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