Bill Johnson: Helping Your Kids Turn Their Affection Toward Jesus
This is an excerpt from a discussion between Eugene Luning and Bill Johnson, co-authors of the Moments with Jesus Encounter Bible.
Eugene Luning: What’s intriguing your heart when you think about the Moments with Jesus Encounter Bible getting into the hands of parents and their children?
Bill Johnson: Oh goodness. It’s that you’ve taken on bringing children into an encounter with Jesus. I mean, that’s it! It's what changes everything! Jesus, at one point in John 5, say, “You study the scriptures because you think in them is eternal life. But these testify Me, and you’re not willing to come to Me.”
So even there Jesus acknowledges that the Word of God is supposed to take us to the Person of God—to an encounter with God. And you've done that brilliantly and I just love that so much. Because once they have history with God, it can never be undone. Once they have that personal history with God, that marks a child for the rest of their lives.
EL: I love that Bill has set the table for this family experience by opening with this forward to the book that’s a classic—I would say—tenet of Bethel Church: that there’s no “Junior Holy Spirit” and that children are going to have an encounter in this particular way and in their own studies through the Scriptures throughout their lives. It’s Him that's going to do it. And I get so excited about that!
And I mentioned before that we’ve very purposely called it “the Encounter Bible”, and the whole idea is encounter. Because this isn’t just historical events that we’re going to give you twenty different glimpses of. It’s a narrative that is set in history, and yet it’s true today because He’s alive! He encounters us even as we encounter Him.
So Pastor Bill, I would love to hear: how are you encountering Him? Let’s say today—it’s a Tuesday—how have you been enjoying His presence lately for yourself? Maybe there’s a fresh Word from Him that you’d be willing to share with us.
BJ: Oh goodness! The most consistent way that I encounter the Lord is by turning my affection towards Him. It starts when I wake up in the night, or even in the morning—that’s where it starts. Or perhaps I should say; it starts when I go to bed the night before. I always like to end my day by turning my affection towards Him. And in that place of encounter with Him, it just affects your whole life.
So today, that’s how my day has started: in that affection.
Then, of course, in the Word. I’ve been reading the Books of Romans, Psalms, and Proverbs. And I’ve been just rocked by this whole salvation journey that all of us have been drafted into. Just the Love of God. And His Word is supposed to bring us not just a fresh understanding, but fresh experience with His love. That’s what is happening for me.
Later in the day, I’ll be with a whole bunch of people, and I’ll get to encounter Jesus there. So it’s with people, it's with His Word, and it’s with Him personally.
EL: I love that! I think I told you when we were together last that my wife, Jenny, and I have been spending a lot of time in Romans 8 over the last year and kind of enjoying and memorizing.
For me, the image of late has really been the invitation into the royal family circle. The idea of sitting down at table with Him—kind of like you’re talking about later in the day with His brothers and sisters that are in the Body of Christ. Ah! There’s nothing more thrilling than His Presence.
BJ: No, that’s true. That is Heaven.
EL: It’s an open heaven. There it is!
You know, we want to get to the main event, which is praying for our readers. But before that, we’ve titled this little gathering here today “Parenting with Jesus”. I was meditating about that prepositional phrase “Parenting with Jesus”.
What does daily “parenting with Jesus” mean to you? With Benny, with your children, with your grandchildren?
BJ: Well, the picture I get is two oxen pulling a plow. One large ox and one small ox. The large one carries the weight and the small one just cooperates. And that really is our role as he carries the weight of it. He has a bigger heart for my kids and my grandkids than I do. Hard to imagine from where I’m sitting, but I know it’s true. He has obviously greater resource and greater ability. So partnering with him is partnering with strength. It’s partnering with a win-win team, so to speak.
What an incredible privilege we have to co-labor with the Lord to raise children and grandchildren that are on loan for us to raise them for the Glory of God. It makes it not just a journey of instructing and disciplining your kids—that whole thing is a journey for us as well. We grow and develop as children of God as we learn to mentor, disciple, and raise up our own children. It’s a priceless journey. I love how you’ve done that. Parenting with Jesus is just priceless.
EL: Isn’t it just an unbelievable thought that as we journey through life? I mean, I am picturing the classic “The yolk is easy, the burden is light” as you described it. What an unbelievable thing—even in our imagination, even as the Spirit leads us to see him there next to us—that at any point we can turn almost turn our head and— “There you are, Jesus.”
I think of doing that with our kids in the day by day and in the minutia of mundane life. It makes life an adventure. Oh, I love that!
BJ: It does, it does. The huge assignment in life is to approach it as a child, which means to approach it as an adventure.
EL: When you look back when your kids were little, how did you approach chatting with your kids about His revelation? Say, for a sermon, or for a study you were working on, or writing?
BJ: As much as possible. It needs to be a part of daily conversation. In other words, it’s not me preaching to my kids or instructing them. This is how we do life. We would go duck hunting together, riding our mountain bikes, or throw a football in the front yard. It’s a normal conversation. That way they grow up not thinking there’s a natural world and there’s a supernatural world—that there’s a natural part of our life and a spiritual part of our life. It has to merge. We help that process by including all that Jesus is, says, and does into the normal routine of every day.
That’s a huge part of life for me.
EL: We had some talks on the Moments with Jesus Podcast, and I would say they echo a lot of your teaching in terms of: we can’t go to with our kids to the places we’ve never been.
Sometimes I picture those initial twelve spies who went into the Promised Land, and I think in some ways, that’s what you’ve done for your family, for your church. That’s what Jenny and I are trying to do for our children. Kind of spy out how deeply good He is. Then, turn around and say, “Come on, kids! Let’s go do this together.”
I think that’s where we’re seeing a little bit of success in their spiritual life. It’s sort of an adventure day-to-day.
BJ: That’s it. That’s absolutely right.
EL: Like I said before, the main event for our time together is spend a few minutes in prayer for those who are watching live right now and for those who might watch in the future. Because I think it’s the most direct thing we can for people’s hearts is to pray for them.
Bill is going to open and we’re going to bounce back and forth and let the spirit lead how we pray and who we pray for. Then, after a few minutes, we’ll close up.
Pastor Bill, would you take it away in prayer for us?
BJ: Absolutely. Father, we turn our hearts toward You. You’re the perfect Father. You’re perfect in every way and You’ve got this thing figured out. Every place where we’re confused, You’re not. Every place where we lack insight, You have it. So, we turn to You completely in trust.
I’m asking right now that You would release a grace—a gift—over every parent and grandparent that is watching this. Married, single, all. That You would touch each one with a wisdom that is suitable for this day and this hour. That there would be a perception of privilege and responsibility in parenting that is only given to kingdom-oriented people. That moms and dads and grandparents would rise up with rich anointing, insight, and intentionality of truly raising world changers. That You would give us grace to bring our kids into an encounter with You.
Lord, that their dream life, their prayer life, their thought life, and everything would be shaped and impacted by this amazing privilege to walk with You. And I ask this in Jesus’ name.
EL: Lord, I think of the times of bewilderment that I feel as a father where I don’t quite know what to say and do. But I pray for myself. I pray for every mother and father that’s watching who’s feeling at times bewildered that they would turn their whole heart in Your direction. That they would see Your face and lock eyes with You so that the way today is going would be impacted by you.
I pray that they would be so overwhelmed with joy of Your presence that they would turn their eyes back to their children or their grandchildren and that their eyes would brim over with Your joy. We do pray Lord that You would show Your face to Your Body, and that it would be as if You’re just walking the world like You did in the 1st century. We want to see You, Jesus. We want to see you in the midst of our family. So we pray for that Lord.
BJ: I pray especially for single moms and single dads. All too often they feel ill-equipped for the assignment and responsibility. I pray for such a presence of the Spirit of God upon these single parents. That You Yourself, the perfect Father, would more than make up for what’s missing.
In fact, that they would find themselves day after day serving their children out of overflow. Not just taking from what they need, but literally out of the overflow of joy. Out of the overflow of encounters with You. The overflow of insight from Your Word. That You would meet each one so profoundly in their homes that their homes would carry the atmosphere of Heaven in such an amazing way. That anyone who walks into that home would be impacted.
Lord, we do pray this for Your Glory.
EL: Lord, I love that picture because I see families all over the country who get up in the morning. And maybe mom and dad have had time with You, and it’s been sweet. Then, they turn around and they serve their children with love. And then that whole family gets in a car and goes to school—whether it’s a public or private school—and I love that image of a house that is pouring into the schools. That mom and dad then go to work and that Your Spirit, Jesus, is spreading over this nation and also the world. What a joy!
So Lord, I do pray that our encounter with You would make every day and everywhere we go just a little piece of Your Kingdom. That people would see this kind of wild spark in our eyes because of You, Jesus. Oh, I get so excited, Lord!
So I pray for that. I pray that in Your Name.
