God Does Not Play on Our Emotions

"Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way ...?" (Luke 24:32)

I do not know how familiar you are with the ways of God and the tender movings of His Spirit. But I will tell you this quite frankly: God does not play on our emotions to bring us to the point of spiritual decision.

God's Word, which is God's truth, and God's Spirit unite to arouse our highest emotions. Because He is God and worthy of our praise, we will find the ability to praise Him and to glorify Him. Some religious and evangelistic techniques are directed almost entirely to the emotions of those who are listening to the appeal. They are psychology, not Spirit-directed conviction.

I have to disagree with religious appeal that supposes if someone in the audience can be moved to shed a tear, a saint has been made. There is no connection whatsoever between the human manipulation of our emotions, on the one hand, and, on the other, the confirmation of God's revealed truth in our beings through the ministry of His Holy Spirit. When in our Christian experience our emotions are raised, it must be the result of what God's truth is doing for us.

Whatever else it embraces, true Christian experience must always include a genuine encounter with God.

~A. W. Tozer~

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An Attitude Called Omnipotence

"If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23)

God knows everything that can be known. He is perfect in wisdom God never has to excuse Himself. His ability to deliver on His promises is tied directly to His omnipotence. If God was not omnipotent, He would be unable to keep His promises. He could not give any of us assurance of salvation.

This attribute of God we call omnipotence does not really mean that God can do anything. It means that He is the only Being who can do anything He wills to do.

Because holiness is God's being, He cannot lie. Because He is God, He cannot violate the holy nature of His being. God does not will to lie. He does not will to cheat. He does not will to deceive. He does not will to be false to His own dear people.

Confidently knowing that the Lord God omnipotent reigns, and knowing that He is able to do all that He wills to do, I have no more doubts. I am safely held in the arms of the all-powerful God.

There is an innate conviction, strong as the everlasting foundations, that, if there is a God above us, all is well!

~A. W. Tozer~