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The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing, part 7 of 7: The testing place · The Pursuit of God Daily

• 0:00
  Host: Good morning. This is The Pursuit of God Daily for Sunday, October twenty-fifth. Today we come to the close of chapter two of The Pursuit of God, The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing, where Tozer brings us to the testing place and ends with a prayer of his own.
• 0:16
  Reader: Joshua chapter twenty-four, verses fourteen and fifteen. Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
• 0:50
  Reader: From A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, chapter two, The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing. Let us never forget that such a truth as this cannot be learned by rote as one would learn the facts of physical science. They must be experienced before we can really know them. We must in our hearts live through Abraham’s harsh and bitter experiences if we would know the blessedness which follows them. The ancient curse will not go out painlessly; the tough old miser within us will not lie down and die obedient to our command. He must be torn out of our heart like a plant from the soil; he must be extracted in agony and blood like a tooth from the jaw.
• 1:32
  Reader: He must be expelled from our soul by violence as Christ expelled the money changers from the temple. And we shall need to steel ourselves against his piteous begging, and to recognize it as springing out of self-pity, one of the most reprehensible sins of the human heart.
• 1:50
  Reader: If we would indeed know God in growing intimacy we must go this way of renunciation. And if we are set upon the pursuit of God He will sooner or later bring us to this test. Abraham’s testing was, at the time, not known to him as such, yet if he had taken some course other than the one he did, the whole history of the Old Testament would have been different. God would have found His man, no doubt, but the loss to Abraham would have been tragic beyond the telling. So we will be brought one by one to the testing place, and we may never know when we are there.
• 2:27
  Reader: At that testing place there will be no dozen possible choices for us; just one and an alternative, but our whole future will be conditioned by the choice we make.
• 2:38
  Reader: Father, I want to know Thee, but my coward heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without a rival. Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
• 3:18
  Host: Tozer is saying two things here that belong together. First, this truth cannot be learned by rote. It has to be lived through. And second, God Himself will bring us to the place where it is lived, often without our knowing that we have arrived. Notice how plain the choice is at that place. Tozer says there will be no dozen possible choices, just one and an alternative. That is exactly how Joshua put it to Israel. He did not offer them a menu. He said, choose you this day whom ye will serve. And before the choosing, he told them what it would require: put away the gods which your fathers served. Israel could not serve the Lord and keep the household gods on the shelf. Neither can we. The test is rarely dramatic. It is usually one small thing we have held a long time, and a quiet invitation to open our hand. Tozer does not pretend this is painless. He speaks of the old miser being expelled as Christ expelled the money changers from the temple. In John chapter two, the disciples watched Jesus overturn the tables, and they remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. That is worth holding on to. When God clears out what has crowded Him in our hearts, it is not cruelty. It is the zeal of the Son for His Father's house, and by grace, we are that house. Peter says the same about the pain of testing. The trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. The fire is real, but so is what it is for. And Tozer's prayer ends where Scripture ends, in the city that had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. What is cleared out is not left empty. It is filled with Christ. So today, on the Lord's Day, watch for one moment of reluctance, one thing you would rather not hand over. Do not argue with it or pity yourself over it. Treat it as the testing place, name it to God, and give Him your yes.
• 5:19
  Host: Lord Jesus, You have already prayed with us through Tozer's words. Give us grace to mean them. When the testing place comes today, help us choose You, and fill whatever we surrender with Your own light. Amen.
• 5:31
  Host: As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Go with God.