A.W. Tozer
"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."
41 Quotes
"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."
"القائد الحق الأمين هو غالبًا من لا يطمح للقيادة، بل يُدفع إليها دفعًا قسريًا بضغط الروح القدس الباطني وإلحاح الموقف الخارجي. وعلى هذا المنوال سار موسى وداود وأنبياء العهد القديم. وأرى أنه قلّما وُجد قائد عظيم منذ بولس وحتى يومنا هذا إلا وقد انتدبه الروح القدس لهذه المهمة، وكُلِّف من رب الكنيسة ليتبوأ مكانة لم يكن يميل إليها قلبه. وأعتقد أن من الممكن اعتبارها قاعدة راسخة إلى حد كبير: أن الرجل الطموح للقيادة هو غير مؤهل لها. فالقائد الحق لا يرغب في التسلط على ميراث الله، بل يكون متواضعًا، وديعًا، باذلاً لذاته، وعلى أهبة الاستعداد للاتباع كما هو للقيادة، متى أوضح الروح أن رجلًا أرجح حكمة وأوفر موهبة منه قد برز."
A.W. Tozer
"“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.”"
"إن القائد الحق الأمين هو على الأرجح من لا يطمح إلى القيادة، بل يُدفع إليها دفعًا بقوة الروح القدس الباطنة وضغط الظروف الخارجية. هكذا كان موسى وداود وأنبياء العهد القديم. وأظن أنه ما من قائد عظيم، من بولس إلى يومنا هذا، إلا وقد انتدبه الروح القدس لهذه المهمة، وكلفه رب الكنيسة بملء منصب لم يكن له فيه رغبة تذكر. وأعتقد أنه يمكن قبول ذلك كقاعدة عامة موثوقة إلى حد كبير، وهي أن الرجل الطموح إلى القيادة هو غير مؤهل لها. فالقائد الحقيقي لن يرغب في التسلط على ميراث الله، بل سيكون متواضعًا، لطيفًا، مضحّيًا، ومستعدًا تمامًا لأن يتبع كما أن يقود، حين يوضح الروح أن رجلًا أحكم وأكثر موهبة منه قد ظهر."
A.W. Tozer
"The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven't yet come to the end of themselves. We're still trying to give orders, and interfering with God's work within us."
A.W. Tozer
"A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. He would be afraid to do so."
A.W. Tozer
"“I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven.”"
A.W. Tozer
"One of the purest souls ever to live on this fallen planet was Nicholas Herman, known as Brother Lawrence. He wrote very little, but what he wrote has seemed to several generations of Christians to be so rare and so beautiful as to deserve a place near the top among the world's great books of devotion. The writings of Brother Lawrence are the ultimate in simplicity; ideas woven like costly threads to make a pattern of great beauty."
A.W. Tozer
"It may be said without qualification that every man is as holy and as full of the Spirit as he wants to be. He may not be as full as he wishes he were, but he is most certainly as full as he wants to be."
A.W. Tozer
"In a world of change and decay not even the man of faith can be completely happy. Instinctively he seeks the unchanging and is bereaved at the passing of dear familiar things. Yet much as we may deplore the lack of stability in all earthly things, in a fallen world such as this the very ability to change is a golden treasure, a gift from God of such fabulous worth as to call for constant thanksgiving. For human beings the whole possibility of redemption lies in their ability to change. To move across from one sort of person to another is the essence of repentance; the liar becomes truthful, the thief honest, the lewd pure, the proud humble. The whole moral texture of the life is altered. The thoughts, the desires, the affections are transformed, and the man is no longer what he had been before."
A.W. Tozer
"God wants the whole person and He will not rest till He gets us in entirety. No part of the man will do" (101) - "The Pursuit of God"
A.W. Tozer
"The love of Christ both wounds and heals, it fascinates and frightens, it kills and makes alive, it draws and repulses. There can be nothing more terrible or wonderful than to be stricken with love for Christ so deeply that the whole being goes out in a pained adoration of His person, an adoration that disturbs and disconcerts while it purges and satisfies and relaxes the deep inner heart."
A.W. Tozer
"Religious leaders who continue mechanically to expound the Scriptures without regard to the current religious situation are no better than the scribes and lawyers of Jesus’ day who faithfully parroted the Law without the remotest notion of what was going on around them spiritually,” wrote Tozer. “They fed the same diet to all and seemed wholly unaware that there was such a thing as meat in due season."
A.W. Tozer
"The author relates by way of illustration that the human heart contains both a throne and a cross. If we occupy the one, Jesus occupies the other."
A.W. Tozer
"What made Jesus' death uncommon, unusual? It was the dying of the just for the unjust. It was His sacrificial dying, His vicarious dying. He paid a debt He did not owe in behalf of the others too deeply in debt ever to pay."
A.W. Tozer
"I find that when people haven't found God and do not know the new birth and the Spirit is not on them, yet they have the ancient impulse to worship something. If they're not educated they kill a chicken and put a funny thing on their head and dance around. If they are educated they write poetry."
A.W. Tozer
"If you do not worship God seven days a week, you do not worship Him on one day a week. There is no such thing known in heaven as Sunday worship unless it is accompanied by Monday worship and Tuesday worship and so on."
A.W. Tozer
"To be effective the preacher's message must be alive; it must alarm, arouse, challenge; it must be God's present voice to a particular people."
A.W. Tozer
"Made as we were in the image of God we scarcely find it strange to take again our God as our All. God was our original habitat and our hearts cannot but feel at home when they enter again that ancient and beautiful abode."
A.W. Tozer
"A man by his sin may waste himself, which is to waste that which on earth is most like God. This is man's greatest tragedy and God's heaviest grief."
A.W. Tozer
✉️
Get more quotes like A.W. Tozer's — every morning.
Join thousands of wisdom seekers getting daily quotes from 300,000+ curated sources.
Free forever. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
🎉 Check your inbox to confirm your subscription!