Gift &

Giver

The Holy Spirit for Today

Craig S. Keener

Baker Academic

Grand Rapids, Michigan

© 2001 by Craig S. Keener

Published by Baker Academic

a division of Baker Book House Company

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Keener, Craig S., 1960–

Gift and giver: the Holy Spirit for today / Craig S. Keener.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-8010-2266-5 (pbk.)

1. Gifts, Spiritual. I. Title.

BT767.3.K44 2001

234′.13—dc21

00-050768

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are the author’s translation.

Scripture quotations identified niv are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations identified kjv are from the King James Version of the Bible.

For current information about all releases from Baker Book House, visit our web site:

http://www.bakerbooks.com

To the memory of church planters

Everett and Esther Cook,

two of my earliest mentors in ministry

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Recognizing the Spirit’s Voice

2 Learning to Hear God’s Heart by the Spirit

3 The Spirit Empowers Us for Evangelism

4 The Spirit and How We Live

5 Are Spiritual Gifts for Today?

6 A Closer Look at Some Spiritual Gifts

7 The Spirit and Salvation

8 When Are We Baptized in the Spirit?

9 Tongues and the Spirit

10 Why Discern the Spirit?

Conclusion

Appendix: What Can Bible Stories Teach Us?

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to my editors at Baker, Bob Hosack and Melinda Van Engen; also to Amanda Beckenstein and Jonathan and Melissa Fettig, my students at Eastern Seminary, who retyped much of the manuscript after a disk error destroyed the computerized form of some chapters. I should also thank my colleague Kristin Frederich-Smoot, dean of spiritual formation at the seminary and a person of prayer, for her helpful comments, as well as my friend Alyn Waller, pastor of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Philadelphia.

Because much of the material from 3 Crucial Questions about the Holy Spirit remains in this work, I must also thank some dear friends who hold various perspectives on the more controversial questions and read through this manuscript. They include Melesse and Tadesse Woldetsadik, two charismatic brothers from Ethiopia who led hundreds of people to Christ while living in refugee camps in Kenya. Melesse finished his degree at Columbia Biblical Seminary and has written a book about the Spirit in Amharic, Ethiopia’s main language. They also include Sharon Saunders, a former Baptist missionary with Africa Inland Mission; and ...