When in War, Create – Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

How is creativity and artistic expression relevant in a time of war? Bill Johnson teaches from Zechariah 1, and shares the importance of creative expression in times of conflict and uncertainty. God’s design is that authentic creativity and divine wisdom would be the tools that disarm the powers of darkness in this season.

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[Music]

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you are nice

this couple was shopping

and um

they had gotten separated so the wife

was

calling husband to find out where he was

she says honey where are you and he says

you remember when we got engaged

we went to that jewelry store got you a

ring but there was another one that we

liked so much it was so much bigger and

so much nicer and she starts to tear up

she says yeah and he says well i’m at

the coffee shop right next to that

i’m just trying to advertise for a lamb

that’s all i’m trying to do i said that

guy needs to go to a lamb

i saw another one it was this last week

that said uh

it’s my wife’s birthday this week

she’s been

i’m giving you a story this is not

first service did this too they started

cheering for my wife for her birthday

you guys are just looking for excuses to

celebrate that’s what you’re doing

which is not a bad problem all right

um

so this guy says my wife’s birthday this

week and she’s been leaving jewelry

catalogs all around the house kind of

leaving hints

so i bought her a magazine rack

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if that guy is you go to land that’s all

i’m saying go ahead they they will fix

you and promise

uh grab your bibles and open if you

would to the book of zechariah

and uh those of you

uh a regular part of the the bethel

family here local know that i’ve been

doing a fair amount of repeat

uh

this summer spring and summer

and

um and i’m going to continue although

some of this will be

a bit a bit new today

how many of you have figured out we are

in a war

some of you are sitting next to someone

who’s clueless so you need to elbow them

and say we are in a war or maybe i

caught you off guard with a question

that’s probably what it was

how many of you realize we’re

honestly in a spiritual war

yeah there’s there’s no question in fact

there’s never been a time in my life

where it’s been more intense

and uh

in fact i would say probably ten times

more than any other season of my life

has been the last two years

now

our strength in spiritual warfare

is no greater

than our ability to control our thoughts

our strength and spiritual warfare you

guys can make me work this morning i’m

going to get a workout i can see

our strength in spiritual warfare our

effectiveness in spiritual warfare is no

greater than our ability to control our

thoughts

and in 2nd corinthians 10 probably the

greatest chapter on instruction for

spiritual warfare there is this phrase

taking every thought captive to the

obedience of christ

imagine being in a natural war and

you’ve got like the number one terrorist

on the planet opposing you and you take

the person captain or he’s now a

prisoner of war but what happens if you

take that captive a prisoner of war and

you turn him into a soldier for the same

cause as you

that’s what it means to take captive

renegade thoughts to the obedience of

christ is that which was not warring

against me is now warring for me

it means when you got that little thing

going on in your head where you’re

arguing with somebody and you’re angry

with them you’ve got this going on that

going on turn it into a prayer blessing

for them and you’ll disarm the enemy and

you’ll actually use a thought that was

supposed to be used against you it will

now be used for you

god

has their strange to me probably strange

strange ways of winning wars

you know anytime you send a choir out

into battle first

like they don’t have weapons

they just sing and they have instruments

and you send them into the

deep of a battle that’s an unusual way

to go to war

unless you don’t like the worship team

then

the lord showed up and would deliver and

powerful things would happen how about

the time he said

for moses he has him lift his hands up

and aaron and her just

each hold up an arm as long as the arms

up they win

or what about the time um

the prophet is surrounded by this enemy

army

and um

and the lord blinds them all

and the king says can i kill him he says

no feed him

so it brings them into this big banquet

and then it says that army just decided

not to attack israel anymore that’s a

strange way to win a war

is i’m not saying feed your enemies your

demons

yeah breaks down it breaks down all

right

so the lord has unusual ways of winning

of leading us into war because

because the

the way a war is won

is through relationship and trust

through obedience

it’s the raised hands

it’s the striking the rock it’s the

proclamation here’s the practice it’s

it’s the natural obedience whatever god

says to do that’s what brings about the

triumph of the victory

did i tell you where to open your bibles

to no yes no zach some of you heard it

some of you didn’t zechariah 1 is where

you should be zechariah chapter 1 if

you’re not there

hurry and get there

and we’re going to read

let me start by saying

you’ll see the number four and you’ll

see the word horns

four horns four in the scripture often

represents something that is global

north south east west

it’s a global

thing horns are strength authority power

so when it talks about four horns

influencing the earth it’s a global

demonstration of demonic power that

enslaves people in wrong thinking all

right so let’s read this passage and

then i’ll see if we can make some sense

out of it all right

verse 18 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

and he answered me said 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 his head

but the craftsmen are coming to terrify

them

to cast out the horns of the nations

that lifted up their horn against the

land of judah to scatter it

let’s read these verses again i want you

to um

i want you to think with me as we go

through this because the lord

it’s almost like the lord is saying

when in war

i hope it’s a good show

when in war create

let’s read verse 20 and 21 then the lord

showed me four craftsmen

and he 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

very very unusual way to win a war is to

raise up artists

craftsmen

skilled laborers skilled workers

it says these horns these four powers or

authorities these realms of darkness

have been released to number one scatter

the people of god number two scatter

them so that they can no longer lift

their head

sometimes we are separate not because of

division but because we’ve just not

fought to be together

especially in this season very unusual

season

the scripture says don’t forsake the

assembling of yourself together as is

the habit of some especially as you see

the day drawing years what is it saying

as you see things intensify in the earth

do what is not natural for you go

against the grain and fight to be

together

we are members of a body

all of us we are members of one another

and while there are times where we are

forced to stand alone uh but that’s a

season it’s not a lifestyle ever

sometimes we’re forced to stand alone to

fight something it almost seems like on

our own the best we know how just to

prove our own faithfulness to the lord

but we are actually joined together

members of one another

and the enemy works to separate and to

scatter

to cause a loss of identity

if there’s anything we can see happening

in the world right now we’ve got guy men

who don’t know they’re men they think

they’re women we’ve got women who don’t

know

they’re women they think they’re men

or one of the other

58

options

people say well bill we’ve got to show

compassion i i do believe that we’ve got

some troubled people we just need to

love and serve

this i’m tired of seeing the church

showing compassion to demons

we don’t

we’re going to go easy on the powers of

darkness and then call that compassion

we’ve got to know where to fight where

to stand strong where to embrace where

to love where to be patient where to be

kind

god’s giving the church a backbone right

now

so here we’ve got this unusual story

where the lord says there are these

powers released into the earth

and it’s global

and if ever i’ve seen something that was

out of order

demonic that was global it’s right now

i’ve never seen

the nations in the same turmoil

all around the world as is happening

right now

i do believe this is a right now word so

i’m going to ask you with that kind of

certainty intentionality listen to this

very very simple exhortation

that global

insanity

that is sponsored by

so many different movements and

political leaders that global insanity

has an opponent

that it can’t stand up to

and that’s the people of god

coming into their authentic self

to give creative expression of who god

made them to be

are artisans craftsmen i i don’t i don’t

believe it’s just referring to uh those

who carve wood or those who paint

beautiful paintings or those who sing

beautiful songs or dance or act or those

are the arts and they are highly highly

valued by us

but there

is an artistic expression that a single

mom needs with that one child that’s

different than the rest and to be able

to communicate well to that child to

bring that child to their place of

destiny

needs

a grace of wisdom an artistic flair it’s

the lawyer that has a case he doesn’t

know how to win

but he knows he must

and the lord gives him creative

expression ideas the accountant that has

a challenge in helping this one business

to prosper and they get that insight

there’s that artistic flair that comes

out of fellowship with the lord that is

in great great need

i want to read to you i’m going to read

i plan anyway to read out of several

books to you today which i don’t always

do that

but um i i really i felt strong today

that that’s what i needed to do um erwin

mcmanus wrote a great book called the

genius of jesus

in that book he quotes from a um he

quotes from a book called breakpoint and

beyond it was published in 1993

and in this book

they did studies on children and on

genius and on creativity

here’s here’s what they found

they studied sixteen hundred children

three to five years old

they re uh they retested the same

children at the age of ten and then

again at the age of 15. what they found

was

among the five-year-olds

98 of them

were creative geniuses

98

when they retested the same children

some years later five years later

30

at the age of 10 were creative geniuses

when they retested the same sixteen

hundred students

at the age of fifteen

they found ten percent

were creative geniuses

the author of that particular book came

to a conclusion this we have concluded

is that non-creative behavior is learned

and what i actually bought the book

because i wanted to i wanted to study

this for myself the book that um erwin

mcmanus quoted

and he said um

he said what ha what happened only oh

here’s the here’s the crazy part was it

10

of the 15 year olds were creative

geniuses

280 000 adults were tested and only 2

percent

so from 98 percent to 2 percent

non-creative behavior is learned

and it says

our proficiency in expressing our

creativity

this is from the the break breakthrough

book

our proficiency in expressing our

creativity gradually drops off as we

learn to accept others opinions

evaluations and beliefs

what we have seen in our work with

adults is that the five-year-old

creative genius is still lurking inside

waiting to break free

now

if there is any group of people on the

planet that should be able to tap into

that it should be those for whom jesus

says you are free indeed

liberty freedom is actually

the access to live unencumbered yes by

sin of course

but some peop many people are free from

sin in their habits but they’re not free

to think creatively they’re not free to

think according to their design

we’re all designed uniquely that’s the

whole point

and what they find among senior citizens

especially those that are very very

close to the end of their days here on

earth is that the number one influence

or a high high level influence in their

life is that of regret

regret for making decisions throughout

their lifetime that was shaped by the

opinions and values of what others

expected from them

when in fact

when in fact we were designed to be

unique we were designed

there is a uniqueness where people are

fighting to be unique and they just

cause problems and draw attention to

themselves that’s not unique that’s just

stupid

but there is an authentic

you

that that needs to be creatively

expressed

and i i believe that part of what is

being addressed in this unusual passage

in zechariah is that the lord’s answer

for this terrifying movement that covers

the earth the four corners of the earth

this oppressive oppressive thing that

separates the people of god to the point

where they can’t even lift their head

anymore there’s no courage to face a

challenge a problem the hour that we

live in it’s not there anymore the

discouragement has gripped them so

deeply that their their eyes are cast

down how did it happen it happened by

these four horns and powers that brought

about a global movement of insanity

and the answer

of the lord

is four craftsmen

the same global release of people

that refuse to bow to the insanity of

the moment and to stand up in authentic

expression of who christ is in me

why would that so disarm the powers of

darkness why how is it that people come

in into an artistic expression yes it

may be painting or singing but it also

may be the way that you intentionally

live uh in raising your children it’s

it’s the way that you you form sentences

you work hard to use the best words and

you work hard to be excellent in what

you do and you write those notes for

people you just have that grace to write

notes and you take the time to think of

the wording so that you can impart the

most amount of life as possible that

excellence that is seen in that moment

is actually divine wisdom and it is a

creative expression and it imparts life

it doesn’t just tickle people’s ears it

actually inspires them encourages them

for life

i heard of one

soldier who died in i believe is the

iraqi war

and in his wallet was an encouraging

word

that his class had given him i think it

was like in the eighth grade is all the

students in the class they’d pick one

student they would write down an

encouraging word for them and each

student got one of what the other

classmates thought of them and it was

all encouraging words he had this thing

folded up in his wallet as an adult of

something that he got in school

because it was an encouraging word

sometimes those words shape and it’s the

it’s the excellence it’s the it’s the

intentionality

one of the things that i i have written

about

i think a couple times

that uh really really moves me is the

story of solomon

and um

the story of solomon and the queen of

sheba because all these kings would come

and he’d sit at his feet

but for some reason the queen of sheba

had a place of access into his inner

working at a level that none of the

others did at least it’s not recorded

and she would sit there she you can

imagine driving traveling from from

ethiopia all the way to israel the

entourage the resources the army the the

people that were there just to care for

this this person of royalty the means

the uh resource they come and he she has

access to solomon and and she says she

asked him all the hard questions the

bible doesn’t bother

listing the questions or his answers

probably because it’s somewhere else in

the book it’s so it’s already it’s our

what we need to know is already in there

but anyway he i would love to have seen

those questions and

it says the queen of sheba she listened

to his answers when it’s all said and

done she says i thought it was an

exaggeration when they told me about

your wisdom she said but the half wasn’t

told me

you your your wisdom is far greater your

servants around you i’m putting in my

words now but the servants around you

are better off than the kings elsewhere

because they get to sit at the feet of

this kind of wisdom and she was stunned

she was stung

the bible doesn’t bother listing what it

was that

that he said

but it does give us a list

that is very strange

she was moved by

the stairs that went from his house

to god’s house

she was rocked by the clothing

of the servants

she was moved deeply

by the place settings

these are all everyday month things see

great wealth isn’t needed for artistic

expression just intentionality

it’s in us

to push beyond what is just acceptable

and normal to push beyond into realms of

excellence so we literally go from glory

to glory and so i i’ve imagined um in

fact i was reading that i was reading

this part of of a book i think it was

the way of life a book i wrote i was

reading part of a chapter to my wife

where i was in the dining room she was

in the kitchen i just i teared up as i

was reading through this because this

this kind of storyline moves me moves me

uh so deeply i was reading to her about

this just imagine what it would been

like to be the woodworker who built the

stairs

you know solomon is talking with his

team and he says i i’ve got an idea for

these stairs i’m going to build from my

house to the house of god

and they said well there’s a guy in town

he’s the best woodworker there is he he

knows woods he knows grains he knows

stains he knows his stuff he’s the best

and psalm says well bring him to me so

you can imagine they knock on his door

says the king wants to see you you’re

terrified you make it into the into the

palace and solomon is there he says come

with me and they walk over and he says

listen see i i i live here so the house

of god’s there and i want stairs to go

from here to there and i was thinking we

could we could take it something like

this and and maybe these kinds of colors

involved in these kinds of woods and and

so here’s the craftsman here’s the the

artist he looks he says yeah he says

what we could do is this with the grain

of this wood uh mirrors the grain of

this one so beautifully we could use

this stain here and this stain and they

talk together and they come up with this

plant of this stairway that goes from

his house to the house of god

and then sometime later we don’t know if

it’s weeks or months maybe years later

the artist the craftsman here’s the

story

the queen of sheba came to town

she saw your stares

and she said there’s a god in israel

there’s a god in israel why because

wisdom touched the mundane see anybody

can throw a lot of money at something

and put gold on the toilet seat and call

it excellent

it’s not excellent

but something was done

with intentionality and it may be

it may be that you walk to your car

today and the

plastic cap came off the lid of

somebody’s water bottle they didn’t

notice

it’s on your way and

you just pick it up

you don’t take an instagram photo

let everybody know you picked it up

you just

pick it up because it’s what you do

it’s it’s it’s the fact that there’s

there’s intentionality every every place

that i go into i want to look better

when i leave

i want to make sure that i’ve done

what i can to leave a mark of excellence

of beauty see in in my personal quest

which continues for

wisdom i in looking through proverbs

i’ve i’ve come to the conclusion that

there’s three terms that represent

wisdom for me the clearest it’s

creativity excellence and integrity

those three words are woven all through

the book of proverbs

so here we are a people that i believe

the lord is trying to awaken the

five-year-old

in us

the five-year-old that actually knows

how to dream without the limitations

without the

without the distractions of

of adulthood why do you think jesus said

we had to become like

children

is it possible

he was looking for that authentic

creative expression in the earth you say

well how is that eternally significant

it’s significant because when you become

who god designed you to be when i become

who god designed me to be it reveals a

perfect father to an orphaned planet

a planet of orphans it awakens something

in them how in the world could a release

of creativity help to stop this insanity

that seems to be global i don’t have a

good plan except this one this one says

he answered the four horns

with four artists

he answered

the four

horns of demonic torment and division

and depression

his answer

was to release the craftsmen

those who could

prophetically illustrate

he’s a perfect father

he’s got perfect design

you can discover who he made you to be

not who somebody else says you are

i

i was moved by a story

which i actually

borrowed and gave credit

out of a brian

zane’s book

on the beauty that saved the world

listen to this story

and said a thousand years ago prince

vladimir the great

the pagan monarch of kiev

was looking for a new religion to unify

the russian people

toward this end prince vladimir sent out

envoys

to investigate the great faiths from the

neighboring realms

when the delegation

returned they gave the prince their

report

some had discovered religions that were

dour and austere

others encountered face that were

abstract and theoretical

but the envoys who had investigated

christianity

in the byzantine capital of

constantinople reported finding a faith

characterized by such transcendent

beauty that they did not know if they

were in heaven or on earth and this is

their report

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

they they saw a cathedral

i mean my goodness how much was robert

schuller crucified for

building the crystal cathedral so many

years ago

nobody bothered to find out that he gave

a million dollars a year to missions

after that building was built it was

just the extravagance because it’s so

easy to in in a time of war especially

what we don’t need is art what we need

is to be serious and yet there’s

something about the artistic playful

approach to life that disarms the powers

of darkness his strategies are different

than ours sometimes when we think it’s

where we need the most serious and the

most intense and the most whatever

sometimes is the

the time we need to go down to the park

and

take a nap or something i mean it’s it’s

it’s different than you think it’s he’s

got he’s got an idea he’s got he knows

how this thing works

can i’m going to read i was going to ask

you if i could read another story it’s

not like you get to vote

i guess i could

oh i almost

i almost snuck one in there

wisdom just kicked in i hope you saw it

there’s this book by peter gray called

free to learn

learning problem solving and creativity

are worsened by the interventions that

interview interfere with playfulness

they are improved by the interventions

that promote playfulness

in one experiment the researchers

presented a real real physicians with a

case history of a difficult to diagnose

liver disease

the case included some misleading

information which created a barrier to

identifying the relevant information and

arriving at a correct solution

mood manipulation was accomplished by

giving some of the doctors a little bag

of candy

thank you jesus a little bag of candy

before presenting them with the problem

those who got the bag of candy arrived

at the correct diagnosis more quickly

than those who didn’t

they reasoned more flexibly

took into account all the information

more readily and were less likely to get

stuck on false leads than were those who

had not received the candy

a positive mood

improves creative insightful reasoning

the particular type of positive mood

that is most

effective is a pla the one that’s most

effective is a playful mood

just just a little bit more

and experiments conducted in england

they found that young children could

solve logic problems in the context of

play that they seemed unable to solve in

a serious context

four-year-olds in play

easily solve logic problems that they

were not supposed to be able to solve

until they were 10 or 11 years old

in fact subsequent experiments showed

that to a lesser degree even

two-year-olds solved such problems one

presented in a clearful playful manner

these are

these are

studies that are are fascinating and

unique to me they are not what we base

life on

but what they do is they help to give to

me

some of the background behind jesus’s

command to become

like children

it’s an invitation for

for thinking

free we we just earned it earlier today

the whole liberty the freedom thing to

be a people

that are unencumbered

in thought

my prayer my prayer i’ve been feeling

this in my my own soul my own journey

in the last several months i’ve been

feeling at least a couple months but i

think it’s been longer than that

this

this a burden a

a desire

to dream different

to to dream different to to creatively

think

beyond what i’m accustomed you you get

accustomed to a certain level of dream

in your whatever your capacity for

imagination and dreaming is

i’ve been i’ve been feeling the the need

i’m too stuck i’m too stuck i’m too

stuck i need to dream different i need

to dream bigger

it’s been in my heart my mind i

i come back to passages like this i i’ve

been reading a number of the minor

prophets over and over and over again

and i keep coming back to zechariah

chapter one the answer was craftsman the

answer was craftsman when in war

create

when

in war create there’s something

about that artistic flow that’s not just

painting and singing

the artistic flow the approach to life

that makes you the life giver at work

the one who’s always got the encouraging

word that makes you the person that

always remembers to send that thank you

note that others seem to always forget

it’s just it’s just the little tiny

intentional parts of life that actually

become the building blocks

of life

my dream

my dream

is that we could tap into the mysteries

of god that he says in scripture have

already been given to us

my dream is that

we could tap in to

tap into what

would actually become the solutions for

for humanity

i just had a contact with a guy here

a week week ago a week and a half ago

something like that

he read my book dreaming with god which

is this partnering

to dream again it’s what we’re talking

about but a little different language

he was painting houses

14 an hour

and the lord dropped an idea

in his mind

he developed it

and just sold the company for 460

million dollars

and he said

i have another idea

yes you understand we’re not talking

about here’s your quick way to get

wealthy it’s not about that it’s about

he has

things reserved for those who will ask

it may be it may be like the furniture

polish people that i wrote about in that

book that we’re trying to find some

non-toxic way to to polish polisher

strip i forget now but to work they were

finished uh refinishers of furniture

and they just couldn’t find the solution

for non-toxic you know uh materials

and uh and he he wasn’t willing to lower

the quality of his work

so he’s going to use talks if he has to

but he wants non-toxic

and

his wife got pregnant she’s staying she

used to work at the office with him

and they would run experiment after

experiment

she uh she got pregnant was suffering

with morning sickness stay home from

work he would come home at lunchtime

and when he came home for lunch one day

she said do these letters and numbers

mean anything

and she quotes off these letters and

numbers he says

that’s a chemical formula

it says say it again so they write it

down and they go in and they develop a

non-toxic furniture

polish

and then they sell the company to a

major

corporation

and now their heart is mission so now

they travel the world in world missions

and they pay their own way

the point is

is that it may be a melody to a song

there may be no financial

anything to it but it’s something that

brings joy to your heart or to your

children

i remember leah would have to memorize

these scriptures for

school it was hard for her members

remember the scriptures

and so i would just every friday morning

she’d have to go and quote and uh quote

these scriptures and so that friday

morning we’d wake up look at the verse

and i just created a melody form so we’d

sit there breakfast we’d sing the song

together by the time it got to her they

wanted her to sing the memory verse you

know every week because because

she would she would sing i could still

remember some of them i’m going to spare

you and not

but but the point is it may be just that

it might be

a fun little melody that helps your

child remember a verse

but the point is

it’s the touch of grace

it’s the touch of a perfect father who

has

a solution and an application for every

dilemma that exists

i believe god wants to really set that

mantle on us on at a level we’ve never

known before i’m i’ve just been just

provoked

like i said this has been a couple of

months at least of this just kind of

boiling in me i just i’m just been

feeling this need and i felt today let’s

just let’s just talk about this as

unspiritual as it may seem it may be the

most spiritual thing i’ve done in a long

time

because it is it is bringing you into me

into who he designed us to be to be

authentic

and powerful

creative

something that reveals

that i actually am

the son

of the creator

one last verse i’ll mention to you and

then i’m going to wrap this up

it’s out of

exodus chapter 31.

the first person

filled with the holy spirit in the bible

was a guy named bezello in

exodus 31 this is what it says

i have filled him with the spirit of god

in wisdom

i have filled him with the spirit of god

in wisdom understanding knowledge in all

manner of workmanship

to design artistic works to work in gold

and silver bronze

cutting jewels for setting carving wood

to work in all manner of workmanship

i feel like the lord

i don’t know what you’re like i know for

me

i used to especially have a bent towards

a seriousness

that i thought was god

and it killed creativity in me

an intensity that i thought proved my

devotion and it didn’t prove my devotion

it just proved my misunderstanding

it just it just revealed i really didn’t

know what it was like

here the first person filled with the

holy spirit in the whole bible

there’s a guy who works with wood

metal

cloth

gems

and is able to

lay them out in a way

that bless god

and speak to the glory of god

it may be

you who repairs

cars it may be

the way you

answer the phone as a receptionist it

may be

you working in the hospital as a

physician’s assistant doesn’t matter

what it is it’s there are ways for us to

carry ourselves in excellence in

creativity and beauty

i have met our friends in the medical

community

that believe very strongly

in vaccinations

i have friends in the medical community

that believe very strongly against

vaccinations

i love them both

and in part i think i understand

both

it’s just not the government’s job

and the answer to the insanity

is not nasty letters

just become who god made you to be

and if you’re going to get a vaccination

do it with faith if you’re not going to

do it with faith

because the scripture says anything we

do apart from faith is sin

i just had to throw something in it

i was happy

i wouldn’t have been able to sleep

tonight

had i not said something

[Applause]

now don’t come to me for advice i told

you guys like a month ago i said if you

come to me for medical advice you’ll die

you’ll die

don’t you stand

i have more to say but

but

you guys did so well with that too

that’s awesome that’s good

somebody wrote me here after my little

socialism

comments a couple weeks ago

imagine that somebody wrote

said i left i left my wheelhouse which

you know basically i moved out of what i

was anointed to do into something else

it’s interesting

you know when you see people in the

second story of a burning building your

last thought is what will people think

of me if i pull the alarm

i should probably quit right there

[Applause]

no no you don’t want more

you don’t want more but trust me

i want to honestly i i really do want to

pray because i i believe

i’ve believed for this for as long as i

can remember for a creative release and

we’ve seen it the excellence level of

bethel music what our our artists are

doing in our creative arts school the

stuff that they are doing is absolutely

stunning

uh from the the tech world and how

they’re able to capture that and to

communicate kingdom in that environment

and work place after workplace i travel

around tell my goodness taking benny to

the hospital we had the first time we

were there by the way she’s she’s

improving and i’m just so thankful

so far

our first time

there were in an emergency room and the

doctor is in there prophesying over her

not now forgive me if this offends you

just to illustrate something he wasn’t

praying prayers like god

guide the surgeon’s hand he was

declaring cancer i rebuke him jesus

david he’s just going forward this is a

doctor i’m in an emergency room by the

time we left we had five people stop by

one promise to pray four came in and

prayed

this is in an emergency room

and they are prophesying we go into a

doctor’s office they call in another

doctor and they close the door behind

them and say we want to pray for you and

they just start praying they start

prophesying said i saw this vision over

here

[Applause]

that’s that’s zechariah one

that’s craftsmen

in their place of influence

apprehending moments for the glory of

god that’s what it is that’s what it is

story after story after story story

when my brother moved back to reading he

was at some grocery store and he saw

somebody outside that that

had need

and he wanted to go and buy some food

for him

and he said he came to me later he says

your people

he said they already took care of it

it says it’s it’s hard to find

opportunity around here

your people they just they saw it and

they went and got the food first they

beat me to it and it’s your people it

was it was a humorous complaint that he

had the whole point is is you

now let’s take it up a notch because i i

believe that the lord would release

insight dreams

pay a special attention even to the

dreams you think can’t possibly be god

i have found that sometimes he’s talking

in the strangest ways

and he’ll put his message in an

offensive setting to see how hungry you

are for his message

so father we turn our heart to you we do

we just turn our hearts to we want

so much to dream with god we want so

much to

partner with you we want to be used by

you we want to know what real liberty is

to return to to that five-year-old that

just thinks unencumbered

that three-year-old that doesn’t live

with the burdens of the cares of life

but lives in that place of trust

the cares of life folks kill creativity

the cares of life kill

creativity

father ask that you’d restore us

as a people it should help us to take

this to another level

of being a creative

creative servants to a beautiful city

you you’ve gifted us by planting us here

lord i thank you for our online family

you’ve planted them in unique places

around the world i pray the same for

them there would be an anointing to

create an anointing to dream an

anointing to to face problems and know

there is an answer that god has a

solution for this i pray for that kind

of confidence in jesus name

there’s always a chance of people in the

room that have never made a personal

commitment to jesus

and i believe out of all the stuff we

could do today the most important by far

is to give you the chance

to make a personal confession of faith

in jesus

those who believe that he is he rose

from the dead confess with their mouth

bible says they

shall be saved

and i want to give that opportunity to

anyone here

if you’re here you’ll say bill i don’t

want to leave the building till i know i

am

saved forgiven of sin

part of god’s family

if that’s you put a hand up real quick

and i just want to make agreement with

you

right where you are i don’t want to and

we had i think 13 people online last

week was at 12 or 13

online last last sunday doing the same

so anybody i don’t want to miss you

okay all right looks like you’re all in

all right so jesus let this be a day

overflowing with creative expression all

of it for your glory

amen chris come on