Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire: What Happens When God's Spirit Invades the Heart of His People

Jim Cymbala discusses the beginning of his ministry and how God led him to grow the Brooklyn Tabernacle.

I loved this book! I thought that it was really great to hear about how some other people came to know God and get out of their own lives and help others around them. Very well written

I have now read this book for the third time, as well as attended Brooklyn Tabernacle on 3 separate occasions. It is an awesome church, and it shows what GOD, not man, can do. The book is, quite simply, life changing, showing how God took an inner city dying church and transformed it into one of the biggest churches in America. Everything done at the church is based on prayer, and the Tuesday night prayer meetings have lines forming around the block to get in. Jim Cymbala talks in the book about the lives that are changed, but there is nothing there that glorifies Jim Cymbala or anyone else at all. It shows how all of our Hollywood style programs in churches are simply a sham. After you read it, you will want to get copies for everyone in your congregation!

In reading "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" I was struck by how God-centered the book was. It was not just a typical "how-to" on modern Christianity, but it was a timeless work that demonstrated the power of God that He sends out when we trust Him above all others and above all things. Pastor Cymbala did just that in Brooklyn. How refreshing it was to read about the Holy Spirit entering people's lives (people that most American Christians wouldn't have given a chance...) and changing them forever. Brooklyn Tabernacle became a place that God worked mightily because the whole church decided to admit to God that they had nothing else but Him, and that the power was all His. They could not trust in money, buildings, programs, famous people, websites, big staffs, high attendance, affluent neighborhoods, cutting-edge teachings, seminary training, human knowledge, big denominations, long-standing traditions, or anything else. Pastor Cymbala guides the reader toward the power of prayer in a healthy way, as well. We are not tempted to think that the mere installation of a prayer meeting will automatically force God's hand either. I loved nearly every bit of this book. Glory goes to God. I am now reading the follow-up work: "Fresh Faith".

This novel is a thought provoking book that makes one realize how far from the basics we have gotten. It makes one realize how our programs, newfangled ideas, and our contemporary worship have gotten in the way of how God would have us do His work in His kingdom. This book does not redefine prayer and God's love for us, however, it does emphasize the simplicity and importance of crying out to the Lord our God in prayer. It points out the blessings that we are missing out on because we do not call on God through prayer. It points out how God is able to work through us if we are in communion with Him in prayer. This book points out nothing new, everything is in the Bible. So many times we are trying to reinvent the wheel when the old one works as well as it did in the day of its inception. This book is truly inspirational by seeing what the power of God through prayer did for a dying church, and by seeing that God is a faithful God, and He will truly build His own church if we only follow His instructions and cry out to Him in PRAYER.

A powerful book on the real power of prayer. When I was given this title by a friend to read, I told him I'd put on my reading list of which there are >40 other books. He said "Put it at the top, I'm reading it for the 7th time"! If you want to know how Christ would have done things in the 20th century, read this book. Cymbala, relies on prayer to bring a multiracial church of just over 20 members to a church of over 6,000. He is not a seminary trained pastor with a slick message. His church does outreach as Christ did, they go where the people most in need live and work. He has great sadness for those pastors rate their value in "attendance, building and cash, the new holy trinity." This book is a great testimony as to how God wants us to be, loving, forgiving and merciful, with the people in most need of God. A tremendous book.

WOW ! This book blows me away. Partly because I've been in a struggling church and now I'm in a REVIVAL church where I'm experiencing things described in his book.It is so right on for what God is doing with his people.I'm blessed and drawn in deeper with my walk with God. A must read for every pastor who wants the River to flow through their church and peoples. Thank-you brother Cymbala.