The Seven Mountains – Bill Johnson | Rediscover Bethel Series

Bethel Church in Redding, California is a congregation rooted in the love of God and dedicated to worldwide transformation through revival. Our mission is revival – the personal, regional, and global expansion of God’s Kingdom through His manifest presence. It’s our goal for God’s love to be manifest in signs, wonders, and miracles. The atmosphere at Bethel is charged with faith and exuberant joy, which manifests in all we do. We believe we’re on the edge of the greatest revival of all time. It’s our vision to see history become His-story as the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our God. We welcome you to join us in this adventure!

i don’t want to have the only healthy

family in town i want all the families

to be healthy i don’t want to have the

only exciting church to be a part of

in town i want every church to thrive

and that’s that’s the approach of the

kingdom

[Music]

so

part of um the discussion around us is

we we

i don’t know for years i’ve talked about

the seven spheres or the seven mountains

and uh you know kind of seven realms of

society

um if you haven’t heard about that we’ll

just kind of give you a little bit of a

backdrop

um this was somewhat new i i don’t

exactly remember when i first started

hearing about it maybe the early 2000s

or something does that sound right to

you yeah probably i remember as i heard

it it was a prophetic word that came to

bill bright and lauren cunningham who

were large leaders of large ministries

um youth for christ bill cunningham bill

bright campus crusade

and then they were different than

actually the the terms that you hear now

um were used and it sounds like the lord

as the story goes

the lord dropped it into kind of both

their hearts they compared notes and

they’re like the lord’s been saying the

same thing to me about that

and

but i was always intrigued because i’m a

nerd so i’d hear those and go that’s

actually not

a that’s not really a sphere of society

like they would say business and i’m

like business is a portion of a sphere

of society but you can have you can have

communism that doesn’t have business you

know in a huge way in their deals so it

was always interesting to me that

sometimes they were almost targets that

those men were supposed to like

put up and go hey begin to be uh targets

is by the wrong word there were goals to

actually begin to influence those

environments i mean business and media

and a little bit the church had been so

in inculcated yeah and had so created

our own christian culture like we had

our own christian rock music we got our

own christian movies

uh

don’t watch them but uh yeah

[Music]

and so a little bit like no no it was

also beginning word of like you need to

be salt light leaven yeah and

these are some some places you begin to

you should begin to think about so over

time the ideas gotten bigger yeah and uh

we talked about the seven spheres and

let’s talk about how language creates

culture be the first one so

this is something i’ve kind of been

learning

you know i guess probably since i was in

seminary was

we have to own that the way we talk is

creating an expectation and exactly so i

think some uh you know some simple ones

like i we were using mankind a lot we’ve

been using humankind just to kind of

just

i know women always knew they were

included in mankind but just the the

kindness or the appropriateness of using

humankind say hey we’re talking about

everybody so that there’s simple ones

like that there’s other ones language

creates culture and you have a

a book called when heaven invades earth

yes so you got the language of invasion

and then you have a chapter um in this

book it’s a it’s an anthology of

invading babylon a seven mountain

mandates and you and many others

contributed to it as well and it’s got

this um

invading babylon it’s got this word

invading yeah language creates culture

it does

how where are we at with this invasion

language now

well part of who we are is is we are

soldiers

it’s a metaphor

it is a metaphor in scripture it’s not

anti-scripture it is it is in there it’s

not the whole picture

you know and for me the seven mountain

mandate whatever you want to call it

gave me language for the priesthood of

the believer

in other words you’ve got

you don’t have just pastors and

you know missionaries that are

ministering the gospel

every believer has that privilege you

talked before that but you did we didn’t

quite know what to aim how to aim it no

this gave us things yeah this gave us

language

invasion

is not a term i use much anymore because

it gives a different picture than what’s

intended when i first started this it

would be 1979 is when i first started to

see this clearly and so i would

challenge people listen you’re you’re in

real estate you’re in uh marketing

you’re in these different roles

you know you have a responsibility there

go in there with confidence and love and

serve people and bring bring the reality

of the lordship of jesus into those

environments and so i was i was like the

general or sergeant or whatever of an

army just charging everybody let’s let’s

do that this week and and that was our

lifestyle i still believe it i i i don’t

i don’t know in the 70s our language was

more militant and it just it just kind

of was at least in my environment

right the end times was coming there was

a belief the rapture was coming for lots

of the christian church and so

it was time to mobilize and be militant

yeah maybe not in the jesus movement uh

but it was later on in the 70s yeah no

you’re right you’re right there was

there was that that

that fighting mentality

unfortunately that language sometimes is

interpreted uh fighting people yeah you

know and and you know paul uses it he

says we don’t fight against

you know people we fight against flesh

against principalities and powers so the

whole point was is you’re born into a

war

and uh and that is a part of our

identity it’s not the whole thing i’m a

child of god i’m a servant of the lord

i’m part of the bride of christ i mean

the the metaphors are

are are uh

challenging and wonderful all at the

same time so it’s it’s a term that i

don’t use much anymore because it

communicates

not what i intend yeah conquest in some

ways yeah there are conquests but it’s

not people it’s not uh i’m gonna want to

take over this corporation or something

that’s that’s nauseating our strong suit

is serving

you know any time we leave that we’re

scary we’re scary

as soon as i start thinking uh

christians should run everything that’s

really not true yeah sometimes we we

need some people that don’t know the

lord but they are gifted graced by god

to run a nation or a business or or a

city mayor of a city or whatever it

might be they’re gifted by god

and uh and that’s really clear in

scripture you know we’ve got god

anointing cyrus we have all these

different individuals that god appointed

for their place of rule

and uh so i i the whole notion that we

have to take charge of everything is

wrong and when what i teach and that

communicates that then there’s a

misunderstanding

but what i do believe is we need to all

be immersed in and involved in where

we’re gifted where we’re graced by god

if it’s business if it’s education you

know medicine whatever it might be

get in there and be

be christ-like in that environment and

serve people well our service brings the

significance out of other people

when we serve well they discover who god

made them to be well my goodness what a

what an amazing privilege beautiful

and i would add too that into the

service is the wisdom of the lord

manifested in wise just solutions and so

i absolutely i sometimes get frustrated

because it feels like unbelievers like

hey you can’t influence like whoa whoa

we

we are all about influence yeah you know

so and if if our servant language uh

which i completely agree with if it’s

too strong then they don’t expect

influence like no no we think we’re

carrying some smart i think we’re

talking to the king of the universe like

we’re hoping that we’re hearing some

good insights into how to move forward

and certainly want to continue to have

influence in the environments as best we

can but dominating environments or kind

of cr instituting a christendom

um you know that’s that’s not what

anybody’s mandating or thinking about uh

with those things

but i do understand some of the concern

like in other words when you have we

have language invasion and then

certainly there have been times in the

history when christians were in charge

of everything and they it was a

suppression of other voices or driving

out of town or

a uh you know injustice done

in the name of that so

i think there’s for me it was a helpful

pushback like

but instead it’s never kind right it’s

always like hey i get nervous when you

it doesn’t come that way but when

they’re like that sounds like you’re

trying to

conquer us and take control everything

like okay i can totally get how it says

that but yeah our language that fires us

up invasion you know doesn’t feel great

to be invaded yeah you know on the other

side of it no that’s right that’s right

and there are ways you communicate in a

family you would never communicate

outside of a family and this is true of

our own biological family there are

things that i would say to my children i

would never say oh

not because

not because they’re inappropriate but

because the context of relationship

gives it meaning you have a lifetime of

understanding to know to not be

misunderstood and access to get ideas

corrected exactly it’s 100 biblical but

i wouldn’t say it the same way outside

of my home because i don’t have the

relational equity out there that i have

here so i have to i have to say it

differently and this is this is one of

those i would never teach invasion if i

were meeting with a group of businessmen

in our city goodness gracious that would

be horrible instead i would talk to them

about serving and bringing out the

greatness of of the people and their

jobs and whatever it might be because

would be misunderstood

uh as far as what you were trying to

like motivate them to yeah yeah in that

particular sense so we i have a longer

talk with i think chris and i talked

about this for about seven hours

longer like i don’t want to i don’t want

to have too much you know repeat in that

thing but you might want to go listen to

that podcast

i think partly we chat about even the

language of mountains like we wonder

about that like um paul manwearing again

said hey guys use spheres it’s like less

like there’s somebody in charge of the

whole thing

and you got to scramble to the top of it

to control it there’s a little bit of

that imagery in this imagery of

mountains

that we kind of like oh just be careful

that

although i would say agreed but there

are people controlling ideas and agendas

there are the folks who are innovating

in the ideas and and

uh articulating ideas that catch fire

catch hold that have implications and so

the church has to be one of the folks

who is advocating uh what we understand

to be the grace of the lord the truth of

scripture out there in the in the

marketplace of ideas

so i i’m not saying we’re not saying hey

you’re not going to hear from us

or that we’re not going to have great

ideas but i think you probably are

saying like we don’t think the church or

christians are going to be running

everything and that that’s what the

lord’s interested in yeah if somebody

you know if somebody in in bethel gets

promoted and they’re the president of a

corporation because they served well i

just don’t want them to forget how they

got there they got there through serving

they got their through serbians keep it

up keep it up you’ll bring out the

excellence and the and the strength of

of everybody who works

for you in that sense uh ruling is not a

bad thing

you know we we

the no one of my professors

dr mao said there was the lord new cars

are going to be invented somebody’s

going to have to decide we’re driving on

the right side

and other guys are coming on the left

side now in england they’ve done it all

wrong but the uh

i mean

they’re ruling and

you have to make these rules like how

we’re going to live together i

interrupted you but go ahead no it’s

it’s uh it’s i think we stated it

earlier in one of these

gatherings that we rule with the heart

of a servant we serve with the heart of

a king that’s that’s the approach

is that we serve because we have access

to unlimited resources of god

to help people around us be healthier

stronger happier

but we rule with the heart of a servant

i’m going to use my authority

any authority i have in a job or a city

or whatever it might be i’m going to use

it for the sake of other people it’s not

self-promotion it’s not identity it’s

not control it’s i’m going to use it

because rule is biblical sure you know

those who rule well in the house of

faith

rulership so but it’s not self-serving

it’s not self-promotion yeah and

one of the ways that it works for me i

don’t know if this will work for

everybody else but when i try to think

how am i going to make these person

people i’m leading look like geniuses

that’s kind of the you know would be one

of the ways that i can i think through

because a lot of us in leadership think

it’s your job to make me look like a

genius uh you know we say to our to

folks that we’re leading right but and

of course that happens sometimes but if

we’re able to kind of go how do i make

my team look like a genius i think

that’s it helps me

get in the mindset that i need to be in

in this whole thing so we’ve talked

about how to how do you make a

a secular mayor or you know somebody

who’s overtly how do you make that you

know how do you make nebuchadnezzar look

like a genius you’re like well should we

you know

there’s always that interesting question

but like i think we should at some level

you know because joseph ended up with

pharaoh and and trust that as i as i’m

doing that the lord is going to be

influencing the environment for his good

yeah exactly

so

one of the ways we can talk about this

is like um

when we talk about the mountain of the

lord as the chief of the mountains

so

maybe you could just we could have some

dialogue about that because what i think

when i think about that i’m not i think

that’s actually talking about the church

in that particular passage

and yet i don’t think the application is

that the church is supposed to be in

charge of all these other spheres

so it’s it’s almost like there are

believers who should be

in in the sphere of bit of economy there

should be believers who are in that and

unbelievers who are in that who are

creating an amazing economy um so i

don’t think that the church kind of

comes over and goes here’s how you have

a good economy um

yeah at that sense that there’s actually

it’s the christians not the structure of

the church

who are with other people non-believers

who are creating this

healthy environment yeah i i agree it’s

not church structure that runs

everything yeah but i do think

the mount of the house of the lord says

the peoples will stream to it and it

really is talking about in that context

uh zion is a place of encounter with god

and so as the people of god who

encounter god people are going to want

what he gives you

not authority but presence it’s yeah

it’s

all real authority comes from presence

but yes it’s it’s that presence aspect

and uh and so i do think the church is

supposed to have influence in all those

areas but again not control influence

it’s salt it’s i just want to enhance

the flavor of the meal if i get promoted

to ceo or president or whatever that’s

fine but that’s not my ambition my

ambition is to be as effective as i can

to bring the reality of the king and his

kingdom into this environment

and it’s not through manipulation it’s

not through

you know uh being in control of stuff

it’s just simply

it becomes appealing i mean let’s be

honest when you have a healthy family

versus an unhealthy family you tend to

be drawn towards the healthy family you

see a business that succeeds versus one

that’s going bankrupt you’re drawn

towards the one that succeeds so we have

the opportunity in christ to become i

can use the word successful it is a

biblical term

successful in a righteous sense that

would attract again the city said on a

hill it would attract people that have

need for what we’re experiencing in god

and that’s that’s where that mountain

has influence over all the other

mountains not control

but influence

because our breakthroughs now become the

breakthrough for everybody

wow okay that would be key right so our

breakthroughs are not personal i’m

blessed to be a blessing

and so why wouldn’t we want to see some

breakthrough if we know it’s actually

for the good of exactly the overall

environment not just the believers in

the environment but the overall

environment exactly i i don’t want to

have the only business in town that

succeeds

yeah i want i want it to be a win-win

i want the people i i work with work for

i want everyone to win i don’t want to

have the only healthy family in town i

want all the families to be healthy i

don’t want to have the only exciting

church to be a part of

in town i want every church to thrive

and that’s that’s the approach of the

kingdom