Hi, I’m Bill Johnson from Bethel Church in Redding, CA. I want to be an encouragement to you concerning the supernatural lifestyle that God has called us to. Jesus made a rather extreme statement in John 10:37, where He said, if He didn’t do the works of the Father, don’t believe Him. That’s incredible when you realize how many elements there were released into the earth that testified who Jesus was.
Number one, the angels showed up to declare who He was, creation itself, the star pointed to who He was. We had Anna and Simeon, great intercessors, pointed to who He was. We had the testimony of all the prophets that spoke to who He was. And yet, Jesus stood before people and He said, “If I don’t do the works of the Father,” which in the context of the Gospel of John, is miracles signs, and wonders. “If I don’t do the works of the Father, don’t believe me.”
I am looking for the day the Church will stand before the world and say, “If we don’t do the works of our Father, don’t believe us either.” It is time we own up to the fact that Jesus has actually called us to follow Him, which automatically is the supernatural lifestyle. I don’t have explanations for why this works, why that one doesn’t. What I do have is a very simple charge, a simple command. We have the privilege of following Jesus. Jesus illustrated a lifestyle that actually could be followed. He is eternally God. He never forfeited His position as God, but He did become a man, and when He became a man, He made decrees, declarations, confessions about His life in ministry. For example, He said, “I only do what I see my Father do. I only say what I hear my Father say.” Elsewhere He said, He only can do what the Father reveals to Him to do. The Holy Spirit leads Him into the Father’s will. This makes something clear to us. The Son of Man could do nothing of Himself. That is astounding. That means if I have the right, the responsibility of following Jesus, then I have the responsibility to do what I can do. That seems unfair until you realize He has given us the same Holy Spirit He had. The Holy Spirit that raised Him from the dead is the Spirit that caused you and me to be born again. It is that same Holy Spirit that makes it possible for us to live in an impossible lifestyle, where we confront things that are wrong, things that are broken, things that are not like Heaven. That is the mandate “On earth as it is in Heaven.”
I want to encourage you in this. Pursue what it is, seek God, call out to Him, contend for breakthrough in and through your own life. In and through my own life, to see the reality of who Jesus is as the resurrected victor over all. That He would truly demonstrate that through you and through me. The world deserves to see this Jesus and who He is and what He is like. He is not a philosophy, He is not a church membership issue. He is not any of those things. He is the God of all power, the God of the absolute breakthrough. He is a perfect Father, and fathers that have resource have the delight of resourcing their children when they are in need. That is our Heavenly Father. It is foolish for us to think we can display the love of God perfectly and completely without power.
Here is my charge. I encourage you – get alone with God. Get in His book, get in the Word of God. Read and find the wonderful privilege we have of demonstrating who Jesus is. He is the extravagant one. It’s when we take risk, and pray, and believe that we see breakthrough come.
I am going to pray for that. Father, I ask you would release a real Spirit of breakthrough upon those watching this episode. That there would be a mantle of breakthrough come. Things would yield to the name Jesus through our lips, at a whole new level. There would be a courage and a faith for breakthrough that demonstrates the resurrection of Jesus. That is our cry. We want you to be glorified in all the earth. That is our cry. I pray for this for the honor of the name Jesus. Amen.