You Will Receive Power

by William Law

Holy Spirit Power
You were created for glory! Christ came so that you might be restored to the initial glory for which God made you. The whole place of redemption is to put the divine nature back into your spirit, as it was meant to be from the very beginning. As William Law reveals the power of the Holy Spirit to you, he explains how you Discover how you can have the Christ-centered, Spirit-filled life for which God originally created you .

172 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1997

About the author

William Law (1686 – 9 April 1761) was a Church of England priest who lost his position at Emmanuel College, Cambridge when his conscience would not allow him to take the required oath of allegiance to the first Hanoverian monarch, George I. Previously William Law had given his allegiance to the House of Stuart and is sometimes considered a second-generation non-juror (an earlier generation of non-jurors included Thomas Ken). Thereafter, Law first continued as a simple priest (curate) and when that too became impossible without the required oath, Law taught privately, as well as wrote extensively. His personal integrity, as well as mystic and theological writing greatly influenced the evangelical movement of his day as well as Enlightenment thinkers such as the writer Dr Samuel Johnson and the historian Edward Gibbon. Law's spiritual writings remain in print today.

Reviews

[Christian Briggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Please don't let the title fool you. Someone told me to check it out but I wasn't going to read it because it looks like a book Kenneth Hagin would write. But this was not the author's original title. The original title in 1761 was "an humble, earnest, and affectionate address to the clergy" and it was "modernized and published in 1896 by Andrew Murray," who's an author I've got a lot of respect for. I was told and confirmed it has a very strong endorsement by Andrew Murray saying this was the best presentation he could find of a powerful message the church needed to hear in his day (and I assume more so in our day). And it's free audio on YouTube so what do I have to lose besides a few precious hours of life? So that's why I listened to it.

This was a terrific and perhaps helpful orientation towards the Holy Spirit. I especially appreciated what he says about denying "natural reason" in chapter 5. Reminds me of 1 Corinthians chapters 1 & 2. I also appreciated his history of the church being corrupted as a result of "temporal power" which makes me think about Tertullian's famous quote, "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." So now I really want to know if our comfortable "christian nation" is a major obstacle to saving faith (especially the self-denying aspect). Up until now, I believed persecution was a necessary sign of conversion ("the world will hate you," etc), but now I'm wondering if it's even more important.

He did not do an adequate job explaining or defending his views on Christian perfectionism. He pointed to some solid scriptures, which is great, but he didn't open them up to illustrate them or connect them to real life. I'm really interested because I've been accused of this perfectionism, because I expect a "new nature" with identifiable signs of conversion, such as freedom from sexual immorality and idolatry. I doubt anyone on earth could obey the greatest commandment for even one second, even with the Holy Spirit, so I don't think I could believe in any sinless Christians on earth. Though it's odd that 1 John says everyone has sin, but Christians don't do sin, and cannot sin. Also with regards to perfectionism, I want to know how it is that Barnabas, James, and Peter were all engaged together in hypocrisy, but elsewhere in Matthew 24:51 Jesus says the hypocrites go to a place where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. Maybe one's a hypocrisy of nature, and the other is a temporary lapse. Who knows. But back to the book.

The other issue I had was that early on the author wants to throw out our natural reason, but then later on he directs us to focus on our hearts to connect to God through faith, hope, and love, especially trying to connect through whatever good desires are there, because that's where the Holy Spirit is at work in everybody. He then immediately anticipates the response that our hearts are awful and there's no good in them, "a den of thieves" like the temple in Jesus's day. Then he says that protest is great sign of God's work in your heart, and one of two core truths that must be understood. But I was never able to understand how to reconcile looking inward to connect to Jesus, with the knowledge that our heart is so desperately wicked.

When I used to run regularly, I would check my pulse occasionally to see if I was making progress, but I knew that checking my pulse wouldn't produce any progress. Similarly, I cannot conceive how looking inward would help me at all, except to occasionally provoke or encourage me onward in the real fight of faith.

The third issue I had was him leaning multiple times on Acts 17:28, where Paul is quoting the pagans, which is extremely weak.

Overall I would recommend it, but not as essential reading.

[Ramiro Parra · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading hundreds of good books about religion and Theology without any spiritual result or real change in the spiritual life, to came back to the basis of spiritual truth and practice was enlightened and hopeful. This is a book who every sincere Christian must appreciate and embrace with humility and prayer, seeking total dependence of GOD.