Face to Face with God Quotes

“A great command found in Psalms reveals one of King David’s secrets in life. “Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him” (Psalm 37:7). The word rest used in this verse means one of two things, depending on the context. One is “to be still.” That would be consistent with our use of the word in the English language.

The other definition is rather fascinating, though. It means “to take a leisure walk.” I think automatically of God and Adam walking in the Garden of Eden together in the cool of the day.”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God: Transform Your Life with His Daily Presence

“David’s passion for God was first seen on the backside of a mountain while tending his father’s sheep. In the quiet part of our day, when no one is looking, the true desires of our hearts can be seen. So it was with David.

David was a skilled musician who wrote songs of worship to God. He did this long before this was a normal expression of worship. Up to this point in history, Israel had been instructed to offer the blood sacrifice to God as their basic worship expression. But there had been very little instruction about the sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise that could be given from the heart. David discovered that this was important to God as he pursued God.”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God: Transform Your Life with His Daily Presence

“The job description is fairly simple: heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, and cleanse lepers.4 If you say you are not gifted in such things, then I say, “Find out why.”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God: Transform Your Life with His Daily Presence

“The extreme joy, the weeping, the shaking and trembling, the visions and dreams, the healing, the deliverance, and the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit, including tongues and prophecy, all are revelations of His face.

Some people love these manifestations, and some people reject them. But the sobering thing to realize is that our response to the move of the Spirit is not a response to manifestations. Rather, it is a response to the face of God.”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God: Transform Your Life with His Daily Presence

“[...] we must sacrifice our need to be right, to understand or explain things. We have to trust Him enough to let Him shatter our boxes of understanding and lead us into deeper realms of His truth.”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God: Transform Your Life with His Daily Presence

“He often chooses to lead us deeper into this knowledge by putting His favor on individuals that we would never have thought of as ideal candidates. It’s our job to learn that this is one of His ways. We need to humble ourselves and learn to recognize the favor of God wherever it rests.

As a pastor I sometimes invite speakers who come in a rough package but carry a great anointing. I do this to train my congregation to recognize the anointing and to celebrate who people are, not who they aren’t.

People want to be doctrinally safe, not relationally safe.”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God: Transform Your Life with His Daily Presence

“God intentionally includes these kinds of paradoxes in the Bible because they work to divide those who have a heart to know God from those who simply want to know about God. Jesus taught in parables for the same reason—so that only those who had a heart for Him would come to understand them.

In fact, the entire Bible was written with this assumption: only those who have a personal relationship with God will truly be able to understand it. To those outside of a relationship with God, the things that are only understood in the context of intimacy with God appear to be in conflict.”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God: Transform Your Life with His Daily Presence

“Moses experienced this amazing relationship of friendship with God under an inferior covenant. And it is improper to expect superior blessings from an inferior covenant.”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God: Transform Your Life with His Daily Presence

“Recognizing the favor of God on another believer plays a huge role in preparing us for the increase of God’s favor in our own lives. If I see the favor of God on someone, I am responsible to give honor where it’s due. And whoever honors the one that God honors is positioned for an increase of favor from God. Specifically, when we honor those who possess a deeper revelation of God and a deeper intimacy with Him, we position ourselves to receive the same revelation—to be guided deeper into a relationship with God [...]”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God: Transform Your Life with His Daily Presence

“[Moses] is the ultimate example of using favor to increase favor. He had earned a place of trust that gave him access to the secret places with God, to see and experience what others could not have access to. He spoke openly to Moses, not in dark or mysterious sayings that needed an interpretation. Not only that, He also let Moses see His form, which was unheard of.”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God: Transform Your Life with His Daily Presence

“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 [...]”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God: Transform Your Life with His Daily Presence

“[...] Pharaoh enlarged his offer by saying, “Go now, you that are men” (Exodus 10:11, MEV).

It becomes quite clear that the enemy fears entire families worshipping God together [...]”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God: Transform Your Life with His Daily Presence

“[...] Pharaoh offered to let Israel go but said, “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.

Consider what happened to the woman who prepared Jesus for His burial by pouring costly ointment over Him—ointment worth a whole year’s income. Everyone but Jesus thought it to be excessive and extreme. But Jesus honored her by stating that the story of her extravagant worship would be told wherever His story was told. 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.”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God: Transform Your Life with His Daily Presence

“[F]aith cannot coexist with the fear of man, that is, with being more concerned what someone else will think of us for a particular decision than what God thinks of us.”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God: Transform Your Life with His Daily Presence

“Trading anything for more of God really is the greatest deal ever offered to mankind.”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face With God: Get Ready for a Life-Changing Encounter with God

“The question for every believer is whether we will be satisfied with only a partial transformation or whether we will be so captivated by who He is that we will allow Him to kill everything in us that would inhibit us from becoming a mature manifestation of Christ.”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face With God: Get Ready for a Life-Changing Encounter with God

“God desires to release gifts to us more than we desire to receive them. He is just too merciful to release gifts upon us that He would have to judge us for later because we failed to carry them with integrity.”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God: Transform Your Life with His Daily Presence

“The only justifiable model we have is Jesus Christ. The job description is fairly simple: heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, and cleanse lepers. If you say you are not gifted in such things, then I say, 'Find out why.' Most of what we need in life will be brought to us, but most of what we want we'll have to go and get. God has made these realities available. We must pursue them. These gifts are the overflow of the face of God encounter.”
― Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God: Transform Your Life with His Daily Presence

“If you lack joy, there is one way you can engage in the process of gaining ever-increasing joy: learn to rejoice. A choice to rejoice cannot depend on circumstances, because it operates from the heart of faith. It lives regardless of what has happened, embracing the realities of His world that can only be accessed by trust in God and His Word. Rejoicing releases joy.”
― Bill Johnson, Face To Face With God: The Ultimate Quest to Experience His Presence

“We steward the presence of God by learning to obey the commands “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 4:30) and “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19). We grieve Him when we do something wrong; we quench Him when we fail to do what is right, stopping the flow of His love and power that comes from the Father.”
― Bill Johnson, Face To Face With God: The Ultimate Quest to Experience His Presence

“The quest for the face of God has two central dimensions—the quest for His presence and the quest for His favor.”
― Bill Johnson, Face To Face With God: The Ultimate Quest to Experience His Presence