a chance a crowd this
size there’s always a chance that there
are people here
that have never made a personal
commitment to the lord jesus christ
it means you turn from your way of life
to follow this one
who forgives us and truly gives us
eternal life starting now
and if there’s anybody in this room that
would just make that confession with me
to say bill
i don’t want to leave the building until
i know i have found peace with god that
i know what it is to be forgiven
by god if that’s you put a hand up real
quick right right where you are right
over here is one
beautiful there’s another one beautiful
right here
anybody else put your hand up real quick
there’s another one back over here
another one right there beautiful thank
you all
anyone else real quick
not over here’s another one right over
here’s another one come on
thank you all
bless the lord bless the lord anybody
else
anyway i saw the one over here unless
there’s another one all right here’s
what i’m going to ask
we’re going to pray together we’re going
to wrap this up and and i need to let
you all go
but i’m going to ask the ministry team
to come to the front and i want the
three or four people that put their
hands up
or any others that i may not have seen
come right over here we’ve got a team of
trusted people
that i want to pray with you because i
believe the greatest miracle
of your life is about to happen in these
next moments
so i’m going to ask as the ministry team
comes to the front please leave your
seat
come right down over here the folks who
have their hands up
they are their trusted friends to pray
with you to talk with you
church why don’t you bless them as they