In this clip, Bill Johnson shares his personal experience of baptism in the Holy Spirit. This significant encounter has marked Bill’s life and ministry. A fresh baptism of fire is available for us all, and God is ready to baptize those who will say “Yes” wholeheartedly to Him!
the powers are not there
because you’re brilliant
the power’s not there
because you’ve got a great strategy for
transformation
the powers are because you said yes in a
secret place when the burning one came
in purified hearts
john the baptist declared pointing to
jesus behold the lamb of god
and he goes on to say he will baptize
you in the holy spirit and with
fire
i remember
in february of 1995
i went to toronto i heard god was doing
great things there
i was very hungry i
we had seen the lord use us and miracles
started breaking out in weaverville 1987
we’re very thankful for that
particular season and direction
but we were just aching for so much more
and i remember flying to toronto and
there was a great outpouring that was
happening there
and i just wanted to see and participate
and uh it was confusing but sometimes
god’s not the author of confusion
you’re only confused because of your
position
he’s not confused
and sometimes you have to repent your
way into the right mind so that you’re
not confused
anyway
i uh i was in this moment
and i i don’t want to go into that uh
very much but it was it was wonderful
and there was 5 000 people there and
it was just the presence of the lord was
so strong it helped if i closed my eyes
because then i wouldn’t be offended by
everything i was seeing
but actually i i would close my eyes and
i’d become aware of the same presence we
were having in our prayer meetings at
home and so i that’s how i knew is that
i recognized the work of god not by
approved manifestations but i recognize
it by the presence
and that’s the safest way to measure
anything
and but you have to become familiar with
him to be able to recognize him
you have to you have to know i’ve seen
this before
so in this
moment i’m i’m there for four or five
days six days whatever it was and
and uh and i knew that i had seen
something that was to mark the rest of
my life and so i i flew home and i began
to pray
i i started to ache for
all the things i had read about in here
you see the city of ephesus
completely transformed in acts 19 where
they had moved from miracles to
extraordinary miracles and where cloth
could be sent from paul’s body and
deliverance would take place in healing
and this moment where every single
person in asia heard the gospel every
single person so there’s this there’s
this movement that became so impacting
that all of culture itself they’ve even
got
believers planted in caesar’s household
in the in in the leaders of government
there are believers in those places and
it’s just extraordinary what’s happening
i began to ache for these things to
happen and the miracles of course that
we see in scripture and and the
deliverances the conversions
and i started praying i started praying
when i got home from toronto i said god
i want more of you
and i want i want more at any cost i’ll
pay any price
and it wasn’t a uh
it wasn’t a uh an emotional prayer it
wasn’t like you know i feel really good
so let me pray the scary prayer
it was calculated because i know he
tends to collect on his debts
and uh it was a prayer that said god i i
want more of you and i will pay any
price
i’ll pay any price
and i was praying i became obsessed if
if you can be a christian obsessed maybe
it’s focused i became focused
very focused
and uh and morning and night
uh in the day driving down the street
god i’ve got to have more this it was
almost like it’s
this hunger for him was almost like this
volcanic eruption it wasn’t it wasn’t oh
it’s time for me to pray it wasn’t that
it was i cannot help but pray
god i must have more of you i was born
for more than what i’ve seen god i must
have more and i will pay any price i’ll
be the guy who’ll pay any price
and i would pray that i would i got to
where
i would actually wake myself up in the
night praying i didn’t wake up to pray i
woke myself up because i was praying in
my sleep
unless you discount that i remind you
that solomon made the most
incredible decision of his life in his
sleep
is when the lord showed up and gave him
a choice you can have anything you want
and it says it was a dream
and the lord gave him that chance
because he trusted his he had so he had
gone to bed night after night with such
resolve of purpose that he could trust
the decision while he was sleeping
it’s possible for you and me to go to
bed
never leaving purpose
never leaving the why that we are alive
so that when those divine moments come
covenants are made
and history has changed the course of
history has changed
so i would pray this in the night in the
day
and october so we’ve got from the first
of february to the end of october
dick joyce who was a dear friend of ours
he’s now home with the lord
dear friend of ours a prophet he helped
us really more than any any other
visiting minister he would call to check
up on me and and was such a strength
encouragement to me to our family i met
him through my parents
and um
dick was in weaverville we had these
meetings for several nights and some of
the craziest things i’ve ever seen
happen happen in that meeting
god is a god of order
kind of like
a maternity ward
he knows what he’s doing and you don’t
people say well how do you know that’s
god
where is that in the bible i said in
psalms 115 god does what he pleases
so one guy got mad he got mad left the
meeting
i didn’t know until later he got mad
left the meeting the lord met him in the
parking lot laid him out
in the parking lot in the snow
by himself he cannot move
nobody is there to help him
i have to admit i really got happy when
i heard that story i’m not sure my
motives were completely pure but to this
day i enjoy that show
and i’m sticking with it i’m sticking
with it
i had a friend i was praying for that
night and his name was thom i said
thomas i feel like god’s going to touch
you
and and he was really struggling and i i
just wanted to encourage him i said i
feel like god’s going to touch you could
be middle of the day middle tonight and
i said specifically i said it may be
three o’clock in the morning
well in those meetings you go to bed
very late it’s the eternal gospel like
one of our one of our elders here
uh told us years ago he said the only
reason we bring our watch to church is
to see if the date changed
[Applause]
there was a season where that was
absolutely true
may we have that problem again
so i went to bed uh of course late
and then if you can imagine being
as completely asleep as possible
to as completely awake as possible
in a
millisecond
that’s what happened to me
i’m completely asleep
and all of a sudden
it’s like a thousand volts of
electricity are going through my body
and i have no control of my arms my legs
or anything
and i the only thing i have control of
is my head and i turn my head
and it’s 3 am exactly
and i said out loud
you set me up
i you know how when you’re in a god
moment he makes sure you remember what
you need to remember
so why would i think of my prophetic
word to my friend i wouldn’t except he
needed me to understand this was part of
the journey
you set me up
and so i am laying there in this
condition
with a thousand volts of electricity
i’m not saying this has to happen to
anybody else
because he is a creative god
who customizes what each person needs
but i will say everybody needs a baptism
of fire i will say that and not just one
20 years ago
and i laid there with with no control of
my arms or my legs
and i’d grip my arms like this my legs
would become more violent i’d grab my
legs my arms and i’m i’m trying to
process i’m i’m embarrassed i actually
feel my face turn red
you know you feel when your face is
flushed i can feel that happening
because i’m embarrassed for myself
benny’s asleep which was a miracle it’s
a water bed so there’s tidal waves
it’s no longer a water bed but it was
back then
it’s funny now it wasn’t funny at all
man
and i’m i’m trying to process what’s
going i know
i know it’s a setup but i don’t i’m
trying to figure it out
and i i can’t i can’t get control
and the more try to get control just the
worse it gets and i realize i’m in this
divine moment and then i see
scenes he passes before my eyes
i saw me trying to teach in front of our
church family
up there in that condition
and i realized there’s nobody there
that’s going to believe this is god no
one
the next scene
i’m standing in front of my favorite
restaurant in town
realizing
i’m going to be mocked by the entire
city there’s nobody there that’s going
to believe this is from god
i remember that jacob wrestled with an
angel
and he limped the rest of his life
that sometimes
the mark that god puts on our life from
a divine encounter looks like a blemish
to everybody else
you’ve got mary
the mother of jesus
without a husband the mother of the
illegitimate child
you’ve got things that happen in
people’s lives
they’re not
shortcuts to fame and all this other
stuff it’s the opposite
and and that what was what was in my
heart anyway
i’ve not been interested in the other
stuff
when i said yes to the lord i i didn’t
know if i’d ever owned anything i didn’t
i just didn’t care
so i’m laying their tears or going down
the sides of my
face onto the pillowcase
and i’ve got maybe 20 or 30 minutes into
this where i’m seeing these scenes
and i still have no control
and i’m trying to process what’s going
on
and i realize he’s been reminding me
this entire time
son you said
more
at any cost
and i could tell in that moment
that he was asking for my right to
dignity
to my personal dignity
and after laying there for 20 or 30
minutes in this
i don’t know what else to call it the
baptism of fire is what it felt like
after processing this i said okay
okay you can do anything you want with
me if i get you in the exchange
if it’s true that i get more of you
do whatever
and i laid there for the rest of the
night
with this presence this power it was not
pleasant
but it was glorious
i got up that next morning
i don’t always tell this part it
continued the next night and the third
night
a couple months later we’re here
and the holy spirit begins to move
i started to see things lady back over
here born deaf all of a sudden she never
heard anything in her life
starts pointing to the speakers in the
ceiling
she can hear
we start seeing things i’ve never seen
my life
somebody’s paralyzed for
38 years gets up out of a wheelchair
over here
and you have a thousand people leave
good people
i have no
no animosity or criticism at all
but if you want to kill a pastor
pastors are weird you just got to
understand pastors are weird
we are a weird group
we can have people who hate us leave the
church and we’re sad
that’s weird
but these were good people many of them
friends that i knew some said
one
family in particular said we know this
is god we just can’t do it
they left
and i know it’s hard to
imagine
and hard to explain
but for me
it wasn’t hard
it wasn’t hard it was
the part of me
that would have
cried in pain
in that season
died in the previous season
there’s something about
something about a baptism of fire
that purifies
what’s important
all of a sudden there’s certain things
that are not on your list anymore
sometimes we experience pain only
because we care about the wrong things
sometimes we experience anguish of heart
only because
it’s the wrong set of values and there’s
there’s something about the fiery
presence of god
the purify i said it changes everything
everything has changed
[Music]
everything
and i feel like
i i ache for our country i ate for our
state i see this craziness that is going
on absolutely insanity
and then i hear the lord in psalms 51
clean heart
clean
heart clean heart
then
then
because of purity
and power
there’ll be something on your words
that will change the environment that
you live in
the powers are not there
because you’re brilliant
the power is not there
because you’ve got a great strategy
for transformation
the powers are because you said yes in
the secret place when the burning one
came
in purified hearts
uh
the lord is is so creative he
he sets the stage for us uniquely
individually
and where he may touch me in a certain
way he touches you in a different way
his method
makes no difference to me
it may be an insight in a scripture
that may be it for you
the outcome’s what’s important
is that the burning one has touched
these lips
so that the burning one has ignited this
hurt
is that the burning one has made it
possible for me to live with clean hands
and a pure heart
and to be the living offering for a
nation that is desperately looking for
anchors
don’t misunderstand uh we’re not the
anchor
but
that he is and
and
and i
i ache for this
then
then
i will teach transgressors your ways and
sinners will be converted that’s what i
ate for
when i heard that friday morning when
that was being read i went
that’s it i can’t get away from that
that’s it right there
i feel like his word is drawing us into
a divine encounter
where there’s a fresh baptism available
for
whether you’re online at home in your
office you’re in this room it doesn’t
matter to me the lord is setting us up
for something that is beyond
i needed something beyond my control
i needed
for me it was vital
to give up my right to look good
my right to be reasonable
and to die at that place
and say if i get you in exchange you can
do whatever you want
yeah i’m so glad that you uh watch this
video i do pray that it’s a great great
strength and encouragement to you and
i’ve got a verse that it really is my
cry for all of us and it’s psalms 20
it’s verse 4
may he grant you your heart’s desire and
fulfill all your plans
that’s my prayer that’s my prayers that
this would be the season of rich rich
fulfillment
thanks for joining us