Blogging for Books-The God I Never Knew

I am now on my 3rd Book Review. I chose a completely different topic from my other two and this book definitely stretched me. I feel that I learned a lot from reading it though. The book I'm going to share about is called The God I Never Knew by Robert Morris.

After reading The God I Never Knew: How a Real Friendship with the Holy Spirit can Change Your Life by Robert Morris, I have gained a new understanding of who the Holy Spirit is. The author has been in the ministry 25+ years and has authored many books. It is obvious from reading The God I Never Knew that Morris has a deep and meaningful relationship with the Holy Spirit. But Morris doesn’t make you feel bad or guilty if you don’t have the same relationship – he simply encourages you to begin today to let the Holy Spirit change your life. To be honest, I really don't feel qualified to review this book. But, I will do my best and provide you with the “big ideas” of what I took away from reading The God I Never Knew, and hopefully you too will feel encouraged to read it.

This is the first book I have read devoted solely about the Holy Spirit. There is no question in my mind that the more Christians learn and gain understanding about the 3rd member of the trinity, it will only strengthen their walk with the Lord. Robert Morris begins the book by acknowledging that there are people that might be hesitant or basically closed off with learning more about the Holy Spirit, but he addresses these feelings quickly: “If you are like most people, you’ve probably been misinformed about the Holy Spirit to some degree. After more than twenty-five years of experience in ministry, I’ve seen firsthand that most Christians hold a distorted, inaccurate, or incomplete view of the third member of the Trinity” (pg 3). Morris recognizes that most people are uncomfortable with the mere idea of the Holy Spirit – especially if we believe what society (and sadly many churches) believes. But if we take the time to learn more from the Bible about who He is, then hopefully those misgivings will disappear.

I appreciated that Morris addresses the fact that most of society thinks that the Holy Spirit is “strange.” That people who are “spirit-filled” are strange. Morris writes, “I am convinced that one of Satan’s primary strategies for keeping people from experiencing all the amazing help and benefits that come from a relationship with the Holy Spirit is to convince us that doing so will make us weird – really weird!” (pg 20). This section was important to me because a part of me had some of these thoughts. I was willing to let the Holy Spirit in, but only on my terms. But Morris argues that as Christians we do not have restrictions with Jesus, so why then would we have “boundaries” for the Holy Spirit? A real friendship with the Holy Spirit can change people’s lives.

Here are the big ideas that really spoke to me. First, the Holy Spirit is a person and fully God. This is vital to believe because we must develop a personal relationship with him. Only then can He work within us. And because He is fully God, He knows everything, all at once, all the time (pg 49). Second, He is our helper and we need Him. The Holy Spirit has gifts He wants to give us, but we have to receive those gifts. We have to be open to His power. Morris explains, “Yet His power only operates to the degree that we allow Him to change us…We have to yield. Our stubborn, prideful selves have to submit” (pg 122). One of the things I appreciate about the author is that he backs up everything he writes with scripture from the Bible. To me, providing the scriptures that say the truth about the Holy Spirit is overwhelming “evidence” that we must have the Holy Spirit in our lives. Not doing so only gives us a small glimpse of the life that God created us to live: “Many Christians are living a life of defeat, frustration, and failure that I lived before I opened my heart and mind to this third baptism. I’ve tried living without the Holy Spirit’s power, but I wouldn’t go back to that way of living for all the money in the world. It’s too wonderful to have God the Holy Spirit as a best friend” (pg 108). And third, God created us to be in intimacy with the Holy Spirit.

The bottom line is simple: The Holy Spirit wants us and we need Him. In The God I Never Knew, author Robert Morris took a difficult and complex topic and made it easy for someone like me (one who doesn’t have as much experience and knowledge about the Holy Spirit as I’d like to have) to fully appreciate the role the Holy Spirit would like to play in my life. When I’m reading a book that is truly teaching me something, I have a highlighter and a pen at the ready; this book is filled with many highlights. Hopefully someday I’ll feel qualified to tell you about the God I never knew just like Morris did.

*FTC Disclaimer: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Blogging for books has been such a joy for me to do. I'm excited to pick out my next book. If you get a chance, check out my review at Blogging for Books. There you will find information on how to purchase the book, as well as rank my review.
Also, as a side note, this book will have a discussion guide available - so it would be an interesting read to do with a Small Group.