Again, that world-shaking event, the crucifixion of Christ, is stated in four words, "There they crucified him."
One shudders to think what fanfare and buildup such a stupendous event would require if written by the shallow novelists or dramatists of our day.
To represent such a solemn event on the stage would cost thousands of dollars and would require enough words to fill a dozen pages of script.
The reason for the difference is of course that the evangelists felt the crucifixion and instinctively spoke of it in few words. To follow this thought further, it is only necessary to note the simple brevity of the announcement of our Lord's resurrection.
The "young man" told the inquiring disciples the story in three words: "He is risen."
These needed no eloquent preface to such a wondrous announcement.
Where there have been mighty deeds, there need be no multitude of words to tell of them.
Many words are required only where the deeds have been too feeble to speak for themselves.
verse
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonsration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
— First Corinthians 2:4-5
thought
Demonstration of God's power needs little verbal explanation. Powerless preaching, though eloquent, can entertain but cannot penetrate to the heart of the listener. Action speaks so much louder than empty words!
prayer
Father, may our preachers and teachers prepare well in prayerful study and then present Your Word, trusting You to speak not their eloquent presentation.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Moses was not a fluent man.
His words spoken to God must be accepted as being a sincere and fair appraisal of the facts: "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue" (Exodus 4:10).
The Lord did not try to cheer up His doubting servant by telling him that he had misjudged his ability. He allowed Moses' statement to stand unchallenged. But He said to Moses, "What about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well."
God gave Aaron an "A" in speech. He was undoubtedly an eloquent man. Yet it was the halting Moses, not the fluent Aaron, who faced Pharaoh time after time in defense of Israel; it was Moses, not the eloquent Aaron, who wrote the brilliant and beautiful story of the creation; it was Moses who penned the Book of Deuteronomy, one of the most poetical and moving books ever written.
Was Aaron too fluent for God to use after all?
I do not claim to know why, but whatever the reason, we have but few samples of Aaron's words in the Bible and countless pages of Moses'.
The reason back of all this is that great emotions rarely produce fluency of speech, whereas shallow feelings are sure to express themselves in many words.
We tend to use words in inverse proportion to the depth of our feelings.
Some of the profoundest emotions of the heart utter themselves in a chaste brevity of words, as when John tells us of Christ's sharp grief at the grave of Lazarus.
He says simply, "Jesus wept."
With exquisite good taste, the scholars who divided the Bible into verses allowed those two words to stand alone.
Nothing more is needed to reveal the mighty depth of Christ's love for His friend.
verse
Moses said to the LORD, 'O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.'
— Exodus 4:10
thought
Moses was not eloquent but he was humble, "more humble than anyone on the face of the earth" (Numbers 12:3). That is why God could use him as He did!
prayer
Thank You, Lord, for those humbling experiences that have forcefully demonstrated to me that I can't do it. It is You who must speak and work through me.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
There are few things in religious circles held in greater esteem than eloquence.
Yet there are few things of less actual value or that bring with them greater temptation or more harm.
One qualification everyone expects a preacher to have is the ability to discourse fluently on almost any religious or moral subject.
Yet such ability is at best a doubtful asset and unless brought to Christ for cleansing may easily turn out to be the greatest enemy the preacher faces here below.
The man who finds that he is able to preach on a moment's notice should accept his ability as an obstacle over which he must try to get victory
before he is at his best for God and His kingdom.
verse
When I came to you, brethren, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
— First Corinthians 2:1-2
thought
Eloquence and knowledge are major weapons in Satan's arsenal to render ineffective God's servants. Self-reliance and pride follow like fast growing weeds. God uses the weak, the humble who fully rely on Him.
prayer
Father, remind me to pray for my pastor that he may powerfully proclaim Christ and Him crucified, trusting wholly in You to minister through him.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The witness of the Spirit is a sacred inner thing which cannot be explained.
It is altogether personal and cannot be passed from one to another.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of God's waterspouts, and the outward ear cannot hear what it says.
Much less can the worldly onlooker know what is taking place. The Spirit whispers its mysterious Presence to the heart, and the heart knows without knowing how it knows.
Just as we know we are alive by unmediated knowledge and without recourse to proof, so we know we are alive in the Holy Spirit. Our knowledge is by immediate cognition altogether independent of inference and without the support of reason.
The witness is in the hidden regions of the spirit, too deep for proof, where external evidence is invalid and "signs" are of no use.
When all is said, it may easily be that the great difference between professing Christians (the important difference in this day) is not between modernists and evangelicals but between those who have reduced Christianity to an intellectual formula and those who believe that the true essence of our faith lies in the supernatural workings of the Spirit in a region of the soul not accessible to mere reason.
verse
I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me . . .
— John 10:14
thought
Holy Spirit to human spirit communication takes place at the deepest levels of the spirit. Unshakable assurance results though inexplicable at the intellectual and emotional levels. It is just that one knows!
prayer
Thank You, Lord, for that knowing of spirit You give even when my feelings and thoughts are in denial.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba,Father.'
— Romans 8:15
Again, the experience of the Spirit's fullness coming upon the believer's heart is often judged by the amount and quality of emotional charge that accompanies it. Some go so far as to declare bluntly that no one is filled with the Spirit who has not experienced certain physical phenomena, particularly the act of speaking in unidentified tongues. Others will settle for an increased degree of joy or more effectiveness in their service. All this is wrong, both scripturally and psychologically. It is the result of a misunderstanding of the nature of man's soul and of the relation of the spirit of man to the Spirit of God. The workings of God in the hearts of redeemed men always over flow into observable conduct. Certain moral changes will take place immediately in the life of the new convert.
A moral revolution without will accompany the spiritual revolution that has occurred within. As the evangelists tell us, even the cat will know it when the head of the house is converted. And the grocer will know it too, and the old cronies in the haunts where the man used to hang out will suspect that something has happened when they miss the new Christian from his accustomed place. All this is collateral proof of the validity of the man's Christian profession. But it is in no sense evidence to the man's own heart. It is not the witness of the Spirit.
thought
Of all creation only into humankind did God breathe the breath of life. It is by means of our spirit that we may commune with the Spirit of God. And it is in our spirit that we recognize the witness of the Holy Spirit.
prayer
It seems, Lord, that I sometimes become caught up in soulish expressions of worship and mistake them for spiritual worship ? my spirit communing with Your Spirit.
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
— Romans 8:16
Then, there is another kind of divine working that may occur without our being aware of it, or at least without our recognizing it for what it is. This is that wondrous operation of God known in theology as prevenient grace. It may be simple "conviction," or a strange longing which nothing can satisfy, or a powerful aspiration after eternal values, or a feeling of disgust for sin and a desire to be delivered from its repulsive coils. These strange workings within are the stirrings of the Holy Spirit but are rarely identified as such by the soul that is undergoing the experience.
But there are two acts of God within the life of the seeking man that are never done without his knowledge. One is the miracle of the new birth and the other is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Of the new birth, Paul explicitly states, "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit, that we are God's children" (Romans 8:16), and John says, "Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart" (1 John 5:10). These passages declare the fact of a divine witness but do not state the nature of it. This has made it possible for various people to read into it their own peculiar psychological reactions and set up those reactions as criteria by which they judge the spiritual claims of everyone. Some at the time of their conversion have felt unusually light on their feet; others have heard voices or seen lights or felt an unseen hand pass over them. In some places, the new convert must shout aloud or his profession is not accepted.
thought
Despite our personality, emotional and experiential differences, we can all know the witness of the Spirit with our spirit that we are children of God. It is His witness to us that matters!
prayer
I feel my sinfulness, unworthiness, failures, Father. But thank You for Your Spirit's assurance that I am Yours!
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such there is no law.
— Galatians 5:22-23
Someone wrote to me recently asking what I meant by a statement which occurs in the booklet Paths to Power, which I wrote some years ago. The passage reads: "No one was ever filled with the Holy Spirit without knowing it. The Holy Spirit always announces Himself to the human consciousness." What bothered my correspondent was the nature of this "announcement." Of what does it consist? How may we recognize it? Is it some kind of physical evidence, or what? This whole question is worthy of larger treatment than I can give it in this limited space. But possibly these thoughts will prove helpful to any who may be confused about the nature of spiritual evidence.
There is such a thing as the secret workings of the Spirit in the soul of man, for a time unknown and unsuspected by the individual. In fact, most of the fruits of the Spirit are unsuspected by the man in whom they are found. The most loving, most patient, most compassionate soul is unlikely to be aware of these graces. He is almost certain to believe that he is anything but loving or patient or kind. Others will discover the operations of the Spirit within him long before he will and will thank God for his sweet Christian character while he may at the same time be walking in great humility before God, mourning the absence of the very graces that others know he possesses.
thought
God has wisely arranged it so that the fruit of the Spirit produced in believers is far more evident to others rather than to themselves. That encourages humility rather than misplaced pride.
prayer
O Lord, may Your Spirit produce in me fruit. I'm so conscious of works of the sinful nature.
And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God will all your heart and will all your soul, and to observe the LORD's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?
— Deuteronomy 10:12-13
At the great unveiling, there will be other emotions beside joy. There will be grief and shock and self-reproach and disillusionment. But it need not be so for you and me if we will but use the information we have at hand, if we will but take advantage of the opportunities that lie beside our pathway and the promises that jut like uncut diamonds from the Sacred Scripture. Yesterday may have been marked by shameful failure, prayerlessness, backsliding. Today all that can be changed and tomorrow ? if there is for us an earthly tomorrow ? can be filled with purity and power and radiant, fruitful service. The big thing is to be sure we are not lulled to sleep by a false hope, that we do not waste our time dreaming about days that are not to be ours. The main thing is to make today serve us by getting ready for any possible tomorrow. Then whether we live or die, whether we toil on in the shadow or rise to meet the returning Christ, all will be well.
thought
The past we cannot relive. Today we can offer to God and by his enablement spend it with eternal values in view. Todays well spent contribute to a radiant tomorrow!
prayer
Father, todays I receive from You. May I use the remaining ones for Your glory!
Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
— James 4:17
Altogether apart from the prophetic expectations of devout men, there is the familiar fact of death itself. Of those Christians who had died, Paul said simply, "Some have fallen asleep." What a vast and goodly company they make, those sleeping saints, and how their number will be increased this year. And which ones among us can give assurance that he may not join them before all the days of the year have run their course? Since we know not what a day may bring forth, does it not appear to be the part of wisdom to live each day as if it were to be the last? Any preparation we will wish we had made, let us make it now. Anything we will wish we had done, let us do it today. Any gift we will wish we had made, let us make it while time is on our side.
thought
Doing today what ought to be done, that is wisdom. That is wise expenditure of todays so that the last day is welcomed not feared.
prayer
Lord, may I spend well the today you have given me. Only You know how many more there will be.