Rarely does one come across a person who has such a deep understanding of church history and a true love for the church. I have never met someone so rich in the healing ministry and its impartation. He’s my hero for leveraging the power of testimonies in an amazing increase in healing. Hailing from a Catholic tradition, I salute Dr. Randy Clark for the love, time, and effort he takes for working with Catholics and many other denominations and having meetings and respectful conversations with them.
Reading the book over the weekend was a treat. I was on a spiritual high, knowing more about the resplendent personality of the Holy Spirit. For a few months, I had been desiring a closer walk with the Holy Spirit; hence, reading the book was the reason for a great celebration. Thank you Dr. Randy Clark for writing this book. Within hours after reading the book, I was insisting on praying for a relative of ours who was staying with us for the weekend. She had not prayed in tongues yet, as she was still a practicing Catholic who was never told about praying in tongues in the church.
The book made me aware multiple times that I need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit’s power available to every believer. Although I knew this, this time, because of the power with which this was told, I had to willingly and joyfully surrender to this truth. I never thought much about the difference between the fruit of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But the book gave a simple yet powerful perspective that showed the fruit of the Holy Spirit is the fruit of being (the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, as mentioned in Galatians 5:22), whereas the gift of the Holy Spirit being the fruit of doing referred to the healings, deliverances, and miracles (1 Corinthians 12:4–11). Also, the awareness that the first baptism is for salvation for us, i.e., individuals, whereas the second baptism was for others to be impacted by the power of the Holy Spirit upon us was new to me.
The reminder that the scripture is an invitation to a lifestyle of supernatural engagement and not merely a book for reading and studying was good to drive change within me. The various manifestations under the power of the Holy Spirit picked up from the Bible by Dr. Gary Greig were useful. It was good to know that trembling, falling, joy, and drunkenness of Spirit have both references in the Old and New Testaments—and these are the standards for an understanding of the Spirit’s renewing work in today’s world.
