"While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them ...And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him" (Luke 9:34-35)
Not all silence is spiritual. Some Christians are silent because they have nothing to say; others are silent because what they have to say cannot be uttered by mortal tongues. We will confine our remarks to the latter.
Where the Holy Spirit is permitted to exercise His full sway in a redeemed heart, the progression is likely to be as follows: First, voluble praise, in speech or prayer or witness. Then, when the crescendo rises beyond the ability of studied speech to express, comes song. When song breaks down under the weight of glory, then comes silence where the soul, held in deep fascination, feels itself blessed with an unutterable beatitude.
At the risk of being written off as an extremist or a borderline fanatic, we offer it as our mature opinion that more spiritual progress can be made in one short moment of speechless silence in the awesome Presence of God than in years of mere study. The exposure may be brief, but the results are permanent.
Very few of us know the secret of bathing our souls in silence. It was a secret our Lord Jesus Christ knew very well. We never really come to know ourselves because we cannot keep quiet long enough.
~A. W. Tozer~
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The Christ Question
"What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?" (Matthew 27:22)
"Where is Jesus now?" asks the world, and the Christian answers, "At the right hand of God." He died but He is not dead. He rose again as He said He would. Better than all, His Spirit now reveals to the Christian heart not a dead Christ but a living one. This we are sent to declare with all the bold dogmatism of those who know, who have been there and experienced it beyond the possibility of a doubt.
The gospel is the official proclamation that Christ died for us and is risen again, with the added announcement that everyone who will believe, and as a result of that belief will cast in his lot with Christ in full and final committal, shall be saved eternally.
He will not be popular and he will be called to stand where Jesus stood before the world: to be admired by many, loved by a few and rejected at last by the majority of men. He must be willing to pay this price; or let him go his way; Christ has nothing more to say to him now.
The question for every man is the Christ question. The turning point of every life is its direct relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ.
~A. W. Tozer~
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