Mirachal Johnson grateful to God for leading her through hardships to Southwestern

Mirachal Johnson is grateful to be where she is.

“Nobody but the Lord,” she said, giving thanks to God for getting her through some hard times and leading her to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Johnson is pursuing a Master of Divinity degree in biblical counseling at the seminary in hopes of helping others through their own struggles.

Johnson’s hardships centered around her family, starting before she was even born. Her name, which is pronounced “miracle,” resulted from her parents’ difficulties in having children. Following miscarriages and two stillborn births, she said her dad told her he would pray and cry to the Lord, “‘I just want to hear a baby cry.’” Johnson was born prematurely after a high-risk pregnancy, “But I made it. … I was their miracle baby, so that’s why they named me Mirachal.”

Her dad unexpectedly passed away in 2019, “and that was very deeply painful; very hard,” she said. “And when he died, it turned a lot of things upside down.” Her mother had Alzheimer’s, and Johnson became her full-time caregiver until her mother died in 2023.

While she was dealing with her father’s death and caring for her mother, Johnson also was in a marriage she described as “physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically abusive,” and said her church leaders helped her escape.

“I really felt just a lot of love and support from them,” she said.

Johnson herself has always been inclined to help people, earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of North Texas in Denton in 2012. She began working as a corporate trainer for retirement at GuideStone, the Southern Baptist agency providing financial services, and while she loved her work, she said every few years or so, she would get the urge to do counseling. She learned about biblical counseling and thought that might be the career for her, but she also wanted to learn more theology.

In March 2024, she went on a mission trip to New Orleans with her church, First Baptist Mansfield. The trip was led by Carl Bradford, dean of Texas Baptist College (TBC).

“I’d never had any formal training with sharing the Gospel, and I was very nervous and scared about evangelizing strangers,” she said. After watching Bradford evangelize others, she said she realized “I really have to just get out of my own head.”

The difference that made was like night and day, Johnson said, adding, “I was really scared, but then the Lord was just with me, and I was able to just talk to everyone.”

While on that mission trip, she talked with Bradford and his wife, Andrea, about studying biblical counseling. They prayed about it, she said, “and by the time we got back from the trip, I’d put in the application [to Southwestern].”

At first, she planned to continue working at GuideStone and take classes remotely, but after meeting Lilly Park, associate professor of biblical counseling, and sitting in on one of Park’s classes, Johnson felt she needed to take classes on campus rather than online.

“I strongly felt that I needed to be immersed here at Southwestern, and just doing online classes wasn’t going to be an option,” she said. Johnson prayed about it, asking God if He really wanted her to leave the job she’d had for so long.

“And yes, yes, He did,” she said with a smile. She began working as administrative assistant to Bradford in the TBC dean’s office and called it a blessing to be able to work, take classes, and live on campus.

Johnson said taking Park’s Principles of Biblical Counseling class made her realize that the Lord had called her to do biblical counseling. Reflecting on everything she went through, Johnson said the class “actually helped me to think through a lot of those just traumatic events in a biblical way. And I thank God. I thank God that that class really was just wonderful in that regard.”

Her admiration for Park extends beyond the classroom.

“She’s always someone that’s just very, very encouraging,” she said, adding that she has been in Park’s faculty mentorship group for two semesters and has found encouragement there as well.

She also gives high marks to James Wicker, professor of New Testament, and Carl Bradford, who, in addition to being her boss, is an associate professor of evangelism.

Wicker, she said, “just made it so fun and enjoyable to learn.” She also noted that Wicker is “just a wealth of knowledge, and he is very humble about it.”

Studying evangelism under Bradford, she said, “I was able to learn just a lot of biblical points about how to evangelize, why we should evangelize, what it means to truly share the Gospel, and doing that in boldness.”

Johnson said she wants to pursue a PhD at Southwestern after earning her MDiv. “So, however long it takes for the MDiv, I know that immediately I want to do a PhD, which means this is my life now,” she said with a laugh. “I’m gonna be here for some time. Hopefully. Lord willing.”

She said biblical counseling is important to her because the Word of God “is the standard. His Word is sufficient. His Word is authoritative. I believe that. And so, if His Word is sufficient and authoritative, … the truth of His Word has exactly what we need for counseling and for wisdom in everything.

“I like that in biblical counseling, I get to teach and encourage people and counsel people based on Scripture,” she added. “I get to basically learn in class a lot of issues that we have and how we respond to things. It exposes our theology. And so I have a strong desire to be equipped and learn everything I can about theology. So that way, when I’m counseling people, I truly believe I would be ministering to them and teaching them the Word of God.”

Johnson is excited about the future, but in looking back, she has a strong sense of gratitude.

“I’m very grateful for the Lord, and the people that He’s provided, the people in my life, my church, my pastor. I’m so grateful for my church family,” she said, adding that she is grateful to God for “all that He has allowed me to learn over the years and just helping me endure some really hard, hard things. … I’m so grateful that He’s brought me to this point, and to where I am, and leading me to not only work at Southwestern but study here. I’m grateful.”