Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897—1963) was an American pastor in the Christian and Missionary Alliance and an author who emphasized the need for a deeper knowledge of God and development of the “inner life.” For this reason. he has been described as an “evangelical mystic.” A.W. Tozer was extremely influential in evangelical Christianity in his generation and was often called a “twentieth-century prophet.”1
As a minister for 44 years Tozer, without any formal education, pastored several churches in the US and Canada. He was also a very successful author of over 40 Christian books, of which he wrote mostly about the need of a deeper relationship with God.
I love what his daughter said at his funeral: “I can’t feel sad. I know Dad’s happy. He’s lived for this all his life.”2 Perhaps one of the most quoted Christian authors of all time his quotes emphasized the need to draw close to God and to live a holy life. He appealed to not only a person’s mind but to his heart. Below are some of his more popular quotes that I pray may help you draw nearer to our Lord.3
“The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves. We’re still trying to give orders, and interfering with God’s work within us.”
“I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven.”
“O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, ‘Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.’ Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.”
“Jesus calls us to his rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort.”
“We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts.”
“An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.”
“If man had his way, the plan of redemption would be an endless and bloody conflict. In reality, salvation was bought not by Jesus’ fist, but by His nail-pierced hands; not by muscle but by love; not by vengeance but by forgiveness; not by force but by sacrifice. Jesus Christ our Lord surrendered in order that He might win; He destroyed His enemies by dying for them and conquered death by allowing death to conquer Him.”
“Justice is not something God has. Justice is something that God is.”
“The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence.”
“The fact of God is necessary for the fact of man. Think God away and man has no ground of existence.”
“Did you ever stop to think that God is going to be as pleased to have you with Him in Heaven as you are to be there?”
“God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination, and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, “0 Lord, Thou knowest.” Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God’s omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints.”
“Philosophy and science have not always been friendly toward the idea of God, the reason being they are dedicated to the task of accounting for things and are impatient with anything that refuses to give an account of itself. The philosopher and the scientist will admit that there is much that they do not know; but that is quite another thing from admitting there is something which they can never know, which indeed they have no technique for discovering.”
“Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.”
“We are saved to worship God. All that Christ has done in the past and all that He is doing now leads to this one end.”
“God never uses anyone greatly until He tests them deeply.”
“Trying to be happy without a sense of God’s presence is like trying to have a bright day without the sun.”
“The Bible is a supernatural book and can be understood only by supernatural aid.”
“If we cooperate with Him in loving obedience, God will manifest Himself to us, and that manifestation will be the difference between a nominal Christian life and a life radiant with the light of His face.”
“If we understand that everything happening to us is to make us more Christlike, it will solve a great deal of anxiety in our lives.”
“We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit.”
“True worship that is pleasing to God creates within the human heart a spirit of expectation and insatiable longing.”
“It is not intellectual knowledge about God that quenches man’s ancient heart-thirst, but the very Person and Presence of God Himself.”
“How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none.”
“If God gives you a few more years, remember, it is not yours. Your time must honor God, your home must honor God, your activity must honor God, and everything your do must honor God.”
“It is one thing to believe the Bible but something else altogether to allow the Bible, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, to impact and change your life.”
“One problem some have is to believe that if they read it in the Bible, they have already experienced it. It is one thing to read about the new birth in the Bible and quite another thing to be born from above by the Spirit of the living God.”
“The true Christian ideal is not to be happy but to be holy. The holy heart alone can be the habitation of the Holy Ghost.”
1 Who was A.W. Tozer? | GotQuestions.org
2 Who was A.W. Tozer? | GotQuestions.org
3 All of these quotes are from the following website:
A.W. Tozer Quotes (Author of The Pursuit of God) (goodreads.com)