5 Ways to Hear God Speak Through the Bible
Updated: Apr 28, 2022
By Pastor Shawna Carpenter
The Bible is not just a book to be read, it’s an invitation into an encounter with God. But how many times have you picked up your Bible and felt a block? Sometimes the familiarity of popular Bible stories and passages, or sometimes the obscurity of the passage can make it hard to connect with the spirit of what is being said. Here are some keys to help you move past the mental blocks into the encounter God has waiting for you in your Bible Study!
1) Pray before you read and invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 that only the Holy Spirit can reveal the thoughts of God to us. Jesus also promised that God would give the Holy Spirit to anyone who asked (Luke 11:13). You don’t have to qualify through intelligence, education or position in the church. No one is smart enough to to understand God on their own. But you can invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you through the Scripture, and He will!
Of course, make sure you also take time to listen. I like to have a journal handy to write down what I hear the Holy Spirit saying. If I’m not sure if it’s the Holy Spirit or not, I will ask someone who I know studies the Scripture to pray and study with me. In that way, I am accountable to not just hear what I want to hear in the Scripture, but to actually be open to what God wants to say.
2) Meditate on what you read.
Meditating on Scripture is not the same thing as Eastern Meditation. In Eastern Meditation the goal is to empty your mind and become one with the universe. You are already one with God through the Holy Spirit (John 17:21;1 Corinthians 6:17; Ephesians 4:4-5). So instead of emptying yourself, you should fill yourself with the thoughts and words of God.
Meditating is literally the idea of regurgitating the message (I know it’s kind of a gross image) like a cow chews on grass. This means to think about Scripture throughout the day: when you’re driving, cleaning, or doing other mundane tasks. Post Scripture on a note or electronically on your phone. Find someway of reminding yourself to be thinking about God’s Word. Instead of worrying or filling your head with worldly drama – fill your mind with the Word of God instead!
3) Talk to the Holy Spirit about what you’re reading.
Don’t just read a passage and move on. Think about what it means and ask the Holy Spirit questions about it. For example, when reading 1 Corinthians 2 you could ask the Holy Spirit how to know the difference between human wisdom and God’s thoughts. You could ask Him how He reveals God’s thoughts to us. You could ask Him how spiritual truths will impact a believer’s thinking and life. You can also spend time praying the Scripture – asking him to reveal spiritual truths. Or thank the Holy Spirit that He is always with you, revealing the thoughts of God to you.
One more note, don’t feel like you need to have all the answers at once. Just get use to asking a lot of questions. Learning to ask meaningul questions is the first step in gaining new insight. Sometimes it helps to talk to other people about what you’re reading too. Sometimes the insight we gain is the Holy Spirit speaking through a friend. These kinds of Bible Study groups are the most exciting to be a part of.
4) Study the historical context of the text – imagine yourself in that place in history.
If you read the Bible only through your own cultural lenses, then you’re likely to misunderstand a lot of it. Most good study Bibles will have a paragraph or two at the beginning of a book telling you about the historical context and major themes of that book of the Bible. As you are reading, think about what the people of that time and culture were experiencing. Put yourself in their place.
For example, Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church was very confrontational. They seemed to be a very spiritual church. Paul even says that they weren’t lacking any spiritual gift (1:6). However, the church was full of all kinds of divisions, cliques, immorality, and disorder. When Paul was speaking about how the Holy Spirit gives us God’s thoughts, he was confronting the Corinthians because their character showed that they were not relying on God’s wisdom, but still acting worldly. Can you imagine thinking that you were so smart and spiritual, only to be told you are still a baby in the faith? What areas do you think you have it all together in, but God is wanting to bring correction? Are you willing to let the Holy Spirit speak to you about those areas?
5) Read the same passage in a translation you’re not familiar with.
If you’ve grown up in the church, like me, or have been a Christian very long, we can get very familiar with Bible stories and passages so that its hard to see them in a new light. Sometimes just switching to a different Bible translation can help. There are many good modern translations such as the New Living Translation, New International Version, or New Century Version. No Bible translation is perfect, but if you compare a passage between several translations you should get a good idea of what it means. You could also try an audio Bible. Sometimes hearing instead of seeing can shed new light on a passage.
For Christians, the Bible is suppose to help us hear from God and bring life to our faith. However, we can’t forget that it was written in a time and culture very different then our own, and sometimes this can make it hard to understand. The Holy Spirit can help us hear from God, but be patient with yourself. The Bible isn’t a book you read once and understand. You will spend the rest of your life exploring the promises and thoughts of God that Scripture contains. For a more in-depth look at how to hear God in the Bible check out my book on
Amazon entitled: The Invitation with Workbook: Encountering God in His Word. You can also download the workbook part of The Invitation for free on my website: www.loveonfireonline.com.
Finally, I hope you will connect with me on YouTube, FaceBook, Instagram, and comment below. What do you do to connect with God through the Bible? What have you heard Him speak lately?
Patreon Link: https://www.patreon.com/Loveonfireministries
Comments