The Pursuit of God - Preface

Pursuit of God - Preface

A. W. Tozer has often been referred to as a “modern mystic” and without doubt was a prophetic voice to his generation and to ours through his writings. Before going to chapter one next week, I want to pause at his preface to the book which is a call to spiritual awakening and desire. It was written in 1948, and the prophetic message in this book is as much, or more so, for our generation as it was for his.

In his preface, Tozer speaks straight to the western evangelical bent towards the over-analysis of the truth, leaving the heart fire out of the Gospel. He speaks of the desperate hunger there is in many of God’s people yet the lack of the manifest Presence of God (fire) in evangelical teaching, leaving the people without what they yearn for.

He agrees that sound Bible teaching is a must in the Church but clearly sounds the trumpet to say that it is not correct doctrine that nourishes the soul but God Himself.

“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…Thanks to our splendid Bible societies and to other effective agencies for the dissemination of the Word, there are today many millions of people who hold ‘right opinions,’ probably more than ever before in the history of the Church. Yet I wonder if there was ever a time when true spiritual worship was at a lower ebb. 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 book is a modest attempt to aid God’s hungry children so to find Him…”

This resounds with me because I have seen this reality firsthand, being in the world of Bible schools and missions all my life and seeing how easy it is for churches and Christian organizations to gradually slip into spiritual dullness and cold heartedness while learning and saying all the right things. I’ve been in this kind of situation, and my heart burns for the young generations coming up to know God and not be satisfied with less than experiencing the burning heart that comes with knowing God intimately.

The cool, calculating approach to truth of the past decades (and more) has contributed to the present condition of the western Church, lost and with our children in pain and sin; but as we approach the end of the age, God is raising up a prayer movement worldwide that will lead His people into unashamed lovesickness for Him before Jesus returns. He will win our whole heart, and His Bride will stun the world with her radical love for God expressed in a lifestyle of selfless fasting and prayer and giving and serving.

This book was given to me as a young woman and gripped my heart in my youth. So I look forward to reviewing this classic by Tozer, seeing it in the light of the season of history that we are presently in. Blessings on you as you read this; may the Spirit of God awaken fiery desire in us for God!