"The Spirit-filled life is not a special, deluxe edition of Christianity. It is part and parcel of the total plan of God for His people." -- A. W. Tozer Christ promised his disciples that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came on them, and that they would be his witnesses across the world. When the Spirit did come to them in tongues of fire, thousands believed in Christ and were saved. That same miracle, that same Spirit, is alive in us today.so why are all of us-from the evangelical to the charismatic-so desperate for an intimate encounter with God? Why don't we feel like the new creations we know we are? Pastor and theologian Simon Ponsonby believes that the hunger we feel is a desire for more of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Many Christins have emphasized the experience of the Spirit and neglected the Word, while others have emphasized the Word and neglected the Spirit. Either way, we've become so accustomed to living in the shallow waters of Christianity that we've forgotten the depth of that promised power, and the depth of the love that gave this power to us. In More, Simon invites you to journey with him into the deep waters of God's love. While both biblical and practical, what he says also has the power to inspire in you a new love and a new understanding of everything we've been given in Christ. Are you ready? This journey may not be comfortable or easy, but it will bring you more joy and more of God than you can even imagine. Ordained at Trinity College Bristol, pastor Simon Ponsonby served as the Oxford Evangelical Pastorate Chaplain before accepting a position as the pastor of theology at St. Aldates Church in August 2005. Books to his credit include More and God Inside Out. Simon and his wife, Tiffany have two sons and live in Oxford, England. more how you can have more of the Spirit when you already have everything in Christ By Simon Ponsonby David C. Cook Copyright © 2009 Simon Ponsonby All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4347-6538-3 Contents Introduction: A Fish in Trouble, 1 Longing for the Deep, 2 Expect More, 3 May Day, 4 Further Up and Further In, 5 Pentecost: In the River Over Our Heads, 6 Baptized with Our Baptism, 7 Resurrection Power, Fellowship Sufferings, Conclusion: In at the Deep End, Discussion Questions, Endnotes, CHAPTER 1 Longing for the Deep Many Christians are unaware that a deep end exists. They have become so used to living in the shallows that they think this is the norm. Perhaps this is not all they expected when they were first born into the pond, but they are generally content to paddle until they get to the big pond in the sky. Occasionally they hear rumors that there is a deep end, they meet the odd person who claims to have come from the deep end, one or two of their fellow shallow-enders have even left them and said they are off to the deep, and every now and again they wonder, So how do I get to this deep end? Or perhaps you're like that beautiful carp: gasping and desperate for the deeper waters. Like the pope in Robert Browning's poem "The Ring and the Book," you're crying, "Well, is the thing we see, salvation?" Billy Graham once wrote, Everywhere I go I find that God's people lack something. They are hungry for something. Their Christian experience is not all that they expected and they often have recurring defeat in their lives. Christians today are hungry for spiritual fulfillment. The most desperate need of the nation today is that men and women who profess Jesus be filled with the Holy Spirit. Billy Graham's global itinerant ministry perhaps gave him a better insight into the condition of the church than any other twentieth-century Christian leader. First, he rightly identifies the desperation in the lives of many Christians. Second, he suggests that a failing church has implications for influencing the nation. Third, he offers a resolution—immersion in the Holy Spirit. It is because of these first two insights, desperation in our lives and a failing church, that I have written this book about the resolution, the water for our gasping lungs: God's Holy Spirit. It is my intention throughout this book to deduce from Scripture and the church's testimony the reality of an essential, personal, tangible, repeatable Pentecost. We are searching for that place of encounter, depth, and intimacy with God—that place of power to serve, that place of character to conform us to Christ, that place from which we may live, move, and have our being in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. There must be more! Johann Christoph Blumhardt was responsible for steering an extraordinary awakening in his little village of Mottlingen, Germany, in the late nineteenth century. Accompanied by signs and wonders, this renewal sent shock waves throughout the country, and many thousands traveled to the village specifically to meet God, confess their sins, and find personal spiritual renewal. As with Billy Graham in the followi