Removing the Veil
Taken from the subject of:
“The Pursuit of God,” A. W. Tozer,
Chapter 3
• A good definition of the pursuit of God is that it
is a “straining of the heart” (seeking) brought
about by a “conviction of the mind” (faith).
• Thus, most of the world could not be said to be
really pursuing God because there is no
straining.
• Many Christians “find Christ” and are content to
live shallow, immature, and stunted lives as
Christians, perhaps as mere “fire insurance”, by
habit, or to please people.
• This kind of Christianity is what does the most
harm to the church, and is surely why Jesus said
he would “vomit” out the lukewarm Laodiceans.
My purposes today are:
• To describe and define the types of fleshly
veils that keeps Christians from moving from a
“positional” relationship with God to an
“experiential” one.
• To explain the motivations of one living by the
flesh versus one living by the Holy Spirit.
• To briefly discuss how to go about removing
the veil.
Paul’s two prayers are my two prayers today:
• Eph 1:17-18 – “17 I keep asking that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may
give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so
that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the
eyes of your heart may be enlightened…”
• Eph 3:17-18 – “I pray that you, being rooted and
established in love, 18 may have power, together
with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide
and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
19 and to know this love that surpasses
knowledge—that you may be filled to the
measure of all the fullness of God.
• As I see them, I want to describe the primary
types of our fleshly veils that obscure God,
keeping people from Christ and keeping
Christians from fully experiencing him—“The
person without the Spirit does not accept the
things that come from the Spirit of God but
considers them foolishness, and cannot
understand them because they are discerned
only through the Spirit” (1 Cor 2:14).
• First define positional versus experiential
relationships to God…
Positional vs. Experiential
Relationship With God
• Positional relationship to God = You have
accepted that Jesus is Lord and Savior, thus
becoming a “Christian”. You attend church and
give nominal effort at a relationship to him,
mostly running FROM “fire” and ruin than TO
a deep relationship with God. It’s primary
motivations are fear, guilt, sense of
responsibility, social needs, trying to help your
kids, trying to please your parents, etc.
• Experiential relationship to God = You have
moved beyond mere acceptance to ownership.
It’s no longer “the” gospel, but “my” gospel. Its
motivations are growing faith, deep conviction,
sincere commitment, real belief and trust,
resolve, etc. It is a moving from the
“honeymoon” to jumping “over the moon.” It is
moving from planning a trip to a beautiful place,
it is “being there in the now.” It is seeing it,
feeling it, and having it—experiencing it. But to
have an experiential relationship with God you
have to “be there”, and when you are there, you
have to “be there.” And live there.
1. The veil of mortality—We each are limited in
our days to live and each of our greatest
instincts, as with all living creatures, is to first
survive.
2. The veil of finiteness—We each want control
but are limited in our scope of vision and
knowledge and any surrender to God will cause
us to lose our illusion of control.
3. The veil of the physical world—We are
mind/spirit bound in matter, and thus in its
space and time, and we consider what we can
experience with our flesh—the obvious—as
what is “real.”
4. The veil of purpose—Before anything else,
we are driven, in the flesh, to look out for self
and to survive at all cost. When we fail to
grow our purpose is the same as mere
animals.
5. The veil of sight—We are apt to trust most
what we can see with our fleshly eyes. We
walk NOT by faith, as God instructs, but by
sight as the flesh demands.
6. The veil of doubt—We are instinctively, at
least somewhat, wary, suspicious and
doubtful. We live on the defense.
7. The veil of pride—Because of the original sin,
we seek to control and to esteem ourselves,
trying to make ourselves believe it, and trying
to make others believe it.
8. The veil of fear—Our flight and/or fight
response causes us instinctively to run from or
fight against that which opposes our own
control and survival instinct.
9. The veil of sensory or sensual pleasure—we are
drawn toward that which is pleasurable to us,
and will try to justify enjoying it. Our purpose is
to “be happy.”
10.The “self-sins”, as Tozer calls them:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
Self-righteousness – I am good
Self-pity – I am all important
Self-confidence – I am powerful
Self-sufficiency – I am in control
Self-admiration – I am awesome
Self-love – I am worthy
*Selfishness – It is “mine.”
*Selfish Ambition – It IS about me!
*my additions
Two quotes from the book:
• “The grosser manifestations of these sins—
egotism, exhibitionism, and self-promotion—
are strangely tolerated in Christian leaders,
even in circles of impeccable
orthodoxy…Promoting self under the guise of
promoting Christ is currently so common as to
excite little notice.”
• “Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of
God from us. It can be removed only in
spiritual experience, never by mere instruction
[unless one is born again…]”
• Because the Christian church, just as the Jews
did, still dines to a great extent from the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil rather than from
the Tree of Life.
• We still believe we are right because we are right
about stuff, not because we are simply right with
God.
• We seek knowledge over experience, prestige
over reality, illusion over reality, deception over
honesty.
• And we live “east of Eden” as Adam and Eve did,
being looked out for by God but being
experientially separated from him.
Let’s talk now about human motivation—what
drives us and why we do what we do.
Particularly, what it means to “live by the flesh”
versus what it means to “live by the Spirit.”
Paul: “For if you live according to the flesh, you will
die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the
misdeeds of the body, you will live” (Rom 8:13).
Abraham Maslow was an early twentieth century
psychologist—one of the early “humanist
psychologist”. He explored “humanistically”
what human needs, and thus motivations,
were, ultimately producing the classic
“Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.”
Self-Actualization – the best YOU
____________________________________________
Self-Esteen – excel/exceed others
______________________________________________
Social – rise to the top
______________________________________________
Security – protect yourself
______________________________________________
Survival – competitive advantage
• Sadly, in America, our perceptions make our
humanism even more troubling.
• We perceive our “biological needs” as our human
“wants” and feel threatened if they are not met or
are threatened.
• We perceive our “safety needs” to the extreme—
not threats on our life, but threats to merely
interfere with us—all the “abuses”, i.e. “verbal
abuse”.
• We perceive our social needs to be popular.
• We perceive our self-esteem needs to “excel at
something,” or to be really “special”. We are all
“awesome”!
• But Christ has taught us to live above the
merely human—to live godly lives. To walk by
the spirit—to live spiritual lives.
– Deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow
him.
– Lay up for yourself treasures in heaven.
– Renounce everything you have.
– Put to death the sinful nature.
– Fix our minds on what is unseen and heavenly
• Thus, we can invert (convert) Maslow
(humanism) to Christ’s hierarchy of needs
(Christianity)
• 2 Cor 5:16-17 – “So from now on we regard
no one from a worldly point of view. Though
we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so
no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the
new creation has come: The old has gone, the
new is here!”
• We “regard” the world from Christ’s point of
view—“We have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor
2:16).
Survival – seek first the kingdom/given to you
______________________________________________________________________
Safety – trust in God; do not resist an evil person
________________________________________________________________________
Social – relate to other as Jesus did; rise to the bottom
________________________________________________________________________
Self-Esteem – find value in the gospel; priceless not
worthless
________________________________________________________________________
Self-Actualization –identify with Christ from the start;
become like Jesus; transformed into his likeness
Removing the Veil
1. Get honest with yourself, God and others.
2. Determine what is true, right, and worth it.
3. Make a commitment or keep your commitment
to Jesus as Lord.
4. Get converted or live a converted life in reality,
not just in name or pretense.
5. Make time and make a concerted, consistent,
persistent effort in seeking God experientially.
6. In faith expect to experience God fully.