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Baker Publishing Group - A.W. Tozer

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76 pages

English

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How can I know God's will for me, personally? It's a question that haunts us all at times--maybe when we're looking for the right job, thinking about moving to a new city, or deciding whether or not to get married. At every stage we have difficult decisions to make, and we long for God's direction and his warm reassurance that we're heading the right way. A Cloud by Day, a Fire by Night captures Tozer's teaching on the will of God taken from sermons he preached just before he left his successful church in Chicago. Tozer was no stranger to facing difficult decisions, and his wisdom and biblical insight will help guide you in decisions of your own. The title comes from the story of God leading his people out of Egypt into the promised land. In the same way, let this book help reveal where he is leading and reassure you that he will be by your side every step of the way.

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Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	05 mars 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781493417155
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0432€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Cover
Half Title Page
Books by A.W. Tozer
COMPILED AND EDITED BY J AMES L. S NYDER
Alive in the Spirit
And He Dwelt Among Us
A Cloud by Day, a Fire by Night
The Crucified Life
The Dangers of a Shallow Faith
Delighting in God
A Disruptive Faith
The Essential Tozer Collection 3-in-1
Experiencing the Presence of God
God’s Power for Your Life
Living as a Christian
My Daily Pursuit
Preparing for Jesus’ Return
The Purpose of Man
The Pursuit of God
The Quotable Tozer
Reclaiming Christianity
Voice of a Prophet
The Wisdom of God
B OOKS BY J AMES L. S NYDER
The Life of A.W. Tozer: In Pursuit of God—The Authorized Biography
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2019 by James L. Snyder
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Ebook edition created 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-1715-5
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Cover design by Rob Williams, InsideOutCreativeArts
James L. Snyder is represented by The Steve Laube Agency.
Contents
Cover 1
Half Title Page 2
Books by A.W. Tozer 2
Title Page 3
Copyright Page 4
Epigraph 7
Introduction 9
1. Seeking Direction 13
2. The Unmistakable Voice of God 19
3. The Focus on Our Final Destination 25
4. Trusting the Holy Spirit to Lead Us 31
5. Unbelief vs. Belief 39
6. God’s Promise Is Contingent on Our Obedience 45
7. Coming against Our Enemy 51
8. A Prepared Place for a Prepared People 57
9. Delighting in Our Spiritual Inheritance 63
10. Making Our Enemies Work for Us 69
11. Those Enemies Whose Riches We May Possess 75
12. Out of the Wilderness 81
13. Finding God’s Will Means Serving and Trusting 87
14. With His Direction Comes His Provision 95
15. Blessings and Battles 101
16. Our Assurance Is in the Forward Position 109
17. God’s Faithfulness to His Word 117
18. Canaan Was a Gift from God 123
19. The Curse of Delayed Blessings 129
20. Appreciating the Crisis Experience 135
21. Getting Established in the Land of Promise 143
22. When Discouragement Strikes, Be Encouraged 151
23. Piercing the Clouds of Concealment 159
Notes 167
About the Authors 169
Back Ads 171
Back Cover 173
Epigraph

And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.
Exodus 13:21–22
Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
Exodus 23:20
Introduction
A very important theme in Dr. A.W. Tozer’s ministry was the subject of God’s will for each of our lives. He wrestled with it from the time he was a new Christian until the day he passed into eternity.
This book, drawn from a sermon series Dr. Tozer delivered just before leaving his successful church in Chicago, is not a manual on how to find God’s will for your life in five easy steps. Tozer abhorred that sort of thing. There’s no such thing as “easy steps” in discovering God’s will for your life.
When Tozer preached these sermons, the people of Southside Alliance didn’t know his plans, but certain developments were leading Tozer to end his thirty years at Southside and accept a call to pastor a church in Toronto. I’m sure he wrestled with the decision for a long time.
The series, titled “An Angel before Thee,” also holds significance because Tozer shared a number of personal stories, including how God led him from Indianapolis, where he was a successful pastor, to Southside Alliance, which was rather new at the time.
Central to Tozer’s teaching is what he liked to call the deeper life. This is a life that is spiritually deeper than the average Christian’s. He bemoans the downgrading of Christianity. The Christianity he was committed to is a progressive upgrading of our walk with Jesus Christ.
Tozer believed that living the Christian life is more than being saved by God and then waiting to go to heaven. Several times he would tell his Chicago congregation something like, “If everyone today were physically what they were spiritually, many of you would be wearing diapers and sucking your thumbs.” It always got a laugh, but he had a point.
Throughout this book he discusses the battles Christians face almost every day. He frames these battles as taking place in Canaan, as he calls it—the land of promise where we are living today. There are some who dismiss the idea that a Christian will face battles or need spiritual warfare. Yet the reality is we all experience battles according to the level of our progress in Canaan. In chapter 15, Tozer shows the connection between battles and blessings. He points out that you can’t have a blessing until you have experienced a battle. But the purpose of the battle is to get us to the blessing. Tozer explores another seeming dichotomy in chapter 22, where he talks about the benefits that can come from discouragement. Only Tozer could look at something so negative and find positives from a spiritual point of view.
Anybody who has ever listened to one of Dr. Tozer’s sermons knows of his great love for hymns. Each chapter begins with a prayer by Tozer and concludes with a verse or two from a hymn that reflects that chapter’s topic.
The primary thing I believe Tozer would want the reader to get out of this book is simply this: Never give up; never quit.
So much in life can bring us to that point of discouragement where all we want to do is quit, especially when God’s will for us is unclear. For Tozer, quitting was not an option. You will read how, as a young man, Tozer felt God’s leading to become a pastor. He lacked the typical qualifications an ordination committee would require, but he was determined and had faith that it was God’s will. He learned years later that many of the committee members did indeed question his qualifications, but they also saw his heart for ministry and made ordination possible. I love that story.
This book is about more than finding God’s will for your next step or decision in life—it is about following His will to the end. With only our human resources, following God would be impossible. But when we cross that line into the deeper life, we enter into the grace of God that enables us to do His will.
1 Seeking Direction

Heavenly Father, I come before Thee yearning to know and desiring to trust Thee. May my heart be open to whatever Thou hast for me so I can be where Thou wants me to be. May I yield to Thine Angel before me and come to the place Thou desirest for me. Keep me under the cloud by day and the fire by night. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Thirty-two years ago, at a crucial and painful hour in my life, God began speaking to me about His will for me. I had been the pastor of the Christian and Missionary Alliance church in Indianapolis for several years, and God was blessing and using me in wonderful ways. The church was growing and making an impact on the community, and I had no desire whatsoever to leave Indianapolis.
Then I began getting letters from the Christian and Missionary Alliance church in Chicago inviting me to candidate to be their next pastor. I had no interest in moving and threw the letters away. Yet God began speaking to me about Chicago, though I wasn’t sure why. Finally, I decided I would go to preach there on a Sunday, but pastoring the church was out of the question. Like Calvin Coolidge once famously pronounced, I informed the good people there after preaching, “I do not choose to run.”
But driving back to Indianapolis I found myself in an agony of heart-searching prayer. God was speaking to my heart, and I did not know what I was to do. I truly was in a spiritual dilemma.
When God speaks to us, He does so in a way that opens up to us His plan for our lives. I thought God’s plan for me was to stay in Indianapolis. Everything was going great. The church was growing, and our influence was felt throughout the city.
That morning in Chicago I preached on Exodus 23:20: “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.” I understood the primary historical meaning of the passage. Certainly I could preach a sermon on the passage and then walk away.
God, however, would not allow it.
I saw and felt the Scripture’s direct meaning for me. God was speaking to me, a spiritual son of Abraham, from His covenant with Abraham. The spiritual laws were in effect and God was reaching out to me in this. It was applicable to me as an individual, but also to the church in their earthly pilgrimage.
I firmly believe that God is speaking today to the church at large and giving us commands based on His covenant with Abraham. God is directing His people in the way He wants them to go. Often it is not the way we want to go, but as we yield ourselves to God, He opens doors and leads us forward. And so the church’s responsibility is to hear that voice and then obey that voice.
After more heart-searching prayer, I finally decided to accept the pastorate in Chicago. It was a big change for me. The church was relatively new, with little heritage to speak of. I came in as a country boy and began my ministry in the big city.
I am here to testify that when God spoke to me about Chicago and I responded in the affirmative, He fulfilled His covenant with me in spite of my p