A.W. Tozer was a well-known American pastor, author and Bible teacher (1897-1963). He wrote more than forty books, two of which are regarded as classics: The Pursuit of God and Knowledge of the Holy. He was a person of prayer who spoke much about pursuing a deeper relationship with God.
Here are some insightful quotes from him:
Prayer is never an acceptable substitute for obedience. The sovereign Lord accepts no offering from His creatures that is not accompanied by obedience. To pray for revival while ignoring or actually flouting the plain precept laid down in the Scriptures is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble. [Of God and Men, 52]
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.[The Knowledge of the Holy, 7]
Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and to bring Him nearer to our own image. [The Pursuit of God, 101]
God being who He is must always be sought for Himself, never as a means toward something else.
Whoever seeks God as a means toward desired ends will not find God. The mighty God, the maker of heaven and earth, will not be one of many treasures, not even the chief of all treasures. He will be all in all or He will be nothing. God will not be used. [Man the Dwelling Place of God, 56-57]
God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which He must work. [The Knowledge of the Holy, 53]
Worship, I say, rises or falls with our concept of God …. and if there is one terrible disease in the Church of Christ, it is that we do not see God as great as He is. [Worship: The Missing Jewel of the Evangelical Church, ]
We need to improve the quality of our Christianity and we never will until we raise our concept of God back to that held by apostle, sage, prophet, saint and reformer. When we put God back where he really belongs, we will instinctively and automatically move up again; the whole spiral of our religious direction will be upward. [The Attributes of God, 195]
When I am praying the most eloquently, I am getting the least accomplished in my prayer life. But when I stop getting eloquent and give God less theology and shut up and just gaze upward and wait for God to speak to my heart He speaks with such power that I have to grab a pencil and a notebook and take notes on what God is saying to my heart [Success and the Christian, 46-47]
To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart. [The Pursuit of God, 14]
I Thank God that the kingdom of God is not divided into areas for big, important people and areas for little, unimportant people. Every one is just as needful in God's sight as any other! [Who Put Jesus On the Cross, 161]
Complacency is the deadly enemy of spiritual progress. The contented soul is the stagnant soul. [The Size of the Soul, 22]
Hi Mark, I was particularly taken by the prayer that A.W. Tozer made at his Ordination. Certainly relevant to the shepherds of God’s flock…even for today! See http://coburns.biz/index.php/2010/01/11/wisdom-from-a-w-tozer/386
After leaving extreme seclusive pentecostal cult, A.W. Tozer books had help in my healing. He is radical but not an extremist! I also recommend A.W. Tozer, particularly for christian who are effected by Health, Wealth and Prosperity gospel.
Tozer message is simple, insightful and profound. Easy to read.
Unfortunately, he was not that loving to his wife- shame about that- I guess he was more closely married to the church etc. She was much happier in her second marriage after he died.
However, I agree that some of his writings are quite insightful and helpful.