More on this book
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Bill Johnson
Read between
October 29 - November 19, 2020
It is not wrong to look for evidence that our prayers are answered. If we become accustomed to praying prayers that aren’t answered, we tend to settle for living in the realm of theory.
Answered prayer is God’s design. We suffer in the long run when we expect our prayer assignment to be fulfilled in Heaven only.
when Jesus was resurrected He brought the keys of authority that man abandoned when we obeyed the serpent rather than God. When Jesus announced that all authority was now His, He was basically saying, “Now let’s get back to plan A!”
The first is that God wants His world, Heaven, to have overriding influence on this one.
The second is that the process for this breakthrough is prayer. Prayer followed by action is exponentially powerful.
Prayer removes the obstacle (the wall) to our victory so that our actions help facilitate the fulfillment of what was prayed for (the Kingdom to come).
Third, we are to pray His heart, His dream.
We must guard our hearts from the deception that attributes death, loss, and destruction to God.
there is no sickness there, so there is to be none here. There is no torment or sin in Heaven, so there is to be none here. We should never again question what God’s will is in a given situation, if in fact it involves sin, sickness, or torment. It may be challenging. But it’s not complicated.
The manifestation of power upon the apostles was certainly for miracles. But perhaps what should stand out the most was their God-given ability to endure hardship without blaming God, themselves, or the people of God.
We become most productive when our hunger for fulfilling His mandate for our lives is greater than our fear of failure.
Every parent should understand the difference between control and in charge. We are in charge of our households, but not always in control of what happens there. God created a world in which our wills would have an effect on the outcome. And in turn we were written into His sovereign plan.
Whenever we build our identity around our title, we turn to a performance mentality in serving the Lord.
Perfectionism is religion, while excellence is Kingdom.
the will of God is revealed in Scripture, but the specifics become known through relationship. It is a relational journey. Obviously, He will never contradict His Word. Yet sometimes His Word seemingly contradicts itself, only to drive us to Him.
get alone with the Lord so that I am certain that my repentance is as deep as my sin.
It’s interesting that if I protect my peace, His peace will protect me.
I owe Him a clean heart of affection as I go to sleep. This is a heart that is not cluttered with the debris of unsettled things.
For me a clean conscience is more than being free from the awareness of sin in my life. It is being free from the weightiness of life that entangles my heart, prohibiting me from the life of faith for which I was designed. A clean conscience is a heart at rest.
don’t sacrifice your peace to prove you’re with them. Faith rests. It is also true that faith fights. But it fights from the position of rest/confidence in God.
The bottom line is people want to be loved. And what better way to bring people into the Kingdom than to love them for who they are. This isn’t to replace the wonderful role of preaching the Gospel. It’s to put it in the context of valuing people before they could earn it.
God is not afraid of secular connotations in releasing His message. He is the creator of all nations and often hides His purposes inside the cultures of people we think He would never use. But He does. And we are the ones who need to change our perspective.
Our salvation has an inbuilt “bent” toward obeying God. Obeying God is now a part of our new nature. It doesn’t mean we can no longer sin. It just means that it is not our nature to do so.
If we don’t realize what our actions mean to God, we do not receive the strength and encouragement God intended for us out of our own obedience.
When we stand before the Lord, we will watch as He honors those who have led millions to Christ or have served in a foreign land bringing the good news to people who otherwise never would have heard the Gospel. But we will also see Him give a high place of honor to the couple who spent the bulk of their adult life caring for a handicapped child, or to those who over and over visited their parents or grandparents with Alzheimer’s, who never once remembered their previous visit. Things look different from His perspective. Only He can clearly see the beauty of a cup of water given in His name.
...more
In a performance culture, people want to apologize when they need rest. Don’t. It’s a provision of the Lord.
Maturity is in part measured by our ability to contribute to our surroundings. And our maturity is so profoundly connected to a prosperous inner world that it can be measured by what we give and the strength we provide for others.
He invites us into the courts of Heaven to dialogue with Him about what is to happen on planet Earth, the place He has given to us to steward
a Father who watches every pause we take, every turning of the heart, every simple desire, watching over those things with delight.
Our dreams become the real estate that God occupies as our delight and trust in Him increases.
When I go to sleep at night, I turn my heart of affection toward Him. As I’m lying there, I just give Him thanks. I express how deeply I love Him, and then I’m quiet.
“God, I give you the rest of my life to teach me this one thing. I want to know what it is to minister to You.”
that I don’t have a hidden agenda when I have a relationship with somebody.
Grow in your affection for Him, and stop evaluating yourself. Just get over yourself. Just the affection, the adoration, it’s the willingness to spend time without asking for anything. So I’ll have extended prayer times and never pray for anything.
When you evaluate yourself, there is a constant pressure to accomplish something in prayer instead of just to be with Him.
We have been given authority and access to God’s resources for the sake of our victory and for the sake of touching the world with the Gospel.
Above all, love should be our motivation when we take risks to release the power of God’s Kingdom in to the lives of others.
