When Heaven Invades Earth made me realize that my view of God’s activity was more cautious than I had thought. Bill Johnson challenged that caution, even in places where I found his arguments unconvincing.
The book explores the “kingdom of God”: God’s rule becoming visible in human life. Johnson puts particular emphasis on healing and spiritual gifts, meaning abilities Christians believe the Holy Spirit gives people to serve others.
Where did my expectations come from?
Johnson argues that new believers reading the Bible would naturally expect spiritual gifts to continue today, and that they would have to be taught otherwise (p. 132).
I think that claim needs evidence. He cannot establish what every new reader would conclude simply by asserting it. Still, it made me ask a useful question about myself: how much of my caution came from careful reading, and how much had I inherited from the people who taught me?
I did not settle that question immediately. But I became more open to God working through me in the present, rather than treating the remarkable things I read about as belonging only to another time or place. Johnson’s discussion of rediscovering purpose in chapter 9 also gave me a way to think about pursuing that expectation.
Jesus’ humanity, and our response
One of Johnson’s most challenging arguments concerns Jesus’ miracles. He emphasizes Jesus acting as a human being in relationship with the Father and asks what that means for people who follow him (p. 34).
I found that emphasis compelling. If Jesus’ dependence on God is something we are meant to take seriously, following him should affect how we live and pray. It should do more than give us extraordinary stories to admire from a safe distance.
This language needs care. Christians confess Jesus as fully human and fully divine. Emphasizing his humanity should not suggest that he stopped being God. The question is how to understand his life of dependence on the Father within that confession.
Where the argument stretches too far
I was less persuaded when Johnson argued that God hates divorce yet is himself divorced, drawing on Jeremiah 3:8 (pp. 130–131). Jeremiah uses the image of a broken marriage to describe Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. I do not think that image can simply be carried into a statement about God without careful explanation.
That illustrates my larger reservation: there are times when Johnson seems to stretch a biblical passage to fit the point he wants to make. A challenging conclusion still needs a sound argument.
What changed for me
I finished the book less skeptical of ministries that pray for healing. I had always believed God could heal, but I often imagined it happening somewhere else, to someone else.
My own family’s experience included a time when my sister became seriously ill as a child and my aunt prayed throughout it. We understood her recovery as an answer to prayer, even though someone else might explain the events through natural causes. Johnson pushed me to examine how experiences like that shaped both my belief and my hesitation.
I do not agree with everything in this book. But it increased my openness to the Holy Spirit and my expectation that following Jesus could involve more than I had allowed for.
Book discussed
Bill Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth. Page references follow the edition I read.
Where Christians read differently
Christians pray for the sick, but disagree about whether healing is promised to every believer in this life and how miraculous gifts operate today. Some emphasize healing as part of Jesus’ saving work; others stress that faithful people can remain ill while awaiting the renewal of creation. Illness is not proof of deficient faith. Prayer and medical care need not be opposed. Compare the arguments about healing now and future renewal → For the related question about whether miraculous gifts continue, explore the views about spiritual gifts.
Christians confess Jesus as fully human and fully divine. His dependence on the Father is read within that confession; explaining his miracles as involving the Holy Spirit should not imply that he ceased to be divine. Explore who Jesus is → and compare the Christian understanding of Father, Son, and Spirit →.
A question in the margin is a good place to begin.