Book review: When Heaven Invades Earth ~ Bill Johnson

This summer I was an intern at a Christian charity; as part of the internship I went to New Wine Scotland to work for them. In the middle of one of the sermons the speaker asked those who were cynical about how much God could work to stand up and be prayed for. I didn’t immediately stand up. In a judgemental moment I thought, “Why should I? I’ve seen the gifts of the spirit close up and personal…. It’s not like I’m a Scottish Cessationist.” God interrupted my self-righteousness by quietly reminding me that during a talk by a missionary called Heidi Baker a few days before I’d doubted she’d seen as many miracles in Mozambique as she had implied. I tried to quietly repent, “Ok God, you’re right. I was definitely wrong about that one. Please don’t make me stand up?”. God told me immediately that this was my pride at work, so I slowly stood up and was prayed for by those around me.

In this moment I didn’t feel a weight being lifted off; nor did I remember about it until a day later when I was in the bookshop. There I saw a book called ‘When Heaven Invades Earth: A practical guide to a life of miracles’ by Bill Johnson, the leader of a large charismatic church in California. I felt God say to me then, “You need to read this”. This book has had an amazing influence on me; it has helped me concentrate more and more on God and His Kingdom in my thinking and has made me desire more and more of God and His Kingdom around me.

The title of this book review is a line from a song by Bethel Church called ‘Forever and a Day’ – it is a line that has become my prayer since reading the book. I pray that my own way of thinking will be transformed by the renewing of my mind towards a complete focus on the Kingdom. I’m confident that if you read this book, the same challenge will be laid on your hearts, and the same prayer will cry out from your mouths. Don’t make my pride-filled mistake of thinking that, as you happen to have some experience of God at work you don’t need more faith. The Kingdom has no limits.

The book is filled with teaching on the Holy Spirit and how He can manifest. Johnson uses all his experience as a church leader to challenge us to see more of the Spirit in what we do, and how we do it – he argues that our ministries and our plans should be so scarily ambitious that they will fail dramatically (and embarrassingly) without the intervention of God. He identifies the problem with many in the church, whose experiences of Christianity seems so different to that of the Early Church, when he writes that “its difficult to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit because we are so limited in our experience with Him” (p.115). Although on occasion Johnson is overzealous in his warnings against restricting God to the way He works within the Bible, his point still stands that scripture must lead us to God; he writes that, “He [the Holy Spirit] directs, reveals and empowers me to be and do what the Word says” (p.131).

By reading ‘When Heaven Invades Earth’ its clear Bill Johnson is a man of great faith in what God can do – I’ve personally be challenged to have more faith in God to show up and make things work. There is one passage that has really struck out to me from the book: “Faith was never intended only to get us into the family. Rather, it is the nature of life in this family. Faith sees. It brings His Kingdom into focus. All of the Father’s resources, all of His benefits, are accessibly through faith.” (p.56) As Christians, we are citizens of Heaven, and are ambassadors of Heaven in this world – the currency we carry to do our business is faith. We need to see things from the perspective of Heaven and the perspective of eternity, and walk out in faith to be used by God. Whilst reading the sections on faith I was reminded of a quote I pinned on my wall in first year (by an author whose name escapes me): “The Christians who make the biggest impact in this life are those who live with eyes on the next one”. Johnson’s writing in ‘When Heaven meets Earth’ has really helped me remember how essential faith was for every little thing we aspire to do.

Johnson goes on to write about the need for the church to go on the offensive against the Devil by bringing in God’s Kingdom; “we are to be the devil’s worst nightmare” (p.224); “I was not left on planet Earth to be in hiding waiting for Jesus’ return. I am here as a military representative of Heaven” (p.227). Earlier on in the book he gives an example of such an offensive. Johnson tells a story of a member of his church being inspired by the Holy Spirit to tell some people at a fast food restaurant about Jesus. The man, Jason, discovered through this conversation that one of them had a broken leg. He prayed, and God healed the leg. The men, overjoyed, then dumped drugs out of the back of their car and destroyed them; next, they went with Jason to a 24/7 prayer room and gave their life to Jesus. Johnson concludes with excitement “this is the normal Christian life” (p96).

This IS the normal Christian life, but is far, far removed from my own experience and I daresay from the experience of most Christians I know. Johnson uses biblical evidence to show that this is obtainable to us all through the Holy Spirit and challenges the reader to live up to this calling. This breaking in of the Kingdom is what Heidi Baker talked about seeing on an almost daily basis in Mozambique at New Wine. We can see this and much, much more in Sheffield. We MUST see this and much, much more in Sheffield.

The book is a rallying call for believers. A rallying call for us to invade Earth with the power of Heaven and see people healed emotionally, physically and spiritually. Indeed it is “our job, by means of the Holy Spirit, to discover and display the Father’s heart: giving life and destroying the works of the devil” (p.142). I do have some reservations about aspects of what Johnson writes about how we should use the Bible, however no book is perfect (bar the Bible)! I would recommend this book for everyone to read, purely for the inspiration to see the power of Heaven rain down on Earth.

We MUST see Heaven invade Earth and we MUST claim back Sheffield, this Country, and this World for the glory of God and His Kingdom. If you need a kick up the backside, like I did and no doubt will again, this book is an excellent start to changing your focus again onto seeing His Kingdom come. We must be Heaven minded.

“Every conversion plunders hell. Every miracle destroys the works of the devil. Every God encounter is an Invasion of the Almighty into our desperate condition. This is our joy.” ~ Bill Johnson (When Heaven invades Earth, p. 247)