Author Profile
Beni Johnson
Beni and Bill Johnson are the Senior Pastors of Bethel Church. Together they serve a growing number of churches that have partnered for revival. This apostolic network has crossed denominational lines in building relationships that enable church leaders to walk in both purity and power.
Beni has a call to intercession that is an integral part of the Bethel Church mission. She is in charge of the Bethel's Prayer House, ministry teams and the intercessors. The Lord has given her a heart for broken people of all ages. Her insight into strategies for prayer and her involvement in prayer networks have helped to bring the much-needed breakthrough in Bethel's ministry.
Beni's heart is to help people begin to carry joy in intercession. She believes that being an intercessor is capturing the heartbeat of heaven and declaring or praying that into your world. It is true agreement with heaven.
Website: www.benij.org
Spontaneous Prayer Trip - Beni Johnson
Things don't always happen the way that we plan them, do they?
Bill and I just got home from Europe. My assistant and I went to Scotland, and Bill and his team went to Norway. We were to meet in Germany to do a conference together.
I have had a dream to go to Scotland for quite a long time. I wanted to go to the Island of Iona and kiss the ground! Iona is a place where Saint Colombo and Saint Patrick started a ministry. That island, they say, is where Christianity actually started and spread over the whole UK and into Europe. So I got to go there and lie on the ground, and I did not want to get up!
While we were in Europe, the volcano erupted in Iceland, and all of the flights and airports in Europe were canceled for days. Our flight from Ireland to Germany was canceled, and Bill's flight from Norway to Germany was canceled as well. This started our great, spontaneous prayer adventure.
We tried everything we could to get to Germany, but the best we could do was take a train from Glasgow, Ireland, to London. Bill got on a ferry and drove 20 hours in a car to make it to the conference in Germany. My assistant and I were delayed in London for two days.
Before the trip, a prophetic friend called me and gave me a prophetic word. He said to me, "I don't know where you are going next--but wherever you are going, you are to declare love over three nations that are keeping Iraq from its destiny. You are going to where the bells toll, and when you hear the bells toll, you are to release great love over those nations." So here we were stranded in London--where the bells ring EVERYWHERE!
The first night we were in London, we got to our hotel that we had booked and started figuring out that God was up to something! We walked into our room, and we got hit with something. I said, "Oh my goodness! What is in this area?" We got out of the room to go shopping. (We were stranded, so we figured we might as well make the best of it. Ha.) And as we drove away on the bus, we passed the Islamic Center of England, and then we knew! So we got up that next morning and stood in front of that building and read some Scriptures and made some love declarations until we felt a release.
We ended up checking out of that hotel right after and moving to another. Our new hotel was directly across the street from Big Ben, and the London Eye was also right in front of our window. It was beautiful. We decided that we would take a bus tour around London. The bus tour took us to a river tour. As we came up on the boat to exit, we had to wait on the boat for a while for the other boat to exit the dock. So there we were, sitting there directly under Big Ben as it started ringing at high noon! The bells rang twelve times, and we just released that love to the nations again. That night, as I went to sleep, the bells rang all night long. All night long, I interceded with the bells. I thought to myself, this is the wildest prayer trip I have ever been on!
We ended up getting tickets out of London on the train to Paris. We had five hours until we connected to a train to Germany, so we decided to go to Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. We got a taxi to Notre Dame. We stepped out of the taxi, and the bells began ringing at high noon again, twelve times! So then again, we started interceding for those nations! We were so set up!
On a side note, high noon represents twelve, and twelve represents government. It is also when the sun exposes everything with light.
We finally got to Germany! They took us to our hotel in Speyer. One night we stayed next door to the oldest cathedral in Germany with a bell tower. Sure enough, the bells went off again--all night long! So I released love, love, and love over those nations.
What did I get out of this trip? I got a heart for those Islamic nations that I have never had before.
Sometimes, we get totally set up to be in places that we never thought we would be. If we tune in to Him, He will sometimes have an assignment for us to do. Always be ready for anything! If something goes wrong, say, "God. What are you doing? What are you wanting me to do?" Sometimes we will know, and maybe sometimes we won't. Be flexible, go with the direction of the wind, and in the middle of chaos, find His voice and just do what He is doing--make the best of it!
Mommies... - Beni Johnson
Recently I felt compelled to write an article to the mommies out there. I had a young mom write me because she just got surprised with a fourth! She was a little discouraged and asked for some counsel on how to get through the time of staying home with your children and how to survive the years of feeling like your dreams have been put on hold.
From my experience of having three children, I can say she has just been given the most amazing gift. I only had three and wish now that I had had more. Yes, there were times when it was hard, but I had set it in my heart when I was a very young girl that I would give myself to my children and that both Bill and I would raise world changers.
When we put our children to bed at night, we would tell them that they and God could do anything together. We called them world changers for God from the time they were very young.
What you sow into them now, you will reap a great harvest from in the future. Please be patient in this amazing time of your life. God has entrusted YOU because He sees what you have to give to your children.
One of my heroes is Susannah Wesley. She had many, many children. She completely gave herself to them, and look what came of it: two reformers, John and Charles Wesley.
I told myself that if I multiplied myself through my children, they in turn would impact the world. That is just what is happening. Eric, Brian and Leah are married, have given us 8 amazing grandchildren, and are on our staff here at Bethel. Eric is overseer of our missions department and our second year school of ministry. Brian is our worship pastor who travels all over the world, training and leading people into a love relationship with Jesus. And, Leah is a stay-at-home mommy who is a photographer and one of our worship leaders--and she has just produced her first worship CD. She has a very busy life and also has three kids, and I don't know how she does it. She has far exceeded what I would have ever done as a mother of three small children.
I realize it is hard to look to the future when all you can see is poopie diapers and piles of laundry. But, when I was in that season, I had to give myself a break so that I wouldn't be so hard on myself. The only time I had to pray or talk to God was while I was doing dishes and THAT is OK. Enjoy those small moments because I promise that they pay off in the long run.
From one mom to another,
Much love and grace,
Beni
Releasing the Sounds! - Beni Johnson
Releasing the Sounds!
We here at Bethel have a beautiful building called the Alabaster Prayer House. It is a 24/7 prayer house-a place of peace and finding God's presence. People come here to soak in God's presence. They come to just be with God. There are no corporate prayer meetings in this building. We built it so that we could have a place to host the presence of God. We want people to experience God's presence in an intimate one-on-one way. Heavenly activity is present there. Just recently I was in my office, which is in the same building as the prayer house. My door was open, and a lady came out of the prayer room. She asked me if there was a room below the prayer room. I told her no and asked why? She told me that she kept hearing people laughing and talking. I told her that was normal and that other people have heard that same thing. Being a visitor to Bethel, she was blown away, and it messed her up-in a good way. She was hearing the sound of heaven. We do hear the sound of heaven all around our prayer house. It always seems to be one of joy and laughter. There seems to be a party going on. In my opinion, I think that heaven really likes to hang out in our prayer house.
Sounds from Heaven
Sound is vibrations that travel through the air or another medium. Releasing the sound of heaven is a very powerful weapon. One of the tools we have found that releases that sound is the shofar. Shofars were sounded preceding a war. They were used to rally the troops for action and to call the people together for prayer and repentance. The shofar is like an air raid siren that alerts us to danger and summons us to action. I believe that the shofar, used the right way, can be a powerful weapon in prophetic intercession. The sound that the shofar produces can cause a change in the spirit realm, which in turn changes our physical realm. I didn't always used to feel this way about the shofar until I began to study about them. I really like blowing the shofar outdoors. I think that they should only be blown before the worship starts and with permission. Shofars are a gathering tool for worship and war. I have learned that a shofar brings a stirring and a settling all at once.
Several years ago, I was talking with one of our seers. (A seer is one who has the ability or gift of seeing into the spirit realm.) We were talking about the prayer house. There had been some strange ungodly happenings going on around the house. She told me that there was an illegal communication line going into the prayer house. Obviously, this was something that was not legal and needed to be taken care of. I knew I needed to pray and get God's solution to this intrusion. As I asked God, I felt like I was to take the shofar to the prayer house and blow it there. So I went early one morning with a friend, and when the sun came up, I blew the shofar. That is all I did. I didn't pray. This was the first time I had ever used the shofar. I really have no idea why. I had never been a fan of blowing the shofar. Someone had given me one and I thought they were cool, but didn't think I would use it for anything. But little did I know?. Because of the strange happenings going on and our prayer house being open 24/7, we had brought on security staff to watch over the place. So, after I blew the shofar that day, I waited a week and went to our security guy and asked him how the week had gone at the house. He did not know that we had blown the shofar the week before. His response to me was, "You know, the strangest thing happened this week. There was no weirdness. It all has left." I was so excited and I knew that the sound of the shofar had released the sound of heaven that displaced the evil intent. Since then, we have used the shofar from time to time to release a sound into the atmosphere. Just like in the declarations that we pray, the same power that is released when we declare is the same power that is released in sound. God's first language is not English, nor does he just use words to fulfill His will. That is the adventure of serving Him. Listen for His voice and be a releaser of the sounds of heaven!
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