Book Report "When Heaven Invades Earth" by Bill Johnson

1. Briefly write what the whole book is about and why the author has written it. (Imagine the author will read this and would say, “Yes, this is the main point of my book and the problem I wanted to fix.”)

The main point of “When Heaven Invades Earth” is to wake the church up to the original mandate of Jesus to pursue His Kingdom via intimacy with the King, radical obedience, and displaying the raw power  of God.  

Bill Johnson wrote this book after the revival broke out in Redding as a 1) a defense of its authenticity and 2) to give Biblical support for this revival spreading to any community where the kingdom of God is pursued fiercely. Most of the US church is under the slumber of deceptive doctrine that promotes knowledge without action, gifts that went dead with 1st century apostles, and divisive attacks from self-appointed critics of God’s movement. Like a good shepherd, pastor Bill responds to these doctrines of wolves to create a highway onramp for the church to be set free, empowered and equipped to pursue the King and His Kingdom.

2.   Briefly outline the major points of the book as the author presents them.

1. Introduction - miracles of God moving in power ought to be the norm. 
2. Biblical Foundation -

1. Jesus had ability to do miracles not because of His deity but because of right relationship with God.
2. God’s people are commissioned to receive power on high and release the power to the disciple the nations
3. Repentance leads one to Kingdom lifestyle - not just a ticket of salvation to Heaven.
4. Faith restored is the foundation for power and miracles to flow - faith is develops freely when we truly see the heart of God as good. Faith is the currency of Heaven.
5. Prayer is required if you want to Heaven come down to Earth. Heaven’s benefits on earth are not just personal requests for increased health and wealth, but God’s rules and order invading darkness with God’s dominion where cities and nations experience healing and wealth. Jesus Model prayer is balanced more towards praise and worship with the end goal of intimacy:
1. praise and worship
2. praying for heaven on earth
3. heavens effect on material need, relationships, evil
4. praise and worship
3. Not just Knowledge, but Obedience fueled by faith that leads us to Kingdom Encounter experiences
1. His Presence found in worship, prayer and obedience brings the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth
2. Revelation of God’s Word leads us to encounters with God. The Holy Spirit is our tour guide to be and do what the Word says.
4. Powerlessness rebuked
1. Don’t just be a nice Christian. Abandon yourself to His will and pursue your true calling or you may have lived a life without power and purpose.
2. Purpose of Power
1. Signs and wonders reveal the nature of God
2. Signs and wonders expose people sin and brings people to a decision
3. Signs and wonders produces courage
4. The Supernatural is the key to the sin megacities of the world
5. Miracles reveal His Glory
6. Signs direct people to give glory to God
7. Miracles unify generations
8. Signs and wonders affirm Jesus as Messiah and His Church
9. Miracles help people hear and obey God
3. Counter the counterfeits!
4. We war to invade Satan’s territory and make it Heaven’s territory.
5. Revival is the normal Christian life. We infiltrate the marketplace systems as leaven from Heaven!
5. Conclusion: the present revival is known for excellence, creativity, integrity, purity, unity of faith, spirit filled with all gifts expressed, and known for doing greater works than those of Jesus.

3. Thoughtfully explain at least 2 main strengths (or points of agreement) with the author AND at least 2 weaknesses (or points of disagreement) with the author.

Strengths

1. I agree that the norm for all Christians ought to be a revival culture that sees God’s raw power flow through His people who are radically committed to His Great Commission. Christians who don’t have that need revivalists to spark this in their heart and their community, city, region. 
2. I love the statement that Jesus performed “miracles, wonders and signs as man in right relationship to God… nots as God.” This means anybody can be washed clean, given Holy Spirit, have intimate relationship with God and perform the same miracles and even greater miracles. This also does not deny Jesus' deity, but that a reminder that he hung it up to be the perfect model of how we can bring Heaven to Earth!

Weaknesses

1. The signs and wonders focus may be too narrow. I can see revivalists being tempted to focus on the tool of raw power instead of the commissioned end goal: teach and model (disciple) intimacy with God, the 7 commands of Christ, and fulfill His purposes by bringing all nations/ethnic groups into the Kingdom. Raw power will overflow naturally from the intimacy/obedience/fulfilling Great Commission message because raw power is required to get the Great Commission completed in our generation. There’s hints of this message on p 184: “To want Jesus to come back now is to sentence billions of people to hell forever.” But the Great Commission didn’t say disciple every individual in the world but, disciple nations - jump cross-cultural barriers and empower those discipled in those ethnic groups to reach their own people.
2. Complexity of English phrasing is a weakness for Second Language of English readers and for translators. For example, Chapter 7, second paragraph under the section “He knew He’d make us uncomfortable” was confusing to me and it could be written clearer (especially for translation projects). The author wrote, “What do I trust most: my ability to be deceived or His ability to keep me?” I think it would be clearer to write “What do I trust most: my ability to avoid deception or HIs ability to keep me from being deceived?” Many countries don’t have self-appointed critics (popularized by Hank Hanagraff), so there may need to be extra footnotes explaining what “watchdogs” are when translations to other languages are being completed.