Things I Will Read Forever (1)

Over the next few weeks I am going to be posting abridged versions of some of the essays, chapters, and sermons that have most shaped my faith, which I have read many times over the years and continue to be challenged by every time I do.

The first is a sermon preached by Francis Schaeffer called "The Lord's Work in the Lord's Way." You can find this sermon in its entirety in the collection, "No Little People." I have highlighted points for discussion:

The Lord's Work in the Lord's Way
"Because the world is hard, confronting it without God’s power is an overwhelming prospect. But tongues of fire are not to be had simply for the asking. The New Testament teaches that certain conditions must exist. In short, they come down to this: we must do the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way. There is no source of power for God’s people – for preaching or teaching or anything else – except Christ himself. Apart from Christ, anything which seems to be spiritual power is actually the power of the flesh.
Doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way is not a matter of being saved and then simply working hard. After Jesus ascended his disciples waited quietly in prayer for the coming of His Spirit. Their first motion was not toward activism – Christ has risen, now let us be busy. Though they looked at the world with Christ’s compassion, they obeyed His clear command to wait before they witnessed. If we who are Christians and therefore indwelt by the Spirit are to reach to our generation with tongues of fire, we also must have something more than activism which men can easily duplicate. We must know something of the power of the Holy Spirit.
Recognizing Our Need
How do we receive something of the power of the Holy Spirit? A person cannot be a Christian without first recognizing his need for Christ. And as Christians, we too must comprehend something of our need for spiritual power. If we think we can operate on our own, if we do not comprehend the need for a power beyond our own, we will never get started. If we think the power of our own cleverness is enough, we will be at a standstill.
Teaching about the Holy Spirit and His indwelling must never be a solely theological concept. Having the proper concept – that we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit when we are saved – we must press on, so that the Spirit’s indwelling can bring forth results in our lives. If we want tongues of fire, our first step is not only to stand by, complacently thinking the right theological thoughts. We must have a genuine feeling of need.
Furthermore, this feeling need is not to be once and for all. A Christian can never say, “I knew the power of the Holy Spirit yesterday, so today I can be at rest.” It is one of the existential realities of the Christian life to stand before God consciously recognizing our need.
The Central Problem
The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor the old Roman Catholicism or the new Roman Catholicism, nor the threat of communism, nor ever the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus that surrounds us. All these are dangers but not the primary threat. 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 of the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them.
Taking the Lowest Place
Seeking the highest place is in direct contradiction to the teaching of the Lord. Christ instructed his disciples, “But when thou art bidden [to a wedding feast], go and sit down in the lowest room.” (Luke 14:10) If we are going to do the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way we must take Jesus’ teaching seriously: He does not want us to press on to the greatest place unless He Himself makes it impossible to do otherwise. Taking the lower place in practical way (thus reflecting the mentality of Christ who humbled Himself even to death on a cross) should be a Christian’s choice.
To the extent we want power we are in the flesh and the Holy Spirit has no part in us. Christ put a towel around Himself and washed his disciples feet. Doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way is not some exotic thing; it is having and practicing the mentality which Christ commands.
Trusting God’s Methods
Is it not amazing: though we know the power of the Holy Spirit can be ours, we still ape the world’s wisdom, trust its forms of publicity, its noise, and imitate its ways of manipulating men! If we try to influence the world by using its methods, we are doing the Lord’s work in the flesh. If we put activity, even good activity, at the center rather than trusting God, then there may be the power of the world, but we will lack the power of the Holy Spirit.
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 methods promise that we have something different – the power of the Holy Spirit rather than the power of human technique
Under the leadership of Moses and Joshua, the Jews marched when the ark marched and they stood still when the ark stoof still. They did not rush ahead if God did not order the ark to be moved. Somethies they stayed in one place for long periods. We Christians, individually and corporately, must learn to wait like this. Tongues of fire are not for us if we are so busy doing the clever thing that we never wait quietly to find out whether the ark of the Lord has gone ahead or stayed.
The Battle In The Heavenlies
The real battle is not fought by Christians just against forces in this world, whether theological, cultural, or moral. The real battle is in the heavenlies. The scripture, therefore, insists that we cannot win our portion of the engagement with earthly weapons. There is nothing in this list [Paul’s writing about the armor of God in Ephesians 6:10-18] that the world accepts as a way of working, but there are no other ways to fight the spiritual battle. Imagine the Devil or a demon entering your room right now. You have a sword at your side; so when you see him you rush at him and stab him. But the sword passes straight through and doesn’t faze him! The most awesome modern weapon you could think of could not destroy him. Whenever we do the Lord’s work in the flesh, our strokes “pass right through” because we do not battle earthly forces; the battle is spiritual and requires spiritual weapons.
Besides, if we fight the world with copies of its own weapons we will fail, because the Devil will honor these with his own, but our Lord will not honor these with us, for that does not give Him the glory. They may bring some results – activism does have its results – but they will not be the ones the Lord wants. Our hands will be empty of honor from God because he will not be getting the glory. We must not try to serve the Lord with our own kind of humanism and egoism.
In this war if Christians win a battle by using worldly means, they have really lost. On the other hand, when we seem to lose a battle while waiting on God, in reality we have won. The world may mistakenly say, “They have lost.” But if God’s people seem to be beaten in a specific battle, not because of sin or lack of commitment or lack of prayer or lack of paying a price, but because they have waited on God and refused to resort to the flesh, then they have won.
Getting Things Done
Let us not think that waiting on the Lord will mean getting less done. The truth is that by doing the Lord's work in the Lord’s way we will accomplish more, not less. You need not fear that if you wait for God’s Spirit you will not get as much done as if you charge ahead in the flesh. After all, who can do the most, you or the God of Heaven and Earth?
Nor should we think that our role will be passive. The moving of the Holy Spirit should not be contrasted with either proper self-fulfillment or tiredness. To the contrary, both the Scriptures and the history of the Church teach that if the Holy Spirit is working, the whole man will be involved and there will be much cost to the Christian. The more the Holy Spirit works, the more Christians will be used in battle, and the more they are used, the more there will be personal cost and tiredness. It is quite the opposite of what we might first think. People often cry out for the work of the Holy Spirit and yet forget that when the Holy Spirit works, there is always tremendous cost to the people of God – weariness and tears and battles.
Practicing the Biblical Position
As I see it, the Christian life must be comprised of three concentric circles, each of which must be kept in its proper place. In the outer circle must be the correct theological position, true biblical orthodoxy and the purity of the visible church. This is first, but if that is all there is, it is just one more seedbed for spiritual pride. In the second circle must be good intellectual training and comprehension of our own generation. But having only this leads to intellectualism and again provides a seedbed for pride. In the inner circle must be the humble heart – the love of God, the devotional attitude toward god. There must be the daily practice of the reality of the God whom we know is there. These three circles must be properly established, emphasized and related to each other. At the center must be kept a living relationship to the God we know exists. When each of these circles is established in its proper place, there will be tongues of fire and the power of the Holy Spirit."