A basic premise of this book, one that I need to hear and be
reminded of, is that Holy Spirit is not a thing, but rather the 3d person of the
Trinity, Leon Fontaine argues a strong case that within many local Churches,
Holy Spirit is not given the credit that He is due. The Spirit Contemporary: Unleashing the Miraculous in Your Everyday
World, ( WaterBrook, 2016) is full of examples of how Holy Spirit works,
and some practical tips for learning how to recognize what He is doing.
Fontaine starts with a question: Why read this book? And he wastes no time, and pulls no punches
in answering his own question. "It's time that we stop living boring,
safe, little Christian lives and start thinking differently about God, about
life and about ourselves". In effect
it's time to unleash the power of Holy
Spirit, it's time to learn how to communicate the good news with non-believers in
contemporary ways. Nobody is suggesting that the message be changed, what
Fontaine suggests is that we get back to basics, and learn how to share that
message in ways that are meaningful and relevant in today's culture and
context.
Fontaine comes from a Christian background, but as a young
man, newly trained and hired as an EMT, he quickly found that evangelizing, and
even prayer, on the job was frowned upon - even though urgency was often a prime
factor. So he learned to adapt to the situation and how to open doors to the necessary
conversation. Some of his methods are found in this book. Along with some of
the miracles which are credited to the work and intervention of Holy Spirit.
I enjoyed reading this book, and it gave me much to think
about, but I have to confess that many times I'm one of those people living the
boring, safe, little Christian life, so my 'comfort zone' was immediately challenged. I wish I had the
ability to see Holy Spirit at work in as many ways as Fontaine does, but in the
meantime I need to learn to stretch myself. That being said, for my taste there
were too many personal examples and not enough scripture to support his
premise. As I said I may need to learn
to stretch myself just a little more.
4/5
I received a copy of this book in exchange for this review.
I was not required to write a positive review.
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