Bill Johnson shares with us principles of warfare that equip us to implement the victory Jesus already paid for us. We fight from victory not for victory.
open your bibles to second kings chapter
six
we’ve got four stories three of which
we’re going to read
up parts of uh just the amount of time
and
and and the length of the message just
makes it impossible for me to
to read the the bulk of the story but i
try to give you the context
has anybody figured out yet that god
thinks completely different
than we do like like it’s not close
it’s not even close it’s not like
similar he thinks completely different
one word from god is more powerful than
a million of will
well-intentioned words from good friends
one word
changes everything he literally spoke
the worlds into being
and what we’re going to look at today is
as i want to examine
principles of warfare um i i’m not
interested
in creating a uh an atmosphere where we
intensely focused on destroying the
powers of darkness jesus already did
that
our responsibility is to implement the
victory he’s already obtained for us
so but i i do want to bring out certain
principles and then we’ll
wrap them up bring it to a certain
conclusion here’s a strange story
second king six the syrian army
was coming against the people of god and
was about to destroy them they were
skilled enough to destroy them they were
their numbers were great enough to
destroy them but there was a secret
weapon called elisha
and elisha the prophet of god was sent
out
and he he prayed and he called down
blindness
on this army so if you can imagine a
syrian army you’re
buffed you’re strong you’re ready to
have this great victory and suddenly
blindness comes over the entire army
well elisha’s there and he just kind of
heard
herds the cattle and takes them into the
city of samaria
and then he says god remove the
blindness and so all of a sudden
this entire army is inside the city of
god
and they are surrounded by israel’s army
and they realized they they went from
aggressively attacking a city a nation
to being captives and they didn’t do
anything they just
literally followed elisha into the city
and found themselves captive
so here’s the story and it’s unusual
verse 21
the king of israel saw them and he said
my father shall i kill them shall i kill
them
i just think it’s so funny it sounds
like a little five-year-old
can i kill him can i
i’m sorry i i know this is r-rated but
most of the bible is
uh benny and i wrote this book on
raising kids called uh
raising giant killers and somebody wrote
me a note said that’s a rather morbid
title and i
responded yeah a lot of the bible
stories are rather morbid so
adjust all right verse 21
when the king of israel saw them he said
to elisha my father shall i kill them
shall i kill them
but he answered you shall not kill them
would you kill those whom you have taken
captive with your sword in your bow
set food and water before them that they
may eat and drink and go to their master
then he prepared a great feast for them
afterward they ate and drank
he sent them away they went to their
master
so the bands of syrian raiders came
no more to the land of israel this is
one of the strangest
we’re going to look at three awkward
victories but this is one of the
strangest way
to win a battle and that was feed your
enemy
and there are times where compassion
will take you into a triumph
into a victory the skilled warfare and
all your praying and fasting and
everything
will not do there’s something about
compassion compassion is so
vital that in ezekiel 16 there’s this
bizarre dialogue about
about sexual perversion that had taken
over society
and the lord in verse i think it’s 49
says
the reason this giant grew to dominate
the hearts the minds the values of
people
was because you left the door open with
the absence of compassion
and caring for the poor so it’s such a
big deal
that when compassion is is demonstrated
it transforms not only the immediate
condition in this case
food but it did more than that the
passion translation forgive me
i i forgot to look up the verse again um
but there’s a
the passion translation in proverbs has
this one verse that says
through our generosity we awaken
the conscience of other people that’s
that’s stunning
through our acts of kindness we actually
awaken
people’s awareness to what is written in
their heart by god himself
the compa compassion generosity kindness
awakens that stuff in people’s lives
that’s what happened here
suddenly warriors that wanted to destroy
israel
lost the desire to destroy anyone and
they no longer
went in to israel to fight into war
and it was simply because they got fed
it wasn’t the power of
a food it was the power of kindness it’s
the power of generosity
compassion is generosity of heart it may
be a
meal and maybe a hug it may be
an afternoon of counsel but the point is
is excellence here creates a generous
heart
where compassion is demonstrated the
second one is in second chronicles 20.
if you look there it’d be great
ii chronicles chapter 20.
here’s one that uh the first two
are i think are fairly well known to us
as a church family the third one is just
weird
these are strange but the third one is
even stranger
the first one the compassion the
generosity thing
is as well no we’ve we’ve had the way we
live our life the way we
have run things here as a ministry i
remember in the early days we wouldn’t
have enough
money in the bank to pay staff salaries
and i would go into steve’s office i’d
say
write me a check to such and such a
church we’re going to help them pave
their parking lot
they don’t have the money to pay their
own parking lot and so we would take out
of our place of need
and would just break that thing through
generosity it it affects the people
you’re selling to but it affects you too
it transforms a value system here and
and that’s that’s what we did the lord
enabled us to get out of messes
by doing the opposite thing that you
would think in the natural and that is
you listen for what god is saying and
you move accordingly
and express that generosity and it broke
that cycle well here’s another
story israel is being invaded surrounded
if you will by ammon
moab mount sierra syria all these
these nations have banded together in
an alliance to destroy the people of god
jehoshaphat hears of
he’s absolutely terrified and he calls
for a prayer meeting
and then he calls for a fast a fast fast
uh it calls for the people to cry out to
god and so they do
in the midst of this prayer time a
prophet
stands up and begins to prophesy a guy
named jehaziel and in the midst of this
assembly
he begins to prophesy don’t be afraid
don’t be afraid you won’t have to fight
in this battle
god’s going to fight on your behalf for
you and so this prophetic word was
released
it says later it says israel trusted in
their prophets and succeeded which is a
very very
important you have to recognize the word
of the lord regardless of who it comes
from
your job is to recognize when it’s him
it may come from a child it may come
from profit or something
i remember once i i wanted so badly to
test drive this new car
and and i i knew i knew i knew i knew i
was not to buy a car
so what i did is i talked myself into
just test driving
and i said lord i said i’m not going to
buy i just want a test drive so i took
the family of the car a lot
we got into the car my kids are small
benny and
the boys are in the back seat and i get
behind the wheel
salesman’s right here to my right i
start the car
and brian is in the back seat and he
starts to sing
be careful little eyes what you see
be careful little eyes what you see
there’s a father up above looking down
in tenderlove
so be careful little eyes what you see i
did not enjoy that test drive
it totally ruined the entire moment for
me
i literally i i pulled out of the
driveway pulled around the block
parked it and left i was just it was
horrible i had no conversation
completely ruined a really good test
drive of a car that i thought would be
perfect for my life
trust your prophets and succeed but we
come down to verse 22
it says now when they began to sing into
praise
the lord said ambushes against the
people of ammon moab
mount sierra who had come against judah
and they were defeated
i love stories like this this particular
theme is
actually all through the old testament
especially from david onward
he he learned in his own experience
the power of praise he learned that god
actually establishes his throne upon the
praises of his people
he he saw in his own experience the
triumph
of how worship praise transforms a
person’s life
we’ve learned together that when things
are difficult you don’t respond
according to the circumstance you
respond according to the nature of god
and when we do that when we’re anchored
into the heart and the nature of god the
nature of his promises
we have reason to celebrate before the
answer
this scripture the story goes on to say
the lord made them to rejoice over their
enemies
the key was they rejoiced before they
won the battle
by the way don’t ever think the battles
between god and the devil
that there is no there is no threat
there whatsoever
satan is not the opposite of god he’s
absolute of uh
of michael they are both created beings
there is no struggle between god and
powers of darkness that’s
that is a laughable concept
the enemy only exists as training ground
for the people of god who will reign
with him forever it’s
one purpose alone
god designed humanity to destroy the
powers of darkness in the creation
we had that assignment but with sin
forfeited the ability to defeat him so
jesus took on flesh
beat the powers of darkness on our
behalf and then handed us the keys of
his own personal victory
we are not fighting for victory we’re
fighting from
victory towards the broken conditions of
life
that is the responsibility of every
believer
so when we talk about warfare we have
reason to celebrate ahead of time
because it
battle literally has already been won
we’re just learning how
to apply that which jesus has been
victorious over
in this particular story they began to
sing and the lord set ambushes before
the lord
but before the people of god i had an
interesting experience
about 20 years ago it was fairly soon
we’ve been here 22
i think it’s 22 years what year is this
what what year is it 19 we’ve been here
uh 23 years
23 years this week oh about that 23
years this week okay
so about 21 years or so ago um
it was a saturday night i was fast
asleep
middle of the night and a voice awakened
me the voice of the lord
woke me up and i don’t know the time i
don’t remember the time
but he woke me up with his voice and i
laid there literally the rest of night
the rest of the night putting this
phrase through my
through my mind and come back next week
and i’ll tell you exactly what that
phrase was
that’s that’s just so cruel but that’s
that’s that’s what i do
that’s what i do you know um he spoke to
me
he woke me with his voice and this is
what he said
he watches over the watch
of those who watch the lord
he watches of the i literally laid there
all night thinking that through what
does this mean
we know that we have responsibility if
you’re a parent you’re a watchman
over your children your household if
you’re a pastor or watchman if you’re
a business owner you’re a watchman over
that place of responsibility
so we all have responsibilities and god
never leads us to be irresponsible
but he was showing us how his world
works he was showing me i should say
in this situation he spoke to me and he
said
he basically said this i’ll watch over
your watch if you’ll watch me
and that’s what worship is worship is
the engagement
of heart to heart the word worship
actually
is a word that means to kiss it’s a
face-to-face encounter
the lord draws us in to this kind of a
relationship regardless of circumstances
because he remains the same his promises
he has solutions and answers
for every problem we could ever face in
our lifetime and whatever you think is
the biggest problem
in your life right now he already has a
plan
and a solution charted out for that
situation
it is not russian roulette it’s not some
random i hope we get a breakthrough
he has a very specific course of
direction
where his redemptive touch will be put
to that problem
that’s who he is that is his nature and
because that is so
absolutely true we have every reason
kingdom reasoning is i get to celebrate
ahead of time
thanksgiving and praise whenever we
offer thanksgiving to the lord we thank
him for what he’s done we praise him for
who he is
and what’s important what i learned
early on is i would get so discouraged
i’d get so
bummed out and there’d just be like this
cloud
over me and i you know i try to
quote scripture or do whatever to try to
get my head cleared it just wouldn’t
work
what i finally figured out is that the
darker the cloud
the more exuberant my praise needed to
be so the time i least felt like dancing
before the lord is when i would dance
before the lord
the least time i felt like shouting and
raising my hands lying prostrate before
the lord whatever it might be those were
the moments i would do that
and it would break that cycle over me
you can you can stand here like this for
five days and have nothing happen
but when you give yourself spirit soul
and body to glorify his name through
your offering
something happens something happens the
air becomes
charged with the power and the presence
of god because he shows up
in that moment to deliver he shows up in
that moment to heal
and i i remember in in early days
having to learn that because i i i knew
it on paper but i didn’t know my
experience
in thanksgiving we give him a sacrifice
because of what he’s done and praise for
who he is
but in worship i’m the offering
i just step right onto the altar here i
am
do as you please accomplish your
purposes
that’s really what worship is the next
story
is i consider to be the strangest of all
if if worshiping your way to triumph
wasn’t
challenging enough let’s take it to
another level go to zechariah chapter
one
are you alive like are you still
breathing and everything yeah
good so hard to explain when people die
in the meeting
zechariah chapter one next to the last
book in the old testament
if you get to matthew turn left
if you’re in psalms turn it hard right
because you’ve got a ways to go but
you’ll get there you’ll get there all
right
let me give you uh let me uh mention
two items in prophetic language that
exists in this story
so that as we read it it’ll make a
little bit more sense first of all
when you see horns in scripture horns
represent
authority power the horns of an animal
represent its strength and so anytime
you see horns the horn of david david
didn’t have horns coming out of his head
it was his authority it was the power
that he that he lived in
when you see the number four
it often times is referring to the four
corners of the earth north south east
west in other words
it’s a global reaction to something
and so let’s look at this this passage
beginning with verse 18 of zechariah
chapter one
then i raised my eyes and looked and
there were four
horns and i said to the angel who talked
with me
what are these so he answered me these
are the horns
that have scattered judah israel and
jerusalem
then the lord showed me four craftsmen
and i said what are these coming to do
and he said these are the horns that
scattered
judah so that no one could lift up his
head
but the craftsmen are coming to terrify
them
and cast out the horns of the nations
that lifted up their horn against the
land of judah
to scatter it now let’s read 21 again
and i said what are these coming to do
so
these are the horns or the powers that
have been used to scatter the people of
god so that no one could lift their head
the craftsman the artisan the creative
team
is coming to terrify the horns and cast
out
the powers that have been released to
the nations that have brought the
division
and the loss of vision the loss of
identity
that lifted up their horn against the
land of judah to to scatter it
so here’s this very strange story where
the prophet is standing there
and he’s having a vision but he doesn’t
understand it
he sees horns that are coming and he
says god what is this he said
these are the powers these are the horns
that it’s a global release
against the people of god to bring
destruction and he says i see them
coming
and then he says oh i see four artisans
four craftsmen
the creatives have been released what
are they released to do
they will terrify the powers of the
earth
that have been released to divide
and to take away the identity of the
people of god what do you have
when you have a people who can’t even
lift their head you’ve got loss of
courage
you have loss of vision and loss of
identity those three things are
robbed from the hearts of people in that
point
the scripture says god is the glory and
the lifter
of our head he is the one who restores
identity he lifts our head because he’s
a perfect father
who through his countenance gives us
identity
and it’s in that in that embrace if you
will in that
face to face with a loving father uh
identity
is shaped informed in us he’s the glory
you know
you have a child that’s done something
wrong and they hang their head you
lift their head now look at me son
listen you are forgiven what’s happening
there there is the
there is the joyful acceptance of a
loving father a loving mother
to release forgiveness and identity
restore identity get rid of shame
restore that back to the child’s life
that is what’s happening here
but what is unusual is the tool that god
used
to destroy these powers that were
released
into the earth to bring division and
loss of identity and it was
the creative people now i i don’t mean
just
uh singers and painters but that’s huge
it is the creative expression of god
that uniquely
fits into every person’s life that his
city has to jesus
i don’t care if you’re an accountant i
don’t mean creatively do the books
and that you change the numbers now it’s
not creative
but the way you handle the people you
work with the way that you
you display the excellence and the
beauty of your work it’s everything that
we do
is to be done with a touch of excellence
and beauty
this was such a profound thing in
solomon’s life
that he actually won the heart of the
queen of sheba that came to visit him
through not just the answers he gave he
gave her
answers to every question she had but
the only thing listed was the stairway
from his house to the house of god the
clothing of his servants
the way the tables were set and the way
they were fed
all the natural mundane things had been
so impacted by this genius by this
this man with wisdom that expressed a
level of creativity
that stunned her and made her speechless
it was
that value that was set on beauty and
excellence
restored an identity not only just it
wasn’t for solomon
it’s for the people of god it’s for the
nation of israel israel obtained
a sense of identity and purpose through
the beauty that was released through the
leadership of this man solomon
stunning i
was looking through an introduction of a
book i apologize i haven’t read the
whole book yet i understand it’s
outrageously wonderful
i got to get rid of dr geezer here there
we go
brian zane wrote a book called
beauty will save the world and i
absolutely love the title in fact i
i wrote a chapter in a book that i have
a power that changes the world on beauty
itself
he sent um prince
vladimir sent
groups of teams of people to research
the
religions of the world and uh prince
vladimir the great
was looking for a religion that would
unite his people he was a heathen
it wasn’t he was it wasn’t that he was
looking to be converted but he wanted to
research the religions of the world to
see what to bring to his people
so that they would find a sense of
identity be united together in purpose
so they released the envoy to examine
christianity they went to
byzantine capital of constantinople and
this is what they wrote in response to
their visit
to this capitol so then we went to
constantinople
and they led us to the place where they
worshiped their god
and we knew not whether we were in
heaven or earth
for on earth there is no such vision nor
beauty
and we do not know how to describe it we
only know
that god dwells among men we cannot
forget that beauty
when a people lose their sense of
identity
the value of beauty goes downhill
because the value switches to survival
and the lord it’s not just about a nice
painting
although i love them and i have some
nice pieces in my in my home
it’s not just about them it’s not just
about uh the
beautiful design of an automobile or or
the
the coat or the dress that you bought or
whatever it includes all of that it’s
it’s about this approach to life that
says
i serve a god of excellence and
excellence demands
i give attention to beauty because
beauty restores the soul of a people
there’s something about the creative
expression released over a family
my mom was uh amazing we’ve celebrated
her 90th birthday uh
yesterday and the day before and will
continue for the next couple weeks
probably
um but our home no matter how much money
we had or didn’t have
she had this ability to add such beauty
to every home we ever lived in
i we could be as poor as could be and i
would never know it because
everything she touched honestly not just
because she’s here i’ve said this all
over
she has such an artistic eye and a value
for beauty and for excellence
if she couldn’t buy it she didn’t have
the money she would make it
and and she did we all i grew up around
beauty
paintings that she would paint i mean
outrageously good paintings
and so here’s i grew up in this
environment where beauty had this
had this um this place of value
where where it not only was on the wall
it had to be
on the right place in the wall a correct
distance from
this one that is also beautiful and
everything was so structured for
excellence and beauty
that we grew up in that environment and
i i don’t know
i it’s only been in rece years i
realized oh my goodness
i’m a spoiled brat in the nicest
possible way
i grew up in an environment where where
everything
was beautiful everything was beautiful
they never we’d never set up the table
and
ever heard them criticize another person
i never once
don’t ever because there was excellence
of speech it was excellence of honor
it’s an excellence of value of
celebrating
they believed that could do anything
she still thinks that’s true don’t tell
her otherwise
i jokingly told my dad once i was about
20
or so i said i think i’ll pick up the
violin he says damn
so he finally came to his census and
thought there’s one thing you can’t do
you could never play
beauty is god’s mark
that helps to restore the soul of the
people
god is not a god that makes do
i mean how much sky do we need
when he multiplied food there was never
just enough
it was always more than necessary but he
didn’t waste anything
he was always extravagant and
the hour has come for the people of god
to place
value because you are going to be used
by the lord to help to restore the soul
of a city that was devastated through
fire
through loss this last year and it’s
going to be through beauty
it’s going to be through the homes that
you rebuild it’s the
enablement the help that we that we have
to stand alongside
and help people restore their lives
their business their families it’s all
through this thing called excellence and
beauty
there’s one of my favorite quotes in all
of history
is actually not from the bible i
apologize ahead of time for that but
it’s a good one
from john adams one of the founding
fathers of our nation
it’s pretty popular quote so many of you
have probably heard it
he said i must study politics and war
that my sons may have liberty to study
mathematics
and philosophy my sons ought to study
mathematics philosophy geography
natural history naval architecture
navigation commerce
and agriculture in order to give their
children the right to study
painting poetry music
architecture statuary tapestry
porcelain he understood something
he understood that it is all about
creating this culture where we’re
advancing to the place our soul is
restored
and beauty has its rightful place it’s
not misplaced
it’s not worshipped it’s a normal
expression of those who are healthy in
here
the last story i will just make
reference to
david was being attacked
by the philistines
and it says and david inquired of the
lord
shall i go up against them will you give
them into my hand
and the lord said go up against them i
will certainly give them into your hand
he does brings about a tremendous
victory
shortly thereafter the philistines
decide to attack again
and david inquires of the lord and says
shall i go up against them
will you give them into my hand and the
lord says no
do not go up against them he said circle
around them
and when you hear marching in the
mulberry trees
that’ll be a sign to you go after them
here’s the deal momentum
the momentum of success
creates an assumption that i know what
the will of god is
in this next situation
it’s it’s the most dangerous area for me
i just confess it outright i
every time i read through david’s story
i come face to face with the fact
that if i’ve had a victory here i’ve had
a victory here it creates a momentum oh
i know what god’s will is
and don’t do what david did where he
inquired of the lord
shall i go up against them he already
knows god wants him to be victorious
he already knows god has pro promise
that land he already knows all that
stuff
so based on principle he’s supposed to
go up against him
but principle without presence
is a kingdom without a king
the lifestyle we’ve been summoned to
live is that
in response to the voice of the lord
i’m a person of principle i study
principle i love the principles of the
kingdom
it’s what i give myself to i love to
learn
about the power of generosity and
kindness and the things we just talked
about
the incredible things that take place in
worship all that stuff i love those
things i love
looking for the gold in people’s lives
and calling those things to the surface
all those principles of the kingdom the
value of honor how it shapes culture
these are
all kingdom values i love all of it
the problem is
is it’s really easy to misapply a
principle
or to apply it at the wrong time i give
you a case in point
bethel family have heard me quote this
one many times in proverbs
solomon says don’t answer a fool
according to his folly
lest you be like him so i look that i go
there’s the principle
don’t talk to fool the very next verse
he says
answer a fool according to his folly
lest he be wise in his own eyes
so like which one of those do i do
and that’s the point he puts us in a
position
where unless he speaks we don’t know
what to do
the addiction if i can use that term in
a positive sense the addiction is not to
be
to principles we put to memory the
addiction is the face
it’s the voice it’s when he speaks
it’s when he speaks
so father i asked that you’d release a
fresh grace over this
family believers those who watch on
bethel tv that there’d be
something released over us of a of a
caution a care not a paranoia but a
an acute awareness of our need just to
hear
do we go up against them or not if so
what do we do
how when
help us to be come this people
that are nervous to make assumptions
but are delighted to yield your voice
i pray for that grace upon this church
family in jesus name
amen