The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God (AW Tozer Series Book 2)

by A.W. Tozer

Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by the most perfect means.

It sees the end from the beginning, so there can be no need to guess or conjecture. Wisdom sees everything in focus, each in proper relation to all, and is thus able to work toward predestined goals with flawless precision.

All God’s acts are done in perfect wisdom, first for His own glory, and then for the highest good of the great...

Not only could His acts not be better done: a better way to do them c...

God brought His creatures into being that He might enjoy them and they rejoice in Him.

No effort here to justify the ways of God with men; just a simple declaration of fact. The being of God is its own defense.

we base our hope in God alone and hope against hope till the day breaks. We rest in what God is. I believe that this alone is true faith.

The testimony of faith is that, no matter how things look in this fallen world, all God’s acts are wrought in perfect wisdom.

Our concern is not to explain but to proclaim.

It is vitally important that we hold the truth of God’s infinite wisdom as a tenet of our creed; but this is not enough. We must by the exercise of faith and by prayer bring it into the practical world of our day-by-day experience.

To believe actively that our Heavenly Father constantly spreads around us providential circumstances that work for our present good and our everlasting well-being brings to the soul a veritable benediction.

Most of us go through life praying a little, planning a little, jockeying for position, hoping but never being quite certain of anything, and always secretly afraid that we will miss the way. This is a tragic waste of tru...

God constantly encourages us to trust Him in the dark.

will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places,

With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack?

He gives but He does not give away.

The trustworthiness of God’s behavior in His world is the foundation of all scientific truth. Upon

Omnipotence is not a name given to the sum of all power, but an attribute of a personal God we Christians believe to be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and of all who believe on Him to life eternal.

All His acts are done without effort. He expends no energy that must be replenished.

All the power required to do all that He wills to do lies in undiminished fullness in His own infinite being.

God is everywhere here, close to everything, next to everyone.

In His infinitude He surrounds the finite creation and contains it. There is no place beyond Him for anything to be. God is our environment as the sea is to the fish and the air to the bird.

“God is over all things,” wrote Hildebert of Lavardin, “under all things; outside all; within but not enclosed; without but not excluded; above but not raised up; below but not depressed; wholly above, presiding; wholly beneath, sustaining; wholly within, filling.”

This great central truth gives meaning to all truths and imparts supreme value to all his little life. God is present, near him, next to him, and this God sees him and knows him through and thorough.

As a child may cry out in pain even when sheltered in its mother’s arms, so a Christian may sometimes know what it is to suffer even in the conscious presence of God. Though “always rejoicing,” Paul admitted that he was sometimes sorrowful, and for our sakes Christ experienced strong crying and tears though He never left the bosom of the Father (John 1:18). But all will be well.

In a world like this tears have their therapeutic effects. The healing balm distilled from the garments of the enfolding Presence cures our ills before they become fatal.

As Thy Son while on earth was loyal to Thee, His Heavenly Father, so now in heaven He is faithful to us, His earthly brethren; and in this knowledge we press on with every confident hope for all the years and centuries yet to come. Amen.

To have a correct understanding of the attributes it is necessary that we see them all as one. We can think of them separately but they cannot be separated.

To think of God as inclining first toward one and then toward another of His attributes is to imagine a God who is unsure of Himself, frustrated and emotionally unstable, which of course is to say that the one of whom we are thinking is not the true God at all but a weak, mental reflection of Him badly out of focus.

He is His own reason for all He is and does.

almost every heresy that has afflicted the church through the years has arisen from believing about God things that are not true, or from overemphasizing certain true things so as to obscure other things equally true.

To magnify any attribute to the exclusion of another is to head straight for one of the dismal swamps of theology; and yet we are all constantly tempted to do just that.

We can hold a correct view of truth only by daring to believe everything God has said about Himself.

It is a grave responsibility that a man takes upon himself when he seeks to edit out of God’s self-revelation such features as he in his ignorance deems objectionable.

And it is wholly uncalled for. We need not fear to let the truth stand as it is written. There is no confli...

What they learned about God became to them a sword, a shield, a hammer; it became their life motivation, their good hope, and their confident expectation.

The New Testament takes up the theme and celebrates the loyalty of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ

in the Apocalypse Christ is seen astride a white horse riding toward His triumph, and the names He bears are Faithful and True.

From the beginning belief in the perfection of God brought sweet assurance to believing men and taught the ages to sing.

The goodness of God is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men. He is tenderhearted and of quick sympathy, and His unfailing attitude toward all moral beings is open, frank, and friendly. By His nature He is inclined to bestow blessedness and He takes holy pleasure in the happiness of His people.

The goodness of God is the drive behind all the blessings He daily bestows upon us.

The cause of His goodness is in Himself, the recipients of His goodness are all His beneficiaries without merit and without recompense.

Always God’s goodness is the ground of our expectation.

He hears prayer because He is good, and for no other reason. Nor is faith meritorious; it is simply confidence in the goodness of God,

The whole outlook of mankind might be changed if we could all believe that we dwell under a friendly sky and that the God of heaven, though exalted in power and majesty is eager to be friends with us.

The answer is that He will be found to be exactly like Jesus.

From Him we learn how God acts toward people.

The hypocritical, the basically insincere, will find Him cold and aloof, as they once found Jesus; but the penitent will find Him merciful; the self-condemned will find Him generous and kind. To the frightened He is friendly, to the poor in spirit He is forgiving, to the ignorant, considerate; to the weak, gentle; to the stranger, hospitable.

The greatness of God rouses fear within us, but His goodness encourages us not to be afraid of Him. To fear and not be afraid – that is the paradox of faith.

O God, my hope, my heavenly rest, My all of happiness below, Grant my importunate request, To me, to me, Thy goodness show; Thy beatific face display, The brightness of eternal day. Before my faith’s enlightened eyes, Make all Thy gracious goodness pass; Thy goodness is the sight I prize: might I see Thy smiling face: They nature in my soul proclaim, Reveal Thy love, Thy glorious name. —Charles Wesley