Does God harden hearts? Bill Johnson responds to a question regarding Exodus 9: 12, where the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart. God will bring transformation to our lives through His word when we keep our hearts soft before Him. Repentance is a gift that brings transformation and life.

how do you explain the scripture and the

terminology that says god hardened

pharaoh’s heart

this to be taken literally oh yeah

see

god is good but his goodness he’s a

father

he’s a lover he’s

all these things he’s still judge

he’s still holy he stole all these

things

and uh and he heard in pharaoh’s heart

uh the scripture shows us how and why it

happened you know the lord moses would

bring a word to pharaoh

and pharaoh would harden his heart

against the lord

and then it would say pharaoh hardened

his heart against the lord well he had

done it so often it was like the lord

said fine

i will freeze you in that condition you

are now permanently in the place of

hardness

and since i can’t use your yieldedness

to show my glory i will use your

rebellion to show my glory

and he did yeah and he used him and it’s

the same option for everybody alive

repentance is a gift it’s not automatic

but god is a merciful god he gives that

gift the ability to repent uh pharaoh

turned it down yeah his he was caught up

in his own

arrogance his own kingdom building so

much

that he lost sight of of divine purpose

and had no fear of god and so because he

he just

he just continuously hardened his heart

finally it was like the lord said all

right you are now a chess piece on a

chess board i think i think this is

winky pratt and his analogy

you are now a pawn on a chessboard and i

will i will maneuver you for my glory

which he did because of the the

rebelliousness yeah yeah yeah absolutely

it was it was in pharaoh first

and then god said finally

yeah you are now frozen in that in that

way of life

and you know you can see it throughout

history there’s there are some people

you know i think i think um in first

john it talks about the sin unto death

yeah that they’re just some people that

just

they resist so long that they get locked

in that place

you know

so

it’s in the book

could you discuss the tension of ananias

and sapphira in acts 5 1-11 and how that

relates to the new testament covenant of

god goodness and grace yeah it’s the

same concept i mean it’s it’s god is

absolutely good

but he’s um

he’s also still holy and he’s still

judge

you know if uh

as my son if something

were working to attack or to injure you

i would do whatever i could to stop it

and eventually destroy it if it

persisted

what was going on in ananias and

sapphira

could bring a downfall of countless

numbers of people because if their

compromise spread if it was

if it was allowed to exist in the church

it would spread it would spread like a

gangrene and god had to bring judgment

in

my personal opinion and i i don’t i

don’t tell anyone that they need to

think this way it’s just it’s just an

idea

um that will cause

some emails to come i’m sure they will

come the next revival chat will yeah

we’ll be cleaning up this mess my

personal opinion

is in um in first corinthians 3 the

apostle paul talked about our

inheritance as believers not of what

we’re going to get when we die

but what we have now

and in it he he lists for example

the gifts of christ

those are first now apostle prophet

evangelist pastor teacher he refers to

apollos sieges does that number

he said life belongs to you

death belongs to you the world is yours

so he goes to this inheritance like

you’re sitting in a lawyer’s office and

he’s reading off the will and this is

what you inherit and he reads off this

incredible list and he says life belongs

to you

death belongs to you it’s appointed unto

a person to die

so death is in god’s will

just doesn’t have to be by disease

in ananias and sapphira’s case

it doesn’t say

that the lord struck judgment against

them

it says the peter spoke a word and they

died

i don’t know that it’s accurate but is

it possible

that peter was using the apostolic

authority that he was given yeah

i don’t know you know there i i think we

i don’t think any everybody can do that

or should even try to do that i’m not

even but but i i think there’s a place

where a peter

or a paul comes to in the lord or paul

says i turned such a one over to satan

for the destruction of their flesh

so that they could be preserved in the

day of

of judgment

fascinating that’s not a toy for anyone

to play with but when a person comes

into a place

of authority and anointing in the lord

at that level i think sometimes there

are options

that we don’t realize are given to them

in life and in ministry

yeah that’s interesting with the other

the flip side of that would it

be whole if you forgive them i forgive

them that’s the other part of the

authority element you know yes that’s

that’s that’s why i say i think more has

been given to us

than what we’ve been able to figure out

to this point

because this whole thing if you forgive

i forgive if you don’t forgive i don’t

forgive

it doesn’t mean if i don’t forgive my

neighbor they’re going to go to hell

what it means is is that my life as a

releaser of the grace of god i’ve

actually cut off a source of grace into

that person’s life where they could be

changed

i i think i don’t know

it’s just bigger than me and i i think

it’s something that we’ll probably have

to answer

and uh get down in the next 10 years i

think it’s going to come to that yeah

wow fascinating fascinating i don’t i

don’t have a lot of answers it’s just i

think the fear of the lord is what

really helps us to come into this kind

of thing

uh sober-mindedly realize that the lord

has released an anointing in authority

and that we’re called to steward it yeah

not for our gain never for our

vindication

but for the honor of the name of the

lord

yeah i could you know the

you know and james and john’s when they

said let’s call down fire on this city

yes yeah and jesus said no no you’re

operating on the wrong wrong spirit

right so it’s interesting of just uh

exploring the right word but uh

uh learning more about what

the reality of how much authority god

has given to us and exactly we continue

to giving us i don’t know if that’s

right word but stewardship

and obviously i think we the church have

the global church i’ve been scared of

that so we’ve gone to the other extreme

of not doing anything yeah and so

it’s fascinating to me that james and

john

actually knew they could do it that

that’s that’s that’s that’s

yeah it’s like if you give us permission

we know we could call down fair like

what kind of environment did they live

in that they felt that empowered i mean

that’s

it’s amazing and scary at the same time

it’s just stunning instead of love is

after all of that jesus said let’s send

out 70 more i know i know neither took

risk he was a massive risk taker not

personally but

on amazon men that were about to come

commit mass murder

in the way you know which isn’t unique

yeah in jesus name gonna kill a city