The Best Books on the Holy Spirit: 14 Classics in Reading Order
Holy SpiritChristian LifeHolinessTheology
If you want one Christian book on the Holy Spirit, read R. A. Torrey's The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit. It covers who the Spirit is and nearly everything the Bible says He does, in plain words. Then read D. L. Moody's short Secret Power. After those two, this list takes you on in order: books for daily reading, books on being filled with the Spirit, and then the deeper studies.
What the classics teach about the Holy Spirit
The old writers start where the Bible starts. The Holy Spirit is not a force or an influence. He is a Person, and He is God, as fully as the Father and the Son. He gives the new birth. He lives in every believer from the moment of faith. He makes Christ real to us, opens the Scriptures, teaches us to pray and grows His fruit in us: love, joy, peace.
They also agree that many Christians live far below what the Spirit offers. Paul's command "be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18) is for every believer, and the Spirit gives power for witness and service. The way into that fullness is plain: surrender to Christ, obedience, the Word and prayer. And the Spirit can be grieved and quenched, by sin, by disobedience, by anything we put between ourselves and God.
These writers didn't use the same words for everything. Torrey and Brengle speak of a "baptism with the Holy Spirit" as a definite experience after conversion; Moule and Winslow put more weight on the Spirit's steady work in every believer. But they all point the same way: away from ourselves, to Christ, by the Spirit.
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Ephesians 4:30
Start here
1. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, by R. A. Torrey (1910)
Twenty-two chapters. Torrey shows from Scripture that the Spirit is a Person and is God, studies His names, and then traces His work in conviction, the new birth, the believer's daily life, prayer, guidance, the baptism with the Spirit, the writing of Scripture and the life of Jesus. It reads like a Bible study, with verse after verse. Start with chapters I and II.
If the Holy Spirit is a person, and a Divine Person, and we do not know Him as such, then we are robbing a Divine Being of the worship and the faith and the love and the surrender to Himself which are His due.
The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, chapter I
See our chapter-by-chapter summary and Is the Holy Spirit a Person? Read The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit.
2. Secret Power, by D. L. Moody (1881)
Moody's book on the Spirit's power for Christian life and work, in five short chapters: power and its source, power "in" and "upon" the believer, witnessing in power, power in operation, and power hindered. It's about three hours of reading, full of Scripture and stories.
Anything that comes between me and God — between my soul and God — quenches the Spirit.
Secret Power, chapter V
Our Secret Power summary walks through it. Read Secret Power.
3. How to Obtain Fulness of Power, by R. A. Torrey (1897)
A short book built on Psalm 62:11, "Power belongeth unto God." In five chapters Torrey shows how that power reaches the believer: through the Word of God, the blood of Christ, the Holy Spirit, prayer and a surrendered life. Read it in an evening.
The devil is not afraid of machinery; he is only afraid of God, and machinery without prayer is machinery without God.
How to Obtain Fulness of Power, chapter IV, The Power of Prayer
Read How to Obtain Fulness of Power.
For daily reading
4. The Spirit of Christ, by Andrew Murray (1888)
Thirty-one short chapters laid out as daily readings, with a closing note on trusting the Spirit. Murray moves from the new spirit promised in Ezekiel through worship, the Word, the indwelling Spirit, prayer, conscience, liberty and love, to the command to be filled with the Spirit. If you read only one book on this list slowly, make it this one.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the holy life which there was and is in Christ Jesus, and which works in us as a Divine life-power.
The Spirit of Christ, Day XIX, The Leading of the Spirit
5. Walking in the Spirit, by A. B. Simpson (1886)
Thirteen studies built on Galatians 5:25, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." Simpson explains the Spirit's person and offices, then describes Him as the Spirit of light, holiness, life, comfort, love, power and prayer. The last two chapters, on cooperating with the Spirit and hindering Him, are worth reading twice.
Henceforth, it is not we who live, but Christ who liveth in us, and we draw from Him, through the Holy Ghost, every moment, life, and health, and joy, and peace.
Walking in the Spirit, chapter I, Living in the Spirit
6. Voices of the Spirit, by George Matheson (1888)
Ninety-five short meditations from the Scottish minister who wrote "O Love that wilt not let me go." He takes the Bible's verses on the Spirit of God in order, from the Spirit moving on the waters in Genesis to John's vision on Patmos, and pairs each with a prayer to the Holy Spirit. One page a day.
It is no use to bring the light until you have brought the Spirit.
Voices of the Spirit, The Precedence of the Spirit
Being filled with the Spirit
7. Quiet Talks on Power, by S. D. Gordon (1903)
Informal talks that ask why so many believers have so little power. Gordon finds the answer in choked channels and an unsurrendered self, and points to Pentecost: power comes from the unhindered presence of the Spirit, received by full surrender and kept by daily trust.
In every heart there is a cross, and a throne, and each is occupied. If Jesus is on the throne, ruling, self is on the cross, dying.
Quiet Talks on Power, The Price of Power
8. The Full Blessing of Pentecost, by Andrew Murray (1908)
Murray's case that the Church's great need is to be filled with the Spirit. The chapters ask how the blessing is hindered, how it is received, kept and increased, and why everything must be given up for it.
Everything must be sacrificed and given over to death: the All of God must expel the All of sin.
The Full Blessing of Pentecost, chapter XII, How It Is to Be Found by All
Read The Full Blessing of Pentecost.
9. When the Holy Ghost Is Come, by Samuel Logan Brengle (1920)
Brengle was a Salvation Army officer and its best-known teacher of holiness. Each chapter starts from Acts 1:8 and covers who the Spirit is, the baptism with the Spirit, His witness, purity and power, guidance, prayer, preaching, suffering and even victory over a bad temper. Warm, direct and practical.
Yield yourself fully to Christ just now, and if you ask in faith you shall receive.
When the Holy Ghost Is Come, chapter VI, Power
Read When the Holy Ghost Is Come.
Go deeper
10. The Spirit of God, by G. Campbell Morgan (1900)
A study of the Holy Spirit through the whole Bible: His personality and place in the Trinity, His work in creation, before and after the fall, in the life of Christ, at Pentecost, in the church and in the world. It closes with the baptism, filling and power of the Spirit and three commands: resist not, grieve not, quench not.
The Spirit is quenched by disloyalty to Christ, or when His gift is used for any other purposes than that upon which the heart of God is set.
The Spirit of God, chapter XX, Resist Not, Grieve Not, Quench Not
11. The Inquirer Directed to the Work of the Holy Spirit, by Octavius Winslow (1856)
Doctrine written with a pastor's heart. After showing the Spirit's Godhead and personality, Winslow treats Him as the One who gives life, dwells in us, sanctifies, seals, bears witness, teaches us to pray and comforts. The chapter on the witness of the Spirit is a help to anyone who struggles with assurance.
Without this blessed Spirit, you can never know yourself, nor Christ, nor God, nor heaven.
The Inquirer Directed to the Work of the Holy Spirit, chapter I, The Godhead and Personality of the Holy Spirit
Read The Inquirer Directed to the Work of the Holy Spirit.
12. Twelve Sermons on the Holy Spirit, by C. H. Spurgeon
Twelve of Spurgeon's London sermons, among them "The Comforter," "The Holy Ghost: The Great Teacher," "The Withering Work of the Spirit" and "The Pentecostal Wind and Fire." Rich preaching, best taken one sermon at a sitting. Read Twelve Sermons on the Holy Spirit.
13. Veni Creator, by H. C. G. Moule (1892)
Moule calls it a reverent review of what Scripture teaches about the Spirit, not a technical treatise. Twelve chapters move from His personality through union with Christ, the Spirit and Scripture, and the Lord's last discourse, to four chapters on the Spirit in Paul's letters, including the fruit and the fullness of the Spirit. Read Veni Creator.
14. The Holy Spirit of God, by W. H. Griffith Thomas (1913)
The most thorough book here, first given as lectures at Princeton. It covers the Spirit in every part of the Bible, the history of the doctrine from the early church to the nineteenth century, a theology of the Spirit and chapters on modern questions. For pastors and serious students.
The Holy Spirit acted upon Jesus, not to the suppression, but to the intensification, of the human.
The Holy Spirit of God, chapter VI, The Holy Spirit in the Synoptic Gospels
Two more worth knowing
- The Acts of the Holy Spirit, by Arthur T. Pierson, reads the book of Acts as the record of the Spirit's work: His coming, His fullness, His leading of the Church and His sending of missionaries. Good alongside a study of Acts.
- The Baptism with the Holy Spirit, by R. A. Torrey, is a short book of five chapters on what the baptism is, who may have it and how to receive it. See our article on what Torrey taught about it.
A simple reading plan
- Read Torrey's The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, chapters I, II and V, to know who the Spirit is.
- Read Moody's Secret Power, one chapter a day for a week.
- Keep Murray's The Spirit of Christ or Matheson's Voices of the Spirit for your morning reading for a month.
- When you're ready to ask for more, read Gordon's Quiet Talks on Power and Brengle's When the Holy Ghost Is Come.
- Then go deeper with Morgan, Winslow and Moule.
Read them with an open Bible and a praying heart. That is how every one of these writers would want them read.