What Does Tozer Mean When He Says God Is Always Previous?

Short answer: When Tozer says “God is always previous,” he means that God’s gracious action comes before every genuine human movement toward Him. We do not awaken ourselves spiritually, invent the desire for God, or place God in our debt through seeking. God initiates; the believer responds. Tozer uses the phrase to protect the pursuit of God from becoming a doctrine of spiritual self-achievement.

Where the phrase appears

The phrase appears early in Chapter 1, “Following Hard after God.” Tozer is explaining the relationship between divine grace and human pursuit.

He begins with the idea that before a person can seek God rightly, God must already have been at work. He connects this to Jesus’ teaching in John 6:44 about the Father’s drawing and to the biblical pattern that God’s love precedes ours.

Then he adds a practical point: although God’s working is prior, the person must still respond.

This is the setting for the phrase “God is always previous.”

“Previous” means prior, not absent

Tozer does not mean God acted once in the past and then stepped away.

He means God is prior—the initiating source of grace.

Before prayer, grace has awakened need.

Before repentance, God’s truth has exposed sin.

Before love for God, God has loved.

Before faith, God has revealed Himself and acted in Christ.

Before spiritual desire, the Spirit gives life and opens the heart.

This destroys the illusion of self-created spirituality.

Why Tozer begins pursuit with grace

The title The Pursuit of God might sound as though the whole Christian life depends on how successfully we chase after God.

Tozer does not want that conclusion.

If pursuit began with human initiative alone, the spiritually intense could boast over the weak. Prayer, fasting, study, and longing could become achievements by which we prove ourselves.

Instead, Tozer frames pursuit as response.

We seek because God has first sought.

We desire because grace has awakened desire.

We follow while already being upheld.

This keeps spiritual disciplines in their proper place. They are responses to grace, not payments for grace.

How this relates to John 6:44

Jesus teaches that no one comes to Him unless drawn by the Father.

Tozer uses this truth to say that the original impulse toward God is not self-generated. The believer cannot take final credit for coming.

Different Christian traditions debate exactly how divine drawing, human response, election, and grace should be understood. Tozer’s devotional purpose here is not to settle every theological dispute.

His practical emphasis is more limited:

Do not make yourself the hero of your pursuit of God.

God’s grace is already underneath it.

How this relates to 1 John 4:19

First John teaches that Christian love is responsive to God’s prior love.

This pattern reaches beyond conversion.

Gratitude responds to grace.

Worship responds to God’s worth.

Obedience responds to Christ’s lordship and love.

Mission responds to the gospel already received.

Generosity responds to God’s generosity.

The Christian life is fundamentally responsive.

Does God’s prior action make pursuit unnecessary?

Tozer says no.

This is one of the most important parts of the chapter.

He holds together God’s “upholding” and human “following.” The believer is dependent on grace and yet genuinely called to pursue.

That means Christians should avoid two opposite errors.

Error 1: self-reliant effort

“I will become spiritual by trying harder until God rewards me.”

This turns pursuit into merit.

Error 2: passive fatalism

“If God wants me to grow, He will do everything without my response.”

This ignores Scripture’s calls to seek, pray, obey, repent, watch, endure, and grow.

Tozer’s position is dependent action: God is prior; therefore respond.

Grace changes the emotional tone of pursuit

This truth can transform spiritual discipline.

Without grace, prayer can feel like trying to convince a reluctant God to notice us.

With grace, prayer becomes response to the God who has already acted and invited us near.

Without grace, Bible reading can become a performance score.

With grace, Scripture becomes a gift through which God reveals truth and forms His people.

Without grace, repentance can feel like earning a return to God’s favor.

With grace, repentance is returning honestly to the God whose mercy is already revealed in Christ.

The phrase “God is always previous” should therefore produce humility and confidence.

What about seasons when I do not desire God?

This teaching is especially useful when spiritual hunger feels weak.

A Christian may think, “If I do not feel strong desire, there is no point seeking.”

But pursuit does not have to begin with dramatic emotion. It can begin by responding to grace already given:

open Scripture;
pray honestly about lack of desire;
attend worship;
confess known sin;
ask another believer for help;
obey the next clear command.

Tozer himself prays not only for more of God but for greater desire. That is a grace-shaped prayer: even the wanting can be brought to God.

“Previous” does not mean every impulse is from God

A safeguard is necessary.

If God acts first, it does not follow that every desire, impression, opportunity, or inward voice comes from Him.

Human motives are mixed. Temptation is real. Scripture calls believers to discernment.

God’s prior grace should be recognized through the truth He has revealed, the gospel of Christ, the work of the Spirit, and the biblical fruit of faith and obedience—not by uncritically baptizing every inner feeling.

The phrase protects against spiritual pride

Suppose one Christian has a disciplined prayer life and another is struggling.

The mature believer may be tempted to think, “I am more serious, therefore I am better.”

“God is always previous” interrupts that pride.

Any genuine desire, insight, opportunity, strength, gift, or growth ultimately depends on grace.

That should make mature Christians more patient teachers and disciple-makers. We can call people to obedience without acting as if we manufactured our own growth.

The phrase also protects against despair

If growth depended entirely on generating sufficient spiritual intensity, discouraged Christians would have little hope.

But if God is prior, we can begin with His character and promises rather than our fluctuating feelings.

The believer can pray:

God, You have acted first. Help me respond faithfully today.

That is both humble and active.

Put It Into Practice

Take one spiritual practice you want to strengthen—prayer, Bible reading, generosity, confession, worship, or disciple-making. Before setting a goal, write down the grace that comes first. For example: God has spoken, so I read. God has forgiven, so I confess honestly. Christ has loved me, so I love others. Then choose one realistic response for this week.