“Because,” as Schaeffer explains, “the world is hard, and confronting it without God’s power is an overwhelming prospect.”
...It is shocking to see how far the world is willing to go today — to throw over every moral restraint and to embrace every form of perversion. It was an example of the kind of thing that would often move Schaeffer to tears, in his compassion for the tragic “lostness” of man apart from the Christ.But there is another related tragedy, as Schaeffer pointed out, that is perhaps even greater — that is, the tendency of Christians to fail to understand the utter lostness of the world and instead to embrace the world’s methods for doing the work of the Lord. Thus Schaeffer wrote, “The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually or corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them.” “If we do not want to waste our lives,” Schaeffer continued, “then we must understand the importance of having a humble, quiet heart and the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Schaeffer’s following summary paragraph has been especially important (and convicting) to me — and something that I pray will always be foundational to the work we do at Crossway. “Is it not amazing,” Schaeffer writes, “though we know the power of the Holy Spirit can be ours, we still ape the world’s wisdom, trust its form of publicity, its noise, and imitate its ways in manipulating men! If we try to influence the world by using its methods, we are doing the Lord’s work in the flesh. . . . The key question is this: as we work for God in this fallen world, what are we trusting in? To trust in particular methods is to copy the world and to remove ourselves from the tremendous promise that we have something different — the power of the Holy Spirit rather than the power of human technique.”
THAT'S MY PRAYER TODAY!
Lord, will you by your grace come upon me so that even the smallest things in my life will be evidence of your Spirit at work in and through me? I want to rely solely on YOU. I want to look different than the world and as I trust you I want your fruit to be so clearly evident in my life! Empower me by your Word speaking over and into my life. Holy Spirit I desperately need your supernatural power- your transforming grace- to carry out your kingdom work in all that I do and say. Be present Lord and Be glorified in my life. May I never turn to my flesh, but place my faith in you- the One who is able.full text of Schaeffer's article here.
