With his latest book, The Holy Spirit before Christianity, John R. Levison again changes the face and foundation of Christian belief in the Holy Spirit. The categories Christians have used, the boundaries they have created, the proprietary claims they have made--all of these evaporate, now that Levison has looked afresh at Scripture. In a study that is both poignant and provocative, Levison takes readers back five hundred years before Jesus, where he discovers history's first grasp of the Holy Spirit as a personal agent. The prophet Haggai and the author of Isaiah 56-66, in their search for ways to grapple with the tragic events of exile and to articulate hope for the future, took up old exodus traditions of divine agents--pillars of fire, an angel, God's own presence--and fused them with belief in God's Spirit. Since it was the Spirit of God who led Israel up from Egypt and formed them into a holy nation, now, the prophets assured their hearers, the Spirit of God would lead and renew those returning from exile. Taking this point of origin as our guide, Christian pneumatology--belief in the Holy Spirit--is less about an exclusively Christian experience or doctrine and more about the presence of God in the grand scheme of Israel's history, in which Christianity is ancient Israel's heir. This explosive observation traces the essence of Christian pneumatology deep into the heart of the Hebrew Scriptures. The implications are fierce: the priority of Israelite tradition at the headwaters of pneumatology means that Christians can no longer hold stubbornly to the Holy Spirit as an exclusively Christian belief. But the implications are hopeful as well, offering Christians a richer history, a renewed vocabulary, a shared path with Judaism, and the promise of a more expansive and authentic experience of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit continues to be at work around the world, yet much confusion and controversy remain regarding the Holy Spirit's activity. In this classic study, John Stott provides clear biblical exposition on the promise, the fruit, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, expanding on the nature of "the baptism of the Spirit" and whether certain spiritual experiences should be normative for all Christians.

In The Holy Spirit and Christian Experience, Simeon Zahl presents a fresh vision for Christian theology that foregrounds the relationship between theological ideas and the experiences of Christians. He argues that theology is always operating in a vibrant landscape of feeling and desiring, and shows that contemporary theology has often operated in problematic isolation from these experiential dynamics. He then argues that a theologically serious doctrine of the Holy Spirit not only authorizes but requires attention to Christian experience. Against this background, Zahl outlines a new methodological approach to Christian theology that attends to the emotional and experiential power of theological ideas. This methodology draws on recent interdisciplinary work on affect and emotion, which has shown that affects are powerful motivating realities that saturate all dimensions of human thinking and acting. In the process, Zahl also explains why contemporary theology has often been ambivalent about subjective experience, and demonstrates that current discourse about God's activity in the world is often artificially abstracted from experience and embodiment. At the heart of the book, Zahl proposes a new account of the theology of grace from this experiential and pneumatological perspective. Focusing on the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation and sanctification, he retrieves insights from Augustine, Luther, and Philip Melanchthon to present an affective and Augustinian vision of salvation as a pedagogy of desire. In articulating this vision, Zahl engages critically with recent emphasis on participation and theosis in Christian soteriology, and charts a new path forward for Protestant theology in a landscape hitherto dominated by the theological visions of Barth and Aquinas.

This Gospel Coalition booklet presents the Holy Spirit as our ultimate gift. DeYoung details the Spirit's role in our lives, including his activity in conviction, conversion, glorification, and the imparting of gifts.

The word rûaḥ (commonly translated as breath, wind, spirit, or Spirit) occurs in the Old Testament 378 times--more frequently than torah, shalom, or Sabbath. In this volume, a popular Old Testament scholar, whose previous books have received wide acclaim, cracks open the challenging and provocative world of the Spirit in the Old Testament, offering readers cogent yet comprehensive insights. Grounded in scholarship yet accessible and inviting, this book unlocks the world of the Spirit, plunging readers into an imaginative realm of fresh senses, sounds, and skills. The book gives readers the opportunity to recapture Israel's tenacious sense of the Spirit's energy as it was expressed by a series of vibrant verbs: blowing, breathing, coming, resting, passing, pouring, filling, cleansing, standing, and guiding. Readers will encounter in these pages all of the Old Testament expressions of the Spirit--passages that will challenge the conventional, confront the commonplace, and transport them to a world of wisdom, work, and wonder.

The New You It's important to understand what happened when you received Jesus as your Savior. That knowledge and understanding will keep the Word that was sown in your heart from being stolen by Satan. There is more to salvation than you have ever imagined. The forgiveness of sin was not the only thing included in your salvation. From God's perspective, it is just the beginning, a means to an end. Fellowship is the real goal. Now, become a disciple (learner and follower) of Jesus. Learn what separates Christianity from every other religion; how God sees past, present, and future sins; and much more. The Holy Spirit Living the abundant life that Jesus provided is impossible without the Holy Spirit. Before Jesus disciples received Him, they were weak and fearful. After receiving, each one became a powerhouse of God's miraculous power, and that's available to you. If you believe the Bible is true, then you must also believe the baptism in the Holy Spirit is God's will for everyone. In this book, Andrew establishes the validity of speaking in tongues, talks about the many gifts that accompany it, shares other little-known benefits, and explains how to begin speaking in tongues.

How do we hear from God and discern His will when it’s time to make big decisions? Terry Looper shares a four-step process for doing just that - a process he has learned and refined over thirty years as a Christian entrepreneur and founder of a multi-billion dollar company. At just thirty-six years old, Terry Looper was a successful Christian businessman who thought he had it all—until managing all he had led to a devastating burnout. Wealthy beyond his wildest dreams but miserable beyond belief, Terry experienced a radical transformation when he discovered how to align himself with God’s will in the years following his crash and burn. Sacred Pace is a four-step process that helps Christians in all walks of life learn how to slow down their decision-making under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, sift through their surface desires and sinful patterns in order to receive clear, peace-filled answers from the Lord, gain the confident assurance that God’s answers are His way of fulfilling the true desires he has placed in their hearts, and grow closer to the One who loves them most and knows them best. Sacred Pace is not another example of name-it-and-claim-it materialism in disguise. Instead, it walks Christians through the sometimes-painful process of “dying to self” in their decisions, both big and small, so that they desire God’s will more than their own.

Popular author Jack Levison offers a fresh take on the Holy Spirit through a careful reading of every reference to the Spirit in the Gospels. Viewed through the lens of Jesus's life, death, and resurrection, the Spirit shows up at odd times and in odd teachings--in desert sojourns, a strange saying about scorpions and snakes, and puzzling sayings about birth from above and springs from below. Grounded in scholarship, yet accessible and inviting, this companion volume to Levison's A Boundless God analyzes key aspects of Jesus's experience of the Holy Spirit, offering nuggets of insight on every page.

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). The Holy Spirit empowers us, guides us, and enables us to grow and endure in our relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ. Often the most misunderstood member of the Trinity, the person of the Spirit continues to attract attention today amidst church revivals and renewals. In this new edition of his classic Keep in Step with the Spirit, J. I. Packer seeks to help Christians reaffirm the biblical call to holiness and the Spirit s role in keeping our covenant with God. Packer guides us through the riches and depth of the Spirit s work, assesses versions of holiness and the charismatic life, and shows how Christ must always be at the centre of true Spirit-led ministry. A new chapter explores Christian assurance. With abiding relevance and significance, Keep in Step with the Spirit sets forth vital knowledge for healthy and joyous Christian living, through understanding and experience of God the Holy Spirit. Here is a book for every serious believer to read and re-read.