Reading Levison I've been blessed with a greater understanding and a deeper experience of the Spirit. His newest book, Holy Spirit I Pray is a book of fifty prayers, which invites readers to pray to Spirit. The fifty prayers in this volume are composed by Levison. Each is paired with a relevant Bible passage. These are presented without comment or reflection. Instead Levison uses his introduction to unfold several concepts to help orient readers toward prayer: the meaning of ruach ( Hebrew for Spirit, wind breath), the nature of the Spirit's filling, and the Spirit's eagle-like-brooding ( vii-xi ). These are important concepts which Levison explores more in-depth elsewhere. What he says here is brief, but explicates what you need to know to fully appreciated his prayer-metaphors and the connections he makes.

This design is quite effective. As I read, I read through the prayers, and prayed them before reading the verses they were paired with. This sent me back to reading the prayer again, as I contemplated its relationship to the passage. All of this called me deeper to prayer and meditation as I joined in Levison's play (prayer) with the text. Devotionals often inadvertently privilege the voice of the author. This prayer book draws readers back, causing them to listen to and for the Spirit in the text. This would make a nice gift book, or a simple prayer book for personal use. I recommend it praying these prayers.

Some of them speak directly to intimacy, other prayers speak of justice, inspiration, mission, empowerment, crisis,etc. I give this five stars. --James Matichuk, Thoughts, Prayers & Songs: My Journey From Self-Absorption To Doxology.