Customer Reviews

Flying Closer to the Flame: A Passion for the Holy Spirit/Bible Study Guide

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As usual, Chuck Swindoll hits it out of the park! This book gives us a view of God's Holy Spirit not often taught from the pulpit. He tells us that incredible power is available to the believer to accomplish much for the cause of Christ, but we usually don't trust God to do much more than the mundane in our lives.

"Let's face it - many of us simly do not understand the Holy Spirit. We feel awkward relating to Him..." And, he goes on to teach us how to understand Him and how to comfortably relate to Him. This book is easy to use, taking little time out of the day, and listening to the audio tapes will really give you the complete picture.

Charles Swindoll encourages the reader to get closer to the Holy Spirit yet seems more than cautiously skeptical of any claims of the Spirit's more dramatic manifestations. I found myself more than once starting to get excited about where he was going only to have him cut himself short to redundantly warn readers about getting "fanatical" or joining "cults". While I do agree that Christians should be duly cautious about dramatic experiences, claims, cults, and the plethora of charlatans who have paraded so called "gifts of the Spirit" on Television weighing everything they hear of and experience against the scriptures, I feel his cautions tended to overpower the many excellent points he made about how the Holy Spirit can empower, revitalize, and enable believers.

I commend the fact that Mr. Swindoll was clearly trying to be conscientious by gearing his work to a general audience of believers at all points of the spectrum of belief. Still, the repetitive admonitions gave the impression that he felt most dramatic and/or physical "manifestations" were not to be believed and that most readers of this book were looking for a grand miracle to confirm their weak conviction, rather than a deeper relationship with this integral Person of the trinity.

I feel the point that should have been more stringently stressed is how Christians themselves limit the Holy Spirit's influence and gifts because of feeble faith and a poor diet of God's word. When one is daily in the Bible and prays frequently and fervently seeking God's will in ALL they do, the influence and revitalizing qualities of the Holy Spirit are most poignantly experienced.

This is not to imply that the book has no merit or that there is nothing to be gleaned from it. On the contrary, Mr. Swindoll infuses most of his many excellent points with a healthy smattering of pertinent scripture and tended to lean more on Biblical truths than his own understanding. This is the sort of attentive preaching and teaching we could use much more of.

If not for the dated nature (15 years old) of "Flying Closer to the Flame" I would surely give it five stars. In 1993, Chuck Swindoll, then President of the non-Charismatic, cessationist Dallas Theological Seminary somewhat shocked the Evangelical world by his authorship of this book.

As his title suggested, Swindoll was encouraging those who believe that the sign gifts have ceased to hold those theological views while remaining open to experiencing the full power and presence of the Holy Spirit today.

Non-charismatic cessationists teach that the sign gifts (such as healers, miracle workers, speaking in tongues, prophesy, etc.) ceased at the completiion of the New Testament canon. This has often caused them, according to Swindoll, to minimize the ongoing role of the Holy Spirit in the believer's life today.

With careful exegesis presented at the lay level, with careful balance avoiding extremes, and with an irenic spirit, Swindoll invites non-charismatics and charismatics alike to consider what the Bible does say about the Spirit's non-sign-gift-work today. He rightly teaches that there is much that the Bible promises about the Spirit's ministry that is still alive and well today.

Laying this foundational biblical theology, Swindoll moves into practical/pastoral theology of the spiritual life. He explores with readers the role of the Spirit in decision-making, guiding, and leading the believer. He examines the filling and fruit of the Spirit and how the Spirit produces spiritual maturity in believers today.

For readers wanting an updated and more scholarly focused study of the same topic from a cessationist perspective, "Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit" by Wallace and Sawyer is the recommended text.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Beyond the Suffering," "Soul Physicians," and "Spirtual Friends."

"Flying Closer To The Flame" by Charles Swindoll concerns a topic controversial to some people - the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the Holy Spirit can be ignored when discussing God the Father and God the Son (Jesus Christ).

The topic of the Holy Spirit has been a source of disagreement between charismatics and non-charismatics for some time.

Swindoll treats the topic evenhandedly and seems to be grounded biblically in his discussions.

The book is around 270 pages and covers such topics as:

1. The filling of the Holy Spirit.
2. Drawing close to the Holy Spirit.
3. The inner promptings of the Holy Spirit.
4. The role of our emotions.
5. The power of the Holy Spirit.

As with other Swindoll titles, the book is readable and the narrative flows freely.

Read and enjoy. Recommended.

In this book, Chuck Swindoll speaks to those Christians who have been reticent about experiencing God on an intimate basis. He promotes a balanced, experiential, biblical view of the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Swindoll contends that Christians are attracted to the Holy Spirit like moths to a flamed (hence the title of the book), and he urges us non-charismatic Christians who are shy of becoming too emotional or falling into error to draw nearer to God through the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves- guide us into all truth.

Pastor Swindoll does not say that we need new revelations of the Lord, but we need to "expand our understanding of what He has already revealed". He goes on to say that every one of us in God's family has experienced at one time or another some inner prompting of the Spirit, such as feelings of hope and encouragement in times of loneliness, a sense of calm determination and courage when threatened by fears, feelings of inner reassurance in times of danger or disaster, and the grace that the Spirit ministers to us times of great sorrow and pain.

In the chapter entitled "The Spirit and our Emotions", Pastor Swindoll says that many of us have been taught not to trust our feelings, and that this is a mistake. God made us whole people, with intellect, will, and emotions. We respond to God from the depths of our emotions when we praise and worship Him. We experience peace as well as joy and love due to the work of the Holy Spirit.

In the chapter entitled "When the Spirit Brings a Slow Recovery", Pastor Swindoll points out that when we pray for an instant recovery and we don't get one, we often wonder (as well as those around us) if we lack faith or if there is some area of sin in our lives. He says that we need to acknowledge what God is doing in our lives during the time of our long recoveries, such as drawing us nearer to Him, sustaining us with His grace, deepening our faith, teaching us patience and endurance and our need to depend on Him. I really appreciated this chapter, having gone through some long recoveries of my own. Some of the people around me seemed to be more impatient with my slow recovery than I was.

Thank-you Chuck Swindoll for writing this book!