Top 20 Bill Johnson Quotes from Manifest Presence 2010

It’s the morning after Manifest Presence 2010. Bill Johnson preached again last night and it was really something. I have never seen anything like it.

I know some of you will be reading this because you want some kind of conference review. I’m not going to give you one because I don’t want to diminish with my clumsy words what was a truly profound encounter with God and his man. All I can say is that Bill Johnson really loves Jesus and he feels deeply the Father’s compassion for an orphaned planet. I will tell you that many people were healed and all of us were touched by God’s goodness. If you want to know more about what happened at the last meeting of MP10, buy the DVD.

However, to give you a taste of Bill Johnson’s preaching during the week, I’ve selected 20 of my favorite quotes. The hard part was limiting my list to just 20. Bill Johnson is very quotable! He says things that are both new and obviously true once you hear them. Someone at the conference put it like this: “Bill is an orator who puts into words things that were already in our hearts.” That is a great gift, this ability to articulate revelation that we had only before felt in our spirits.

To be honest, I couldn’t limit myself to just 20 quotes. So today I’m going to give you a sampler of what Bill said on three R themes – renewed minds, representing God, and reformation – and in a day or two I will post his thoughts on the goodness of God (these were really good!). Enjoy!

On the renewed mind

1.    “What is the will of God? On earth as it is in heaven. If it doesn’t exist there, it’s not supposed to exist here. If it does exist there, it’s supposed to exist here.”

2.    “Oftentimes what you see cancels out what you perceive.”

3.    “The mind is either at war with God or it is being renewed. There is no middle ground.”

4.    “Practical atheism is when you act the same way as an atheist does even when you believe in God.”

5.    “I will never blame a loss on God. I will never base a theology on what didn’t happen… Whether they raise the dead or they stay dead, the pay’s the same. I have to manage my heart. I feed my soul on what God has said. Then I take my losses into the secret places of the Lord and I stay there until I give it to him.”

6.    “Faith is not opposed to the mind. It’s superior to the mind which is why the renewed mind enhances faith.”

7.    “An area of life that does not have hope is under a lie.”

8.    “We don’t believe because we understand. We understand because we believe.”

On representing God

9.    “I can’t promise that every person I pray for is going to be healed. I’m not at that place yet. But I can ensure that they’re going to be loved.”

10.    “We have to redefine the sovereignty of God… There’s a difference between being in charge and being in control. God is in charge, but to think he’s in charge of everything is sad because that means he sponsored Hitler… God is not willing that any should perish, yet people are perishing. That means not everything is his will.”

11.    “Do you know why we pray for the sick? Because we want Jesus to get what he paid for. We’re just passing along a check that somebody else wrote.”

12.    “The principles are what I turn to when I can’t sense the presence. But it’s to be the exception not the rule… We are designed to live from the presence.”

13.    “He’s in you and he wants out! He’s in us like a river. He’s not in us like a lake.”

14.    “When Jesus performed miracles, he wasn’t demonstrating what God can do, but what God can do through a man.”

15.     “Jesus is returning for a bride whose body is in equal proportion to her head.”

On reformation

16.    “Transformed people transform cities.”

17.    “Heaven invades earth when there is agreement here to what exists there. Honestly, that’s how it happens.”

18.    “Someone wrote a book against us and gave us a great compliment. They said, ‘Bethel is just another Disneyland.’ That’s awesome! Disneyland’s the ‘happiest place on earth’.”

19.    (Regarding the millennium) “It’s theologically irresponsible to put off the promises of God into a time when we have no responsibility.”

20.    “John said the works of Jesus would fill the planet if they were all recorded. That’s the Holy Spirit unquenched for three and a half years in one man.”