{"id":20981,"date":"2010-10-18T14:45:42","date_gmt":"2010-10-18T14:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/lee-grady-the-holy-spirit-is-not-for-sale\/"},"modified":"2010-10-18T14:45:42","modified_gmt":"2010-10-18T14:45:42","slug":"lee-grady-the-holy-spirit-is-not-for-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/lee-grady-the-holy-spirit-is-not-for-sale\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee Grady: The Holy Spirit is Not For Sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>J. Lee Grady, The Holy Spirit is Not For Sale: Rekindling the Power of God in an Age of Compromise<\/i><\/a> (Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 2010), 235 pages, ISBN 9780800794873<\/b>.<\/p>\n

The name J. Lee Grady should be familiar to those who have been part of the Pentecostal or charismatic Movements for any length of time. For a number of years now he has served as editor of Charisma<\/i>, which is perhaps the most well-known magazine given to the subject of Spirit-filled life and ministry. Grady is also the author of a number of books. His most recent offering, The Holy Spirit is Not For Sale<\/i>, should be of particular interest to those who are part of churches that emphasize the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit. In this volume the author calls for radical change; he calls for the church to deal with the sins in her midst. He demonstrates that there have been some serious moves away from scriptural standards among those who believe in the present-day gifts of the Holy Spirit, areas of particular concern are morality, finances, and ministry practice. This book is a clear call for reformation, a return to biblical foundations.<\/p>\n

Grady is a firm believer in the anointing and gifts of the Holy Spirit and thus he urges the church not to settle for \u201cstrange fire,\u201d for cheap imitations of the real anointing of the Holy Spirit, or for ministers who are seriously errant in life, ministry practice, or teaching. In short, the author calls for the church to \u201cstop the funny business.\u201d He urges the church to have real fire: the fire of supernatural anointing, the fire of boldness, the fire of purity, the fire of integrity, the fire of humility, the fire of truth, the fire of justice, the fire of spiritual liberty, the fire of prayer, and the fire of genuine love. In the course of his writing Grady draws from the Bible, church history, and the experience of the church overseas.<\/p>\n

What may be disturbing to some readers is that in certain cases Grady names names as he addresses various types of abuse. While this may make some people uneasy what is truly disturbing are some of the things that are actually taking place in the church. For example, in chapter 6 he refers to a minister who had a list of requirements in order to be booked for a conference. The list included: a five-figure honorarium, a $10,000 gas deposit for a private plane, a hairstylist for the speaker, a suite in a five star hotel, a luxury car to drive him from the airport to the hotel (make and model of the car were specified), and room temperature Perrier water (pages 115-116). Another example concerns a large charismatic church in Georgia in which pastors participated in sexual immorality and were encouraged by the senior pastor to participate in wife-swapping (pages 83-84). While cases like these are not typical of the majority of charismatic churches or ministers they involve prominent people. Their prominence can cause some people, who lack discernment, to believe that because these ministers \u201chave the anointing\u201d that what they do must be okay. The examples that Grady cites are known cases: is the abuse and corruption more prevalent than we want to admit? As the author writes about various forms of failure and abuse he takes no pleasure in them, it is clear that he is pained by them.<\/p>\n

The reason that a lot of these abuses and cultic tendencies exist and go unchecked is, in part, due to a lack of biblical literacy. Many people in Spirit-filled churches do not have the biblical knowledge and thus the spiritual discernment to identify what is proper and what is not. They are swayed by the personality or the alleged anointing of an individual. This is a sad commentary on the condition of some churches and individuals.<\/p>\n

Grady does not just point out problems; he offers advice as to how the church can get back on track. His counsel includes: not deifying human beings and not elevating anointing over character, he also encourages us to dismiss the sensational, to teach and practice discernment, and to enforcing accountability (pages 63-67). He also says that we should beware of leaders who do not feed their sheep, whose message seems money-centered, and those who use the Lord\u2019s name lightly, that is, use God\u2019s name to raise money for themselves (pages 160-165). He says that we should follow leaders who fear God, who tell the truth, and who hate dishonest gain (104-106).<\/p>\n

The Holy Spirit is Not For Sale<\/i> is not light reading; it is thought-provoking and in some ways disturbing. This book may be especially helpful to a new believer who is trying to be open to the Spirit but who also wants to be discerning. It is certainly an appeal for the church, in particular the Spirit-filled church, to return to scriptural principles. This book is a timely word, a challenge, a wake up call for the church to embrace the purity and power that God intends.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by John P. Lathrop<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note:<\/b> J. Lee Grady<\/a> announced in February 2010 that he had stepped down as editor of Charisma <\/i>to enter public ministry. He continues to write for Strang Communications, of which Charisma <\/i>is the flagship publication. charismamag.com\/index.php\/fire-in-my-bones\/26289-the-lord-will-make-a-rehoboth-for-you<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

J. Lee Grady, The Holy Spirit is Not For Sale: Rekindling the Power of God in an Age of Compromise (Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 2010), 235 pages, ISBN 9780800794873. The name J. Lee Grady should be familiar to those who have been part of the Pentecostal or charismatic Movements for any length of time. For…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2840,"featured_media":20982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5767,1,15],"tags":[5779,2869,5780,5781,2891],"ppma_author":[4605],"class_list":["post-20981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2010","category-pneuma-review","category-thespirit","tag-grady","tag-holy","tag-lee","tag-sale","tag-spirit","author-john"],"authors":[{"term_id":4605,"user_id":2840,"is_guest":0,"slug":"john","display_name":"John Lathrop","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/JohnLAthrop20140510-150x150.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/JohnLAthrop20140510-150x150.jpg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20981"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=20981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}