Obedience to Christ proves we love Him, and in return He shows Himself to us.
You say, "There are so many commandments, how can I obey?
How can I remember them all, and can I be sure I am obeying?"
In faith and love, rest, wait and look.
Then as His teaching touches your life, conform to it. There are some teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ that you would never get into because they would not touch you.
They would not impinge on you in your present state. But as soon as they do touch you, then you automatically, sweetly and quietly obey.
A man was giving testimony about being shipwrecked and praying, and about how the Lord delivered him.
A dear old man of God went home, got on his knees and wept before the Lord. "God," he said, "You never saved me from shipwreck."
And the Lord said, "Son, have you ever been at sea?" The man answered, "No."
Of course you cannot save from shipwreck a man who has never been offshore.
There are things that do not touch you, but the moment they do, obey instantly.
For instance, the Bible says, "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:22). If you do not have any husband, why worry about that one?
But if ever the words of our Lord Jesus Christ touch your life, instantly because you are totally committed gladly and quietly obey and do what you are told.
He said that is your part, and His part is to manifest Himself to you and get you out of the rut.
verse
I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.
— John 10:14
thought
There is a simplicity in just following the Lord day by day. He shows His will in increasing areas of life and, as we follow, radical change occurs.
prayer
You lead, Great Shepherd. I can follow You in confidence. You lead. You feed. You enable. Thank You!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Faith in Jesus is not commitment to your church or denomination.
I believe in the local church; I am not a tabernacle man.
I believe in the divine assembly.
We ought to realize that we are, as a group of Christians, a divine assembly, a cell in the body of Christ, alive with His life. But not for one second would I try to create in you a faith that would lead you to commit yourself irrevocably to a local church or to your church leaders.
You are not asked to follow your church leaders.
You are not asked like a little robin on the nest to open your innocent little mouth and just take anything I put in.
If what I put in is not biblical food, regurgitate and do not be afraid to do it. Call me or come see me or write me an anonymous letter. But do something about it.
Do not, by any means, swallow what your leaders give you.
Here is the book, the Bible; go to it.
Faith is faith in Jesus Christ, God's Son.
It is total faith in Christ and not in a denomination or church, though you may love the church and respect and love your leaders and your denomination.
But your commitment is to Christ.
verse
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe?as the Lord has assigned to each his task.
— 1 Corinthians 3:5
thought
God uses human leaders in leading us. But they can stumble and fall. Our faith commitment must be in Him. It is to Christ that we are ultimately responsible.
prayer
It is You I want to follow, Lord, You. Help me to distinguish You and Your leading from the human leaders You use but who sometimes fall.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The Lord has constituted means.
Jesus said in the Gospel of John, "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me" (John 14:21a).
Anybody can understand that, ever the teacher of group dynamics.
He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and show myself to him. If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me (14:21b, 23-24).
What our Lord taught was this: when we obey the words of Jesus, in faith and in love proving that we love Him, He shows Himself to us.
There are two subjects acting here we and He.
When we obey His Word we prove that we love Him, and He shows Himself to us.
Who is this He that I am talking about? Jesus Christ our Lord.
There are, then, two divinely constituted means: faith the right kind of faith, in our Lord Jesus Christ and obedience to His Word.
Jesus said, "Ye believe in God, believe also in me" (John 14:1 KJV).
Faith in Jesus Christ, the right kind of faith, the only kind of faith that matters, is irrevocable, total commitment to the Person of Jesus Christ Himself.
You cannot go back on it, and if it is total, there is nothing that is not included.
Faith in Jesus is not gulping twice and saying, "I accept Jesus."
It is getting into a state where you have totally committed yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is irrevocable commitment to the Person of Jesus Christ.
verse
Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."
— John 14:23
thought
Loving Christ and obeying Him are inseparably linked. Obeying is faith in action. Obeying is love in expression, because what He asks is often beyond our full understanding. Nevertheless we follow in simple trust and commitment.
prayer
Lord, my shaky, "revoking" commitment robs me of Your revelation to me along the way. Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it to unconditional commitment to You and Your Word.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
A fanatic is somebody seeking desirable ends but ignoring constituted means.
Seeking to get out of the religious rut is a desirable end.
It is right and it is in the will of God.
But trying to do it in a manner that is not according to God's constituted means is all wrong and gets us nowhere.
When they want to get blessed, some people try getting worked up psychologically. There are some who, while they have not studied psychology, are master psychologists. They know how to manipulate audiences, knowing when to lower their voices and when to raise them, when to make them sound very sad and all the rest. They know how to get people all worked up. . . .
Some people try group dynamics. We all sit around together and practice togetherness, and by practicing togetherness we finally work up some spirituality.
What is needed is some old-fashioned, salty horse sense.
I am sure there are 189 mules in the state of Missouri that have more sense than a lot of preachers who are trying to teach people how to get the blessing of God in some way other than by the constituted means.
When you get people all broken up, dabbing at their eyes and shaking, what is the result?
It does not bring them any closer to God.
It does not make them love God any better, in accordance with the first commandment.
Nor does it give any greater love for neighbors, which is the second commandment.
It does not prepare them to live fruitfully on earth.
It does not prepare them to die victoriously, and it does not guarantee that they will be with the Lord at last.
verse
We live by faith, not by sight.
— 2 Corinthians 5:7
thought
Faith acts, resting on God's promise and power, whether there is accompanying emotional fervor, no emotion, or adverse emotion. We live by faith. There may be feeling and sight or there may not.
prayer
O God, I am inclined to act by feeling rather than by faith. Help me to discern the difference. In Christ's name.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
People use the word fanatic whenever you get a little bit joyful about the Lord.
They say you are a fanatic.
Webster says that a fanatic is somebody who is too enthusiastic about religion, as if you could be too enthusiastic about religion.
John Wesley said, "A fanatic is one who seeks desirable ends but ignores constituted means."
Suppose a farmer boy with his blue jeans, torn shirt and tattered straw hat wants to get a fish. His mother says, "Why don"t you go down and catch a couple of trout, son." So he goes down by the creek. It is a beautiful day, the sun is shining and the cows are standing deep in the water under the shade trees. So the boy pulls off a stalk of grass and begins to nibble on it, and he starts wondering about those fish. He says to himself, "I remember the pastor said if we want anything to pray for it."
In the meantime the fish are breaking the surface begging to be caught.
But there he is praying, "Lord, send me some fish." He can pray until he dies and he will never have any fish.
The Lord put intelligence in his head and gave him what we call constitited means.
The farm boy takes a branch from a tree, ties on an ordinary piece of cord, puts a bent pin on the end and throws the hook with a worm on it into the streams. The fish will take it.
Would it be proper for the farm boy to be pious and pray for fish or to throw in his hook and pull out fish?
Everybody knows that if a farm boy addresses the Almighty God in a loud voice asking for fish when the fish are breaking the surface begging to be caught, something is wrong. He is a fanatic; he is trying to get a desirable end, but he is ignoring constituted means.
verse
He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, "Stand up on your feet!" At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.
— Acts 14:9-10
thought
Paul saw that the crippled man had faith to be healed. "Stand up on your feet!" At those words the man acted in faith. He jumped up and began to walk.
prayer
Lord, I sometimes act without faith or by faith but not in You. But when I act believing You and Your Word, I can get up and walk. Thank You!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The Holy Spirit in this passage is saying two things:
God works in you to will, but you are to work with God in working it out. God works in you that is, God is always previous. God is the aggressor. God saw you in the rut and wanted you to get out of it. He thought of it first, not you.
The impulse to know God came from Him and not from you.
God works first, and because God works we are to work with Him. We are therefore to dismiss all doubts and all morbid humility. It is entirely possible to be so humble, in a sick kind of way, that you paralyze yourself and get nowhere.
For instance, you say to yourself, "That man has been preaching about getting out of the religious rut. While I haven't agreed with everything, I have been feeling that I am in a rut and that I ought to get out. This circular grave is getting deeper every year of my life, and I can hardly see out of it. Give me four or five more years and you'll look right over me and not know I'm here. I need help. But I wonder if God will help me."
That is morbid humility. . . . The very fact that you want out is proof that God has been working in you to will to get out. And if God worked in you to want to get out, then when you ask Him to get you out, do you suppose He would not help you out?
Would God put an impulse in your heart and then refuse to accept your prayer when you came in answer to that impulse? . . .
verse
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed?not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence?continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
— Philippians 2:12-13
thought
We are to continue to work out our salvation for it is God who energizes us to will and to act according to His good purpose. Those two roles are essential. The absence of either one keeps us in the rut.
prayer
Amazing, Lord, You energize me to act according to Your purpose. Trusting You, I am going to do so.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
. . . suppose that I found an old fellow sitting on a bench and I went and sat down beside him. I noticed by looking at him that he had high blood pressure. I could tell it by the veins that stood out on his forehead. I began to try to tell him, "You have lived long enough on this bench. Get up; there's something better for you," and he began to resist me.
Then I would have to preach a whole series of sermons to him to get him to know how sick he is, when just down the street a little way was the cure for what was wrong with him.
That is precisely where we are in the church.
You have to work on people for weeks to get them to see that they are in a rut. It would be cruel to do if there was not a remedy.
But the justice of God is on the side of the confessing sinner.
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
Because Jesus Christ died, because He was God and because He was man, His atonement was absolutely and fully efficacious. All of the attributes of God are on the side of the person who confesses his or her sin and turns and runs to the feet of Jesus. "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world" (2:1-2).
There is the elixir.
There is the cure.
That is only one little passage, and of course similar ones are all over the New Testament.
The blood is shed for us.
God pardons and forgives for Christ's sake.
The Holy Spirit is here to take the things of Christ and make them real to us.
There is nothing, not even the devil himself, that can hinder the confessing sinner.
verse
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense?Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
— 1 John 2:1-2
thought
We are familiar with the cure. Are we using it? Why do we crawl in dirt when me may grasp His hand, get up and walk in forgiveness and new life?
prayer
You, Christ, are my Advocate, my Intercessor, my Lord. By faith I receive Your life.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The philosopher Socrates said, "An unexamined life is not worth living."
If a common philosopher could think that, how much more we Christians ought to listen to the Holy Spirit when He says, "Examine yourself."
An unexamined Christian lies like an unattended garden. Let your garden go unattended for a few months, and you will not have roses and tomatoes but weeds.
An unexamined Christian life is like an unkempt house. Lock your house up as tight as you will and leave it long enough, and when you come back you will not believe the dirt that got in from somewhere.
An unexamined Christian life is like an untaught child. A child that is not taught will be a little savage.
It takes examination, teaching, instruction, discipline, caring, tending, weeding and cultivating to keep the life right.
I do not want to leave you on a low note.
I am trying to wake you, not discourage you.
There is not a reason in the world for you to be discouraged. . . .
verse
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ is in you?unless, of course, you fail the test?
— 2 Corinthians 13:5
thought
It is good and necessary to examine our lives by the light of God's Word. It exposes our need but also illuminates the Great Provider.
prayer
Lord, examination sends me running to You for cleansing, forgiveness and Your life. I want to walk in step with You.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Perhaps they have committed sins of the mind. . . . To think God's thoughts requires much prayer.
If you do not pray much, you are not thinking God's thoughts.
If you do not read your Bible much and often and reverently, you are not thinking God's thoughts.
Those thoughts you are having and your head buzzes with them all day long and into the nightare earthly thoughts thoughts of a fallen race.
They are the thoughts of a lost society. They should not be our thoughts.
Paul said, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus " (Philippians 2:5 KJV).
There also has to be a lot of meditation. We ought to learn to live in our Bible. Get one with print big enough to read so it does not punish your eyes. Look around until you find a good one, and then learn to love it.
Begin with the Gospel of John, then read the Psalms. Isaiah is another great book to help you and lift you.
When you feel you want to do it, go on to Romans and Hebrews and some of the deeper theological books.
But get into the Bible.
Do not just read the little passages you like, but in the course of a year or two see that you read it through. Your thoughts will one day come up before God's judgment. We are responsible for our premeditative thoughts. They make our mind a temple where God can dwell with pleasure, or they make our mind a stable where Christ is angry, ties a rope and drives out the cattle. It is up to us.
What should you then do? Examine yourself.
Have you found yourself in that awful circular grave, not making any spiritual progress?
Have you found that the passing of time upon which you have leaned so heavily has become a broken reed and is not helping you at all?
verse
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is?His good, pleasing and perfect will.
— Romans 12:2
thought
To be Christian we must think Christian. Transformation is by mind renewal. There are patterns of thought, attitudes, habits that the Spirit wants to replace with those compatible with the faith walk. What we think is crucial.
prayer
Cleanse my mind, O God. Help me to discipline my thinking so that I think on those things that are true, spiritually real, Christ-focused.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/