The Sanctifying Work of the Spirit

With the desire to please man so deeply implanted within us, how can we uproot it and shift our life—drive from pleasing man to pleasing God? Well, no one can do it alone, nor can you do it with the help of others, nor by education, nor by training, nor by any other method known under the sun. What is required is a reversal of nature (that it is a fallen nature does not make it any less powerful) and this reversal must be a Supernatural act. This act the Spirit performs through the power of the gospel when it is received in living faith. Then he displaces the old with the new. Then He invades life as sunlight invades a landscape and drives the old motives as light drives away darkness from the sky.

—Tozer