Holy Spirit Invasion: An Interview With Dean Merrill

PneumaReview.com speaks with Dean Merrill, the author or co-author of almost 50 books, about his latest book that investigates amazing and true stories of the work of the Holy Spirit today.

 

PneumaReview.com: Please tell our readers about any ways in which the Pentecostal or Charismatic movements have touched your life.

Dean Merrill: My parents, originally Quakers, were edging into a fuller life in the Spirit about the time I was born. So I was plunged from the beginning into the notion of taking Scripture, especially Acts and the Epistles, at face value; this was “normal Christianity” as far as I was concerned. My salvation occurred during my grade-school years, and my initial infilling with the Spirit on a Sunday night in an Assembly of God church took place a year or so later. I’ve never relinquished my trust in the empowering Holy Spirit to do what only he can do, regardless of contrary opinions. Despite my decades of work in the wider Christian publishing field, I’m as Pentecostal today as I’ve always been.

 

PneumaReview.com: Where did the idea for the book Miracle Invasion originate?

Dean Merrill: It started with my good friend Jeff Farmer, president of the Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America (PCCNA), who envisioned a collection of true, authentic, credible stories of spiritual gifts in OUR time (not 80 or 100 years ago) on OUR continent (U.S., Canada, Mexico). I quickly signed on to do the research and writing. The book came onto the market in February 2018.

 

PneumaReview.com: How were the testimonies that were included in the book gathered?

Dean Merrill: At first, I did a lot of asking and networking for story referrals. I then proceeded to sort them into groups that represented all the gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12. To be honest, I discarded many of the suggestions: either they were from outside North America, or they were third-hand (“Somebody said that somebody said that something happened …”), or they were healing stories that a skeptic could attribute just as easily to sharp medical intervention. I wanted only material that bore the undeniable imprint of the Holy Spirit.

Following this, I began doing dozens of phone interviews with the actual people or their pastors. From these, I wrote drafts for sending back to get their approval and adjustments before proceeding to publication.

 

PneumaReview.com: The stories you shared in the book all come from North America. Why do you think that many believe that the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is more common in the Global South?

Dean Merrill: Sometimes we in the educated West are too sophisticated for our own good. We encounter a problem and think we know how to solve it by ourselves. A related problem in North American Pentecostalism is the current desire to fit in to the larger church culture, to be accepted in “the evangelical club,” to win the approval of others. In such cases, I wonder if the Holy Spirit doesn’t stand back on the curb with folded arms saying quietly, “You think you know all about how to do church, with careful scheduling and predictable components. Okay, go ahead … do your thing. I’ll just watch.”

I love what the brilliant missionary scholar Del Tarr (Ph.D., University of Minnesota) wrote in one of his books about “the dangers of any attempt to make God’s dealing with humanity through the cross of Christ or His baptism of fire a ‘reasonable’ one. Pentecostals are not meant to be ‘mainstream,’ and God help us if we get there.” (The Foolishness of God: A Linguist Looks at the Mystery of Tongues, p. xvi. [Editor’s note: Read the review by Jon Ruthven.])

PneumaReview.com: Please share a couple of examples of gifts of the Holy Spirit that you have personally seen in action.

Dean Merrill: The book has approximately 40 such examples, from words of knowledge to miracles (some physical restorations but others not), to deliverances from the dark powers, to remarkably specific prophecies, to tongues with interpretation, to even a couple of genuine resurrections (with doctor verification). Several of these people are longtime personal friends of mine. A half-dozen stories in the book include online links to watch—for example, a grandmother’s sudden ability to see again after 12 years of diabetes-induced blindness … while the church’s video cameras were running.

For more information, see www.miracleinvasionbook.com.

 

PneumaReview.com: What would you say to a cessationist who believes that some of the gifts of the Spirit, such as prophecy, healing, and miracles have ceased?

Dean Merrill: As my godly mother used to reply when I would come home from Bible college with another half-baked doctrinal theory, “Chapter and verse!” Where in fact does the Bible tell us that the charismata (or at least the more spectacular ones) have ceased? First Corinthians 13:8-10 is an awfully thin reed to lean upon, and few respected exegetes do so these days. The testimony of church history throughout 20 centuries now shows ongoing gifts of the Spirit all along the way, if we do fair research.

We must let the Bible say what it wants to say, whether it makes us comfortable or not.

PneumaReview.com: In what ways can the church in the West help cultivate a greater openness to the gifts of the Spirit?

Dean Merrill: We can relax our grip on doing church our way, the way we’ve always been taught and seen modeled. The Spirit is, after all, the Divine Wind (pneuma) that “blows wherever it pleases” (John 3:8). You can’t control it, unless you retreat inside and shut all your doors and windows. I believe Jesus’ whole point in that passage with Nicodemus is to say that the Spirit-empowered person is never entirely predictable or programmable.

We would do well to surrender to that Wind, to be willing to ditch our human plans and be stretched. After all, Paul taught us that “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor. 3:17). This does not mean that He will do crazy or disgraceful things that harm the cause of Christ. But He may surprise us once in a while!

 

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More from Dean Merrill:

Read an excerpt from Dean Merrill’s, Miracle Invasion: “A Higher Code”

Dean Merrill talking about his book Miracle Invasion. https://vimeo.com/261044615/c41a5b31be

Dean Merrill talking about his book Miracle Invasion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etuqfg_avvs&t=15s