Lent: Open To Heaven, Urged Godward
There is a reason why Tozer’s The Pursuit of God remains a spiritual classic almost 70 years after it’s original publication in 1948. His depth of insight into the heart passionately receptive to, and burning with, the Presence of God, was prophetically unique within the writing of Christendom in the post-World War II period. Instead of weakly attempting to re-create his progression of thought throughout Chapter 5, “The Universal Presence,” I thought I would rather simply collate his writing followed by simple personal reflections.
My suggestion to you as you read Tozer’s wisdom? Put a favourite worship song on repeat and slowly savour the Spirit’s warm presence within these convicting words, as I am trying to do myself.
1. “What now does the divine immanence mean in direct Christian experience? It means simply that God is here. Where we are, God is here. There is no place, there can be no place, where He is not. Ten million intelligences standing at as many points in space and separated by incomprehensible distances can each one say with equal truth, God is here. No point is nearer to God than any other point. It is exactly as near to God from any place as it is from any other place. No one is in mere distance any further from or any nearer to God than any other person is.” (A.W. Tozer, Ch. 5 “The Universal Presence,” in The Pursuit of God).
In a sentence, the undoing of a deeply-held, yet theologically mistaken, belief is finished. In Christ, there are no spiritual and secular places, holy and sinful environments. That mindset is patently foreign to the Jewish mind, a creation (again) of the abuse of Enlightenment Rationalistic thinking. It is deeply challenging to our concept of the Church, to the places that I consider sacred and profane, to the “rooms” within my own heart that I open to God while hiding others from him in a desperate attempt to mirror Adam’s quivering behind a bush, that God dwells in all places. He is here, closer than my breath, regardless of my awareness of and receptivity to Him. I’m so glad this is true.
2. “The Presence and the manifestation of the Presence are not the same. There can be the one without the other. God is here when we are wholly unaware of it. He is manifest only when and as we are aware of His Presence. On our part there must be surrender to the Spirit of God, for His work it is to show us the Father and the Son. If we co-operate with Him in loving obedience God will manifest Himself to us, and that manifestation will be the difference between a nominal Christian life and a life radiant with the light of His face.” (A.W. Tozer, Ch. 5 “The Universal Presence,” in The Pursuit of God).
My first instinct is to resist this thought, dismissing it as a product of an overly charismatic Christ-follower who values the feeling of the sensational, the felt experience of God’s Presence. But if I allow the Spirit to burrow beneath the initial resistance within my heart, I find a surprising reality: I struggle with this thought of Tozer’s because my own life manifests Christ in a nominal manner far too often. When was the last time I was “radiant with the light of His face,” regardless of the manner in which I respond to God in my life and world? I hesitate to admit just how dry a desert season walking with God has been over the last few years, not only because “I’m supposed to welcome a spirituality of the desert,” but because I want the manifestation of God’s presence in my life once again, a cool drink of water for a thirsty heart. Come Lord Jesus, the Water of Life.
3. “Why do some persons ‘find’ God in a way that others do not? Why does God manifest His Presence to some and let multitudes of others struggle along in the half-light of imperfect Christian experience? Of course the will of God is the same for all. He has no favourites within His household. All He has ever done for any of His children He will do for all of His children. The difference lies not with God but with us.” (A.W. Tozer, Ch. 5 “The Universal Presence,” in The Pursuit of God).
Convicting, in a word. A swirl of jealously arises within me at the frequency of some Christ-followers experience of the manifest presence of God within their lives and communities, and the struggle I feel daily to simply open my heart to God. Does this much responsibility of my relationship with God actually lie with me, and not with God? I find false, but overly familiar, comfort in the passivity of my heart, waiting for God to move towards me, and not I towards Him. However, if I take seriously Tozer’s first thought within this reflection, I must admit that this comfort is both theologically and experientially untrue. God doesn’t move towards me, as He is already fully here. He couldn’t be any closer than He already is. I once heard Dallas Willard remark that the first line of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father in Heaven,” could best be translated, “Daddy, who dwells in the very air I breathe.” Is God really that close? If so, why does my heart drift so far, accusing Him of His absence? Perhaps it is easier to keep God at arm’s length most of the time, for then I have an “excuse” not to change.
4. “I venture to suggest that the one vital quality which they had in common was spiritual receptivity. Something in them was open to heaven, something which urged them Godward. Without attempting anything like a profound analysis I shall say simply that they had spiritual awareness and that they went on to cultivate it until it became the biggest thing in their lives. They differed from the average person in that when they felt the inward longing they did something about it. They acquired the lifelong habit of spiritual response. They were not disobedient to the heavenly vision. As David put it neatly, ‘When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” (A.W. Tozer, Ch. 5 “The Universal Presence,” in The Pursuit of God).
“Something in them was open to heaven, something which urged them Godward…they differed from the average person in that when they felt the inward longing they did something about it. They acquired the lifelong habit of spiritual response.” Lord Jesus, you dwell right here with us. Gently, as is true of every moment in our lives, you call to us, whispering us home to you. Not to a place within in the heavens, but to the reality of the Kingdom of God already present within our midst. Open our eyes to you this day, cracking our hearts open with fresh desire for you. May the transformation we long for turn on our receptivity to your Presence with us, and to the habit we develop of responding to you, already here with us, right in our midst.