This book had a slow start for me. I found the information on “Godly Wisdom” much more inspirational. Tozer sites moving scriptures with profound insights.

I received this galley from NetGalley.

Lovely book by a classic author. So glad to see this one coming out again since all prior copies are likely to be worn out from use.

The man who lives as if the truth were not true is as bad as the man who denies the truth. God judges a man by how he lives the truth, not by how he parrots the truth.

Tozer always hits the mark in teaching the attributes of God. The wisdom of God is the essence of who God is. That may be why King Solomon when asked by God what he desired from God, he did not ask for fame and riches but wisdom. Reading this book, I have come to understand that Solomon really asked for God himself.

Man's wisdom and God's wisdom are opposite and to truly appreciate the wisdom of God and live in his wisdom is only the by the Holy Spirit directed by the word. Tozer tells us the difference of God's wisdom and man's wisdom and it is indeed a high bar that only leads us to surrender our will to who God is.

I highly recommend this and encourage for this classic to be read once a year.

A Special Thank You to Bethany House and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review

Tozer's writings and insights have great depth to them. I am always encouraged and motivated to go to a deeper level based on the wisdom and revelation that he shares. This message of truth is timeless.

“Why is it that man, with drastically limited wisdom, insists on making all the decisions in his life?”
--Tozer


This book is a collection of sermons by Tozer about wisdom. Throughout, he quotes from two Apocryphal books: Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus to help us understand the topic; although, he points out that they are not inspired like the sixty-six books of the Bible. However, they do represent the Hebrew doctrine of Wisdom.

I have found that Tozer often doesn’t think he is the most qualified to talk on certain subjects, but his writings have been so beneficial to me and others that I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to read and study what he has to say. I appreciate how the chapters were chosen for this book as it very thoroughly covers the subject of wisdom from the wisdom of God, to how we can we can draw closer to Him, and live our lives seeking God’s wisdom and acting on it. I also like how each chapter begins with a prayer.

This is definitely a five star book, and I highly recommend it.

This book is like looking in the mirror. I think we have gotten really relaxed in our relationship with the Lord. We try to function in this relationship more about us than Him. The truth of the matter, especially according to this book, we need to revisit the nature of our relationship. He is God. I am not. This is His story not mine. He thought of this, not me. And understanding some of the principles in this book gets us moving back to the healthy and right place, it's all about Him! Looking in the mirror and seeing where I view myself has caused me to back off and apologize to the Lord. I have gotten in the way and now I want to do it right. Wisdom of the Lord is what I truly seek and now I am searching for it through Him for His Kingdom....not for my kingdom. I really connected with this book. We need to recapture the beauty of His wisdom and His desires for us.

I had always heard about A. W. Tozer, so it was great for me to finally get the chance to read some of his words.

More than anything, I could feel the love this preacher had for God and how his greatest desire in life was pleasing Him in everything, which is wisdom after all.

However, I must say that I couldn’t connect with A. W. Tozer all the time. I learned from him and I’m grateful for it, but I noticed that, while reading, I was not following him wholeheartedly. This book is worth reading, no doubt, but there were times when it couldn’t get my undivided attention.

There were many interesting insights, though, and he definitely helped me see wisdom in a more profound way.

**I received a copy of this book from Bethany House through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own**

Most people in these troubled times wonder where true wisdom comes from, and they try to find it any number of ways, only to be disappointed in the end. In this posthumously published book, A. W. Tozer explains that true wisdom can only be found in God and His Word, the Holy Bible.
He begins by explaining and illustrating the definition and origins of wisdom and various perspectives of ancient philosophers. Then he turns to the Bible and uses multiple passages to prove that true wisdom only can be found in God. It is amazing to me how perceptive Tozer was as he saw hypocrisy and sedition creeping into the churches in the 20th Century. I believe this book and his other writings are just as relevant today as they were in his time. His writing is intellectual, yet not hard to understand.
Are you seeking for wisdom? Do you need encouragement? Do yourself a favor and pick up this book!
Note: I received a review copy of this book from NetGalley and Bethany House in exchange for an honest review.

Sometimes we forget that the Bible is a revelation of God’s wisdom to us. Not only does Scripture reveal the points of wisdom that God has chosen to reveal, but within its covers are a multitude of passages that speak directly about that wisdom. So complex and profound is it though, that God’s wisdom cannot be contained within the confines of words on a page. Literally, there are too many facets and applications of it for all of it to be revealed through the Bible. Figuratively, the Lord’s wisdom is not meant to be contained upon pages alone, but to be lived out through the obedient lives of His children as well. For the Christian then, there exists a great urgency in understanding the situation and significance of the Lord’s wisdom for the saturation of our lives.
Lamentably, few have chosen to deal comprehensively with this topic. Known pastor and author, A.W. Tozer, previously wrote the wisdom of God, however that work went unpublished until this month’s release by Bethany House. In The Wisdom of God: Letting His Truth and Goodness Direct Your Steps, Tozer directs readers attention to God’s wisdom, not merely for understanding, but under the notion that what is revealed will influence the steps of one’s life for God. While many of us would be quick to expound upon Jesus Christ as wisdom as our first step, Tozer does something a bit different. He first examines the doctrine of wisdom through the understanding of the Hebrews and only then does he demonstrate how the doctrine was fulfilled in Christ. Attention to this results in a unique foundation and understanding that ties together the doctrine comprehensively over the entirety of the Bible. Only then, does he move forward to discuss how to find and apply wisdom.
Tozer’s comprehensiveness creates a unique book for believers. That uniqueness is captured in three characteristics:
Prayerful: One of the aspects to be appreciated is the emphasis on prayer. Not only does the book end with a prayer that encapsulates all of the teachings, but each chapter begins with a short and profound prayer about the concepts that readers will learn.
Thoughtful: While writing in an easily understandable manner, the concepts presented are deep and require readers to reflect upon the content. Tozer addresses topics such as the difference between moral and divine wisdom, the role of wisdom in one’s life, among many others and thus readers must think beyond what they are sometimes comfortable with.
Confrontational: Finally, the author’s thoroughness compels readers to be confronted about the current capacities of the gospel’s role in the Christian life. Reading through The Wisdom of God will force Christians to evaluate how much influence and impact we allow the gospel to have in all that we do, our own role in evangelism, and our low expectations of professing believers.
Because of these aspects, there is much that readers can gain from Tozer’s writings.
It is unfortunate that at times the book tends to take both a natural and mystical approach at times. Yes, those two words seem to conflict a bit. However, Tozer skirts the boundaries of acceptable doctrine in these areas. First, there are times that he seems to border on teaching believers to look beyond normal revelation into something more. However, he never quite crosses into mysticism in this writing, but readers would do well to be on guard. Furthermore, the author reacts against anything that can be explained as natural as not being from God. Thus, he makes a large distinction between the disciplines of science and religion. Part of this is understandable in that he attempts to differentiate and explain how many people can have aspects of wisdom apart from God. We can be thankful that he sees this as a necessary point to discuss, but the sharpness with which he determines those distinctions creates a false dichotomy that does not exist.
In light of this, A.W. Tozer offers compelling insights about the Christian life through The Wisdom of God. Therefore, the book is a worthwhile investment of time. Tozer’s thoroughness brings light to areas of the Christian life that need to be both confronted and considered. Therefore, readers would do well to read, contemplate, and respond to what is learned in this particular book.
To purchase a copy of The Wisdom of God, click here.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher at no cost for the purposes of review. However, the review was not influenced in any way by others but is the response to my own reading of the book.

There were some amazing Scriptural insights in this book. It is convicting, encouraging, and challenging.
He contrasts the Western or Greek understanding of Wisdom with the Hebrew or Biblical understanding in the beginning sections. Then he moves on and discusses how our understanding and obedience to true Wisdom affects our lives.
It surprised me how much he quoted from the Apocryphal books. He uses them and the Book of Proverbs to build his understanding of the Hebrew view of Wisdom. He reminds us again and again that they are not inspired, but it was very different for an Evangelical book.
Unfortunately, the format was a bit distracting. It does not flow well from chapter to chapter. Each one is good, but it doesn’t necessarily connect to the previous or following chapter. It helped once I caught on to the arrangement. If you think of it as a devotional loosely tied together by one thought, and not as a single subject book, you’ll be better prepared for the abrupt subject changes.
Maybe it was because of the format, but there many times that I had a hard time following his train of thought especially in the beginning chapters. I did not like it as well as I have some of his others.
I received this as a free ARC through NetGalley from Bethany House Publishers. No favorable review was required.

Tozer’s work is almost an overview of God’s wisdom and how it is seen and worked out in the lives of Christians. He looks at the Hebrew understanding of wisdom, wisdom in the Bible, and Jesus as the incarnate wisdom of God before delving into how a lack of wisdom is evident in the lives of nonbelievers and how God can give wisdom through faith in Jesus. He spends a good amount of space throughout the book explaining the difference between wisdom and intelligence and the link between wisdom and morality, pointing out that a person can be very smart and still a moral fool.

Several parts of the book really spoke to me, but my favorite is undoubtedly the chapter in which Tozer speaks of being unsatisfied by the things of this world, of looking for something that can only be found in God. “How I thank God from the depths of my soul that He always followed me around and always troubled me…I start to settle down to something, and God says, ‘That isn’t it’ ” (ebook, location 1575).

While this is the newest book by A. W. Tozer – really a collection of his writings and sermons – on the market, it was my introduction to Tozer’s writings. I’ve heard of Tozer and even own a copy of The Knowledge of the Holy, but I had not read anything by him. Based on what I’ve heard, I was prepared for the writing to be intellectual and deep, which it was. I was not prepared for the writing to be passionate and very readable, a book written not just from the head but from the heart.

The material in this book has been collected from sermons Tozer preached in the early 1960s. (He died in 1963.) The message is needed today, perhaps even more so than a generation ago.

Tozer concentrates on the Hebrew understanding of wisdom in the first part of the book. I did not find that section particularly interesting. Tozer begins to explore godly wisdom and its necessity about a quarter of the way into the book. That material is dynamite.

Tozer believed that the “compelling need” was for Christians to receive the divine illumination of wisdom from God. “Lacking that,” he said, “the church is blind.” (Loc 521/2038) He distinguishes wisdom and scholarship. He shares the characteristics of a wise person. He reminds us it is a gift from God through the Holy Spirit into the heart of a humble person.

I highly recommend this book to church leaders. Even in Tozer's day, he called the new ideas and programs “religious claptrap and modern entertainment.” (Loc 690/2038) He would rather have the fire of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit, he said. I also recommend this book to all Christians who desire to know more about wisdom from God, the humility needed to receive it, and the life one leads with it.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

"The Wisdom of God" is hard to describe. Tozer kind of wandered from topic to topic, but each chapter related to wisdom in some way. He sometimes quoted the same verses or made the same points in different chapters, so I'm curious if this is basically a compilation of his sermons relating to wisdom. However, his overall point is that human wisdom can't save you, only God's wisdom (a.k.a. Jesus).

He started by talking about how the logos in John 1:1-3 reflects the ancient Hebrew understanding of the word and of wisdom, not the Greek philosophy involving logos. He then talked about why we need wisdom and where we find it (Christ!).

He then started preaching against modern (at that time) trends, like people using "precipitation" instead of crediting God for the rain. His underlying point was against placing your confidence in man's wisdom, but the way he stated this came across as anti-science and anti-logic (don't try to prove God). Again, while his underlying point seems to be that true Christians have to repent, see a life change, and shouldn't compromise God's teachings to avoid conflict, he came across as saying that true Christians should have a profound conversion experience, be deeply committed to God, and make enemies out of everyone as they stand up for God's truth.

As I didn't have a conversion experience involving profound remorse and have managed to stand up for the truth without making enemies of everyone, I felt like he went looking to the extreme to make his points. Or maybe I'm just misunderstanding him. I've enjoyed Tozer's books in the past, but this one left me feeling unsure about what he meant in some parts.

Always have loved A.W.Tozer so it wasn't expected that I wouldn't like this book. Glad I was able to read and review it.