Fresh Wind Fresh Fire * * * * *
by Jim CymbalaA House of Prayer!
Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire will challenge you to pray and seek the Lord in everything and for everything. The book challenges you to pray, not just for results, but to get to know the one who loves you.
This is the story of how God took a struggling dying church with a struggling minister and turned it into one of the biggest churches of our time. This book is filled with story after story of how the Lord transformed the lives of people with the gospel and the power of prayer. What good is it to have the right teaching and doctrine, but no power from the Holy Ghost? Pastor Jim Cymbala not only teaches sound doctrine, but also emphasizes the importance of personal and corporate prayer without all the theatrics of the charismatics.
Pastor Cymbala does not just talk about prayer, he prays, his church prays. Even their choir practice is a prayer service! In most mega churches where thousands attend Sunday morning services, only about a few hundred usually show up for their weekday prayer meetings. Not so with the Brooklyn tabernacle, not only do thousands show up for Sunday morning worship, thousands also show up for Tuesday night prayer meeting. As a matter of fact, people show up and wait in line for hours before the church doors are open - for the Tuesday prayer meeting!
Through his sound biblical teaching and corporate prayer, the Brooklyn Tabernacle have been able to reach all kinds of people, from prostitutes to cross dressers to crack addicts, drunks and homeless bums, all have not only experience salvation, but a true change in their life styles with evidence.
Here are some quotes: " The more we pray, the more we sense our need to pray. The more we sense a need to pray, the more we want to pray."
"Prayer is the source of the Christian life, a Christian lifeline. Otherwise, it's like having a baby in your arms and dressing her up so cute - but she's not breathing! Never mind the frilly clothes; stabilize the child's vital signs. It does no good to talk to someone in a comatose state. That's why the great emphasis on teaching in today's churches is producing such limited results. Teaching is good only where there's life to be channeled. If the listeners are in a spiritual coma, what we're telling them may be fine and orthodox, but unfortunately spiritual life cannot be taught."
"If my church or your church isn't praying, we shouldn't be boasting in our orthodoxy or our Sunday morning attendance figures."
The book is filled with testimonies of lives that have been transformed through the prayer of the saints. Pastor Cymbala also shares a testimony of how God transformed a member of his family through the prayer of the saints.
Once you start to read this book, you won't be able to put it down. This is a must read!
Reading level: ages 18 and up
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