The Pursuit of God
Book Study

Resources

Click here if you'd like to purchase a copy of this book for yourself.

Overview of Preface

For those that know me, you may remember just how much I have appreciated the writings of A. W. Tozer. There is no other Christian writer that has written during my lifetime over whose writings I feel comfortable throwing a blanket of complete approval. But Tozer, oh yes, I gladly recommend everything I have ever read by him. Furthermore, in all of my interactions with Christians, especially in this twenty-first century, I have encountered little evidence that folks even know who he is. And, the tone of his writing is almost entirely absent from our pulpits and Bible teaching overall. We literally have little idea what we have been missing.

Here are several examples of what Tozer 'brings to the table' taken from his Preface.

"Current evangelicalism has laid the altar and divided the sacrifice into parts, but now seems satisfied to count the stones and rearrange the pieces with never a care that there is not a sign of fire upon the top of lofty Carmel. But God be thanked that there are a few who care. They desire God above all."
Tozer, A. W. (Aiden Wilson). The Pursuit of God (p. 4). Kindle Edition.

I am struck with his heartbeat. I can honestly declare that throughout the years of my labor in the Truth I have rarely encountered men in the work whose heartbeat resembles that of Tozer. We have become a lot like mindless drones continually stating and restating very basic truths from the Bible, but with almost no real heart for the God Whose words we are handling.

But Tozer goes on:

"There is today no lack of Bible teachers to set forth correctly the principles of the doctrines of Christ, but too many of these seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals of the faith year after year, strangely unaware that there is in their ministry no manifest Presence, nor anything unusual in their personal lives. They minister constantly to believers who feel within their breasts a longing which their teaching simply does not satisfy."
Tozer, A. W. (Aiden Wilson). The Pursuit of God (p. 4). Kindle Edition.

Far too much preaching or Bible teaching that is put forward in the churches, while it holds to the stream of orthodoxy, has little to no lasting impact upon the hearts of those that hear it. As Tozer said, '… believers who feel within their breasts a longing which their teaching simply does not satisfy.' Why is this? Are we to presume that such was the case among those that heard and followed Christ during His earthly ministry among men?

Recall the words of Peter:

"Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life."
John 6:68

It is rare to genuinely have an encounter with the Lord through the preaching/teaching of His Word, especially as anything like a consistent expectation.

"To great sections of the Church the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the "program." This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the type of public service which now passes for worship among us."
Tozer, A. W. (Aiden Wilson). The Pursuit of God (p. 5). Kindle Edition.

Oh yes, our churches have become gathering places for programs of all kinds. And, sadly, we would have it so. As long as the 'program' we are participating in has those church-program overtones, that is enough for us. But, are we genuinely encountering God through His Word [His words] anymore?

"Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the Living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts."
Tozer, A. W. (Aiden Wilson). The Pursuit of God (p. 5). Kindle Edition.

Overview of Chapter 1: Following Hard After God

Tozer begins at the true beginning of all genuine Christian experience and endeavor. Consider the following verses:

19 And I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.
Hosea 2:19-20

…the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.
Daniel 11:32

21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Matthew 7:21-23

These passages, among many, many others, emphasize the point Tozer is making throughout this chapter. The Christian life is NOT primarily about doing things FOR God: it is about KNOWING God in a deep personal relationship.

Compare Tozer's words with these verses:

"The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be "received" without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver."
Tozer, A. W. (Aiden Wilson). The Pursuit of God (p. 6). Kindle Edition.

And:

"How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Everything is made to center upon the initial act of "accepting" Christ (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible) and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls."
Tozer, A. W. (Aiden Wilson). The Pursuit of God (p. 8). Kindle Edition.

And, especially:

"Every age has its own characteristics. Right now, we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all."
Tozer, A. W. (Aiden Wilson). The Pursuit of God (p. 9). Kindle Edition.

This is the primary truth that Tozer emphasized that has been as a "RESET" button for me in my walk and work with/for the Lord. During the busy, busy days of my public labor for Him my least effectual work was linked, I am quite sure, to my own tendency to drift away from knowing Him as the basis for serving Him. Now, in 'retirement,' it is easy to drift into complacency about sustaining that depth of personal relationship with Him as well. How is it with you?

Overview of Chapter 3: Removing the Veil

"The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us. This would lift us out of our pitiful narrowness and cause our hearts to be enlarged. This would burn away the impurities from our lives as the bugs and fungi were burned away by the fire that dwelt in the bush.

What a broad world to roam in, what a sea to swim in is this God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is eternal, which means that He antedates time and is wholly independent of it. Time began in Him and will end in Him. To it He pays no tribute and from it He suffers no change.

He is immutable, which means that He has never changed and can never change in any smallest measure. To change He would need to go from better to worse or from worse to better. He cannot do either, for being perfect He cannot become more perfect, and if He were to become less perfect He would be less than God.
He is omniscient, which means that He knows in one free and effortless act all matter, all spirit, all relationships, all events. He has no past and He has no future. He is, and none of the limiting and qualifying terms used of creatures can apply to Him.
Love and mercy and righteousness are His, and holiness so ineffable that no comparisons or figures will avail to express it. Only fire can give even a remote conception of it. In fire He appeared at the burning bush; in the pillar of fire He dwelt through all the long wilderness journey. The fire that glowed between the wings of the cherubim in the holy place was called the "shekinah," the Presence, through the years of Israel's glory, and when the Old had given place to the New, He came at Pentecost as a fiery flame and rested upon each disciple."
Tozer, A. W. (Aiden Wilson). The Pursuit of God (pp. 18-19). Kindle Edition.

What shall we say, then, about contemporary 'church life Christianity' that has become the norm in churches in the western world? Perhaps the Lord needs to once again lift the veil, allowing us to actually see the Truth as He does: to see and believe that:

"God wills that we should push on into His Presence and live our whole life there."
Tozer, A. W. (Aiden Wilson). The Pursuit of God (p. 17). Kindle Edition.

It is difficult to implement that goal into our deacon's meetings, our vacation Bible school, our missions committee meetings, all of our church programs, etc. We become content with the shell of what God intends.

Overview of Chapter 5: The Universal Presence

Please read through this quote from Tozer with a heart open to the Lord.

"The idea of cultivation and exercise, so dear to the saints of old, has now no place in our total religious picture. It is too slow, too common. We now demand glamour and fast flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar.

The tragic results of this spirit are all about us. Shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit: these and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul."

Tozer, A. W. (Aiden Wilson). The Pursuit of God (pp. 32-33). Kindle Edition.

It is difficult in these days of ordinary 'church-life' [as described in this quote] to even penetrate the fog that accompanies it. Tozer tried to do so. For me, personally, the attempt to do so [as I am attempting to do again right now] has met with what seems like a 'why would you come at things this way?' response. As long as God's messengers are waxing eloquent about the fundamentals of the faith, and urging even more commitment to maintaining the status quo, all is well. But to call so much of that 'church-life' into question meets with swift and unrelenting disapproval.

Meanwhile, I wonder if God is not perhaps saying to us today what He said to His people long ago:

"And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;"

Jeremiah 7:13