Removing the Veil of Self

This past few weeks has been a whirlwind of emotion as I am having conversations with families and church staff about ministry growth, preparing for a wedding, planning youth events, and seeking to follow God better in my own life. I have read or am in the process of reading about seven different books, all with a different focus, but this past week God seemed to bring everything together.

From the conversations last weekend with the parents and all the wisdom that is being poured into our hearts and our leadership, most of us have come to the same conclusion. Christ wants us to be disciples and as such to spread the good news to the world. This is no easy calling and it requires radical obedience to him. I wrote a few months ago about the cost of discipleship, but God has recently revealed to me the one thing that hinders us most from pursuing Him.

I was reading A.W. Tozer's classic, The Pursuit of God, with the associate pastor and was convicted by the truth Tozer shared. The third chapter of his book is called "removing the veil." He firmly believe that our experience with God must born of the spirit. He quote St. Augustine, "thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless, until they find rest in Thee." We were created in God's image for His purposes. We learn to be like him and to love Him only because he first loved us (1 John 4). We can't in all our efforts create a spiritual encounter with God. it must come from Him, but Tozer explains that many of us "are satisfied to rest in our judicial possessions and, for the most part, we bother ourselves very little about the absence of personal experience." He goes on to say later that this:

"The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the church is famishing for want of His presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us ."

Most of us fear to be in the presence of the Lord, because everything in us will have to be brought into the light (Ephesians 5:1-20).  We will have to surrender ourselves to His will. This is the hardest thing for us to do, to deny ourselves and follow him. The message that God put on my heart  was at the end of this chapter when Tozer says, "Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us. It can removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction."

Love of ourselves is a sin that we can hide from the world. On the outside we can appear humble and confident, but our thoughts and the reasons why you make the decisions we do or take the actions we take can be hidden from all except God. It will hinder us from seeing what God is doing in our lives and the lives of those around us. Christ tells us we must deny ourselves if we want to be disciples (Matthew 16:24-25) and we are all called to be disciples and to spread the good news to the world.

Ask God to reveal Himself to you not just through teaching and instruction but through a real encounter with his power and strength. Seek him with all you have. It won't be easy, but it is necessary for your life and those around you.

 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matthew 7:13-14)