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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
A.W. Tozer
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August 12 - September 18, 2023
When you strip superstition away from a man, he feels terribly naked for a moment, but until we strip off our superstition the Lord cannot put on us a cloak of truth. The kingdom of God lies in power; its essence is in power. The gospel is not the statement that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures (see 1 Cor. 15:3). The gospel is the statement that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures plus the Holy Spirit in that statement, to give it meaning and power. Just the statement itself will never do it.
Paul says, the kingdom of God does not lie in words at all. The kingdom of God lies in the power that indwells those words. You cannot have the power without the words, but you can have the words without the power, and many people do.
The gospel is the power of the Spirit operating through the Word.
If this church and the people who composed it were not living in a constant miracle, they were not Christians at all, because the Christian life is a miracle.
There operates within the true Body of Christ a continual energizing by the Holy Spirit that makes a continual miracle. A Christian is not somebody who has believed only. A Christian is somebody who has believed, in power.
The Holy Spirit is an absolute necessity in the Church. I am grieved in the Holy Spirit because there is a power in the Spirit to expose sin and revolutionize and convert and create holy men and women, and nothing else can do it. Words will not do it. Instructions will not do it. Line upon line, precept upon precept will not do it; it takes the power of God to do it.
Reverence is the astonished awe that comes to the human heart when it sees God. That is what the Holy Spirit can do through the Word, and nobody else can do it.
when the Spirit of God moves through the Word preached in power and heard in power, the objectives of God are accomplished; men are made holy and sins are forgiven, and the work of redemption is done.
How can we attain to this? The old-fashioned way is prayer, faith and surrender; and I know none other. Pray; and as you pray, surrender; and as you surrender, believe. That action is for all of us.
have every right in the Scriptures to demand that they hear the word in power; and if they do not hear the word in power, they have a right to rise up and ask why. If you’re hearing nothing but teaching, nothing but instruction; if there is no evidence of God in it, and the preacher cannot say, I appeal to God to say whether this is true or n...
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For the kingdom of God is not in words; the kingdom of God is in power.
There is no reason why the warm cordiality of social fellowship cannot be made incandescent with the indwelling Holy Spirit, so that when we meet and shake hands and sing and pray and talk together, we are having social fellowship plus the mighty union and communion of the Holy Spirit.
He prepared for it by the most effective preparation known in heaven or in earth; namely, prayer. Our Lord prayed in the garden.
want to point out that this prayer Jesus made that night in the garden was an anticipatory prayer; that is, He prayed in anticipation of something He knew was coming in the will of God, and He prepared for it. I
want to emphasize and lay upon your conscience to practice anticipatory prayer, because battles are lost before they are fought.
Battles are always lost before they are fought.
It was also true of Israel. In the Old Testament, when Israel went in to battle righteous and prayed-up, she never lost a battle. When she went in filled with iniquity, and prayerless, she never won a battle.
As Proverbs 24:10 says, the man who goes down under trouble has little strength. His strength is small because his prayers are few and lean, but the man whose prayers are many and strong will not collapse when the trouble comes.
Temptation often comes unexpected and subtle. It is unexpected and too subtle for the flesh, but anticipatory prayer gets the soul ready for whatever temptation there may be.
Temptation cannot hurt you if you have anticipated it by prayer; but temptation will certainly trip you if you have not.
Remember: As long as sin and the devil, disease and death are abroad in the land like a fire, like a contagious disease, things are not all right.
Instead of assuming that things are all right, assume that they are always wrong, and then prayerfully prepare for them and anticipate them in whatever direction they come.
It is a wise devil that feeds into a person’s confidence in self. The devil is willing to give as much credit to “self” as long as he accomplishes his objective.
Remember that without prayer, you cannot win; and with it, you cannot lose. Granted, of course, that it is true prayer, and not just the saying of words; and granted that your life is in harmony with your prayer. If you fail to pray, you cannot win. For the Lord gave us the example of anticipatory prayer—getting ready for any event by seeking the face of God in watchful prayer at regular times.
most Christians are quite ingenious in recognizing these conditions in others while remaining totally oblivious to the condition in their own life.
Be easy on others but hard on yourself.
The Holy Spirit is faithful in exposing your spiritual condition. Your responsibility is to listen to the Holy Spirit, follow through on His action and take a solemn vow to break the lethargy at all cost.
We of the evangelical persuasion want God to do all the work and we get an easy ride to glory.
our walk with God on a daily basis will cost us much. Are we willing, cheerfully, to pay the cost?
Mob psychology sometimes infests even the Christian community, which may explain all the dead churches in our country today.
intentional Christian living. By that, I mean we are living out the guidelines and commands of the Scripture, intentionally and purposefully.
The intentional Christian life is powered by the Holy Spirit and motivates us into a lifestyle contrary to everything around us in our culture.
Faith Faith is not some magical formula or ritual, but rather it is a result of a consistent and sacrificial commitment to Bible reading and prayer.
Nothing will ever take the place of the simple reading of God’s Word, preferably on your knees.
Much is being said of faith these days that is not the focus of the Scriptures. We must shun all ways contrary to Scripture.
Obedience and Surrender
In order to obey fully, you must hear the voice of God clearly.
Surrender is a clear act of obedience to the Word of God.
the idea of absolutely and completely giving over my life to
God, whatever it entails, without any str...
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Purity
God desires to bring our lives into the full sunlight of His favor. That requires not serving ourselves or pleasing others or ourselves, but giving ourselves completely, in absolute surrender, to God through the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. The end result is living the intentional Christian life.
The Knowledge of the Holy, a study of the attributes of God that many consider to be his crowning literary achievement.
