Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala BOOK REVIEW

Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala 

 Reviewed by Aaron DeWeese

Jim Cymbala was a familiar name to me, as I had read some of his articles in Charisma magazine.  The Charismatic books are the most widely read books in Christendom.  I've not really been impressed with one to date—there is always a running theme under them all which I do not adhere to.

Jim was thrown into the role of Pastor by the hand of his father-in-law.  Jim had no formal ministerial training(and I suspect still hasn't), and make no mistake about it, he takes pride in that fact. 

Preaching the word systematically isn't important to Jim—only giving the Holy Spirit time to work in 2 hour services with no thought put into them is.  This mode of thinking is to say that the Holy Spirit could not inspire man's reason, could not inspire his writing, or a sermon.  This goes against the essence of the Scriptures themselves.  C.S. Lewis argued that reason itself was the supernatural element within nature, and I agree with him.  The Charismatics though have made reason synonymous with the carnal mind.  This is eisegesis and not exegesis.  The carnal mind is not synonymous with the human mind.  The carnal mind is biblically defined as the mind which is sinful, which is unrepentant.  We are transformed by the renewing of our mind—we don't throw our mind out as being hopelessly carnal.

More than anything else, Jesus taught.  The Word opens the way for the Holy Spirit.  Prayer is vital, worship is vital, letting the spiritual gifts operate within the church are vital, and the preaching and teaching of the Word is vital.  If a church comes to only focus on any one of these things, at the expense of the others, they are lacking. 

"The New Beginning" for Pastor Cymbala and his church came when he felt that the Holy Spirit prompted him to begin a prayer service.  The total emphasis of the book is on prayer.  Within the book there are several stories about how prayer brought about action on God's part:  Jim finds a mysterious envelop filled with just enough money so that the church's mortgage payment may be made.  Jim's wayward daughter receives a visitation from the Lord, and returns home repentant, after his prayer team focused on her.  These are impressive stories that I don't believe can be refuted—they show the Holy Spirit working on the heart of man, bringing man to action, to repentance.  I only wonder why there are not more of them, and less railing against what Jim has never been familiar with.  At times Cymbala seems to depolarize, with critiques of the chaotic weirdness which has gone on in the name of the Holy Spirit. He recognizes there is a problem in the Charismatic world, and that the lack of biblical doctrines being taught is the cause.  Then on the next page he says: 

"Does anyone really think that America today is lacking preachers, books, Bible translations, and neat doctinral statements?"

I would answer him, "No, but we are lacking in the use of those good materials, as people are lazy, and want a magical Christianity of expediency, which requires no use of their mind—and to excuse this, they have condemned the mind and head knowledge.

I don't disagree with Pastor Cymbala in that prayer moves the heart of God.  The book is a wonderful testimony to that; however, the underlying theme that condemns learned expository preaching, that would condemn a series of sermons that a Pastor may have labored for months on, and says that because these sermons were not spontaneous, emotional, intuitive, and untaught, that the Holy Spirit could have no part in them—this is simply wrong.  J. Vernon McGee said a man need not be educated to begin preaching; though he should wish to grow in the wisdom and knowledge of the Word, and hopefully Seminary is in his future plans.  I believe if a man is proud of his lack of knowledge, something is terribly wrong with his doctrine—or un-doctrine rather.

There is such a bias in the Charismatic world against formal education, against reason, against science, which we call the general revelation of God.  It's so sad.  Pastor Jim Cymbala shows us there is no doubt at all that he is not educated in biblical doctrines by this statement: 

"North American Christians must no longer accept the status quo.  No more neat little meetings, even with the benefit of 100 percent correct doctrine." (153)

This is the underlying Charismatic theme:  Biblical truths and the teachings of Christ inhibit the Holy Spirit.  I would say that when a church is operating outside of biblical doctrines, THIS is what inhibits the Holy Spirit.

As you can tell, this highly irritates me.  I could not enjoy the biblical truths that WERE in this book, for the glaring error in it.  Perhaps someday I will come to the level of maturity where I can eat fish and spit out bones, as my friend Pastor Alex says.  It angers me so, because other people are choking on the bones.  Pray for Jim and I....