Customer Reviews

Sensitivity Of The Holy Spirit: Learning to stay in the flow of God's direction

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This is a very informative and enlightening book on the anointing and presence of the Holy Spirit in a Christian's life. Using the story in Luke of when Mary and Joseph left Jesus behind in the temple at the age of 12, Kendall explains how we as Christians often travel on in life believing the Holy Spirit is right there with us when, in fact, we need to retrace our steps to reconnect with Him again. Kendall also uses the Biblical comparison of the Holy Spirit as a dove, which provides thoughtful analogies to help gain a deeper understanding of Him.

This book does more to paint a tangible picture of what is definitely intangible as I have ever read. It is written in detail, it is compartmentalized, and when one is finished reading it; it is possible to put yourself through the sensitivity to the spirit test. It definitely causes one to be mindful of all behaviour both, physical as well as mental. The biblical knowledge coupled with the personal experience and references makes it a must read for anyone striving to grow spiritually.

I have preached and studied the subject of the Holy Spirit for many years and Kendall's book has touched a very important area that has been neglected concerning the Holy Spirit. We are too insensitive to the Holy Spirit and His work in our hearts and world

R.T. Kendall is a very gifted teacher and pastor and I've heard him twice speaking on this subject of being sensitive to the Holy Spirit. The main critique that I have about this book is that too much is made of the dove vs. pigeon analogy. Kendall states that the Holy Spirit is like a dove rather than a pigeon -- based on the passage in Matt. 3: 16 where it says that "the Spirit of God was descending (upon Jesus) like a dove" (ESV). Kendall devotes a lot of print in analyzing the difference between a dove and a pigeon. In pg. 25 of the book, Kendall states the first main truth of this book (the sensitivity of the Holy Spirit) and says, "This refers to His passive feelings. It refers to how sensitive He is when He is grieved. It is this aspect of His personality that causes the Dove to fly away." The 2nd truth that Kendall emphasizes is being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, hence the title of this book.

The chapters of this book are the following:

Introduction
Ch. 1 The Sensitivity of the Heavenly Dove
Ch. 2 Adjusting to the Heavenly Dove
Ch. 3 Finding Out What Pleases the Lord
Ch. 4 Why is God Sometimes Silent?
Ch. 5 The Danger of Presumption
Ch. 6 How We Can Become Insensitive to the Spirit
Ch. 7 Recognizing God's Absence
Ch. 8 Pigeon Religion
Ch. 9 The Road Back
Ch. 10 The Return to the Anointing
Conclusion and Notes


Chapters 2 and 3 are devoted to the analogy of the Holy Spirit as the Dove, and chap. 8 describes the difference between the Dove and a Pigeon. I felt that Kendall overdoes the analogy of the dove and builds a whole theology on it. I think it is dangerous to build a whole theology upon a single metaphor of the Spirit. Why doesn't Kendall do the same about talking about the metaphors about fire, oil, streams of water, etc? These are all metaphors mentioned in Scripture to refer to the Holy Spirit.

Kendall states that Holy Spirit, like a Dove, will quickly fly away when we grieve him. I think it is dangerous to overuse the dove metaphor and apply it with the grieving of the Holy Spirit. This will give readers the impression that the Holy Spirit will quickly leave us when we grieve him. This is not Scriptural. Jesus states in John 14:16 (ESV), "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever." What did Jesus say? The Holy Spirit will be with believers forever. When we sin, we grieve the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit will not leave us. We will hinder his work in us, but the Holy Spirit will not fly away like a dove and not come back. This is the problem with Kendall's overuse of the dove analogy -- it leads to a very serious and unbiblical concept that the Holy Spirit will leave us.

In the O.T. under the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit did leave persistent sinners like King Saul. But in the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit indwells believers forever. We don't have to fear, like King David did, when he wrote in Ps. 51: 11 (ESV), "Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me."

However, the good points of this book is that Kendall offers good practical insights on how we can be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, contribute to unity with others through forgiveness, and practical guidelines for holy living.

I respect R.T. Kendall highly as a gifted and godly teacher and preacher. However, I think he needs to check his theology of the Holy Spirit and avoid the overuse of a single metaphor to convey wrong unbiblical ideas, which can be very discouraging and misleading to believers.

I believe this book is the finest book written on the inner workings of the Holy Spirit and in how to cooperate with the Spirit of God. Reading this book you can tell reverend Kendall knows the Holy Spirit and knows him well! This book is mainly about the manifest special presence of the Holy Spirit. I rate this equal if not above the books written by Reverend Benny Hinn. This book should be in every minsiters library and any christian who wants to be a vessel of honor that God can use. It is about cooperation with the Spirit of the Living God who is the active agent in the earth today doing the Father's will and exalting the Lord Jesus Christ! The more we learn of the Holy Spirit's likes and dislikes, the more can be accomplished by the Holy Spirit and his church. He uses his body of believers to accomplish this. But if we run pell mell over his dislikes and do things our way, he is a perfect gentleman and will not adjust to our ways or thinking but will just not use us. Some work is not being done in the body of Christ because we expect the Holy Spirit to go along with "our way" which he will not do. Ever! This book is about full cooperation with the Holy Spirit. If we don't treat him like a living person with a personality, we grieve him and disrespect him as God. He is the least spoken about and least respected of the godhead. I believe that is the main difference between the first century church and the church of today. They understood more about the workings of the Holy Spirit and depended on him more than we do today. If you want a great book that will really open your eyes to the Holy Spirit being a real person who wants to use you and be a major part of your life, then get this book!

There were some good points in this book but some of the analogies were referred to over and over again making them redundant. He made way too much of comparing the dove & the pigeon. The best thing that I got from the book was about how not to grieve the Holy Spirit.

To value the Presence of The Holy Spirit above all else, this is a Must Read. The book of Romans calls us to walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh. This book gives very good insight on how to apply that truth by working with the Spirit of Truth to walk in victory that is the privilege of every Disciple of Christ.

Love this book! Haven't finished it yet, but anything R.T. Kendall writes, I enjoy.
It's best to really take your time and read through and let the information soak in.
My desire is not to grieve the Spirit and to learn when I am working in the flesh.
This book is a great source for understanding just that!

I forgot for a moment that I live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and the mail is slow! Fantastic Shopping was most professional but courteous, as to the "whys" I hadn't received my book. I appreciate their concern over one new customer, and I will purchase another book using them. Very customer oriented company.

Perhaps a better way to look at it, is that we have been working on such a loving relationship with Jesus and are trying to immitate His Character Traits and when we stray from this path or sin we disconnect or put other things in the way. They have always been the same for all times. We hopefully are the ones getting better and better. There is also another thought, that sometimes God places adversity in our path and we in the beginning of this process think that it is bad. But this is just his way of making us stronger and shaping us the way that He wants us. At this period, we see and feel things that we don't ordinally have seen or felt before. This phase stops, not because we have done somethings wrong, but because we now understand what He wants us to do. (Kind of like a gentle push)