When I am interested in reading a new book, I always have two questions: Is the life of the author consistent with the message of the book? Is his (or her) ministry supportive of the declarations of the book? If both questions are not answered in the affirmative without resounding definition, I will pass on reading the book.

    In the case of When Heaven Invades Earth and Bill Johnson, I had prior knowledge of the author and his ministry before I read the manuscript. Therefore, with the aforementioned questions already answered in the affirmative, I happily read the treatise.

    I first ministered in Bethel Church of Redding, California—which was pastored by Bill Johnson—in 2001, a few months after my wife died. I had heard several tapes by Bill Johnson a few months previous to going to Bethel. Being very much in the grieving process over the loss of my wife of more than 47 years, I found myself being greatly ministered to while I was ministering. I taught in the School of Supernatural Ministry and was exposed to a large group of radical seekers after the kingdom of God. I was informed that their subject was the kingdom of God and that these sessions were only a part of their training. The sessions were geared toward preparing for Kingdom ministry. After the session the instructor told the students, “You have studied the Kingdom; now go out and do the Kingdom stuff!” And they did…in the malls, on the streets, in the bookshops and coffeehouses! They expected results and results happened!

    I got the impression that this group represented the spirit of Bethel Church, which seemed to say, “Let’s seek the Kingdom, find it, declare what we’ve found, and give it away!”

    When I returned to visit Bethel Church and Bill Johnson a second time, I had just learned that my fiancé, Jerry, had cancer. Jerry, now my wife, was scheduled to undergo major surgery a few days after our visit to Bethel Church. At Bethel, two separate healing teams and a staff member and his wife joined us in powerful seasons of prayer, each group without knowledge of the content and impressions of the others. The experience was joyful, faith-giving, and confidence-building as they all agreed, “She will live and join you in an enhanced ministry.” The surgery took place a few days later, and today Jerry is my wife and she ministers with me cancer free. To us this experience at Bethel was a demonstration of the validity of the message of this book.

    The direction and perspective of this volume is essentially, “What happens when heaven invades earth.” This book you are holding is literally out of this world! It is about something unseen yet more real than the eyes reading this word. It is about the eternal realm, not yet fully seen or expressed but presently accessible and awaiting the obedience of anyone or any group to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:33).

    I love When Heaven Invades Earth and am excited that it is about to break upon the Christian scene. I love this book because it points us toward primary reality in a world almost totally preoccupied with secondary reality. The reader of Scripture is aware that it ultimately defines primary reality as “unseen and eternal” while secondary reality is temporal, that is, it doesn’t last (see 2 Cor. 4:18). Bill Johnson’s beliefs, teachings, and ministry center on primary or Kingdom reality and finds that reality sufficient to change the face of “that which is seen.”

    I love this book because it declares unapologetically that Kingdom living and power are a part of the normal Christian life. What is described in this volume is not some exotic and rare expression, only to be viewed on infrequent occasions; instead it is the very heartbeat of the Kingdom believer’s life and ministry.

    I love this book because it includes the necessity of repentance or “change of mentality” as a prerequisite to seeing and entering the Kingdom. This is approached in the brief but pungent material in Chapter 1 and somewhat enlarged in Chapter 3.

    I love this book because it is a call to spiritual revolution to change the face of the earth, and it reports on how one church is doing it by changing its neighborhood, city, and region “one person at a time.”

    I love this book because practical faith (Is there any other kind?) is clearly presented as being anchored in the unseen and living from the invisible to the visible. Once we repent, we see the Kingdom and upon that view, faith comes. This is ably presented in Chapter 4.

    I love this book because it is framed in a setting of the miraculous! Its opening pages are taken up (much like Jesus at Cana) with a miracle at a wedding and its concluding pages narrate the healing of a child.

    I love this book because it challenges me to Kingdom prayer as the gateway to power and the means of getting heaven down to earth. As the kingdom of God sheds true and new light on all other truths, so it does to prayer.

    I love this book because it makes clear the practical results and fruit of signs and wonders. We do not seek such things but are promised that signs and wonders will follow those who believe.

    Finally, I love this book because it leaves me with an intense desire to know God better, to fellowship with Him more intimately, and to minister with Him in more power than ever before. This is coupled with a standing-on-tiptoe excitement about what the future holds for myself in particular and the Body of Christ in general in sharing Christ with the world.

    I now read this volume with a real, but fading, regret that something like this was not presented to me 55 years ago when I began ministry. It is a fading regret because I know that God can make up for the years lost or limited by a lack of knowledge of these things.

    It is with no small measure of expectation of what reading this work may effect in your life that I recommend it to you without reservation. Read it slowly, read it thoroughly, and walk out what God teaches you through it. The results, I believe, will be heaven invading earth in your life!

Jack R. Taylor
President
Dimensions Ministries
Melbourne, Florida

    Bill Johnson’s book, When Heaven Invades Earth, contains a message greatly needed for the Church today. It challenges many of our “sacred cows.” Like Gideon, Johnson had to begin by tearing down the Asherah poles in the backyard of the Church. He is a man with a mission to wake up the Church. Not since I first met John Wimber have I been so taken with someone’s understanding of the significance of the kingdom of God message. I have yet to meet a pastor who is more committed to “power evangelism” than Bill Johnson. The stories of the healings and miracles done through the “little ole me’s” in his local church are truly amazing. This book is not about some theoretical possibility, nor some pie-in-the-sky theology, nor some rationale for the lack of power in the Church. No, instead it offers practical, tried-and-proven strategies for pushing back the kingdom of darkness and advancing the kingdom of light. I wish I had met Pastor Bill Johnson earlier in my life. I feel I would be farther along on the road to moving in the power of the kingdom of God than I presently am at this time.

    When Heaven Invades Earth is a must-read for every pastor and leader in the Church today. This book was written by a fifth generation pastor from the Pentecostal perspective—and, what better perspective to hear from when it comes to the working of the Holy Spirit, especially regarding the gifts of healings. I have had the privilege of meeting many pastors from the United States and Canada over the past nine years of traveling. Pastor Bill Johnson, I believe, has more to say regarding the concepts of “power evangelism” than any other pastor I have met. Though he is an Assembly of God pastor and not a Vineyard pastor, he carries the DNA of John Wimber more than anyone else I know, especially when it comes to his passion for healing and the activity of the Holy Spirit. He is a radical pastor, a great teacher, and an apostolic voice in the Church today. His message is not the sound of an echo; it is a voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord’s kingdom, which is at hand.”

    This book is full of powerful statements I wish I had written. So many wonderful quotes will be taken from this book—quotes such as the following: “One of the tragedies of a weakened identity is how it affects our approach to Scripture. Many, if not most, theologians make the mistake of taking all the good stuff contained in the prophets and sweeping it under that mysterious rug called the Millennium…. We are so entrenched in unbelief that anything contrary to this world view (the dispensationalist’s view of a weak end-time Church) is thought to be of the devil.”

    Other great quotes from this book are: “Unbelief is anchored in what is visible or reasonable apart from God. It honors the natural realm as superior to the invisible…. Unbelief is faith in the inferior”; and “Faith comes by hearing…It does not say that it comes from having heard. It is the listening heart, in the present tense, that is ready for heaven’s deposit of faith…. Hearing now is a key to faith.”

    When Heaven Invades Earth is a wake-up call to the Church. It is a deathblow to “cessationism,” a challenge to “dispensationalism,” and it is a call to those within the Pentecostal heritage to return to their roots. The book is solidly based in Scripture and reveals the heart of a man who loves not only the Spirit, but also loves the Word of God. With fresh revelation Bill Johnson takes us to Scripture and lets Scripture speak a fresh word to us. He forces us to see what the Scriptures actually say, instead of only seeing what our theologically correct blinders allow us to see.

    I have been waiting for Bill to finish this book so I could offer it at my book table at my meetings. He has so much to say that I avoid missing any of his speaking times when we minister together. They are too rich to miss. In this day of so many principles and strategies it is refreshing to hear one call us back to the strategy of Jesus for evangelism.

Randy Clark
Global Awakening Ministries

International Conference Speaker
Author, God Can use Little Ol’ Me