Let’s imagine a guy who is a shared friend of many of your friends. He’s a great dude. Much of his life is about helping others. But he’s also not afraid to call you out if you’re doing something stupid. And he cannot shut up about Jesus. He’s constantly pointing to Christ with everything he does. But here is the thing about your friend. He’s a little bit of a mystery. There is much debate among your friends about where he works and what he actually does for a living. Also there are some gifts that he’s given amongst your friends that none of you are really sure if they came from him or not. Truth be told he’s a bit nebulous. Part of this is because anytime you really focus attention on him or try to get to know him he just points it all back to Jesus.
So if you were to write a book about this friend what would be the topic? Would you be honoring this friend if you spent all your time trying to unravel all the mysterious stuff? Would it be helpful to expend all your energy attempting to really explain all the gifts that he has given? Or to spill hundreds of pages of ink on unraveling the mystery of what he does for a career? That wouldn’t be honoring him, would it? Instead you’d most honor your friend by talking about all the amazing stuff he has done in your life. But the real key to honoring your friend would be to talk about his best friend; namely, Jesus.
This is why I absolutely love Jared Wilson’s latest book on the Spirit: Supernatural Power For Everyday People. Jared doesn’t get lost in the weeds of writing about tertiary debates concerning the work of the Spirit. Instead he spends his time showing us how the Spirit actually transforms us daily. This book isn’t about tapping into the Spirit’s power as if he is some passive power source. It’s about the powerful Spirit, given to us by a powerful Christ, doing real work in our hearts. This is more a book about looking at what the Spirit is doing instead of banging us over the head with what the Spirit could be doing. As such it is wildly encouraging.
When you buy a book by Jared Wilson you know you are going to get something that is focused on Jesus and the finished gospel. This book is no different. Even though the principle topic is the work of the Spirit, Wilson continues his unashamed Christ-centeredness.
Two things really impacted me in this book. First, there is a focus all throughout about living by the work of the Spirit instead of by the power of the flesh. Jared Wilson is one of my favorite authors because of his propensity to take ordinary truths and say them in such a way that it catches my attention. This happened repeatedly throughout the book. I realized ways in which I’ve neglected walking in the Spirit and have relied on my own flesh. Truths that I’ve heard a million times and things I readily know about myself, but the Lord used Jared’s writing skills to help me think of things in a new way.
Secondly, his chapter on Break Free From the Drama was incredibly helpful. If you had me read the Table of Contents and then pick a chapter that I thought would be the most helpful I doubt this chapter would have made the list. Maybe it has more to do with my present situation than anything else, but I loved this chapter. It helped me have a renewed appreciation for the local church and the people God has placed in my life. I particularly liked this statement:
If I have no choice but to pick a culture to ‘sin with,’ I’m going to pick the one that is warring with that sin, holding me accountable for that sin—perhaps even disciplining me for it—and constantly pointing me to the Jesus who forgives my sin, taking it to the cross to kill it. We all have to choose who we’re going to sin with. Why not choose the church? (Wilson, 143)
Man, I love that as a picture of the local church. The book is filled with great sentences and paragraphs just like that one. I’m convinced that if you read this book you’ll have a greater understanding of the Holy Spirit. You might not be able to untangle all the theological knots surrounding pneumatology but by the grace of God you’ll have a strengthened relationship with the Spirit and you’ll marvel at Christ as your Helper shines the spotlight on His finished work.
You can purchase Supernatural Power For Everyday People here.
—
Photo source: here
