John Owen said, as he set out to write his classic treatise on the Holy Spirit, that he found it, ‘A work too great and difficult for me to undertake and beyond my ability to manage to the glory of God, or the good of men, for who is sufficient for these things?’ Alasdair Heron called the Holy Spirit ‘the most elusive and difficult of all themes in Christian theology’.
‘Truly,’ writes Simon Ponsonby, ‘attempting to write a comprehensive study, which is accessible, biblical, theological, historical and practical, on the Person and Work of the Spirit, feels a little like climbing the Everest of Christian belief.’
And yet he has done just that.
Marshalling the prolific references in Scripture; the metaphors of wind, water, oil, fire and dove; the multiplicity of terms, types and titles; the many insights from the church fathers, reformers and more recent theologians, Simon Ponsonby presents us with a dynamic and accessible picture of the One who is God with us, working in and through us, shaping us into the character of Christ and equipping us for the adventure of serving others.
The result will stimulate both head and heart, as it presents a dynamic picture of the One who is God with us, working in and through us, shaping us into the character of Christ and equipping us for the adventure of serving others.
This book is a recommended text for Vineyard Institute’s course “The Holy Spirit – God Inside Out”. There’s a short introduction to the course here.