Make Way for the Spirit: My Father's Battle and Mine

The Blumhardts are almost inseparable today, so completely did the son take up his famous father’s mantle and absorb his vision of God’s kingdom breaking in here on earth. But God marches forward in history, and whoever stands still is in danger of being left behind. Here Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt writes about his father, Johann Christoph Blumhardt, clarifying the unity in their thought but also his own points of departure. In particular, he takes a critical look at the role that faith healing, exorcism, and spiritual warfare assumed in the events that thrust his father into the limelight.

God wants to pour out the Holy Spirit on humankind again, and around the world Christians are praying for renewal. What stands in the way? Blumhardt calls out obstacles that he believes thwarted the movement of the Spirit in his father’s time and his own, all of which are still with us today: a focus on piety and personal salvation; misconceptions about mission and evangelism; and the institutional church with its human structures, dogmas, and traditions. If the religion of our churches is too small for God, are we ready to step outside and live in accordance with his great future?