The introduction to One Holy Fire, Let the Spirit Ignite Your Soul establishes Cruz’s desire to awaken the passion and desire of the Holy Spirit in every believer in the United States, to provide outreach to inner-city kids, and to enable the power of the Holy Spirit to be realized in their lives. Cruz communicates his passion and vision with examples of his fortitude, commitment and decades of experience as an evangelist.
He explains that this book was the result of a new vision from the Holy Spirit to spread the gospel, to be part of the fire he quotes from Ezekiel 20:47-48 on the first page of part 1; “Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am about to set fire to you, and it will consume all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched…Everyone will see that I the LORD have kindled it; it will not be quenched.”
Part one, The Fire, brings Cruz’s Spirit-inspired explication of specific examples from his experience in ministry. The experiences reveal the author to be a blessed mix of boldness, humility, and God-searcher. Importantly, he is dissatisfied with what the world has to offer, from timid churches to a passive acceptance of brokenness that defines us more accurately than any geo-political designation.
Cruz’s words testify to how he sees the broken as individuals loved by God, and how much he longs to bring them into the presence of His love. Descriptions of his encounters with Goths, gangs, and angels from Houston to New York City to Jerez Zacatecas, Mexico, testify to his hunger to share the love of God wherever people hurt. Cruz does not try to weave a picture of the perfect saint. He recounts the many times he failed, choosing to use imperfect human abilities of reason, sight and listening rather than the unflinchingly compassionate abilities of the Holy Spirit. The rest of the story is that always the Spirit was gracious in teaching Cruz the way of love in place of the way of man.
Part two, The Holiness, begins with Leviticus 10:3: “Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.” Central to this section is a pivotal encounter early in his ministry that changed Cruz’s focus from preaching about judgment and condemnation to preaching about God’s love for us.
Part three, The Oneness, beings with Ezekiel 11:19-26: “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.” While earlier chapters provide a mixture of testimonies and rationale for his mission, the focus in part three is almost exclusively on the vision, and reads like an unfiltered message from the Father. By the end of Cruz’s book the reader will likely believe they have read the words of a present-day prophet.
