Word Spirit Power

R.T. Kendall, Charles Carrin and Jack Taylor

(Chosen Books)

R.T. Kendall, Charles Carrin and Jack Taylor have worked alongside each other for years bringing the “Word, Spirit and power” teaching to the church. As Kendall puts it, a silent divorce between the emphasis on the Word and the Spirit has happened in the church, and the two need to be reunited for power. 

The book establishes its framework with each author giving his story of being called to the ministry, being trained in theology and being frustrated by a lack of fruitfulness until baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Kendall was overcome with the presence of God and a strong assurance of salvation while driving in his car. Taylor was keenly interested in the Holy Spirit but found seminary only gave technical information, which left him unsatisfied until a retired missionary from China revealed her personal relationship with the Holy Spirit. Carrin shares a gripping testimony of how he fell into such depression that he was humbled enough to receive words of knowledge from a prisoner he was visiting, which led him to his baptism. 

Besides giving these personal testimonies, Kendall, Carrin and Taylor also share the most important testimony of the Scriptures: laying out a foundation of support from the Word. When these veteran teachers were coming into this revelation in the ’70s, they had to overcome the predominant error of cessation theology, which taught that the gifts of the Spirit died out after the Scripture was canonized. Today, they still remind readers that nothing worthwhile happens without the power of the Spirit and the Word working together.