Inward Blindness

"But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you" (Romans 6:17)

I once read a book about the inner spiritual life by a man who was NOT a Christian at all. He was a sharp intellectual. He examined spiritual people from the outside, but nothing ever reached him. And that is possible!

You cannot argue around this. You can read your Bible and i you are honest you will admit that it is either obedience or inward blindness. You can repeat Romans word for word, and still be blind inwardly. You can know the doctrine of justification by faith ... and be blind inwardly. It is not the body of truth that enlightens; it is the Spirit of truth who enlightens.

If you are willing to obey the Lord Jesus, He will illuminate your spirit. He will inwardly enlighten you. The truth you have known intellectually will now be known spiritually. Power will begin to flow up and out, and you will find yourself changed, marvelously changed.

God works for a wholly blessed end, namely, Himself: to bring the soul and all her powers into that end, into Himself.

~A. W. Tozer~

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Faith - The Highest Kind of Reason

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9)

In our day, we send reason ahead on its little short legs and faith never follows. Nobody marvels because the whole business can be explained. I have always claimed that a believing Christian is a miracle, and at the precise moment that you can fully explain him, you have a Christian no longer!

I have rad the efforts of William James to psychologize the wonders of God's workings in the human life and experience. But the genuine child of God is someone who cannot be explained by human reasoning.

In this relationship with Jesus Christ through the new birth, something takes place by the ministry of the Spirit of God which psychology cannot explain. This is why I must contend that faith is the highest kind of reason after all, for faith goes straight into the presence of God.

The reason that faith is sol important an element in every true life is simply because it links our nothingness with God Himself.

~A. W. Tozer~