Who Do You Think You Are? Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

Do you know who God says you are? Bill Johnson shares a powerful message on the importance of living by the words God speaks and finding our identity in Him. The enemy will always try to cause us to question who we are and what God has said, but we will see great breakthroughs and our purpose fulfilled as we confidently stand firm in the words God has spoken to us. Our lives are defined by who He says we are, and the words He has spoken to us.

the enemy will always try to attack the

last thing god said to you

he can’t change who you are he can just

alter your confidence in who you are

thank you

thanks thank you thanks

you well i love you too you are

unusually nice thank you

um by the way benny had uh

the best week she’s had in quite a while

this last week

very very thankful

i do appreciate your prayers so much

laughing at your own mistakes lengthens

your life

laughing at your wife’s mistakes

shortens it

which reminds me of another one

that i read years ago said

a study has been done and they found

that women who add a few extra pounds

live longer than the men who mention it

[Music]

which brings us to the next one

behind every husband who thinks he wears

the pants is a wife who told him which

pants to wear

[Applause]

i was lonely until i glued a coffee cup

to the top of my car now everyone waves

at me

[Music]

a pennsylvania man is suing smart water

it’s a brand smart water for not making

him smart

i’d like to formally announce my lawsuit

against thin mints

one more one more

i met a woman outside the mall crying

she had just lost two two hundred

dollars

so i gave her 40 from the 200 i found

when god blesses you you have to bless

others

oh my goodness

yes

that’s funny

i have more if if the message doesn’t go

well and i

i save them so why don’t you open your

bibles i’m going to have you open to two

portions and then i’m going to read from

a third okay

i want you to open your bible to genesis

chapter 3

and luke chapter 4. okay

genesis 3 and luke 4.

then i’m going to read to you from

romans chapter 5. so

here’s what i want to do today

you can tell what the enemy fears about

your life

by recognizing what he attacks

the enemy lives in reaction

to realities

and when he recognizes something

that he fears you discovering

he attacks

sometimes his attacks are very overt

very

extreme we see it in tragedy crisis

difficulty affliction those kinds of

things

but the most common attack of the enemy

are his questions

now the lord is not at all afraid of

questions

he’s pretty secure

fairly intelligent

it’s not the questions about it’s just

that whenever the enemy gets you to ask

his question it’s always to lead to

deception and unbelief

deception

rarely because at least he doesn’t start

with an out and out lie he starts with

the distortion of something that’s real

when the lord asks a question

it’s always to bring you into

understanding in greater faith

the two stories we’re going to look at

is

one

is from the first adam

which is genesis 3

and luke 4 we’re going to look at the

last adam

we don’t call jesus the second adam

because there isn’t going to be a third

he’s the last adam

he literally is the first born

of the dead

now he’s not the first person raised

from the dead

but he was the firstborn from the dead

because in his resurrection

is the template or the power or the

mandate to raise up an entire new

generation of people

everyone born again is a new creation

something that has never existed before

the first

failure or the failure that we see of

adam and eve

happened in the garden of eden

a place of absolute perfect beauty

absolute perfect abundance

the last adam

instead of failure we see success

breakthrough

was in a wilderness

with a devil

you can become more

culturally aware

of important things

if you just stop

to recognize what the enemy is targeting

i don’t mean he sets the pace i don’t

mean he shows us what’s important we

just learn

what does he fear

what does he fear

in this individual in this family

because he only attacks what is a threat

to him

you’ll notice in the old testament in

the story of israel in their journey

from egypt

eventually into the promised land and

then into taking over

the land that god had given them as an

inheritance

they would be attacked by an enemy

nation whenever they were close to

another victory

as i heard

somebody say recently

israel would find themselves being

attacked

by an enemy nation whenever they were

close to another victory

so the implication is

when

you are under

attack for whatever reason

under attack of the enemy

it’s only because you are threatened

and you’re close to another victory

what he does in his attempts

to target our life

is to get us to turn inward instead of

upward

we question our spirituality instead of

his

you know we question ours instead of

relying on his

i heard somebody say once

they were

casting a demon out in the

something happened or a demon had

pointed to the fact that they hadn’t

been fasting

and the guy says well i bind you in the

name of jesus as fast so that was pretty

good

okay

so

hey listen on your best day it’s only

the grace of god

the moment that you showed the most

the strongest measure of faith

you’ve ever known in your life that was

a gift too

it all traces back to the to the gift of

god’s grace absolutely all right so

let’s take a look at these two stories

oh i was gonna read i’m sorry romans let

me let me just take a couple verses just

because i want to create the context

first adam last adam uh romans 5 verse

12

uh jesus just as true one man sin

entered the world and death through sin

and thus death spread to all men because

all sinned okay what’s being said here

adam first adam sinned

as a result

a death sentence was released to all

humanity through his one sin all right

so what’s happening here is paul’s

talking about the sin of one

spread death to all

got it

now verse 17 says if by one man’s

offense

death reigned

through the one

much more those who receive the

abundance of grace

and the gift of righteousness will reign

in life through the one jesus christ

now i realize that’s real wordy just

follow follow through here

he says if death reigned

through adam

then even more so life reigns through

jesus christ

to the point where where you will reign

in life is the phrase he uses say that

with me reign in life

it’s such a strong biblical term because

it is actually the purpose for the book

of proverbs

the book of proverbs is training for

reigning

the book of proverbs is training to

reign in life

reigning in life is not ruling over

people it is reigning over life

money doesn’t control you you control

money relationships don’t control you

you don’t get depressed because somebody

didn’t like you on your facebook page

this is you’re not controlled by the

opinions of other people you manage

those things for the glory of god you

manage your own heart for the glory of

god and reign in life

it’s an amazing contrast the first adam

death reigned the last adam

urane

i didn’t make that up that’s in the book

now obviously we ran in christ

not independent of him but because of

you all right

so let’s go to genesis 1 let’s read that

that story

see genesis 3 i mean sorry

verse 1 of genesis 3 now the serpent was

more cunning than any beast of the field

which the lord had made and he said to

the woman has god indeed said

you shall not eat of every tree of the

garden

and the woman said to the serpent we may

eat of the fruit of the trees of the

garden

but of the fruit of the tree which is in

the midst of the garden god has said

you shall not eat it

she added this part nor shall you touch

it lest you die

the serpent said to the woman you will

not surely die god knows in the day that

you eat it your eyes will be opened and

you will be like god knowing good and

evil

and when the woman saw that the tree was

good for food

and when it was pleasant to the eyes

and a tree a desirable to make one wise

she took of its fruit she ate

and she also gave to her husband with

her and he ate

then the eyes of both of them were

opened and they knew that they were

naked they sewed fig leaves together

made themselves coverings and they heard

the sound of the lord god walking in the

garden in the cool of the day

adam and his wife hid themselves

from the presence of the lord among the

trees verse 9 then god called to adam

and he said where are you

god asked adam where he was

not because he didn’t know but because

adam didn’t know

when the lord asks a question it’s

different than the enemy the enemy is

always trying to take us into deception

and eventually unbelief unbelief is

partnership with the demonic

when jesus asks a question it’s always

to heighten awareness of what truth is

to lead us into understanding into

revelation in greater faith

so god asked the question adam where are

you

it’s interesting though to note that the

first temptation

in this story

was not to eat of the forbidden fruit

it was to question what god said

the serpent came

to adam and eve and said has god

said

at some point

you have to come to a resolve

as a believer

it’s critical the sooner the better you

come to a resolve

that i will live with absolute

abandonment and trust to the word of god

somebody says well bill there’s errors

in the bible i know there’s not as many

errors and errors there is in you

first of all i say there isn’t any but

if there is

for conversation’s sake there’s not as

many in there as there is in you so i’m

not going to let the bigger error

redefine the lessor

[Applause]

it’s the only book

in existence where the author shows up

when you read it

[Applause]

which i’m really thankful for because

it’d be horrible to be in your bathtub

reading a book and in the office

let’s be honest i’m thankful

but the author shows up when you read

you’re engaged with a person because

it’s a living book

it’s alive

it’s vital to understand that his words

actually

give life they they bring life

one of my favorite stories that i make

reference to fairly often

is in john 6 where

jesus is teaching you know people were

enthralled with every word that came out

of his mouth i mean they would they

would say he teaches like someone with

authority not like the scribes and

pharisees and they were always amazed at

his words except for this one sermon

where he began to teach you have to eat

my flesh and drink my blood and the

people

you know

i don’t know they’re probably thinking

everybody has a bad day you know let’s

uh

so the crowd of perhaps 15 000 leave and

jesus is left with his 12 disciples

and he turns to them he says are you

guys leaving too peter is the best

answer

he says where are we going to go

you have the words of eternal life think

through this

where are we going to go

to me he’s saying

all we know

jesus we don’t understand what you just

taught

any more than the crowd that left what

we do understand is whenever you talk we

come alive inside

there’s life on there’s life on a word

you don’t understand

that’s the whole point that’s why that’s

why we come yielded we come ready to

learn we come ready to be impacted

has god said was the beginning

of the downfall of humanity

was to question

what the most reliable thing

in the universe

and that is god’s declarations

i was listening to a a message on the

youtube

uh

just i think it was last week

uh by derek prince and he’s

one of the

best bible teachers probably in the last

hundred years

uh amazing amazing man

and i’m assuming now he’s talking uh

back in the 70s or perhaps the 80s but

he was he was giving this message he was

talking about a book he had read and he

was talking about

the persecuted church in china

he was talking about many

believers who have lost their lives many

who were imprisoned many who were

tortured and beaten

and then this book did a study with us

comparing this group of people with

others who had confessed the lord but

had turned in the day of difficulty

and had denied the lord

and this book did a study to compare the

two groups what was the difference

the answer completely shocked me

the common denominator that all of these

folks who did well

in the face of opposition the common

denominator was they all memorize

scripture

they all memorize scripture

it’s it’s the john 15

verse 7 if you abide in me that’s the

felt realization of his presence

and my words abide in you it’s more than

just putting to memory verses but it’s

allowing the impact of what he says

to become you to shape

see the goal isn’t for me to be able to

give a nice scriptural answer to a

question that’s a good beginning

the goal is to become the answer in a

sense to to have it come forth from me

because i’m so

so intimately in in uh intertwined with

what god has said

this may sound strange to you but god

wants his word to become flesh again

so the first temptation

to adam and eve

was to question what god said

and any time there

the enemy knows

some of your are too deeply

you’ve been you’ve been at this too long

you’re not going to deny the word of god

but perhaps for you the weak point would

be

while you wouldn’t ever deny the word of

god

you would deny your ability to hear from

god

and they are interconnected

and the enemy will always look at the

weak point

and try to get us shifted from the

awareness of i was actually designed to

hear from god

again it’s a gift it’s not like it’s not

like i somehow

worked hard and arrived at this at this

place of breakthrough i was designed to

hear from the lord

everything about me is wired to perceive

him

from my physical senses to everything

about me emotionally mentally it’s all

designed to perceive him

i have to the the most obvious thing in

the universe is him you have to work

hard to train yourself to ignore him

that’s the truth

look at luke 4

luke chapter 4.

verse 1

then jesus being filled with the holy

spirit returned from the jordan

and was led by the spirit into the

wilderness

[Laughter]

to be tempted by the devil

does your bible just say what i just

read

the holy spirit

the kind

wonderful generous

gentle

merciful

compassionate

holy spirit led jesus into the

wilderness

to be tempted by the devil

when the lord leads you into a conflict

it is never punishment for you it is

always punishment for the devil

the listen listen to me carefully there

is no contest between god and the devil

there is not it’s not a contest

it’s not worthy of mentioning the two in

the same breath

there is no contest

with a word he can completely demolish

and obliterate all powers of darkness he

has chosen to keep them here because

they are training ground for you and me

who will reign with christ for eternity

and any time the lord leads us into a

conflict it’s only because he’s equipped

us to win

the enemy’s only chance is to get us to

question

what god has said

or who we are

jesus being filled with the holy spirit

returned from the jordan was led by the

spirit into the wilderness being tempted

for 40 days by the devil

in those days he ate nothing

and afterward when they had ended he was

hungry

i don’t get that at all

i’ve done 40. i was hungry all 40 days

in fact i was hungry before it started

and i was hungry after it ended uh

this is this is amazing

afterwards when the 40 was over he got

hungry

and the devil said to him

if you are the son of god command this

stone to become bread

jesus answered and said

it is written man shall not live by

bread alone but by every word

that proceeds from the mouth of god

okay listen carefully

we are alive because he talks

we live because he speaks

the bible says he spoke the worlds into

being

let there be light and there was light

he spoke things into being

secondly the bible says

that all things are held together

by the word of his power

so his abiding prevailing word

actually holds every molecule in place

it’s the glue

that holds everything in place

thirdly we know

that he sustains us and brings life to

us with his voice

again back to the

it’s the only book you can read that the

author shows up

when you read it

because he sustains us with his word

paul said in romans the faith comes by

hearing

and hearing by the word of god

it doesn’t say faith comes from hearing

the word of god

i’m not saying that’s bad or wrong i’m

just saying it’s not what it says

if faith came from hearing the word of

god we should all get

bible apps on our phone and just play

scripture 24 7

and we’d be like wigglesworth by friday

or father abraham or somebody

many people

hear the word but never hear the word

they hear

and can quote

but there’s no impact here because the

living word has not pierced their soul

here he says

faith comes by hearing doesn’t say faith

comes from having heard

wow by implication it’s a present tense

encounter pres an abiding relationship

faith comes from from hearing it’s this

abiding in christ him abiding in me his

word abiding in me that connection is

what makes me available for faith

i don’t need faith for tomorrow’s

problems today

i have enough challenges today

staying in the abiding relationship is

what keeps me current in faith to

address the issues i face now

faith comes from hearing

hearing

comes from the word of god

i’ll tell you a secret for hearing the

voice of god

just come back next week and uh

say yes before he commence

if there’s a willingness to obey before

he speaks you will attract the voice

and by the way

him speaking to us five six seven times

about a matter

audible voice writing on the wall all

the external things is not a sign of our

maturity

it’s a sign of our immaturity

he wants to lead us listen carefully not

just with the still small voice but the

bible says with his eye

though what he gives attention to

we give attention to

so the enemy comes to jesus and the

first temptation

now that he’s hungry

might appear

to

turn a stone into bread

but that wasn’t really the first

temptation the first temptation was if

you’re the son of god

there’s nothing the devil could do to

persuade jesus he wasn’t the son of god

what he was trying to do is to get him

to prove his identity out of an

insecurity

we do stupid things all of us do stupid

things

when we feel insecure and it may look

really bold

it may look very powerful but if it

comes out of insecurity it has too much

flesh to attract the hand of the lord

many things go unfulfilled in our lives

because we function out of insecurity

so what was the last thing

that the father spoke to jesus before

this wilderness experience

if you look back just a few verses

before the spirit of god led jesus into

the wilderness to be tempted by the

enemy just a few verses before jesus is

baptized in water he comes up out of the

water and the father speaks this is my

beloved son in whom i’m well pleased

the enemy will always try to attack the

last thing god said to

you he can’t change who you are he can

just alter your confidence in who you

are

here’s here’s the reason behind why i

felt to

talk to you today about this

i i’m not one to try to

uh to try to feed off what the devil is

doing to figure out what we’re supposed

to be doing i don’t like that at all

but it doesn’t take a genius to realize

that the enemy

is working hard

to really foul up people’s identity

and i i don’t i don’t say this out of

humor or mockery or

you know with any uh

any malice it’s just it’s just we have a

lot of folks and maybe even people that

are in the room

that are joined with us today

who aren’t sure

of your gender

what once was common sense

isn’t anymore why because we got a

culture that started listening to the

wrong questions

has god said

if you’re the son of god

it’s amazing what aspects and parts of

culture that seem so absolute and

immovable

how they can be moved

if he can just get people to ask the

wrong question

see the enemy’s questions

don’t lead to jesus

the lord’s questions always lead to

encounter

always lead to a place of faith always

lead to a place of encounter

and so the last thing declared over

jesus before this encounter in the

wilderness was the father speaking my

beloved son in whom i’m well pleased

and twice in this series of temptations

the enemy says if you’re the son of god

i don’t know why it surprises us

when we have this fresh insight of what

god’s going to do in our life that

that’s the first thing to get attacked

it shouldn’t surprise us

well i thought for sure the lord said

the business would work and i don’t know

why we’re having these problems

that’s actually why

that’s actually why it’s it’s

it’s the

fully embracing what god has said here’s

the deal

there’s a design to our life

because of a designer

the designer creates design design

implies purpose

purpose implies destiny and destiny

requires accountability if you mess up

any of that sequence

you end up with people living for

themselves instead of what god has

actually attended for planet earth

and the thing that’s being

so

um

harassed if you will

in in culture by

seemingly well-meaning people

is to question

the most simple

things in the world

i point to it not for mockery not for

i mean obviously to arm us for prayer

but the more secure you become and who

you are

the more

you and i leak that sense of identity

and purpose into a culture

it’s it’s

it’s become become sure of the right

things become firm in the right things

number one you’re made in the image of

god every human being is made in the

image of god why for the purpose of

relationship it’s the design

there was no one no other part of

creation that god could fellowship with

in the same way that he fellowship with

adam and eve and now with those who are

born again nothing else even comes close

he celebrates every aspect and part of

creation but only people made in his

image now born again

are created for seamless connection in

relationship

you’re made in the image of god

and at your worst point

lost in sin

you were worth dying for

that’s who you are

you were worth dying for

and your neighbor who doesn’t yet know

jesus it was worth dying for she was

worth dying for that person you worked

for they were worth dying for

jesus calculated the price

and looked at the prize

and that’s worth dying for

and when we embrace that we don’t just

embrace fire insurance to not spend

eternity in hell

we actually become grafted into a family

that has been assigned to be filled with

the fullness of god doing greater works

than jesus himself did there’s to be a

full manifestation

of the triumph of jesus in the earth

every single day of our lives

it’s the assignment it’s the design

has god said

if you’re the son of god

those are the two things i think every

temptation issue that we face in life

falls into one of those two categories

either questioning what god said or

questioning who he says you are

you were designed to be a part of a

people

a chosen race chosen not because we’re

better in fact

god tended to choose things that were

less

yeah and she should cause your strength

i chose you because you’re a weakness

well how do i brag about that yeah

that’s the point

best the book

he chose us as

a people

a chosen race every one

regardless of your

natural

race

we are a chosen race according to

scripture together

sons and daughters of the king

a new creation which means a creation

something created that has never existed

before for the purpose of illustrating

who jesus is until the earth is filled

with the glory of god the target of the

lord is the earth is filled with the

glory of god and it’s through an

obedient surrendered people that live

for his purposes that live under the

glory of his name

this is the privilege of life

and there’s just two things we anchor

our soul to

one so what did god say

and two

who am i

what has he declared about me

in the case with jesus

this is my beloved son

in whom i’m well pleased

i remember watching my

boys play baseball

i’d be in the stands

and one of them would make a great play

and i’d stand up in the middle of that

crowd and i’d say whose son is that

that’s his delight over you

if you forget it you’ll get weird

if you forget it you’ll make stupid

decisions

evil things only become appealing to a

people who forgot who they are

let’s see

[Applause]

all right

[Applause]

oh jesus

help us help us

here’s the the thing i want to pray the

most i’m going to start at one thing

i want

everyone in this room to know

who god says we are

that’s all

this is my beloved son

in whom i’m well pleased

or my virgin whose son is that

whose daughter is that

there’s something so

engaging

about seeing his delight

over us

not here

here

the deep realization

you were not chosen

as a part of a group

you were chosen by name

and he delights in you so father i pray

in the weeks to come this would become

clearer and clearer

for the honor of the name jesus

amen let me ask one more question before

i turn it over

i want to know is there anybody in the

room that you have never

committed your life

to be a follower a disciple of jesus

to surrender your life to him is a term

that we use if there’s anybody in here

that would say that’s me i want to know

jesus i want to surrender my life to him

it may be somebody on

online let somebody know in the chat

room what you’re doing right now

if there’s anybody in the room that’s in

that position put your hand up right now

and just say that’s me i don’t want to

leave the place until i know i have been

forgiven and i have found peace with god

anybody at all real quick

okay

i’m going to assume you’re all in then

come on up and wrap it up for us

[Applause]