Responding to the Voice

"That which I see not teach thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more" (Job 34:32)

It can be fatal to silence the inner voice, the voice of human conscience. Some silence it, for instance, when that voice speaks in outraged protest at the human habit of lying. It may plead eloquently against the habit of dishonesty, or take a person to task for jealousy or for some other sin.

It is always perilous to resist conscience, to ignore the inner voice. Let the Lord talk to you inner spirit, to your innermost being. Within you is a conscience that cannot lean on anybody, that cannot share the blame with anybody - a conscience that singles you out, isolates you and says, "You are the man!" "You are the woman!" It is the voice that makes you want to lower your head and tiptoe away while no one is watching.

I am grateful for the human conscience. If there was no conscience and no voice of God in the world, we would all become beasts in very short order. If that voice is speaking to you - that inner preacher who does not preach to a crowd but only to the lone individual soul - respond!

The chief thing is not to listen to yourself, but silently to listen to God.

~A. W. Tozer~

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Getting Alone with God

"In returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength" (Isaiah 30:15)

There are some things that you and I will never learn when others are present. I believe in church and I love the fellowship of the assembly. There is much we can learn when we come together on Sundays and sit among the saints. But there are certain things that you and I will never learn in the presence of other people.

Unquestionably, part of our failure today is religious activity that is not preceded by aloneness, by inactivity. I mean getting alone with God and waiting in silence and quietness until we are charged with God's Spirit. Then when we act our activity really amounts to something because we have been prepared by God for it.

You do not need to seek Him here or there, He is no further off than the door of your heart. There He stands lingering, waiting for whoever is ready to open and let Him in. You do not need to call to Him in the distance. He is waiting much more impatiently than you, for you to open to Him. He is longing for you a thousands times more urgently than you are for Him. It is instantaneous: the opening and the entering.

~A. W. Tozer~