‘We Believe That God Heals,’ Says Bethel Music’s Jenn Johnson
Alex Enfiedjian also asked Jenn Johnson about concerns he’s heard regarding Bethel Church’s beliefs about healing and prophecy. Specifically, he asked if the church claims that “if we’re not healed, it’s because of our lack of faith”—citing the deaths of Beni Johnson and 2-year-old Olive Heiligenthal, daughter of a Bethel worship leader.
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Those tragedies didn’t shift the church’s viewpoint, according to Jenn Johnson. “We believe that God heals, and that’s what the Bible says,” she said.
“So when something doesn’t happen, we don’t necessarily try to look inward to our own self of why it didn’t happen,” Johnson said, “but more importantly to stay anchored and grounded in who God is and who he says he is and what he does, and that is that he heals.”
Johnson continued:
It’s very difficult when something doesn’t happen that you were praying for and hoped for, and we’ve all lived that in our faith. But it doesn’t change our belief system…Why didn’t someone get healed? I don’t know. But I’m going to pray for the next person that needs a miracle…It doesn’t change the foundation of our faith, when something doesn’t go to plan. We just have to surrender it.
There’s a lot of mystery in this [Christian] walk of ours, and there’s a lot of surrender that’s involved of going, “God, I don’t understand this, but I know who you are. I’m going to stay anchored and grounded to that. Pray for the sick, cast out demons. I’m going to stay connected to what your Word says, even though I might not have seen something happen that I prayed for.”
Next, Enfiedjian asked about syncretism, or using practices not found in the Bible, including aura readings, crystals, fire tunnels, and “destiny cards.” He pointed out that Bill Johnson endorsed the book “The Physics of Heaven,” which posited that the New Age movement teaches some key truths.
“There’s a lot of thin lines, but at the same time, there’s a very gracious God,” replied Jenn Johnson. “I think God looks at the heart more than anything else, and [at] our desire to know him and be like him and to follow him and to help others come to know him.” Her father-in-law might not have “been careful enough…when endorsing a person,” she acknowledged.
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One of Johnson’s biggest passions, she said, is to “be open to following the voice of God—to know him by his Word and to follow him by his Spirit and his voice, no matter what it looks like.”
“That even if people think you’re crazy, that you follow,” Johnson said. “Kind of like that scene in [‘The Chronicles of Narnia’] when Lucy follows Aslan into the forest, because she’s seen him and she knows him.”
Some “weird” practices “do cross lines,” admitted Johnson, but “for the most part people’s hearts are in a really good place.” People can find God in science, nature, sound, and even colors, she said, with the key being whether something is “anchored in the Word.” Johnson also emphasized the importance of accountability and “checks and balances” among church leadership.
Johnson shared that she grew up “in a really healthy view of prophecy…of encouraging, exhorting people, and helping bring people into what God’s doing and what he’s saying.” When asked about “failed” prophecies, she said what matters is people’s heart and obedience.
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“A great phrase that they teach [at Bethel]…is, ‘I’m learning the voice of God, and I’m practicing hearing the voice of God,’” said Johnson, pointing to the importance of humility. “God wants us to risk hearing him,” she said, and he’s “more concerned about our obedience than our failure, [although] obviously God doesn’t want us to make a mess of people’s lives.”
