The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind
by Bill Johnson
Reviewed by Aaron DeWeese
It has been said that Bill Johnson's book picks up where Oral Roberts's thirteen-week devotional, "A DAILY GUIDE TO MIRACLES AND SUCCESSFUL LIVING THROUGH SEED-FAITH" left off. I don't know—not read that yet.
"The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind" declares that the Christian's life should be a life which experiences the miraculous and the supernatural in day-to-day life.
The first chapter calls upon Matthew 6:9: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed by Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Johnson proclaims "What is free to operate in heaven—joy, peace, wisdom, health, wholeness, and all the other good promises we read about in the Bible—should be free to operate here, period." Johnson follows with Romans 12:2, showing us that we are to prove the will of God by miracles and supernatural living.
Johnson also emphasizes the renewing of the mind as an essential tool to bringing about what he calls Kingdom reality. He goes on to defend the mind, and logic, declaring that earlier Pentecostals threw the mind out. Repentance is the first step in renewal. You will need your mind for that.
Johnson reveals to us that "whenever Jesus taught on the Kingdom, he would heal people, not only declaring the Kingdom is at hand, but demonstrating its effects."
The book elaborates on becoming the dwelling place of God. It is noted that Jesus called himself "the gate", and Johnson proclaims that we are to be a gateway people.
I must say that Johnson's interspersing of scriptures are succinct, and interpreted in a illuminating way, which I see no error in. Not everyone agrees. In another review a person pointed to Hank Hanegraaf's "The Counterfit Revival", John MacArthur's "Charismatic Chaos", and D. R. McConnell's "A Different Gospel" and even John Piper as those men who would show the error in Johnson's theology. I don't know, I'll have to read them. I do know that we can exclude John Piper from the list, as he has said "I am one of those Baptist General Conference people who believes that "signs and wonders" and all the spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 are valid for today and should be "earnestly desired" (1 Corinthians 14:1) for the edification of the church and the spread of the gospel."
Currently, I would agree with Johnson's theology and his interpretation. At this point I don't know if the aforementioned authors, excluding Piper, are cessationists or not. I don't put much in the reviewer's claims. I do know that Hank Hanegraaf's favorite pastime is watch-dogging ministries, to criticizing them. I call his type "negative naysayers". They build their egos by destructiveness. I tried to find a particular Amazon review of Bill Johnson's book, in which the author claimed Johnson has mistranslated scriptures, but it seems to miraculously have disappeared...
I won't try to cover the information in each chapter. There were many exciting stories of the miraculous within Johnson's church. I have no reason to believe Johnson is lying. Were he, surely, his detractors would rise and crush him.
I will say that Chapter 10, titled "Dreaming with God", was the most pivotal for myself, as well as being the most revealing chapter. We are servants and friends of God, who co-labor with God. Johnson wrote that our creativity, our daydreams, our thoughts, our ideas—these are all important to God, and God wishes to use them, to use us.
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