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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Crucified Life A.W. Tozer

A.W. Tozer in the book “The Crucified Life” gives four well-defined spiritual rules on how to have a personal revival in your life.  I found these points interesting so I sharing them below.

1)     Set Your Face Like Flint Is. 50:7
First, if you are going to have a personal revival, you must “set (your) face like a flint”.  A plow that is going to be used on sod must have a sharp point.  Likewise, if you want a personal revival, you have to have a hard-nose because of all of the schemes and tricks of the world.  You must set your face like flint and say, “I go by the grace of God.  I want all that the New Testament has for me.”

2)     Set Your Heart on Jesus
Second you must set your heart on Jesus Christ.  Wherever He takes you, go with Him.  Whatever He takes you away from, listen to Him and follow what He says.  Whomever you must ignore, move away from.  If you want to be all that God wants you to be, set your face like flint and go straight to Jesus.  The man in Mark 10:47 received his sight because he paid no attention to the discouraging timekeepers and referees who attempted to keep him away from Jesus.  If you decide to seek a deeper relationship with God and meet Him on your own and have a refreshing from God to get rid of all the barnacles and the weights and hindrances and get back a new spirit with you, you will find that some people will say, “Well, you’re just excited. 

3)     Set Yourself Up for Examination
The third thing you must do in order to experience personal revival is expose your life to God’s examination.  The trouble is that we keep ourselves and cover our hearts.  Scripture say, “He that covers his sins shall not prosper; but who confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy” Proverb 28:13.  Out of habit, we cover ourselves and try to hide our sins.  If you want revival, you must allow the Scriptures to be the Scriptures in your life.
Expose your whole life to Jesus Christ.  Expose yourself in prayer.  Expose yourself in Scriptures.  Expose your heart in obedience.  Expose it by confession and by restitution.  “Restitution” is a forgotten word today that nobody uses anymore.  But it is in the Bible.  “Restitution” means to get straightened out with people.  When you make restitution, you will be amazed at how wonderful you will feel.

4)     Set for Yourself Holy Affirmations
a)     Declare before God never to own anything. I do not mean for you to get rid of anything that you use.  I mean you should get rid of that bunch of trash you have in your life.  We are a bunch of pack rats, collecting things we don’t need or use.  Keep in mind that if you feel you own something, it is actually dragging you down.  Cut loose from the ownership of that item, and then God will let you have it. God must have 100%. If there is anything you own that God cannot have, you never will have revival.  If there is anything that you own that God cannot have, you cannot have God.  God has a right to command whatever He wants the moment He wants it.  The moment God knows that He can have whatever you have anytime He wants it, then the Lord will probably let you keep it and it will be a blessing for you instead of a curse. 
b)    Never defend myself.  If you try to fight people, you will only get bloody and bruised, and you’ll feel miserable.  You will stay an immature Christian and never have a revival.  But if you let God do your fighting for you, you will come out all right.
c)    Never defame a fellow Christian.  I mean never believe evil about him or speak an evil report about him.  Remember your past and you own tendency to give in to temptation.  As a pastor and a member of an executive committee, I am forced under God that if I hear charges against a man’s life, I am obligated to protect the Church of God from that man.  But this does not mean that I will defame that man or another man by believing gossip or by spreading it.
d)    Never receive or accept any glory.  Oh, how we love glory.  We just want to take a little of it for ourselves.  We sing songs attributing glory to God and giving Him all the glory, but sometimes we do not really mean it.  We want God to get some of the glory, but we would like to reserve just a little bit for ourselves.  After all, we believe we have earned it.












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