I have been reading A.W. Tozier’s book, The Pursuit of God as devotional reading. His words, over fifty years old, speak to the heart of discerning. The sixth chapter is especially applicable.

Tozier maintains that God is actively communicating with his people.

God is speaking. Not God spoke, but God is speaking. He is by His nature continuously articulate. He fills the world with His speaking Voice.- Loc. 696

We believe that God spoke (through the Bible), but we often fail to realize His continual speaking. The Bible, apart from His speaking is a dead book.

The life is in the speaking words. God’s word in the Bible can have power only because it corresponds to God’s word in the universe. It is the present Voice which makes the written Word all-powerful. Otherwise it would lie locked in slumber within the covers of a book.- Loc. 705

Tozier is saddened by our failure to listen. He blames the pervasive noise, busyness, and speed of our world. However, he expresses hope for the future.

I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not only a book which was once spoken, but a book which is now speaking.- Loc. 785

Will this “new world” begin with us? Can we be more than formulators of our own strategies? Is is possible to bend our ear to His initiative, His prompting, His agenda? He is not silent, he is actively speaking.