by Bill Johnson
This also shows us how the unseen realities of the Kingdom can be accessed through simple faith and obedience. Faith doesn’t come from the mind; it comes from the heart. Yet a renewed mind enhances our faith through an understanding of the unseen. It finds its fuel in knowing ways of the Holy Spirit—how He moves. Their unique perspectives on reality, from which they drew their miracle, were not the results of years of study and prayer (which obviously have great value in our lives, but serve another purpose). They were responses to the grace made available in the manifested Presence of God through the Holy Spirit that rested upon people.
It’s time for these exceptional stories to no longer be the exception. It’s time for them to become the rule—the new norm. And that is the cry of my heart. The apostles learned from Jesus’ example that the greatest treasure was the Presence of the Holy Spirit resting upon Him. Learning to host the Presence of God is the biggest challenge of the Christian life.
The Perfect Guest
Consider what Mary and Joseph felt when they heard that Mary would be giving birth to God’s Son, Jesus the Christ. He would grow up in their home, be nurtured as their own, and raised for a purpose beyond their comprehension or control. This Jesus was totally God, yet totally man.
If the assignment of raising the Perfect One weren’t frightening enough, what would it have felt like to lose Him? It actually happened.
Joseph and Mary had a custom of going to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover every year. After the festivities were concluded, they made their way back to Nazareth. After traveling a full day they realized that Jesus, who was only 12 years old at the time, wasn’t with them. Joseph and Mary had not even completed their job of raising Him when Jesus went missing. He had decided to stay behind in Jerusalem and ask the religious leaders some questions. This He did without asking permission. When they compared records they realized that neither of them had seen Jesus all day. They assumed he was with other relatives or traveling companions in the caravan. This was a moment of great concern. They lost God.
Three days went by before they found Him. I can’t imagine that they were really that different from the rest of us. I would first be mad at myself for not being more responsible. Upon finding Him, I would feel relief, but also have somewhere else to place the blame—Jesus Himself. It appears that this is exactly what Joseph and Mary did. Mary asked Jesus, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously” (Luke 2:48 NKJV). Jesus caused their anxiety. And they put the blame squarely on His shoulders. Now that they were relieved in finding the Son of God, they were also a bit taken back by His lack of concern for their grief. “Why have you done this to us?” Strangely, in the midst of the miracles and extraordinary lifestyle that He exhibited in His adulthood, Jesus would continue causing anxiety.
His response didn’t help. In fact, His answer made no sense whatsoever from our perspective. Jesus responded, “Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49 NKJV). Isn’t it the parents’ responsibility to look for their missing child? How were they to have known where He’d be? By implication they were to have known that His ultimate priority in life was doing the Father’s business. Jesus was saying that they didn’t need to seek Him. He is never missing when He is doing His Father’s business. As great an answer as it was, neither Joseph nor Mary understood it.
It is the parents’ job to teach their children. To this day the primary responsibility of teaching children does not fall on the shoulders of church or government. It is the God-given assignment to parents. All the other institutions assist. But at this unusual situation, it was the parents’ turn to learn. Jesus just revealed earth’s priorities from the Father’s perspective. This will had something to do with the interaction of two worlds—Heaven and earth.
Awakening to Purpose
There is no greater privilege than being a host to God Himself. Neither is there a greater responsibility. Everything about Him is extreme. He is overwhelmingly good, awe-inspiring to the max, and frighteningly wonderful in every possible way. He is powerful yet gentle, both aggressive and subtle, and perfect while embracing us in the midst of our imperfections. Yet few are aware of the assignment to host Him. Fewer yet have said yes.
The idea of hosting God may sound strange. He owns everything, including our own bodies. And He certainly doesn’t need our permission to go somewhere or do anything. He is God. But He made the earth for humanity and put it under our charge.
If you were renting a home from me, I wouldn’t walk into your home without an invitation, or at least without your permission. You would never see me in your kitchen, taking food from your refrigerator and cooking a meal for myself. Why? Even though it is my house, it is under your charge or stewardship. While there may be landlords who would violate such protocol, God is not one of them. He planted us here with a purpose. Yet it’s a purpose we can’t accomplish without Him. Our true nature and personality will never come to fullness apart from His manifest Presence. Learning to host Him is at the center of our assignment, and it must become our focus so that we can have the success He desires before Jesus returns.
In one moment we find ourselves rejoicing in the dance, arms raised with heads lifted high. In the next we are bowed low, not because someone suggested it would be an appropriate response, but because the fear of God has filled the room. In one moment our mouths are filled with laughter—we have truly discovered “in [His] presence is fullness of joy” (Ps. 16:11 NKJV). In the next we find ourselves weeping for no apparent reason. Such is the walk with God. Such is the life of the one who has given himself to host this One.
His longing for partnership is at the core of this issue. It is His heart. He’s a Person, not a machine. He longs for fellowship. He loves to love.
My interest in the ever-increasing story of a people suited to carry His presence is in these areas:
What happens to the person when God rests upon them?
What is their responsibility in protecting that Presence?
What is the impact on the world around them?
How are the ways and nature of God revealed in their encounter?
What is possible for us through their example?
The Greatest Honor
Hosting God is filled with honor and pleasure, cost and mystery. He is subtle, and even sometimes silent. He can also be extremely obvious, aggressive, and overtly purposeful. He is a guest with an agenda—Father to Son. Heaven to earth. It is still His world—His purposes will be accomplished. This leaves us with a question that has yet to be answered: What generation will host Him until the kingdom of this world becomes the Kingdom of our Lord and Christ? (See Revelation 11:15.)
ENDNOTE
1. The process of how the story of Peter’s healing shadow anointing spread is conjecture. The outcome is not, and is ultimately the focus.
2
From a Garden to a Garden
Our story starts with two people in a garden. The Garden of Eden was as perfect as any place could be. So were its only two human inhabitants, Adam and Eve. They had a unique place in all of creation because they were made in the image of God. That had never happened before. And nothing else had that privileged place in existence. Because of this likeness, the ones made in God’s image would rule over the earth and represent Him in personality and function.
Adam and Eve were designed to rule like God. God’s way is much different than the common view of ruling today. It is always a rule of protection and empowerment. Even so, Adam and Eve and all their descendants were to represent God on earth to the rest of creation. Their position over the earth was not instead of God, but because of God. He came in the evening to walk and talk with Adam and Eve. Their place of rule was the overflow of their place before God’s face as an intimate.
The earth has always belonged to God, but now humankind became His delegated ones to rule in His place. The Gospel of Matthew records a comment from a centurion that gives us
a great insight into being delegated authority. When Jesus showed interest in healing his servant, the centurion responded:
…Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, “Go!” and he goes, and to another, “Come!” and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this!” and he does it (Matthew 8:8-9).
This Roman military leader realized that his authority came from being under authority. We can only release the benefit of God’s rule flowing through us to the degree that His rule is over us. Jesus was so moved by his response that He acknowledged that this insight gives place to great faith. He also applauded his insight, for its roots are in another kingdom besides Rome—the Kingdom of God. This understanding is paramount to humanity’s ability to rule well.
God created everything for His pleasure. He looked over everything He made and enjoyed it. But His interaction with humanity was different than all the rest. It was personal, revealing the richest benefit of being made in His image. A unique moment in this relationship came when God assigned Adam the task of naming all the animals (see Gen. 2:19). Names represent so much more in the Bible than in our culture. A name represents the nature, realm of authority, and the glory assigned to His creation. Whether Adam merely recognized what each animal was given by God or if Adam actually assigned that measure in the name he gave to each animal is not certain. The answer matters very little, as either way Adam was brought into the creation picture as a co-laborer. He was actually given the responsibility to help define the nature of the world he was going to live in. This reveals the heart of God in such a beautiful way. God did not create us to be robots. We were made in His image as co-laborers, working with Him to demonstrate His goodness over all that He made.
The Unhidden Agenda
All that God created was perfect in every way. Not even God could improve its design, function, or purpose. The Garden itself demonstrated Heaven on earth. And the reason for the placement of such an extraordinary place of peace and divine order was extreme—the rebellion of satan brought a scar into what was otherwise a perfect creation. And now peace, the substance of Heaven’s atmosphere, was to take on a military function. Disorder had tarnished God’s creation. It was now light against darkness, order versus chaos, and glory against that which is inferior, lacking, and hollow.
The first commission in Scripture is given to Adam in the Garden.
Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth (Genesis 1:28).
His immediate responsibility was to tend the Garden. His ultimate responsibility was to bring the same order to the rest of the planet. The implication was that outside of the Garden there was not the same order as existed on the inside. That makes a lot of sense when we remember that the serpent came into the Garden to tempt Adam and Eve. He was already on the planet.
Revelation 12:4 speaks of the dragon being cast to the earth, sweeping one third of the stars with him. It’s quite possible that statement describes the fall of satan and his expulsion from Heaven. His arrogance cost him his place as one of the three archangels who served God directly, the other two being Michael and Gabriel. We also know that one third of the angels fell with him, which this passage seems to describe. The term “stars” could represent the angels themselves, or it could represent the measure of creation that they had rule over that was now under the influence of the fallen realm. The point is, the realm of darkness already existed on earth before God made Adam, Eve, and the Garden of Eden. He created order in the midst of disorder so that those made in His image might represent Him well by extending the borders of the Garden until the whole planet would be covered by God’s rule through His delegated ones.
Never at any time has satan been a threat to God. God is ultimate in power and might, beauty and glory. He is eternal with unlimited measures of all that is good. He is uncreated—has always existed. Satan is limited in every way. God gave him his gifts and abilities at his own creation. There has never been a battle between God and satan. The entire realm of darkness could be forever wiped out with a word. But God chose to defeat him through those made in His own likeness—those who would worship God by choice. Brilliant! It was the issue of worship that brought about his rebellion in the first place.
Satan wanted to be worshiped like God. That rebellion was possible because God gave him a will. The foolish, self-centered choice satan made cost him his position of rule and, more importantly, his place before God in Heaven. His revolt rippled through the angelic realm and ended up bringing one third of the angels with him in his failure.
Spiritual Warfare
I find it fascinating that God didn’t give Adam and Eve any instructions on spiritual warfare. There is no known teaching on the power of the name Jesus, no instruction on the power of their praise for God, nor is there any known emphasis on the power of His Word. These tools would be a great benefit later in the story. But right now their entire life was focused on maintaining divine order through relationship with God and spreading it through representing Him well. They were to live responsibly and be productive, have children who would have children who would have children, etc., and expand the borders of the Garden until the planet was covered by their rule. All of this flowed from their fellowship with God, walking with Him in the cool of the evening. All of this came from relationship. Satan was never the focus. He didn’t need to be, as he had no authority. As yet there was no agreement with the devil.
I become concerned by an overemphasis by some on the subject of spiritual warfare. Spiritual conflict is a reality that is not to be ignored. Paul admonishes us to not be unaware of the enemy’s devices (see 2 Cor. 2:11). We must be mindful of his tools. But even so, my strength is putting on the full armor of Christ. Christ is my armor!
Adam and Eve, the ones who saw God the clearest, had no instructions on warfare, as their dominion repulsed the enemy in the same way that light drives away darkness without a fight. I can’t afford to live in reaction to darkness. If I do, darkness has had a role in setting the agenda for my life. The devil is not worthy of such influence, even in the negative. Jesus lived in response to the Father. I must learn to do the same. That is the only example worth following.
All our actions come from one of two basic emotions—fear or love. Jesus did everything from love. So much of what is called warfare comes out of fear. I’ve done it more than I care to admit. We would never worship or give honor to the devil. But remember, like the child needing attention in the classroom, if he can’t get it for something good, then at least he’ll get it for something bad.
The devil doesn’t mind negative attention. He’ll let us chase him all day long in the name of “warfare.” But it’s a place of weakness. God calls us into a place of strength—rediscovering our place in the Garden, walking with Him in the cool of the evening. It is from that place of intimacy that true warfare is experienced. Perhaps it was for that reason that David, Israel’s great warrior and king, wrote, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” (Ps. 23:5). The place of fellowship and intimacy with God is seen as the table of the Lord—yet it is placed in front of his enemies.
This is a strange picture indeed. But until we understand this concept, we will unintentionally elevate the devil’s place much higher than it should be. This kind of romance strikes terror in the heart of the devil and his hosts. At this table of fellowship, our relationship with God deepens and overflows into a life of victory in conflict with the powers of darkness.
The creation of humankind is in a sense the beginning of such a romance. We were created in His image, for intimacy, that our dominion over the earth might be expressed through loving relationship with God. It is from this revelation of dominion through love that we are to learn to walk as His ambassadors, thus defeating the “Prince of this world.” The stage was set for all of the powers of darkness to
fall as Adam and Eve exercised their godly influence over creation. But instead, they fell.
The Perfect Landlord
Satan couldn’t come into the Garden of Eden and violently take possession of Adam and Eve. That would have been a laughable impossibility. He had no authority or dominion where he had no agreement, either in the Garden or in Adam and Eve. Dominion is power. And since humanity was given the keys of dominion over the planet, the devil would have to get authority from humans.
At this point in the story their experience was much like what Israel was to experience later in the unfolding story of redemption. God had given the entire Promised Land to the children of Israel. It all belonged to them all at once. It was their inheritance by promise. But they possessed only what they had the ability to manage. The expression of God’s dominion flowed through them according to their ability to rule well. They ruled well, according to how well they were ruled. God told them why He wouldn’t give it to them all at once—the beasts would become too numerous for them (see Exod. 23:29; Deut. 7:22). They were to grow into possessing the fullness of their inheritance.
The same principle applies to us today. From the Garden of Eden to Israel and the Promised Land to the believers of this hour, it’s all ours. But what we possess now is according to our capacity to steward in the way that He would. Many have concluded that our lack is the will of God, as though God designed the Gospel to be lived differently during modern times versus biblical times. Nonsense. It is still biblical times.