A.W. Tozer "The Pursuit of God" Chapter Three
Removing the
Veil
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the
holiest by the blood of Jesus.”
— Hebrews
10:19 —
Excerpts from Chapter Three:
“Among the famous sayings of the Church
fathers none is better know than Augustine’s “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till
they find rest in Thee.””
““Question: What is
the chief End of Man? Answer: Man’s chief End is to glorify God and enjoy Him
forever.” … With this agree the four and twenty elders who fall on their faces
to worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, saying, “Thou art worthy, O Lord,
to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and
for thy pleasure they are and were created.”“
“So the life of man upon the earth is a life away from the
Presence, wrenched loose from that “blissful center” which is our right and
proper dwelling place, our first estate which we kept not, the loss of which is
the cause of our unceasing restlessness. … The whole work of God in redemption
is to undo the tragic effects of that foul revolt, and to bring us back again
into right and eternal relationship with Himself. This required that our sins
be disposed of satisfactorily, that a full reconciliation be effected and the
way opened for us to return again into conscious communion with God and to live
again in the Presence as before. Then by His prevenient working within us He
moves us to return. This first comes to our notice when our restless hearts
feel a yearning for the Presence of God and we say within ourselves, “I will
arise and go to my Father.” That is the first step, and as the Chinese sage
Lao-tze has said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a first step.””
“The interior journey of the soul from the wilds of sin into
the enjoyed Presence of God is beautifully illustrated in the Old Testament
tabernacle. The returning sinner first entered the outer court where he offered
a blood sacrifice on the brazen altar and washed himself in the laver that
stood near it. Then through a veil he passed into the holy place where no
natural light could come, but the golden candlestick which spoke of Jesus the
Light of the World threw its soft glow over all. There also was the shewbread
to tell of Jesus, the Bread of Life, and the altar of incense, a figure of
unceasing prayer."
"… Though the worshipper had enjoyed so much, still he had not yet entered the Presence of God. Another veil separated from the Holy of Holies where above the mercy seat dwelt the very God Himself in awful and glorious manifestation. While the tabernacle stood, only the high priest could enter there, and that but once a year, with blood which he offered for his sins and the sins of the people. It was this last veil which was rent when our Lord gave up the ghost on Calvary, and the sacred writer explains that this rending of the veil opened the way for every worshipper in the world to come by the new and living way straight into the divine Presence."
"… Everything in the New Testament accords with this Old
Testament picture. Ransomed men need no longer pause in fear to enter the Holy
of Holies. God wills that we should push on into his presence and live our
whole life there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience. It is more
than a doctrine to be held, it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every
day.”
“… This Flame of the Presence was the beating heart of the
Levitical order. Without it all the appointments of the tabernacle were
characters of some unknown language; they had no meaning for Israel or for us.
The greatest fact of the tabernacle was that Jehovah was there; a Presence was
waiting within the veil. Similarly the Presence of God is the central fact of
Christianity. At the heart of the Christian message is God Himself waiting for
His redeemed children to push in to conscious awareness of His Presence.”
“Who is this within the veil who dwells in fiery
manifestations? It is none other than God Himself, “One God the Father
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible,”
and “One Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God; begotten of His
Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God;
begotten, not made; being of one substance with the Father,” and “the Holy
Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son,
Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified.””
“The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and
the Church is famishing for want of His Presence. The instant cure of most of
our religious ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to
become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us. This would lift
us out of our pitiful narrowness and cause our hearts to be enlarged. This
would burn away the impurities from our lives as the bugs and fungi were burned
away by the fire that dwelt in the bush.”
"Love
and mercy and righteousness are His, and holiness so ineffable that no
comparisons or figures will avail to express it. Only fire can give even a
remote conception of it. In fire He appeared at the burning bush; in the pillar
of fire He dwelt through all the long wilderness journey. The fire that glowed
between the wings of the cherubim in the holy place was called the “shekinah,”
the Presence, through the years of Israel’s glory, and when the Old had given
place to the New, He came at Pentecost as a fiery flame and rested upon each
disciple."
“Between the scribe who has read and the prophet who has
seen there is a difference as wide as the sea. We are today overrun with
orthodox scribes, but the prophets, where are they? The hard voice of the
scribe sounds over evangelicalism, but the Church waits for the tender voice of
the saint who has penetrated the veil and has gazed with inward eye upon the
Wonder that is God. And yet, thus to penetrate, to push in sensitive living
experience into the holy Presence, is a privilege open to every child of God.”
“This veil is not a beautiful thing and it is not a thing
about which we commonly care to talk, but I am addressing the thirsting souls
who are determined to follow God, and I know they will not turn back because
the way leads temporarily through the blackened hills. The urge of God within
them will assure their continuing the pursuit. They will face the facts however
unpleasant and endure the cross for the joy set before them. So I am bold to
mane the threads out of which this inner veil is woven. It is woven of the fine
threads of the self-life, the hyphenated sins of the human spirit. They are not
something we do, they are something we are, and therein lies both their
subtlety and their power.”
“Let us beware of tinkering with our inner life in hope ourselves to rend the veil. God must do everything for us. Our part is to yield and trust. We must confess, forsake, repudiate the self-life, and then reckon it crucified. … Insist that the work be done in very truth and it will be done. The cross is rough, and it is deadly, but it is effective. It does not keep its victim hanging there forever. There comes a moment when its work is finished and the suffering victim dies. After that is resurrection glory and power, and the pain is forgotten for joy that the veil is taken away and we have entered in actual spiritual experience the Presence of the living God.”
Lord, how excellent are Thy ways, and
how devious and dark are the ways of man.
Show us how to die, that we may rise
again to newness of life.
Rend the veil of our self-life from the
top down as Thou didst rend the veil of the Temple.
We would draw near in full assurance of
faith.
We would dwell with Thee in daily
experience here on this earth so that we may be accustomed to the glory when we
enter Thy heaven to dwell with Thee there.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
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