In his most recent work, “The God I Never Knew; How Real Friendship with the Holy Spirit Can Change Your Life”, Robert Morris sets out to help the reader understand the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that he feels has been seen by many as “mysterious, confounding, and even controversial.” When I saw the title and subject of this book, I was immediately interested. I believe the person of the Holy Spirit is vitally important in the life of a believer. An opportunity to know more about His nature would be welcome. The beginning of the book was the best part. Morris starts out by re-stating commonly known attributes of the Holy Spirit and His function: to convict, to comfort, to guide, and to enable. The book went downhill from there.

The section of his book dealing with the three baptisms I found to be convoluted and confusing. A great deal of scripture reference was given in dealing with the three baptisms. He leads the reader to believe that there is a need to receive Holy Spirit sometime after conversion and that you must pray to receive Him. In his attempt to make the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit simple to understand, he buries the reader in examples and analogies that do anything but simplify. Morris spends a great deal of time discussing the Holy Spirit’s role in speaking in tongues, private prayer language, and healing. This section seemed to be a teaching on charismatic gifts rather than a teaching on the Hoy Spirit. I believe this book did not go far enough in answering the more difficult questions related to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I was very disappointed in this book and cannot recommend it.