The solution to life's problems is spiritual because the essence of life is spiritual.
It is astonishing how many difficulties clear up without any effort when the inner life gets straightened out.
If half the time we spend trying to fix up outward things were spent in getting our hearts right, we would be delighted with the result. Strange as it may seem, harmony within our own hearts depends mostly upon our getting into harmony with God.
Morning comes not by our pushing out the darkness but by waiting for the coming of the sun.
Church difficulties are spiritual also and admit of a spiritual answer.
Whatever may be wrong in the life of any church may be cleared up by recognizing the quality of the trouble and dealing with it at the root. Prayer, humility and a generous application of the Spirit of Christ will cure just about any disease in the body of believers.
Yet this is usually the last thing we think about when difficulties arise. We often attempt to cure spiritual ills with carnal medicines, and the results are more than disappointing.
verse
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
— Colossians 1:9
thought
Sedatives and band-aids do not deal with the causes of physical problems. How often we try to solve spiritual problems with non-spiritual remedies. Out of close fellowship with God comes love and humility?the remedy for most church problems.
prayer
Lord, to our church leaders, to all of us believers, give knowledge of Your will through spiritual wisdom and understanding. And may we soak our problems in prayer. In Jesus' name.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
All life is at root spiritual.
God is spirit, and since He is the Cause and Origin of everything, it follows that everything originally came out of spirit.
Matter may indeed be only the objectification of spirit. It is interesting to learn that modern science comes pretty close to teaching just that today. It is not necessary, however, to understand the philosophical ground for this belief (if such ground exists); it is enough to believe the Scriptures, and they make it very clear that a human being is essentially a spirit clothed in a body, and that the inner life is the key to all the rest of the life.
The whole Bible magnifies the inner and eternal part of man and lays correspondingly lighter emphasis upon the external and temporal.
Paul sang his ringing song of victory over this world, a song he could sing with all those who "look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18).
Indeed it may be truthfully said that everything of lasting value in the Christian life is unseen and eternal.
Things seen are of little real significance in the light of God's presence. He pays small attention to the beauty of a woman or the strength of a man. With Him the heart is all that matters.
The rest of the life comes into notice only because it represents the dwelling place of the inner eternal being.
verse
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
— 2 Corinthians 4:18
thought
Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, they are not our own. It is through our bodies that we express our spirit/soul/mind/heart. Our bodies are vehicles by which we disclose our real being.
prayer
Father, this body of mine is not externally attractive and is certainly aging, but remind me that the inner me can keep growing and become beautiful as You change me. Praise to You for eternal life in Christ and inner transformation through Him. Amen.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The task of the church is too great for any one person to compass and too varied for the skill of any one person to accomplish.
God has met this difficulty by dividing the task and giving to every man gifts that enable him to do his part.
By distributing the work, He lightens the burden for all and makes possible smooth carrying out of His purposes among men.
That is undoubtedly the reason behind the gifts of the Spirit given to the various members of the Christian community. Here, as elsewhere, the manifold wisdom of God is revealed.
Not all men can sing; at least not all men can sing well enough to be heard in public.
Only a limited number are called to preach. Real teachers are scarce because the gift which enables a Christian to teach is not given to many.
Even the humbler gifts, such as "helps" and "governments," are given to relatively few.
The gift of the evangelist is not given to all, or the pastor's gift or the gift of wisdom.
Blessed is the man who knows his gift and who seeks to exercise it toward the other members of the body of Christ as a "good steward of the manifold grace of God."
A revival of true New Testament Christianity must surely bring with it a manifestation of spiritual gifts.
Anything short of it will create a just suspicion that the revival is something short of scriptural.
verse
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.
— 1 Peter 4:10
thought
God has gifted each of us to serve other members of the Body in particular ways. It is our responsibility, in conjunction with other body members, to identify our gifts and faithfully exercise them. The health of the church demands it!
prayer
Father, show me the unique gifts You have given me with which to serve You and Your Church. Remind me that those gifts are from You and are to be used to build up Your Church.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The whole Bible and all past history unite to teach that battles are always won before the armies take the field.
The converse of this is true also.
Battles are never lost the day they are fought. They are lost the day or the year before; the results merely become manifest when the armies meet.
If we were wise enough, we could predict without fail the outcome of any battle, for the law of causation determines it always.
Lot fled from Sodom with the tattered remnant of his family and left all his property behind to perish in the flames, but his loss did not occur the night he escaped the burning city; it occurred the day he lifted up his eyes and saw all the well-watered plains of Jordan and coveted them.
On a certain night Judas betrayed Christ with a kiss, but his tragic downfall did not take place that night; it only became evident. For months he had been undermining his own soul by filching from the meager funds entrusted to his care. He had gotten himself ready for the kind of death he died by the kind of life he had lived. His betrayal and suicide might have been accurately predicted by anyone who could have known what had been going on inside him during the days before the betrayal. Preparation is vital. Let this be noted by everyone. We can seek God today and get prepared to meet temptation tomorrow; but if we meet the enemy without first having met God, the outcome is not conjectural; the issue is already decided. We can only lose. We do well to imitate the ant who takes advantage of the summer to get ready for the winter.
verse
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
— Hebrews 12:11
thought
Huge victories and shattering defeats do not occur in a vacuum or in a moment of time. Rather, they are like a long burning wick of a bomb. Victories and defeats result from discipline or lack of it over a period of time which God uses to prepare us.
prayer
You discipline me for my good, Lord, so that I may share in Your holiness. That discipline sometimes seems exceedingly hard. Yet You know what I need because You know what is coming.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
The whole Bible and all past history unite to teach that battles are always won before the armies take the field.
The critical moment for any army is not the day it engages the foe in actual combat; it is the day before or the month before or the year before.
It is an old saying that the wars of England were won on the playing fields of Eton.
The experience of hard training, tough competition and sportsmanship gained in their school years prepared the young men for real war when it came.
Again that rule holds for all of us everywhere, even up on the high levels of spirital warfare.
It did not take Moses long to lead the children of Israel out through the Red Sea to deliverance and freedom; but his fittedness to lead them out was the result of years of hard discipline.
It took David only a few minutes to dispose of Goliath; but he had beaten the giant long before in the person of the lion and the bear.
Elijah faced a sulking King Ahab and stared him down in the name of Jehovah, but we must remember that his courage to stand before kings was the result of years spent in standing before the King of kings.
Christ stood silent in the presence of Pilate and for our sake went calmly out to die.
He could endure the anguish of the cross because He had suffered the pains of Gethsemane the night before; there was a direct relationship between the two experiences.
One served as a preparation for the other.
verse
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
— James 1:2-3
thought
Who of us welcomes trials and counts them as pure joy? Trials hurt but they also prepare. Trials produce perseverance which leads to maturity. Want to grow in Christ? Welcome trials!
prayer
Father, forgive me for my whining when undergoing trial and discipline. You see what is ahead and are preparing me for it. Help me to so understand what is occurring and to accept it in faith.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
If in the infinite condescension of God, mankind was made with a nature somewhat like its creator, then is it not reasonable that God could clothe Himself with human nature in the mystery of incarnation and all within the framework of easy possibility without the embarrassment of uniting things unlike each other?
When the ancient Word stood up in human flesh, He felt at home. He was not out of His element, for had He not heard the Father say, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness"?
There was no jar, no wrench caused by the forced union of dissimilar natures.
It is our humble opinion that the "exile" element in the earthly experience of our Lord has been greatly overplayed.
That He was sad and lonely and far from home, a stranger in a strange land, is an idea that has grown up around the beautiful and the simple fact, but it is not necessarily a part of the fact. So far as we can recall there is nothing in the record to give the impression that His presence in human flesh was an unnatural or painful experience.
He happily called Himself "the Son of man," not an exile among men.
All this is not to attempt to take away from the valid mystery that surrounds the Incarnation or to lessen the awe with which we contemplate the wonder of the Word becoming flesh to dwell among us.
It is rather to clear away unauthorized notions and give the beauty of the Incarnation a chance to make its own impression upon us.
That impression will be deep enough without our adding anything to it.
verse
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
— John 1:14
thought
In Christ, God becomes "people" ? you and me kind of people except for our sin. He exuded the glory of the Only Begotten. The eye of faith could perceive His origin and sense that He was full of grace and truth. All this in "people" expression.
prayer
Father, I see in Christ living among people what You desire in my living by means of the indwelling Spirit. He produces the product of His control-the fruit of the Spirit. May that fruit characterize my life!
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
At the risk of being charged with inexcusable boldness, we venture the assertion that while the Incarnation is mysterious, it is not illogical or contrary to reason.
We would not presume to settle with a pen stroke those profound and awful mysteries which have stilled the voices of the ages and brought men and angels to their knees in worship; but we would dare to say that in our opinion the act of becoming man was altogether reasonable from God's standpoint.
It placed no strain upon the divine nature and admitted into the scheme of God nothing unnatural or inconsistent.
The reasons for so believing are these: Man was originally made in the image of God. "God created man; in the likeness of God made he him."
This is a cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith.
It is not necessary to understand all that is included in this doctrine, for even here we run into some real theological problems.
But faith can soar where reason can never climb, and it is only necessary that we believe the truth. Its power over us depends upon our believing it, not upon our understanding it.
The fact is all that matters: man was made in the image of God. Now, if man was made in the image of God, then God must certainly carry something of the image of man. (That sin has marred the image and introduced a foreign and destructive element into human nature does not detract from the force of the argument.)
If a boy looks like his father it must surely follow that the father must look like the boy.
Somewhere within man's nature, twisted and deformed as it may be, there is godlikeness.
This will not be seriously questioned by anyone who knows his Bible.
No student of Christian theology would deny this as a fact, though he might reject the conclusions we draw from the fact.
verse
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
— Genesis 1:27
thought
The image of God in which we are created is certainly not bodily form. Image gathers up aspects of spirit (ruach/pneuma), soul (nephesh/psyche) and heart (leb/kardia). Sin has marred and distorted that image but not destroyed it. Every human being has a
prayer
Lord, I fall so short of the potential You have provided. You have made me in Your image. Sin and self have terribly blurred and marred that image. But You give me Your Spirit that I may know You.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Any sound religious experience must begin with a proper conception of the nature of God.
The terrible power of idolatry for evil lies in its unworthy conception of the character of the Supreme Being.
Indeed it may be said without qualification that all religious experience that incorporates in itself low or ignoble ideas of God is in essence superstitious. The god of superstition is an irresponsible god, arbitrary and without character.
The superstititious person must constantly try to outwit him or placate him or catch him with words and force a favor out of him. But such a person is never at peace because he is never sure of anything. His hope is fugitive and skittish. There is no trustworthy being back of his faith; there are only words.
True faith does not rest upon texts alone but upon God who wrote the text.
The word is an expression of the character of God and is exactly as good as that character, no more and no less. The free man in Christ has been delivered from the "tyranny of words." He has gone beyond the word to God Himself and has found there his true fatherland and everlasting home.
He can no longer be intimidated by the little slave-men who threaten him with punishment if he fails to repeat this religious phrase or mutter that sacred word. He has discovered the true ground of religious hope the character of God.
To such a man the Scriptures are the very words of God, meaningless apart from Him but altogether glorious when understood as the verbal expression of His holy being.
verse
How great you are, O Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears.
— 2 Samuel 7:22
thought
It is not the phonetic sound of "God words" or words written on paper in which we believe. It is God. Because of who He is we can trust Him, His word and His promises.
prayer
Sovereign LORD, how great You are! There is none like You. You are God and in You I trust.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/
Faith differs from superstition in its ground of hope.
Faith rests upon character, specifically the character of God.
A word is only as good as the character of the one who uttered it.
Superstition counts upon a word, a text, and never thinks back of the text to the one who gave it. For the superstitious man there is a magic power in a word quite apart from the one who spoke it. The very word is magical and has only to be spoken under the right circumstances to be effective; morality or character have no place in this scheme of things. Words only count there. This in its various manifestations is a sure mark of superstition.
Even in some Christian circles this ill-grounded trust in sounds and symbols is encountered all too frequently.
Some believers, for instance, fear to speak the name of Jesus apart from the titles which accompany it.
They dare not say Jesus, but must always say the Lord Jesus Christ, regardless of the circumstances.
Obviously they believe that God is concerned with the protocol of word arrangement and will be displeased if the order is broken.
Such words as amen, hallelujah, glory and others of like sacred association are repeated endlessly and meaninglessly in the apparent belief that they have in them some strange power for good.
This can be no more than high-grade magic.
It will pay us to search our own hearts thoroughly to discover just why we use these words.
verse
Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out."
— Acts 19:13
thought
The seven sons of Sceva sought to use the name of Jesus in attempting to exorcise spirits from those demon-possessed. They failed miserably because they neither knew Jesus or trusted in Him. What we believe and in whom we believe is what counts.
prayer
Lord, forgive me for using words, even Your name, as if there were some magical meaning to them. It is Your Person, who You are?Almighty God?in whom I trust and rest through Christ.
https://cmalliance.org/devotionals/tozer/