The general reader is very much in mind in this series. We want it to be of service to thoughtful Christians who want to know what the biblical material has to say on controversial issues of the day. In this particular book, whilst trying to present as fully and as clearly as space and my understanding allow, the teaching of the Scriptures about the Holy Spirit, I should also have been failing to meat the aims of the series if I had not had a good deal to say about the issues of the baptism, the gifts, and the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
During the past fifteen years I have had the privilege of living in a Christian community where the charismatic question has been a very live issue, and where ‘charismatic’ and ‘non-charismatic’ Christians have lived together in a high degree of mutual love and trust. It cannot be denied that the charismatic movement has in place brought division and be so, and that the Spirit of unity would have it otherwise.