Walking in the Spirit, by Dr. Kenneth Berding

Dr. Kenneth Berding gives us a very readable and useable booklet on the Power of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He is a professor of New Testament at Talbot Seminary. He spends time with students dialoguing about their walk with Christ, their lives with the Holy Spirit and how they have a tendency to not understand how the Holy Spirit in their life is their source of power.

I thought that Chapter three was extremely well written for our culture today. Using the premise of a discussion with a student who just didn't feel that the Holy Spirit provided any real power to help him overcome sin, Dr. Berding gives us some solid writing on why we might feel that way. In using Romans 8 as his main thesis he delves into different subjects about the Holy Spirit. In Chapter three it is whether or not the Holy Spirit provides us the ability to just say 'no' to sin but only if we are saying 'no' by the Spirit. What he means is this, if you want to get a handle on your sin life it is not just simply saying no to sin, but it is saying through the power of the Holy Spirit, no to sin and yes to putting that sin to death. What does it mean to 'put it to death?' Page 48, "So, to put to death really means to render ineffective, something that might need to be done again and again. Just remember, though, putting to death the deeds of the body is active. There is no passivity here."

Chapter four deals with how we are lead by the Spirit. Often times we acknowledge that the Holy Spirit lives in our lives (if we have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior) but we don't allow the Holy Spirit to actually lead us. In this chapter Dr. Berding gives us good advice on how to let the Holy Spirit lead. How to know when the Spirit is leading and how to get out of the way and to allow the Spirit to take charge.

This little booklet is a great commentary on the 8th Chapter of Romans and will provide you with very practical information that you can put to use. For me the one verse that really stuck out was Romans 8:9, "You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him." This was a sobering thought as I dwelt on it. If I have students who don't feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, or they don't think the Holy Spirit gives them power to overcome sin the I have to ask them this question, "are you actually a follower of Jesus Christ?" Because if they are a follower of Christ they should be experiencing a deep and growing relationship with the Holy Spirit.

This little booklet with it's dialogue questions at the end of each chapter will give you a good tool for leading a small group discussion on the value and presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Enjoy!