Wading through life

As if I’d quote anyone else (ok, maybe John Eldredge), this, from AW Tozer. The context is “Why Satan Hates the Child of God“:

The Christian is a holy rebel loose in the world with access to the throne of God. Satan never knows from what direction the danger will come. Who knows when another Elijah will arise, or another Daniel? or a Luther or a Booth? Who knows when an Edwards or a Finney may go in and liberate a whole town or countryside by the preaching of the Word and prayer? Such a danger is too great to tolerate, so Satan gets to the new convert as early as possible to prevent his becoming too formidable a foe.

I love some of the examples he gives. What was Daniel’s primary ministry? Prayer and service. How did the Lord use Edwards and Finney to change the destiny of cities? Prayer and preaching the Word.

Revival will come to America as we get on our knees and then walk out the Word.

My man AW Tozer delivered another stellar devotional today:

The primary work of the Holy Spirit is to restore the lost soul to intimate fellowship with God through the washing of regeneration. To accomplish this He first reveals Christ to the penitent heart (1 Cor. 12:3). He then goes on to illumine the newborn soul with brighter rays from the face of Christ (John 14:26; 16:13-15) and leads the willing heart into depths and heights of divine knowledge and communion. Remember, we know Christ only as the Spirit enables us and we have only as much of Him as the Holy Spirit imparts. God wants worshipers before workers; indeed the only acceptable workers are those who have learned the lost art of worship. It is inconceivable that a sovereign and holy God should be so hard up for workers that He would press into service anyone who had been empowered regardless of his moral qualifications. The very stones would praise Him if the need arose and a thousand legions of angels would leap to do His will. Gifts and power for service the Spirit surely desires to impart; but holiness and spiritual worship come first.

This is kind of the lesson our church body has been learning this past  year. We’ve longed to be His workers and there certainly are things we’re doing. But the Holy Spirit had some work to do within us to draw us deeper into Christ first. We’re learning the lost art of worship and we’re coming into intimate fellowship with our Creator and Lover.

There’s such a peace that comes when in communion with God in all His manifestations: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Right now, I could just tip back in my chair, breathe in deeply and fall asleep in His arms. All is well because the most magnificent being in the universe has His eyes set upon me.

From Eldredge:

A true community is something you will have to fight for. You’ll have to fight to get one, and you’ll have to fight to keep it afloat. But you fight for it like you bail out a life raft during a storm at sea. You want this thing to work. You need this thing to work. You can’t ditch it and jump back on the cruise ship. This is the church; this is all you have. Without it, you’ll go down. Or back to prison.

From Tozer:

We human beings were made for each other, and what any of us is doing at any time cannot be a matter of indifference to the rest of us…

…Peace of heart that is won by refusing to bear the common yoke of human sympathy is a peace unworthy of a Christian. To seek tranquility by stopping our ears to the cries of human pain is to make ourselves not Christians but a kind of degenerate stoic having no relation either to stoicism or Christianity. We Christians should never try to escape from the burdens and woes of life among men. The hermit and the anchorite sound good in poetry, but stripped of their artificial romance, they are not good examples of what the followers of Christ should be. True peace comes not by a retreat from the world but by the overpowering presence of Christ in the heart. “Christ in you” is the answer to our cry for peace.

Tozer is not known for gentle reality-checks:

But we must never underestimate the ability of the human mind to get itself lost on a paved highway in broad daylight.

Can I get a “Doah!” for all you Simpson’s fans out there!!?

Today is our day. No one at any time has ever had any spiritual graces that we at this time cannot enjoy if we will meet the terms on which they are given. If these times are morally darker, they but provide a background against which we can shine the brighter. Our God is the God of today as well as of yesterday, and we may be sure that wherever our tomorrows may carry us, our faithful God will be with us as He was with Abraham and David and Paul. Those great men did not need us then, and we cannot have them with us now. Amen. So be it. And God be praised. We cannot have them, but we can have that which is infinitely better–we can have their God and Father, and we can have their Savior, and we can have the same blessed Holy Spirit that made them great.

From a daily Tozer devotional RSS stream. See the full devotional on CMAlliance.org.