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Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire: What happens when God's Spirit invades the heart of his people

Make room for his power

FRESH WIND, FRESH FIRE:
What happens when God's Spirit invades the hearts of His people
By Jim Cymbala (with Dean Merrill)
Zondervan, 1997. £8.99
ISBN 0 310 21416 5

Don't be put off by the title! This is not another pro-Toronto book; it's the real thing, at last! Actually not really 'at last' as the book was published in 1997. Why hadn't I heard of it before?

Jim Cymbala is senior pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, a multi-ethnic fellowship on Flatbush Avenue, in a rundown part of New York. Many people have seen a video of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, which includes the testimony of Roberta Langella's amazing conversion. But not many, it seems, have heard of this book, or indeed of other books by the same author.

Brooklyn Tabernacle was without doubt a dying cause, seemingly hopeless in the extreme. But the Lord showed Jim and his wife, Carol, that they must make a priority of prayer. The prayer-meeting was made the main church-meeting, but the effect became obvious in other church activities, including the Sunday meetings. In 25 years the congregation grew from 20 to 6,000 and, in time, 17 other local fellowships sprang out of God's working among them.

This is certainly a shake-up book, refocusing us on prayer as the key to the blossoming of God's life in our local churches. It is unusual to find a modern Christian book with so much reality and sheer spiritual wisdom. If you take this message to heart, you can't remain the same!

Here is the author's own testimony concerning the first spiritual breakthrough in the fellowship: 'That evening, when I was at my lowest, confounded by obstacles, bewildered by the darkness that surrounded us, unable even to continue preaching, I discovered an astonishing truth: God is attracted to weakness. He can't resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desperately they need him. Our weakness, in fact, makes room for his power' (p.19).

Mike Taylor