The Pursuit of God - Week #3

Chapter Three – Removing the Veil

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus…”

Tozer starts this chapter by saying that God made every human for Himself and because of that NOTHING will ever satisfy the human heart but God. “God formed us for His pleasure and so formed us that we as well as He can, in divine communion, enjoy the sweet and mysterious mingling of kindred personalities. He meant us to see Him and live with Him and draw our life from His smile.”

He makes quite a point of God’s desire that in knowing Him, we experience His manifest presence, not simply have head knowledge: “The omnipresence of the Lord is one thing, and is a solemn fact necessary to His perfection; the manifest Presence is another thing altogether, and from that Presence we have fled, like Adam, to hide among the trees of the garden…”

(A little side comment here: fallen humans don't really want to encounter the manifest presence of God for fear of what might get exposed. This was true of Adam and Eve, and it has been true of all of us since then, Jonah being a prime example. Jonah "fled from the presence of the Lord." So we shouldn't be surprised that "religion" will always substitute systems for the real presence of Jesus...)

He goes on to say that God’s work of redemption is to undo the effects of man’s revolt and to open the way for us humans to “return again into conscious communion with God and to live again in the Presence as before.”

The Old Testament tabernacle speaks of the intimate communion we can have with the uncreated God by entering into the “holiest” where God Himself dwelt above the mercy seat. However, getting into that “holiest” place meant going through the curtain that separated the worshipper from the manifest presence of God. Only the high priest could enter once a year with blood that had been offered for his sins and the sins of the people.

On the cross Jesus’ body was torn open, and in that act of obedience to the Father, He ripped open the veil separating sinful man from the Holy One by presenting Himself as the perfect blood offering for sinful humanity. He who had never sinned for one moment in His life as a Man became sin, identifying totally with humanity’s fallenness and sin; this perfect sacrifice removed the veil or curtain that kept humans from experiencing the manifest presence of the Uncreated God.

What has become real to me in recent years is that while my spirit always longed for God and I had consistently experienced Him in my personal walk simply because of simple longing and reaching for Him, I haven’t had a good theology about experiencing His presence. Consequently, over the years, I have unwittingly encouraged younger believers to be content with knowing God “by faith.” And while all in God is ours by faith, my understanding of “faith” was a mixed bag of the real biblical meaning of faith and the religious interpretation of faith.

Tozer quotes a favorite hymn writer of mine, Frederick Faber, who unashamedly wrote:

“Only to sit and think of God,
Oh what a joy it is!
To think the thought, to breathe the Name;
Earth has no higher bliss.

Father of Jesus, love’s Reward!
What rapture will it be,
Prostrate before Thy throne to lie,
And gaze and gaze on Thee!

I love Thee so, I know not how
My transports to control;
Thy love is like a burning fire
Within my very soul.

So while my personal experience of God was alive and real, I didn’t have “permission” to shout from the rooftops that this was something we must eagerly pursue. I believed that to want to touch and feel the manifest presence of God was selfish; Tozer contends that it is the false self that keeps us from entering into the Presence.

Tozer’s thesis in this chapter is that it is the false self that is the “veil” that hinders us from experiencing the intimate presence of God.

It’s important to distinguish between the false and the true self; when the Scripture speaks of crucifixion of the self, it is not referring to the true you that God created but to that “fleshly fallen nature” (self) that lives on unjudged within us, uncrucified and unrepudiated; self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love, etc.

From personal experience I can say that we have no ability to discover this for ourselves! This is the work of the Holy Spirit who alone can discern how self-righteousness is manifesting itself through me in a given moment, or self-sufficiency, etc. Its manifestations are so subtle and even good-looking that it takes the light and power of the Spirit of God to uncover it to me.

“Self can live unrebuked at the very altar. It can watch the bleeding Victim die and not be in the least affected by what it sees. It can fight for the faith of the Reformers and preach eloquently the creed of salvation by grace, and gain strength by its efforts…it seems to feed upon orthodoxy and is more at home in a Bible conference than in a tavern…Self is the opaque veil that hides the Face of God from us. It can be removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction. There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free. We must invite the cross to do its deadly work within us.”

I believe Tozer is speaking of coming to a place of “absolute surrender” (as Andrew Murray called it); in very simple terms, I see this as a “YES” in my spirit to God; in other words, "Yes, Lord...here I am; do whatever You need to do to make me one with You."

I understand this “yes” to be like the marriage vow in the marriage ceremony. When a couple goes through the public ceremony and pledges themselves wholly to each other, that’s just the beginning of a walk together that is going to require many and constant hard decisions to back up those vows, if the marriage is really going to lead the couple into genuine oneness day by day.

After the marriage ceremony, there’s a whole world of unexpected realities that shows itself, but the covenant vows that were made at the altar keep the couple on the altar where the purifying work of the fire of God is applied in love; little by little the two individuals are becoming one, not losing their own unique identity but losing all that prevents them from uniting with another personality.

I’ll close by saying that our genuine “yes” to Him, like in marriage, must be backed up with ongoing “yeses” when the tests come. The ceremony is the legal and real experience of union; the marriage afterwards is the affirmation day after day of what the couple vowed and is the actual process of union taking place in two separate persons. The healthy growth into oneness with God hinges very much on our correct view of God and how He views us, and so I would encourage you to continually ask Him to show you His beauty and truth, both about Himself and about yourself.

Tozer’s prayer at the end is for the person who wants to give an unequivocal yes to God; I am praying it again even though I have prayed such a prayer before, simply to affirm once more that this is what I asked for a long time ago:

“Lord, how excellent are Thy ways, and how devious and dark are the ways of man. Show us how to die, that we may rise again to newness of life. Rend the veil of our self-life from the top down as Thou didst rend the veil of the Temple. We would draw near in full assurance of faith. We would dwell with Thee in daily experience here on this earth so that we may be accustomed to the glory when we enter Thy heaven to dwell with Thee there. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

He loves you! Have a blessed week; next week we’ll look at chapter four: “Apprehending God.”