Today’s “Wednesday Words” are from an older book (@1962), but the words of Sanders still ring true this many years later:
“In our day, the greatest lack in the life of the individual Christian and of the church is the fire of God, the manifested presence and mighty working of the Holy Spirit. There is little about us that cannot be explained on the level of the natural. Our lives are not fire-touched. There is no holy conflagration in our churches to which people are irresistibly drawn as a moth to a flame. It is the absence of the fire of God which accounts for the insignificant impact the church is making on a lost world. It never had better organization, a more scholarly ministry, greater resources of men and means, more skillful techniques. And yet never did it make a smaller contribution to solving the problems of a distraught world. Our prayer should be, ‘Lord, send the fire.’”
Sanders, J. Oswald. Spiritual Maturity (Sanders Spiritual Growth Series) (p. 199). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.