“How To Walk Close To God During Troubled Times”
Session Two
Part D
By Nita Johnson
Seattle Services
I went through about two years and all my friends and family decided it was time to rise up and tell Nita to “fly right” – ministers that I knew, and so on. One minister and his wife took me out to lunch, and this was back when I could do that, and he said, "We need to talk to you about your private life." I said, "Really, what is it that you would like to know?" "It's what you should know." "Oh, I'm sorry, what is it I should know?" "Nita, you are too monastic. You'll never find God like that." I said, "Really." "You pray too much." "Really, I didn't know that." "Well, you needed to know it, that's why I'm telling you. There is something clinically wrong with you." I said, "Okay. Are you finished?" "Well, yeah."
I said, "I don't know anyone in the whole world who prayed more than Jesus did when He was on this earth. He was the Son of God. I've yet to touch the hours that He used to spend in prayer." "Yeah, well, you're not the Son of God and you don't need to do that." I said, "To have Him the way I want Him, I may have to do a little bit more than the average bear. I mean if I'm doing this and He's not responding to me that's one thing, but if I am responding to a call, that's something else." "Well, I think you're losing your mind." I said, "Really? Because I pray? What would Paul have done? Do you think he lost his mind, too?" I said, "You know, we've got the New Testament primarily by this guy that you think was a nut. How do you feel that the Lord feels about that?"
"Let's not get the focus on Paul. Let's keep it on you. We've been friends for many years. We know each other well through thick and thin but I cannot let you in my pulpit anymore because I think you have tipped the scales." I said, "Well, I want to make a promise to you. I'm not going to stop praying. I will pray as long as the Lord is telling me this is what He wants from me. If He says cut it or extend it, I will do that, too. I just want to be obedient to the Holy Spirit. If He's not saying to do it, then there's really no reason for me to do it, but if He is, I think I should obey. What do you think?" "Well, yeah, of course. Of course I think that way. Of course." And I said, "So I will do that. I will try to keep my life governed by the Spirit of God. If when I try to talk to the church, but the church does not care to hear what I have to say, then I will go out of the church and I will go the street and I will stand on the corner the way Wesley used to for my voice to be heard. And if when I go to the street and I am being heard like Wesley was heard but the church doesn't want me there either, then I guess I will go wherever I can go and do whatever I can do, even if I can only get a paragraph uttered, I will, I will tell the truth about Jesus.
He said, "You're going to have the whole church too monastic. The whole church, instead of being evangelists, they're going to be wanting to be in their prayer closet praying all day." I said, "I don't feel a need to answer that critique so I won't. You might be right, you may not be but you might. But as long as I have an ear to hear I am going to speak. When I quit having an ear to hear then I guess we're all in trouble and I'll go and hide. But I know two things. Number One - I love the Lord Jesus Christ and I know that you love Him as much as I do and I know that He loves me and that He has a plan for my life just as He does for yours. And I really want to see both of us fulfill that plan, don't you?"
"Yes, of course I do. You know I do. You know my whole family. You know how you are." I said, "I do, I do know your family and I know how you are and I know how you love to preach. You love to talk to people about Jesus. I know that. You just don't understand me, that's all." "If you continue in this lifestyle I will never ask you to come back to my pulpit again." I said, "That's fine – that's fine. If that's what our friendship is built on, then I guess we will say goodbye today, but if our friendship is built on years of coming to know one another and the relationship that we've had, then it will make it through this storm, right?" "Well, yeah – yeah. But I think you're going to have to change." So anyway, long story short we ended that conversation.
May I talk to you for just a few more minutes? How do you like the way I entrap you? I don't know how to tell you. It is hard. I don't know how to tell you the love that He has for you. He's not asking you to be like every other Christian. He's asking you to be like the son or the daughter of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is different. It makes a huge difference. He loves you so much. I mean, we see the emblem of Christ and it has kind of gotten old, hasn't it? It doesn't have the impact maybe that it did in the beginning. I remember how I would see the cross and I would just weep, just weep because He went to that cross for me. He loves you so much. Sometimes He has to discipline because He has to help us to conform to righteousness so that we can be made afresh and anew in Christ. And we are practical people, we understand that, correct? Yes? No? He must, and we must let Him.
Does it mean that everybody has to have this extraordinary prayer life to go into union? No. Madame Guyon prayed a half hour a day. That's it. She made it into union. It's not about how much you pray, it's about the obedience in the life. Do you understand?
Here you have a Father that is loving, desirous, passionate. Passionate. If you've ever wanted to be around an impassioned person, He is right there before us filled with fiery passion. He doesn't want you to feel like you have to spend your whole life chasing after Him. All He wants is love and obedience. It's not huge, is it? But we want to make it huge. We tend to want to make everything about God so huge we can't touch it. But what He wants to give us is a clear and simple way to have the most in Christ we can have this side of heaven. You'll never find anyone that loves you like He does. I know it's one thing to hear – it's another thing to believe. It's another thing to experience, right?
All you have to say is, "I don't know what the future holds. It's kind of scary. I don't know what You're going to ask. That too, can be scary. But please, let Your grace be upon me to be able to say 'yes' in everything that You ask." Can you do that?
When He touches a life – He is touching me so deep right now – when He is touching a life and He is laying claim to that life, we all have the opportunity to say yes or no. We all have the opportunity to go as deep as He is willing to take it or to stand alone and never go another step further because we are not willing to pay the price. But think things through clearly. Don't say no just because it seems hard, because you have to have the grace factor, the enabling factor of His loving grace. He will give you all the encouragements, not that you want but that you need. He's given us already everything pertaining to life and godliness. And what is life if it is not filled with Christ, right?
When you get to heaven He is going to ask you, "You were there when Nita taught on this subject - how did you let it impact your life? He will ask you and I hope you are going to be able to say, "It changed my life simply because it redirected my life."
It's not the easiest thing in the world to go into union. It is really tough. But it is doable. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself said what I am going to say to you. Write it down. He said, "The battle for union is the highest of all wars. The highest of all wars. The most noble of all victories." You can talk about your battles and your victories the rest of your life, all the time you get to heaven, but I want you to know if you didn't make union, you forgot the most important war of all. The war for your soul.
When you leave here tonight, go home, think about heaven. Think about Jesus. Think about the cross. Think about the opportunities you missed because you didn't understand. Think about what it might be like if you never missed another opportunity. Are you with me? And begin to make it your most noble quest in life.
I am not telling you all that you have to become. You know people that will pray 10 or 12 hours a day. I'm not asking you for that. Neither is He. He knows that we have lives that we have to live. He knows we have business, we have calls that He has placed upon us and if we spend all day in prayer and we do not fulfill the purpose for which He has called us, we have failed everything. So everything has to be tempered with rounded truth. But make it your one quest in life. You can be in the ministry or you can be in the ministry in such a way that God is remaking your character into something noble and pure. Do you understand the difference? Make it your one quest. And in the call that He has placed on your life, should there be one, do it as unto the Lord and you will never be sorry. Don't ever make Him ashamed but do it with pure nobility. Amen.
I'm going to start helping you week after week as long as you come. If you start missing I'll close it down. But as long as I see the interest and I see that the people are growing because I know how important it is, I will help you learn how to go into union. I will teach you how to walk with God. I'll teach you about my mistakes. I'll teach you about things that, thankfully, I didn't have to learn through mistakes. I'll help you become what He wants you to become but if I start seeing interest wane I will shut the services down. Do you understand? It is not a message I have to teach to pews. I need people in the pews. Time is short. Amen.
I love you guys very much. Please don't be offended when I'm too honest, too truthful. Choose not to be offended. And when the devil tries to tell you, "You need to be offended," you just tell him, "I need the truth, that's what I need. And the truth is, you don't need to be here, so get lost." Right?
God is great. God is good. God is wonderful. I love Him so much. Oh wow. Dear Jesus. I'm sure you feel it too, often where you feel so filled with His love you feel like you are going to explode.
In His Amazing Love,
Nita Johnson
In His Amazing Love,
Nita Johnson
