Tozer Devotional

Tozer Devotional
Thu, September 06, 2012
If We Would, We May

If any man will . . . let him follow me, He says, and some will rise and go after Him, but others give no heed to His voice. So the gulf opens between man and man, between those who will and those who will not. Silently, terribly the work goes on, as each one decides whether he will hear or ignore the voice of invitation. Unknown to the world, perhaps unknown even to the individual, the work of separation takes place. Each hearer of the Voice must decide for himself, and he must decide on the basis of the evidence the message affords. There will be no thunder sound, no heavenly sign or light from heaven. The Man is His own proof. The marks in His hands and feet are the insignia of His rank and office. He will not put Himself again on trial; He will not argue, but the morning of the judgment will confirm what men in the twilight have decided. And those who would follow Him must accept His conditions. Let him, He says, and there is no appeal from His words. He will use no coercion, but neither will He compromise. Men cannot make the terms; they merely agree to them. Thousands turn from Him because they will not meet His conditions. He watches them as they go, for He loves them, but He will make no concessions. Admit one soul into the Kingdom by compromise and that Kingdom is no longer secure. Christ will be Lord, or He will be Judge. Every man must decide whether he will take Him as Lord now or face Him as Judge then.

Verse
Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If ayone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.' Matthew 16:24

Thought
Christ makes clear the way to follow Him. There are no exceptions or modifications. We follow Him or we don't follow Him. What a monumental decision affecting today and the forever tomorrows!

Prayer
O Christ, I would follow You on Your terms, in Your way. It is YOU I follow
Tozer Devotional
Wed, September 05, 2012
The Quiet Call of Christ

It is like the Lord to fasten a world upon nothing, and make it stay in place. Here He takes that wonderful, mysterious microcosm we call the human soul and makes its future weal or woe to rest upon a single word--if. If any man, He says, and teaches at once the universal inclusiveness of His invitation, and the freedom of the human will. Everyone may come; no one need come, and whoever does come, comes because he chooses to. Every man holds his future in his hand. Not the dominant world leader only, but the inarticulate man lost in anonymity is a man of destiny. He decides which way his soul shall go. He chooses, and destiny waits on the nod of his head. He decides, and hell enlarges herself, or heaven prepares another mansion. So much of Himself has God given to men. There is a strange beauty in the ways of God with men. He sends salvation to the world in the person of a Man and sends that Man to walk the busy ways saying, If any man will come after me. No drama, no fanfare, no tramp of marching feet or tumult of shouting. A kindly Stranger walks through the earth, and so quiet is His voice that it is sometimes lost in the hurly-burly; but it is the last voice of God, and until we become quiet to hear it we have no authentic message. He bears good tidings from afar but He compels no man to listen. If any man will, He says, and passes on. Friendly, courteous, unobtrusive, He yet bears the signet of the King. His word is divine authority, His eyes a tribunal, His face a last judgment.

Verse
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28

Thought
In Gerhard Tersteegen's words: "God calling yet! And shall He knock and I my heart the closer lock? He still is waiting to receive, and shall I dare His Spirit grieve?" God is calling us and those around us.

Prayer
Thank You, Lord, for patiently calling me. I have come to You. May I be a means for others to hear Your call.

Tozer Devotional
Tue, September 04, 2012
Prayerful Digestion of God's Word

How then shall unbelief be cured and faith be strengthened? Surely not by straining to believe the Scriptures, as some do. Not by a frantic effort to believe the promises of God. Not by gritting our teeth and determining to exercise faith by an act of the will. All this has been tried--and it never helps. To try thus to superinduce faith is to violate the laws of the mind and to do violence to the simple psychology of the heart. What is the answer? Job told us, Acquaint thyself with him and be at peace; and Paul said, So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. These two verses show the way to a strong and lasting faith: Get acquainted with God through reading the Scriptures, and faith will come naturally. This presupposes that we come to the Scriptures humbly, repudiating self-confidence and opening our minds to the sweet operations of the Spirit. Otherwise stated: Faith comes effortlessly to the heart as we elevate our conceptions of God by a prayerful digestion of His Word. And such faith endures, for it is grounded upon the Rock.

Verse
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

Thought
Prayerfully submerging ourselves in the Word results in increasing obedience, growing faith and expanding concept of God. Let's get into the Word and let the Word get into us!

Prayer
Lord, open my heart eyes to You as I feed on Your Word. By Your Spirit show me more and more who You are.

Tozer Devotional
Mon, September 03, 2012
Our Faith Reflects Our Concept of God

All things else being equal, the destiny of a man or nation may safely be predicted from the idea of God which that man or that nation holds. No nation can rise higher than its conception of God. While Rome held to her faith in the stern old gods of the Pantheon she remained an iron kingdom. Her citizens unconsciously imitated the character of her gods, however erroneous their conception of the Deity might have been. When Rome began to think loosely about God she began to rot inwardly, and that rot never stopped till it brought her to the ground. So it must always be with men and nations. A church is strong or weak just as it holds to a high or low idea of God. For faith rests not primarily upon promises, but upon character. A believer's faith can never rise higher than his conception of God. A promise is never better or worse than the character of the one who makes it. An inadequate conception of God must result in a weak faith, for faith depends upon the character of God just as a building rests upon its foundation. This explains why unbelief is such a grievous sin; it is pure libel against the Lord of heaven and earth. Unbelief judges God to be unworthy of confidence and withholds its trust from Him. Can there be a more heinous sin than this? He that believeth not God hath made him a liar” (1 John 5:10). Our hearts shrink from the full implications of such a statement, but would not this seem to teach that unbelief attributes to God the character of Satan? Jesus said of Satan, He is a liar and the father of it. Unbelief says virtually the same thing of God.

Verse
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 'Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay him?' Fo Romans 11:33-36

Thought
How big is our God? Our prayer, our daily life, our worship reflect our concept of God. Let's let God be GOD in our life!

Prayer
O God, forgive me for my small concept of You. In increasing measure show me who You are! In Jesus' name.

Tozer Devotional
Sun, September 02, 2012
Embracing the Cross of Christ

Let us plant ourselves on the hill of Zion and invite the world to come over to us, but never under any circumstances will we go over to them. The cross is the symbol of Christianity, and the cross speaks of death and separation, never of compromise. No one ever compromised with a cross. The cross-separated between the dead and the living. The timid and the fearful will cry Extreme! and they will be right. The cross is the essence of all that is extreme and final. The message of Christ is a call across a gulf from death to life, from sin to righteousness and from Satan to God. The first step for any Christian who is seeking spiritual power is to accept his unique position as a son of heaven temporarily detained on the earth, and to begin to live as becometh a saint. The sharp line of demarcation between him and the world will appear at once--and the world will never quite forgive him. And the sons of earth will make him pay well for separation, but it is a price he will gladly pay for the privilege of walking in fruitfulness and power.

Verse
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians 6:14

Thought
The cross of Christ marks an unbridgeable gulf between the believer and the world. Paul clearly understood that his embrace of the cross of Christ meant unmistakable severance from this world. Do we?

Prayer
May my faith identification with You, O Christ, welcome Your life in me and my death to this world system. For Your glory!

Tozer Devotional
Sat, September 01, 2012
Refusing to be Conformed to the Pattern of This World

Men are impressed with the message of the Church just as far and as long as she is different from themselves. When she seeks to be like them they no longer respect her. They believe (and rightly) that she is playing false to herself and to them. The moral jar that results when an indoctrinated son of Adam meets a son of heaven is one of the most wholesome things that can happen to both of them. And contrary to common opinion, men are more inclined to follow the way of Christ when they are compelled to make a radical alteration in their lives than they are when the way is made easy for them. The human heart senses its need to be changed, and when religion appears offering life without such change, it is not taken seriously by thinking men. The superficial, the insincere, may embrace such a low-powered brand of religion, but the seeking heart must reject it as false and unreal. All conformity to the world is a negation of our Christian character and a surrender of our heavenly position.

Verse
Don't let the world around you squeeze into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within . . . (Phillips Translation) . Romans 12:2

Thought
In our efforts to be "seeker friendly" there is the danger of downplaying the radical nature of conversion, the cost to the sinful nature of daily cross-carrying, and separation from this world. For the child of God there is heavenly citizenship. This wo

Prayer
O God, may You express Your love through me to the people of this world, yet keep me being squeezed into this world's mould.
Tozer Devotional
Fri, August 31, 2012
On Being Different

The Church's mightiest influence is felt when she is different from the world in which she lives. Her power lies in her being different, rises with the degree in which she differs and sinks as the difference diminishes. This is so fully and clearly taught in the Scriptures and so well illustrated in Church history that it is hard to see how we can miss it. But miss it we do, for we hear constantly that the Church must try to be as much like the world as possible, excepting, of course, where the world is too, too sinful; and we are told to get adjusted to the world and be all things to all men. (This use of the passage, incidentally, points up Peter's saying that Our beloved brother Paul wrote some things which the unlearned and the unstable wrest to their own destruction. ) One sure mark of the Church's heavenly character is that she is different from the rest of mankind; similarity is a mark of her fall. The sons of God and the sons of men are morally and spiritually separated, and between them there is a great gulf fixed. When religious persons try to bridge that gulf by compromise they violate the very principles of the kingdom of God.

Verse
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. John 15:19

Thought
How much are we hated by the world not because of personal peculiarities or hypocrisy but because of likeness to Christ? The world hated Christ. What is its attitude to us?

Prayer
Lord, in seeking to love the people of the world may I clearly reject the world's values and practices. I am Yours not theirs.

Tozer Devotional
Thu, August 30, 2012
Faith Grows with Use

It was a saying of George Mueller that faith grows with use. If we would have great faith we must begin to use the little faith we already have. Put it to work by reverent and faithful praying, and it will grow and become stronger day by day. Dare today to trust God for something small and ordinary and next week or next year you may be able to trust Him for answers bordering on the miraculous. Everyone has some faith, said Mueller; the difference among us is one of degree only, and the man of small faith may be simply the one who has not dared to exercise the little faith he has. According to the Bible, we have because we ask, or we have not because we ask not. It does not take much wisdom to discover our next move. Is it not to pray, and pray again and again till the answer comes? God waits to be invited to display His power in behalf of His people. The world situation is such that nothing less than God can straighten it out. Let us not fail the world and disappoint God by failing to pray.

Verse
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Colossians 4:2

Thought
Said Wesley Deuwel: "Prayer is not limited to the humanly possible. Prayer is a work of faith. The purpose of prevailing prayer is to bring to pass things that are divinely possible and that are in God's will. . . . He has chosen to make us His co-labore

Prayer
Father, what unbelievable resources You have given me--prayer, believing prayer. I can touch the world through prayer. May I grow in faith as I believingly pray.

Tozer Devotional
Wed, August 29, 2012
Believing Prayer

Men may, and often do, pray without faith (though this is not true prayer), but it is not thinkable that men should have faith and not pray. The biblical formula is The prayer of faith. Prayer and faith are here bound together by the little preposition of, and what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Faith is only genuine as it eventuates into prayer. When Tennyson wrote More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of, he probably uttered a truth of vaster significance than even he understood. While it is not always possible to trace an act of God to its prayer-cause, it is yet safe to say that prayer is back of everything that God does for the sons of men here upon earth. One would gather as much from a simple reading of the Scriptures. What profit is there in prayer? Much every way. Whatever God can do faith can do, and whatever faith can do prayer can do when it is offered in faith. An invitation to prayer is, therefore, an invitation to omnipotence, for prayer engages the Omnipotent God and brings Him into our human affairs. Nothing is impossible to the man who prays in faith, just as nothing is impossible with God. This generation has yet to prove all that prayer can do for believing men and women.

Verse
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Mark 7:7-8

Thought
Why would God invite, even command us to pray if He were not going to answer? He is ready to answer. It is for us to pray in faith according to His revealed will, persevere in prayer and leave the means and the timing to Him.

Prayer
Grow me, Lord, to be a person of faithful, faith-filled prayer. May I make prayer my major ministry.

Tozer Devotional
Tue, August 28, 2012
Prayer and Faith

The skeptic in the book of Job asked the disdainful question, What is the Almighty, that we should serve him, and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? The whole tone of the remark shows that it is meant to be rhetorical. The doubter, believing the question could have no answer, tossed it off contemptuously and turned away, like Pilate, without waiting for a reply. But we have an answer. God Himself has supplied it, and the universal consensus of the ages has added an Amen. In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews we have a long list of benefits which faith brings to its possessors: justification, deliverance, fruitfulness, endurance, victory over enemies, courage, strength and even resurrection from the dead. And everything that is attributed to faith might with equal truth be attributed to prayer, for faith and true prayer are like two sides of the same coin. They are inseparable.

Verse
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24

Thought
We are instructed to not only ask in prayer but to believe we have received it. Our "asking" greatly exceeds our "believing." But the two are inseparable parts of the whole.

Prayer
Father, forgive me for asking without believing. You, Lord, invite me to ask but to do so while believing.

Tozer Devotional
Mon, August 27, 2012
No Turning Back

With large blocks of evangelicals praying and preaching like Christians while they live and talk like worldlings, how much longer may we expect them to remain evangelical? Apostasy always begins with the conduct. First there is a wrong orientation of the life, a facing toward the lost world with yearning and enjoyment; later there comes a gradual surrender of the truth itself and a slipping back into unbelief. That has happened to individuals and denominations and it can happen to the whole present evangelical communion if it is not checked before it is too late. For this cause, the facing-both- ways attitude of our present Christianity is something to be alarmed about. And if that attitude were the result of plain backsliding there would be much more reason for optimism. Unchristian acts done by a Christian through weakness and over the protests of his better heart may be bad enough, but they are not likely to be fatal. But when he does them with the sanction of his teachers and with the belief that they are all a part of the Christian way, how is he to be rescued?

Verse
From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. John 6:66

Thought
There is turning back which is deliberate and decisive. There is also that which is gradual and almost insensible. It is the latter to which we may be most vulnerable. We are in the world. Are we of it, too?

Prayer
I am in this world but, Lord, I don't want to be of it. Help me to discern the difference.

Tozer Devotional
Sun, August 26, 2012
Radical Conversion

Let a man but become, as the early Methodists would have said, soundly converted, and certain things will begin to happen in his life. He will experience a wonderful unification of personality and a turning about of the whole life toward God and heavenly things. Though he will undoubtedly suffer from the inward struggle described in the seventh chapter of Romans, yet his direction will be established beyond any doubt and his face will remain turned toward the City of God. That word direction should have more emphasis these days, for the most important thing about a life is its direction. David hardly said anything more significant than this: I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. And the Hebrews' writer summed it all up in one sentence, Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. An emotional conversion which stops short of Christ-orientation is inadequate for life and death, and, unless new help comes from some quarter, it may easily be worse than no religious experience at all. And just this would appear to be the source of our bad orientation. The original experience of conversion was not sufficiently radical to turn the life wholly to God and things eternal. Then when religious leaders found that they had on their hands half-converted persons who wanted to be saved but would not turn fully to God, they tried to meet the situation by providing a twilight-zone religion which did not demand too much and which did offer something. Better have them halfway in, they reasoned, than all the way out. We know now how bad that reasoning was.

Verse
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2

Thought
We can't run the Christian race without fixing our eyes on Jesus. That involves taking our eyes off all else.

Prayer
Lord Jesus, You are the author and perfecter of my faith. I focus my heart eyes on You. By Your Spirit I want to run this life marathon with perseverance.

Tozer Devotional
Sat, August 25, 2012

Blurred Goals and Spiritual Impediments

Like a doctor with a sick patient whose disease eludes diagnosis, religious leaders have for some years been aware that there is something seriously wrong with evangelicalism and have yet been unable to lay their finger upon the precise trouble. The symptoms they have discovered in abundance, but the cause back of them has been hard to locate. Mostly we have spent our time correcting symptoms, having all the while an uneasy feeling that our remedies did not go deep enough. Knowing that a disease that cannot be identified invariably calls out a flock of untrained experts to analyze and prescribe, we yet risk a pronouncement upon the condition of evangelical Christianity in our day, and we believe we may not be too far from the truth. The trouble seems to be a disorder of the spiritual nerve system which we might, for the lack of a proper term, call dual orientation. Its dominant characteristic appears to be a cross up among the nerve ganglia of the soul resulting in an inability to control the direction of the life. The patient starts one direction and before he knows it he is going another. His inward eyes do not coordinate; each one sees a different object and seeks to lead the steps toward it. The individual is caught in the middle, trying to be true to both foci of the heart, and never knowing which he would rather follow. Evangelicalism (at least in many circles) is suffering from this strange division of life-purpose. Its theology faces toward the East and the sacred Temple of Jehovah. Its active interests face toward the world and the temple of Dagon. Doctrinally it is Christian, but actually it is pagan mentality, pagan scale of values and pagan religious principles.

Verse
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1

Thought
We seem to have forgotten that we are to throw off the hindrances (not sins) and the sin that so easily entangles us, if we are to run the race. Why do we try to run the Christian life marathon with a refrigerator strapped to our back?

Prayer
O Spirit of God, awaken me once again to those hindrances and that entangling sin that seriously impedes my progress in the race of life.

Tozer Devotional
Fri, August 24, 2012

Applying the Test of Biblical Accuracy

The tests for spiritual genuineness are two: First, the leader must be a good man and full of the Holy Ghost. Christianity is nothing if not moral. . . . But the test of moral goodness is not enough. Every man must submit his work to the scriptural test. It is not enough that he be able to quote from the Bible at great length or that he claim for himself great and startling experiences with God. Go back to the law and to the testimony. If he speak not according to the Word it is because there is no light in him. We who are invited to follow him have every right, as well as a solemn obligation, to test his work according to the Word of God. We must demand that every claimant for our confidence present a clean bill of health from the Holy Scriptures; that he do more than weave in a text occasionally, or hold up the Bible dramatically before the eyes of his hearers. His doctrines must be those of the Scriptures. The Bible must dominate his preaching. He must preach according to the Word of God. The price of following a false guide on the desert may be death. The price of heeding wrong advice in business may be bankruptcy. The price of trusting to a quack doctor may be permanent loss of health. The price of putting confidence in a pseudo-prophet may be moral and spiritual tragedy. Let us take heed that no man deceive us.

Verse
Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21

Thought
Applying the biblical test will mean accepting what is scripturally accurate and is from the Spirit and rejecting what is not. Needed is a growing knowledge of the Word and increasing sensitivity to the Spirit.

Prayer
Equip me to be a tester, Lord, to accurately yet graciously test what is taught in Your name.

Tozer Devotional
Thu, August 23, 2012
Tests for Genuineness

How can we tell whether or not a man or a religious demonstration is of God? The answer is easy to find, but it will take courage to follow the facts as God reveals them to us. The tests for spiritual genuineness are two: First, the leader must be a good man and full of the Holy Ghost. Christianity is nothing if not moral. No tricks of theology, no demonstrations of supernatural wonders, no evidences of blind devotion on the part of the public can decide whether or not God is in the man or the movement. Every servant of Christ must be pure of heart and holy of life. While sinless perfection is not likely to be found among even the best of men, still the leader to be trusted is the one who lives as near like Christ as possible and who knows how to repent in sorrow of heart when he sins against his Lord by any act or word. The man God honors will be humble, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, modest, clean living, free from the love of money, eager to promote the honor of God and just as eager to disclaim any credit or praise on his own part. His financial accounts will bear inspection, his ethical standards will be high and his personal life above reproach.

Verse
He [Barnabas] was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. Acts 11:24

Thought
Barnabas was an unusual encourager to the newly converted Paul, to John Mark and to the new believers in Antioch. He was, after all, a good person, full of the Holy Spirit and faith.

Prayer
Father, may I, too, be a good person, full of the Holy Spirit and faith.

Tozer Devotional
Wed, August 22, 2012
Testing the Spirits

Many tender-minded Christians fear to sin against love by daring to inquire into anything that comes wearing the cloak of Christianity and breathing the name of Jesus. They dare not examine the credentials of the latest prophet to hit their town lest they be guilty of rejecting something which may be of God. They timidly remember how the Pharisees refused to accept Christ when He came, and they do not want to be caught in the same snare, so they either reserve judgment or shut their eyes and accept everything without question. This is supposed to indicate a high degree of spirituality. But in sober fact it indicates no such thing. It may indeed be evidence of the absence of the Holy Spirit. Gullibility is not synonymous with spirituality. Faith is not a mental habit leading its possessor to open his mouth and swallow everything that has about it the color of the supernatural. Faith keeps its heart open to whatever is of God, and rejects everything that is not of God, however wonderful it may be. Try the spirits is a command of the Holy Spirit to the Church. We may sin as certainly by approving the spurious as by rejecting the genuine. And the current habit of refusing to take sides is not the way to avoid the question. To appraise things with a heart of love and then to act on the results is an obligation resting upon every Christian in the world. And the more as we see the day approaching.

Verse
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1

Thought
Satan is clever in the use of disguise and deception. Denial that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is the major indicator that the spirits are not from God. Yet we must be on guard for lower level deception.

Prayer
Lord, give discernment and boldness lest I be derailed from truth and mired in error
Tozer Devotional
Tue, August 21, 2012
Avoiding Deception

These are times of moral and religious confusion and it is sometimes hard to distinguish the false from the true. Our faithful Lord has tried to save us from the consequences of our own blindness by repeated warnings and many careful instructions. It will pay us to give close attention to His words. Toward the end of the age, we are told, there shall be a time of stepped-up religious activity and frenzied expectation, growing out of the turbulent conditions prevailing among nations. The language is familiar to most Christians: Wars and rumors of wars . . . nation shall rise against nation . . famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. . . . Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations . . and then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. Concurrent with this state of affairs will be a great increase in religious excitement and supernatural happenings generally. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. . . . And many false prophets shall rise. . . . Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Verse
. . . remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, 'In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.' These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not hav Jude 17-19

Thought
Our best defense against false teaching is the personal, systematic study of Scripture. We have access to the Word of God and the ministry of the indwelling Spirit. Let's exercise our privileges.

Prayer
O Lord, teach me from Your Word in these days of erroneous interpretation, mistaken contextualization and misapplication.

Tozer Devotional
Mon, August 20, 2012
The Church is Our Spiritual Family

The elements of a true church are few and easy to possess. They are a company of believers, the Lord, the Spirit and the Word of the Living God. Let the Lord be worshiped, the Spirit be obeyed, the Word be expounded and followed as the only rule for faith and conduct, and the power of God will begin to show itself as it did to Samson in the camp of Dan. The church will produce a spiritual culture all its own, wholly unlike anything created by the mind of man and superior to any culture known on earth, ancient or modern. God is getting His people ready for another world, and He uses the local church as a workshop in which to carry on His blessed work. That Christian is a happy one who has found a company of true believers in whose heavenly fellowship he can live and love and labor. And nothing else on earth should be as dear to him nor command from him such a degree of loyalty and devotion.

Verse
Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God. Respect the government (The Message). First Peter 2:17

Thought
Have we made the church just another social club? Do we sample selected ministries without submerging ourselves in the whole? Easy to do in a large church. But the church is our spiritual family.

Prayer
Forgive me, Lord, for judging my local church on the basis of what it contributes to me rather becoming fully a part. It is my spiritual family.

Tozer Devotional
Sun, August 19, 2012
We Need Church Family

The Christian life begins with the individual; a soul has a saving encounter with God and the new life is born. Not all the pooled efforts of any church can make a Christian out of a lost man. But once the great transaction' s done the communion of believers will be found to be the best environment for the new life. Men are made for each other, and this is never more apparent than in the church. All else being equal, the individual Christian will find in the communion of a local church the most perfect atmosphere for the fullest development of his spiritual life. There also he will find the best arena for the largest exercise of those gifts and powers with which God may have endowed him. The religious solitary may gain on a few points, and he may escape some of the irritations of the crowd, but he is a half-man, nevertheless, and worse, he is a half-Christian. Every solitary experience, if we would realize its beneficial effects, should be followed immediately by a return to our own company. There will be found the faith of Christ in its most perfect present manifestation. But one thing must be kept in mind: these things are true only where the local church is a church indeed, where the communion of saints is more than a phrase from the Creed but is realized and practiced in faith and love. Those religio-social institutions, with which we are all too familiar, where worship is a form, the sermon an essay and the prayer an embarrassed address to someone who isn't there, certainly do not qualify as churches under any scriptural terms with which we are acquainted.

Verse
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. First Corinthians 12:27

Thought
As believers we are interrelated and interdependent. Christ ministers to us through other believers and to other believers through us. He has gifted each of us to that end. We are members of Christ's body, the Church.

Prayer
Amazing, Lord, that I am part of Your body, the Church! Thank You for ministering to me through other body members. May You minister to others through me. In Jesus' name.

Tozer Devotional
Sat, August 18, 2012
The Church: the Body of Christ

The universal Church is the body of Christ, the bride of the Lamb, the habitation of God through the Spirit, the pillar and ground of the truth. The local church is a community of ransomed men, a minority group, a colony of heavenly souls dwelling apart on the earth, a division of soldiers on a foreign soil, a band of reapers, working under the direction of the Lord of the harvest, a flock of sheep following the Good Shepherd, a brotherhood of like-minded men, a visible representative of the Invisible God. It is most undesirable to conceive of our churches as Works, or Projects. If such words must be used, then let them be understood as referring to the earthly and legal aspect of things only. A true church is something supernatural and divine, and is in direct lineal descent from that first church at Jerusalem. Insofar as it is a church it is spiritual; its social aspect is secondary and may be imitated by any group regardless of its religious qualities or lack of them. The spiritual essence of a true church cannot be reproduced anywhere but in a company of renewed and inwardly united believers.

Verse
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Ephesians 1:22-23

Thought
That local church of which you are a part is one expression of the Church, the body of Christ. You cannot demand of other believers levels of Christlikeness and spiritual maturity that you yourself are not modeling. You are as much Church as are they.

Prayer
Father, thank You for the Church. Weak as I am and as my brothers and sisters are, we are members of the body of Christ. Your Spirit lives in us!

Tozer Devotional
Fri, August 17, 2012
Forgiveness for the Past and Provision for the Present

. . . To offer a sinner the gift of salvation based upon the work of Christ, while at the same time allowing him to retain the idea that the gift carries with it no moral implications, is to do him untold injury where it hurts him worst. Many evangelical teachers insist so strongly upon free, unconditional grace as to create the impression that sin is not a serious matter and that God cares very little about it. He is concerned only with our escaping the consequences. The gospel then in practical application means little more than a way to escape the fruits of our past. The heart that has felt the weight of its own sin and along with this has seen the dread whiteness of the Most High God will never believe that a message of forgiveness without transformation is a message of good news. To remit a man's past without transforming his present is to violate the moral sincerity of his own heart. To that kind of thing God will be no party. We must have courage to preach the whole message. By so doing we shall undoubtedly lose a few friends and make a number of enemies. But the true Christian will not grieve too much about that. He has enough to do to please his Lord and Savior and to be true to the souls of all men. That may well occupy him too completely to leave much time for regrets over the displeasure of misguided men.

Verse
For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Acts 20:27

Thought
Forgiveness for sins of the past and solid hope for the future are ours in Christ. Provision for the present is ours as well in the proclamation of the whole will of God. That will mean dealing with areas of life we have long tolerated but which displease God.

Prayer
Thank You for your patience and grace, Lord. Thank You, too, for the Spirit's insistent conviction. O God, continue to change me!

Tozer Devotional
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Gospel Corollaries

To allow the gospel only its etymological meaning of good news is to restrict it so radically as actually to make it something it is not. That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures is good news indeed. That He, having by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens from which exalted position He mediates grace to all believers, is wonderful, heartening news for the sin burdened race. But to limit the Christian message to this one truth alone is to rob it of much of its meaning and create a bad misunderstanding among those who hear the resultant preaching. The fact is that the New Testament message embraces a great deal more than an offer of free pardon. It is a message of pardon, and for that may God be praised; but it is also a message of repentance. It is a message of atonement, but it is also a message of temperance and righteousness and godliness in this present world. It tells us that we must accept a Savior, but it tells us also that we must deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. The gospel message includes the idea of amendment, of separation from the world, of cross carrying and loyalty to the kingdom of God even unto death. To be strictly technical, these latter truths are corollaries of the gospel, and not the gospel itself; but they are part and parcel of the total message which we are commissioned to declare. No man has authority to divide the truth and preach only a part of it. To do so is to weaken it and render it without effect.

Verse
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Thought
Accurate exegesis, interpretation, with close attention to textual and cultural context, all under the Spirit's guidance avoids erroneous teaching and misplaced emphasis.

Prayer
Make me a Berean, Lord, who receives Your Word with eagerness and examines the Scriptures daily to see if what I hear and teach is true.
Tozer Devotional
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
The Holy are Humble
The Church in America suffered a greater loss than she has since discovered when she rejected the example of good men and chose for her pattern the celebrity of the hour. Human greatness cannot be determined by popularity polls nor by the number of lines any man rates in the public press. It is altogether unlikely that we know who our greatest men are. One thing is sure, however--the greatest man alive today is the best man alive today. That is not open to debate. To discover the good great man (granted that it would be to our profit to do so) would require more than human wisdom. For the holy man is also the humble man and the humble man will not advertise himself nor allow others to do it for him. Spiritual virtues run deep and silent. Like the tide or the pull of gravitation or the shining of the sun, they work without noise, but their gracious ministrations are felt around the whole earth. The Christian who is zealous to promote the cause of Christ can begin by living in the power of the Spirit and so reproducing the life of Christ in the sight of men. In deep humility and without ostentation he can let his light shine. The world may pretend not to see, but it will see, nevertheless, and more than likely it will get into serious trouble with its conscience over what it sees.

Verse
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! Philippians 2:8

Thought
Andrew Murray wrote: "Pride is the likeness of Satan, humility that of Jesus." Of the aspects of Christlikeness it is probably humility that is most foreign to contemporary American culture.

Prayer
Lord, You humbled Yourself in degree I can never know. Yet the more I gaze upon You the more reason I have to be humble.

Tozer Devotional
Monday, August 13, 2012
Listening to God before We Speak for Him

Holy men of soberer and quieter times than ours knew well the power of silence. David said, I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me; while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue. There is a tip here for God's modern prophets. The heart seldom gets hot while the mouth is open. A closed mouth before God and a silent heart are indispensable for the reception of certain kinds of truth. No man is qualified to speak who has not first listened. It might well be a wonderful revelation to some Christians if they were to get completely quiet for a short time, long enough, let us say, to get acquainted with their own souls, and to listen in the silence for the deep voice of the Eternal God. The experience, if repeated often enough, would do more to cure our ulcers than all the pills that ever rolled across a desk.

Verse
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27

Thought
The Good Shepherd speaks and His sheep listen to His voice. Some of us sheep are too busy "baaing" to listen to the Great Shepherd.

Prayer
Father, may I be a friend to stillness. May I be a listener to You before daring to speak for You. In Jesus' name.
Tozer Devotional
Sunday, August 12, 2012
God's Gentle Whisper

There are truths that can never be learned except in the noise and confusion of the market place or in the tough brutality of combat. The tumult and the shouting teach their own rough lessons. No man is quite a man who has not been to the school of work and war, who has not heard the cry at birth and the sigh at life's parting. But there is another school where the soul must go to learn its best eternal lessons. It is the school of silence. Be still and know, said the psalmist, and there is a profound philosophy there, of universal application. Prayer among evangelical Christians is always in danger of degenerating into a glorified gold rush. Almost every book on prayer deals with the get element mainly. How to get things we want from God occupies most of the space. Now, we gladly admit that we may ask for and receive specific gifts and benefits in answer to prayer, but we must never forget that the highest kind of prayer is never the making of requests. Prayer at its holiest moment is the entering into God to a place of such blessed union as makes miracles seem tame and remarkable answers to prayer appear something very far short of wonderful by comparison.

Verse
After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. 1 Kings 19:12-13

Thought
We have so much to learn about heart stillness. To be calm and quiet smacks of inactivity, doing nothing. But cultivating heart stillness may be our most valuable activity because then we can hear God's gentle whisper.

Prayer
Lord, help me to be quiet enough to hear Your gentle whisper. I look for You in the spectacular- -the earthquakes and explosive fires. But You speak in the quiet, the calm. May I hear Your gentle whisper.

Tozer Devotional
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Setting Our Sails in the Will of God

In the kingdom of God what we will is accepted as what we are. If any man will, said our Lord, let him. God does not desire to destroy our wills, but to sanctify them. In that terrible, wonderful moment of surrender it may be that we feel that our will has been forever broken, but such is not the case. In His conquest of the soul God does not destroy any of its normal powers. He purges the will and brings it into union with His own, but He never breaks it. In the diaries of some of God's greatest saints will be found vows and solemn pledges made in moments of great grace when the presence of God was so real and so wonderful that the reverent worshiper felt he dared to say anything, to make any promise, with the full assurance that God would enable him to carry out his holy intention. The self-confident and irresponsible boast of a Peter is one thing and is not to be confused with the hushed and trustful vow of a David or a Daniel. Neither should Peter's embarrassing debacle dissuade us from making vows of our own. The heart gives character to our pledges, and God knows the difference between an impulsive promise and a reverent declaration of intention. Let us, then, set our sails in the will of God. If we do this we will certainly find ourselves moving in the right direction, no matter which way the wind blows.

Verse
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. Psalm 143:10

Thought
He will teach us to do His will if we are so committed. Sometimes He teaches us through painful experiences, even failures. Our need is for increased sensitivity to the Spirit's leading with determination to follow by His enablement.

Prayer
Lord, I set my sails in Your will. Lead me. Teach me. Strengthen me. I feel so weak!

Tozer Devotional
Friday, August 10, 2012

Determining to Follow the Lord

That religion lies in the will is an axiom of theology. Not how we feel but what we will determines our spiritual direction. An old poem states it for us: "One ship drives east and another drives west with the selfsame winds that blow; tis the set of the sails and not the gales which tells us the way to go" (Ella Wheeler Wilcox}. Though we do not hear much of it in this age of spineless religion, there is nevertheless much in the Bible about the place of moral determination in the service of the Lord. Jacob vowed a vow, and it was the beginning of a very wonderful life with God. The following years brought a great many vicissitudes, and Jacob did not always acquit himself like a true man of God, but his early determination kept him on course, and he came through victorious at last. Daniel purposed in his heart, and God honored his purpose. Jesus set His face like a flint and walked straight toward the cross. Paul determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified,” and in that determined spirit ignored the learned philosophers, preached a gospel that was accounted foolishness and earned himself a reputation for ignorance, though he was easily the greatest brain of his generation. These are only a few of the many men and women of the Bible who have left us a record of spiritual greatness born out of a will firmly set to do the will of God. They did not try to float to heaven on a perfumed cloud, but cheerfully accepted the fact that with purpose of heart they must cleave unto the Lord.

Verse
Daniel made up his mind to eat and drink only what God had approved for his people to eat . . . (Contemporary English Version). Daniel 1:8

Thought
Determination alone cannot bring about life transformation. However, appropriation of the Spirit's empowerment cannot be experienced without determination on our part to so live.

Prayer
I choose Thee, blessed will of God! In Thee alone my heart can rest. That, too, is my choice, O Lord. By Your power strengthen my determination to persist in that choice!

Tozer Devotional
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Being Still in God's Presence

In coming to God we should place ourselves in His presence with the confidence that He is the aggressor, not we. He has been waiting to manifest Himself to us till such time as our noise and activity have subsided enough for Him to make Himself heard and felt by us. Then we should focus our soul’s powers of attention upon the Triune Godhead. Whether One Person or Another claims our present interest is not important. We can trust the Spirit to bring before our minds the Person that we at the moment need most to behold. One thing more. Do not try to imagine God, or you will have an imaginary God; and certainly do not, as some have done, “set a chair for Him.” God is Spirit. He dwells in your heart, not your house. Brood on the Scriptures and let faith show you God as He is revealed there. Nothing else can equal this glorious sight.

Verse
Be still, and know that I am God; . . . Psalm 46:10

Thought
Slow down! Be still! How good to be still. The quieter in heart we become the more we know that He is God and He is there.

Prayer
Teach me to be still, Lord. To be still and know that You are God.

Tozer Devotional
Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Pleasing Meditation

The worldly man can never rest. He must have “somewhere to go’’ and “something to do.” This is a result of the fall, a symptom of a deep-lying disease, yet a blind religious leadership caters to this terrible restlessness instead of trying to cure it by the Word and the Spirit. If the many activities engaged in by the average church led to the salvation of sinners or the perfecting of believers they would justify themselves easily and triumphantly; but they do not. My observations have led me to the belief that many, perhaps most, of the activities engaged in by the average church do not contribute in any way the accomplishing of the true work of Christ on earth. I hope I am wrong, but I am afraid I am right. Our religious activities should be ordered in such a way as to leave plenty of time for the cultivation of the fruits of solitude and silence. It should be remembered, however, that it is possible to waste such quiet periods as we may be able to snatch for ourselves out of the clamorous day. Our meditation must be directed toward God; otherwise we may spend our time of retiral in quiet converse with ourselves. This may quiet our nerves but will not further our spiritual life in any way.

Verse
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14

Thought
Our doing has value only as it expresses our being. Doing is easier than being. Being as God wants us comes from meditating upon Him our God, our Rock. He changes us.

Prayer
Forgive me, O God, from driving myself and other people. May I take time and encourage others to take time for meditation pleasing to You.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Waiting for God

I am convinced that the dearth of great saints in these times even among those who truly believe in Christ is due at least in part to our unwillingness to give sufficient time to the cultivation of the knowledge of God. We of the nervous West are victims of the philosophy of activism tragically misunderstood. Getting and spending, going and returning, organizing and promoting, buying and selling, working and playing--this alone constitutes living. If we are not making plans or working to carry out plans already made we feel that we are failures, that we are sterile, unfruitful eunuchs, parasites on the body of society. The gospel of work, as someone has called it, has crowded out the gospel of Christ in many Christian churches. In an effort to get the work of the Lord done we often lose contact with the Lord of the work and quite literally wear our people out as well. I have heard more than one pastor boast that his church was a “live” one, pointing to the printed calendar as a proof--something on every night and several meetings during the day. Of course this proves nothing except that the pastor and the church are being guided by a bad spiritual philosophy. A great many of these time-consuming activities are useless and others plain ridiculous. “But,” say the eager beavers who run the religious squirrel cages, “they provide fellowship and they hold our people together.” To this I reply that what they provide is not fellowship at all, and if that is the best thing the church has to offer to hold the people together it is not a Christian church in the New Testament meaning of that word. The center of attraction in a true church is the Lord Jesus Christ. As for fellowship, let the Holy Spirit define it for us: “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42).

Verse
Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. Psalm 27:14

Thought
There is Master Planning and there is the Master's planning. May we not confuse the two. To know His plan requires waiting before Him. Then we can be strong and take heart.

Prayer
Lord, I sometimes substitute activity for waiting. May I patiently wait on You to know Your plan.