As the summer season, June 21st, approaches, it is already summer here in San Carlos, I have felt the need to wait more on the Lord in the shadow of His wing, and my air conditioned room. There has also been a hunger in my soul that has never been satisfied since leaving the United States. Although I know that I have the fullness of Christ in me, there is always more that He would desires to reveal all of us, and so I yield this time and my love to receive more of His love and Presence. However, there has also been an increasing effort from the enemy to keep this from happening. But I intend to finish this great race and journey regardless of what satan does or the desires of my flesh that seek comfort from the heat or from some other sorce of temporary pleasure. The Bible instructs us to run life’s race “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). And that is what I intend to do.
This
past week my landlord came down for a few days and we had some time
to talk and help each other. While he was here he took me out for
breakfast a few times, which I enjoyed. He also loan me a book that
was very special to him. It was “The Pursuit of God’ by A.W.
Tozer. I started reading it, because it seemed to fit into the
framework of where my heart was going. It was a small book and I
really enjoyed reading it, and I would recommend reading it, if you
have not already read it. I really didn’t learn anything new, but
it was more of a conformation and encouragement to me. I also loved
seeing the man's passion for God that is so desperately needed in the
Church today. I would like to finish is article by quoting from
Hebrews 12:1-2 and a portion from Tozer's book.
“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the thrown of God.”
“From
this [passage] we learn that faith is not a once-done act, but a
continuous gaze of the heart at the Triune God.
Believing,
then is directing the heart’s attention to Jesus. It’s lifting
the mind to “Behold the Lamb of God” (John1:29), and never
ceasing that beholding for the rest of our lives. At first this may
be difficult, but it becomes easier and without strain. Distractions
may hinder, but once our heart is committed to Him, after each brief
excursion away from Him, the attention will return again and rest
upon Him like a bird coming back to its window.
I
would emphasize this one committal, this one great volitional act
which establishes the heart‘s intention to gaze forever upon Jesus.
God takes this intention for our choice and makes what allowances He
must for the thousand distractions which beset us in this evil world.
He knows that we have set the direction of our heart toward Jesus,
and we can know it too, and comfort ourselves with the knowledge that
a habit of soul is forming which will become, after a while, a sort
of spiritual reflect requiring no more conscious effort on our part.”
“The
man who struggles to purify himself and has nothing but repeated
failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his
soul and looks away to the perfected One. While he looks at Christ,
the very thing he has so long been trying to do will be getting done
within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do.
Faith
is not in itself a meritorious act; the merit is in the One toward
Whom it is directed. Faith is a redirecting of our sight, a getting
out of the focus of our own vision and getting into God’s focus.
Sin has twisted our vision inward and made it self-regarding.
Unbelief has put self where God should be.
All
this may seem too simple. But we have no apology to make. To those
who would seek to climb into heaven after help or descend into hell,
God says, “The word is nigh thee, even …the word of faith”
(Romans 10:8). The Word induces us to lift up our eyes unto the Lord
and the blessed work of faith begins.
When
we lift our inward eyes to gaze upon God we are sure to meet friendly
eyes gazing back on us, for it is written that the eyes of the Lord
run to and fro through all the earth. The sweet language of the
experience is “Thou seest me” (Genesis 16:13). When the eyes of
the soul looking out to meet the eyes of the God looking in, heaven
has begun right here on this earth.”--A.W Tozer
