God's Pursuit of Man by A. W. Tozer

Formerly Published as The Divine Conquest

Although written two years after the publication of The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer's God's Pursuit of Man sets forth the biblical truth that before man can pursue God, God must first pursue man. A prequel of sorts, God's Pursuit of Man speaks fervently of God's desire for man to be saved and the action He takes as He invades the human soul. Tozer then explains how it is through the power and promise of the Holy Spirit that we can truly understand the mystery of the Triune God.

In his foreword to this book, William Culbertson writes:

"This book contains strong medicine, bitter to the taste but potent if taken in contrition and in belief. For a generation content in its own smugness, emotionally exhausted by the claptrap and bunkum of some well-meaning but misled leaders, glibly familiar with all the niceties of careful theological phrases, the medicine may be too bitter. Only the hopeless will benefit. May the slain of the Lord be many; may the hopeless be multiplied. Only then can we experience what some of us know by rote.... The author is a prophet, a man of God; his life as well as his sermons attest the fact. Here he speaks; no, he preaches; no, he thunders the message of God for those of us who are dreadfully poverty-stricken, though we think we are rich and have need of nothing. Don't be afraid of the thunderings of the language. Don't even fear the bold, jagged stroke of lightning of the speech. For all who will hear, for all who will obey, here is God's answer to our need--Himself."

In his preface, Tozer gives his reason for writing the book:

"The only book that should ever be written is one that flows up from the heart, forced out by the inward pressure. When such a work has gestated within a man it is almost certain that it will be written. The man who is thus charged with a message will not be turned back by any blase consideration. His book will be to him not only imperative, it will be inevitable.

"This little book of the spiritual way has not been 'made' in any mechanical sense; it has been born out of inward necessity. At the risk of getting myself into doubtful company I might claim for myself the testimony of Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram, 'For I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me' (Job 32:18). And his fear that if he did not speak he must, as a new bottle, 'burst asunder' is well understood by me. The sight of the languishing church around me and the operations of a new spiritual power within me have set up a pressure impossible to resist. Whether or not the book ever reaches a wide public, still it has to be written if for no other reason than to relieve an unbearable burden on my heart."

Those who respect Tozer's prophet-like call do not remain the same. The Pursuit of God, God's Pursuit of Man, The Root of the Righteous, and God Tells the Man Who Cares continue to be some of my most treasured works. --Charles R. Swindoll

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