Do you think Jesus depended on the Spirit? That is the subject of Frye’s fifth chapter, and it is a good chapter. Once again, very good stories in this chapter envelop the basic biblical discussion of whether or not Jesus was dependent on the Spirit (and he says “yes”) and how that can be a model for ministry today. I’m curious to know if pastors really do think about this presence of the Spirit often enough.
The formative study of Jesus and the Spirit is by G. E. Hawthorne, The Power and the Presence, and it is an exceptional book. (It was actually Jerry’s Master’s thesis at Wheaton, and Word brought it out years ago; Jerry told me a few years back he was hoping to revise it soon. I hope he does. It is the only book of its kind.)

The 5th chp is about Jesus and his yoke, with a special emphasis on the “Immanuel” presence of God with us in Christ as we are yoked to Christ. Well, it is unfair to tell other writers’ stories in a blog, but John has a great story about the presence of the Lord with him when he was in the Ukraine, and the Lord’s simultaneous special presence with Julie, his wife, when he was there.
The focus of the chp is on being yoked to Jesus, and this brings back to the central theme of this book: letting Jesus be the pastor and learning to participate in his pastoring.
Jesus is not only “on” our side, but “by” our side and “in” us.
Now a special note for me: both John and Julie are fans of Victor Mathews. When I was in college, I too learned tons from Victor Mathews, and I’m grateful to this day for the influence of his book Growth in Grace. Victor Mathews was famous for his handouts, and whenever I saw he was teaching somewhere, I would try to get copies of his handouts — at one time I had hundreds of them.