The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

Week 6: Chapter V — The Universal Presence

Read Chapter V of The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer. Primary Scripture: Psalm 139:7-12; Acts 17:27-28; 1 Kings 8:27.

God is already here — not distant, not departing, not needing to be summoned. This chapter asks why, if that is true, so few people experience it.

Discussion Questions

8 questions

1.Tozer carefully separates the doctrine of divine immanence from pantheism. What is pantheism, and why does he reject it? What is the crucial difference between saying "God is in everything" and saying "God dwells in His creation while remaining distinct from it and transcendent above it"?

2.He states plainly: "God is here. Wherever we are, God is here. There is no place, there can be no place, where He is not." Then he quotes Jacob's astonished cry: "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not." Why is not knowing God is present a recurring human tragedy? What keeps us from awareness of what is always true?

3.Tozer makes a distinction that is crucial to the chapter: the *Presence* of God and the *manifestation* of the Presence are not the same thing. God can be present while we are entirely unaware of Him. What, on our part, is required for His Presence to become manifest?

a.He says it requires "surrender to the Spirit of God" and "loving obedience." What does surrendered, obedient attention to God look like in an ordinary day?

b.What is the difference between a "nominal Christian life" and one that is "radiant with the light of His face"?

4.Tozer looks across the gallery of great saints — Moses, Isaiah, Elijah, David, John, Paul, St. Francis, Luther, Finney, Thomas à Kempis — and notes how different they all were. Yet he argues they shared one quality: *spiritual receptivity*. What does receptivity mean, and how is it cultivated or destroyed?

5.He levels a sharp critique at a "generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines" who are "impatient of slower and less direct methods." He sees this impatience as a spiritual disease. Where do you see this tendency in yourself or in Christian culture today? What would a slower, more receptive approach to God actually look like?

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Closing Prayer

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O God and Father, we repent of our sinful preoccupation with visible things. The world has been too much with us. You have been here and we knew it not. We have been blind to Your Presence, numbed by noise and busyness and the constant clamor of things seen. Open our eyes. Cultivate in us the habit of receptivity — of turning toward You in a thousand small moments throughout the day. For Christ's sake, Amen.

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