Check out this video shout out to all my friends in the Southern West Virginia region. Me and the band are coming to the Historic LaBelle Theater in South Charleston, WV for a powerful night of worship and ministry, this Saturday, February 4 at 7pm Doors open at 6:30. It looks to be a packed house so come early or you might not get a seat! I believe it will be an encounter with God that you, your family and your friends will never forget! Don’t miss it!

To ALL my friends in the Southern West Virginia, Charleston, St. Albans and Huntington region! I’ll be ministering in a night of worship on Saturday, February 4 at 7:00 p.m. (Doors open at 6:30 to the public). Admission is free! Please make plans to attend this powerful night of Worship & ministry! The LaBelle theater seats 300. Let’s fill it to capacity and lift up the name of Jesus together! Come expecting awesome things and let’s believe for an encounter with God that we’ll never forget! Someone’s life is about to be changed forever! Then on the Sunday Morning following, I’ll be leading worship at Maranatha Fellowship in St. Albans for both Sunday a.m. services! I look forward to ministering there and meeting the great people of MFC… As I write this I know many of you have been setting your hearts to fervently seek God at the beginning of this new year. I believe 2012 is a very significant year for the church and I am greatly anticipating some major breakthroughs during our weekend together. In fact, I believe some of you are going to receive strong confirmation for the very things you’ve been praying and believing for. Whatever you do, don’t miss these gatherings. I know you will never be the same. Invite as many as you can especially those who need a miracle. I am praying for you even now that God will mightily reveal Himself to you, your family, your churches and your cities!

For more info call 304-951-5505 or email Bobby Johnson at bobbyjohnson304@gmail.com

“For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20 NKJV)

This passage is taken from the famous “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5-7). It wasn’t a mountain though. It was actually a small hill called Mt. Eremon located between Caperneum and Tabgha. The natural landscape of this hillside surrounded by a small valley created an amphitheater of sorts, perfect for the word of grace to reverberate into the gathering crowd. It was here that Jesus tells the people that unless their righteousness exceeded (surpassed) the righteousness of the Pharisees they would not be able to enter the kingdom of Heaven. To the typical, self-righteous mindset of their time this was impossible. The Pharisees were supposedly the most righteous on the face of the earth. Who then could enter Heaven? God’s standard of righteousness was to be perfect as God Himself was perfect (Lev. 11:44-45; 19:2; Matthew 5:48; 1 Peter 1:16). Even the Pharisees knew they weren’t as perfect as God. OUR answer to Jesus’ question also lies in our concept of righteousness. If making it to Heaven is based on our righteousness (our goodness, godliness, devoutness, etc.) then none of us can make it. The Bible tells us there is no one on the face of earth who is righteous, NO NOT ONE (Psalms 14:3; 53:3; Romans 3:10-12).

At no point in our own efforts are we righteous (in any part, even to the minute level). Only Jesus meets every requirement and standard of God. We must completely get this revelation! Our reliance must not be on perfect performance but on the perfect performance of Jesus. IN CHRIST we are as perfect as God Himself is perfect (1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9). We are recipients of God’s perfect nature and completely clothed in His ultimate divinity (2 Peter 1:4). Jesus is perfection personified. In fact, Jesus surpasses perfection and in Him we also far surpass God’s perfect standard. Through Christ we are EXCEEDINGLY RIGHTEOUS!

Amazing!

“But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags…” (Isaiah 64:6 NKJV)

Many of us Christians are quick to confess that our self-righteousness is like filthy rags. Yet, all too often our actions don’t show it. In other words, we all tend to be self-righteous snobs at one time or another. To fully understand what Isaiah meant in our key passage, we must carefully examine his unorthodox choice of word pictures.

The words “filthy rags” come from two Hebrew words: ‘ed and beged’ (Strongs #899 & #5708). These two words combined connote a primitive, piece of cloth used to shield a woman’s menstruation cycle. This may seem crude, yet we should seriously ponder what Isaiah is saying! Isaiah used the analogy of one of the most unclean things according to the Hebraic Law concerning regulations on personal hygiene to vividly illustrate the worth of our self-righteousness. Trying to earn righteousness through works is like trying to clean yourself with a dirty rag. The more you try to wash yourself the dirtier you become. We cannot cleanse ourselves nor maintain cleanliness before God in our own efforts. Therefore, we must receive the free gift of righteousness by faith, trust in the finished work of Christ and fully accept the forgiveness of God. Thereby we allow the precious blood of Christ to completely cleanse us and continue cleansing us from all our unrighteousness (1 John 1:7). We don’t stay clean by attempting to keep our behavior aligned to God’s standard. ONLY THE BLOOD cleanses us from our sin. To this we must quit trying to make ourselves acceptable to God and start relying on Christ’s acceptable sacrifice alone!

How then do we recognize our tendency towards self-righteousness? I humbly submit the following for your consideration…

You might be self righteous if…

…you think you’re better than someone because of something you’ve done

…you constantly obsess about your spiritual growth instead of Jesus

…your success stories always start with “I”

…the faults of others dominate your conversations

…you can’t forgive someone who hurt you

…you secretly celebrate the failure of someone

…your freedom in worship is contingent on how well you’re performing

…you get nervous, irritated or angry when grace is mentioned or taught

…you are uncomfortable around unsaved or immature Christians

…you’re definition of “godliness” is based on the frequency of spiritual discipline

…you find yourself more often judging others instead of loving them

…you focus on the faults of others instead of receiving grace for yourself

…you believe you have something to do with your salvation

…you think Jesus’ finished work isn’t enough and that you must add your works to it

…your definition of “good o’l gospel preaching” is what YOU must do

…you say (or sing) that Jesus will never let you go but subliminally you don’t believe it

…you feel that getting to Heaven ultimately depends on you

…you think that salvation is Jesus’ job but maintaining it is your job

…you believe Jesus saved you from your past sins but not your present and future ones

…you are trying more instead of trusting more

…YOUR love for God is the focus instead of HIS love for you

…you believe God frowns when you fail and smiles when you succeed

…you think it’s your job to make God smile

…you’re racing to finish Christ’s work instead of resting in His finished work

“Do not eat the bread of a selfish man or desire his delicacies.” (Proverbs 23:6 NASB)

The wisest man who ever lived warned us about selling ourselves over to ambitious people. You know, the type who love their convoys and entourages. It makes them feel superior and significant. But watch out! If you don’t esteem them as highly as what they’re used to, you will quickly lose your “All-Access” badge.” When we’re starstruck by celebrities (actors, musicians or even preachers) its easy to compromise our core values and convictions. Refuse to come under the spell of famous people. That’s like admiring a star next to the sun. Be awestruck by Jesus and you’ll stay grounded! You can’t keep your feet on the ground if your head is in the clouds!

It is critical for you to be secure in your identity in Christ, know what God has called you to and pursue His purpose for YOUR life. For the most part, “important” or well-known people really don’t want to promote you anyway. Be careful lest you get caught in their sights as they aim for the top. Often ambitious people are mostly concerned about how they can use you to promote THEIR agenda. They will give you just enough access into their lives as long as it benefits them. However, in the long run, once your services are no longer required, they abruptly dismiss you in the guise of, “Well, some people serve a season in your life, and you have to know when that season is up.” Our key passage is a warning about these types of people. Now look at what the next two verses go on to say…

“For as he (an ambition man) thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But HIS HEART IS NOT WITH YOU. You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten, and waste your compliments.” (Proverbs 23:7-8 NASB Parenthesis & Caps Author’s Emphasis)

While I understand that we all like to be celebrated, respected and honored, for some there is an unhealthy appetite for adulation. We must be careful not to seek out successful people in order to find promotion. Rather, we should trust God to promote us in His time and in His way. Be forewarned… If we ride the coattail of other’s success we may get hung in the closet where they hang their other coats. The truth is, the elite often deplete. In other words, when they’ve burned through your resources and wasted your gifts for their ambitions, they toss you to the side only to find another naive, unsuspecting soul who can take them farther. They expect undying loyalty but give none in return. Rarely do selfishly ambitious people realize that they got where they are by standing on someone else’s shoulders. Thus the warning from proverbs. Take heed!

When we’re intoxicated by the success of others our senses our dulled and we lose precious discernment. This impedes our ability to make sensible decisions. I see so many in ministry circles kissing-up: swooning in the light of other’s success. It’s like watching groupies chasing after superstars. Shameful! There’s nothing wrong with admiring someone in moderation but be careful that you don’t get bitten by a lust for success. Selfish ambition is a deadly virus that stimulates jealousy and envy resulting in everything evil and demonic…

“But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.” (James 3:14-16 NASB)

The Apostle Paul strongly admonishes us not to be motivated by selfishness, to empty ourselves from conceit, and to live humbly. We are to have the same attitude as Jesus: considering the interests of others above our own reputation and selfish pursuits. This is easier said than done, but by heeding this, we will gain the recognition of Heaven and receive true promotion from God.

“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.” (Philippians 2:3-7 NASB)

For extra insight regarding my take on promotion click HERE.

“And these signs will follow those who believe…” (Mark 16:17 NKJV)

It’s been a wild and amazing adventure this past 10-days here in Germany and Austria. I’ll soon be returning home and my heart is overflowing with praise for all God has done!

I was invited to speak and lead worship for the Gospel of Grace Ministries Bible Conference. It has been beyond all my expectations! Amongst the five of us teachers, the people received over 40-hours of Bible teaching and encountered God in nearly 20-hours of anointed, Spirit-filled worship. During the sessions you could literally see the people’s faces aglow and expressions illuminate with wonder as the scriptures were expounded and the Holy Spirit entered the atmosphere. Each gathering was filled with an expectancy and deep hunger for God’s presence and revelation. God mightily poured out His Spirit daily. People were healed, set free, refreshed, encouraged, empowered and equiped with the life changing Word of God. I can’t begin to  describe what has happened here. God has confirmed so many dreams and visions during my visit. I will never be the same. I have been wrecked for the religious norm!

At the top of this blog is a picture of me ministering in Salzburg along with Pastor Markus (Director of GGMI) translating for me (click on it for an enlarged view). You will also notice on the screen behind us a much older photograph of Me and Markus translating at a youth tent meeting in Geisen, Germany back in the Summer of 1987. During the night of worship in Austria I told this story and we recreated the pose. People were overjoyed at how God works. As you can easily see, much has changed since then but God had a plan for us many years ago that neither of us in our wildest dreams could possibly imagine! When Pastor Markus posted the picture on my Facebook page this week, neither of us remembered this event. In fact, those closest to me can tell you Markus and I don’t even remember each other when we initially connected for my mission trip this past year. This venture was totally unrelated to any connection we’ve had in the past (at lease to our knowledge). In fact, I don’t remember this period of my past AT ALL! Markus found this picture of us ministering together in an old photo book just this week and here we are over 25 years later doing the very same thing. If that’s not a sign from God then I don’t know what is! Our Heavenly Father has an amazing plan if we will only surrender everything and follow Him. He will take you places you never dared imagine. I am privileged to know Pastor Markus and call him a friend. He has a powerful apostolic anointing that has powerfully impacted me for eternity! God is using him to shake the nations of Germany and Austria and to be sure he has challenged me and greatly poured into my life this week. I consider him to be a powerful influence in the short time I have known Him. We will reap a huge harvest from the seeds of destiny that have been sown here! Germany, Austria and America will never be the same!

Pictured directly below Pastor Markus is a photo of me and Reinhold Lebschi (a phenomenal Bible teacher and one of the most delightful people I have ever met). He has graciously agreed to coordinate the translating of my book. If anybody is able to do it he is. Also pictured  is a few more members of the team (left to right: Stefan Weiss, Philipp Korbmann, Joel Theimann, Tony, Markus Thiemann). God is mightily using this team to dynamically transform the spiritual climate of Germany and Austria with the spreading of the gospel of grace. I consider it an honor to be among such humble and incredible leaders. I believe  2012 will be a significant year for the spreading of Gospel of Grace WORLDWIDE! To this I am thrilled that My wife and I are making plans to return to Germany and Austria this Spring (April). In the mean time the German translation of my book Graceworks is still underway with hopes that it will be ready for the conference in April. Please pray for the acceleration of it’s completion.

Thanks again for all of you who prayed and stayed connected with us for the entirety of this trip. Your support has been invaluable. You can continue to follow our updates, view more photos and read other related posts on my Facebook and Twitter pages. Gnade und Frieden! (Grace and Peace)

Hey All! Below is a video shout out to the people of Salzburg for our Night of Worship on Tuesday this past week. We didn’t get to put the video out but I still wanted to send my love to Pastor Stefan and the church here in Austria. We had an awesome night of worship there. God is doing incredible things here in Germany and Austria. Ciao’

Today at the Gospel of Grace International Winter Bible School in Bad Wimpfen, Germany I taught a session called MIRRORS taken from James 1:22-25. I adapted it from a chapter in my new book Graceworks.

“But prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:22-25 NASB)

The reason we don’t produce fruit is because we too often stare into the wrong mirror: the mirror of the Old Covenant, which reminds us of everything we USED TO BE. The Bible tells us the old has passed away and the new is becoming (2 Corinthians 5:17). However, when we look into the right mirror (the mirror of God’s grace) We see who we really are in Him and the more intently we gaze into the right mirror, our focus becomes more clear and we see who we really look like: Jesus! Today during my teaching, my German translator rendered it as… “If we remain in the law of liberty (grace) we will enact the ability to change” WOW!

God wants us to be doers of the Word but this is totally contingent on what mirror we look into. The mirror of the old covenant will always reveal imperfection and no matter how hard we try to fix the flaws it will never reveal perfection. The mirror of grace says I’m forgiven, acceptable, holy, free, loved, sinless, complete and perfect. How? Because I am in Christ. This image of who we are in Christ is the only thing that will deeply change us and produce in us the overcoming life. Simply put, when we place our focus and faith on the legal degree of God’s grace over our lives (the PERFECT law of LIBERTY) we will become much more effectual doers.

The reason why we can’t grow spiritually is because our born again spirit cannot grow. It is already perfect. We are the righteousness OF GOD (2 Corinthians 5:21). In other words, our spirit is as righteous AS GOD. The implications of this are staggering. As a believer our spirit was born in Heaven and therefore is completely perfect in every way. The facts are, spiritual growth is impossible. However, our mind is what needs the changing. The scripture doesn’t say our spirit needs renewed. It says we are transformed by the renewing of our MIND (Romans 12:1-2). The reason why we don’t grow is because we obsess about growing. But when we live in the right environment (grace) we naturally mature because the conditions are right.

Similar to the mirror of the old Covenant, The Holy Spirit doesn’t remind us about what’s wrong with us. He reminds us constantly about what’s right with us. Therefore, when we stop expending necessary energy through self-effort to make ourselves better, we allow God’s power to put to death the old deeds and bring about effective change compatible to the work of Grace in our life.

Meditate on this until it becomes revelation… You will NEVER be the same again!

Below is a clip from a recent service I ministered at in Washington DC at Capital Life Church. Worship Leaders I encourage you to really lead worship this month. Don’t allow the pressures of the Christmas season to force you into performance mode. Be determined to lead your congregations in authentic worship. Satan and the world’s system fight to steal our worship by distracting us with commercialism. But true joy is found in the presence of the Lord. Be purposeful in your planning and lead strong. Your people need it!

“In my dream, behold, there was a vine in front of me.” (Genesis 40:9 NASB)

Often I’ve felt frustrated because I’ve craved to live my dreams but felt like I was stuck here only in reality. Yet God constantly reminds me that I am living in my dream everyday I just sometimes don’t realize it. I believe when we take the first step, no matter how small, our dream becomes reality!

Once I felt impressed by God to stop and intently stare at everything I saw in my dream. Who were the people involved? What did the place look like? What were the challenges I would face? What were the successes? The failures? Too often we only daydream the good things about our dream, but the dream includes everything involved in the process (i.e. highs, lows, walking, running, tripping, and even crashing). To live the dream means we have to die to some things. Dying is a part of living. There will be stumbling-blocks to hurdle over as you run in your dream. There will be helpful people and hurtful people. Some people will be a blessing and some will be a lesson. But just because there are obstacles in your way doesn’t mean you’re not walking in your dream. Divine ‘SET-UPS’ sometimes require divine ‘SET-BACKS.’ However, be encouraged. The reason you have set backs is because you’ve chosen not to sit back!

God-dreams involve moving forward AND backward. Truth is, many times going backwards is just as important as (if not more important than) moving forward. When I was a very young child I lived in Wyoming and it was common for me to see a lot of trains. Often the engine cars would steam down the track by itself in a backwards motion. This baffled me. Why would a massively powerful engine car travel in the “wrong” direction? I learned later the reason an engine car frequently moves backwards is because it is headed toward a line of boxcars in order to link up to them. Once the engine connects to the other cars it can propel forward toward it’s destination. This provides great perspective. A God-dream requires moving backwards in order to move forwards. In essence, sometimes moving backwards is actually forward.

You may have the full potential and the powerful anointing to do what God has called you to do. But no matter how ready and able you are there will always be seasons where you will have to unhitch from where you are presently connected, move backwards down the track and hitch up to the other people vital to the vision. Relationships are primary and necessary to the fulfilling of a vision. We must also understand that relationships serve distinct seasons in our lives. Some are long term, some transient and some for a mere moment. Yet regardless of the duration, before you can fulfill God’s purpose for your life, you must sync with the right people (the other boxcars) in order to move forward with the vision. And the size of the dream determines the size of the team. The stronger the dream the longer the backward motion. Also consider there are others that God has called that need to link up with YOU. God assigns significant people to you and also assigns you to others. Just imagine; you are significant to someone else’s dreams!

In God’s Kingdom, we are one massive intertwined strand of relationships connected to a central hub: a complex system of railways dependent upon one another. Jesus related it to a grape vine and its branches (John 15). Along with this vast network comes limitless opportunities and possibilities. This explains all the surprises and unexpected twists and turns we make as we live out God’s dream for our lives. Remember: we’re just imperfect people connecting to other imperfect people in order that we may fulfill God’s PERFECT plan for our lives. This explains many times why things are beyond our control. To this we must simply allow God to successfully navigate us through His expansive network to our advantage and for His glory. Don’t be discouraged if things aren’t presently turning out exactly the way you thought they would. Rest assured, God will help you make the turns as they come.