He Restores My Soul: A Forty-Day Journey Toward Personal Renewal

by Jennifer Kennedy Dean

According to Jennifer Kennedy Dean, "God's people are 'silver'-they are the most malleable, the most resistant to corrosion, the most reflective, and the best conductors of power." In her 40-day program for spiritual renewal, Dean assists readers in discovering their potential for an inner transformation that will make them sensitive to God's shaping hand. Based on biblical precedents, He Restores My Soul guides readers toward quiet moments of worship called "retreats"-special times in the presence of God when the soul and self can be revitalized. By emphasizing the importance of Scripture, quiet reflection, listening prayer, and worship, Dean helps Christians become pure as silver. Only then can they reflect the true glory of God.

Genres: Faith

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Week 1: “A Broken Heart”

Jennifer Dean does an excellent job of unpacking what it means to have a “broken heart” in the first week of readings from He Restores My Soul. Brokenness entails more than we tend to think. She says: “True brokenness means losing all faith in your own abilities, abandoning all dependence on human resources, and disavowing all outward pretensions of righteousness to cling to the Spirit of God as if to a lifeline” (27). Dean also walks us through several scriptures that set the stage of the mind for this difficult subject we, in haste, define quickly.
This section helped me to define spiritual power. I say that spiritual power is having the ability provided by God to truly let go of the barriers to brokenness. I also realized how prideful and self-sufficient I am, and how that limits God’s power in my life. I believe people are in the rut of limiting spiritual power in their lives because we are scared to endure the side effects of being broken (sorrow, discouragement, humiliation); especially humiliation, because that is usually public. I am always concerned about my image, and I believe this “flaw” gets further engrained in ministers because we're supposed to have it all together.
In another section, Dean reminds us of something that we tell ourselves time and time again that we need to spend more time investing in the Word. However, this time should not just be spent reading and moving on, but meditating. She says: “The proper environment for God's Word is a plowed heart” (30), which means our heart needs to be prepared to hear the Word and have it planted deep within us.
I felt convicted by the portion of Dean’s book that talked about crucifixion. “When you choose to place blame on others or feel martyred by circumstances beyond your control, you resuscitate your self-life” (33). These crucifixion moments in my life are related to pride. I resist being wrong when I know I'm not, or my side or opinion has not been heard. I hate injustice, especially to myself. But this is something that Christfollowers need to get over.
I had never heard the story from Mark 14:3-9 unpacked in a way that compared Jesus to the expensive vessel being broken (not to mention the expensive oil inside), and then compare the vessel to our bodies and wills. This culminated the thought on brokenness for the week: “If I am too enamored by the packaging, I will not let it die so that Jesus can have supremacy.” (36)
Before this week, brokenness meant willingness to let God use me. Now it is more core.

 
Week 2: “A New Heart”

Dean begins this section of her book by explaining the need to look at the shape (or newness of) our hearts. In the second day of this topic, she says: “Just like tying a tourniquet around a part of the body stops the flow of blood to that body part, disobedience stops the flow of His life through us” (51-52). This is an excellent example of how our heart can limit God’s potential for our lives. Cutting off the blood for a little while can make our arm fall asleep. It won’t die right away, but it can certainly die and fall off if we don’t relinquish a tourniquet around our arm. I would add that waking up your arm after it has fallen asleep can be incredibly painful. It isn’t like waking our eyes up (which is unpleasant for some in itself); it is sometimes excruciating. The same applies to getting back into a good relationship with God.
Then Dean talks about purifying the heart. She says: “God will not only forgive our sins—delete them from our record—but He will also purify us from the unrighteousness that caused the sin” (54). It’s amazing to think that God will purify the cause of the sin in our lives. In fact, it’s almost not theologically correct. I believe God can and does remove our sin from us, but the fact that we are able to keep on sinning makes it hard to believe He removed our ability to cause the sin. Further reading of the chapter has us realize that the author did not mean as much; however, she clarifies by saying Jesus’ blood cleansing is an ongoing action. It was once for all, but it keeps on going. This is an important clarification to make.
The next chapter is about purity. The book says: “The word pure means ‘unmixed, unalloyed, containing nothing extraneous.’ A pure heart is one from which all flesh has been cut away” (60). This is interesting. Pure cannot mean our flesh is still attached. It is only when our earthliness has been completely removed that our heart is pure. It’s an interesting parallel to make, since our physical heart is pure muscle tissue. I always think of my anatomical heart when it’s referenced in devotionals, so thinking of my heart without flesh was peculiar. But when Dean goes on to say that, “Our desire to receive the proper recognition, to pay back a wrong, to gratify our egos, or to satisfy any of the many flesh-born yearnings dies a painful, savage death of crucifixion” (60), it’s clear what “flesh” means as described in this chapter about purity.
This week of “A New Heart” has made me really consider my motivations in ministry. It’s made me realize that the major conflicts in my life right now are motives laden with ego and the need to receive proper recognition for things I’ve led or participated in.
 
Week 3: “An Undivided Heart”

Dean shifts topics in week three, while still speaking about the human heart. She uses the word “undivided” as synonymous with “focused.” She says: “Focus is essential for success in any area. To choose one goal means to dismiss many other possible goals” (68). This is how she describes how our human heart should act when pursuing our relationship with God. If we want success in or Christian walk, then we should cut out things that distract us from our focus on God.
Psalm 86:11 is David’s request for an undivided heart, and it is prefaced by his statement of the misdeeds of his people. This is something we should consider when coming to the Lord with a request, even one that is related to strengthening our relationship with Him. We should be honest about the misdeeds in our life, and those we are responsible for. Walking in God's truth is a focusing activity. It is the straight and narrow road.
I like the part where Dean mentioned her definition of glory. She says: “The word translated glory means ‘the true expression of something.’ Your soul is to be so filled with Him and so free from flesh that it is His glory—an accurate expression of Him” (69). This is a refreshing idea about how God’s glory can be our glory. If we clothe ourselves in Him, our identity, we can be free from the flesh that brings us down.
This chapter makes me feel like I know too much about God’s glory to appreciate or enjoy living the way I did before. Things have changed, and my heart has gotten focused on something else.
 
Week 4: “A Discerning Heart”

This week’s devotional set hit home for me as I have been focusing on the word discerning. Not for myself, but in a ministry situation. I believe one of Dean’s opening statements to be very true. She says, “Persons with discerning hearts—hearts with good acoustics—continually gather knowledge. Everywhere they go, they collect new knowledge” (93). I love the phrase “hearts with good acoustics” because the heart has chambers and the beating makes sounds that resonate throughout the body. This applies in our lives as we make wise choices to garner wisdom. When we follow the Proverbs 1:5 challenge (“Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance”) we become more discerning followers of Christ.
The level of discernment can depend on our current attitude or lack of humility or patience. If you are reading his Word, you will know how to hear His words. The things that can keep us from achieving this level are stubbornness, lack of humility, and/or a lack of devotion.
Dean gets a little lofty in the language department and teaches some Latin when describing the parts of the word discern. She says, “The Latin prefix dis means ‘apart’ and the word cernere means ‘to sift’” (95). I think it’s good of the author to bring in some of these basic language principles; after all, she does say that, “Understanding is the goal of discernment” (99). We have been given the Spirit so that we may be given the things by and of God.
She asked the readers to define the word “understand,” and I did so in the following way: Understand—To mentally grasp the reason(s) for a higher power to do what is right for all, no matter the emotion of the lower power. Understanding differs from knowledge because understanding takes raw knowledge and makes it useful. For instance, people can know that the sky looks blue but not understand how/why. Dean adds, “When He teaches you, knowledge becomes understanding and then you have a discerning heart” (102). God does not teach in the abstract arena.
Finally, Dean says that, “The person with a discerning heart will find [him or] herself speaking words that are uplifting, instructive, encouraging, and life-giving” (105). This is very important. It gets to the core of being a discerning believer. We should leverage the discernment we get from God to build the kingdom of God. It’s all about Him, and all about life change through Jesus Christ.
 
Week 5: “A Rejoicing Heart”

This week, Dean continues to build upon the framework of the broken, new, undivided, and discerning heart. She has now brought our hearts to the point of praise. She spends a decent amount of time pointing out the differences between joy and happiness. In fact, Dr. Charles Stewart spoke in chapel at Southwestern about this during the same week I was reading in Dean. Stewart said, “Joy is not the same as happiness. It is ‘you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies’ and not ‘you make me lie down in green pastures’” (SWBTS chapel 9/26/12). Dean says, “The flesh has a shadow-version of joy called ‘happiness’ or ‘pleasure’” (112). These two teachers are pointing out that there is an earthly and emotional feeling of elation that is separate from the spiritual chedvah (Hebrew: “joy”). Happiness versus joy. Dean also mentions that, “True joy is so Christ-centered that earthly success can neither add to it nor diminish it” (111). She may use the word “success” here rather than emotion to show that joy is different than happy feelings; it is attached to something more actionable. Furthermore, Christians know that real joy cannot be experienced without the Lord.
In one of the readings, Dean said of Jesus: “His enemies criticized Him for having too much fun” (115). She cites Luke 7:33-34 where people are comparing Jesus to John the Baptist, saying basically that John did not hang out with people who drank, etcetera. I am not sure that I would go so far as to say what Dean did on page 115 without more Scripture to back up such a declarative statement. However, it does make sense, and does show the God-man as having more camaraderie than the hypocritical church leaders of that day.
In a following day’s reading, Dean relates real joy to the work of the Holy Spirit. She says, “Again, joy is a work of the Spirit; its indestructibility will astound you” (122). Then on the role of praise in joy, Dean says, “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation” (121). There is an obvious role of the Holy Spirit in the expression of joy through praise because praise is the culmination and fulfillment of joy as defined by God the Father’s role as anchor, Jesus’ victory over the adversity of sin, and the Spirit’s nurturing and sustaining in times where strength is lacking on the part of humanity. There is elicited a response, and that response must be joyful.
Similar to week 3, Dean again says that praise is a focusing heart habit. “Praise fixes our eyes on what is unseen” (125). If we focus our eyes on chaos, we enlarge the chaos and de-focus the things that God as gifted us with that will combat the turmoil in our lives. If we focus our eyes on God, we will have all we need.

 
Week 6: “An Overflowing Heart”

As we venture into the sixth week of He Restores My Soul, Dean talks now about ministering to others with our broken heart. It is interesting that she has waited until now to talk about ministry. Too often we delve into ministry headfirst thinking that now is the time to turn our instantly joyous heart from the acceptance of Jesus as our Lord into ministering to others. No so. We have to be broken, new, undivided, discerning, and joyous before we minister. She says, “The very comfort we have received becomes the comfort with which we minister to others.” (131)
To further what “ministry” means to Jennifer Dean, she expounds that, “You will never have to ask, ‘What would Jesus do?’ You will ask, ‘Jesus, what are You doing? And what do You want to do through me?’” (133) So, once our hearts are ready to minister, it’s full-on surrender to God’s will for what we do. Not, a mamsy-pamsy approach to movement. There is also a question in motive of believers in ministry. “Often, others can’t tell the difference between the servant actions that come from the flesh and the servant actions that come from the Spirit of God” (133). How incredibly true! This is a question I have to ask myself from time to time in ministry—especially when it comes to music ministry. There is a stage, I am on it, and people are watching me. That can feel good and validating. However, that is a strength based in the flesh. I only need validation from God. Dean adds, “Once we begin to surrender our flesh to crucifixion, the first thing to die must be the strength of our flesh” (135). This is similar to Paul’s challenge in Romans 12:1-2.
When Dean discusses Moses, it’s hard to follow her recapping of the stories. First off, on page 135, she tells a view that’s not the main viewpoint in the Bible when it comes to Moses and his speech. Her “you might imagine” language is a little, well, imaginative.
Again, later, Dean finds herself making assumptions of Scripture. However, her main point is not that this time. She is pointing out that we are to sacrifice our strongest parts to God in order for Him to use us. “Jacob at his strongest could not have held God captive. Certainly in his brokenness he could not. Yet the Scripture seems to imply that God could not leave Jacob” (137). I however do not agree with Dean’s inferring that all humans cannot let their gifts live on in the usefulness of God. I believer contrarily that God has gifted people in certain ways to magnify Himself. 1 Peter 4:10 is clear about that: “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” and then he goes on to list various gifts and abilities.
My favorite part of this week was when Dean addressed Pride. Perhaps this is because God is making my own pride more and more aware to me throughout my life application of His word. Dean says, “our pride, or our mistaken sense that we need to present a perfect front to those in our care, causes us to think of our wounds and our scars as something to hide” (139). This, I believe, is why it is so difficult for pastors to use a resource like this book and actually make notes in the open lines. Doing that, or keeping a written journal, is hard because we don’t want to admit that we have problems or sin in our lives. We are supposed to be the most Christlike people on earth. But it is not true that we are. The sooner we can ‘crucify’ our pride and admit our own faults openly, the sooner we can move to a new level of growth in Christ and as leaders of the Church.

[T.J. Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book to bring your focus back and before God through Jesus and to allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life.

[Brett Mclaughlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I recently heard an interview between Mark Dever and Matt Chandler in which Chandler mentioned he often read "spiritual roughage" (http://ow.ly/VJML). I took that to mean that Chandler (and Dever, who assented to reading the same sort of material) often read books that had a high ratio of garbage-to-sound-theology. There are all sorts of benefits, too long to list here. Suffice it to say, though, all of those benefits were reaped with a reading of Jennifer Dean's He Restores My Soul.

Intended as a devotional book, Dean provides an introductory section, a lengthy set of devotions arranged around a 40-day "journey" toward personal renewal, and a final section on organizing a retreat. Unfortunately, I spent as much time sorting out the theological problems and confusing non sequiturs as I did thinking and meditating on God.

Dean's consistent use of New Age terminology and style detracts from her central message. Dean insists that her message is not a New Age approach to spirituality in her introductory section (page 8), but her language is more often rooted in modern spirituality than orthodox Biblical terminology. She speaks of the Christian’s “spirit-core” (26), repeatedly calls for "centering prayer" (26, 29, et. al.), appeals for the believer to "surrender to brokenness" (30), and much of her review is centered on the Christian’s own definitions of and feelings about spiritual power, brokenness, and crucifixion moments (42-43). Dean could make her points far more effectively by limiting herself to Biblical words such as "spirit," "soul," "repentance," and "sinfulness," and use Scripture to define terms rather than asking the reader to assess his own definitions and feelings.

Despite this misuse of language, Dean does consistently drive home the Scriptural truth that God Himself must create the new heart: "He inscribed His desires and thoughts on your new heart. He will cleanse your heart and keep it clean" (57). Further, she moves to a more actionable set of meditations, an aspect of her devotions lacking in the first week. On page 54, she asks the Christian to evaluate: "How is He doing His cleansing work? How is he purging His people from... sin?” She then answers immediately, attributing God’s working out of sin to "the blood of the Son." This re-emphasis not just on Christ but on His effective work is both convicting and encouraging.

Most concerning, much of the devotional material is wrought with subtle theological error. From the first devotion of week 3, Dean relates that God’s engineering of salvation is "for the purpose of filling [the Christian:] with Himself" (68). Yet God says in Isaiah 6 that the train of His robe fills the temple. It is instead the Holy Spirit that fills the believer (2 Tim. 1:14). God fills us with joy and peace (Rom. 15:13), but never inhabits or indwells us; that is not His role within the Trinity as revealed in Scripture. Dean often is casual with interchanging God the Father, Spirit, and Son, and this fosters a loose theology that ultimately is incorrect and misleading. On page 69, she says "...the Spirit of God is removing all unrighteousness and all flesh to make room for the presence of the Lord in your heart. He must be your heart's only inhabitant." Here, the Spirit makes room for the Lord, although it is the Spirit that indwells. Further, both of these confuse her earlier statement, which stated it is God that fills the believer with Himself.

Further, there is a conflation between the filling of the Spirit and the indwelling of the Spirit. Scripture does indicate that the believer is indwelled by the Spirit, but that it is also appropriate to pray for a full measure of the Spirit, or a filling of the Spirit (Acts 4:8; Eph. 5:18). However, Dean indicates that God (or the Spirit, or the Lord) "will not share His dwelling place. He will inhabit it alone" (69). The implication clearly made by Dean is that the Spirit will not indwell the believer until sin is removed. This is Scripturally false, and leaves the believer with no recourse for the sealing of their heart in God’s sight (2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13; 4:30).

The core of Dean’s message remains helpful and at least loosely tied to Biblical principles. Throughout the book, though, her tendency to play loose with theology, conflate the distinct persons of the Trinity, and not explain concepts fully weakens her message. Ultimately, only her theme of brokenness consistently shines through other issues within the book.

[Sheila Quirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!

[Jonetta Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for spiritual growth

With each day of studies I could feel myself being drawn deeper into the presence of God. I highly recommend.

[Christine Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Timely journey that I used during the season of Lent 2015

[Guillaume Bourin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not a fan...