Robert A. Johnson

Posted: May 05, 2017

I started out in life working on a family farm growing vegetables, berries, etc. My mom and dad took me to church every week, where I learned about Jesus.

When I was thirteen I stood looking out the window of the house where we lived and watched my dad back his truck onto the road. I waved goodbye to my dad and he smiled and waved back and drove away. That day my dad was killed in a tractor accident and I never saw him again.

As time went on I became angry, bitter, and resentful at God. As my teen years continued, so did the bad feelings and the loss.

When I was eighteen I was in an Explorers’ group in high school. One day the Explorers’ group was going to float down a river on inner tubes. We went down the river in small groups with our tire tubes tied together with ropes.

We had a place planned that we were going to get out of the river and meet. As I traveled down the river with three others in my group, we noticed the leaders were getting out of the river ahead of us. We tried to get out of the river but we were caught in the current and quickly passed them by.

A large tree had fallen into the river where the current was moving. My three companions said to me that we should jump off the inner tubes. I said no, but they did anyway. I was sitting towards the back of the tubes when they jumped off and the tubes flipped over on top of me, pushing me down.

My head struck the tree that was in the water and my feet were pulled forward with the current. I held onto the tree with my head still under the water. I reached up with one hand to try to find a limb to grab hold of and found nothing. I held the tree again and reached with my other arm to find a limb to pull myself out with. Both times, even though I moved my arms back and forth in all directions, I found nothing.

It is amazing when death is at your door how quickly your mind can move. I asked Jesus to forgive me for all my sins and for every wrong thing I had ever done. As I looked down below me I saw a large black hole, whirl pools turning, and branches from the tree surrounding me waiting to take me down.

I heard a voice speak to me and say, “Raise your arms up again.” I was out of air and quickly raised my arm up. Across the top of my fingers I felt the limb of a tree and quickly grabbed a hold of it. The current continued to hold me. I quickly released my arm that was holding onto the tree to grab the limb. I pulled my head out of the water as I gasped for air.

About eight people from the Explorers’ group stood across the narrow strip of the river watching. Everyone was shouting to me, “Are you o.k.?” I finally answered after I climbed up onto the fallen tree, that I was o.k.

I turned and looked at where I had been in the water and then I looked at the tree limb I had grabbed onto. The limb of the tree was too far away for me to have touched.

Upon reaching the other side of the river, the group of people asked me how I got out. I was numb and replied that something unusual took place that I couldn’t explain.

In 1987 God gave me a vision of the whole world as I was praying one morning. As I watched this vision fade away God gave me a second vision of South America. When the visions were gone I heard a familiar voice saying, “Seasons times seasons and a half. Seasons as you know it.”

God speaks to each of us according to where we came from. I was a farmer, so He spoke to me in that way. I quickly concluded that this meant one year and a half.

In one year and a half, I was prepared and was actually asked to go to Brazil. That was 1989 and the first time I had ever been out of the country.

In Brazil I was in a man’s house that I was told was a prophet. Shortly after arriving the prophet said to me, in English, that God had given him a dream about me and he had to share this with me. As the prophet began to speak, I said to God that if this man was really a prophet that he would start with my dad and his death.

About one minute into our conversation the prophet said that when I was about twelve to thirteen years old, I had a very big loss in my life. The prophet went on to say that he saw me hitting my pillow with my fists and saying, “Why, Lord. I don’t understand.” These are the exact words I spoke and what I was doing after my dad was killed.

Many words were given to me at that time including that the enemy had chased me since I was young to destroy me.

So when I suffered the great loss of my dad, the enemy made inroads into my life to destroy me. That night the prophet said that the enemy made me turn and blame God for my dad’s death, so that he in turn could kill me. I repented and was set free from this bondage.

Now here I was in Brazil being set free, and then I was being asked to speak in various churches. I had never stood in front of people to speak and I was scared stiff. I once again heard the familiar voice saying to me, “Do you remember when?” I immediately was taken back to the river and stuck under that tree again.

Then I heard God speaking to me asking if I would like to know what happened that day. I replied, YES! The Lord said to me that He sent an angel to push down the limb of the tree so that I could grab hold of it and get out. I began to cry as the impact of it all hit me in that moment.

Many people, upon hearing the story of what God had done, gave their lives to the Lord, and many people were healed also.

A few years passed and I was in a greenhouse business with my brothers, growing flowers. My ministry was getting well known even outside our area in Oregon.

One day as I was talking to customers and helping them find what they needed. I saw a woman I recognized from high school. This woman had been part of the Explorers’ group. We talked for a few minutes and she asked me about that day on the river.

It had been over twenty years since we had seen each other, but that day came back quickly. I told her the whole story, and with much more detail than ever before. I spoke of the struggle and of the limb of the tree that wasn’t there, and then it was there. I spoke of the angel coming and lowering the limb, and getting out and climbing onto the tree. The woman was sobbing and crying and could hardly speak. Then she said these words to me that she had pondered all these years.

She said, “Others and I stood watching from the other side of the river. We watched you struggling to live. We watched you reaching for something that was too far away for you to grab. We watched as we saw the limb of a tree being pushed down to your hand and watched as you grabbed the limb and got out. All of us saw this and couldn’t explain it.”

She said now, after hearing the rest of the story, she truly believed.

I traveled off and on until the year 2000. I heard the Lord say to me that when the year 2000 was over, I would be done with the greenhouse business. I loved what I did and that I was able to speak about God to people, and witnessed plenty of miracles. When the year 2000 was finished, I walked away from a business my brothers and I started.

It was very difficult to do so, because I liked what I was doing, and, finally, for the first time in my life, I was actually making a little money.

I took a part-time job working for a friend who works on heavy equipment. Two years passed and no trips, no nothing! I, of course, had thoughts that perhaps I had made a mistake leaving the greenhouses, which I could never return to once I left.

In this period of time I was introduced to Greig Detering. Our parents knew each other and were both farmers. Greig and I had never met in all these years, even though we only lived 10 miles from each other.

Greig and I visited whenever Greig would come up to Oregon from Arizona where he lives now.

I had been praying about how to start my own ministry so I could get back to traveling. All previous trips were paid for through people that knew me and saw what God was doing.

Now people wanted to help more and I didn’t know what to do. Greig came to see me one day and asked if I would like to join him in the ministry God had started him in. I said yes, and since 2003, I have been traveling again, most of the time with Greig.

I thank God for what He has done in this ministry.

I thank God because he can use anybody and, if you’re willing, He can make you into a vessel to move around the world.

I thank God so much for my wife, who is the best, and is all the way behind me.

I also thank God for my three kids, two granddaughters, and for my family and their understanding.

God called me out of my garden to work in His garden until He returns to take us home.

Yours in the power of our Lord!