Dean Merrill: Miracle Invasion

John Lathrop — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 16:07:30 +0000

Dean Merrill, Miracle Invasion: Amazing true stories of the Holy Spirit’s gifts at work today (Savage, MN: Broadstreet Publishing Group, 2018), 208 pages, ISBN 9781424556083.

Dean Merrill is a veteran writer. He has written books of his own, has collaborated with others to help them tell their stories, and contributed to various publications. In this his latest book he tells the stories of a number of people who have had powerful experiences with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Miracle Invasion is not a theology book per se (though there is certainly some biblical theology in it), it is really a book of testimonies. In these brief testimonies we have a collection of contemporary accounts which demonstrate that the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are mentioned in the New Testament are still very much with us today.

The book begins with the foreword which is called “Setting the Stage.” This part of the book is written by Jeff Farmer, the president of Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America. In it Farmer presents a brief explanation of each of the nine gifts of the Spirit that the apostle Paul lists in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10. After this brief teaching section, the book moves on to tell the stories of people who have had powerful encounters with the Holy Spirit. There are thirty-nine chapters of testimonies in this volume.

God is very much at work in North America as well.

The testimonies in the book demonstrate the contemporary operation of each of the nine gifts of the Spirit that Paul lists in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. As the book points out in a section called “What Can We Conclude?” all of these powerful encounters with the Holy Spirit took place in North America. This is significant because, as the text also points out, we hear much more about miracles taking place overseas in places like Africa, Asia, and South America. Miracle Invasion demonstrates that the power of God is not confined to the Majority World, God is very much at work in North America as well. In addition, the section “What Can We Conclude?” also points out that the testimonies show that God is not active in only one denomination or church group, the experiences recorded in the book took place in the lives of people connected to a number of different church backgrounds. The accounts also come from a number of different areas in North America.

These testimonies about God’s activity are are real stories about real people.

Some of the chapters in this book are as short as three pages, others are a bit longer. Each chapter has a unique story to tell; they are real stories about real people. At the end of some chapters there are links that the reader can go to in order to see additional accounts about the events covered in the chapter. No doubt different readers will have different favorite chapters. It is a book that clearly sets forth the reality of the supernatural power of God. However, this is not a “victory all of the time” type of book. The book makes reference to prayers that were not answered. In one chapter there is an account of two men who went to the same church, at the same time, and received ministry during the same ministry time, one of the men was healed and the other was not. That being said, this book does demonstrate in a powerful way that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are still very much with us today. Stepping out in faith and sometimes persevering in faith are required in order to see Him work.

Holy Spirit Invasion: An Interview With Dean Merrill

Dean Merrill — Sun, 13 May 2018 21:30:53 +0000

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?

Where does the Bible tell us that the charismata have ceased?

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?

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.

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.])

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Dean Merrill: Miracle Invasion

Holy Spirit Invasion: An Interview With Dean Merrill