Removing the Veil

The following are points from the book, "The Pursuit of God", by A. W. Tozer, a man of God from Chicago, Illinois. What he wrote in 1948 is relevant even today.  
The purpose of including his message in point form is so that it would at least whet one's appetite, and that "there may be those who can light their candle at its flame."  
This book has been published by Christian Publications, Inc. Harrisburg, PA.

1. God formed us for His pleasure, and so formed us that we as well as He can in divine communion enjoy the sweet and mysterious mingling of kindred personalities. He meant us to see him and live with Him and draw our life from His smile.
   
   
2. But we have ceased to obey Him or love Him and in guilt and fear have fled as far as possible from His Presence.
   
   
3. The Omnipresence of the Lord - that He is everywhere - is one thing, and is a solemn fact; the manifest Presence is another thing altogether, and from that Presence we have fled, like Adam, to hide among the trees of the garden, or like Peter to shrink away crying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
   
   
4. So the life of man upon the earth is a life away from the Presence, wrenched loose from that "blissful center" which is our right and proper dwelling place, our first estate which we kept not, the loss of which is the cause of our unceasing restlessness.
   
   
5. The whole work of God in redemption is to undo the tragic effects of that foul revolt, and to bring us back again into right and eternal relationship with Himself. This required that our sins be disposed of satisfactorily, that a full reconciliation be effected and the way opened for us to return again into conscious communion with God and live again in the Presence as before.
   
   
6. The interior journey of the soul from the wilds of sin into the enjoyed Presence of God is beautifully illustrated in the old testament tabernacle:
   (a) The returning sinner first entered the outer court where he offered a blood sacrifice on the brazen altar and washed himself in the laver that stood near it.
   (b)Then through a veil he passed into the holy place where no natural light would come, but the golden candlestick which spoke of Jesus the Light of the World threw its soft glow over all. There also was the shewbread to tell of Jesus, the Bread of life, and the altar of incense, a figure of unceasing prayer.
   (c) Though the worshiper had enjoyed so much, still he had not entered the Presence of God. Another veil separated from the Holy of Holies where above the mercy seat dwelt the very God Himself in awful manifestation.
   (d) It was this last veil which was rent when our Lord gave up the ghost on Calvary. This rending of the veil opened the way for every worshipper in the world to come by the new and living way straight into the divine Presence.
   
   
7. God wills that we should push into His Presence and live our whole life there. It is more than a doctrine to be held, it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of everyday.
   
   
8. The Flame of the Presence was the beating heart of the Levitical order. Without it all the appointments of the tabernacle had no meaning for Israel or for us. The greatest fact of the tabernacle was that Jehovah was there; a Presence was waiting within the veil.
   
   
9. Similarly the Presence of God is the central fact of Christianity. At the heart of the Christian message is God Himself waiting for His redeemed children to push in to conscious awareness of His Presence.
   
   
10. With the veil removed by the rending of Jesus' flesh, with nothing on God's side to prevent us from entering, why do we tarry without? Why do we consent to abide all our days just outside the Holy of Holies and never enter at all to look upon God? What but the presence of a veil in our hearts? a veil not taken away as the first veil was, but remains there still shutting out the light and hiding the face of God from us. It is the close-woven veil of the self-life which we have never acknowledged, of which we have been secretly ashamed, and which for these reasons we have never brought to the judgment of the cross.
    
    
11. Self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love and a host of others like them are the fine threads of the self-life woven to form this veil.
    
    
12. Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us. It can be removed only in spiritual experiences, never by mere instruction.
    
    
13. There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free. We must invite the cross to do its deadly work within us. We must bring our self-sins to the cross for judgment.
    
    
14. When we talk of rending the veil, there is nothing pleasant about it. In human experience it is made up of living spiritual tissue. To tear it away is to injure us, to hurt us and make us bleed.
    
    
15. God must do everything for us. Our part is to yield and trust. We must confess, forsake, repudiate the self-life, and then reckon it crucified. But we must be careful to distinguish lazy "acceptance" from the real work of God. We must insist upon the work being done in very truth and it will be done.
    
    
16. The cross is rough, and it is deadly, but it is effective. It does not keep its victim hanging there forever. There comes a moment when its work is finished and the suffering victim dies. After that is resurrection glory and power, and the pain is forgotten for joy that the veil is taken away and we have entered in actual spiritual experience the Presence of the living God