We know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
— 1 John 3:2

When John had a vision of the glorified Lord on Patmos, John fell at His feet as dead. The same thing happened to Daniel, and he said all his comely parts turned in him into corruption. Revelation of God always brings a sense of a deep heart need. If sinners can be brought into touch with the Lord, conviction will settle upon them.

The outstanding use of miracles is to bring revelation of God to people—to show His Presence, His power, and His love. It is not merely to meet the needy. That ministry which has not the supernatural and the miraculous in it is void of revelation of God and is lacking in spiritual results. It brings a mental conception but lacks heart revelation. The most of Christianity today is a result of logic and theory. Because it is so void of the supernatural, God has not been able to manifest Himself.

Oh, for the supernatural ministry today! It will come when God’s people come into revelation and knowledge of Him as John, Paul, and Daniel had it. Powerful anointing and ministries are sure to follow the revelation of the Lord.

In these days of mental development and learning, man gets almost everything that he knows by way of mental exercise. We have acquired this method of gaining knowledge in spiritual things. But spiritual things, if they are to become understood, must be by way of the heart. As it is written, “The world through wisdom did not know God” (1 Corinthians 1:21). But with the heart man believes unto righteousness.

What one gets by revelation stays with him and becomes a part of him. What you have received of God cannot be reasoned away.

PR

“…one of the early 20th Century’s prophetic voices still speaks today…” — Jack W. Hayford

Reprinted with permission from Daily Seedings: A Devotional Classic for the Spirit-Filled Life by Ivan Q. Spencer (selected and edited by Edie Mourey), Furrow Press, 2008.

For more about Ivan Spencer, see “Following in His Steps” by Edie Mourey.

New Testament scholar Craig S. Keener speaks with PneumaReview.com about his new book, Spirit Hermeneutics.

PneumaReview.com: Please define for our readers what you mean by “Spirit Hermeneutics.”

Craig S. Keener: Spirit hermeneutics is listening for God’s voice and heart in Scripture. Obviously I do believe in doing our homework, exploring cultural background and understanding the context as best as we can. But at the end of the day, it’s not just an academic pursuit separated from life. We want to submit our lives to be transformed by Scripture’s message. Otherwise we’re like someone who sees their face in a mirror and goes off forgetting what they look like.

PneumaReview.com: One theme that you stress in the book is the importance of reading biblical texts in their contexts. In view of its importance why do you think that many Christians do not read the Bible this way?

PneumaReview.com: Why do Christians frequently have difficulty hearing God speak to them through the Bible?

Spirit Hermeneutics: Reading Scripture in Light of Pentecost (Eerdmans, 2016), 550 pages. Publisher’s page.

Craig S. Keener: Some Christians don’t realize that this is partly what the Bible is for, but sometimes also we don’t recognize that God can speak to us in a lot of different ways. We should pray that we will hear Him, then read the Bible (in context, etc.) to see what we can learn about God and how He acts in real human situations. Some of those will surely relate to us and to the world we live in. Some passages do show us His heart more than others, or perhaps in more concentrated ways; we find that most clearly in the message of the gospel, the message about Jesus’s death and resurrection for us. What the Spirit speaks to us will be consistent with His heart as already revealed in the gospel; the Spirit helps activate that in our lives. (Of course, I am not saying that the Spirit does not guide us in day-to-day ways as well. But being grounded in Scripture helps us recognize His voice and His character.)

PneumaReview.com: Please give a couple of examples from Scripture to demonstrate that biblical texts are meant to address and have application to situations outside of their original context.

Craig S. Keener: For one example, continuing the above-mentioned topic: the Spirit tells Philip to run up to the chariot where the African court official is (Acts 8:29). That fits a consistent theme in the Book of Acts: the Spirit leads the church across cultural barriers. Ancient historians and biographers wrote to communicate accurate historical information, but information that was framed in a way that also taught moral, political, or even theological lessons. One lesson here should be pretty obvious from Luke’s inspired vantage point: we need to continue to depend on God, and God will lead us to cross cultural barriers to bring the gospel to others. Many of us live in communities where God has brought people from other cultures to us, some of them unevangelized in their homelands. Okay, that was just the first example that came to my mind; it might not actually be one of the examples in the book!

Lee Grady is well known in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles. For a number of years he served as the editor of Charisma magazine, a publication devoted to the Spirit-filled life. He has also authored a number of books; some of his more recent titles have focused on the subject of women and ministry. This, his most recent book, focuses on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Grady has written other books about the Holy Spirit as well, specifically, What Happened to the Fire?(1994) and The Holy Spirit is Not For Sale (2010). The author has established himself as a no nonsense writer who is not afraid to tackle the difficult issues in the church, perhaps especially problems that exist in the charismatic church.

In this current volume Grady shares some of his own personal journey with the Holy Spirit. He also covers doctrinal and practical issues concerning the person and work of the Holy Spirit. At the end of each chapter there is a section called “Let’s Talk About It” which contains statements and questions to help the reader process the material in the chapter. Each chapter closes with “A Dangerous Prayer” that can be prayed to invite the Lord to make real in the reader’s experience what they have read about in the chapter.

Some of the doctrinal topics discussed in the book concern the identity of the Holy Spirit and His ministries. For example, chapter two is titled “The Holy Spirit is Not an ‘It.’” In this chapter, Grady explains that the Holy Spirit is not just a power, He is a person, specifically, a divine person. Chapter four, “The Holy Spirit is a Multitasker” lists a number of ministries that the Holy Spirit fulfills in the life of the believer, He regenerates, empowers, guides, unites, intercedes, comforts, and refines. Chapter seven, “How To Minister in the Spirit’s Power” gives a brief description of each of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12.

On the practical side, Grady offers much valuable instruction regarding living life in the Holy Spirit. One of the things he says near the very beginning of the book is that “you cannot expect a life-changing encounter with God unless you open your Bible and seek Him in its pages” (page 5). He says that other things are also essential to a powerful life in the Spirit, these things include: prayer, praise, and fellowship.

Grady also talks about challenges to the Spirit-filled life. With regard to the Baptism in the Holy Spirit he cites six things that can hinder a person from receiving this experience. He mentions: doubt or intellectual pride, religious tradition, fear of the supernatural, unconfessed sin, emotional wounds, and an unyielded spirit. In addition to listing the problems he tells the reader what must be done in order to get past the obstacles.

James R. Peters, The Logic of the Heart: Augustine, Pascal, and the Rationality of Faith. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009), 300 pages.

This book is not for the faint of heart or the non-academic reader of philosophy. James R. Peters wraps his thesis around abstract conceptualizations, while he weaves loquacious arguments throughout his book. The text is thickly worded and the reader is urged to keep a dictionary nearby. Essentially, Peters posits a philosophical middle way that balances rationality and mysticism. He proposes that the rationality of the heart must become entangled neither in the objectivity of Modernity, nor in the subjectivity of post-Modernity. In doing so, Peters engages the foundational rationalists (Descartes and Hume) of Modernity conversationally with the mysticism of Augustine and Pascal.

There are two principle difficulties with this book. First, it is elitist in its use of language and written exclusively to the academic community. In doing so, its genre is generally inaccessible to the layperson. Indeed, it is so unapproachable that it may characterize the elitist genre whereby no academic dares to proclaim that the emperor has no clothes, for if one has the courage to confess that Peters is incomprehensible, then one risks the accusation of being dull of mind. Second, Peters has two simultaneous conversations that compete for the reader’s attention. One is in the body of the text and the other is in the footnotes. As a reviewer of this book, it is a noteworthy distraction and one would prefer to see the two conversations merged and the footnotes reserved for reference citations.

How then can someone untrained comprehend this book? We offer three suggestions: First, read the ending first so that you will see the target that the author is aiming at. Second, read the concluding segment of each chapter so that you will discern the logical steps that the author has taken to achieve his goal. Finally, read the introduction to each chapter. Once the reader has a basic understanding of Peters’ theme for the book, then one can begin to explore the depths of his argument. To approach the book with the mindset of reading it front-to-back will undoubtedly find the reader lost before the end of the first chapter.

Reviewed by John R. Miller

Preview The Logic of the Heart: books.google.com/books?id=USJFI8wgQRwC

Prophesying in the Father’s Heart
An excerpt from a teaching given at the Hearing Heaven conference at Fusion Church, Auckland, New Zealand in August, 2010.

Graham Cooke, Approaching The Heart Of Prophecy: A Journey Into Encouragement, Blessing And Prophetic Gifting (Winston-Salem, NC: Punch Press, 2006), 282 pages, ISBN 9780977080786.

Graham Cooke’s new book Approaching The Heart Of Prophecy: A Journey Into Encouragement, Blessing And Prophetic Gifting is volume one of what will be a six book set known as The Prophetic Equipping Series. This series is based on a major rewrite of his earlier book,Developing Your Prophetic Gifting, and will include new material as well. Future volumes in the series will be Prophetic Protocol, Prophetic Wisdom, The Prophetic Impact, Prophetic Partnerships and Prophecy And The Ways Of God. Volume two of the series, Prophetic Protocol, is scheduled to be released in either February or March of 2007.

Approaching The Heart Of Prophecy, like Cooke’s earlier work, Developing Your Prophetic Gifting, deals with practical aspects of the use of the prophetic gifts. While the book certainly contains theology, it is not mainly a theological work.

The book is divided into four modules. Module one is titled “The Exercise of Prophecy.” In this section, Cooke stresses the grace aspect of the prophetic gifts. He writes about the importance of having a proper view of the nature of God and having God’s heart when operating in prophetic gifts. He says that it is important that we see people as God sees them. Also in this module Cooke talks about his belief that prophecy comes to the prophetic person in three stages: a word of knowledge, a word of prophecy and a word of wisdom. In Cooke’s words, “A word of knowledge opens up the issue, a prophetic word speaks God’s heart into it, and a word of wisdom tells us how to respond to God.” Thus, his counsel to prophetic people is to speak the second thing revealed, not the first. Also in this module Cooke addressed some of the things in a prophetic person’s life that can taint their gift.

Module number two is titled “The Process of Prophecy.” In this section Cooke lists a number of things that are important for a prophetic person to pursue in order to be effective for God. He mentions the need for humility, rejoicing, meditation, waiting on God, the importance of speaking in tongues and the practice of unceasing prayer. In this section he also speaks a little more about the three phases of revelation that he introduced in the first module. This module also contains a list of the various ways in which God communicates prophetically. God can communicate through dreams, visions, words, Scripture or impressions.

Module number three is titled “The Purpose of Prophecy.” In this section Cooke discusses nine purposes of the prophetic gifts. The purposes are: to restore people’s dignity and self-respect, to edify, encourage and comfort the church, to bring correction and warning, to provide direction and enhance vision, to open up the teaching of the Word and confirm preaching, to release the church into new doctrine or practice (note: don’t get worried about this one), to provide insight into counseling situations, to provide evangelistic breakthroughs and to provide an agenda for prayer. In this module he also deals with four arguments that are used against prophetic gifting.

David Murrow, “Mild At Heart: The disturbing exodus of men from the church, and how you can change it.” Ministries Today (May/June 2005, Vol 23, No. 3), pages 40-44, 46.

David Murrow starts his article with statistics. They tell a poor story. Men make up less than 40% of U.S. Churches and that number is growing worse with time. This declining condition exists even though leadership of the American Christian Church remains overwhelmingly male.

As a pastor, Murrow’s goal is the strengthening and expansion of the Church. Does he overstate his case that modern churches are not appealing to men? Perhaps. On the other hand, events such as Promise Keepers, Man Power and Wild at Heart Boot Camps are drawing throngs of men.

Murrow asks 3 key questions: Why are men abandoning the pews of the Church? How could The Faith, started by a manly carpenter and 12 working men fall into such a state? How do we fix this, since this condition seems to be strongly linked to the overall decline of American Churches?

The View From The Pews: Context and Environment

Murrow states bluntly that Men do not feel welcome in modern churches. This is, in part, because the church, and church-life, reflects the sensibilities of the active disciples: women. For instance, to the male eye, many Church decors have the frilly, flowered look of a maiden aunt’s house. To many males ears, the worship, teaching and preaching of the Church, sounds “safe and soft.”

Men, Spirit-filled men included, are built for action and challenge. Any environment or context that ignores a man’s “wildness of heart” is not welcoming to him. Men will put up with hardship and inconvenience, but they hate to be bored or constrained.

Misplaced Purpose: The Great Commission

Murrow calls modern church-life “soft and sweet.” Many men see Christian preachers, teachers and ministers as cautious, sensitive and accommodating. Jesus and the Disciples were bold, intolerant and assertive. Jesus commanded the Church to focus on being God’s Army. The Church, as Saint’s Hospital, is not His Intention.

Jesus chose a bold, inflexible command (Matthew 28: 19-20) as his last earthly words to the assembled Disciples: “Go every where and make disciples.” Modern Churches, rightfully so, help and nourish the sick and hurting. The discipling ministries, not the helping ministries should be the focus and leadership in God’s Army.

Infantrymen take, and hold, territory. The medics, vital and needed, only operate to support the infantry. Men will respond as the Church reclaims a purpose and passion for the lost. The adventure and challenge of making disciples will keep generations of Christian men in the pews, if not on the edge of their seats.

Harry R. Jackson, Jr., The Warrior’s Heart (Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 2004), 224 pages.

Despite its militaristic title, and soldiering themes, The Warrior’s Heart is a very spiritual work. Bishop Harry Jackson’s work is rather thoughtful, yet focused on the realities of living a purposeful Christian life in today’s world. This work is obviously the result of much prayer, Christian experience and careful consideration of today’s Christian walk.

The writing in The Warrior’s Heart is accessible and direct. Jackson quotes a wide variety of writers and personalities in his work, making good use of anecdotes and stories to deliver his message. This writing style allows The Warrior’s Heart to serve a great variety of potential readers. Pastors and church leaders can read the book and gain valuable insights. Laymen will find the book a valuable and easily understood learning tool.

The twelve chapters of The Warrior’s Heart are divided into three major parts: The Warrior’s Inner Life, The Warrior’s Relationships and The Warrior’s Corporate Connections. Each part addresses a different aspect of Christian soldiering, starting from the inside and working out.

Inner Life: Just as a natural army would, the church must teach and strengthen the individual soldier. Chapter 2, Honor Code and Conscience: Hearing the Voice of God provides strong teaching on the role and purpose of conscience in a believer’s life. Not content with the common interpretation of conscience, Jackson demonstrates how our inner voice must become a direct line to God’s Will and Purpose.

Team Life: After building up the individual warrior, an army turns its attention to the relationships among the troops. Chapter 7, “Friendly Fire: The Difficult “Significant Others’” teaches us how to uphold and strengthen each other. Using the dubious help of Job’s friends and comforters as a backdrop, Jackson points how we must help each other live the Christian life.

Far from condemning, this chapter points out how all armies hurt or kill their own during the chaos of the battlefield. Jackson’s point is to show Christians how to avoid giving or getting “friendly fire.” Despite the turmoil and rush of our modern lives, we can become a blessing to our fellow believers, no matter the circumstances.

Corporate Life: Strong individual soldiers, and superior small units, do not automatically create an excellent army. If the leadership and structure of the controlling organization are poor, the war will be lost. Chapter 10: “Corporate Destiny: Esprit de Corps,” emphasizes this point.

Jackson explains how individual local Churches have unique callings, much like individual Christians. He shows how the corporate church and the individual believers must interact to advance God’s Kingdom in harmony and order. The only agenda that should be advanced is the one that comes from God.

From the Worship Leader Series

Here’s a quiz: The service is ended. People are milling around and you are putting your equipment away. Suddenly a face appears in front of you with a look of total elation.

“Worship was a-a-a-w-e-s-o-m-e!” they exclaim.

Your answer?

a) “Yes, I knew that the worship was awesome. But did you know that I wrote half of the songs in the set?”

b) “Praise the Lord! ‘Cause it wasn’t me. I can’t do a thing without the Lord.”

c) “Thank you.”

Copyright Stan Myers. Used with permission.

Most of us with any training whatsoever in “Worship Leading 101″ would immediately dismiss answer (a). The Bible makes it very clear that proud spirit can lead to disaster (Proverbs 16:18). Any person in a place of ministry, especially a visible one, needs to be constantly vigilant against the temptation to be proud and steal God’s glory for them.

For much of my Christian walk, the answer has always been (b). Knowing better than to answer (a), I would feel very secure in my habit of directing people to the glory of the Lord, and that was good. What wasn’t so good was how some people felt when I ignored their encouragement at best, or dismissed them as one more threat to my humility at worst.

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:10) is both a command and a promise. Notice that the scripture says “humble yourselves.” We do have something to do about our own humility, just as we are responsible for purifying our hearts (v.8). But our part is to see our condition choose righteousness. But our part is to see our condition, choose righteousness, and allow the Lord to mold us as “His workmanship.” Humble answers don’t produce humble hearts, humble hearts produce the answers (Matt. 12:34).

Years ago I was involved with a Christian band that performed “special” music in weekly concerts at our church. From time to time people would offer appreciation and encouragement, and I would, basically, ignore the words, which were offered to me.

From the Worship Leader series.

How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity (Psalm 133:1).

Copyright Stan Myers. Used with permission.

When my teenage daughter walks out the door, and I say, “Drive safely” she looks at me and says, “Absolutely, Dad.” I reassure myself that I have really communicated. I assume she understands “Drive safely,” the way I do: observe the laws, watch out for pedestrians, pay attention to the speed limit, etc. What she really understands when I say “Drive safely” is more like this: “As long as you bring the car home in one piece, then all existing land speed records are up for grabs.”

When we throw around terms like “worship” and “unity” we often think we are communicating. The problem is, we often have divergent interpretations and understandings of those terms.

When we sing the familiar chorus:

I love you Lord
And I lift my voice
To worship you
O my soul, rejoice
Take joy my King
In what you hear
Let it be a sweet, sweet
Sound in your ear

we assume that what we are singing must be a sweet, sweet sound to His ear. After all, the band is tight, our arms are raised. The angels must be taking the night off just to listen.

But truthfully, not everything we sing and communicate, no matter how exhilarating the experience, or how enthusiastic the band, is a sweet sound in God’s ear. You can fool all of the people some of the time—but you cannot fool God any of the time.

He looks past the words, raised arms, the music, and sees the heart. Isaiah 29:13: “The Lord says: ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.'”

We always run the risk of letting our worship fall into that category. We have the audacity to expect that we can offer something that is going to impress God, or catch His ear.

So when I say “true worship” or “acceptable worship” I’m working from the understanding that worship has nothing to do with any offering or sacrifices we can give to God. Worship is not God responding to our sacrifices; it is our response to His.

But what do I mean when I say “unity”? It is an important concept for worship leaders who are called to lead people to intimate communion with God. In John chapter 17, in His prayer for the disciples, He prays that they might be one not in some monotonous cookie-cutter fashion but “as We are One.” The Trinity has unity and diversity. One nature, yet three unique personalities. God has His heart set on this kind of unity for His church.