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When Heaven
Invades Earth
Chapter Summaries
Week One
February 10 – February 16, 2008
Chapters 1, 2, + 3
Chapter One of When Heaven Invades Earth begins with the
amazing story of an unusual wedding where the bride and groom invite
the poor and needy to their marriage celebration in order to bless
them with a meal and gifts. This couple was intent upon living out
the Gospel mandate of loving strangers with the unconditional and
extravagant love of God. They had created a miracle opportunity (25)
and God could not resist showing up and touching lives. A man was
healed from the destruction of a car accident and a disease which
was destroying his life. Johnson presents such miracles of healing
as part of the normal Christian life and contends that the display
of powerlessness in the Church today is inexcusable. For as
Scripture says, “The Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of
power” (I Corinth 4.20). Therefore, if the Kingdom is a matter of
power and we are told to told to, “ Seek first the Kingdom” (Matt.
6.33) then should not our lives display more of the power of God?
Chapter Two begins with what might at first seem a disconcerting
claim, that Jesus could not heal the sick or blind or lame. This is
disconcerting because we know he did. But Johnson validates this
claim with the words of Jesus spoken in Scripture, “The Son can do
nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees the Father doing”
(John 5.19). As a man, Jesus, like the rest of us humans, could do
nothing supernatural. All that he did flowed from his relationship
with his Father for he had taken on the restrictions of being human.
His intimacy and dependence upon the Father is the model we are to
follow in order to bring God's rule and reign, his Kingdom into all
the Earth. This chapter goes on to review the unfolding of God's
plan for humans to rule the Earth begun in Eden, forfeited through
the disobedience of Adam and Eve, and regained through the death and
resurrection of Jesus. Because of Christ's victory, we are given
the keys of the Kingdom (Matt. 16.19) which in part, gives us
authority to trample over all the powers of hell (Luke 10.19) (35).
Humans have been given the authority to express the loving dominion
of God but we need a revolution in our sense of identity and a
radical turn from our entrenchment in unbelief to grasp the fullness
of God's vision to reclaim the Earth using people like us.
Chapter Three tells us that the way to this new sense of identity
which enables us to envision and participate in God's Kingdom rule
here on Earth is repentance, changing the way we think. Such
repentance involves turning away from hidden sin which keeps us from
boldness and greater faith (38). Repentance is also what enables us
to see the unseen and permanent Kingdom of God in our tactile but
temporary world because it leads to hearts surrendered to the King,
pure hearts that can see God's Kingdom vision (Matt.5.8). Johnson
asserts that to be hungry for the things of God is a humility which
only the poor in spirit display but to them God gives manifestations
of the Kingdom. The attitudes of the Beatitudes come through grace
and describe what a repentant, renewed mind thinks like. It is these
new attitudes which help believers further access the Kingdom of God
that is “at hand,” within reach (38,40). Grace that comes through
faith precedes such renewed thinking and fuels our ability to be
“co-laborers with Christ – destroying the works of the devil” (I
Corinth.3.9, I John 3.8) (38).
The Process of Repentance (bathed in
Grace, proceeding thru Faith)
Revelation of
God-----> Repentance (changed thinking)----> Surrendered Heart----->
Renewed Mind-----> Revolution of Identity-----> Thinking with divine
Purpose (vision)-----> His Kingdom filling our consciousness
“Repentance is not complete until it
envisions His Kingdom” (38).
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