Gems Of A W Tozer Testing D
====[ The Christian BBS – Vic., B.C. – 604-478-2789, 3/12/24 Baud ]====
This is a excerpt from Tozer’s book “Gems From Tozer” and it is quite different than what you would read from the writings of those false prophets that have arisen and bealch out their heresies of the Blab it and Grab teachings, aka Believe it and Receive it, aka Confess it and Possess it. The false teachers preach that you are wonderful and great and you should have no negative feelings about yourselve etc.
…Dave
GEMS FROM TOZER
For those who want a rule by which they can test everything, I make available here a little secret by which I have tested my own spiritual experiences and religious impulses for many years.
Briefly stated the test is this: This new doctrine, this new religious spiritual experience – how has it affected my attitude toward and my relation to God, Christ, the Holy Scripture, self, other Christians, the world and sin. By this seven-fold test we may prove everything religious.
3. Another revealing test is, How does it affect my attitude toward the Holy Scripture? Did this new experience, this new niew of truth, spring out of the Word of God itself? Whatever originates outside the scripture should for that very reason be suspect until it can be shown to be in accord with them. However high the emotional content, no experience can be proved to be genuine unless we can find chapter and verse authority for it in the Scripture. (Isa.8:20)
Whatever is new or singular should also be viewed with a lot of caution. Over the last half-century quite a number of unscriptural notions have gained acceptance among Christians by claiming that they were among the truths that were to be revealed in the last days. The truth is that the Bible does not teach that there will be new light and advanced spiritual experiences in the latter days; it teaches the exact opposite. Beware of any man who claims to ve wiser than the apostles or holier than the martyrs of the Early Church.
4. Again, we can prove the quality of religious experience by its effect on self-life. The Holy Spirit and the fallen human self are diametrically opposed to each other. (Gal.5:17) Before the Spirit of God can work creatively in our hearts He must have our full consent to displace our natural self with the Person of Christ. This displacement is carefully explained in Romans 6, 7, and 8.
A good rule is this: If this experience has served to humble me and make me little and vile in my own eyes, it is of God, but if it has given me a feeling of self-satisfaction it is false and should be dismissed as emanating from self or the devil. Nothing that comes from God will minister to my pride or self-congratulation.
- Taken from the Media Spotlight Publication