Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire: What Happens When God's Spirit Invades the Hearts of His People Paperback – March 31, 2003

Very encouraging to read the backstory of a successful church.

Recommend by a dear Pastor, this may be the most encouraging book I’ve read in my 71 years… muscular, yet humble and majestic - like Jesus!

Book arrived promptly in excellent condition. It is a moving account of the beginnings of Brooklyn Tabernacle and the power of prayer.

Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire is a wonderful short book coauthored by Pastor Jim Cymbala and Dean Merrill. Pastor Cymbala describes how God has blessed him and his wife Carol in their ministries with the famous Brooklyn Tabernacle in the last thirty years. The title "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" draws parallel of this church to the first century church in Acts 2:1-4. This book is a remarkable testimony of the awesome work of the Holy Spirit in how He could do great and mighty things through His people when they humble themselves in prayers. The increase in number for the Brooklyn Tabernacle is spectacular, but it turns pale when comparing to the increase in Pastor Cymbala's faith and dependency in God. God simply turned him from an amateur into warrior. It is a short book, but it is an important book for every serious Christian.This book is divided into three sections, namely (1) Waking Up to a Powerful Promise, (2) Diversions from God's Best, and (3) The Road Ahead. Section 1 centers on the promise God revealed to Pastor Cymbala in Florida, that if he and his wife will lead his people to pray and call upon His name, He will provide everything they need: sermon, money, church building, and people (p. 25). Once he realized that prayer meeting is the engine of the church, and serious about it, Lord never stopped blessing them. Section 2 underscores that our lukewarm churches nowadays are in trouble by the lure of novelty, marketing, pleasing people, and dead doctrine without passions and actions for the Lord. Section 3 warns us not to be proud of ourselves and take credits from God. He challenges us to "look at the scoreboard" and be brave for God. At the end, he encourages us that the never changing power of the Holy Spirit is all-sufficient as He has never changed since the day of Pentecost.This book is full of powerful true stories with drug addict, male prostitute, demon-processed person, homeless, all for the glory of God and the expansion of His kingdom. Besides touching stories, this book refers to scriptures in the Bible just as well - an important attribute for any Christian writing. Pastor Cymbala quotes Acts a lot, and is a doer of God's words when he follows the model of first century church in Acts.This book emphasizes the sufficiency of the power of Holy Spirit. As a church to proclaim God's message in this evil generation, nothing will work better than the Holy Spirit Himself working through his humble and broken people. This is nicely summarized in his comments after the biblical example of Asa, that "such [whatever works is the way to go] thinking is due for a rude awakening when we stand before the Lord." (p. 164).This inspiring book has made me think a lot. As a choir member, I was touched that even the Tabernacle choir would devoted at least half an hour to pray before the practice. Why can their music be so touching? The answer is in prayer. Life in the music comes from prayer (p. 49). I was so moved when I read the determination of that prayer band member to pray for her pastor before the Jewish man disturbed the worship service with a gun. I was equally touched by Pastor Cymbala's story on his rebellious daughter after the prayer meeting. Why can they do those great and mighty things through prayers but we can't? Why is our prayer meeting so poorly attended? The book provides an answer: prayer has to be born out of a whole environment of felt need. We cannot just say "we ought to pray", but " we have to be driven to pray" (p. 49). I am a firm believer in prayer and the promise in John 15:7, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." How encouraging it is to see prayer and faith in full action in The Brooklyn Tabernacle! This book rekindled my faith in the Lord. Nothing is too difficult for Him (Jeremiah 32:17). Brethren, I encourage you to read this book, and get serious on the prayer ministry. When we work, we work. When we pray, God works! Amen.

Good book testimony of the power of prayer to the God of the universe. Examples of outcomes of those prayers.

Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire will challenge you to pray and seek the Lord in everything and for everything. The book challenges you to pray, not just for results, but to get to know the one who loves you.This is the story of how God took a struggling dying church with a struggling minister and turned it into one of the biggest churches of our time. This book is filled with story after story of how the Lord transformed the lives of people with the gospel and the power of prayer. What good is it to have the right teaching and doctrine, but no power from the Holy Ghost? Pastor Jim Cymbala not only teaches sound doctrine, but also emphasizes the importance of personal and corporate prayer without all the theatrics of the charismatics.Pastor Cymbala does not just talk about prayer, he prays, his church prays. Even their choir practice is a prayer service! In most mega churches where thousands attend Sunday morning services, only about a few hundred usually show up for their weekday prayer meetings. Not so with the Brooklyn tabernacle, not only do thousands show up for Sunday morning worship, thousands also show up for Tuesday night prayer meeting. As a matter of fact, people show up and wait in line for hours before the church doors are open - for the Tuesday prayer meeting!Through his sound biblical teaching and corporate prayer, the Brooklyn Tabernacle have been able to reach all kinds of people, from prostitutes to cross dressers to crack addicts, drunks and homeless bums, all have not only experience salvation, but a true change in their life styles with evidence.Here are some quotes: " The more we pray, the more we sense our need to pray. The more we sense a need to pray, the more we want to pray.""Prayer is the source of the Christian life, a Christian lifeline. Otherwise, it's like having a baby in your arms and dressing her up so cute - but she's not breathing! Never mind the frilly clothes; stabilize the child's vital signs. It does no good to talk to someone in a comatose state. That's why the great emphasis on teaching in today's churches is producing such limited results. Teaching is good only where there's life to be channeled. If the listeners are in a spiritual coma, what we're telling them may be fine and orthodox, but unfortunately spiritual life cannot be taught.""If my church or your church isn't praying, we shouldn't be boasting in our orthodoxy or our Sunday morning attendance figures."The book is filled with testimonies of lives that have been transformed through the prayer of the saints. Pastor Cymbala also shares a testimony of how God transformed a member of his family through the prayer of the saints.Once you start to read this book, you won't be able to put it down. This is a must read!Reading level: ages 18 and up

A really inspiring, challenging and thought-provoking book. Including examples of personal experience and plenty of Biblical material, the author seeks to point us back to the heart of Christian discipleship, namely our relationship with God, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and the life of prayer. The only reason I gave it a 4 start rating and not a 5 star rating that in one section of the book the author seems (in my opinion anyway) to stray from the mainly positive aspect of the book to argue against those who see things from a different point of view in the realm of spiritual warfare. Maybe that's me being picky, but it seemed to jar a little with the rest of the book. Having said that, I would thorough recommend the book to inspire and to challenge.

A book that encourages us to grab hold of the message of the gospel, lean not on our own understanding and let God display his amazing grace through his body... The church. A call to revival for saints and unbelievers alike

Such a tremendous book on how God renewed a whole group of people, leading them to pray for things and people that only God could help. Very honest and faith building. It is in two halves. Would suggest reading it straight through. I didn't because I thought the second part would be drier and more theoretical. This is not the case. Makes me want to read other books of Cymbala. and visit this church.

I am finding this book helpful, especially the early days of the Brooklyn Tabernacle with their struggles and complete dependence on God. I wondered if the latter part would descent into a 'this is how you should do it' superiority like many inspiration books I've read, but not so far. In fact there is warning against doing this in the book. I would read others by Jim Cymbala on the basis of this one.

This has been worth the read , and a great help to my growth in prayer and the growth of prayer in the life of our church