The Divine Illuminator
To know God in a spiritual sense is to enter into an unmediated awareness experienced by the soul, beyond the reach of the mind.
A.W. Tozer emphasizes that knowing God transcends mere intellectual understanding; it is an experiential awareness of Him that engages the soul. He argues that while the intellect plays a role in understanding biblical revelation, true knowledge of God comes through the Holy Spirit illuminating the heart of the penitent. This journey begins with an appeal to reason but culminates in a spiritual experience that surpasses rational thought. Tozer encourages believers to seek a deeper, more intimate relationship with God that goes beyond academic knowledge.
Text
To know God in the scriptural meaning of the term is to enter into experience of Him. It never means to know about. It is not a knowledge mediated by the intellect, but an unmediated awareness experienced by the soul on a plane too high for the mind to reach. Where then is the place of the intellect in Christian experience? And why waste time thinking when we know beforehand that thought cannot bring us to the knowledge that is most of all to be desired, the knowledge of God?
The answer is that the whole biblical revelation is addressed to the intellect and through the intellect reaches the will, the seat of the moral life; if the will responds in repentance and obedience, the Holy Spirit illuminates the penitent heart and reveals Christ, the image of God, to it.
What began as an appeal to reason (Isaiah 1:18) ends in a spiritual experience wholly above reason
Sermon Outline
- The Nature of Knowing God
- The Role of the Intellect
- The Path to Spiritual Experience
- Repentance and obedience
- Holy Spirit illumination
Key Quotes
“It never means to know about. It is not a knowledge mediated by the intellect, but an unmediated awareness experienced by the soul on a plane too high for the mind to reach.” — A.W. Tozer
“The answer is that the whole biblical revelation is addressed to the intellect and through the intellect reaches the will, the seat of the moral life;” — A.W. Tozer
Application Points
- We must respond to the biblical revelation with repentance and obedience to experience the Holy Spirit's illumination.
- The intellect plays a crucial role in Christian experience, as it is addressed by the biblical revelation.
- Spiritual experience is not something we can achieve through thought alone, but rather it is a gift of the Holy Spirit.