The Spiritual Gifts Handbook was co-authored by Protestant Randy Clark and Catholic Mary Healy.
Clark is an author of 40 books and perhaps is best known for his leadership of The Toronto Blessing, which began in the 1990's and is considered one of the greatest spiritual revivals of our time. God placed a powerful spiritual mantel upon him to empower others to minister in the spiritual gifts. He continues to have an impactful world wide ministry.
Healy was involved early on in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal which began in 1967. I think she helped author the Life In The Spirit manual which was and maybe still is a powerful tool to lead Catholics to commit their lives to the Lordship of Jesus and to show them how to surrender their lives to the out flowing of His Holy Spirit. She is a professor of Scripture at a Catholic seminary, has authored other books and conducts healing meetings world wide as well.
It seems that the editors of Chosen, a division of Baker Books (from whom I received a copy to review) put these two together to write an instruction book about the spiritual gifts. In that regard they have done an adequate job covering most of the bases and the book is enriched by many personal accounts of the operation of the different gifts. To appeal to her Catholic audience Healy includes stories of historical instances of the operation of the spiritual gifts from various Catholic saints.
If my review were to end here I would give this four stars out of five. A person not familiar with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and how they are to operate personally and in community will learn a lot. Catholics in particular will be encouraged that the Catholic Church not only has a history of the operation of the spiritual gifts but that they are both for today and are for everyone, not just for famous saints or priests and nuns.
At this point however, from the perspective of one who came to know Jesus personally and was filled with the Holy Spirit through the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in 1972 and then left the Catholic Church for doctrinal reasons 10 years later, I would like to go a little further and discuss one problem with the move of the Holy Spirit in the Catholic Church today.
It is my opinion that although the gifts of the Holy Spirit are recognized by the Catholic Church and many Catholics are now operating in those gifts, there exists in Catholicism substitutes for the Holy Spirit which either restrict or confuse ones understanding of Scripture, thus allowing for doctrinal errors to creep in. Doctrine among believers should not deny our fellowship with each other, but it does make it a lot more challenging.
In this book Mary Healy tells a story of a prophecy given by Ralph Martin at a large ecumenical conference held in Kansas City in 1977. She relates this as an example of how the Holy Spirit may use a prophetic word to bring conviction to the heart. In his prophetic word Martin repeats several times the phrase "The body of my Son is broken" which was of course a charge against disunity in the Body of Christ. People all over the stadium began weeping in response.
Well OK, it truly is a disgrace that Christians avoid having fellowship with each other and further even go out of their way to attack other believers who deviate even a little from their orthodoxy on a whole variety of issues, most of which are non-essential to salvation. As believers we should be united in our desire that the world hear the good news that Jesus in the way to salvation and that he has poured out His Holy Spirit in power in us to demonstrate His love and grace toward all who would run toward His open arms.
But let me tell you the rest of the story. The lay leadership of the Charismatic Renewal greatly desired this unity yet at the same time they had a tremendous desire to be seen as "good Catholics" in the eyes of their bishops. Although the renewal continues in the Catholic Church today the Kansas City conference marks both it's apex and it's ecumenical decline. In a nutshell here were the problems.
First, the Catholic Church is run by a huge bureaucracy that is resistant to change. Their natural desire is to absorb any spiritual movements, find them a comfortable place within the Church and then isolate that spiritual virus so it doesn't infect the doctrine of the Church or the comfort of those that run it. Thus the Renewal leadership's desire for acceptance by their Church also meant becoming less guided by the Holy Spirit. My guess is that this scenario doesn't just apply to the Catholic Church.
Second, an important part of Catholic tradition and teaching is devotion to Mary. The problem here is two fold. Catholicism ascribes to Mary powers and authority that Protestants believe rightly belonging to the Holy Spirit. And devotion to Mary is seen as an adoption of pagan beliefs and practice by the Catholic Church in it's early years, which was then greatly emphasized as a response to the modernization of society in it's later years. After Kansas City some of the early leaders in the Charismatic Renewal started to become more devoted to Mary, even going so far as to endorse what I personally believe are the demonic manifestations found in places like Medajugory. So how one views Mary does present a hurdle to fellowship.
It is good news that Randy Clark and Mary Healy were able to minister in power together for a month at healing conferences held in Brasil. The out flowing of the power of the Holy Spirit is less dependent on orthodoxy and more dependent on a person's willingness to yield to Him. I'm sure we all have barriers in our lives or doctrine that restrict the Spirit's moving. May this be the year we overcome them.
