The veil within my heart

Tozer speaks of the syndrome of the veil—which occludes the light of God, His face, and the unvarnished truth of the gospel from the very depth and understanding of my key spiritual organ—the heart.

Specifically he states that it is the veil of my fleshly, fallen nature which lives on within my earthly existence… it is the fleshly, fallen nature which remains un-judged within me. It is not too mysterious, nor is it hard to identify. It is the self-life I have scarcely ever identified, and never truly acknowledged, and of  which I have always been secretly ashamed.

As an Enneagram 3—deceit is the primary shadow part of my heart that this self-life veil hides. It is very difficult to extract. In fact, it can be extracted only through the cross of Christ…through God’s grace through his blood.

This veil is an enemy to my life in Christ, an effective block to any spiritual progress I may experience.

The veil is not a beautiful thing, and it is not a thing about which we commonly care to talk. The veil is the deceitful shroud of the Evil One’s influence on my life. The veil is self-sin, manifested in my daily life, and thought patterns.

As Tozer explains—they are woven of the fine threads of

“the hyphenated sins of the human spirit”.

They are not something we DO, these self-sins are something we ARE.

As he explains: these self-sins are self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love and a host of others like them.

These hidden sins are dwelling so deep within me—and are too much a part of my own nature, until the light of the Holy Spirit and the unadulterated truth of the Gospel is focused upon and shines directly upon them.

Egotism, exhibitionism, self promotion. These are strangely tolerated in some Christian circles…even in circles of impeccable orthodoxy.

“Promotion of self under the guise of promoting Christ”, Tozer says, “is so common as to excite little notice”

This convicts my heart.

Only the work of the cross, applied to my self-life, can cure this deceptive human nature-illness…and just like the crucifixion of Christ rent the veil of the temple, making the Holy of Holies accessible to the laity, so the crucifixion of my own self- life on my own cross of death to my self, will rend the veil of my heart torn in two so that I too may access the Holy of Holies and see the face of the Eternal and experience his Holy nature within my own heart.

May I be honest enough to admit my own selfishness and allow Christ to apply his death to my own self-life.

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?”

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