A.W. Tozer - The Knowledge of the Holy

“A true and safe leader is likely to be one who has no desire to lead, but is forced into a position of leadership by the inward pressure of the Holy Spirit and the press of the external situation. Such were Moses and David and the Old Testament prophets. I think there was hardly a great leader from Paul to the present day but that was drafted by the Holy Spirit for the task, and commissioned by the Lord of the Church to fill a position he had little heart for. I believe it might be accepted as a fairly reliable rule of thumb that the man who is ambitious to lead is disqualified as a leader. The true leader will have no desire to lord it over God's heritage, but will be humble, gentle, self-sacrificing, and altogether as ready to follow as to lead, when the Spirit makes it clear that a wiser and more gifted man than himself has appeared.”

"If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for."

“Yet if we would know God and for other's sake tell what we know we must try to speak of his love. All Christians have tried but none has ever done it very well. I can no more do justice to that awesome and wonder-filled theme than a child can grasp a star. Still by reaching toward the star the child may call attention to it and even indicate the direction one must look to see it. So as I stretch my heart toward the high shining love of God someone who has not before known about it may be encouraged to look up and have hope.”

"We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. She can never escape the self-disclosure of her witness concerning God."   Chapter 1

"Without doubt, the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is the thought of God, and 

the weightiest word in any language is its word for God. Thought and speech are God’s 

gifts to creatures made in His image; these are intimately associated with Him and 

impossible apart from Him. It is highly significant that the first word was the Word: 

“And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” We may speak because God 

spoke. In Him word and idea are indivisible."  Chapter 1

"The man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal 

problems, for he sees at once that these have to do with matters which at the most 

cannot concern him for very long; but even if the multiple burdens of time may be lifted 

from him, the one mighty single burden of eternity begins to press down upon him with 

a weight more crushing than all the woes of the world piled one upon another. That 

mighty burden is his obligation to God. It includes an instant and lifelong duty to love 

God with every power of mind and soul, to obey Him perfectly, and to worship Him 

acceptably. And when the man’s laboring conscience tells him that he has done none of 

these things, but has from childhood been guilty of foul revolt against the Majesty in the 

heavens, the inner pressure of self-accusation may become too heavy to bear." Chapter 1

"We learn by using what we already know as a bridge over which we pass to the 

unknown. It is not possible for the mind to crash suddenly past the familiar into the 

totally unfamiliar. Even the most vigorous and daring mind is unable to create 

something out of nothing by a spontaneous act of imagination. Those strange beings 

that populate the world of mythology and superstition are not pure creations of fancy. 

The imagination created them by taking the ordinary inhabitants of earth and air and sea 

and extending their familiar forms beyond their normal boundaries, or by mixing the 

forms of two or more so as to produce something new. However beautiful or grotesque 

these may be, their prototypes can always be identified. They are like something we 

already know."  Chapter 2

"That God can be known by the soul in tender personal experience while remaining 

infinitely aloof from the curious eyes of reason constitutes a paradox best described as 

Darkness to the intellect but sunshine to the heart. Frederick W. Faber"  Chapter 2

Though God in this threefold revelation has provided answers to our questions concerning Him, the answers by no means lie on the surface. They must be sought by prayer, by long meditation on the written Word, and by earnest and well-disciplined labor. However brightly the light may shine, it can be seen only by those who are spiritually prepared to receive it.  Chapter 3

“As nothing is more easy than to think,” says Thomas Traherne, “so nothing is more difficult than to think well.” If we ever think well it should be when we think of God.  Chapter 3