Sam Storms is going to bring out a new book which looks set to be very promising and encouraging for those of us passionate about more of the Holy Spirit! It's called, "
Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards's "Religious Affections". It's going to be published on July 13th but I'm not sure when it will be available in the UK. Crossway Books describe it like this;
"Jonathan Edwards’s treatise Religious Affections is widely considered the most important and accurate analysis of religious experience ever written.
Unfortunately, many well-intentioned readers sit down with Religious Affections, only to give up in frustration over Edwards’s lofty style and complex argumentation.
For this reason Sam Storms, one of evangelicalism’s experts on Edwards, has attempted to bridge the gap between how Edwards said what he did in the eighteenth century and how he might say it today. In Signs of the Spirit he articulates the substance of Edwards’s arguments in a more understandable way. The point is not to “dumb down” Jonathan Edwards but to make his work accessible to a wider audience.
This volume will serve those both in and outside the academic realm as valuable preparation for, or as a companion guide to, a reading of Edwards’s Religious Affections".
For those who found "Religious Affections" quite hard this could be a very helpful resource! Don't forget Sam Storms blog is
here and is worthy of reading.
What to say about Sam Storms? Although Jesse and I both expressed concern of the use of the term "
Continuationist" and that is one that I know Sam Storms applies to himself - credit must be given where credit is due. Sam Storms seems to be a unique man in that he is a theologian
par excellence. But his theology is very practical. For example he has a set of CD's available for purchase at his site called, "
Pursuing Prophecy". This isn't just doctrine. I was fortunate enough to be at the
Life in the Spirit Conference in 2005 when he spoke on the gift of prophecy. After he had spoken, he prayed for us all gathered and I had an incredible experience - something like the feeling of a kettle boiling up inside me. I had prophesied in the past but due to a difficult church environment had allowed the gift within me to die. That night I experienced what it was like to have it "fanned into flame". I then was given a word for a pastor there - which was quite nerve-racking!
Continuationist or not - he seems to have been able to find the balance of teaching doctrinally that the gifts are for today but also seeking them and pursuing them experientially and praying for those he ministers to. He's very worth reading - so keep an eye out for this book, "Signs of the Spirit!".
"I had a view, that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God as Mediator between God and man, and His wonderful, great, full, pure and sweet grace and love and meek and gentle condecension. This grace that appeared so calm and sweet appeared also great above the heavens. The Person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent, with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception - which continued as near as I can judge about an hour; which kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears and weeping aloud. 
