“I was in the dark valley, but then a huge hand came up and squashed all the darkness!!!!” Jaren (my 8 yr old) says. “What does that mean to you?” “I feel like it means God is going to crush Satan, and we’re gonna win!” Nice. My son almost always goes back to the battle. My girls listen for God’s voice and see totally different things, but Jaren … sees … battle … a lot. And he’s right, we are in a battle, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 6:12 NLT)
If you don’t feel the battle right now, maybe you should, and if you do, here’s some encouragement.
Your battle is …
- Fierce. There is a reality to the spiritual world that as a believer, you either recognize and see God work in or it can sink you. Don’t sleep walk through your own life, but acknowledge God’s training for war, and His grace on your life to face it.
- Winnable. If you’re in a battle, it’s so that you can win it. God is not interested in His kids getting beat down by life and defeated. No, you’re in it to win it. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15:57 NIV)
- What will propel you to the next level. In order to be a giant killer, you have to face a giant. This battle that you face right now becomes your rally cry to see victory in the next area. See from God’s perspective – this battle is already won! When God takes you thru a process to victory, you’ll learn how to give that victory away to others. Don’t seek the quick fix, when you’re poised to provide a training ground for others’ victory!
Every time Satan messes with me, I remind him, “You can do that, but just know, when God brings me to victory, I’m going to set everyone else in my life free that has ever dealt with this!” Your battle will propel you to the next level – it’s time to fight – “To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.” (Col. 1:29 NIV)
jaredstepp 
Hi Jared, I am Sean. You commented Bill Johnson does not teach Jesus was only a man (not God) and had to be born again. There is a sermon where he suggests Jesus was born again as one being the first born of the dead (Colossians 1:18). While I have not heard Bill attest to Christ on earth as God, he does say Jesus is emmanuel or God with us. Could you confirm Bill understands Jesus to be fully man and fully God while He was here on earth? Thank you and sorry to bother you from nowhere. Cape Town, South Africa actually.
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Hi Sean! No problem, thanks for asking. Greetings to the believers in Cape Town! My understanding is that this quote from Bill was taken out of context. Here is a part of the statement of faith from Bethel Church’s website on Jesus — “The Lord Jesus Christ, the one and only Son of God, was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin, Mary, and is God’s Anointed One, empowered by the Holy Spirit to inaugurate God’s kingdom on earth. He was crucified for our sins, died, was buried, resurrected and ascended into heaven, and is now alive today in the presence of God the Father and in His people. He is “true God” and “true man.””Here’s the link for the source on that http://www.bethel.com/about/ – there’s more there that is helpful as well.
The other factor is that until 2006 Bill Johnson and Bethel Church were a part of the Assemblies of God (of which I am a part). My understanding from talking with AG leadership about this is that Bethel only moved out of the affiliation because of some minor differences (ie. the initial physical evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and the AG USA’s hard stance on alcohol). The AG brass would take them back in a second – that would not be true if Bill was in error on this point. I prefer to go with the things that are in writing on topics like this, rather than a spoken message quote that can be either misstated, misconstrued, taken out of context, or even doctored and manipulated.
I have read almost all of Bill Johnson’s books and listened to 100’s of his messages and have never heard anything that even remotely stated or implied this. Those are all the trappings of a smear job. Those are my thoughts and opinions on it – take it for what it’s worth.
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