Leader’s guide · 11 weeks
Leader’s guide: The Pursuit of God (For Teens)
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This guide leads a group of teenagers, aged about 13 to 18, through “The Pursuit of God (For Teens)” in eleven weeks, one chapter a week. A. W. Tozer, a self-taught Chicago pastor, wrote the book in 1948 for Christians who knew plenty about God but were still hungry for God himself; the teen edition follows his ten chapters in order, adds an opening chapter about his life, and keeps his prayers in his own words. It suits a youth group, a homeschool or a small group, especially teens who have grown up in church and want more than the right answers.
Each session takes about 30 to 40 minutes. Open by saying the memory verse together. Read the chapter, either aloud together or beforehand at home. Talk through the chapter’s three questions, which come with answers to help you lead. Do the activity, which takes about ten minutes. Close by praying Tozer’s prayer from the chapter, or your own.
To prepare, read the chapter yourself and pray Tozer’s prayer before you lead it; his prayers are honest, and teens notice when a leader means them. Week 3 retells Abraham being asked to offer Isaac, which can disturb some readers, so read it calmly and stress what the chapter stresses: God stopped him and Isaac went home alive. Several chapters ask teens to name what they cling to or the ‘self-sins’ in them; keep all of that private and never ask anyone to read out what they wrote. The book is frank that Tozer’s devotion made him distant from his wife and children, and that he spoke sharply about other churches; treat both honestly and gently, as the teen edition does. A few weeks need nothing; most need only paper and pens.
Week 1 — A Fire Not Large, but Real
We meet A. W. Tozer, who had no high school or seminary education, gave his life to Christ in an attic at about seventeen, and pastored in Chicago for thirty-one years, often praying face-down on his study floor; the chapter is also honest that this absorption made him distant from his wife and seven children. In his preface Tozer grieves to see “God’s children starving while actually seated at the Father’s table,” insists that “it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself,” and calls his own fire “not large” but “real.” The big idea: knowing about God is not the same as knowing God, and hunger for him is a good sign.
“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” — Jeremiah 29:13 (KJV)
Memory verse
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13
Talk together
How did A. W. Tozer get his education?
He taught himself. He never went to high school, college or seminary, but read everything he could find in libraries and second-hand bookshops.
What did Tozer mean by Christians “starving while actually seated at the Father's table”?
That many Christians had plenty of correct teaching about God but were not actually being fed by God himself, because words alone do not nourish the soul.
Why does Tozer call his fire “not large” but “real”?
He was being humble: others had gone further with God than he had. But what he had found was real, and he hoped others could light their own candle from it.
Activity
Facts or Friendship?
You will need: Paper and pens
- Ask everyone to write down, quickly, three facts they know about a celebrity or sports star, and three facts they know about a close friend.
- Discuss: what is the difference between knowing facts about someone and actually knowing them?
- Read Tozer’s line, “it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself,” and ask how this applies to Bible knowledge.
- Give everyone a few quiet minutes to finish this sentence privately and honestly: “What I actually want from God is…” Ask them to keep it somewhere safe, because they will look at it again in the last week.
Week 2 — I Want to Want Thee
Tozer says “God is always previous”: we only seek God because he first sought us, yet we must respond, because finding God is the start of a lifelong pursuit, not the end. He warns that Christians can lose God “amid the wonders of His Word,” that Jesus “waits to be wanted,” and that our great woe lies in seeking God “and” something else. His prayer admits his lack of desire: “I want to want Thee.” The big idea: you can start wherever you are, even if all you can honestly say is that you want to want God.
“My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.” — Psalm 63:8 (KJV)
Memory verse
My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
Psalm 63:8
Talk together
What does Tozer mean by “God is always previous”?
That God always moves first. Even our wish to look for God is something he put in us before we started looking.
What is the “paradox of love” in this chapter?
Having found God and still wanting to pursue him further, the way Moses knew God and still asked to see his glory.
Why does Tozer say “In the 'and' lies our great woe”?
Because the habit of seeking God plus something else keeps us from finding God fully. If we drop the extra thing we want alongside him, we find him.
Activity
God And…
You will need: Paper and pens
- Read Tozer’s line, “In the ‘and’ lies our great woe,” and explain what he means: seeking God plus something else.
- As a group, brainstorm the ‘ands’ that teenagers often add: God and grades, God and being liked, God and a future that goes to plan.
- Talk about why these things are not bad in themselves, and how you can tell when one has become what you are really chasing.
- Ask each person to write privately their own biggest ‘and’, then pray Tozer’s short prayer together: “God, I want to want you.”
Week 3 — My Coward Heart
Tozer says things were meant to stay outside our hearts, but sin moved them inside, so that “my” and “mine” rule us and God’s gifts take God’s place. He tells how Abraham was asked to offer Isaac, wrestled through the night, chose to trust God, and was stopped before he harmed the boy: “He had everything, but he possessed nothing.” His prayer admits fear: “I come trembling, but I do come.” The big idea: giving things to God does not mean losing them; it means they no longer hold us.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” — Matthew 5:3 (KJV)
Memory verse
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3
Talk together
What does Tozer say the words “my” and “mine” reveal?
Our deep urge to possess. They are small words, but they show how things have moved into the place in our hearts that belongs to God.
What did Abraham lose on the mountain, and what did he keep?
He kept Isaac and everything he owned. What he lost was his possessive grip: afterwards he had everything but possessed nothing.
Why does Tozer say we should “name things and people by their names”?
Because surrender has to be specific. Vague promises don't touch the actual things and people our hearts are clinging to.
Activity
Open Hands
You will need: Paper and pens
- Ask everyone to clench a fist tightly for thirty seconds, then open their hand palm up. Talk about the difference between gripping something and holding it on an open hand.
- Read Tozer’s summary of Abraham: “He had everything, but he possessed nothing.” Ask: what did Abraham lose on the mountain, and what did he keep?
- Discuss which kinds of things are hardest for teenagers to hold with an open hand: a friendship, a dream, a reputation, a plan.
- Ask each person to write privately, by name, the one thing they would find hardest to hand to God, and to pray over it silently: “I come trembling, but I do come.”
Week 4 — The Opaque Veil
Tozer walks through the tabernacle to the Holy of Holies, hidden behind a veil that was torn from top to bottom when Jesus died, opening the way to God for everyone. Yet many Christians stay in the outer courts because of another veil inside them, “the self-life,” woven from self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration and self-love, which can hide comfortably even in church. Only God can tear it, and though “It is never fun to die,” resurrection follows. The big idea: God opened the way from his side; our part is to stop defending the curtain.
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” — Hebrews 10:19 (KJV)
Memory verse
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
Matthew 27:51
Talk together
What was the veil in the tabernacle, and what happened to it?
A thick curtain that shut off the Holy of Holies, where God's presence dwelt. When Jesus died, the veil in the Temple was torn from top to bottom, opening the way to God for everyone.
What is the “veil” inside us, according to Tozer?
The self-life: self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration and self-love. They hide God's face from us.
Why does Tozer say self can be at home in church?
Because pride can hide inside good religious activity. Self can defend the faith and preach grace and still be the thing standing between us and God.
Activity
Spot the Self-Word
You will need: Slips of paper with short scenarios
- Write Tozer’s six self-words where everyone can see them: self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love.
- Read out a few short made-up scenarios, such as “After a bad match, Sam replays all the ways it wasn’t fair” or “Jess checks how many likes her post got every ten minutes.”
- For each scenario, ask the group which self-word fits best, and why it might be hard to notice in yourself.
- Ask each person to circle privately the self-word that stings most for them, and to tell God about it each night this week. Nobody shares which one.
Week 5 — Taste and See
Tozer says that for many people, Christians included, God is “an inference, not a reality,” though the Bible speaks of tasting, hearing and seeing him. He explains that faith is not imagination: “Faith creates nothing; it simply reckons upon that which is already there.” The visible world is “clamorous” and crowds out the spiritual, yet God is here now, waiting for our response. The big idea: God is real and present, and faith means counting on what is already true.
“O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” — Psalm 34:8 (KJV)
Memory verse
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Psalm 34:8
Talk together
What does Tozer mean when he says that to most people “God is an inference, not a reality”?
That they believe God exists because they reason that he must, but they don't actually know him personally.
What is the difference between imagination and faith?
Imagination makes up pictures and tries to make them real. Faith “creates nothing”; it counts on what is already there.
Why does Tozer call the visible world “clamorous”?
Because it constantly demands our attention through our senses, so we start treating only what we see as real and forget the spiritual world.
Activity
What Is Shouting at You?
You will need: Paper and pens
- Ask everyone to list, on their own, all the things that demanded their attention in the last 24 hours: notifications, people, shows, tasks.
- Read Tozer’s words that the visible world is “clamorous, insistent and self-demonstrating,” and ask how many items on their lists ‘shouted’.
- Discuss Tozer’s difference between imagining God and reckoning on him. Ask: what would it look like to count on God being present in an ordinary moment?
- Challenge everyone to take one walk this week with no earbuds, thanking God for real things they can see, hear and feel, and saying quietly, “And you are here too.”
Week 6 — And I Knew It Not
Tozer says God’s presence simply means “God is here,” everywhere, so that your bedroom is as close to God as a cathedral; Jacob’s problem, and ours, was “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.” The difference between people who find God and those who don’t is not with God but with us, in what Tozer calls “spiritual receptivity,” which grows by exercise and dies by neglect. The big idea: we don’t need to travel to God; we need to wake up to him where we are.
“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” — Psalm 139:7 (KJV)
Memory verse
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
Psalm 139:7
Talk together
What does Tozer say the presence of God means “in direct Christian experience”?
Simply that God is here, wherever we are. There is no place where he is not.
What was Jacob's problem, according to Tozer?
God was with him all along, but he didn't know it. He said, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.”
What is “spiritual receptivity,” and how does it grow?
An openness and responsiveness to God. It grows by being exercised, by acting on the longing for God when we feel it, and shrinks when it is neglected.
Activity
Mapping the Week
You will need: Paper and pens
- Ask each person to draw a simple map or list of the places they will be this week: home, school, bus, training, a friend’s house.
- Read Tozer’s line, “No point is nearer to God than any other point,” and ask which of those places feels least ‘spiritual’, and why.
- Discuss Tozer’s picture of the father and son who grow nearer while living in the same house. What would growing nearer to God look like in an ordinary week?
- Ask everyone to circle three places on their map where they will pause this week and say, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I know it.”
Week 7 — Lord, Teach Me to Listen
Tozer says calling Jesus “the Word” shows that God speaks, and not only in the past: “Not God spoke, but God is speaking.” The Bible is alive because God still speaks through it, but we have “trained our ears not to hear,” explaining things away like the crowd who said “It thundered.” He even marks one of his ideas as only his own opinion, and urges us to get still and come to the Bible “expecting it to speak to you.” The big idea: God is still speaking, and we hear him by getting quiet and listening.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” — John 1:1 (KJV)
Memory verse
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1
Talk together
What does Tozer mean by “Not God spoke, but God is speaking”?
That God didn't just speak once long ago and then go silent. It is his nature to speak, and he is still speaking, including through the Bible.
What did the crowd mean when they said “It thundered”?
They explained away God's voice as a natural event. Tozer says we often do the same: we are quicker to explain than to worship.
How does Tozer suggest we start hearing God?
By getting still and alone, ideally with an open Bible, and reading it expecting God to speak, as a friend would.
Activity
Expecting It to Speak
You will need: Bibles, paper and pens
- Ask everyone to put their phones out of reach, then read 1 Samuel 3:1–10 aloud slowly.
- Give two minutes of silence. Ask each person to read the passage again on their own and write down one sentence that stands out.
- Invite anyone who wishes to share their sentence and why it caught their attention. Nobody has to.
- Close by praying together Samuel’s words, “Speak, for your servant hears,” and encourage everyone to try ten phone-free minutes with the Bible this week.
Week 8 — The Gaze of a Soul
Tozer turns to the bronze snake in Numbers 21, which Jesus pointed to, and concludes that looking and believing are the same thing: “faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God,” a continuous gaze rather than a one-off act. Faith is like an eye that never sees itself, so instead of anxiously checking whether we have enough faith, we look at Jesus, and when our attention wanders we come back like “a wandering bird coming back to its window.” The big idea: faith is not staring at your faith but looking at Jesus.
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” — Hebrews 12:2 (KJV)
Memory verse
Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2
Talk together
What does the bronze snake in Numbers 21 teach about faith?
That believing is like looking. The bitten Israelites lived by looking at the snake on the pole, and Jesus said whoever believes in him, lifted up on the cross, has eternal life.
Why does Tozer compare faith to an eye?
Because an eye sees everything in front of it but never sees itself. Faith looks at God and pays little attention to itself.
What does the picture of the hundred pianos mean?
If each one is tuned to the same tuning fork, they are all in tune with each other. Christians who each look to Christ are drawn together too.
Activity
Tuned to One Fork
You will need: Bibles
- Read Numbers 21:8–9 and John 3:14–15 aloud, and ask the group what the bitten Israelites had to do to live.
- Discuss Tozer’s picture of faith as an eye that sees everything but itself. Ask: why might constantly checking our own faith make things worse?
- Explain Tozer’s hundred pianos tuned to one tuning fork. Ask the group what it would mean for your youth group if each person kept looking to Jesus.
- Challenge everyone this week to take one breath and turn their attention to Jesus each time they unlock their phone, before opening anything.
Week 9 — Be Thou Exalted
Tozer says our deepest trouble is a “moral dislocation,” being out of place with God, and that the test of who is first is not what we say but what we choose between God and money, people, ambition or comfort. The key is three words from the Psalms, “Be thou exalted,” and Tozer says “Not perfection, but holy intention made the difference” for people like Abraham and David. His prayer offers God every area of life: possessions, friendships, comforts, reputation and ambitions. The big idea: putting God first does not make us smaller; it puts our lives back in place.
“Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.” — Psalm 57:5 (KJV)
Memory verse
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!
Psalm 57:5
Talk together
What does Tozer think is wrong with people at the deepest level?
We are out of place in our relation to God, a “moral dislocation.” Salvation puts that Creator-creature relationship right again.
What test does Tozer give for who really comes first in our lives?
Our real choices. When we must choose between God and money, approval, ambition, self or human love, our choices show whether God is really first.
Why does Tozer fear he might “convince the mind before God can win the heart”?
Because you can agree that God should be first without your will actually giving way. He wanted the whole person, not just agreement.
Activity
Over My…
You will need: Paper and pens
- Read Tozer’s long prayer aloud slowly, pausing after each area he names.
- Ask everyone to list the areas privately: possessions, friendships, comforts, reputation, ambitions, family.
- Ask them to put a mark beside the line they could pray honestly today, and a question mark beside the one they find hardest. These stay private.
- Discuss Tozer’s point that God looks at holy intention, not perfection, and encourage everyone to pray one line each morning this week.
Week 10 — Pretty Small Stuff
Tozer says the human race looks like the Beatitudes turned inside out: pride, pleasure-seeking and arrogance instead of humility, mourning and meekness. Jesus offers rest from two inner burdens: pride, which smarts at every slight, and pretence, “the fear of being found out.” The meek man is not “a human mouse” but knows he is nothing in himself and everything in God, so he lets God defend him and accepts himself as he is. The big idea: Jesus offers the rest that comes when we stop competing, stop pretending and let him carry the yoke with us.
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” — Matthew 5:5 (KJV)
Memory verse
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Matthew 5:5
Talk together
What does Tozer say the human race looks like?
Like the Beatitudes turned inside out: pride instead of poverty of spirit, arrogance instead of meekness, quarrelling instead of peacemaking.
Is meekness the same as weakness or low self-esteem?
No. The meek person can be “as bold as a lion.” He knows he is nothing in himself but everything in God, so he stops defending himself and lets God do it.
What is the “burden of pretense”?
The constant effort to look better than we are and the fear of being found out. Jesus offers rest from it when we accept ourselves as we are and stop pretending.
Activity
Would You Rather
You will need: Nothing
- Ask a few “would you rather” questions and let people move to one side of the room or the other: be admired for something you’re not, or overlooked for something you are? Win and look arrogant, or lose and be gracious? Post your best moment, or share an honest one with a close friend?
- After each question, ask one or two people from each side to explain their choice.
- Read Tozer’s humorous self-talk about being “pretty small stuff,” and discuss how humour and honesty can take the sting out of feeling overlooked.
- Challenge everyone to spend one week posting or sending nothing whose main purpose is to make them look better than they are.
Week 11 — The Whole World a Sanctuary
Tozer’s last chapter attacks the split between “sacred” and “secular” life, pointing out that Paul tells us to eat and drink to God’s glory, so every good, ordinary act can be offered to God. “It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it,” and for such a person “the whole world” becomes “a sanctuary.” The chapter ends honestly: Tozer’s hunger for God made him distant from his family, and his own teaching points the better way. The big idea: done for God, your ordinary Tuesday is as holy as your Sunday.
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” — 1 Corinthians 10:31 (KJV)
Memory verse
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31
Talk together
What is the “sacred-secular” split?
Dividing life into holy activities like prayer and church, and ordinary ones like eating, working and sleeping, and feeling that only the first kind pleases God.
According to Tozer, what makes ordinary work sacred?
The motive. “It is not what a man does... it is why he does it.” Work done for God is worship.
What does Tozer's last prayer gather together?
The whole book: trusting God, being entirely his, exalting him above all, possessing nothing outside him, knowing his Presence, hearing his Voice, living without pretending, and making every act worship.
Activity
Sacred or Secular?
You will need: Two signs reading “Sacred” and “Secular”, and slips of paper
- Put the two signs at opposite ends of the room. Read out ordinary activities one at a time: praying, revising for a test, washing up, singing in church, playing football, listening to a friend.
- Ask everyone to stand near the sign they think fits each activity, and ask a few people why.
- Read Tozer’s line, “The motive is everything,” and ask how each activity could be done for God.
- Ask everyone to choose privately their most boring task this week and to say before they start it, “This is for you.” Then invite them to look again at the sentence they wrote in week one.