My Baptism of Fire – Bill Johnson (Sermon Clip) | Bethel Church

In this clip, Bill Johnson shares his personal experience of baptism in the Holy Spirit. This significant encounter has marked Bill’s life and ministry. A fresh baptism of fire is available for us all, and God is ready to baptize those who will say “Yes” wholeheartedly to Him!

the powers are not there

because you’re brilliant

the power’s not there

because you’ve got a great strategy for

transformation

the powers are because you said yes in a

secret place when the burning one came

in purified hearts

john the baptist declared pointing to

jesus behold the lamb of god

and he goes on to say he will baptize

you in the holy spirit and with

fire

i remember

in february of 1995

i went to toronto i heard god was doing

great things there

i was very hungry i

we had seen the lord use us and miracles

started breaking out in weaverville 1987

we’re very thankful for that

particular season and direction

but we were just aching for so much more

and i remember flying to toronto and

there was a great outpouring that was

happening there

and i just wanted to see and participate

and uh it was confusing but sometimes

god’s not the author of confusion

you’re only confused because of your

position

he’s not confused

and sometimes you have to repent your

way into the right mind so that you’re

not confused

anyway

i uh i was in this moment

and i i don’t want to go into that uh

very much but it was it was wonderful

and there was 5 000 people there and

it was just the presence of the lord was

so strong it helped if i closed my eyes

because then i wouldn’t be offended by

everything i was seeing

but actually i i would close my eyes and

i’d become aware of the same presence we

were having in our prayer meetings at

home and so i that’s how i knew is that

i recognized the work of god not by

approved manifestations but i recognize

it by the presence

and that’s the safest way to measure

anything

and but you have to become familiar with

him to be able to recognize him

you have to you have to know i’ve seen

this before

so in this

moment i’m i’m there for four or five

days six days whatever it was and

and uh and i knew that i had seen

something that was to mark the rest of

my life and so i i flew home and i began

to pray

i i started to ache for

all the things i had read about in here

you see the city of ephesus

completely transformed in acts 19 where

they had moved from miracles to

extraordinary miracles and where cloth

could be sent from paul’s body and

deliverance would take place in healing

and this moment where every single

person in asia heard the gospel every

single person so there’s this there’s

this movement that became so impacting

that all of culture itself they’ve even

got

believers planted in caesar’s household

in the in in the leaders of government

there are believers in those places and

it’s just extraordinary what’s happening

i began to ache for these things to

happen and the miracles of course that

we see in scripture and and the

deliverances the conversions

and i started praying i started praying

when i got home from toronto i said god

i want more of you

and i want i want more at any cost i’ll

pay any price

and it wasn’t a uh

it wasn’t a uh an emotional prayer it

wasn’t like you know i feel really good

so let me pray the scary prayer

it was calculated because i know he

tends to collect on his debts

and uh it was a prayer that said god i i

want more of you and i will pay any

price

i’ll pay any price

and i was praying i became obsessed if

if you can be a christian obsessed maybe

it’s focused i became focused

very focused

and uh and morning and night

uh in the day driving down the street

god i’ve got to have more this it was

almost like it’s

this hunger for him was almost like this

volcanic eruption it wasn’t it wasn’t oh

it’s time for me to pray it wasn’t that

it was i cannot help but pray

god i must have more of you i was born

for more than what i’ve seen god i must

have more and i will pay any price i’ll

be the guy who’ll pay any price

and i would pray that i would i got to

where

i would actually wake myself up in the

night praying i didn’t wake up to pray i

woke myself up because i was praying in

my sleep

unless you discount that i remind you

that solomon made the most

incredible decision of his life in his

sleep

is when the lord showed up and gave him

a choice you can have anything you want

and it says it was a dream

and the lord gave him that chance

because he trusted his he had so he had

gone to bed night after night with such

resolve of purpose that he could trust

the decision while he was sleeping

it’s possible for you and me to go to

bed

never leaving purpose

never leaving the why that we are alive

so that when those divine moments come

covenants are made

and history has changed the course of

history has changed

so i would pray this in the night in the

day

and october so we’ve got from the first

of february to the end of october

dick joyce who was a dear friend of ours

he’s now home with the lord

dear friend of ours a prophet he helped

us really more than any any other

visiting minister he would call to check

up on me and and was such a strength

encouragement to me to our family i met

him through my parents

and um

dick was in weaverville we had these

meetings for several nights and some of

the craziest things i’ve ever seen

happen happen in that meeting

god is a god of order

kind of like

a maternity ward

he knows what he’s doing and you don’t

people say well how do you know that’s

god

where is that in the bible i said in

psalms 115 god does what he pleases

so one guy got mad he got mad left the

meeting

i didn’t know until later he got mad

left the meeting the lord met him in the

parking lot laid him out

in the parking lot in the snow

by himself he cannot move

nobody is there to help him

i have to admit i really got happy when

i heard that story i’m not sure my

motives were completely pure but to this

day i enjoy that show

and i’m sticking with it i’m sticking

with it

i had a friend i was praying for that

night and his name was thom i said

thomas i feel like god’s going to touch

you

and and he was really struggling and i i

just wanted to encourage him i said i

feel like god’s going to touch you could

be middle of the day middle tonight and

i said specifically i said it may be

three o’clock in the morning

well in those meetings you go to bed

very late it’s the eternal gospel like

one of our one of our elders here

uh told us years ago he said the only

reason we bring our watch to church is

to see if the date changed

[Applause]

there was a season where that was

absolutely true

may we have that problem again

so i went to bed uh of course late

and then if you can imagine being

as completely asleep as possible

to as completely awake as possible

in a

millisecond

that’s what happened to me

i’m completely asleep

and all of a sudden

it’s like a thousand volts of

electricity are going through my body

and i have no control of my arms my legs

or anything

and i the only thing i have control of

is my head and i turn my head

and it’s 3 am exactly

and i said out loud

you set me up

i you know how when you’re in a god

moment he makes sure you remember what

you need to remember

so why would i think of my prophetic

word to my friend i wouldn’t except he

needed me to understand this was part of

the journey

you set me up

and so i am laying there in this

condition

with a thousand volts of electricity

i’m not saying this has to happen to

anybody else

because he is a creative god

who customizes what each person needs

but i will say everybody needs a baptism

of fire i will say that and not just one

20 years ago

and i laid there with with no control of

my arms or my legs

and i’d grip my arms like this my legs

would become more violent i’d grab my

legs my arms and i’m i’m trying to

process i’m i’m embarrassed i actually

feel my face turn red

you know you feel when your face is

flushed i can feel that happening

because i’m embarrassed for myself

benny’s asleep which was a miracle it’s

a water bed so there’s tidal waves

it’s no longer a water bed but it was

back then

it’s funny now it wasn’t funny at all

man

and i’m i’m trying to process what’s

going i know

i know it’s a setup but i don’t i’m

trying to figure it out

and i i can’t i can’t get control

and the more try to get control just the

worse it gets and i realize i’m in this

divine moment and then i see

scenes he passes before my eyes

i saw me trying to teach in front of our

church family

up there in that condition

and i realized there’s nobody there

that’s going to believe this is god no

one

the next scene

i’m standing in front of my favorite

restaurant in town

realizing

i’m going to be mocked by the entire

city there’s nobody there that’s going

to believe this is from god

i remember that jacob wrestled with an

angel

and he limped the rest of his life

that sometimes

the mark that god puts on our life from

a divine encounter looks like a blemish

to everybody else

you’ve got mary

the mother of jesus

without a husband the mother of the

illegitimate child

you’ve got things that happen in

people’s lives

they’re not

shortcuts to fame and all this other

stuff it’s the opposite

and and that what was what was in my

heart anyway

i’ve not been interested in the other

stuff

when i said yes to the lord i i didn’t

know if i’d ever owned anything i didn’t

i just didn’t care

so i’m laying their tears or going down

the sides of my

face onto the pillowcase

and i’ve got maybe 20 or 30 minutes into

this where i’m seeing these scenes

and i still have no control

and i’m trying to process what’s going

on

and i realize he’s been reminding me

this entire time

son you said

more

at any cost

and i could tell in that moment

that he was asking for my right to

dignity

to my personal dignity

and after laying there for 20 or 30

minutes in this

i don’t know what else to call it the

baptism of fire is what it felt like

after processing this i said okay

okay you can do anything you want with

me if i get you in the exchange

if it’s true that i get more of you

do whatever

and i laid there for the rest of the

night

with this presence this power it was not

pleasant

but it was glorious

i got up that next morning

i don’t always tell this part it

continued the next night and the third

night

a couple months later we’re here

and the holy spirit begins to move

i started to see things lady back over

here born deaf all of a sudden she never

heard anything in her life

starts pointing to the speakers in the

ceiling

she can hear

we start seeing things i’ve never seen

my life

somebody’s paralyzed for

38 years gets up out of a wheelchair

over here

and you have a thousand people leave

good people

i have no

no animosity or criticism at all

but if you want to kill a pastor

pastors are weird you just got to

understand pastors are weird

we are a weird group

we can have people who hate us leave the

church and we’re sad

that’s weird

but these were good people many of them

friends that i knew some said

one

family in particular said we know this

is god we just can’t do it

they left

and i know it’s hard to

imagine

and hard to explain

but for me

it wasn’t hard

it wasn’t hard it was

the part of me

that would have

cried in pain

in that season

died in the previous season

there’s something about

something about a baptism of fire

that purifies

what’s important

all of a sudden there’s certain things

that are not on your list anymore

sometimes we experience pain only

because we care about the wrong things

sometimes we experience anguish of heart

only because

it’s the wrong set of values and there’s

there’s something about the fiery

presence of god

the purify i said it changes everything

everything has changed

[Music]

everything

and i feel like

i i ache for our country i ate for our

state i see this craziness that is going

on absolutely insanity

and then i hear the lord in psalms 51

clean heart

clean

heart clean heart

then

then

because of purity

and power

there’ll be something on your words

that will change the environment that

you live in

the powers are not there

because you’re brilliant

the power is not there

because you’ve got a great strategy

for transformation

the powers are because you said yes in

the secret place when the burning one

came

in purified hearts

uh

the lord is is so creative he

he sets the stage for us uniquely

individually

and where he may touch me in a certain

way he touches you in a different way

his method

makes no difference to me

it may be an insight in a scripture

that may be it for you

the outcome’s what’s important

is that the burning one has touched

these lips

so that the burning one has ignited this

hurt

is that the burning one has made it

possible for me to live with clean hands

and a pure heart

and to be the living offering for a

nation that is desperately looking for

anchors

don’t misunderstand uh we’re not the

anchor

but

that he is and

and

and i

i ache for this

then

then

i will teach transgressors your ways and

sinners will be converted that’s what i

ate for

when i heard that friday morning when

that was being read i went

that’s it i can’t get away from that

that’s it right there

i feel like his word is drawing us into

a divine encounter

where there’s a fresh baptism available

for

whether you’re online at home in your

office you’re in this room it doesn’t

matter to me the lord is setting us up

for something that is beyond

i needed something beyond my control

i needed

for me it was vital

to give up my right to look good

my right to be reasonable

and to die at that place

and say if i get you in exchange you can

do whatever you want

yeah i’m so glad that you uh watch this

video i do pray that it’s a great great

strength and encouragement to you and

i’ve got a verse that it really is my

cry for all of us and it’s psalms 20

it’s verse 4

may he grant you your heart’s desire and

fulfill all your plans

that’s my prayer that’s my prayers that

this would be the season of rich rich

fulfillment

thanks for joining us