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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Bill Johnson
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December 3, 2019 - March 11, 2020
May it be said of us in the twenty-first century as it was of them in the first-century church: “They were amazed and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.”
The spirit of wisdom and revelation is not given to make us smarter but to make us more aware of unseen realities.
Presence always wins out over principles.
The impulse that drives the life of the believer isn’t the need to perform for God but to commune with Him.
The bottom line is that we give all of ourselves to obtain all of Him.
Many things work to stifle the desire in us to seek the face of the One in whose image we were created. Whether we are overwhelmed by the prevailing winds of secular reasoning or the pain of religious disappointment,1 such forces cause us to abandon the ultimate quest and give in to the other impulse that has infected man since the Fall—the impulse to hide from God.
Some of my brothers and sisters belittle such pursuits, saying, “Signs and wonders are supposed to follow you, not you follow them.” My perspective is a bit different: If they’re not following you, follow them until they follow you.
an increased manifestation of His presence in exchange for my dignity.
Trading anything for more of God really is the greatest deal ever offered to mankind. What could I possibly have that would equal His value? I know that many say revival is costly. And it is. But when I get Him in the exchange, I find it difficult to feel noble for what I’ve paid. Besides, revival only costs in the here and now. The absence of revival will cost throughout eternity.
Pastors are a unique breed—even when people who hate us leave the church, we still feel bad.
In the light of a king’s face is life, and his favor is like a cloud with the spring rain. —PROVERBS 16:15
Help me to cease attempting to find my identity in my performance. Let me find my true self revealed in Your countenance.
Let me see Your true worthiness so that the value of anything I must surrender in order to have You is revealed to be nothing in comparison.
If we are going to bring our lives more fully into agreement with God and His kingdom, the primary thing we need is a burning conviction that God is good.
Whenever God reveals truth to us, He is inviting us into a divine encounter.
He has chosen us for this purpose, not because we’re better, but because we’re the ones who signed up. He enlists everyone who is available.
God determined that it would it be fitting for the devil’s defeat to come at the hands of those made in the image of God, who worship Him by choice, because it would mean that the devil would be overcome by those who succeeded where he had failed.
Grammatical error here
God is looking for partnership, a partnership in which He empowers His people to become all that He intended them to be.
If you want to catch the attention of the king, treat his daughter well.
It could be said that divine favor comes to those who have chosen to keep the main thing the main thing—knowing and loving God.
“Let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me” (Jeremiah 9:24).
With favor our potential increases as the strength of others is added to our own.
The challenge for every one of us is to renew our minds and hearts so that our affections are anchored, keeping God’s approval as our supreme goal and reward.
Jesus also said, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” (John 5:44).
Embracing the ultimate quest for His face means becoming a person whose every thought and action is driven by the goal of hearing the declaration from heaven: “Well done!”
Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. —HEBREWS 4:16
•Have you ever noticed that you have grieved the Holy Spirit when you’ve done something wrong? What is the difference between feeling shame and guilt for sin and recognizing that you have grieved God’s heart?
“At the heart of growing in favor are two aspects: (1) the pursuit of God, the practice of coming before God through the ‘new and living way’ (Hebrews 10:20) that Christ has made available to us, and (2) receiving, in God’s presence, measures of His own nature that empower us to be conformed into the image of the Son He loves.”
•How should the knowledge that you have the same access to the Father Jesus has affect your thinking and behavior?
•What is faithfulness to God, and how is it different from moral purity or religious observance?
It was never intended that the people of Israel would enjoy God’s love exclusively, but instead that they would become the example of what He offers to everyone.
“Go, sacrifice to your God in the land” (Exodus 8:25, MEV). The devil doesn’t mind our worshipping God if it doesn’t require change.
“Only you shall not go very far away” (Exodus 8:28). To allow for changes, but only partial ones, is still an effort to control God’s people. This strategy usually works well with those who know it’s right to worship God but who are still holding on to something.
Such people can often be convinced that fully surrendering their lives to God in worship is too extreme.
What others thought to be excessive and extreme, God considered reasonable.
The only true worship is extreme worship, and only extreme worship brings extreme results—transformation.
“Go now, you that are men” (Exodus 10:11, MEV). It becomes quite clear that the enemy fears entire families worshippin...
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Pharaoh’s final effort to bring Moses and Israel into compromise is found in his statement, “Go, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be kept back” (Exodus 10:24, NKJV). This statement reveals the ultimate test and potentially the ultimate place of blessing from God. It is to worship God with all of our financial resources as well as with our families.
A Christianity that costs little is worth little.
Such a last-ditch effort on the part of Pharaoh reveals what Satan fears most—families who worship together with reckless abandon, using all their assets for the glory of God.
It seems that God is leading us down a road into a life of impossibly high standards, and we are dogged by the pressure to go back both to sin and to the world.
Many Christians repent enough to get forgiven but not enough to see the kingdom.
What the Exodus story shows us is that it is possible for people to be brought out of slavery but stop short of entering into the land of promises.
Religion creates appetites it cannot fulfill.
By nature it carries a value for form without power, information without experience.
It makes outward appearance a priority over the iss...
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This present move of God is all about retraining us to lock into His manifest presence and live for nothing else.
The fundamental difference between authentic Christianity and religion is the issue of knowing and being known by God versus merely knowing about Him.
Knowing about someone is not the same as knowing him or her.
While God knows everything about everybody, He does not know everyone. He can give more facts about a person than anyone could ever know of himself. But a relationship takes mutual consent and cooperation.
