Always the decisive conflict in religion will be where important concepts are joined in opposition, concepts so vital that they are capable of saving or wrecking the Christian faith in any given generation.
At this critical juncture in church history, the real conflict is between those who hold to an objective Christianity capable of being grasped in its entirety by the human intellect and those who believe that there are far-in areas of religious experience so highly spiritual, so removed from and exalted above mere reason, that it takes a special anointing of the Holy Spirit to make them understood by the human heart.
The difference is not academic merely.
Should the advocates of religious intellectualism succeed in setting the direction for the church in this generation, the next generation of Christians will become helpless victims of dead orthodoxy.
In conversation with one of the better-known devotees of neo-intellectualism in evangelical circles,
I asked the question bluntly, "Do you actually believe that everything essential in the Christian faith may be grasped by the human intellect?"
The answer was immediate "If I did not, I would be on my way toward agnosticism."
I did not say, but might properly have said, "And if you do, you are on your way toward rationalism."
For such indeed is the truth.
verse
This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
— 1 Corinthians 2:13
thought
There is truth beyond the grasp of human wisdom spiritual truth taught and interpreted by the Holy Spirit. That truth is in no way contradictory to the Written Word. It is a deeper level of understanding.
prayer
"Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit Divine!"
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There is a deeply spiritual and thoroughly mystical quality in New Testament religion that we cannot afford to ignore if we would be Christians in fact as well as in name.
I think it well to let our worshiping hearts decide our theological questions.
After the purity of the text has been established and the mind assured that the translation is trustworthy, the best source of true light is always the Spirit-illuminated heart.
A praying heart, aglow with love for God, will intuit truth, will pass behind the veil and see and hear that which is not lawful to be uttered, which indeed cannot be uttered or even intellectually understood.
It is my opinion that the real battle line in the theological war today is not the line that separates fundamentalism from liberalism.
That war has been fought and won.
No one need be in any wise confused on the question of Bible theology versus man-conceived liberalism.
Both sides have said their say boldly.
Everyone can know where he stands on such matters as the inspiration of the Scriptures, the deity of Jesus Christ, salvation through the blood of atonement, death and judgment, heaven and hell.
The true battle line is elsewhere.
verse
However, as it is written: 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him' ? but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
— 1 Corinthians 2:9-10
thought
Spiritual truth is spiritually discerned. The intellect is certainly active but there is truth communicated by the Holy Spirit to our human spirit which is beyond intellectual understanding.
prayer
Lord, give me a heartunderstanding of You and Your truth!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Most religious people have been guilty of multiplying words as substitutes for worthy deeds, and of all such the writer of these lines is probably the worst offender.
But because we have offended is not sufficient reason for our going on to repeat the offense.
It is better that we face the whole thing with self-effacing humility and try to correct our fault. It remains only to be said that where shallow eloquence is most out of place and where it is oftenest found is the prayer meeting.
The most halting speaker seems to become unusually fluent when he kneels to pray, especially when he has an audience.
I have heard much flowery speech in the prayer room, and I suppose I have uttered a good deal of it. But again, there is no reason for continuing to utter words without wisdom.
A conscious sense of the presence of God is a wonderful cure for empty talk, whether in the pulpit or in the pew.
When the Holy Spirit falls on a man, he is likely to become strangely eloquent.
Out of the awe and silence of the soul comes an uprushing of power-filled words that move the hearts of the hearers to tears and to action.
Such eloquence as this is something else; of this we do not here speak.
Of this latter we need a great deal more, but we can do with a lot fewer empty words in religious circles.
verse
They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.
— Mark 12:40
thought
Prayers from the heart prayed to God, as if no one else were listening, are strangely moving, aren't they. Then there are those long, well-rehearsed prayers addressed to people as if God might be listening in.
prayer
O God, teach me to pray!
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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.
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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!