Infulence

"Over the years, I have observed that the majority of what Christians believe is not derived from their own patient and careful study of the Scriptures. The majority of Christians believe what they believe because godly and respected teachers told them it was correct."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 47

Infulence

"Our environment, our theological traditions, and our teachers have much more to do with what we believe than we realize. In some cases they have much more influence over what we believe than the Bible itself."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 47

Influence

"The idea that fallen humanity, even redeemed fallen humanity, can arrive at pure biblical objectivity in determining all their practices and beliefs is an illusion. We are all significantly influenced by our circumstances: the culture in which we live, the family in which we grew up, the church we attend, our teachers, our desires, our goals, our disappointments, our tragedies and traumas. Our experience determines much of what we believe and do, and often it determines much more than we are aware of or would admit."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 46

Arrogance

" I was one of those Christians who loved to tell themselves that they do not live by their experience but by the Word of God. My practice and my beliefs were determined by the teaching of the Holy Scriptures-or so I thought. Only in recent years has the arrogance of that kind of talk become apparent to me."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 46

Humility

"Not only do we have to become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:3), but we have to continue in the humility of a little child if we want to progress in the kingdom (Matt. 18:4)."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 29

Healing

"He then told me about a young child in Malaysia who was covered from head to toe in eczema. The eczema was raw in some places and oozing. The child was in such discomfort that he had kept his parents up for the previous thirty-six hours. The child was behaving so wildly that they had to catch him in order to pray for him.

As soon as Dr. White and his wife, Lorrie, laid their hands on the child, he fell fast asleep. Within twenty minutes or so of their prayer, the oozing stopped and the redness began to fade. By the next morning the child's skin had returned to normal and was completely healed. Dr. White told me a second spectacular story of bone actually changing under his hands while he prayed for someone with a deformity."

Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 20

Complacency, No need for God

"I certainly didn't need God to speak to me with any of those subjective methods he used with the people of the Bible. After all, I had the Bible now, and I was one of those few people who also had exceptionally good theology. No, neither I nor my circle of friends were looking for "something more" from God. If I had any problems at all, it was just figuring out how to give more of myself to God."

- Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Pg. 15