Kruse's Key: Read Deere's "Surprised by the Spirit" to Learn About Healing Today

Jack’s Deere’s “Why I Am Still Surprised by the Spirit: Discovering How God Speaks and Heals Today” walks the fine line of personal testimony and historical/theological analysis as he tackles the subject of the Holy Spirit, “signs and wonders”, and healing in today’s church. At one time Deere was an avid naysayer of healing in the modern church–as a seminary professor he scoffed at what he viewed as snake oil salesmen purporting to heal amidst overwrought theatrics and questionable motives. All that changed when a pastor named Dr. John White led a prayer service at his church that culminated in a miraculous event after which Deere clearly heard God’s voice call him to repentance for his arrogance and lack of faith. Shortly thereafter he was introduced to John Wimber and “praying for the sick became a permanent part of [his] life.”

As someone who has spent several years in Africa and befriended many missionaries, I’ve never doubted that God still heals today but I’ve never considered it as something attainable in my own life or for my own loved ones. Deere’s story has changed my mind because he doesn’t focus on healing or miracles except in the context of an intimacy with God the creator. These things should glorify God–should focus people’s eyes upward–never on the person or on self-gratification

Looking for book ideas? Check out our 2024,  2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 reading lists!

Notes

98 Rebuttal against Hebrews 2: 3-4 used by cessationists.

114 Scriptural reasons that God heals:

Because he is asked

Because he has compassion and mercy on the sick

To bring glory to himself

In response to his promise to the elders

In response to faith

To lead people to repentance and open doors to the gospel

To remove hindrances to ministry and service

To reach us about himself and his kingdom

To demonstrate the presence of his kingdom

For sovereign purposes known only to himself


120-121 We tend to doubt God’s goodness, especially when we are asking for something big. We believe Satan’s lies that God only heals us or heals people when we/they are good. “We overcome the accuser by placing our confidence in the blood of Christ.


143 N.T. mentioned 7 specific demonic inroads:

Anger and unforgiveness

Sexual immorality

Violence

Hatred (envy, jealousy, & selfish ambition)

Occult practices

Long term idolatry

Blasphemy (attributing evil to God)


172 Part of his daily prayer:

Now Lord consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.


173 1949 Scottish Hebrides revival


182 Every day I pray to be like Barnabas: “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith” through whom “a great number of people were brought to the Lord.” (Acts 11:24)


205 A spiritual gift: an endowment of grace empowered by the Holy Spirit to build up the people to God


215 Best translation of the bible: “The one that says to love your enemies.” …”we don’t fail because we can’t defend our view of the millennium, we fail because we want some things more than we want a friendship with God.”


216 Pray Psalm 119: 18

Pray for God to open your eyes.

“Open my eyes so that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”

AsK God to dazzle me with his beauty (Psalm 27:4)

Ask the Father to grant me a work of the Holy Spirit to love his Son like he loves his Son.

Ask God to grant me grace to one of his friends

Ask God to let me be one of his best friends

The goal is is to enjoy God, not endure Him.


217 Before he preaches any command, he gives them a person to enjoy.


222 Christians are to focus on three things:

Prayer

Love

Spiritual gifts


227 Leaders in the church today are burning out because they are crushed by the bulk of the ministry of the church, a ministry that the church members are supposed to be doing.

2024 Reading List

Looking for book ideas?  Check out our 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014  reading lists!

Brazil: A Biography (Audible).  Just finished listening to this 28 hour history of the country. I can't imagine living or working in Brazil and not having read this comprehensive history that dates back to Brazil's "discovery" in the 1500s.  I plan to read the book itself over the next few months and take copious notes! Essential Brasil read.

The Collector of Leftover Souls: Field Notes on Brazil's Everyday Insurrections.  This book is a collection of essays by reporter Eliane Brum.  In it she sheds light on different facets of Brasilian society normally buried in darkness: Os povos indígenas, minorias sociais, os povos que vivem à margem da sociedade, longe dos núcleos de poder.  Essential Brasil read.

Why I am Still Surprised by the Power of the Spirit: Discovering How God Speaks and Heals Today.  Great read--my full review is here. 

Beartown. Recommended to me as "Friday Night Lights" except with hockey.  That's a pretty fair description for this fast-paced read.  Set in the backwoods of a dying hockey town in Sweden--it's got sports, betrayal, and possibly murder--sports noir at its finest.  And it's a trilogy!

Clandestine in Chile.  Don't recommend.  I really looked forward to reading this novel since I've always loved the magical realism of author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  To be clear, Marquez has some beautiful writing but this journalistic retelling of filmmaker Littins secret mission to film inside Chile and expose the brutality and horror of life under Pinochet reads less like a spy novel and more like an ambling fait accompli/much ado about nearly nothing.  

Brazillionaires (Audible).  Incredible Michael Lewis-style tale of the rise of the 21st century rise (and fall for some) of a billionaire class in Brazil told against the backdrop of corruption, favelas, soccer stadiums, kidnappings and Miami real estate. This book offers keen insight into the Brazilian psyche and society writ large.  Essential Brasil read.

Greenlights (Audible).  Don't read this, I repeat, don't read this.  LISTEN TO IT! The audible version is narrated by author Matthew McConaughey and he's phenomenal: vulnerable, funny, self-deprecating, raw, and at times outrageous!  The book is partly autobiographical and partly self-help as he shares his struggles, failures, triumphs and lessons for the reader. 

How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Seen (Audible). A phenomenal and important read.  I listened to it on Audible and about 1/3 of the way through I found it so incredible that I ordered a physical copy so I could reread it make extensive notes.  Author David Brooks offers a framework by which one could be not a better leader but a more caring and empathetic friend and person in general.  I particularly enjoyed some of the questions he uses to better understand where people come from.  One example: In your family what was one thing you could never do?

How to Stop Time (Libby).  By the author of Midnight Library (my review here).  Author Matt Haig is a gifted storyteller and I loved his tale of this secret society of quasi-immortals who through a genetic anomaly age only 1 year for every 14 years on earth.  It contains all the best elements of historical fiction as the main character's life span centuries, as well as love and loss, and humor.  But what it as good as Midnight Libary?  Not quite.  Toward the novel's end if fizzles a bit, almost as if the author had grown weary--along with the main character--of living and loving across centuries.  

Dancing with the Devil in the City of God: Rio de Janeiro and the Olympic Dream (Brazil book).  Prodigal daughter/Journalist Julianna Barbassa returns to her home city after a childhood spent largely abroad.  Part memoir, part expose, part investigative journalism that covers the national and city politician's ill considered efforts to prepare the city and populace to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. Her thorough reporting brings the reader behind the fabric of Brazilian government and societal machinations, triumphs, and dysfunction. Essential Brasil read.

A Promised Land (Libby).  It's riveting. This 700 page (29 hours!) memoir was recommended by a high school classmate of mine in his bi-monthly book newsletter: Mountain Prairie.  Here's a quote from his writeup: 

What I look for in a memoir: Fun-to-read writing; laugh-out-loud humor; deep dives into the “why” of pivotal decisions; a detailed understanding of the people/places/experiences/cultures that shaped the author’s worldview; enlightening historical context; the author’s most brutal challenges and how they were overcome; opportunities to evolve my thinking on a few topics; humility; passion; purpose; commitment; optimism; self-doubt; extreme hard work; and crazy behind-the-scenes stories. What I don’t look for in a memoir: To have my preexisting opinions confirmed; to agree in lockstep with the author’s ideas/choices/worldview; surface-level boringness; or prose obviously written by a team of insufferable PR suits. Conclusion: This book met and/or exceeded all of my criteria and now sits alongside Acid for the Children and Shoe Dog as an all-time favorite memoir.

This memoir delivers--engrossing and full of insights into what a president goes through on a daily basis--from thought process, to congressional politics to family dynamics.  No matter your politics you'll enjoy this humble and thoughtful retrospective.  It ends right after they kill Osama so I cant wait for the next book!

The Invisibles (Brazil book).  Came across this book on a colleague's bookshelf and he kindly let me borrow it.  I liked it so much that I ordered a copy of my own!  A British woman and a Brazilian man fall in love in the 70's and have a child.  Unfortunately, he falls on hard times and ends up jailed under the military dictatorship.  His wife and child flee to England and never return believing him dead...until some 30 years later when a news clip give his son hope his father might still be alive in Rio.  Thus begins a journey for one man's father but also his long lost country--all against the backdrop of a class/tranche of society that often feels invisible--hence the name.   Brasil read.

Demon Copperhead (Libby).  My friend who pastors at Doxology Church in Arlington (amazing place by the way) mentioned this book during a sermon in which he was talking about timeless stories.  He discussed this novel in the context of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield as a story that tells a story and a struggle that transcends time periods and locales.  This Pullitzer prize winning tale is a HARD read that lays bare the realities of the foster system, rural America, the opiod crisit and growing up as a teen today.  The narrated version is INCREDIBLE to listen to--HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

A Death in Brazil.  Currently reading. Brasil read.

Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools: An Invitation to the Wonder and Mystery of Prayer.  Currently reading. Incredible.

Cutting for Stone (Libby).  Current listening.  Been on my list for ages.

Embarrassing List of Books I've said I'm going to finish for several years:

Tribe of Mentors.  Currently reading for the last three years. My full review will be here...one day

The Italians. Was reading but misplaced the book.  If I find it I will finish it.