Fervent Prayer – Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

Fervent prayer changes history. Bill Johnson encourages us to value praying without ceasing. Let us pray with the conviction that God’s will must be done!

[Applause]

all right good morning good morning

glad you showed up

by the way eric sends his eric and

candace and their love their

orlando florida with cooleonesis

speaking at their place today and i

think tomorrow

and we have a kingdom

culture conference coming up

june 26-28 it’s

the most unique conference that we do

because it is

all about sustaining a move of god

through kingdom culture

through learning the reality of that

world how it affects this one

and that’s where we turned our own team

loose so if any of you

want to be a part of that any of those

watching online would like to join us

for that it’s

it’s been a pretty pretty cool pretty

cool event for a number of years now

um let’s see

i i got a letter this week from

the gal that was healed uh

after being afflicted for 38 years

bedridden mostly the last 10 years

her and her husband sent me a note this

last week they’re in hawaii for their

first real vacation in 34 years

and she is

they are just exploring life what life

looks like now that

now that she’s been healed she was

bedridden for pretty much

10 years been very

not capable of functioning normally for

38 years

ongoing pain issues because of lyme’s

disease

and it was just the coolest thing ever

uh to see the holy spirit just

fill her body and flush that disease out

that’s exactly how it happened i

i saw it happening so finally we had

four

others healed of the same thing within a

couple weeks right after that so

if there’s anybody here with lyme’s

disease

any kind of autoimmune disease

stand or you have a family member with

that stand up because we’re going to

pray

first

yes the good news is jesus has a track

record of healing this stuff

and uh so we we we want to see that done

now

church family i want you to join with me

now go to somebody who’s standing

and and just begin to pray for them

those of you that are watching

by bethel tv join with us in the same

way

if you have this affliction in your own

body we just declare divine health over

you

in jesus name just stand with us in

faith right now

if you can’t reach somebody extend a

hand join your faith to somebody who is

standing

and we just declare jesus heals

lyme’s disease yields every autoimmune

disease

fibromyalgia all of these different

afflictions we declare this ends today

in jesus name pray for the outpouring of

the holy spirit

literally for his presence to flood

their body

until every trace of affliction is gone

just pray that pray that on them right

now

to flood their body until every trace of

affliction

is gone

every trace of affliction gone in jesus

name

thank you lord

amen just just pronounce over them the

lord jesus heals you

the lord jesus heals you beautiful go

ahead and be seated

please give us reports we’re just going

to tap this

lightly this morning but please send us

a report as

as miracles unfold throughout your your

own body or your own family

um is is there somebody here that has

some sort of a nerve damage on the right

side of your body

some sort of a nerve damage on the right

is that back over here

okay oh there’s a couple all right all

right well the lord jesus heals we’re

going to pray together again

for at least one more issue here in a

moment um a number of years ago i was in

germany

and um of course germany

and uh i was praying with the leadership

before the gathering

and while we were praying i just caught

this flash of a picture

of somebody to my right who had

arthritis head to toe

and uh and in in this flash picture it’s

hard to describe it

in this flash of a picture i just saw i

had them stand

and i pronounced over them the lord

jesus heals you

and i that’s not a magic pill it’s it’s

it’s only powerful if he says it first

and you repeat what he’s saying

you got it so but but that’s what it was

so i caught that picture so

when i got up the first thing i did was

said is there anyone here that is

arthritis head to toe

and a woman stood right over to my right

and she stood up and i said

the lord jesus heals you we didn’t pray

for it didn’t do anything

she began to tremble under the power of

god she turned very red

began to sweat profusely as the power of

god was literally going through her body

and in just i don’t know maybe two three

minutes i said what’s happened and she’s

just weeping she says

it’s impossible it’s impossible it’s

impossible

because she was completely healed

through the declared word i believe that

we’re going to see

more of that sort of thing where we find

out what he’s saying

and psalm 107 uh verse 20 says he sent

his word and healed them

so a big deal for you and me we’re going

to try to mess with this

subject a little bit today is really

hear what he’s saying

and then join our voice with his and

make that decree

um i want to pray for the ones with

nerve damage is there anyone here with

cancer

or any other kind of terminal disease

put a hand up you can stand in for

yeah all right i want to have nerve

damage and cancer

or any other terminal disease i want you

to stand if you have a family member oh

there’s somebody

here you broke your right ankle didn’t

heal right who’s that

who’s who is it is that is that you all

right

all right i broke right in this area

here

and it just didn’t heal correctly the

lord’s healing that right now is that

you as well all right

so terminal disease of any kind you know

what

we’ve been seeing so many miracles by

people standing in proxy

uh this is we’ve never seen the level of

breakthrough that i’ve seen

just in the last six months to a year if

you have a family member

uh dying of cancer or something stand in

their place

we’re going to pray together and again i

encourage everybody in our bethel tv

family join with us in this moment

because this is

a miracle moment bethel family you’ve

got people standing around you

i want you to go to them and just join

with them find out if it’s them

or a family member and just begin to

pray right now

again for those at home we make this

decree

the jesus the lord jesus heals you

if you can’t reach somebody at least

extend your faith

extend your faith we declare for that

family member right now in jesus mighty

name

that healing power would be released

into their body

nerve damage be completely healed and

restored now

the right ankle that broke bones be

reset now

in jesus name be reset now

in jesus name thank you god

there’s someone else who has some sort

of a numbness i think it’s in the right

shoulder

especially in the back area just keep

praying it’s just if this applies to you

i need you to stand

there’s some sort of a numbness maybe

that nerve damage thing again

but it’s that it’s uh is it right over

here okay

somebody lay hands on this this

gentleman right over here

a resurrection of that

of that shoulder nerve damage be healed

now in jesus name

yep

amen just to clear over them this ends

today

in jesus mighty name amen

amen all right go and be seated

if we get any more of that

throughout the meeting we’ll just jump

on it

um here’s what i want to encourage you

expect

miracles during the preaching of the

word

i felt i felt like the lord really spoke

that to me a while back

and it just needs to be declared so

expect god to touch you

when any time his word is spoken because

he sent his word and healed him

all right i have something extremely

important to read to you

maybe not as important as what we just

did i’ll have to admit

there hasn’t been one single bacon

recall

in 2018

but there have been several vegetable

recalls

just saying

[Laughter]

doctors are saying that each piece of

bacon you eat takes nine minutes off of

your life

based on that math i should have died in

1732.

[Laughter]

[Applause]

and here’s one i haven’t read for a

while it’s the hormone guide i need to

update them in every once in a while

just to help you with your life

there’s three categories dangerous safer

and safest

dangerous what’s for dinner

safer can i help you with dinner

safest where would you like to go for

dinner

dangerous what are you so worked up

about

i love feeling your pain

what are you so worked up about safer

could we be overreacting

safest here’s my paycheck

dangerous should you be eating that

safer you know there’s a lot of apples

left

that’s not much safer safest

can i get you a piece of chocolate to go

with that

here’s the last one dangerous what did

you do all day

[Laughter]

safer i hope you didn’t overdo it today

safest i’ve always loved you in that

robe

all right

open your bibles to acts chapter 12

if you would please acts chapter 12.

it’s amazing these friends that just

healed i think i just mentioned it

to you the letter i got there on their

first

real vacation in 34 years can you

imagine that

can you imagine the children or i’m

guessing to be in their

low 30s can you imagine being children

that have never had a healthy mom

and they were there when she got healed

and suddenly

she’s able to do everything and they

actually sent me a video they’re running

around the pool and

they’re in hawaii having a blast doing

stuff that

i normally can’t do so i i just it just

never gets old

how many of you the lord has done a

miracle in your body

you’ve experienced an actual miracle

anybody look around the room isn’t that

extraordinary

it’s amazing thank you lord do it again

and again and again and again

all right acts chapter 12. uh we’re

going to read a pretty long portion of

scripture so i need you just to kind of

hang with me

my favorite parts of the bible

are the stories where the lessons are

easy to get

you know like david and goliath anyone

can get that one you know you got the

little guy

facing the big guy and he wins and uh

it’s just a good story daniel in the

lion’s den

uh it’s you know just that trust in god

and

and uh that you see in these stories

well acts chapter 12

is actually one of those kinds of

stories the lord

makes note of something that we had

better make note of

and it’s concerning prayer i want to

talk to you about fervent

fiery enduring prayer today because i

i have felt the summons of the lord over

my own life

and corporately have felt the summons of

the lord

to engage in a level of prayer that is

going to be new

for many people and certainly at the at

the

um the measure i believe he’s calling us

into will be new for probably most all

of us

and so let’s uh let’s go ahead and read

the story

verse 1 of chapter 12 of acts

acts 12 1. now about that time herod the

king stretched out his hand

to harass some from the church then he

killed

james the brother of john with the sword

and because he saw that it pleased the

jews he proceeded to further seize peter

also

now it was during the days of unleavened

bread stop right there

just because i want to draw your

attention to something please notice

that herod was motivated by what pleased

the jews and what’s important to

understand

is both the religious spirit and the

political spirit are governed by the

fear of man

both are manipulated by corporate public

opinion

and it’s why as we pray as we uh elect

uh

officials and we pray for our leaders

one of the things we’ve got to pray for

is that they’ll have the courage to to

make decisions based on the values of

god

not on public opinion it’s vital but

also church leaders

because you’ll notice in jesus’s day the

pharisees would have a discussion they

said well if we answer this the crowd

will say this if we answer this

this will happen and so they actually

made their decisions based on public

opinion

and and we need courageous leaders both

in the church

and in the public sector that know how

to make decisions based on what god

values

based on what’s right based on what’s

wrong so my speech is over

let’s move on verse 4 once again

when they arrested him put him in prison

and delivered him to four squads of

soldiers to keep him

intending to bring him before the people

after passover

verse 5 peter was therefore kept in

prison

but constant prayer was offered to god

for him by the church

please take note of this constant prayer

was offered to god

for him by the church there’s no record

of

any prayer for james

i’m not saying there wasn’t prayer but

the lord took

note of the fervency and the consistency

the enduring nature

of the prayers of the saints for peter

verse six when herod was about to bring

him out that night peter was sleeping

bound with two chains between two

soldiers

the guards before the door were keeping

the prison

now behold an angel of the lord stood by

him a light

shone in the prison and he struck peter

on the side and raised him up saying

arise quickly and his chains fell off

his hands

then the angel said to him gird yourself

and tie on your sandals

and so he did and he said to him put on

your garment and follow me

when he went out and followed him he did

not know that what was being done by the

angel was real

but thought he was seeing a vision when

they were past the first and second

guard post

they came to the iron gate that leads to

the city

which opened to them on its own accord

and they went out and went down one

street and immediately the angel

departed from him

when peter had come to himself he said

now i know for certain

that the lord has sent his angel and has

delivered me from the hand of herod

and from the expectation of the jewish

people stop right there for just a

moment

how many of you have read brother yun’s

book

the heavenly man in his book

he was in uh um in prison in china they

had crushed his legs

broke them so severely he was not able

to use

he had no use of his legs could not walk

and he was in

i think he was in the solitary

confinement was in the prison and an

angel came in touched him he’s instantly

healed

raised him up and led him through a

series of doors out of the prison

into a waiting cab where he got into the

cab

the angel departed and he was led to

safety the lord still sets people free

from

from prison i i don’t know what the

prison guards did

you know after they saw the brother

eunuch was gone but

let’s just say he’s a wanted man

but he has such a wonderful story one of

the most humble men we’ve had him here a

number of times

what a gracious gracious man um

his story is so similar to peter’s let’s

read on in this story because i want you

to see what else happened

verse 12 when they considered this he

came to the house of mary

the mother of john whose surname was

mark where many were gathered

together praying and as peter knocked at

the door

of the gate a girl named rhoda came to

answer

when she recognized peter’s voice

because of her gladness she did not open

the gate

but ran in and announced that peter

stood before the gate

it’s interesting the angel opened one

gate but it took a little girl to open

the next one so

they said to her you are beside yourself

she kept insisting that it was so they

said it was his angel

peter continued knocking when they

opened the door so it was him they were

astonished

but motioning to them with his hand to

keep silent he declared to them how the

lord

had brought him out of prison and he

said go tell these things to james to

the brethren

and he departed and went to another

place this is a

such a great story to me it’s kind of

humorous

and i i can relate to all the humans

parts of the bible uh peter’s misgivings

all that stuff makes

perfect sense to me but peter comes

knocks on the gate

and they’re praying for him to be

released from prison and so when they

he knocks on the gate but it can’t be

peter

because he’s in prison

our job is to pray for revival not have

one

some people become so locked into what

they’re praying for that they never

become

open enough to receive the very thing

that god is releasing

and that was the case here and so uh

peter comes in

and of course is the good news but

here’s the part of the story that i want

us to kind of

feast on a little bit this morning

my my biggest concern and i bump it up

against this wall

quite frequently this theological

barrier

is that there are many that just assume

that whatever happens

is the will of god and they

and they say well it wouldn’t have

happened if it wasn’t for a reason

don’t misunderstand me god can use

anything but it doesn’t mean he

orchestrates everything

he’s big enough to reverse the effect of

martyrdom

we know for example that martyrdom

throughout church history

is is the seed of the blood of the

martyrs is the seed of the church

there’s no question there are several

hundred thousand martyrs

a year to the gospel of jesus christ

in places all around the world it’s

astronomical the amount of people

that are killed for their faith every

year

there’s no question but that that causes

it doesn’t cause the gospel to

retract it actually increases the focus

and intensity

we know from our friends

the bishop of baghdad that how many

people there have

that when they come to christ and they

uh get baptized in water the percentage

is very very high how many will be

martyred

within just a few weeks of their water

baptism it’s just

it’s just a crazy world that we live in

but the point i want to make

is although god can use such a loss

as the death of james when the church

bound together with fervent prayer

peter’s life was spared i would like to

suggest

that oftentimes what we are missing

in the realm of breakthrough is because

of the absence of fervent prayer

i’m glad that the lord answers so simple

prayers short prayers brief prayers

i’ve told you stories before how i’ve

had a passing thought

a desire that i it wasn’t even worthy

enough to be mentioned in prayer

and in moments he answers it and i get

so

moved by his heart as a father that he

does that for me

i uh years ago i took on

the challenge to study both nehemiah

and ephesians because both of them

are known for one sentence prayers and i

thought it was fascinating that nehemiah

could pray a prayer there was just one

sentence in life

that would actually affect the course of

history over multiple nations

extraordinary i love the fact that you

can pray from a place of pain

and god hears i love the fact that you

can be angry

and cry out to god and he hears you can

even do be

wrong and be bitter and cry out to god

just don’t stay there you know whatever

condition you find yourself in

that’s a good place to start praying but

pray until you come

into a place where you can sense and

taste the heart of god because that’s

where the breakthroughs begin

and so many people use prayer as just

the complaint session

in fact i i i met with a bunch of

intercessors once

and i said how many of you battled

depression and they all almost all of

them raised their hand i said well

you’re the ones that don’t pray then

your intercession you don’t pray because

you’re supposed to

true prayer is where you come in and you

make an exchange

if you’re praying there’s no change in

you then you weren’t praying you were

complaining

he said come to me you are weary heavy

laden i will give you rest what is he

saying

bring me the heavy i’ll give you the

light let’s make the exchange

prayer is supposed to be the exchange

moments

where we taste we touch the heart of god

all right let’s move on

so here’s this story where an answer

came

because of united prayer first of all

united prayer is very difficult

it’s it’s it’s

at the level of intensity we’re talking

about here is very challenging and i’ll

tell you why

let’s say i have 10 people together here

and we’re going to have a prayer meeting

so we’ve got

somebody over here we’ve got tom he’s

working with the youth we’ve got

kathy who’s working the school of

ministry we’ve got

jays working in counseling so we’ve got

all these different people we’ve got

people with children’s ministry we’ve

got people who work with the homeless

and

we have people work over here with the

outreach and if we have a prayer meeting

typically

typically what’s going to happen is each

person is going to pray for their

area of concern and burden is that right

absolutely it’s right but here’s the

problem when we only pray

what we brought to the table so to speak

we don’t recognize when the favor of god

is released over

a specific prayer why is that important

because we may be praying along and

praying for um god we need provision for

this

youth camp or we’ve got kids that want

to come that just can’t afford god we

just pray

it’s a right prayer next person praises

the lord we just

we’ve got to have greater breakthrough

with the homeless on the streets and we

pray that prayer somebody else then

begins to pray for

uh drug addiction in our county and all

of a sudden

there’s this faith that enters the room

every prayer that’s prayed is valuable

but when we learn to pray in unity it’s

because we’re learning to pray what he’s

breathing on

what he’s adding favor on and what you

do in that moment

is you don’t repeat the prayer you just

find another angle to be able to pray

again and lay add another layer on it

does that make any sense to you

if i just repeat the same prayer then it

does nothing but i’m i’m praying

i can sense the heart of god for this

issue of drug addiction

god i i asked that you would close up

reading

to the supply of drugs that you would

cause people who bring

drugs into the area that they would be

caught that

whole procedure would be stopped in its

tracks and then somebody else prays

god we pray even for those who are

dealing drugs that that their christian

background

should there be any that they would come

to a place of conviction

for what they know is actually wrong and

that you would deal with their hearts

that they would come to a place of

repentance

what are we doing a lot line after line

precept precept

layer after layer of of praying

consistent with what the holy spirit is

saying

and what the holy spirit is doing that

is a key

to united prayer and it’s very difficult

because we all bring our own stuff to

the table

and what happens in united prayer is

everybody lays their agenda down to find

out what he’s breathing on that’s

that’s the term that i use it’s where

you can tell he’s extending his favor

in the subject it doesn’t mean it’s the

only thing we pray about it just means

we pray

until there’s breakthrough i remember

oh so many years ago my my my little

brother

was once actually little and he was i

think

11 months old or so and he came very

very close to death

and i remember our obviously our whole

family is concerned he’s in intensive

care

at the hospital i remember the home we

lived in

i can give you the address but i won’t

i’ll just say it was on flamingo way but

i know the number i even know my phone i

don’t know what my number is now but i

know my number then so

i’m kidding i remember my grandfather

my my mom’s uh dad

he went into the living room and he

knelt by the couch

you know i’m like 11 years old and so

prayer for me was

jesus heal bobby amen you know it’s

about the extent of

my prayer life grandpa went into the

living room

our family was down here he went living

he was there for quite a while

i’ll never forget it he got up

and he announced to the family bobby

will be okay

why because he prayed until there was a

breakthrough

i don’t remember how long i was there

it’s been so many so many years ago

but he was there probably a couple hours

and he was praying

and when he could tell there was a

breakthrough he got up and announced to

the family

bobby will be fine so he he literally

came within hours i think it was eight

hours 12 hours something like that of

death

bobby did and my parents went to the

hospital

went in and the doctor said something

happened about two o’clock this

afternoon

which was when grandpa got up off his

knees something happened and changed

and he’s going to be fine and they just

helped in the recovery process

it’s that it’s that it’s that

relentless prayer

that has confidence because we know the

heart of god

see when you pray as a servant

you beg for the master’s invasion but

when you pray as a son you pray as a

daughter

you are joining in a co-laboring role

to see his heart manifest and

demonstrated in a specific way

i remember how many remember the or old

enough to remember when president reagan

was shot

remember that day oh man it’s horrible i

i remember the day

obviously for that reason but for

another reason as well

that particular morning i was sitting at

my piano

i was singing this little chorus i just

want to see your face

i just want to see your face so king of

glory enter in i lift up the gate of

praise

and while i was singing this phrase i

just want to see your face

i looked up on the piano and we had a

picture of my

grandparents my dad’s mom and dad

sitting there

and as i came to that phrase i just want

to see your face i looked at that

photo and the lord spoke so clearly to

me he said

that’s your grandpa’s desire i’m

bringing him home today

it so shocked me i stopped playing the

piano it

that was clear i thought this is exactly

what i thought i thought well it

shouldn’t take too long to find out

whether or not that was from the lord or

that was from pizza

or you know some something else

and so i continued to play and just a

little bit longer

half hour something later my mom called

and she said

we just received news uh that uh grandpa

went home to be with jesus today

so it happened that that day that moment

and so i told her the story of what i

had just heard and experienced about the

lord

taking a grandpa home and and it was

just a little while later

we got the phone call that president

reagan had been shot

so of course we’re you just you don’t

want that happen to any

anybody and uh so we

began to pray for him turned the news on

and uh and watched uh the reports

and i remember i would watch for a

little bit then i’d just go back into my

bedroom

now kneel next to my chair and would

just pray

and pray and intercede for god to spare

his life

but something happened during this time

i would be praying for

president reagan and every time i would

go to pray for him

my heart would turn to pray for uh

james brady the press secretary

and and i i couldn’t figure out why i i

would pray for

president reagan pray for him like i was

like you’re supposed to he’s supposed to

pray for you later

but we’re just interceding for god to

spare his life help the doctors to do

what they need to do and

so we’re just praying but then my heart

will i can just feel it being pulled

into prayer intercession for for james

brady

and and so i pray for him a bit i’d come

back out didn’t hear much news about

james brady but i’d hear about reagan

i’d go back in fact one time

when i went back in eric had gone into

his bedroom and he was kneeling next to

his chair i’m not sure

if he knew what we were praying for but

he was just a little guy and he was in

there praying as well so

so that was good so so i went back in i

praying that my heart again would be

turned from

praying for president reagan i prayed

for him but especially

just felt grieved a burden

might be a good term to pray for james

brady

and and so i did throughout that day

that that was my routine throughout the

day

and of course we got the news that

president reagan was going to be fine

exception

fast forward several years i don’t

remember how long

two three four years dick mills who was

a wonderful friend of ours he’s

home with jesus now but a wonderful

prophet friend he’d come to service

frequently in weaverville

and did the same here in reading uh he

came to the church in weberville and he

and he he told us a story he knew some

i i don’t remember if it was a friend of

his i think it was a friend of his that

was in

the emergency room when reagan and brady

was brought into the emergency room

and brady they had covered with a sheet

because he was gone there was no help

for him

they put him off to the side and they’re

working on the president

and somebody looked over and saw some

sort of movement and they went over

and they were able to resuscitate him

and and

life life came back to him i

i don’t know the extent they just had

just given up

so the point was is the holy spirit

sees what’s going on and he knows how to

lead us

into prayers that make

history and bring about significance

through answers

and i have no doubt but that thousands

if not

millions of people around the world were

interceding and were praying

in that moment for just that kind of a

miracle

to happen for god to restore life to

this man that had been shot

who was uh president reagan’s press

secretary

the point is is i have an opinion on how

to pray

but when i get into the presence i tap

into

his opinion on how to pray and that’s

the whole deal

is to learn how to pray from the one who

is directing traffic

from the one who knows the ins and the

outs and the real

issues you know you may be praying for

example

somebody has an obvious problem let’s

let’s take drug addiction again and you

start praying and every time you start

praying for them

you actually end up praying for them to

be healed in a relationship with their

father

and you don’t know why you keep going to

that but you keep going to that issue

and as you do eventually that

reconciliation takes place

and the drug addiction was only a

symptom of what was actually happening

the point

is is in prayer he brings this you

brings us behind the scenes to see

what’s actually going on

a good excuse me good scripture for this

is john 15

where jesus says i no longer call you

servants i call you friends

and then he adds a clarifying phrase he

says

because servants do not know what the

master is doing so what’s the point

is that there is a point in a

relationship with god where the lord let

you go

behind the scenes to see his motive

his heart his thought his ambition his

dream his desire

all that stuff becomes exposed now let’s

change it from

the friend to the son the daughter when

you get into that position you start

feeling the heart of god for something

in a way

where you know that there is an answer

that is available

and is possible but it must be pursued

with relentless prayer i believe that

the lord’s about to give us

a pretty extreme upgrade i’ve been

feeling this for months i’ve made

mention of it here and there

but i feel like there’s an upgrade being

released over us as a body

of believers in the area of prayer and

let me be more specific

unrelenting fervent fiery

prayer that contends for breakthrough

contends for answers

until an answer comes

i’m thankful for the things that happen

so simply

i am i i don’t like the notion that i

have to pray for three weeks to have

something happen

i i don’t like that one of the things

that i

was so thankful for and being exposed to

what the lord’s been doing in the area

of healing for example

um i was just so encouraged to see that

that you could pray simply i mean we’ve

had we’ve had

situations where you know somebody has a

disease did i mention hepatitis c here

i’m sorry it’s the third time i’ve been

talking so i

um somebody was diagnosed with

hepatitis c they did all the tests and

they’ve got that disease

and they shared it in a small group and

one of our small group leaders went over

and

patted him on the shoulder and said well

then be healed and walk down that was it

and then went back to the doctor and

there’s no trace of it anywhere

there’s just no traces i’m i’m glad that

that happens i’m glad

that sometimes there’s just the decree

that’s made that’s long

long term sometimes in a group like this

pray for somebody sent a text

and that person is healed i’m glad for

that but that

is supposed to give us confidence in his

nature

it’s not supposed to teach us to be

spoiled

to only celebrate the quick answers but

because we know his nature in his heart

we’re willing to stick with something

until we see the breakthrough

it’s the revelation of his heart that is

to endear us to the process

of working until the breakthrough comes

[Applause]

i

in my thinking and i’m in process like

everybody else

in my thinking when there isn’t

immediate breakthrough in an area is

because there are circumstances

that are wrapped around that problem

that we don’t yet know how to dismantle

and the thing about fervent prayer is

you never have to completely understand

why

you just don’t stop you don’t stop

it’s not prayer to ease my conscience

but i said i pray it’s not that kind of

prayer

it’s the kind of prayer that lives from

the conviction

god’s will must be done i remember years

ago a friend of mine was

was in a court case he was on a jury

and the lord spoke to him when he walked

into the trial room

that justice must prevail and

when it was a hung jury uh ten said

guilty

two said not guilty the lord still spoke

to him said justice must prevail

and so the judge asked everybody in the

jury

can you guys come to agreement and

everybody said nope we are it’s a hung

jury they’ve been laboring forever

it was 10 to 2. and yet in his heart he

still had this word of the lord

justice must prevail so when the judge

asked him he says

no i think we can come to a conclusion

not knowing why

he would say that but he still had that

word that meant you can’t stop what you

were assigned to do

you may not know how to fix the

situation but you can’t stop you don’t

have the luxury of stopping

the assignment and the judge said okay

i’ll give you 30 minutes everybody in

the jury is now mad at him because

they’ve been working forever to try to

come to a conclusion

he walks out the door as soon as he does

he looks at the two people who said no

and he said

you say he’s no you you say he’s not

guilty

because of this sin in your life and he

had done

identifies through a word of knowledge

what he’s got secretly going on in his

life

and he turns to the second one and he

says and you say he’s not guilty

because of this that’s going on in your

life and these two guys

their eyes are like this because they

just got exposed

and the word of the lord was justice

must prevail and these two jurors looked

at each other and they said

i’ll change my vote if you change yours

and in moments of time

justice was served you

you carry out the will of the lord stop

adding

political opinions to to what’s going on

stop

adding your own personal flavor the will

of god is what we hunger for

the will of god is what we have an

appetite for jesus put it this way he

said

his food feeds me my food

is to do the will of him who feeds me my

dude

my feelings my food is to do the will of

him

who who sent me who teaches me he speaks

to me and it’s the

it’s the will of god that nourishes and

challenges us

but here’s the big prize at the end of

the journey and it’s not

at the end of our life it’s at the end

of every day

the scripture tells us that answered

prayers

gives us access to this

realm in god called fullness of joy

in god’s economy there’s a link between

answers to prayer co-laboring with god

seeing history change

through your prayers and access to

extreme

fullness of joy it’s in john 16 i think

it’s verse 24

jesus said ask and it will be given to

you

that your joy may be full the fullness

of joy

is somehow connected to you and me

learning who he’s made us to be

in that place i’m not just praying

occasional casual prayers

but hearing the heart of god what’s on

his heart what’s on his mind

what does he have a passion for in this

moment i join

by praying what is on my heart but when

i begin to sense what he’s breathing on

i cannot let go until there’s

breakthrough why

because we’re in the position

of shaping the course of history and we

shape it through prayer

peter peter was spared

because of constant fervent prayer

father i asked you to release a mantle

like that

that garment that elijah carried

that in the spiritual you would release

a mantle of

grace over this body of believers

excuse me she’d release a grace

over this family of believers over our

bethel

tv family for prayer

that you’d help us to taste of joy

through answers through breakthrough

that at a level we’ve

never ever known before

that you would show us what it is to

partner with you to co-labor with you

to join our hearts with yours to see

your will done

on earth as it is in heaven this is our

cry

this is our cry pray this in jesus

wonderful name

amen all right you still on me seven

minutes so don’t go anywhere

according to the clock i’m just going by

the clock

yeah i i really do believe that the lord

is is calling us

i can feel it my own life so uh i i

don’t always try to

pass on to everybody else what he’s

doing with me but in this case i

i feel a very strong mandate that he’s

going to give us

access to some things in him that are

new for us anybody else ready to learn

some new things make some adjustments in

prayer yeah i i pray for that

it means change is in order you can’t

come into that kind of breakthrough

without making some changes

and so just the the fact that we have

said yes

means we’re willing to make whatever

adjustments and changes are necessary so

amen to that

now before we dismiss i want to give

opportunity for anyone here that

you would say bill i don’t know what it

is to be born again

i want to be forgiven of sin i want to

be a follower

of the lord jesus christ i want to be

adopted brought into his family

i want to know what it is to be changed

from the inside out

i want to know what that looks like i

really desire to have peace with god

and if there’s anybody in the room that

would uh

just say bill i don’t want to leave the

building until i know i’m at peace with

god

then i want you just to put a hand up

right where you are we’re just going to

make

a quick agreement with you put your hand

up if that’s you

don’t uh don’t pass a moment

where you can know what it is to be

forgiven of sin

real quick anybody is there somebody

where i’m sorry is there a hand raised

right over here okay all right anybody

else put your hand up

if that’s you real quick

okay i want you to go ahead and stand i

i just

uh anymore i don’t ever want to have a

meeting where we don’t have opportunity

for people

to come to know jesus and uh so

if anyone who raises their hand

uh hold on just a moment folks anyone

who raises their hand it would say bill

i i really want to be right with god

now we’ve got a team over here that we

know and trust and i’m going to ask you

to go to them

i’d like to have our ministry team come

up to the front and tom are you

are you taking this down ministry team

if you’d come up to the front

we really want to agree with you and

believe for miracles right now

so if that’s you in just a moment tom

will release you

and you still owe me four minutes and 48

seconds

does that mean i have four minutes to

say whatever i want i’m just kidding i’m

just kidding i’m not gonna do that

just kidding you know i was sitting

there um

just reminded of two weeks ago when bill

spoke on a sunday night

he talked about there was an invitation

for fervent prayer and breakthrough

specifically saw the next three months

for just

the biggest breakthrough we’ve ever seen

but it’s connected to

fervent prayer and so i just wanted to

release that

he’d released that just two weeks ago so

how many of you guys need breakthrough

and things aren’t moving in the thing

that you need breakthrough in

so lord we just declare right now the

spirit of god for

fervent prayer and those things that we

would just turn our hearts and

affections towards you that the fire of

god would just burn just

fire put you in the person next to you

and just say the word

fire fire of god

amen amen

well if you need prayer for a miracle in

your body or agreement for something for

breakthrough our ministry team wants to

be here to serve you

and so uh just go ahead and begin to

make your way forward

and we will get to you as soon as we can

so god bless you guys have a great day

enjoy the weather we’ll see you tonight

you