Sid Roth

Sid: My guest is Bill Johnson Senior Leader of Bethel Church in Redding, California. And I’ve had the privilege of sitting under Bill’s ministry, and I have to say I don’t know of anyone else I’ve seen that have had so many manifestations of miracles. So I wanted to find out how this happened. Well I can’t even call them normal because he’s a 5^th generation Pastor and it runs in his genes, in his DNA. But not what he experienced one night the electricity of God… Bill Johnson, did it hurt this electricity of God? I know that if lightning hits you that would hurt?

Bill:   It wasn’t painful but also was not pleasant it was very very uncomfortable. It was gratifying in the sense that I lived so aware of God being in the room, but physically it was not a pleasant experience of what I felt physically.

Sid: So this happened 3 nights in a row from about 3:00 to 6:00 AM in the morning. The third night, if I understand you right, that same presence of God went on your wife.

Bill: Yeah.

Sid: Now did she deal with it better than you?

Bill:   I don’t know the process she went through on the inside I think it was more of just an unusual encounter with the Lord. I don’t know that He had to hunt for the same thing in her heart that He had to find in mine.

Sid: And repeat for those that didn’t listen yesterday what did He basically say to you?

Bill: The Lord was looking for me to give up my right for dignity. That He wanted the right to be able to use me in any way that He wanted even if I looked foolish, even if I didn’t come across as being dignified or respectful and giving up the right for that is sometimes important for the ministering of the gospel.

Sid: Well you did finally say “You counted the cost” as it says in the Bible and you said “Yes to the Lord.” Tell me the first time you lost your dignity.

Bill: (Laughing) Well it was a season of time where the visitation. It just came in ways that we didn’t expect we didn’t know what to do. It was the Lord dealing with me because I have said yes in the secret place He trusted me to lead some of those meetings in a public place. So the Holy Spirit would come in greater power, we didn’t always know what was happening we would examine the fruit afterwards, we’d find out that a marriage was healed, we’d find that somebody’s body was healed or some person came to Christ or something. But it didn’t always look logical at the time. And so it was something that happened to me publically but it also happened to most everyone else in the room. So it was a process and it was a season of many years where I was required because of that “Yes” that I made to the Lord I was required to live with a certain amount of risk to see what the Lord wanted to do in a given setting.

Sid: Did you ever get used to that, that risk because that doesn’t sound like the type of person you were?

Bill: No, no I’ve never I’ve had to push into it in a sense for the miracles and the healings that we see happen. It certainly easier today than it was 15, 16 and 17 years ago but I still have to intensely push into it realizing that I don’t know what’s about to happen. I’m pushing into the unknown only knowing that God is good and that He will do something significant. And so I don’t get paranoid but I really want to make sure that I hear correctly because I know that often times breakthrough is connected to our deliberate and accurate obedience.

Sid: Okay, you’ve been at this how many years has it been since this power encounter?

Bill: Since that encounter would be 1995 so it’s 18 years.

Sid: Okay, what… tell me some secrets that you have learned in that period of time that you wished that you had known at day one, if you had down it you might have not said yes. (Laughing)

Bill: (Chuckle) The secrets have to deal in 2 areas. One is the nature of God and the other is how He uses us. So the first thing would be the thing that I wished I had known you know 20-30 years ago 40 years ago when I first started. I wish I would have known how good God was. Just discovering the absolute perfect goodness of God has been the greatest delight of my life. That goodness doesn’t translate into tolerating sin, people misunderstand that and that’s not accurate but He is so incredibly kind. And I wish I would have known that because all of the healing, all of the prophetic, all of the things that we have experienced really flow out of that goodness. His heart of great, great love and compassion and affection for people; I wished I would have known that better at the beginning.

Sid: Most people judge God by their earthly father.

Bill: That’s true.

Sid: And that’s a wrong thing to do because how can you judge a human against pure love.

Bill: Yeah, you’re right and that’s messed a lot of people up because they didn’t have a good home. I had a great home and I still struggle with it and so I can only imagine what people deal with that were raised in a abusive or less than kind household. So it’s just one thing that I wish I had known earlier than I did. The second is I had this notion that you had to be a special person for God to use you. You know I grew up and my family had sat under Wigglesworth Ministry and uncle was a soloist for Aimee Semple McPherson and so we had a lot of good…

Sid: You know you are provoke… you know I’m Jewish and the Bible says “The Gentile believers to provoke the Jews to jealousy, but you’re sure doing it now but go ahead. (Laughing)

Bill: Yeah well, I grew up hearing those stories and it put an appetite in me which is really good but I caught a message that nobody was telling me but somehow I caught it that you had to be a special person. You know Wigglesworth was unusually gifted in faith, Kathryn Kuhlman had an unusual sense of God’s presence and I just never qualified. And so I would dismiss this urge to see the authentic gospel displayed with purity and power, but it kept coming back, kept coming back, kept coming back until I went to a John Wimber Conference and I saw them model demonstrate and teach how everyone, everyone can do this. And it changed my life and I’m forever indebted to…

Sid: Now wait a second now you told me about that power encounter where electricity came over your body 3 nights in a row for 3 hours so you were a special person. How can you say that that person listening to me can do what you can do?

Bill: Well first of all okay it started in ’87 it started before ’95 and it started when I was pasturing a small tiny little church up in the mountain. I didn’t have any kind of experience or reputation or anything, I just went to a conference where I saw John Wimber and his team the Vineyard Movement I saw them model how every person can do this and they did it in a way that they that fit my life. You know it was hard for me to ever imagine me being in a large crusade preaching to 10’s of 1000’s of people but I knew that I could talk one on one and could pray for someone. And they modeled that for me and it set me up and that’s when the miracles started it was 1987. The explosion came in ’95 but that wasn’t something I knew would happen. But I cried out for more knowing that I had tasted enough to be ruined forever. I really wanted a greater and a more significant breakthrough so that was my hearts cry you know and that’s how and when the Lord really really visited me that’s then.

Sid: You know I hear this often for lack of a better words such a desperation for more of God and I’ve heard this from many people that have had wonderful ministries. But if I’m understanding you right whether someone has that supernatural desperation or not when they understand it they can go for God desperately and end up with the same things that you and the people out at your school get.

Bill: Yeah, I believe that I do God is moved by hunger. And people that are hungry, you know people let me say this I’ve seen people that get really hungry but they end up in unbelief because their hunger is a striving, it’s not anchored in the goodness of God it’s not anchored in promises it’s just… it’s anchored in an ideal that they never reach. I see others that they are hungry but they know that God is good and they’re seeking for this wonderful Father to touch them more deeply and profoundly. What hurts people is when they try to have somebody else’s experience. I think it’s legitimate for us to pursue outcome but not experience.

Sid: You know what I would love everyone listening to us to do and that is have you come to their house invite a few of their friends and teach them the most important thing that every Christian has to learn how to host the presence of God. Here let me read to you what Heidi Baker said when she got a hold of this book. Bill Johnson’s book “Hosting the Presence” is one of the most powerful books that I have ever read. I was undone by chapter 1 and found myself weeping and crying out for more of the manifest presence of God to rest on my life. I was wrecked with a greater hunger to be fully possessed by the glory of God and filled with fresh longing for my life to be distinguished by His presence…”