Tozer Quotes & Sayings

If you never mention the Lord in conversation with each other,isn't that proof that you aren't so concerned about Him? — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? (Gal. 3:3). — A.W. Tozer

A superior brain without the saving essence of godliness may turn against the human race and drench the world in blood, or worse, it may loose ideas into the earth which will continue to curse mankind for centuries after it has turned to dust again. — A.W. Tozer

Breaking this truth into fragments for our better understanding, it would seem that there is within each of us an enemy which we tolerate at our peril. Jesus called it "life" and "self," or as we would say, the self-life. Its chief characteristic is its possessiveness: the words "gain" and "profit" suggest this. To allow this enemy to live is in the end to lose everything. To repudiate it and give up all for Christ's sake is to lose nothing at last, but to preserve everything unto life eternal. And possibly also a hint is given here as to the only effective way to destroy this foe: it is by the Cross. "Let him take up his cross and follow me. — A.W. Tozer

There is a restlessness within us that cannot be satisfied until we rest fully in God. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

To know God is not a matter of education, but of illumination. The stairwell to illumination is utter fascination in the presence of God. Push out all other activities and come in silent wonder and admiration in the presence of God. Then God will open up His heart and illuminate Himself to you. — A.W. Tozer

The grace of God is infinite and beyond our ability to measure. His grace has no beginning and therefore no end. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Christ about Whom all — A.W. Tozer

Religious externals may have meaning for the God-inhabited soul; for any others they are not only useless but may actually become snares, deceiving them into a false and perilous sense of security. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

It is either all of Christ or none of Christ! I believe we need to preach again a whole Christ to the world - a Christ who does not need our apologies, a Christ who will not be divided, a Christ who will either be Lord of all or will not be Lord at all! — Aiden Wilson Tozer

The fact of God is necessary for the fact of man. Think God away and man has no ground of existence. — A.W. Tozer

We have almost forgotten that God is a Person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored. — A.W. Tozer

that is the only explanation that satisfies the heart of a thinking man, whatever his wild reason may say. Should faulty education and perverse reasoning lead a man to conclude otherwise, there is little that any Christian can do for him. For such a man I have no message. — A.W. Tozer

The best way to prove that a stick is crooked is to set a straight one beside it. No words need to be spoken. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

The man who remains in his sin will be damned just as surely as the sun comes up in the east and goes down in the west. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Religion has accepted the monstrous heresy that noise, size, activity and bluster make a man dear to God. — A.W. Tozer

God is not going to entertain me, and God is not going to be entertained by me. This fact rules out a lot that passes for worship today. — A.W. Tozer

There is a better way. It is to repudiate our own wisdom and take instead the infinite wisdom of God. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Outside of the will of god, there is nothing I want. And in the will of god there is nothing I fear. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

What a broad world to roam in, what a sea to swim in is this God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. — A.W. Tozer

If we make provision for sinning tomorrow, we will be sinning tomorrow. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Let us start reading our Bibles with the thought that God means exactly what He says. — A.W. Tozer

May God grant us a desire for God that supersedes all other desires. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Man appears for a little while to laugh and weep, to work and play, and then to go to make room for those who shall follow him in the never-ending cycle. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. "No man can come to me," said our Lord, "except the Father which hath sent me draw him," and it is by this very prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for the act of coming. — A.W. Tozer

Just now we happen to be living in a secular age. Our thought habits are those of the scientist, not those of the worshipper. We are more likely to explain than to adore. "It thundered," we exclaim, and go our earthly way. — A.W. Tozer

It is one thing to read about being filled with the Holy Spirit and quite another thing to experience the mighty infilling of the Holy Spirit that radically changes our life to a life of adoring wonder and amazement at the things of God. Reading and experiencing are two quite different things. — A.W. Tozer

If JESUS cannot control you, HE cannot save you. And if HE cannot control ALL of you HE cannot control any of you. — A.W. Tozer

With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack? Surely we are the most favored of all creatures. — A.W. Tozer

There is within the human heart a tough fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets 'things' with a deep and fierce passion. The pronouns 'my' and 'mine' look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant. They express the real nature of the old Adamic man better than a thousand volumes of theology could do. They are verbal symptoms of our deep disease. The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God's gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution. — A.W. Tozer

Leadership requires vision, and whence will vision come except from hours spent in the presence of God in humble and fervent prayer? — Aiden Wilson Tozer

There is more healing joy in five minutes of true worship than in five nights of revelry. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

The trouble is that the whole 'accept Christ' attitude is likely to be wrong. It shows Christ applying to us rather than us to him. It makes him stand hat-in-hand awaiting our verdict on him, instead of our kneeling with troubled hearts awaiting his verdict on us. It may even permit us to accept Christ by an impulse of mind or emotions, painlessly, at no loss to our ego and no inconvenience to our usual way of life. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

In the conduct of our public worship where is the authority of Christ to be found? The truth is that today the Lord rarely controls a service, and the influence He exerts is very small. We sing of Him and preach about Him, but He must not interfere; we worship our way, and it must be right because we have always done it that way, as have the other churches in our group. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

If I empty out half of my life, God can only fill half ... God will fill as much of us as we allow Him to fill. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

The Christian is strong or weak depending upon how closely he has cultivated the knowledge of God. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Wherever the Word comes without power its essential content is missed. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Walking in humility isn't focusing on what we are NOT; rather, it's declaring what God is. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

If we try to obey without faith, we get nowhere. If we try to have faith without obedience, it ends in nothing. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

We imitate each other with slavish devotion and our most strenuous efforts are put forth to try to say the same thing that everyone around us is saying - and yet to find an excuse for saying it, some little safe variation on the approved theme or, if no more, at least a new illustration. — A.W. Tozer

Faith enables our spiritual sense to function. Where faith is defective, the result will be inward insensibility and numbness toward spiritual things. This is the condition of vast numbers of Christians today. — A.W. Tozer

I don't want the world to define God for me. I want the Holy Spirit to reveal God to me. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

The victorious Christian neither exalts nor downgrades himself. His interests have shifted from self to Christ. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Faith, as Paul saw it, was a living, flaming thing leading to surrender and obedience to the commandments of Christ. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

What good is all our busy religion if God isn't in it? What good is it if we've lost majesty, reverence, worship-an awareness of the divine? What good is it if we've lost a sense of the Presence and the ability to retreat within our own hearts and meet God in the garden? — Aiden Wilson Tozer

God does not love us because we are hard or easy to love, He loves us because He is God. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

That is the heavenly birth without which we cannot see the Kingdom of God. It is, however, not an end but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit, the heart's happy exploration of the infinite riches of the Godhead. That is where we begin, I say, but where we stop no man has yet discovered, for there is in the awful and mysterious depths of the Triune God neither limit nor end. — A.W. Tozer

Looking back over my own life I here declare without apology that it is the study of God's Word, year after year, close communion with Christ, and great books that have nourished my soul in wondrous ways. Such authors as Fenelon, Henry Drummond, F. B. Meyer, G. Campbell Morgan, Martyn Lloyd Jones, A. W. Tozer, Hannah Whitehall Smith Oswald Chambers, Andrew Murray and John Stott have each, with their own special insights, enriched my life beyond measure. — W. Phillip Keller

When we make a choice today, we are deciding who we will be tomorrow. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

But when, through the open door of the cross and the name and power of Jesus Christ, I commend myself to the Father's heart, then God cancels all my past, accepts all my present, swears His holy name for my future and the love of God take me over. Then fear goes out of my heart, because love has come in. — A.W. Tozer

In this hour of all-but-universal darkness one cheering gleam appears: within the fold of conservative Christianity there are to be found increasing numbers of persons whose religious lives are marked by a growing hunger after God Himself. They are eager for spiritual realities and will not be put off with words, nor will they be content with correct "interpretations" of truth. They are athirst for God, and they will not be satisfied till they have drunk deep at the Fountain of Living Water. — A.W. Tozer

Love casts out fear, for when we know we are loved, we are not afraid. Whoever has God's perfect love, fear is gone out of the universe for him. — A.W. Tozer

Every local church is only as good as the individual members are, not one bit better. If — A.W. Tozer

As we come to the Bible, we can come with the holy anticipation of actually meeting with God. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Faith must precede all effort to understand. Reflection upon revealed truth naturally follows the advent of faith, but faith comes first to the hearing ear, not to the cogitating mind. — A.W. Tozer

We fear extremes and shy away from too much ardor in religion as if it were possible to have too much love or too much faith or too much holiness. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

We wonder why we don't have faith; the answer is, faith is confidence in the character of God and if we don't know what kind of God God is, we can't have faith. — A.W. Tozer

If you want to be holy then you must give time to God and not just intend to. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

The heart that knows God can find God anywhere. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

What a blessed truth to understand that, in the middle of all of our difficulties and calamities, we have a refuge. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Don't allow false modesty,doubts or unbelief prevent you from accepting God's favor. The door of mercy stands wide open. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

You." So they said, "You'll kill our poor women. You'll kill our children." This is — A.W. Tozer

God wills that we should push on into His Presence and live our whole life there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience. It is more than a doctrine to be held, it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day. — A.W. Tozer

There are two classes of Christians: the proud who imagine they are humble and the humble who are afraid they are proud. There should be another class: the self-forgetful who leave the whole thing in the hands of Christ and refuse to waste any time trying to make themselves good. They will reach the goal far ahead of the rest. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves-blessed riddance. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Refuse to be average. Let your heart soar as high as it will. — A.W. Tozer

Perception of ideas rather than the storing of them should be the aim of education. — A.W. Tozer

Whom God would use greatly He will hurt deeply. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Faith is not a once-done act, but a continuous gaze of the heart at the Triune God. — A.W. Tozer

God is never impressed with what a man can do. He is more concerned with what a man is. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

God answers our prayers not because we are good, but because He is good. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

It is God who works in and through us, if only we would let God do His work. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Spiritual Christians look upon the world not as a playground but as a battleground. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

I want to be in a place where I have to have God in everything I do ... where God is indispensable to me. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Real faith never disappoints because it is in God, grounded on His character, promises, covenant and oath. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Operation Find A Toilet Before It Was Too Late was in full swing. — Gabrielle Tozer

To truly know God we must long for Him without any other motive than reaching God Himself. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

Worship," Tozer explained, "is to feel in your heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of that most ancient Mystery, that majesty which philosophers call the First Cause but which we call Our Father Which Art in Heaven. — A.W. Tozer

There cannot be two absolutely free beings in the universe, for sooner or later two completely free wills must collide. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

And so, God, in no hurry whatsoever, painstakingly chips away, removing everything that is not part of the image of Christ. He takes the initiative to interrupt our lives for the higher cost of developing us into spiritually mature believers. — A.W. Tozer

How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. — A.W. Tozer

The Bible will never be a living Book to us until we are convinced that God is articulate in His universe. To jump from a dead, impersonal world to a dogmatic Bible is too much for most people. They may admit that they should accept the Bible as the Word of God, and they may try to think of it as such, but they find it impossible to believe that the words there on the page are actually for them. A man may say, "These words are addressed to me," and yet in his heart not feel and know that they are. He is the victim of a divided psychology. He tries to think of God as mute everywhere else and vocal only in a book. I — A.W. Tozer

The God of the modern evangelical rarely astonishes anybody. He manages to stay pretty much with the constitution. Never break our by-laws. He's a very well-behaved God and very denominational and very much like one of us ... we ask Him to help us when we're in trouble and look to Him to watch over us when we're asleep. The God of the modern evangelical isn't a God I could have much respect for. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

The only power God recognizes in His church is the power of His Spirit whereas the only power actually recognized today by the majority of evangelicals is the power of man. — A.W. Tozer

In our desire after God let us keep always in mind that God also hath desire, and His desire is toward the sons of men, and more particularly toward those sons of men who will make the once-for-all decision to exalt Him over all. — A.W. Tozer

God being Who and What He is, and we being who and what we are, the only thinkable relation between us is one of full lordship on His part and complete submission on ours. — A.W. Tozer

So let men turn their telescopes on the heavens and their microscopes on the molecules. Let them probe and search and tabulate and name and find and discover. I can dare to say to them, "I know the One who made all this. I'm personally acquainted with the One who made it. — A.W. Tozer

Satan hates God for His own sake, and everything that is dear to God he hates for the very reason that God loves it. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

I'm not afraid of the devil. The devil can handle me - he's got judo I never heard of. But he can't handle the One to whom I'm joined; he can't handle the One to whom I'm united; he can't handle the One whose nature dwells in my nature. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

As mercy is God's goodness confronting human misery and guilt, so grace is his goodness directed toward human debt and demerit. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

God is never satisfied with anything less than all. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

I recommend to you Jesus Christ, the unchanging One. I recommend to you God's answer to your questions, God's solution to your problems, God's life for your dying soul, God's cleansing for your sin-cursed spirit, God's rest for your restless mind, and God's resurrection for your dying body. For advocate above, I recommend Him to you. You will find Him to be all He ever was
the very same Jesus. — A.W. Tozer

The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

To put it differently, we have accepted one another's notions, copied one another's lives and made one another's experiences the model for our own. And for a generation the trend has been downward. Now we have reached a low place of sand and burnt wire grass and, worst of all, we have made the Word of Truth conform to our experience and accepted this low plane as the very pasture of the blessed. — A.W. Tozer

I have no doubt that historians will conclude that we of the twentieth century had intelligence enough to create a great civilization but not the moral wisdom to preserve it. — Aiden Wilson Tozer

This is the tragedy and woe of the hour
that we neglect the most important One who could possibly be in our midst
the Holy Spirit of God. Then, in order to make up for His absence, we have to do something to keep up our own spirits. — A.W. Tozer

Teach us, O God, that nothing is necessary to Thee. Were anything necessary to Thee that thing would be the measure of Thine imperfection: and how could we worship one who is imperfect? If nothing is necessary to Thee, then no one is necessary, and if no one, then not we. Thou dost seek us though Thou does not need us. We seek Thee because we need Thee, for in Thee we live and move and have our being. Amen. — A.W. Tozer

Love wills the good of all and never wills harm or evil to any — Aiden Wilson Tozer

We should discipline ourselves to read the Word until it comes alive ... until we can almost feel the breath of God. — Aiden Wilson Tozer