Status Symbols

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man...

Revelation 1:12-13

In our time we have all kinds of status symbols in the Christian church—membership, attendance, pastoral staff, missionary offerings. But there is only one status symbol that should make a Christian congregation genuinely glad. That is to know that our Lord is present, walking in our midst!...

No matter the size of the assembly or its other attributes, our Lord wants it to be known by His presence in the midst. I would rather have His presence in the church than anything else in all the wide world.

Hearing the proud manner in which some speak of the high dollar cost of their sanctuaries must lead people to suppose that spirituality can be purchased. But the secret of true spiritual worship is to discern and know the presence of the living Christ in our midst....

The Christian church dares not settle for anything less than the illumination of the Holy Spirit and the presence of our divine Prophet, Priest and King in our midst. Let us never be led into the mistake that so many are making—sighing and saying, 'Oh, if we only had bigger, wiser men in our pulpits! Oh, if we only had more important men in places of Christian leadership' Jesus Is Victor, 59-60,63.

"Lord, I pray that I might never deviate from that significant thought: 'I would rather have His presence in the church than anything else in all the wide world.' May that be my prayer this morning. Amen."

Failure and Success: Godliness Is Not Valued

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day....

2 Timothy 4:7-8

After more than thirty years of observing the religious scene I have been forced to conclude that saintliness and church leadership are not often synonymous....

Were the church a pure and Spirit-filled body, wholly led and directed by spiritual considerations, certainly the purest and the saintliest men and women would be the ones most appreciated and most honored; but the opposite is true. Godliness is no longer valued, except for the very old or the very dead. The saintly souls are forgotten in the whirl of religious activity. The noisy, the self- assertive, the entertaining are sought after and rewarded in every way, with gifts, crowds, offerings and publicity. The Christlike, the self-forgetting, the other-worldly are jostled aside to make room for the latest converted playboy who is usually not too well converted and still very much of a playboy....

The wise Christian will be content to wait for that day. In the meantime, he will serve his generation in the will of God. If he should be overlooked in the religious popularity contests he will give it but small attention. He knows whom he is trying to please and he is willing to let the world think what it will of him. He will not be around much longer anyway, and where he is going men will be known not by their Hooper rating but by the holiness of their character.

[Man: The Dwelling Place of God, 97-99.]

"What a sad statement, Lord, that 'saintliness and church leadership are not often synonymous.' Again we're forced to recognize that if we serve You as You want, we may have to wait for recognition. Help me today to focus on 'holiness of... character' whether I'm valued by people or not. Amen."

Blessed are the Meek

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.... Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.—Matthew 5:5-8

We have but to become acquainted with, or even listen to, the big names of our times to discover how wretchedly inferior most of them are. Many appear to have arrived at their present eminence by pull, brass, nerve, gall and lucky accident. We turn away from them sick to our stomach and wonder for a discouraged moment if this is the best the human race can produce.

But we gain our self-possession again by the simple expedient of recalling some of the plain men we know, who live unheralded and unsung, and who are made of stuff infinitely finer than the hoarse-voiced braggarts who occupy too many of the highest offices in the land. . . .

. . . the church also suffers from this evil notion. Christians have fallen into the habit of accepting the noisiest and most notorious among them as the best and the greatest. They too have learned to equate popularity with excellence, and in open defiance of the Sermon on the Mount they have given their approval not to the meek but to the self-assertive; not to the mourner but to the self-assured; not to the pure in heart who see God but to the publicity hunter who seeks headlines.

[Man: The Dwelling Place of God, 96-97]

"Lord, I thank You this morning for all the unknown but faithful pastors serving churches in quiet places. We do place a lot of emphasis on the 'personalities' and big-church leaders. Thank You for the 'quiet heroes' and their faithful service; give them great encouragement today. Amen."

The Church: 100 Pianos

 ...that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
John 17:21

Someone may fear that we are magnifying private religion out of all proportion, that the "us" of the New Testament is being displaced by a selfish "I." Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become "unity" conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. The body becomes stronger as its members become healthier. The whole church of God gains when the members that compose it begin to seek a better and a higher life. The Pursuit of God, 90.

"Lord, let this start with me. Give me a closer walk with You today. Then as a leader enable me to encourage others as well, individually, so that all to whom I minister might be in harmony as we individually are close to You. Amen."

Saved by a Covenant

Let us consider what we know about God.  Holiness is one of the attributes of God.  Because God is holy, He cannot lie.  We can trust the immutability of God's covenant because it is impossible for God to lie.  Some things God cannot do, even though He is omnipotent.  God cannot lie, because God is holy.  To lie, He would have to violate His holiness.  God cannot violate His holiness; therefore, God cannot lie.

"Since God cannot lie," someone asks, "does that mean that He is not omnipotent?"  The answer is that omnipotence is not the ability to do anything; it is the ability to do anything He wills to do.  He does not will to lie.  He does not will to cheat, nor to deceive.  He does not will to play false with His people.  God wills to be true to His children, and because He is holy, they are safe.

God is perfect in wisdom, Because our own understanding is so limited, we imagine that God could conceive a scheme to redeem men, but perhaps He cannot fulfill that plan because He had misjudged something.  But that is not possible.

God knows everything that can be known.  When He makes a promise, He is able to make good on that promise because of who He is.  He is perfect in wisdom and knows all the details -- the end from the begninning.

If God were not omnipotent, He could not guarantee His ability to keep His covenant with me.  If God were not omnipotent, I could not be sure I could be saved.  I would think that I was saved, but when God reached a point where somebody was strong than He, I would be lost.  Knowing that "the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" (Rev. 19:6), and knowing that omnipotence means God can do everything He wills to do, I have no doubt at all about my salvation, for I am in the arms of the omnipotent God who has sworn to save me.

Suppose God were in the habit of changing His mind.  I have met men who were always starting something new and then changing their minds about it.  I would see them one day, and they would be excited and could hardly eat for talking -- telling me about their new project.  I would shake their hand and wish them well.  When I saw them two years later and inquired about that great work they had started, they would say, "Oh, that?  It didn't go through."

God is immutable.  When He promises something, that promise will be kept.  He has assured us that we will be blessed forever, that His mercies will be upon us forever; and that we will not perish, but will be kept by Him.  God, the immutable, does not change His mind about these things -- or anything.

Human covenants sometimes fail through the mortality of the promiser.  A man makes a promise with every intention of keeping it, then grabs at his chest and tumbles over.  They take him off to the hospital and in a few days, he is gone.  He meant all right.  He was wise enough to do the thing he promised, and was kind enough to want to do it, but he did not live to do it.  The covenant that keeps you and me, unlike promises made by mortal men, is made and kept by the eternal God.

God cannot fail by cessation or discontinuance.  God, the eternal God, lives on -- and because He lives on, we live on as long as He lives on.  Isn't this an awful, a wonderful, and an awesome thought?

We are going to live as long as God lives.  We did not begin when God began, because God never began, but we did.  However, going forward, as long as God, the eternal God, exists and continues to be -- as long as God can say, "I am and continue to be what I am" -- you and I will in the grace of God continue to be what we are, because we are saved by a covenant, sworn to by an oath.

Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.  (Hebrews 6:18)

Those familiar with the Old Testament know what the phrase "fled for refuge" means.  Israel had six cities set apart as cities of refuge.  When a man accidentally killed another man, a law in Israel said that the "avenger of blood" -- the next brother, the father or the next relative of the dead man -- could take vengeance on this fellow.

The fellow that had the ax head would take off as fast as his legs would carry him, racing to the nearest city of refuge.  Sometimes he barely made it in, with his tongue hanging out, panting like a tired dog, and the would-be avenger just behind him, almost within reach of the back of his neck.

He raced in, the court trial took place, and it was decided whether or not the man was to blame.  If he was not to blame, then, of course, the dead man's relative could not take vengeance -- to do so would violate the law again and now he would be the murderer.  That was the city of refuge.  The man of God who wrote the book of Hebrews, being a Jew, knew all about these cities.

Whether a man was guilty or not, he had a right to fly to that city of refuge.  If he was not guilty, that would be proved.  But even if he was guilty, he still had a right to go to that city of refuge.  If he made it to that city before his pursuer got to him, then he was safe.

The man of God says that we "have fled for refuge," and I can just see myself, with the devil one hot jump behind me, racing for the cross of Jesus, racing for Calvary's holy mountain.  Just as I come panting in, the doors let down behind me, and the devil runs head-on into the gate and bounces off.  He does not get me, because I have found the refuge and I am safe.

[excerpts from A.W. Tozer's God's Power For Your Life: How the Holy Spirit Transforms You Through God's Word]

The Glory and Rubbish of the Universe

We are both the glory and the rubbish of the universe -- but we never would have been the rubbish of the universe if we had not chosen the gutter.  If sin had not entered the world and we had not fallen, we would never have been the rubbish of the universe.  When our Lord is finished with His redemptive work, He will have made His people again the glory of the universe.  He will come then to be admired in His saints and glorified in all them that seek Him.

Man is the weakest creature there is, but he is the only creature that knows how weak he is, and that's where his glory is.  He is able to know how weak he is, and no other creature has such knowledge.  If you were to ask a mosquito (which I consider to be a very weak creature -- touch him and he's dead), "Are you weak?" I do not suppose he would say, "Yes."  He does not know he is weak, and he could not answer you even if he did.  He would not even know what you had asked of him.  I suppose mosquitoes do not particularly like human beings.  If mosquitoes talked, they would call us "the animal that swats" because that is the only thing they know about us.  To mosquitoes, we are simply the creatures that swat them when they land on us.

Man is the unknown, the pitiful, the wonderful, the weak, the mysterious -- and yet he is the only creature who knows that he is all this.  Man is the only creature that sins, and yet he is the only creature that could know that he sins and laments his sin.  Man is the only creature that laughs; he is the only creature that knows how foolish and inconsistent he is, and laughs at himself.  He is the only creature that aspires because there's no other creature dissatisfied with himself.  Man alone is dissatisfied with what he is and longs to become something more.

Man can go up and around the earth now and look down on it -- because he is the only creature who aspires beyond present reality.  The other creatures are exactly as they ever were.  What does this indicate? It indicates that God made man in His own image.  Man bears the image and likeness of God, and of nothing else can that be said.

Man is also the only creature that prays.  God made man to worship; he is the only creature on earth made to commune with God in that way.  The lion roars for his prey, and the bird builds its nest in the thickets.  The stormy wind blows, and the snow falls, but snow does not pray, and neither does the bird, nor the lion, nor the stormy wind.

Seen as a minute physical creature in the vastness of the universe, man is small indeed.  Seen as a spiritual creature in the bosom of God, he is greater than all the winds that blow, all the mountains that rise, all the seas that flow, and all the rivers that run down to the sea.  He is great because God made him in His own image.  That's why the Son came among us as He did.  Why would the eternal Son become a man?  He was the Son of God.  Why did He become the Son of man?  Because the creature bearing the image of God had sinned; he had become the glory and the rubbish of the universe.

[excerpts from A.W. Tozer's God's Power For Your Life: How the Holy Spirit Transforms You Through God's Word]

Before or After?

The facts of Christ's eternity and incarnation give rise to any number of paradoxes.  From a historical viewpoint, this Christ that John is writing about is the "Son of David" -- and yet He antedates David.  This is the marvelous inconsistency we find when we look into the person of Jesus Christ.  How can a son born of a father go back prior to the birth of that father?  Oh, the delightful incongruities we stumble over as God tries to deal with man's limited understanding!  Only by faith can we wrap ourselves around this marvelous truth.

Then He is referred to as the "Seed of Abraham" -- but he was before Abraham as well.  Jesus said to the religious leaders, when they questioned Him, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58).  Imagine those old Pharisees, experts in the religious law, scratching their heads as they tried to figure out what Jesus had just said.

Christ is also referred to as the last Adam, but He dates back to before the first Adam.  Trying to pin Christ down with a time sequence is impossible, because He existed prior to time.  He rises above and beyond time.  It was time that flowed from the mouth of this One who is referred to as the Ancient of Days.

Christ derives no glory from David or Abraham or Adam.  All their glory comes from Him -- and in giving them glory, He does not deplete any of His own glory.  What He has, He has in unlimited supply.  What He gives does not in any way lessen what He has.  "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty" (Rev.1:8).

Christ is often likened to Aaron -- but this parallel breaks down rather quickly.

Aaron had a beginning,

   but Christ was "in the beginning."

Aaron offered a sacrifice for his own sins,

   while Christ offered Himself for the sins of the world.

Aaron took his glory from the priesthood,

   but Christ gave of His glory to others, such as Aaron.

Aaron's priesthood came to an end,

   but Christ has a priesthood that is forever and ever -- a priesthood that extends far into the unsearchable aspects of eternity, up in the rarefied atmosphere where time has no effect.

Whenever we tell a story, it always has three elements: the beginning, the middle and the end.  When we come to the story of Christ, it is impossible to start from the beginning.  John uses the word "beginning in order to communicate to his readers some idea of what he is trying to say.  Jesus Christ was from the beginning in the sense that He was before anything else began.

[excerpts from A.W. Tozer's God's Power For Your Life: How the Holy Spirit Transforms You Through God's Word]

Preaching: Truth Divorced From Life

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.—James 1:22

There is scarcely anything so dull and meaningless as Bible doctrine taught for its own sake. Truth divorced from life is not truth in its Biblical sense, but something else and something less....

No man is better for knowing that God in the beginning created the heaven and the earth.

The devil knows that, and so did Ahab and Judas Iscariot.

No man is better for knowing that God so loved the world of men that He gave His only begotten Son to die for their redemption. 
In hell there are millions who know that.

Theological truth is useless until it is obeyed. The purpose behind all doctrine is to secure moral action....

Any man with fair pulpit gifts can get on with the average congregation if he just "feeds" them and lets them alone. Give them plenty of objective truth and never hint that they are wrong and should be set right, and they will be content.

On the other hand, the man who preaches truth and applies it to the lives of his hearers will feel the nails and the thorns. He will lead a hard life, but a glorious one. May God raise up many such prophets. The church needs them badly. Of God and Men, 25-28.

"Lord, I want to be one of those bold prophets, faithfully declaring Your word, no matter the consequences. Enable me, by Your Spirit, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen."

It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me, the hope of glory.

The great deterrent to victorious Christian living is the idea that once we accept Jesus Christ as Savior and believe that John 3:16 is all there is to it, our life now is on automatic pilot and we can just sit back and enjoy the ride.  This is the source of a great deal of disillusionment that leads to discouragement in the Christian life.

There is no such thing as automatic pilot in our Christian experience; every step is an operation of faith that will be fiercely contested by the enemy of our soul.  This kind of automatic pilot thinking leads to spiritual lethargy.  Breaking out from the tyranny of spiritual lethargy -- whatever the cost -- should be the number-one priority of every Christian.

Begin with your own shortcomings.  The first thing is to recognize the danger of spiritual lethargy.  If you do not know something is dangerous, you are not going to stay away from it.  Your attitude will be rather careless and indifferent, which is the perfect formula for a condition of spiritual lethargy.  The Holy Spirit is faithful in exposing your spiritual condition.  Your responsibility is to listen to the Holy Spirit and follow through on His action.

When the Holy Spirit begins to move in our life, we believe that we can change the Christian community.  As always, it backfires on us, allowing the community to change us and set our standards.  Mob psychology sometimes infests even the Christian community, which may explain all the dead churches in our country today.

You cannot change the community, but you can change yourself.  Or rather, you can allow the Holy Spirit to change you, and that change takes place at the very core of your life.  Then that inward change will slowly begin affecting the outside.  The right kind of change can affect everyone around you.  Spiritual awakening is not dependent on the community, but it can drastically affect the community.  Like a fire that starts small can inflame everything around it, the fire of spiritual awakening within can flow through us and touch everyone around us, in effect, changing our community.

I call this influence intentional Christian living.  By that, I mean we are living out the commands of Scripture, intentionally and purposefully.  Spiritual lethargy results in a Christian lifestyle that is haphazard and lazy.  We are not to look like or act like other people; rather, we are to look like and act like Christ.  We are to do the things that Christ would do in the power of the Holy Spirit.  We are a separated people, separated from the world unto God.  Several things are important in maintaining an intentional Christian lifestyle.

Faith

Faith is not a magical formula or ritual, but rather it is a result of a consistent commitment to Bible reading and prayer.  Much is being said of faith these days that is not the focus of the Scriptures.  Faith is not some magical formula or wish that no matter who uses it, saved or unsaved, God has to act upon it.  Such is religious lunacy and borders on witchcraft.  True faith rises in the soul of the man or woman who will fall on his or her face before and open Bible and allow God to be God in any way He chooses.

Obedience and Surrender

In order to obey, you must hear the voice of God clearly.  Again, this is rooted in my relationship to the Word of God.  If we are to live a life of obedience, we must have "ears to hear." Along with this matter of obedience is surrender.  Surrender is a clear act of obedience to the Word of God.  Some would give God as much as 99 perfect of their life, but they want to hold on to the last 1 perfect.  Either God is the Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.  Our Father does not want a partial surrender.  He is jealous toward us -- all of us.

Purity

An important aspect of intentional Christian living is purity.  This purity is the absence of additives.  The evangelical church has become most ingenious in this area of additives.  The intentional Christian life is not diluted with elements of culture or religion.  The purity of our life is simply the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  As I intentionally live the Christian life, I am focused on His purity, and He is living His life through me unencumbered by other things or interests.

On the surface, this looks absolutely impossible to do.  And quite frankly, it is impossible in the flesh.  The more I try to live the Christian life, the more I am bogged down in exterior trappings.  When I put these aside and refuse to be affected or influenced by them, I then give way for God to work through me according to His agenda and His purpose.  The apostle Paul said it this way: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).  It is no longer me; it is Christ in me, the hope of glory.

Enjoying God's Favor

Those of us who are utterly committed to living an intentional Christian life have one great advantage.  This advantage is the way God thinks about us.  God has our best in mind for the longest period of time.

What God is doing in your and my life today has implications for eternity.  When Christ was on the cross, we were on His mind.  The tears that flowed on Calvary were because of us.

The writer of Hebrews refers to the fact that Jesus endured the cross because of the joy before Him: "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2).  What was that joy?  It was all those who would put their faith and trust in Him and become part of the Bride of Christ.  We are always on His mind.

God desires to bring our lives into the full sunlight of His favor.  That requires not serving ourselves or pleasing others or ourselves, but giving ourselves completely, in absolute surrender, to God through the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.  The end result is living the intentional Christian life.

Tozer, A.W. "Living as an Intentional Christian" The Danger of a Shallow Faith: Awakening from Spiritual Lethargy, pg. 205-211

Preaching: A Sense of Inadequacy

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God....—2 Corinthians 3:5

I believe I had anticipated that it was going to be a pleasure to expound this beautiful and high soaring Gospel of John. However, I must confess that in my preparation and study a sense of inadequacy has come over me—a feeling of inadequacy so stunning, so almost paralyzing that I am not at this juncture able to call it a pleasure to preach.

Perhaps this will be God's way of reducing the flesh to a minimum and giving the Holy Spirit the best possible opportunity to do His eternal work. I fear that sometimes our own eloquence and our own concepts may get in the way, for the unlimited ability to talk endlessly about religion is a questionable blessing....

None of us can approach a serious study and consideration of the eternal nature and person of Jesus Christ without sensing and confessing our complete inadequacy in the face of the divine revelation. Christ the Eternal Son, 3,9.

"Lord, I've so often been at that place of total inadequacy. I've learned that that is so healthy, because then I step aside, I quit relying on my own 'eloquence,' and I allow the Holy Spirit to take over and do what only He can do anyway! Use me today in my weakness. Amen."

God answers prayer not because you are righteous.

So I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." 

Isaiah 6:5

Why does God answer prayer? Let's not imagine that it's because somebody was good. We Protestants think we don't believe in saints, but we do. We canonize them: we have Saint George Mueller, Saint C.H. Spurgeon, Saint D.L. Moody and Saint A.B. Simpson. We get the idea that God answered prayer for them because they were really good. They would deny that fervently if they were here.

Nobody ever got anything from God on the grounds that he deserved it. Having fallen, man deserves only punishment and death. So if God answers prayer, it's because God is good. From His goodness, His lovingkindness, His good-natured benevolence, God does it! That's the source of everything. The Attributes of God, pp. 46-47

but...

what about James 5:16?  "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."  Yes, it's true.  The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective, but who is the righteous man?  It is the one justified by the righteousness of Christ.

"As it is written:  None is righteous, no, not one." (Romans 3:10)

"But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." (Romans 3:21)

"For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.' Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness." (Romans 4:2-5)

"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, 'Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down) or 'Who will descend into the abyss?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? 'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart' (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:4-9)

 "For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." (Galatians 2:20-21)

"And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." (Philippians 1:9-11)

"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith" (Philippians 3:8-9)

Thank You, God, that You are indeed good,

You are faithful,

You are gracious,

You are full of lovingkindness and benevolence.

Thank You that You do in fact answer prayer!

Amen.

Prayer: Not Asking for Anything

I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.—Psalm 116:1-2

I think that some of the greatest prayer is prayer where you don't say one single word or ask for anything. Now God does answer and He does give us what we ask for. That's plain; nobody can deny that unless he denies the Scriptures. But that's only one aspect of prayer, and it's not even the important aspect. Sometimes I go to God and say, "God, if you never answer another prayer while I live on this earth I will still worship you as long as I live and in the ages to come for what you have done already." God's already put me so far in debt that if I were to live one million millenniums I couldn't pay Him for what He's done for me.

We go to God as we send a boy to a grocery store with a long written list, "God, give me this, give me this, and give me this," and our gracious God often does give us what we want. But I think God is disappointed because we make Him to be no more than a source of what we want. Even our Lord Jesus is presented too often much as "Someone who will meet your need." That's the throbbing heart of modern evangelism. You're in need and Jesus will meet your need. He's the Need-meeter. Well, He is that indeed; but, ah, He's infinitely more than that. Worship: The Missing Jewel, pp. 24-25

"Father, forgive me for so often just coming to You with my grocery list. You've been so faithful; You've given me so much; You've blessed so richly. It's time I just come, realizing my incredible debt to You, and simply worship at Your feet. Amen."

And the Lord turned and looked at Peter

Many people have a reputation for being good Christians in churches; then they secretly break with God and there is a lack of communion.  The fires burn low and they hardly feel any sense of God at all; and yet they have to keep it up, so they may even allow themselves to get elected to boards and to young people's groups, to choirs and all the rest.  I am afraid the whole thing is hopeless, because the heart had slipped away.  When God finds our hearts slipping, and we will not admit it to ourselves in our secret moments, we have gotten to a place where, if we told the truth, we are bored with God and religion.  We would not admit it -- we would be ashamed to admit it, but there it is.

What do you think God thinks about us?  Jesus, in the book of Revelation, said, "Nevertheless I have this against you, because you have left your first love" (2:4).  He chided that church because they were losing their affection but would not admit it.  Not an elder in the Ephesian church who stood to preach; not a deacon that ever passed the plates; not a member of the board would ever dare to get up and say, "I'm tired of God.  I'm weary of this whole business."  Jesus said, "I don't feel the warmth I used to feel.  Your smile is not there; your breath is not so warm; the tone of your voice is not so affectionate.  I miss it." He said, "You've left your first love."

In Galatians 6:1, Paul tell us, "Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently." The words used there are medical terms and mean that when an arm or shoulder gets out of joint, it gets snapped back in.  I pray that God will do us the inestimable favor of going from heart to heart, mind to mind, and soul to soul -- that He will test us with His spiritual Geiger counter.  And if there is a cooling off in there, He will find it and cure it.

Remember when Jesus looked upon Peter.  Scripture says, "And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, 'Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.'  And he went out and wept bitterly" (Luke 22:61-62).

I do not know what Jesus said.  He simply turned and looked at Peter.  The woman said, "Are you one of His followers?" and Peter said, "No."

She said, "It's your accent."

He said, "I'm not."

She said again, "You are.  Your speech betrays you."

Then he said, "I'm not a Christian.  I am going to do something no Christian would do." So he cursed.  His actions were saying that if he acted like a Christian, he might be arrested along with Jesus.  So in order to prove that he was not a Christian, he was going to curse, and so he cursed (Matthew 26:74).  She finally said, "Oh, well he's right.  He is not a Christian."

Just before He died, Jesus turned and looked at that cursing apostle.  Peter was not well educated, but he was a genius in his own right, and he looked up into that face, and what he saw in that face of hurt and pain and sorrow and longing and love was too much for Peter.  He hurried out of the house and stood outside somewhere, and with his face to his hands, he wept bitterly.  The Greek language indicates an uncontrolled torrent of weeping; yet Jesus never said a word.  He just looked at Peter.

I wonder if the tender Jesus will not look at you -- just look, that is all.  How will you respond?

Tozer, A.W. "The Process of Backsliding" The Danger of a Shallow Faith: Awakening from Spiritual Lethargy, pg. 67-69

Christ is All in All

Christ  is  pre-eminent.

He  is  above  all  things  and -- underneath  all  things  and  outside  of  all  things  and  inside  of  all  things.

As  the  old  bishop said:

He is above all things
    but not pushed up,
He is beneath all things
    but not pressed down,
outside of all things
    but not excluded,
inside
    but not confined.
He is above all, presiding
and beneath all, upholding;
and outside all, embracing
and inside of all, filling.

Now  our  relation  to  Him  is  all  that  really  matters.  A  true  Christian  faith  is an  attachment  to  the  Person  of  Christ.

[A. W. Tozer, Total Commitment to Christ]

Francois Fenelon's Spiritual Progress: Instructions in the Divine Life of the Soul, Chapter 10, On Self-Abandonment

To abandon one's self to to count one's self as nothing.  Those who have learned what that renunciation is, knows it revolts our nature.  The origin of our trouble is, that we love ourselves with a blind passion that amounts to idolatry.  If we love anything beyond, it is only for our own sakes. We must be undeceived respecting all those generous friendships, in which it appears as though we so far forgot ourselves as to think only of the interests of our friend. The more delicate, the more concealed, and the more proper in the eyes of the world it is, the more dangerous does it become, and the more likely to poison us by feeding our self-love.

However little we may have looked within to study the occasions of our pleasures, we shall have no difficulty in admitting that pride, as it is more or less delicate, has various tastes. But give it what taste you will, it is still pride; and that which appears the most restrained and the most reasonable is the most devilish. 

We may be sure, then, that it is only the love of God that can make us come out of self. If his powerful hand did not sustain us, we should not know how to take the first step in that direction. There is no middle course; we must refer everything either to God or to self; if to self, we have no other God than self; if to God, we are then in order, and regarding ourselves only as one among the other creatures of God, without selfish interests, and with a single eye to accomplish his will, we enter into that self-abandonment which you desire so earnestly to understand.

The reason why no creature can draw us out of ourselves is, that there is none that we perceive is more worthy than ourselves.  But God does two things, which He only has the power to do. First, He reveals himself to us, with all his rights over the creature, and in all the charms of his goodness. Then we feel that, not having made ourselves, we are not made for ourselves; that we are created for Him who was pleased to form us.  He is too great to make anything except for Himself, and therefore all our perfection and our happiness point to Him.

This is what no created thing, dazzling though it may be, can make us realize in respect to itself. Far from finding in them that infinity which so fills and transports us in God, we discover only a void, a powerlessness to fill our hearts, an imperfection that continually drives us into ourselves.

The second miracle which God works is, to operate in our hearts that which He pleases, after having enlightened our understanding. He is not satisfied with having displayed his own charms; He makes us love Him by producing, by his grace, his love in our hearts; and He thus himself performs within us, what He makes us see we owe to Him.

There is little difficulty in comprehending that we must reject criminal pleasures, unjust gains, and gross vanities, because the renouncement of these things consists in a contempt which repudiates them absolutely, and forbids our deriving any enjoyment from them; but it is not so easy to understand that we must abandon property honestly acquired, the pleasures of a modest and well-spent life, the honors derivable from a good reputation, and a virtue which elevates us above the reach of envy. The reason why we do not understand that these things must be given up, is, that we are not required to discard them with dislike, but, on the contrary, to preserve them to be used according to the place where God places us.

We have need of the consolation of a mild and peaceful life, to console us under its troubles; in respect to honors, we must regard "that which  is convenient," and we must keep the property we possess to supply our wants. How then are we to renounce these things at the very moment when we are occupied in the care of preserving them? We are to do what is in our power to retain them, in order to make a sober use of them, without desiring to enjoy them or placing our hearts upon them.

[Chart by Steve Hudgins, http://executableoutlines.com/charts.htm]

I say, a sober use of them, because, when we are not attached to a thing for the purposes of self-enjoyment and of seeking our happiness in it, we use only so much of it as we are necessarily obliged to; as you may see a wise and faithful steward study to use only so much of his master's property to meet his necessary wants.

The abandonment

  of evil things then, consists in refusing them with horror;

  of good things, in using them with moderation for our necessities, continually studying to reduce all those imaginary wants which comes from a greedy nature.

Remember that we must not only renounce evil, but also good things;for Jesus has said, "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all he hath, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:33) It follows, then, that the Christian must abandon everything that he has, however innocent.  For if he does not renounce it, it ceases to be innocent. He must abandon those things which it is his duty to guard with the greatest possible care, such as the good of his family, or his own reputation, for he must have his heart on none of these things; he must preserve them for a sober and moderate use; in short, he must be ready to give them all up whenever it is the will of God to deprive him of them.

He must give up those whom he loves best, and whom it is his duty to love; and his renouncement of them consists in this, that he is to love them for God only and be ready to part with them whenever God wills it, and never to seek in them the true rest of his heart. It is thus that we use the world and the creature as not abusing them, according to Saint Paul. (1  Cor. 7:31) We do not desire to take pleasure in them; we only use what God gives us, what he wills that we should love, and what we accept with the reserve of a heart, receiving it only for necessity's sake, and keeping the heart for a more worthy object. It is in this sense that Christ would have us leave father and mother, brothers and sisters, and friends, and that he is come to bring a sword upon earth.

God is a jealous God; if, in the recesses of your soul, you are attached to any creature, your heart is not worthy of Him: You must reject it as a spouse that divides her affections between her bridegroom and a stranger.

Having abandoned everything exterior, and which is not self, it remains to complete the sacrifice by renouncing everything interior, including self. The renouncement of the body is frightful to most delicate and worldly-minded persons. They know nothing, so to speak, that is more themselves than this body, which they flatter and adorn with so much care; and even when deprived of its graces, they often retain a love for its life amounting to a shameful cowardice, so that the very name of death makes them shudder.

Your natural courage raises you above these fears, and I think I  hear you say, I desire neither to flatter my body, nor to hesitate in consenting to its destruction, whenever it shall be the will of God to waste and consume it to ashes.

You may thus renounce the body, and yet there may remain great obstacles in the way of your renouncing the spirit. The more we are able, by the aid of our natural courage, to despise the body, the greater tendency we have to set a higher value our understanding, our wisdom, and our virtue, as a young and worldly woman values her beauty. We take pleasure in them; it gives us a satisfaction to feel that we are wise, moderate, and preserved from the worldly excitement which we see in others; we are intoxicated with the pleasure of not being intoxicated with pleasure; we renounce with courageous moderation the most flattering temptations of the world; we are content with the satisfaction that we are able to practice self-control.

What a dangerous state! What a subtle poison! How prideful are you to God, if you yield your heart to this refinement of self-love! You must renounce all satisfaction of self-worth.

Remember, the purer and more excellent the gifts of God, the more jealous He is of them. He showed mercy to the first human rebel, but denied it to the angels. Both sinned by the love of self, but as the angel was perfect, and regarded as a sort of divinity, so God punished his unfaithful angels with a fiercer jealousy than He did man's disobedience. We may infer from this, that God is more jealous of his most excellent gifts than He is of the more common ones; He would have us attached to nothing but Himself, and to regard his gifts, however excellent, as only the means of uniting us more easily and  intimately to Him. Whoever contemplates the grace of God with a satisfaction and sort of pleasure of ownership, turns it into poison.

Never credit exterior things to yourself then, such as favor or talents, nor even things the most interior. Your good will is no less a gift of God's mercy, than the life and being which you receive direct from his hands. Live, as it were, on trust; all that is in you, and all that you are, is only loaned you; make use of it according to the wi ll of Him who lends it, but never regard it for a moment as your own.

Herein consists true self-abandonment.  It is the use of ourselves with a single eye to the movements of God, who alone is the true master of all his creatures. Self-abandonment is not accomplished by means of painful reflections and continual struggles; it is only by refraining from self-contemplation, and from desiring to master ourselves in our own way, that we lose ourselves in God.

[Francois Fenelon's Spiritual Progress: Instructions in the Divine Life of the Soul, Chapter 10, On Self-Abandonment, paraphrased]

The Moon, Self-Distrust, and Trust in God

Study theology and learn about how God is the source and fountain of all things.  Learn about the attributes of God and see if yet in your heart you still believe that God is less than He is and you are more than you are.  Think of the moon.  If the moon could talk like a man and have a personality, it could say within itself, I shine on the earth and every time I'm around, the earth becomes beautiful.  If someone could respond to the moon, they would say, "Listen, you don't do that by yourself.  Don't you know that you have been discovered and found out?  You don't shine at all.  You are simply reflecting the sun's light, so it's really the sun that shines."

Then self comes to the rescue of the moon.  "You're letting your light shine and you're doing a good job," it says.  "When you're not up, one whole side of the earth lies in darkness.  But when you come up, a side lights up and I can begin to see rows of houses.  You're doing a fine job."  The moon would not say, "The glory belongs to God, because it is only by the grace of God that I'm like this."  All the time the moon is thinking that he is shining.

When the moon is shining, it is only a reflection light from the sun.  And if the moon really understood, he could boldly shine and talk about it, because he would know that he was not shining at all.  Similarly, Paul knew that he did not have a thing of himself that was fit for heaven.  He had only the grace of God in him.  It was God and not him.  He completely and radically distrusted himself.  No man can really know himself; he is not capable of knowing how he feels.

It is important that we understand how dangerous it is to trust our good habits and virtues.  Only God can bring us to the point of understanding that our strength is indeed our weakness.  Anything that we rely on or trust can be our undoing.  We do not realize how weak we are until the Holy Spirit begins exposing these things to us.

How does God deal with self-trust?

1.  A flash of holy inspiration in your soul

2.  God-imposed physical discipline

3.  Extreme trials and temptations

You want the Lord to do something for you, don't you?  You want Him to come down on you with a wave of grace.  We want the Holy Spirit to come on us and demonstrate His power.  We want to see all of that, but we need to be careful that we're not trying to work it up on our own.

I do not intend to try to work up anything.  You cannot climb Jacob's ladder without sweat, perspiration and hard work.  The work of God is not dependent on any man's schedule.  I rarely know where I am going in my life's journey, but after I have been there a year, I can look back and see that my path has been relatively straight.  I go to God, write out my prayers, wait on Him and remind Him, but nothing seems to happen.  I seem to be getting nowhere, and then suddenly things break around me.  I look back and see that God has been leading my every step, and I did not even know it. 

I did not know where I was going, but looking back, I can see where I have been.  I do not think we should always look back, but at least we should be able to look back and see the terrain where God has led us -- the valleys and plateaus He has brought us through because He loves us in spite of ourselves.

The more my trust rests in God, the less I trust myself.  If we truly desire to live the crucified life, we must get rid of self-trust and trust only in God.

  

[excerpts from A.W. Tozer's The Crucified Life]

Behavior Like an Awkward Goose

Christ is risen, and we have risen with Him and sit at the right hand of the Father with Him in spirit -- and one of these days with a human body.  In the meantime, we're to act as if we are up there in heaven, but a little bit different.  A farm boy comes to the city and acts different because he belongs on the farm.  The city boy goes to the country and acts different because he belongs in the city.  The man who has not been on a farm walks around gingerly, trying to keep out of the mud and keep his shoes from being soiled.  He is acting like a city man on the farm.  As Christians, we ought to act that way.

In a manner of speaking, we belong up there.  Our culture belongs up there.  Our thinking belongs up there.  Everything belongs up there.  Of course, when you are down here, people recognize you and say, "Well, that fellow belongs in heaven." I know a lot of people that belong in heaven.  I suppose one of the ugliest things in all the world is a goose walking around on the earth.  But one of the most graceful sights in the skies is a wild goose with its wings spread on its way south or north.  I suppose we act awkward here because we belong up there.

Those of you who work in big offices surrounded by people who are not Christians cannot easily fit into the conversation when break time comes.  You act awkwardly, and you are worried and ashamed and wonder why.  It is because you belong to God.  You have another spirit; you know another language, and you speak this world's language with an accent.

When others mention religion, they talk about it with an accent.  They belong to the earth; you belong to God in the skies and, of course, they do not agree.  They think you walk awkwardly down here, but they have not seen you with your wings spread yet.  Wait until the time comes when the children of God spread their wings and soar away to meet Him in glory.  Then they will see how graceful they are.  While on earth, of course, they do not think we are.

--A.W. Tozer, The Crucified Life

Overcoming Hindrances on the Path to God's Presence

"Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will."

(Hebrews 2:1-4 ESV)
 

The heart is a leaky thing.  You have good intentions and at times a strong spiritual desire for God, but your heart is like a sieve, and pretty soon it all leaks away.  Soon there is no desire left at all.

The difference between spiritual things and earthly things is that the things of the spirit are so modest; the things of the spirit are not pushing in on you; they are not singing commercials to you; they are not knocking on your door and urging you to buy; they are simply waiting for you to notice.  The things of the flesh are so insistent, so clamorous.  Everybody is singing to you, urging you, pushing you, trying to get you to go certain ways and do certain things.

Our Lord is never intrusive; but the things of the world are intrusive.  Here is the point I'm trying to make: If you are going to give attention to the things of God, you must shake yourself and say, "Now, I don't know what others are going to do, but as for me, I'm going to seek the face of God." Some will confess, "I intend to ... later."  However there may be no later time.  "I didn't understand," they may say, but they understood enough at the time.  "I was too busy." But at last they found time to die.

Somebody else says, "Nobody in my crowd paid any attention to these things," but it is always so.  The saving voice of God speaks to a crowd of men, but only one here and there hears it.  When the voice of God spoke to the antediluvian world, only Noah and his family heard it.  The rest of them perished in the flood.

Somebody else says, "If I pay attention to this, I'll lose my job."  Chances are, you will not, but if you do, any job you lose saving your soul certainly will be a wonderful bargain.

Somebody else says, "I want to have some fun now.  And then I'll become a Christian."  This is meaningless, lacking in significance to warrant any serious answer.

Somebody else says, "I was afraid of what people would say."  Afraid of what people would say?  What about what God says?

Society is in an elaborate conspiracy to make us alike.  Society is in a conspiracy to make us all bad; not too bad, because if we get too bad, we become a problem to the police.  But not too good, for if we get too good, we are fanatical, so they say.  So society wants to keep us nice, trimmed down, going to church, supporting boys' clubs and girls' clubs and hospitals.  Certainly those things are all right.  The general society wants to keep us good enough not to be a problem to the police but bad enough not to bother their conscience.

I hear the voice of God calling us to a higher kind of life.  The book of Hebrews is an urgent, vibrant, living book that speaks to those that are on the border and says, "Go on over.  You can dare to do it.  Go on over."  And it speaks to those who could not quite make up their minds whether they wanted to obey and believe God, and says, "You dare obey.  You dare believe."

We who overcome all hindrances is handsomely rewarded when we break through to the glorious sunshine of His blessed presence.

[A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God]

A Good Test Of A Spiritual Experience

A good rule (in testing a spiritual experience) is this: If this experience has served to humble me and make me little and vile in my own eyes it is of God; but if it has given me a feeling of self-satisfaction it is false and should be dismissed as emanating from self or the devil. Nothing that comes from God will minister to my pride or self-congratulation. If I am tempted to be complacent and to feel superior because I have had a remarkable vision or an advanced spiritual experience, I should go at once to my knees and repent of the whole thing. I have fallen a victim to the enemy.

Our relation to and our attitude toward our fellow Christians is another accurate test of religious experience. Sometimes an earnest Christian will, after some remarkable spiritual encounter, withdraw himself from his fellow believers and develop a spirit of faultfinding. He may be honestly convinced that his experience is superior, that he is now in an advanced state of grace, and that the hoi polloi in the church where he attends are but a mixed multitude and he alone a true son of Israel. He may struggle to be patient with these religious worldlings, but his soft language and condescending smile reveal his true opinion of them-and of himself. This is a dangerous state of mind, and the more dangerous because it can justify itself by the facts. The brother has had a remarkable experience; he has received some wonderful light on the Scriptures; he has entered into a joyous land unknown to him before. And it may easily be true that the professed Christians with whom he is acquainted are worldly and dull and without spiritual enthusiasm. It is not that he is mistaken in his facts that proves him to be in error, but that his reaction to the facts is of the flesh. His new spirituality has made him less charitable.

--A.W.Tozer