This book was written in 1987 and updated ten years later. It is a series of essays by David Wells with several appendices by others. All is based upon a symposium on the Holy Spirit and evangelism, this took place in Oslo more than twenty years ago. There is great value in this short book of a little over one hundred pages. It pulsates with a sense of God active by His Spirit in the work or creation, redemption and the life of the church as playing its part in that work. It combines insights from theologians and pastors working in the First, Second and Third Worlds. It will bring help to ministers and serious readers who desire to see the gospel preached authentically in the world of today. The book opens with a chapter by J. I. Packer entitled ‘On Being Serious about the Holy Spirit” and this sets the tone for the following chapters. Topics covered are Spiritual Power encounters, the spread of Christianity in China today, the Spirit and People groups being an account of God’s power and human imagination. A further appendix on the east African revival is included as well as one on renewing the worship of the local church. The sense of God at work, by His Spirit, accomplishing His purpose is paramount in the book. It encourages us to realize how God is the prime mover, the book is a helpful antidote to the activist emphasis so prevalent nowadays that the church has to ‘get the job of converting the world done’! We see God pursuing His program, set against the Old Testament action of creation and sustaining of the creation, the taking out of the nation of Israel from among the nations to be His peculiar people from which He would bring forth His Son. All this is attributed to the Holy Spirit as God’s agent in accomplishing the purpose and that continues and shall reach its telos in His time. The implicit message contained here is that the church must work in full sensitive cooperation with the Holy Spirit and not be pursuing her own attempts at fulfilling God’s purpose. This book can easily bear a second and third reading, there are insights and an orderliness which encourages faith in the heart of the reading as we see the action of God in the whole work of salvation and redemption. Here is another short work well worth obtaining and reading.
