Tag Archive | The Knowledge of God

[Editor’s Note: This is a 23-Day Series exploring different aspects of God’s nature and personality, using Tozer’s “The Knowledge of the Holy” as a discussion starter. You can read the introduction of the series here.]

Air is everywhere. Air is something we take for granted. But if we were to remove all the air from the room that we are in we would definitely appreciate it more. And when we think about God and His ability to be present everywhere, we relate to Him in the same way. We take for granted His presence but would certainly notice His absence. But awakening to His constant presence is the sweet spot of Christianity that we all strive for. And this is what Tozer encourages us to do.

He first explains omnipresence. Presence is being close to or next to someone or something. Adding the “Omni” to the front means God is next to or close to everyone at all times. Tozer makes the argument God’s omnipresence is assumed and expounded upon throughout the Bible. God is all around us, what water is to fish and air is to birds.

Tozer presents God’s presence in the world as the answer to many of our questions. The secular world is constantly asking whether the world is only physical or a mixture of physical and spiritual realities. God’s presence throughout the world answers these questions with a strong yes. God loves creation. It is both physical and spiritual. God’s presence also means that He is always with us. No believer has to wonder whether God has left. Our awareness of His presence will continually change, but His actual presence never changes. He is always with us. This truth sustains our heart in confusing and turbulent times.

Tozer summarizes all this by telling his readers that we should be comforted by God’s omnipresence, but that we should attempt to live life aware of His presence. For all the comfort of the truth God is near us, it changes believers to be aware of God in their daily lives.

What I love about today’s reading was the assumption that God is there. Obviously that’s true, but we operate so many times without it, even though theologically we know it’s true. We feel abandoned by God. We feel like some how if God was there, He would have saved us from sorrow. But God is always near.

In the house church world that I live in, there is a wing of the house church movement in the United States that base their meetings on a concept called God’s prevenience. Prevenience means that God has already been doing something in a certain place or situation before You got there. (You can read more about the “prevenience model” of church here.) God has always been in a place before you got there. Your job is to point Him out. His omnipresence has existed, He’s actually even been doing things there, but as a believer your job is to bring others’ attentions to this fact.

We do this by first learning the truth: God is everywhere. And then we begin to take moments of time, acknowledge the truth in our hearts, and look for signs of God’s being with us in whatever place we are in. As we look, God begins to show us signs of His presence. We begin to realize we are not alone. Sometimes we even begin to realize that the place we are standing in is holy ground (Exodus 3:5). As we sense and become aware of God’s nearness, we begin to get better at making others aware. We can speak into situations showing the world God’s activity. What started as a simple doctrine becomes a means for God breaking in to the lives of our friends.

All of this starts, though, with this simple truth: there is nowhere God isn’t. If you feel like He isn’t with you, we may need to work on your feelings, but He is there. He is not absent. He is always with you. He will show Himself faithful again and again by proving He is with you, even in the darkest of nights. This truth, properly placed in the believers life, will act as a rudder during the storms of life, making them strong in hours that would have overwhelmed anyone else.

That’s my takeaway today. What’s yours? Leave a comment so we can all grow together!

Day 1: Why We Must Think Rightly About God

Day 2: God Incomprehensible

Day 3: A Divine Attribute: Something True About God

Day 4: The Holy Trinity

Day 5: The Self Existence of God

Day 6: The Self Sufficiency of God

Day 7: The Eternity of God

Day 8: God’s Infinitude

Day 9: The Immutability of God

Day 10: The Divine Omniscience

Day 11: The Wisdom of God

Day 12: The Omnipotence of God

Day 13: The Divine Transcendence

Day 14: God’s Omnipresence

Day 15: The Faithfulness of God

Day 16: The Goodness of God

Day 17: The Justice of God

Day 18: The Mercy of God

Day 19: The Grace of God

Day 20: The Love of God

Day 21: The Holiness of God

Day 22: The Sovereignty of God

Day 23: The Open Secret

April 17, 2015

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The Knowledge of the Holy: The Divine Transcendence

It’s been said that our generation has lost it’s reverence for anything holy. No where is that more true than when we approach the topic of transcendence. Because we’ve lost a holy appreciation for God and his nature, we talk little about transcendence. Really, we don’t know what it is. But just because we don’t understand it’s relevance doesn’t mean there is no value in the reality. God is transcendent and appreciating that reality will help us in our journey to know and understand Him.

God is transcendent. What that means is that God is infinitely greater and higher than we are. Tozer says that transcendence is used to describe One thing (God) who is above our created universe. He is quick to point out that words like “above” should loose all of their spatial meaning. God is above us in the way that He is separated from us by His beauty and His grandeur. Tozer goes on to describe how God is so much higher than us, but not by degrees. He is of an entirely different category. Even though the archangel is “above” the worm, God is still a similar distance “above” both because He is uncreated. He alone is perfection.

Tozer goes on to say we are all to comfortable with this transcendent God. He argues that if an angel from around the throne of worship would come to earth, they would find our discussion of anything else but God’s glory puzzling. And if we caught a true glimpse of God as He truly is, it would ruin us for anything but discussing Him. These are the words of the enraptured heart, but again, we should trust the words of an enraptured heart. Tozer also points out that an intimate relationship with God, far from being ruined by the fear of the Lord and the awe of His person, is actually strengthened and maintained by reverence for Him.

I feel like this is important to highlight. We want a God we can know and be close to and I think that a God we can be close to is great, especially since it’s the God scripture describes for us. But God sets up a tremendous paradox: The reason we can draw close to God is because of the death of His Son. Should Jesus not have died in our place, drawing near to God would not be an option. Moses, the man who spoke to God as a man speaks to his friends couldn’t look directly at His glory. No man has ever seen the full display of God’s glory and lived to tell the story. And it’s this radiating glory from this uncreated being that is nothing like us that makes Jesus’ death so incredibly valuable to us. We are now invited in to relationship with this God who should destroy us.

We shouldn’t fear being destroyed by God by drawing near to Him. Rather, we enter into God’s presence with reverence, knowing that the ticket into this relationship was extremely costly. We treasure the access we have with God because we know it is unique and not common. We purify ourselves of our sinful ways out of reverence for the One we stand before. And instead of this separating us from God, it draws us closer.

I know that many would say these thoughts are old-fashioned. The stuff of holiness preachers and legalists. But for those who have spent years drawing near, it’s the stuff of gold that enables people to press on into knowing God. I need this today more than ever. I hope you find encouragement to draw close as well.

So today, ask God to reveal His transcendent nature to you. Ask Him to show you what causes the angels to never stop singing. And ask Him to stir in you a love and fear of the Lord. You won’t be disappointed.

That’s my takeaway today. What’s yours? Leave a comment so we can all grow together!

Day 1: Why We Must Think Rightly About God

Day 2: God Incomprehensible

Day 3: A Divine Attribute: Something True About God

Day 4: The Holy Trinity

Day 5: The Self Existence of God

Day 6: The Self Sufficiency of God

Day 7: The Eternity of God

Day 8: God’s Infinitude

Day 9: The Immutability of God

Day 10: The Divine Omniscience

Day 11: The Wisdom of God

Day 12: The Omnipotence of God

Day 13: The Divine Transcendence

Day 14: God’s Omnipresence

Day 15: The Faithfulness of God

Day 16: The Goodness of God

Day 17: The Justice of God

Day 18: The Mercy of God

Day 19: The Grace of God

Day 20: The Love of God

Day 21: The Holiness of God

Day 22: The Sovereignty of God

Day 23: The Open Secrett

April 16, 2015

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The Knowledge of the Holy: The Omnipotence of God

In my early days of following Jesus, when someone taught you how to talk to someone about Jesus they would teach you how to talk to people about sin, the need for forgiveness, and how forgiveness only comes through Jesus. Basically they would teach you how to walk others through the “Romans Road.” In the years since those early days, it has become harder and harder to convince people about the reality of Jesus by simply explaining those concepts. Instead, people want what works. They want their lives impacted by something and no matter how true something is, if it doesn’t “work” then they’re not interested.

This is why today’s chapter on God’s omnipotence is so important. Tozer clearly points out that God’s sovereignty (or His ability to rule as a king) is directly related to His omnipotence (His power). If God isn’t powerful enough to make what He wants happen, then He can’t be the king of anything. But it’s exactly because God is almighty (all-powerful) that He can be the true King of kings.

Next Tozer looks at the facts: The phrase “almighty” is used 56 times in the Bible. It is only used of God because God alone is the only being with all the power. He alone is supreme in the universe. Also, because God is infinite, there is no end to God’s power. It is never diminished even when He uses His power or gives it to another. Because of this, God is the source of all power in the universe. The very fabric of creation itself is being held together by His power. His power is so constant and perceptible that secular commentators have taken it for granted and called it “the laws of nature.” That God has power isn’t so much the question as much as our willingness to see it.

Finally, Tozer invites us to consider the implications of the omnipotent God inviting us into a relationship. For those of us who have set our hearts to submit to Jesus and follow Him, God’s omnipotence is a great encouragement. We are following the only being in the Universe able to affect everything. Tozer completes the chapter telling the story of A.B. Simpson, who halfway through life and facing an illness, heard the lines of a negro spiritual extolling God’s power and was struck to the heart. He went and sought God and came away healed.

This is the real truth that we must apprehend. The world (and the church) are tired of hearing about our omnipotent God who we say is powerful, but they never see do anything. The power behind this truth is not in the theology. We all believe God is powerful. The power behind this truth is the demonstration. We have a world utterly burnt out on powerless religion and unfulfilled promises. What the world needs are men and women who have experienced God’s power and aren’t afraid to believe for God to show His power on behalf of others.

How do we do this? As with any part of the gospel that we are not experiencing, faith comes by hearing. We first fill our minds and our hearts with the message the Bible has to share with us about God’s power. As we begin to hear the Bible’s message about God’s power, we increasingly begin to believe that God wants to show us His power. And when we believe God is powerful and will show it, then we will begin to see it. And as we see God’s power displayed, it becomes much easier for us to have confidence in God’s power.

Friends, the world is dying. It doesn’t need theories of God’s power. It needs to see demonstrations of God’s power. If we are to see many people born into the Kingdom of God, they must believe Jesus has the power to reign as King in their lives over every evil thing. And they must see that in our lives before they will believe it in their lives. So join me, would you, in asking God to show us His mighty power in our lives and the lives of those around us. The result will be many others who wish to be part of His Kingdom.

Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down!
    How the mountains would quake in your presence!
As fire causes wood to burn
    and water to boil,
your coming would make the nations tremble.
    Then your enemies would learn the reason for your fame!
When you came down long ago,
    you did awesome deeds beyond our highest expectations.
    And oh, how the mountains quaked!
For since the world began,
    no ear has heard
and no eye has seen a God like you,
    who works for those who wait for him!