Francis Schaeffer

Francis Schaeffer once asked his wife:

""Edith, I wonder what would happen to most churches and Christian work if we awakened tomorrow, and everything concerning the reality and work of the Holy Spirit, and everything concerning prayer, were removed from the Bible. I don’t mean just ignored, but actually cut out—disappeared. I wonder how much difference it would make?" We concluded it would not make much difference in many board meetings, committee meetings, decisions and activities."

This short paragraph just stopped me in my tracks. Would it make a difference; would we even notice? In the introduction to his book; Forgotten God, Francis Chan writes;

"From my perspective the Holy Spirit is tragically neglected and, for all practical purposes, forgotten. While no evangelical would deny His existence, I’m willing to bet there are millions of churchgoers across America who cannot confidently say they have experienced His presence or action in their lives over the past year. And many of them do not believe they can. The benchmark of success in church services has become more about attendance than the movement of the Holy Spirit."

Powerful words, but even more to think about!

In his book, Chan quotes A. W. Tozer who said;

"We may as well face it: the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone… [We] have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost."

Could this be true? I pray we take this as a challenge; a challenge of reflection, recognition and a realization of the wonderful gift of the Spirit that dwells among us; our comforter and counselor.

Abba Father, may your Spirit move mightily among us, may we never forget, and may we all stop to understand the difference of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Amen.

Grace and Peace!