DREAMING WITH GOD ~ Bill Johnson
A couple weeks ago, I read “Dreaming With God” By Bill Johnson.
Wow, what a book!
It opened my eyes to the beautiful involvement of our own, unique creativity in our walk of faith and in the grand scheme of encountering Heaven on Earth.
A creativity that unlocks life and opends doors to lead us into greater encounters with the Lord.
Without hesitating too much… here are some excerpts from the book that I found particularly eye-opening...
On page 48, Johnson talks about the misconception among artistic people that creativity must come from pain. And while many great works are born out of a dark season, Believers don’t need that path!
Having ourselves crucified with Christ and laying down our past was triagic enough to launch us into a role or creative influence.
On the next page, Johnson goes on to remind us about the wisdom of God being foolish to man’s understanding. We must surrender to appear foolish at the sight of others to deliver the message that God has scripted for us to give.
True wisdom is that which satisfies the heart, not the culture.
"There are melodies of heaven that were musicians not to tune into the sounds of heaven, they would not be providing us with fresh sounds of worship!"
We can’t stop at our understanding!
On Page 55 we’re taken through the reminder of what a true walk of faith is... It’s living according to God’s revelation to us… it’s living in the midst of mysteries which remain unexplained… that’s why it’s called faith!
We can’t abandon this post in order to follow only what we can explain or interpret… that wouldn’t be faith!
Now on Page 58, there was a phrase that has stuck with me throughout my days since reading it:
“Revelation that doesn’t to a divine encounter will only make us more religious, teaching us to embrace external standards without the internal realities.”
A religious spirit is that which dims our acceptance of God’s Grace.
When we encounter His Grace and it washes over us, we CANNOT leave unchanged because He is a God of redemption. He never leaves us how He found us; He is always doing something new. And because we live in such a broken world, He is always bringing dead things to life,
(Romans 3vs24 NIV)
“And all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
(Isaiah 43vs19 NIV)
“See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
This is the life of the believer… to embrace revelation with one hand, and mystery with the other.
On Page 59, Johnson describes how receiving in this way resembles that of a Cross. This is the hunger of those who long to do the works of Christ. God will violate our logic and remove us from our own reasoning, but He will carry us through Grace.
(John 4vs34 NIV)
““My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
On Page 70, we’re reminded that we are nourished in obedience. We’re not strengthened by our own making but in hearing from God and working off what He says.
(Matthew 4vs4 NIV)
“Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
His voice is our life. There may be other tables to choose our meal of life at. Johnson explains some of them here; “There is the table of public opinion. The food is sweet, but it sours in the stomach. There is the table of personal achievement. That's a power meal for sure, the crash is as rapid as the ascent. There's only one table with rich
food that settles well and brings supernatural strength; it's the table of God's will.” (Page 70)
We go onto learning that despite the Scriptures aging beyond our lifetime and that of our forefathers, all hearing from God stems from Scripture.
Remember; “God Will not violate His Word, He often violates our understanding of His Word. Remember, God is bigger than His book. The Bible does not contain God; it reveals Him.” (Page 72)
We need to constantly remember that God’s first language is NOT English! And it’s not Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek either! While God may use language which is useful to us, He is not bound to that (remember, not restricted to our understanding!).
He speaks through His Spirit which moves in more ways than we could begin to comprehend)
Here’s another statement from the book which has changed my perspective to life! When talking about the building of an ongoing prayer/worship room at Bethel Church, Johnson writes; “Jesus had a different perspective; He called it worship. I felt we were to build a place where people could waste themselves on Jesus!” (Page 75)
Ok wow (my words now!). But that’s the essence of ALL of this isn’t it! We weren’t created for the life society in leading us into… we were created to Worship Him, to praise Him WITH everything and IN everything.
Stop right now and think, what is restricting you from stepping into the fullness of this lifestyle – one which gives it all up for Jesus. Just like the Fishermen did.
(Matthew 4vs18~20 NIV)
“They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.”
Often, God will speak through unusual circumstances that would ordinarily hold no meaning within themselves, yet God grabs our attention through them.
(Exodus 3:4 NASB)
"When the Lord saw that he
turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and
said, 'Moses, Moses?"
On page 89, Johnson talks about how being born again brings you to a brand new direction in life where you are either living for Kingdom purposes or you're not living at all. you're either Involved In full time ministry or not at all (only few have pulpits In there area of expertise!)
"Be sure to preach only good news. And when necessary, use words!" (Page 89).
The prophetic, in it’s purest form, Is to find the gold In people and call that to life. It doesn't take very much to find the dirt someones life. Be careful of what you preach. We are here to share God's Good News, not fish out peoples dirt.
Call out the good.
On page 93, Johnson uses just three words to define humans… "Integrity, Creativity, and Excellence." Which Is parallel to the what Solomon said:
(Proverbs 22vs29)
"Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before
kings; He will not stand before unknown men"
A person who excels In what they are set here to do will bring Kingdom to secular and transform others.
The underlying message from the Old Testament was to reveal the power of sin. In page 144, Johnson uses the example of how In Old Testament times, If you touched a leper, you became unclean. And this displays the character of sin. There’s no little sin or big sin. It’s all sin, and all sin is overpowering, you must flee from It, run away.
But when Jesus came and broke down the hold of sin in the world (the primary message of the New Testament,) He revealed God’s love. Love covers a multitude of sin, God’s Love covers your full multitude of sin through His Son!
By this we learn that both messages are true, but love is Greater and love overpowers sin!
We must understand that God moves and His Spirit is working in us. This will lead us into encounters and experiences that help us grow and see things with new perspectives. Johnson reminds us that through the journey of life, because life is never static, we may be challenged by what we face. If you haven’t already experienced it, God is always unpredictable and often mysterious, but he is never untrustworthy!
This leads into understanding the depth of revelation. “Revelation means to lift the veil." This is part of the journey of learning to hear God’s voice. Revelation doesn’t show brand new things, it reveals what is already in place so that we can see more of what is already there. This follows smoothly into the beauty of prophecy. God often gives us glimpses of things that are possible or within reach but not concrete or not yet at the foundational stand. But by letting us into see even just a snapshot, He is revealing His generosity, “If you can see it, you can have it!” (Page 172) and it is with a desperate heart that you walk to fulfilment of the Lords promises.
(Psalm 37vs4~5 NLT)
“Take delight in the LORD,
and he will give you your heart’s desires.
Commit everything you do to the LORD.
Trust him, and he will help you.”
Johnson brings up an important point about the mindset of the Church in our time;
“The error of our ways is clearly realized in the fact that what is believed actually requires little or no faith to get what most of the Church is waiting for--the world to get worse, and the Church to get rescued. This is an irresponsible way to respond to great promise.”
Think about it…. If David lived with the mindset of the worldy perspective of bad that could happen, he would never have been in position to present a testimony of such celebration and joy! Had he remained in an Old Testament mindset, he would not have lived the way he did, displaying the ‘New Testament Believer” before there ever was such a thing.! (Page 175)
Because the Kingdom only works in one direction of increase and acceleration, growth and maturity, it is our hunger as God’s people that sows into this development and speeds up time. Johnson discusses the danger of settiling into the conversation of “seasons” and encourages stepping out of this box of restriction to spiritual growth. Because our world sees so many people living in a “spiritual winter”, we have this idea grown into us that accepts a spiritual low as a dealing from the lord! “The metaphor of the seasons has become an excuse for moodiness, unbelief, depression, inactivity, and the like. It must end.” (Page 176)
(Mark 11vs13~14 NIV)
“Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.”
We have a lesson to learn from this. Johnson says; “Jesus cursed it for not bearing fruit out of season. It died immediately. Was He unreasonable? Did He lose His temper? Or was He showing us something about His expectations for our lives that we’d just as soon ignore?” (Page 177)
We must remember that God is the God of the impossible, so He holds the right to expect the impossible from us. Not because we are able to achieve this but because we glean from Him! Because we are believing believers, our faith requires our qualification of the impossible! Johnson also gives us a beautiful story about a plant which lives in their prayer house. It’s a plant that blooms all year around… God will get our attention through natural phenomenon like this that point to His truths.
The impossible is possible because He is God of the impossible!
With this in mind, Johnson reminds us that even though we live in faith, we will still encounter suffering. And that’s because we live in this world which is filled with a lot of hurt. But we must remember that suffering will last only a moment is God’s great plan for you. Be thankful, live in gratitude and perservere. Be assured that better times are on the way, they are always within reach. (Page 129)
The Lord is a present Lord. He is right now with us, His dreams for you are possible and He has great things for you. You are a citizen of heaven living on earth and His desire is for you to step into the greatness of His plans!
Stay close to Him, His presence is what you need, stay in His Word, stay on His path for you!
~ X ~
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