Holy Fire
The Holy Spirit does not belong to you. Are you charismatic? He is bigger than your signs and wonders events. Are you Reformed? He will not be limited by your theology. The Lord Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, “He blows where he will” (John 3:8).
So begins my latest book, called Holy Fire. All authors think their latest book is the best and most important. So is Holy Fire my best and most important? Possibly. It is arguably the most relevant since I wrote Total Forgiveness.
Last March 20th a request came from Steve Strang (Charisma House). He got word that a well known Reformed Evangelical was writing a book called Strange Fire. They all knew it would be a broadside attack on all Charismatics and Pentecostals. For some reason they thought I should reply. So I did. I asked Pastor Jack Hayford to write the Foreword. He asked: “How long should it be?” I replied: “Write as long as you feel the anointing, then stop”. His Foreword went to thirteen pages. Steve Strang said to me, “I have known Jack Hayford for over thirty years; I have never known him to get so excited over a book”. This really encouraged me. Over thirty leaders have endorsed it. Not all of them are Charismatics or Pentecostals, including an endorsement from Christianity Today. I ask you to join me in prayer that God will use this book. Some will know I wrote a letter to the author and invited him to have a civil debate presidential style on cessationism (the view that the miraculous “ceased” at some stage in church history). Many have asked, “Has he replied?” Sorry, but No. I am not very surprised. He does not have a shred of biblical support for his cessationist position. He would not want to face me (or anybody) who upholds an anti-cessationsist position.
I was at some disadvantage not to have a copy of Strange Fire. I decided to start my book anyway – and call it Holy Fire (my wife Louise’s suggestion). I finished it in just over three months. When I read his book after my own went to press, I was relieved. I feared I might have left some important things out. I need not have worried. Some think my book is more convincing because I had not read his.
The people of Charisma House know I am not exactly a card-carrying Charismatic. I believe in and have experienced the gifts of the Holy Spirit of 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, but I don’t always take the “party line”. At the same time I am a reformed theologian but with a small “r”. I don’t dot all the i’s or cross all the t’s exactly as some of the Reformed people do. But God has given me close friends in both camps. I believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit as much as anybody I know and I believe in the sovereignty of God as much as anybody I know.
I have sought to write a book that will make people hungry for the Holy Spirit.
The feed-back I have received from nearly all who have read my book is that it is “balanced”. I am not sure however that being “balanced” is necessarily a good thing. I am not sure I always want to be perfectly balanced. However, please read my 2014 New Year’s Letter – and the last chapter in Holy Fire called Isaac – and you may conclude I am absolutely safe from the charge of being balanced!
One fringe benefit of my book Holy Fire is this: to those who do not know him, I introduce Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He was at Westminster Chapel for thirty years. I was there for twenty-five years. He is responsible for my being there. His view of the “immediate and direct” witness of the Holy Spirit does not please cessationists; they cannot bear his teaching on the Holy Spirit.
There are two chapters on cessationism in Holy Fire. But I emphasize that cessationists are not bad people. They are among God’s best vanguards of Christian orthodoxy.
The funny thing is, much of my book could be written by a cessationist. Read my chapter called Strange Fire – you will agree!
I hope you will read Holy Fire. If it blesses you, please consider giving copies away.
RT
We are selling Holy Fire at the discount price of $11.99 this month!
