From A.W. Tozer’s classic: The Pursuit of God
‘Why do some persons “find” God in a way that others do not? …
Pick at random a score of great saints whose lives and testimonies are widely known… In some vital quality they must have been alike. What was it? I venture to suggest that the one vital quality which they had in common was spiritual receptivity. Something in them was open to heaven, something which urged them Godward. Christian theology teaches the doctrine of prevenient grace, which briefly stated means this, that before a man can seek God, God must first have sought the man… We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit… In practice, however …. man must pursue God….
We have almost forgotten that God is a Person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored.
All social intercourse between human beings is a response of personality to personality, grading upward from the most casual brush between man and man to the fullest, most intimate communion of which the human soul is capable. Religion, so far as it is genuine, is in essence the response of created personalities to the Creating Personality, God. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).
God is a Person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may. In making Himself known to us He stays by the familiar pattern of personality. He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills and our emotions.
The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion.
This intercourse between God and the soul is known to us in conscious personal awareness.
It is personal – that is, it does not come through the body of believers, as such, but is known to the individual, and to the body through the individuals which compose it… Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God.
They mourned for Him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season and out, and when they had found Him the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking… They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.
I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God!
The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing – For he now has it all in One….’
{Related: John Piper’s audio sermon reflecting on this chapter from Tozer
A longer, deeply moving and compelling excerpt from Tozer’s classic, can be read here @ Faith Bible Church}
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