Bill Johnson teaches from Psalm 67 on the responsibility of blessing. We have a responsibility to pray for and steward the blessing and favor of God in our lives, that His way may be known in the earth. God’s blessing on our lives is evidence of a good and perfect Father. Bill’s sermon is part of Bethel’s Vision Sunday, detailing the new building project.
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i just i want to go on record i like
that shirt chris
i’m just telling you i like i like the
shirt
i’m not fond of the dance the dance can
go
but uh but the shirt is is nice in fact
the dance isn’t even a dance it’s
it’s a wounded parrot or something
it’s
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peacock that’s a
a wounded peacock
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i love what uh what’s going on i love it
i’m
i’m so thankful to see uh things start
to take shape
you gotta understand as as as
one of the team members here i i’m so
excited for what’s happening i’m so
excited what i see the lord doing
and in a sense the last thing in the
world i want to do is teach about a
building
i mean that’s what the slot is is aimed
for so what i felt the lord putting in
my heart
was something that would be useful and
applicable to every person but it also
fits in the context of what god’s called
us to
um i
yeah
let me hear
here let me figure something out
i was
hunting in texas
last november
let’s give thanks for texas let’s give
thanks
for hunting
i i forgot to do it this time but
usually when we do a conference i’ll
read off the names of the nations that
have visited
and then i will ask did i forget any
countries and
texans always yell out texas because
because you all texans actually think
you’re a separate country
and so when i go there i actually bring
my passport in case something happens
while i’m there so
i was uh i was there on a trip last
december with a friend of mine
and uh and i couldn’t sleep one night
and so i
rolled over grabbed my ipad
and opened to
i have a file of just a whole bunch of
prophetic words and i like to review
them i like to keep them before my eyes
my heart and so i opened that up and i
started reading
this prophetic word that i didn’t
remember receiving
in fact michael maiden who was here a
year ago and actually gave us a very
strong word about this new building he
said if you don’t build it now you won’t
be ready for what’s about to happen
and it was it was a there was a sense of
prophetic urgency uh in that word and
and we heard it and uh
and said amen together well that same
friend michael maden maiden
sent this to me and i had forgotten that
i had never received it and in this
prophetic word was this
i saw a large tech company
approach you wanting to partner in what
you’re doing and offering you a large
building for a training school for
technology
so like this i’m in text i read this i
went wait a minute that’s what’s
starting to form right now
at home i don’t think anybody knows this
word was given
so it’s like two in the morning and i i
got my i had my ipad so i copied that
and i sent it to chris i said hey look
isn’t this what’s happening right now
because a large tech company wanted to
partner or give place for our tech
school and it was in detail what was in
in
in this word was actually what was
happening so obviously that brought
great encouragement to us
and uh
and so that’s what’s happening and i i i
love the connection if you ever study
like um
it’s throughout the psalms but it’s
especially in haggai
it’s in uh
ezra nehemiah these are all building
books they all talk about building
facilities and there’s this there’s this
not strange in a sense a weird or wrong
but unusual connection between building
and profits
it said they actually
they actually partnered with the
prophets and they succeeded
uh some things were actually built under
the guidance or direction of the
prophets
and so we believe very strongly in that
prophets do not take the place of our
responsibility to hear from god
personally
but our responsibility to hear from god
personally doesn’t take the place of the
prophet either they work together in
tandem and so i’m very thankful when the
lord has been so kind and generous to us
through the years on bringing us
prophetic words and and we have a
boatload right now
so i figure i’m going to have to lift
about 180 to fill fulfill all of them so
um
yeah that’s just an ugly picture right
there so i uh let’s let’s turn in your
bibles how about that we’ve got 16
minutes left to
to talk to you i want you to open to
psalm 67 and i have a what i consider to
be very strange
unusual word to give on a sunday where
we’re talking about buildings as we are
and yet i think it’ll make hopefully
it’ll make sense to you once we get
going
because i believe uh and i will say this
i don’t i don’t use this phrase very
often but i believe prophetically
i’m i’ve come into an understanding of a
new
season if you will
a new way that god is going to release
himself to and upon
and through us as a people so hopefully
this will make a little bit more sense
in it in a moment let’s read
psalm 67 of the entire psalm we’re going
to go back to one verse i’ll expand on
it and share testimony and then i want
to read through it and give a little bit
of context okay
verse 1 of psalm 67
god be merciful to us and bless us
cause his face to shine upon us
that your way may be known on earth
and your salvation among the nations
let the peoples praise you o god let all
the peoples praise you
oh let the nations be glad and sing for
joy for you shall judge the people
righteously and govern the nations on
earth
say hello
let the peoples praise you o god let all
the peoples praise you
then the earth
shall yield her increase
god our own god shall bless us
god shall bless us and all the ends of
the earth
shall fear him
this psalm
has
required
a change in perception
a change in perspective on the nature of
god the tools that he uses we already
know about his heart for the nations but
the tools that he has designed and
created to literally draw in the nations
in part are represented in this song
and what i want you to do is i want you
to look at verse six again let me talk
to you for just a few minutes on verse
six it says then the earth now this is
following the people of god coming in to
a measure of blessing a let me say a
mantle or breakthrough in the area of
blessing now i’m not talking about get
rich schemes i’m not talking about
building personal empires i’m talking
about
supernatural wealth
intellectually emotionally
relationally in every single part of
life is the design of the lord
it includes finances but that’s not the
focus the focus here
honestly is the overall well-being of a
person who lives well with the lord
doesn’t mean no problems or challenges
it just means he walks with us in those
difficulties and brings about his
redemptive solution so verse 6
then the earth shall yield her increase
god our own god shall bless us i love
that verse the earth shall yield or
increase because somehow in this
unusual invitation to live in the
blessing of the lord
and to see nations come to him a part of
that process is that the earth would say
all right
you can have it i’ve been holding it in
all this time but now you can have the
earth yields surrenders its increase
we have a wonderful prayer house over
here i remember the sunday we
presented a project to the church family
here years ago when people were you know
the church had had grown to a much
smaller size
um
and uh and it was during that time the
lord put in in my heart the vision for
that prayer house literally i i saw it
sitting on this front row
and that’s a long story not for now but
when we went to raise the money that one
sunday morning chris had just got here
and prophesied that all of that money
would come in and pledges or offering in
that in that one day
and uh
and and so as soon as he gave that word
i think he hid under the front row
because
we were going to take an offering and
actually find out if it happened so
that’s a quick way to test the prophetic
words real quick way yeah
either you have it or you don’t and uh
and i think we ended up with eight
dollars and fifty cents over the amount
that was needed and one of the kids in
the church gave ten dollars and i think
he’s he’s convinced he took us over the
over the edge into the into the land of
bounty
and that happened on that maybe that
prayer house my wife uh had a uh she
would manage the prayer ministry there
she had a little office as you walk in
there’s a little door to the left and
there’s a small little office that was
her office and and of course you pray
there as well as in the main part and
and work from that little office and she
had a plant in there
and this plant just if you can imagine
being in this place where this
continuous worship like 24 7 and prayer
and intercession for the nations and all
that goes on there
um
no weddings no bible studies no anything
else just prayer and worship
uh this little plant that would bloom
every like it would have flowers every
november and december
but something happened to that plant in
the time it spent in that prayer house
it finally got to where it just bloomed
12 months of the year
just continues 12 months of the year now
you have to understand
when when the more pronounced the
presence of god comes the more he messes
with our understanding of seasons
jesus said in john 4
he said you say it takes three months
and then there’s a harvest why did they
say it took three three months into
harvest because that’s what it takes
you plant the seed three months later
you get the harvest so jesus says you
say takes three months i say the fields
are ripe and ready for harvest of course
he’s talking about evangelism but he’s
using a natural parallel
i remind you the book of ezekiel says
and your trees will bear fruit 12 months
of the year
so here’s this plant over here that
would have blooms on it 12 months of the
year benny and i bought a new house a
few years ago three a little over three
years ago
and uh and the previous owner did a
masterful job of hiring and having
landscaping done and so there’s flowers
and trees in all the right places you
know and there’s this one place right up
front and uh right to the right of the
walkways you go towards the house this
beautiful
section of just iris flowers i love
flowers i just i’m so impressed with god
who would create flowers that don’t do
anything except look beautiful i mean
they just look beautiful and the god
that that would be in his heart and mind
you know he’s he’s different than we
sometimes think he’s not just this the
industrious functional person he’s one
who loves beauty he his first miracle
took place at a wedding and this it’s
just this heart of a celebr celebratory
father who who does this stuff so here’s
these irises and we noticed a year or so
ago uh in fact it was a year ago these
irises they bloom every um
i think it’s march and april or april
may maybe
and and a a year ago they they had
blooms in november
that continued in december
and then of course they started again in
april
in may
but then we noticed in the heat of the
summer july
they had flowers again
and then in august in the smoky heat of
august flowers again and september and
they’ve got flowers in fact after this
noah’s flood that took place here just
recently
competing with no exaggeration but only
slight
after that it just threw up a whole
bunch more flowers and so we’ve got this
iris plant in front of our house that is
now giving us beautiful flowers
basically 12 months of the year
what is i i feel like little tiny things
like this are signs to catch our
attention that there’s a shift in season
in which he’s going to function outside
of that nature outside of the boundaries
it’s not that
nature and those responsibilities aren’t
fit they are but they are not limiting
they don’t limit him
and i i felt i was honestly to
prophetically declare a shift in seasons
where things would happen unusually so
in the area of harvest and personal
increase
i have a friend i won’t mention his name
just to
to uh to keep
the focus away from me i’m not i’m not
sure he’d appreciate it
but he has thousands of orange trees
and these oranges uh we have a north
street at our house right now that our
previous owner made sure was planted
it’s gorgeous and it has oranges right
now i just ate a couple this week from
and so november december i think jane
where we have uh oranges
but my friends orange trees i think he’s
got like 12 000 of them
half of them
have oranges in like july
and june
the wrong season
and they’re worth like 10 times i think
it’s 10 times a huge significant
increase of the value of each orange
they’re also the best quality possible
and they
he harvests them in the wrong time of
year nobody has them that time of year
except for him
he does have a whole bunch of pastors
that walk through these orange streets
praying continuously it might have
something to do with the change of
season but then he told me almost in
house terms
um
that he has i forget enough it’s six
trees or twelve trees that actually bear
oranges twelve months of the year
i i feel like there’s some of these
things are starting to happen
it may be completely different for you
but it’ll be simply a lesson to increase
the awareness that god’s seasons are
different than ours and they are never
restrictive they are always avenues of
expression there are times for him to
reveal his heart and his abundance now
go back to this
psalm
psalm 67
verse 1
god be merciful to us boy it all starts
with mercy
mercy is when we don’t get what we
deserve grace is when we get what we
don’t deserve
god be merciful to us and bless us and
cause his face to shine on us that
phrase caused his face to shine upon us
is a prayer for the favor of a loving
father his countenance to actually be
seen on our countenance
that his delight over us would be
actually seen in evidence on our own
expression our own the way we do life
this prayer
what i believe is a very serious mandate
we are responsible to pray for the
blessing of god in our personal lives
it is a responsibility we owe the world
around us a blessed life
now again i’m not talking about
materialistic empires i’m talking about
pursuing the favor of god
manifested on our lives because the next
verse says that your way would be no one
on earth they won’t know what kind of
father you’re like unless you do
something unusually bountiful with my
life with my relationships with my
health with my finances with favor open
doors all these things are supposed to
be marked with an unusual sense of favor
and blessing and we owe we owe each
other that kind of personal prayer life
god bless me
let it come from your mercy god
bless me cause your face to shine on me
otherwise they won’t know what kind of a
father you are
but notice the next phrase it says and
your
to the nations goodness gracious is it
possible
that a last day revival the harvest the
billion soul harvest at least in part
comes
because the nature of a perfect father
was seen upon a people that hosted and
carried his favor and his blessings well
it’s the calling car it’s the invitation
if you will he i have a father he really
cares for you as much as he cares for me
i want you to know what his favor looks
like i want you to know what his
blessing looks like he made complete
difference in your home and your
marriage and your business
that’s what we live is we live in this
privileged opportunity to introduce a
perfect father to a world a planet of
orphans
to be frank
then verse 3 and 4 just talk about this
what happens when the nations come to
the lord they bless the lord they live
in joy the nations are healthy and then
we get down to verse five let the
peoples praise you all the peoples
praise you then the earth shall yield to
increase god our own god shall bless us
here’s what i want you to notice verse 1
says god please bless us
verse 6 says god shall bless us
there’s a point in your prayer life
where you stop asking and you start
decreeing
there’s a point in our prayer life where
we stop asking
i can feel it there are times in my own
time with him
it feels as though if i ask again it
will be an offense
i i don’t mean he’s angry at me i mean
i’m i’m not tapping into the moment he
created for me because there’s a point
where
it’s fruitless to ask because it’s been
settled it now must be decreed and it’s
in the decree that things the purposes
of god actually begin to unfold in a in
a realized fashion
jesus did this before he ever healed
anyone
before he ever opened blind eyes or
caused the lame to walk or anything he
declared in luke 4
the spirit of the lord god is upon me
because he has anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor open the blind eyes
recovery of sight to the blind the
healing of the lamb he made the decree
before anything happened because he was
acknowledging this is what’s happened to
me and this is the reason and i’m
telling you folks
decree over your own life
i am blessed by god as a testimony to
the nations because the billion soul
harvest i get to be involved in i have a
role i have a part to play because the
favor of god is on my life and there
there is someone that’s going to see it
i don’t mean we all get broadcast on the
news who would want that anyway
but somebody’s going to see it another
family another individual is going to
see there’s something unusual resting
upon that person and it’s the attractant
it’s the invitation if you will it’s on
your life and mine and here it is
god shall bless us
god our own god shall bless us god verse
7 god shall bless us and here’s a here’s
a prophetic decree and all the ends of
the earth shall fear him
don’t get messed up by that fear because
the the fear of god in a right sense
draws us to him
the fear of god in a perverted sense
repels people from him
so this that was worth the entire day
right there this right here is a decree
it’s a prophetic decree that says god
shall bless us
in fact say this with me god shall bless
us
god shall bless us
and all the ends of the earth shall fear
him
and all the ends of the earth shall fear
him
you know what this whole arise and build
this is the tip of the iceberg
it may look
huge to you and to me
but it’s the tip of the iceberg because
it represents something that’s not just
about bethel or about reading it is
about the global expansion of what god
is doing on the planet through
like-hearted like-minded people that
will give themselves for the
transformation of cities and nations
around the world that is what is in
process and that building will become
the testimony of god’s nature it will
become a tool that is used to facilitate
revivalists going throughout all the
world and it will be the canvas
the whole thing that we build there is a
canvas that illustrates our
understanding of who he is and how we
value people that is the nature of that
building i want you to stand for it
please
come on jesus
come on jesus god shall bless i say it
god shall bless us
and all the ends of the earth shall fear
him
i know we’ve got such a wonderful huge
online community and man we love and
bless you guys i love running into you
various places around the world i want
you to join with us we’re going to say
it again
god shall bless us
and all the ends of the earth shall fear
him
i want to give you permission to pray in
fact permission and an assignment
to pray for personal blessing
he would not direct us to pray for
something if it wasn’t his intention to
answer
he also would not direct us to place
pray something
if it would happen without our praying
he doesn’t direct us in prayer
if he’s going to do it anyway without
our prayer
in other words he invites us into this
covenantal role
where we bring petition before him
because it’s his heart to do it but
without the prayer
it won’t happen
i’m not saying he won’t do anything i’m
just saying
the potential is never reached without
the full cooperation with what he has
designed
just put a hand on somebody’s shoulder
next to you and i want you to pray
the abundance of the blessing and favor
of god to rest upon that life
and that household in this next season
in this next season the abundance of
god’s favor
the abundance of god’s favor on that
household this next season
i want you to declare over them god
shall bless you
god shall bless you
god is in the process of blessing you
and all the ends of the earth will fear
him
amen father i pray that this would just
increase you did so good look at you
you look like you actually like each
other
one more thing
one more one more thing real quickly
hold your place if you would any time we
gather together there’s always the
chance there are people here that do not
have a personal relationship with jesus
you don’t know what it is to be
born again as the term the bible uses
transformed from the inside out forgiven
of sin brought into god’s family and if
there’s anybody here that’s in that
place and and you would say bill i don’t
want to leave the building until i know
i am i am right with god i am until i
know what it is to have peace with god
then i want you to do that by just
putting a hand up and just saying bill
that’s me i don’t want to leave the
building until i know i’ve been forgiven
of sin i’ve been brought into the family
of god
anyone online that is in this
this moment with us and you would say i
want to give my life to jesus we have
pastors online and just put in the chat
room i want to know jesus i want his
forgiveness just put that in there and
when other pastors will join with you
amen
bless you who’s who’s helping me
look the queen herself is coming up here
come on jesus