Oswald Chambers was a prominent early 20th century Scottish Baptist pastor and teacher. He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1874. From an early age, Chambers felt called to Christian ministry. He began preaching at age 17 and studied at the Bible Training College in London from 1908-1911, where he became assistant principal. It was during this time that Chambers founded and edited the BTC’s journal, Tongues of Fire. He also served as a chaplain and teacher to British Commonwealth soldiers in Egypt during World War I.
Chambers is best known as the author of the devotional My Utmost for His Highest, which was published posthumously in 1927. The book contains teachings from his time lecturing at the Bible Training College and has been mass produced by the Oswald Chambers Publications Association since 1935. My Utmost for His Highest has been translated into dozens of languages and continues to be one of the most well-read daily devotionals today. Chambers’ teaching focused on absolute obedience and surrender to Christ. He emphasized that the key to the Christian life is maintaining a right relationship with Jesus, not just performing external acts of service.
Some key ideas in Oswald Chambers’ teaching:
- True Christianity is defined by our inner connection to and dependence on Christ, not outward actions.
- The Holy Spirit is meant to be a practical, enabling power in our daily lives.
- God desires to make us like Christ, not just use us for His purposes.
- We must surrender our will completely to receive the life of Jesus.
- Chambers stressed the importance of devotion to God and spending time in His presence.
- He taught that God wants to work miracles through ordinary Christians fully yielded to Him.
Oswald Chambers had a gift for expressing profound theological truths in simple, relatable ways. This made his teaching accessible and practical for ordinary Christians. At the same time, he uncompromisingly preached the message that following Christ requires absolute surrender of one’s will and desires. Chambers did not shy away from the cost of discipleship that Jesus emphasized in the Gospels.
Chambers’ wife, Biddy, played a vital role in preserving and publishing her husband’s messages after his untimely death at age 43. While ministering to soldiers in Egypt during WWI, Chambers contracted appendicitis. He died on November 15, 1917 after emergency surgery. Biddy gathered her husband’s notes from his lectures and sermons and arranged for My Utmost for His Highest to be printed ten years later in 1927. She also formed the Oswald Chambers Publications Association, which has continued distributing his teachings to this day.
Here is an overview of some of Oswald Chambers’ key teachings found in My Utmost for His Highest and his other writings and lectures:
The true character of Christianity
Chambers taught that correct doctrine or zeal for service is not what defines a true Christian. It is having an intimate, devoted relationship with Christ Himself:
“Christianity does not consist in having the right notions and the right standards, in knowing the right things to do and doing them. Christianity is a personal relationship to Jesus Christ. Let’s be perfectly clear about it – Christianity is a relationship that leaves me profoundly humbled by His grace and thankful for His mercy.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
He warned against substituting knowledge, activities, or gifts of the Spirit for closeness with God:
“If I do not love my Lord and Master with my whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and my neighbor as myself, then I know nothing of Calvary love. Paul says simply – “The love of Christ constrains me” – squeezes me, presses me into the life of Jesus Christ until there is literally nothing left of myself, only Himself.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
The role of the Holy Spirit
Chambers emphasized the Holy Spirit as a practical power and presence available to every Christian, not just an abstract theological concept:
“The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God come to indwell me. When I yield myself to obey Him, He will flow through me the very life of God that transforms my nature into oneness with God insofar as I will yield to Him.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
He warned believers not to separate their spiritual life from their everyday life. The Spirit wants to influence practical details like our thoughts, decisions, and relationships:
“The life that is rightly aligned with God must be guided by the Holy Spirit, not just occasionally, but constantly…Let Him have His way in the smallest details of my life.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
God’s transformative purpose
Chambers often cautioned believers against viewing themselves as pawns on a chessboard for God to move around. Rather, God wants an intimate friendship with us:
“We tend to think that God wants to use us for His purposes. But the truth is, He wants us to realize that He created us for the pleasure of knowing Him.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
He taught that discipleship is a process by which God transforms us internally into Christ’s image:
“God does not promote us for our ministry skills or spiritual giftings. His one aim is to form the likeness of His Son in us.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
The necessity of surrender
Surrendering fully to God’s will was a foundational theme of Chambers’ message. He insisted we must give up control so Christ can live through us:
“Complete surrender to God is a distinct crisis experience. It brings a revolutionary alteration into our life and into our entire relationship with God. God asks us to present ourselves to Him empty, so He may fill us with Himself.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
This surrender is not a one-time event but rather an ongoing lifestyle for the believer:
“We must daily surrender ourselves entirely to Jesus so that His life can manifest itself through us. Abandonment to God is not a process – it’s a leap in the dark. God wants us to be so identified with Himself that we have no will of our own.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
Devotion to God
Chambers stressed that intimacy with God only develops through consistent devotion to knowing Him. Just as relationships require time and cultivation, our relationship with God requires a habit of spiritual attentiveness:
“We have to develop godly habits and disciplines if we want to truly know God instead of just knowing about Him. It requires a deep love for God nurtured through quietly listening to His voice day by day.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
He suggested that Christians must set aside intentional time to minister to Jesus through prayer and meditation on Scripture:
“The only way to know Jesus is to give Him your undivided devotion and prayerful meditation. Set time apart daily and let it be wholly His.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
Miracles through yieldedness
Chambers believed strongly that God desires to do incredible things through yielded Christians. Miracles happen when believers surrender themselves fully for God’s use:
“Our focus should not be on ministries and spiritual gifts but on knowing Jesus intimately. As we surrender to Him and fix our eyes on His face, He will transform us and do miraculous things through our yielded lives.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
He taught that willingness to obey God comes before seeing His power manifested:
“As soon as we obey, God works through us. He works miracles through ordinary people who have surrendered fully to Him.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
Chambers exhorted Christians not to limit God because of their small vision. Divine life can flow through a fully surrendered believer.
Key Bible passages:
Though Chambers did not directly quote Scripture extensively in his written works, certain passages embody the spiritual truths he emphasized:
Philippians 3:8-10 – Forgetting worldly things and only desiring to know Christ.
Galatians 2:20 – Being crucified with Christ so that His life reigns in us.
Luke 9:23 – Denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Christ.
Romans 12:1-2 – Offering our entire lives to God and being transformed by His Spirit.
John 15:4-5 – Abiding in Christ as the secret to our life and fruitfulness.
1 Corinthians 2:2 – Knowing nothing except Christ and Him crucified.
In summary, Oswald Chambers was a gifted Christian author and teacher whose influence continues to this day. His passion was for every believer’s absolute surrender to Christ in order to know Him intimately. Chambers taught uncompromisingly that comfortable Christianity is not true Christianity. He called Christians to yield fully to the control of the Holy Spirit in every area of their lives. My Utmost for His Highest and Chambers’ other collected teachings remain beloved classics containing profound wisdom on the spiritual life. His legacy is one that continues to point Christians towards radical devotion to Christ through the empowering of the Holy Spirit.