Experience the Impossible: Simple Ways to Unleash Heaven's Power on Earth by Bill Johnson
Authors: Bill Johnson
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to touch with Your love. I ask these things, all for Your glory and honor.
Confession
By the grace given to me I declare that I will no longer live in reaction to the devil, but will instead live in response to God. His promises are great. He has thoroughly thought through everything I will face in my lifetime and has provided promises for every situation. I refuse to feed my soul on sympathy and pity. I refuse to allow my heart to settle for lesser things. God is a perfect Father to me, and I joyfully embrace His perfect will for my life.
36
Love
Jesus is building a community of believers who can recognize the source of a word they do not understand.
T he most profound example of community in the Bible is no doubt the new believers in Jerusalem after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This is found in the first few chapters of Acts. Their love for each other was so powerful that the Bible says they had no needs. All of their requirements for food, housing and employment were met. My favorite part of this story is that the sacrificial giving that took place in the context of community was never commanded. It came out of the love they had for God, which was illustrated in the love they had for each other. This is a beautiful picture of love, of community.
Jesus started this reality in the lives of the disciples. While there is not a lot of information about how they took care of these sorts of needs, we do see Him addressing everything from self-promotion, giving and serving to preferring one another. These are all subjects connected to community. It appears that these twelve men, plus Jesus, lived in community as they traveled around the country preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. Abeachhead was established that exploded exponentially in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
I have pastored two different churches in my lifetime. Each of them had a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The first one came after I had pastored a group of people for about sixteen years. While there is always a certain measure of surprise and many questions whenever God shows up in powerful ways, the church remained intact throughout that season of great change. New wine is poured into new wineskins because stretching is involved.
When the outpouring of the Spirit came to the second church, it caused great upheaval. It started a month or two after my arrival as their new pastor. As a result, about a thousand people left the church, splitting it in half. What was the difference? In the first church, our relationships helped us weather the mysteries that an outpouring brings. In the second church, I was new and had not yet built the sense of community in which the bond of love would hold us together. Some very wonderful people left as a result.
Jesus was a popular speaker. People would go without food and travel great distances just to hear Him talk and perform the miracles that gave credibility to the message. But that popularity was brought into question one day. There were thousands of people present. Probably close to fifteen thousand people had gathered around Him. He had already multiplied food to feed them. He then decided to preach. His sermon topic was the most offensive of His career. He announced that the people had to eat His flesh and drink His blood to have any part with Him. The community of listeners was divided over His message. As a result, they fought and argued with one another.
A mass exodus ensued. Imagine speaking to thousands, watching them disperse until you are left with twelve disciples. You can imagine how the disciples felt. They were riding His popularity quite well, hoping He would soon become king. Theiraspirations were quickly evaporating. He turned to His community, the Twelve, and stated that His words “are spirit,” and that the Spirit gives life (John 6:63). In other words, what He had just taught the crowd was as full of the Holy Spirit as were the messages the crowds liked. He said only what He heard
Confession
By the grace given to me I declare that I will no longer live in reaction to the devil, but will instead live in response to God. His promises are great. He has thoroughly thought through everything I will face in my lifetime and has provided promises for every situation. I refuse to feed my soul on sympathy and pity. I refuse to allow my heart to settle for lesser things. God is a perfect Father to me, and I joyfully embrace His perfect will for my life.
36
Love
Jesus is building a community of believers who can recognize the source of a word they do not understand.
T he most profound example of community in the Bible is no doubt the new believers in Jerusalem after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This is found in the first few chapters of Acts. Their love for each other was so powerful that the Bible says they had no needs. All of their requirements for food, housing and employment were met. My favorite part of this story is that the sacrificial giving that took place in the context of community was never commanded. It came out of the love they had for God, which was illustrated in the love they had for each other. This is a beautiful picture of love, of community.
Jesus started this reality in the lives of the disciples. While there is not a lot of information about how they took care of these sorts of needs, we do see Him addressing everything from self-promotion, giving and serving to preferring one another. These are all subjects connected to community. It appears that these twelve men, plus Jesus, lived in community as they traveled around the country preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. Abeachhead was established that exploded exponentially in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
I have pastored two different churches in my lifetime. Each of them had a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The first one came after I had pastored a group of people for about sixteen years. While there is always a certain measure of surprise and many questions whenever God shows up in powerful ways, the church remained intact throughout that season of great change. New wine is poured into new wineskins because stretching is involved.
When the outpouring of the Spirit came to the second church, it caused great upheaval. It started a month or two after my arrival as their new pastor. As a result, about a thousand people left the church, splitting it in half. What was the difference? In the first church, our relationships helped us weather the mysteries that an outpouring brings. In the second church, I was new and had not yet built the sense of community in which the bond of love would hold us together. Some very wonderful people left as a result.
Jesus was a popular speaker. People would go without food and travel great distances just to hear Him talk and perform the miracles that gave credibility to the message. But that popularity was brought into question one day. There were thousands of people present. Probably close to fifteen thousand people had gathered around Him. He had already multiplied food to feed them. He then decided to preach. His sermon topic was the most offensive of His career. He announced that the people had to eat His flesh and drink His blood to have any part with Him. The community of listeners was divided over His message. As a result, they fought and argued with one another.
A mass exodus ensued. Imagine speaking to thousands, watching them disperse until you are left with twelve disciples. You can imagine how the disciples felt. They were riding His popularity quite well, hoping He would soon become king. Theiraspirations were quickly evaporating. He turned to His community, the Twelve, and stated that His words “are spirit,” and that the Spirit gives life (John 6:63). In other words, what He had just taught the crowd was as full of the Holy Spirit as were the messages the crowds liked. He said only what He heard
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