Randy H. Johnson was born April 10, 1957 in Terre Haute, Indiana with a major birth defect—no nasal passages in his skull. At the age of two days, he was rushed to St. Louis for emergency reconstructive surgery. Three months later, he contracted polio and meningitis simultaneously. Seriously ill, he was given up to die by doctors. But God had other plans for Randy. God’s Presence entered his room at the eleventh hour and miraculously healed him as his mother held him in her arms.

As a child, Randy was taken to a Full Gospel church by neighbors. He got saved when he was nine years old and developed a love for the Word. Called to the ministry at age eleven, he preached his first sermon at twelve. Over the next few years, Randy was active and skillful in vocal music in school and in church, yet struggled with a violent temper and other works of the flesh.

After graduation from high school, Johnson attended a Christian University on and off until his uncontrolled temper led to his final dismissal. He returned to finish his studies in Terre Haute where he met his future wife, Linda Harvey, whom he married in 1979. The couple had two children nineteen months apart. Johnson received credentials with the Assemblies of God in 1981, eventually pastored three A/G churches in Indiana, had another son in 1991 and moved to Baltimore, MD in 1992 to pastor.

The Johnsons returned to Terre Haute in 1995, both taking secular jobs, returning to college and ministering where possible in the Wabash Valley. A daughter was born in 1999. They began to attend the Caring Center Church of God under the direction of the Holy Spirit and eventually came on staff. Randy served as associate pastor at the Caring Center for five years, and was credentialed as an Ordained Bishop in 2008. Randy works full time in the information technology field and was recently appointed pastor of the Lighthouse of Truth Church of God.

The struggle to control his temper and to be holy in all he thinks, says, and does has been a very real, lifelong issue for Randy. “It’s an every day thing,” he says, “this living for God. It’s constantly one choice after another. Will I obey God? Or will I obey my flesh? I may never have had addictions to drugs, tobacco or alcohol and I have never physically killed anyone; but there are plenty of other things which can separate a man from God and from living the Spirit-controlled life and, ultimately, cause him not to inherit eternal life. Sin and selfishness are just not worth the risk of missing heaven.”