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What caused a former Dallas Seminary professor to believe that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit are being given today? What convinced someone skeptical about miracles that God still speaks and heals? A dramatic change took place in Jack Deere's life when he took a fresh look at the Scriptures. He discovered that his arguments against miraculous gifts were based more on prejudice and lack of personal experience than on the Bible. As soon as Deere became a seeker instead of a skeptic, the Holy Spirit revealed himself in new and surprising ways. In Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Deere provides a strong biblical defense for the Spirit's speaking and healing ministries today. He also describes several reliable cases of people who were miraculously healed or who heard God speak in an unmistakable way. Finally, he gives sound advice for using spiritual gifts in the church. Written in a popular style, with the care of a scholar but the passion of personal experience, this book explores: the real reason Christians do not believe in miraculous gifts, responding to charismatic abuses, whether miracles were meant to be temporary, and why God still heals.
List of contents
SHOCKED and SURPRISED
Chapter 1 The Phone Call That Changed My Life
Chapter 2 Surprised by the Holy Spirit
Chapter 3 Signs and Wimbers
SHATTERED MISCONCEPTIONS
Chapter 4 The Myth of Pure Biblical Objectivity
Chapter 5 The Real Reason Christians Do Not Believe in the Miraculous Gifts
Chapter 6 Responding to Spiritual Abuses
Chapter 7 Scared to Death by the Holy Ghost
Chapter 8 Were Miracles Meant to Be Temporary?
Chapter 9 Why Does God Heal?
Chapter 10 Why God Gives Miraculous Gifts
Chapter 11 Why God Doesn’t Heal
SEEKING THE GIFTS and THE GIVER
Chapter 12 Pursuing the Gifts With Diligence
Chapter 13 A Passion for God
Chapter 14 Developing Passion and Power
Epilogue Hearing God Speak Today
APPENDICES
Appendix A Other Reasons Why God Heals and Works Miracles
Appendix B Did Miraculous Gifts Cease With the Apostles?
Appendix C Were There Only Three Periods of Miracles?
About the author
Jack Deere, formerly an associate professor of Old Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary, is a writer and lecturer who speaks throughout the world on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He is the author of the bestselling book, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit.
Summary
In his classic Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Jack Deere looked at the reason why many Christians (including himself at the time) struggle to believe in miraculous gifts, and he provided a groundbreaking biblical defense of the Holy Spirit's speaking and healing activities today.
In Why I Am Still Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, the former Dallas Seminary professor revisits his earlier subject matter with fresh insight and even stronger conviction: the Scriptures teach that God is healing and speaking today just as he did 2,000 years ago.
Having almost entirely rewritten Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, this new edition comes at a time when the theological landscape has dramatically changed, and most evangelicals do believe in all the gifts of the Spirit. But many of us are still unsure how to understand those gifts, and there is much confusion today on what it means to be filled with the Spirit.
This book is for those familiar with Deere's work and for newcomers alike. In it, he:
- Explains the nature of spiritual gifts, defining each of them.
- Offers sound advice on discovering and using spiritual gifts in church.
- Tells documented stories of modern miracles and encounters with demonic powers.
- Examines the New Testament use of the phrase "filled with the Spirit" to show why and how God still fills his servants with the Holy Spirit.
- Introduces the newest literature defending and explaining the gifts of the Spirit.
With the care of a scholar and the passion of personal experience, this new edition builds upon the legacy of
Surprised by the Power of the Spirit and the profound impact it's had among Christians of many traditions.
Additional text
'This book is the perfect example of why I am still surprised by Jack Deere. With humility, winsomeness, and competence, he is able to bring biblical clarity to some of the fuzziest and most heavily debated topics in the church. A mix of easy-to-follow theology, church history, and personal experience, this book will kindly answer the skeptic, pastorally lead the student, and safely disciple the seeker.'
