Bill Johnson speaks about how our “yes” to the Lord impacts the next generation. Drawing from the examples of Abraham and others in Scripture, we see radical obedience bringing reward to the generations that followed and courage to those around them. The decisions you make every day to say ‘yes’ to what God is putting on your heart will not just impact your own life, but the lives of generations to come. This is an excerpt from Bill’s message “Obedience, Just Because”. You can find the full message here: 
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Scripture References: Genesis 22: 18 Psalm 25: 13 1 Samuel 14-15 Judges 19-20 Bill Johnson is a fifth-generation pastor with a rich heritage in the Holy Spirit. He is senior leader of Bethel Church in Redding, California, and is passionate about seeing Revival and God’s Kingdom established and revealed in the lives of individuals, families, communities, and nations. Bill’s teaching on the Kingdom of Heaven, hosting the Presence, and the renewed mind has helped thousands around the world to step into their true identity in Christ, God given purpose, and walk in a supernatural lifestyle displaying both purity and power. #BillJohnson #BethelChurch #NextGen
your decision to say yes here to guard
your heart to walk in the fear of God
will have a tremendous impact on your
life but you will see it have an even
greater impact on your descendants why
because nobody’s yes is confined to
their own little world the yes shouts
the Yes to God that was a whispering
quiet shouts in public and changes and
transforms atmosphere
[Music]
I want you to go with me to Genesis 22 I
can read it to you it’s verse 18. it’s a
story where Abraham
takes this incredible risk to obey the
Lord in offering his son Isaac as an
offering as a sacrifice and the Lord of
course stops him it’s a profound story
but what I’m going to read to you is the
verse that is the conclusion to that
story
Verse 18 in your seed all the nations of
the Earth shall be blessed because you
have obeyed my voice now listen to this
in your seed
all the nations of the Earth shall be
blessed why
because you have obeyed my voice here’s
the deal
our obedience never just affects our
life
there’s a domino effect multiple
Generations are impacted by the
lifestyle of obedience
the Wake created by the one who says yes
to God to live the lifestyle of risk no
matter what
I believe for this outcome it’s like
Shadrach Meshach Abednego thrown into
the fiery furnace
they said God will deliver us but if he
doesn’t we’re still not bowing yeah now
this is what we anticipate this is what
we believe we declare it with our mouth
we confess it this is what we expect but
if it doesn’t turn out that way we’re
still not bowing to this false god
and that’s the lifestyle of of the
believer that lives with the passion for
the yes the yes unto God
so here
the scripture says
that the nations of the Earth are
blessed because of Abraham’s obedience
our lifestyle of obedience affects not
only our family line in fact is uh I
love seeing this in in the Psalms
especially for some reason Psalms 25 for
example says
if you fear the lord your soul will be
prosperous
now listen everybody wants to prosperous
Soul because everything that happens
around you from Health to finances is
dictated by the prosperity of soul
[Music]
so he says if you live in the fear of
the Lord your your soul your inner world
will have more than enough
emotional mental creative Health all
that area will be overflowing with life
if you live with the fear of the Lord
and then he says
your soul will be prosperous and your
descendants will inherit the land
are you alive or did I talk too long
you’re still alive
you will live with a prosperous soul
but you will have an effect on the Next
Generation and they inherit the land
your decision to say yes here to guard
your heart to walk in the fear of God
will have a tremendous impact on your
life but you will see it have an even
greater impact on your descendants why
because nobody’s yes is confined to
their own little circle their own little
world the yes unto the Lord changes and
confronts atmospheres the yes shouts
the the Yes to God that was a whispering
quiet shouts in public and changes and
transforms atmosphere
one of my favorite stories in the Bible
is with Jonathan the son of Saul and his
armor Bearer
they are standing
together they’re out on their own I
don’t know why but they’re out on their
own and they look across they’re on this
little rise this little Hill they’ll
look across the Ravine up on the Hilltop
up there is the Philistine Army
now there’s just Jonathan in his armor
bear armor Bearer is kind of like an
equipment manager if you’re a member in
school the ones who would take care of
the the equipment at recess that’s
that’s the armor Bearer he’s the
equipment manager
and they are standing there and Jonathan
sees the Philistine Army up there and he
turns to his armor Baron he says
I think we can take them
and the hero the story is the armor
Bearer he goes
yeah
the guy with the equipment says yeah we
we can take him and Jonathan has this
plan it’s it’s one of the worst military
plans in in Bible History unless God’s
in it and in this case God was but he
said Jonathan said I’ll tell you what
I’m going to do he says I’m going to go
out in this little opening over here I’m
going to make myself conspicuous
and if they tell us come on up here
then we know God has given them into our
hands
why is that a bad military strategy well
number one we got an army there we have
one soldier and an equipment manager
here
and if they say come up here it means
they have to crawl on their hands and
knees to an approaching awaiting Army
not a good plan
and so Jonathan he says if they invite
us up there we’ll go up there God has
delivered them into our hands and if
they come down to us I don’t even
remember what their plan was but but
anyway they go into the open Jonathan
does this and they said oh look and they
start mocking and they said hey come on
up here we want to show you something
yeah
yeah how many remember when you were
like 12 years old anytime that somebody
was 16 17 years old they said we want to
show you something it was never good
it it never turned out positive at all
so that’s the moment these guys are in
Jonathan is armor Bearer and the Army
says come on up here we want to show you
something and Jonathan is as encouraged
as you can get when he shouldn’t have
been but he was and so they the Bible
says they crawled on their hands and
knees to this
approaching Army
on their hands and knees and when they
come close the Lord knocks them all down
the armor Bearer forgets who’s the
soldier Jonathan is the soldier not him
he gets so excited he just starts
killing everybody
he takes Jonathan sort of starts killing
everybody it’s a bizarre story but it
doesn’t end there because see Israel was
in a time of horrible horrible
backsliding
some the Bible says in this is in first
Samuel 14. some of them had had sinned
so
so bad that they actually left
the Israelite their identity as Jews
and they joined the Philistines learned
their language wore their clothing
fought in their army and tried to be
what they weren’t
and it says when they heard the story of
Jonathan’s courage when they heard the
story of his obedience
something woke up in them and if you
could just see this picture they’re
they’re numbered with the Philistine
Army and they hear the story of radical
courage of radical obedience they begin
to strip off the Philistine garb they
begin to throw down their Philistine
identity and it says they ran to join
the Israelis in the fight they left the
lie to embrace truth because they heard
of somebody else’s obedience your
obedience never just affects you
and that there’s another part of the
story it doesn’t end there that’s one
more part
it says that not only were there some
that join the Philistine Army there was
actually a group of people
they didn’t have the courage to join
another Army but they were so afraid
they were Paralyzed by fear and it says
they went and they hid in the mountains
and the caves I believe of Ephraim if I
remember right
they hid
they no longer identified with their
people they didn’t identify with the
Philistines they were just too afraid to
take a stand for anything
and they hid
and somehow
good news traveled fast
and people carried them back into the
cracks and crevices of the mountains of
Ephraim and they found these fear-ridden
people and they heard the story
of Jonathan’s courage
of the armor Bears courage and their
radical obedience
and it says listen to this they left the
caves
they left the hiding places and they
said they ran to the front lines of
battle
they didn’t just join politically with
the movement they joined putting their
yes their lives on the line for what
they knew they were born for The
Obedience of Jonathan created a sense of
identity in those who were Bound by fear
fear could not hold down anyone who
knows who they are yeah
fear cannot hold down anyone hold back
anyone who knows who God made them to be
and it’s all because radical obedience
chapter 15.
first Samuel gives us the story of Saul
The Saul was instructed by Samuel the
prophet
it was to wipe out this group of people
to kill the king he was
bad man and take all the Sheep
everything
Slaughter everything nothing lives
regardless of what you think about that
plan this is what happened Old Testament
Saul
spared the king
and the best sheep
Samuel comes and and Saul greets him you
know basically
welcome wonderful man of God
and the prophet Samuel says be quiet
in our language shut up
shut up
and Saul goes whoa what’s going on here
he says what’s the bleeding of the sheep
that I hear you’re instructed to kill
all the Sheep so Saul see when you’re
not living a radical obedience you want
to deflect blame unto someone else so
Saul says oh is the people they insisted
we kept the bed sheep to give unto the
Lord to sacrifice to God
it’s amazing how sinful Lifestyles will
often get explained away
through phony spiritual
terminology and purposes
hide sin unto the skies we’re going to
sacrifice to the Lord so that makes it
okay and this is where we get this
statement
it’s in the middle of the right page
verse 7 15 right in the middle
obedience is better than sacrifice say
that with me obedience is better than
sacrifice say it again obedience is
better than sacrifice let’s be honest
God doesn’t need burning sheep
there’s nothing about it everything he
has his dues for us
everything we do in giving and serving
and loving and dying and Rising all the
stuff that he has to do is for us none
of us he doesn’t need he’s not in need
he he’s he’s more committed to what I
become on the inside than what I
experience on the outside
and so In this passage the prophet says
obedience is better than sacrifice and
then he pulls no punches on the second
statement he says for Rebellion is as
the sin of witchcraft
so we’ve got two bookends here obedience
and Rebellion
obedience is better than sacrifice
Rebellion
actually connects you what is rebellion
it’s it’s the insistence on me being in
control and what is witchcraft
witchcraft as its most basic Foundation
is manipulation control
and he says Rebellion is as the sin of
witchcraft
obedience is better than sacrifice say
that with me obedience
and Rebellion is as the sin of
witchcraft
Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft
I think
there’s a unique reward
a unique promotion a unique
Grace if you will give them to people
who get up on the third day
after two losses I did exactly what he
said to do I did not get the intended
outcome but I’m still willing to go to
war again
there’s something I believe that God is
is raising up you know the Green Beret
the whatever you want to call them in
this hour of people that will say
I will obey
regardless of outcome
because my obedience is unto the one I
call Lord
it is unto the one I call Lord
I have this sense that there are planned
outcomes and breakthroughs that God has
for all of us in ways that we’ve never
imagined I really believe that what’s
coming our way is greater than we have
the intelligence or faith to ask for I
really do but I also have this sense
that some of us are in the middle of a
lesson
and the lesson is can you get up the
third day
and pray do we go out again
do we go out again
there are measures and Realms of Triumph
and Victory
that you were born for that I was born
for
some of which you only get to taste of
on the third day
[Applause]
yeah we just say yes to you or we do
we just say yes
God I honor you a thank you give you
praise that you are the rewarder of
those who seek you we we celebrate that
amazing amazing reality thank you thank
you thank you
thank you
I pray that you give great courage to
everybody in the room every one of us in
this family
to get up again on the third day
and ask do we go out again
and the Cry of our heart is for you to
receive all the glory all the honor all
the praise
and that your name would be held in
highest honor throughout the Earth
because of our yes
thanks