God Tells the Man Who Cares is a collection of A.W. Tozer’s short editorial pieces on hearing from God. Christian Publications issued it in 1970, and Moody carries the Tozer catalogue now.
Two things this page never told you
Tozer did not write it as a book. It gathers 39 editorials he wrote for The Alliance Weekly and Alliance Life, the magazines of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, where he served as editor. Each piece was written to stand alone in a magazine, which is why the book reads as a series of short, hard-hitting sections rather than a developed argument.
That is a feature if you know it going in. Two or three pages a sitting, each one complete. It is a frustration if you expected a book that builds.
There is an uncredited compiler. The selection was made by Anita M. Bailey, and later editions credit her on the cover alongside Tozer. She chose which 39 of his editorials made it in and in what order, which is real editorial work on a posthumous collection. This page credited Tozer alone.
Worth stating plainly: Tozer died in 1963, seven years before this collection appeared. Everything published under his name since is someone else’s assembly of his existing work.
A note on the edition
The listing linked here is a recent digital edition carrying the added subtitle God Speaks to Those Who Take Time to Listen, which was not part of the 1970 original.
Tozer’s catalogue attracts a lot of reissues of varying quality, some with bolted-on subtitles and minimal editorial care. If you want the reliable version, look for the Moody or Christian Publications edition and check that Anita Bailey is credited. The text itself is the same Tozer either way.
What he is actually saying
The title is the argument. Tozer’s contention is that God is not silent and never has been, and that the reason most Christians do not hear anything is that hearing requires a kind of attention they have not been willing to give.
He is blunt about what gets in the way, and he is not primarily talking about busyness. He means a religious life that has become entirely about activity, programme, and performance, in which a man can be thoroughly occupied with church and never once be quiet in front of God.
Tozer wrote as a critic of the American evangelicalism of his own era, and much of what he objected to has only grown. That is why he still reads as current rather than dated, and it is his real value here.
What we removed
A sentence in quotation marks attributed to Tozer about listening being an active pursuit, and two quotations attributed to unnamed reviewers. None could be verified and all are gone. Given how freely Tozer is misquoted online, we would rather print none than print one we cannot source.
The claim that the book contains structured content suited to group discussion is also out. It is a collection of magazine editorials with no study apparatus.
Who should read it
A man who suspects his Christianity has become mostly activity. Tozer will not comfort him, and that is the point. The short format suits someone who will not finish a longer book but will read three pages before work.
Be warned that Tozer is severe. He wrote to provoke, not to encourage, and a reader already discouraged may find him crushing rather than clarifying. Read him alongside something gentler.
God Tells the Man Who Cares on Amazon