Tozer on the Presence of God

Posted on October 31, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

This is a quote from How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit, by A. W. Tozer.

“[T]here is an unseen Deity present, a knowing, feeling Personality, and He is indivisible from the Father and the Son, so that if you were to be suddenly transferred to heaven itself you wouldn’t be any closer to God than you are now, for God is already here. Changing your geographical location would not bring you any nearer to God nor God any nearer to you, because the indivisible Trinity is present, and all that the Son is the Holy Ghost is, and all that the Father is the Holy Ghost is, and the Holy Ghost is in His Church.”

As I read this, the question came to me, what would the church look like if we lived this out? What would my life look like if I always remembered that God is beside me every step of the way?

If Jesus was riding shotgun, would I loose my cool when I’m cut off in traffic? If I took into consideration the presence of the Holy Spirit, would I think the thoughts that I do or react to people and events the way that I do? In many instances, I would not.

The point of Tozer’s paragraph is that the Holy Spirit is within us and sees what we think and do.

In Psalm 139:7 David writes, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” (NASB) The answer to this rhetorical question is “nowhere.” There is no where I can go to get away from God in the person of the Holy Spirit. None, zip, nada.

The point of this post is to remind myself and by extension, you the reader, that God is always present and that I should act accordingly.

The good news is that when I fail (not if I fail), God has provided a means of dealing with the failure (see 1 John 1:9).

About Mark McIntyre

A follower of Jesus Christ who shares observations about how Scripture should impact the church and the world. Mark is the original author and editor of Attempts at Honesty.

What did God’s providence do for man whom He created?

Upon his return, before the son could even propose the terms of the revised relationship, the Father embraces the son. The Father’s love was not conditioned upon anything that the son had to say. The embrace said everything about the relationship.

The gap between my head and my heart

The problem is that I can maintain an intellectual understanding of Jesus’ teaching while I fail to live it out. I can easily rationalize the gap between what my head understands and what I choose to live out.

On bread, fish and urban ministry

I thought of a little boy who was going to a church meeting carrying his lunch. It was about two thousand years ago when Jesus was teaching the crowds and the disciples came to Jesus suggesting that he disperse the crowd so that they don’t pass out from hunger. Jesus took that boy’s lunch of bread and fish and multiplied it so that everyone could eat.

What are the decrees of God?

There is nothing that happens in the world that takes God by surprise. When our first parents rebelled against God by eating the fruit, God had a plan already in place to send Jesus to fix the resulting mess.

Not dismayed by the cycle

The point is that all the striving, all the effort, all the marketing plans, and methodologies for church growth cannot change a single heart. Only God can do this.

A response to Hungry Atheist

On July 9 of this year, I wrote a post entitled, A follow-up to some comments. One of the comments I received on that post was from someone calling himself (or herself) Hungry Atheist. I thought that I would selectively quote the comment and provide response to the points that were raised in that comment.

Share

About Mark McIntyre