 
Book Reviews Receiving the Power: Preparing the Way for the Holy Spirit by Zeb Bradford Long and Douglass McMurry Reviewed by Robert P. Mills |
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| Is it possible that even
Presbyterians can be fired up by the presence and the power of God’s
Holy Spirit? Or, to use more decent and orderly language, can we accept
the confessions and the charismata? Absolutely! is the conclusion that one draws after reading Receiving the Power. Combining biblical teachings about the Holy Spirit with dramatic personal experiences of the Spirit’s power, Brad Long and Doug McMurry offer significant evidence that John Calvin’s heirs can be filled with and empowered by the third person of the Trinity. Part 1 briefly reviews the three major movements of the Holy Spirit in this century: the Azusa Street revival of 1906, the charismatic renewal movements of the 1960s and the current “third wave,” which Peter Wagner describes as “a new moving of the Holy Spirit among evangelicals who, for one reason or another, have chosen not to identify with either the Pentecostals or the charismatics.” This section unflinchingly identifies shortcomings of the earlier movements while critiquing mainliners’ often icy response to a work of God that began without denominational imprimatur. The book’s second, and longest, part offers “A Biblical Foundation for the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit.” Citing texts from both testaments, the authors discuss “the Spirit coming ‘upon’ people for power in ministry [and] the Spirit coming ‘within’ people for salvation and to develop in them skill, wisdom, godly character and maturity in faith and love.” As they readily show, “Both motifs are equally important and equally biblical.” A consistent focus of Part 3, “Discerning the True from the False,” is that the primary work of the Spirit, while manifested in a variety of ways, is to be a witness to Jesus. Indeed, the book’s final part is titled “Advancing the Kingdom of Jesus.” As the authors model, consciously and consistently grounding the Spirit’s work in the Trinity avoids distorting or downplaying the Holy Spirit’s role in Christian faith and life. Long and McMurry are PCUSA ministers who “have remained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) all our lives because God placed us there. We believe … that God wants all Christians to open their lives to the power of the Holy Spirit, regardless of denomination or doctrinal tradition.” They observe with dismay that “American Presbyterians have resisted the gifts of the Holy Spirit for years, even though our guiding philosophy (‘Let all things be done decently and in order’ [I. Cor. 14:40]) appears smack-dab in the middle of a discussion of spiritual gifts.” While of particular value to Presbyterians, especially those confused (or uninformed) about the wonderful varieties of the Holy Spirit’s ministries to and through the faithful, Receiving the Power has much to offer all Christians, regardless of their denominational tradition. |
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