The God I Never Knew: How Real Friendship with the Holy Spirit Can Change Your Life

Wonderful reading. I wish I had purchased it sooner.

Am still currently reading. Excellent teaching on the Holy Spirit.

First a disclaimer, I lived in Texas for several years (I've moved since) and I went to Gateway Church for many years (I was there when the church services were in the basement of a school, and when we built the first building in Southlake.) Robert is perhaps the most gifted preacher I have ever heard. It has been my experience that some of the best preachers don't make the transition into writing smoothly, and I place Robert in that category. (Although his "Blessed Life" book is excellent.)I guess what I am saying is that before you fully judge the book, you should probably pop over to GatewayPeople{dot}com and listen/watch the series there (which you can do for free.)As for the book, it tackles an important subject, which is usually neglected, and does it in a very approachable way. A lot of Christians who may find the Holy Spirit "scary" can read this book and have their fears relieved. As the other reviewers have said, this happens in the first half of the book, and it does so very well. For that alone, this book is worth reading.I get the feeling though, that it is missing a part. It feels like it ended too soon without really getting into the details of how to develop and foster this relationship.As someone who lived through the explosive growth of Gateway church, I can attest first hand to the fact that Robert is not pretending here... I believe he has the kind of relationship with the Holy Spirit that he details in the book... I'm not sure that the reader comes away with a firm understanding of how they can get that for themselves -- but I am not completely sure that is a fault of the book.Relationships have to be built one step at a time. Reading a book on marriage won't give you a great marriage, after all. It takes time to develop that. At least this book points you in the right direction.Even if you come away form the book thinking: "Wow, I never knew you could have a relationship with a spirit, and I really want that..." you are better for having read this book.If you are on the fence, I would say buy it, read it, and then go to the website to hear Robert's sermons on it. Even a little of the Holy Spirit is better than no Holy Spirit -- which is where most Christians today seem to be...

Robert does a great job outlining how we can and should cultivate a relationship with The Holy Spirit.A must read if you want to achieve your full potential with your walk with Jesus.

Next to my bible, this is probably the best Christian book I have ever read!! This book helped me to develop a more personal relationship with Holy Spirit. I learned about the Holy Spirit's character, his power, and his gifts. If you want a more personal relationship with God the Holy Spirit, I highly recommend that you purchase.

"The God I Never Knew" attempts to teach an unorthodox doctrine on Baptism. In this book Pastor Robert Morris argues again and again that there are 3 specific baptisms that a believer ought to experience.1st: A Believer is baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Jesus2nd: A Believer out to be baptized by other believers into water3rd: A Believer ought to be baptized by Jesus into the Holy SpiritYou may be scratching your head at this moment thinking: Three Baptisms? And you would be very correct. The Theology of 3 baptisms is not a historical orthodox doctrine of any denomination of Christian faith to the best of my knowledge. Now, every Christian denomination that I am aware of is very informed on the 2nd and 3rd Baptisms. The historical denominations truly argue as to when what Morris calls the 2nd Baptism ought to occur-- whether as a infant or as a believer. And there is some discussion as to what the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (Morris' 3rd baptism) precisely looks like. Certainly some denominations believe Holy Spirit gifts believers in Tongues, Prophecy, Miracles, etc--while other denominations don't.But the real doctrinal problem that Morris makes is that he ascribes that there is a 3rd Baptism (what he calls the 1st Baptism). This is a baptism where the Person of the Holy Spirit somehow dunks us into the substance of Jesus Christ's body. Now every Christian of every stripe understands that to be a Christian means we are a part of the Body of Christ, but using the terminology of "Baptism" here is foreign.Morris' one verse reference where he draws this theology is 1 Corinthians 12:13. He quotes the NKJV:"For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free."In particular, Morris reads the preposition "by" as indicating that the "one Spirit" is the agent who baptizes.Yet, elsewhere Morris uses NIV when quoting scripture.Why then, use NKJV for this one reference? Why not use NIV? Maybe because the NIV does not illustrate his point.13For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.Is Morris right? NIV uses the preposition "by" as well, but a good NIV Bible will say in the notes at the bottom "or with; or in". Uh oh. Which is it?All English translations (the good ones anyway) take their translations from the best Greek (NT) and Hebrew (OT) texts. What does the language say? Well, without getting into a seminary level discussion, the word "by/in/with" in this passage is the Koine Greek work (en). En can mean a lot of things, but notably, it is used in all of these Baptism passages in the New Testament Matthew 3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, John 1:33, Acts 1:5 and Acts 11:16. In each of these instances, Bible scholars translate en into the English word in or with.What does this mean? It means that 1 Cor 12:13 is not a clear passage referring to a Baptism where the Holy Spirit becomes the Baptizer rather than the Person the believer is baptized with. Do we need to do all of this Greek study to know this? Not really. We could have just read the whole verse that Morris truncated :13For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. (NIV)We were all given one Spirit to drink. Not just some of us. All believers.Morris' argues for a 3 Baptism theology to be able to state that there are true Christians who do not have the Person of the Holy Spirit within them. Too Bad he doesn't read Romans 8:9-169You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.12Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. 14For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.Orthodox theology is this: If you don't have the Spirit, you are not a Christian. Certainly the Spirit can come and "fill" us more completely at times, but there is no such thing as a Christian who does not have the Holy Spirit.

I bought as a gift for my husband. He shared so much about the book. He loved it and makes me want to read and buy more for gifts. Excellent writer and speaker, Robert Morris

I am very selective about what I read to grow spiritually. Growing in my faith is important to me. There are a lot of charlatans out there who've used faith as a means to bilk God people out of their money. Robert Morris is the real deal. He uses his own experiences as a believer for the foundation of his book. Walking you through the difficult times of accepting that God was more than a Sunday morning past time, he gives the reader a real life representation of what having and wanting a relationship with God looks like. The God I never knew obliterates the stereotype of a one note savior.

SatisfaiteJ'ai aimé ce produitIl répond à mes attentesRecommande à tous ceux qui sont intéressés par un bon livre, un bon service avant, pendant et après vente

Das Buch bringt auf erfrischende Weise neue Zugänge zu Gott.Mir gefällt der Bezug zum alltäglichen Leben eines Christen, ohne theologisch abzuheben und doch mit Tiefgang.Ich empfehle es langjährigen Christen, die eine Erfrischung und einen Perspektivwechsel brauchen, um in ihrem Glauben neu inspiriert zu werden

Robert Morris has a God given ability to blend theology and day to day practical stuff. This book will introduce the reader to the personal ministry of the Holy Spirit in a gentle and helpful way. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit is broken down into easy to read chapters, with a challenge to respond to His ministry. Read this book and you will be forever changed. I recommend this book to students in my Pneumatology class in college, and have also recommended it my church, and everyone who reads it is radically changed. If you want to be radically changed in the financial area of your life, read Morris' "Blessed Life".

Pastor Robert Morris is a good teacher.

The Holy Spirit is the third person of God and the hear his voice and to be led by him means that everything you do will be successful because he asked you to do something and you did it!It's all about the relationship with the Holy Spirit, develop this and from this flows the relationship with Jesus and our Heavenly Father this will change your life and give you an amazing relationship with the Holy Spirit who will help you in every area of your life ask him anything and he will help you!