Hearing God’s Voice – The Art of Spiritual Reading and Listening

HEARING GOD’S VOICE –THE ART OF SPIRITUAL

READING AND LISTENING

By Lee Kha Loon, PJS1

In October, our Senior Pastor preached two sermons to encourage us to be more intentional in hearing God’s voice. My cell group (PJS1) responded by reading Psalm 104 (creation praise) for the week for our daily devotion: reading, meditating and journaling our thoughts to share and encourage one another. Then, on Friday night, we shared our reflections further on how the Spirit spoke to us during the week. As I reflected further on how to hear God’s voice, I was prompted to write an article on the art of spiritual reading (and listening), reading the Bible with the purpose of growing in holiness. As one develops a spiritual reading habit, it will lead to a conversational relationship with God, the ability to be honest with God through our pain and struggles, and joy and success in life. Those who practise and write on this topic include Eugene Peterson, Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, John Piper, Walter Brueggemann and CS Lewis. I was introduced to the art of spiritual reading when I participated in a study group this year studying the works of Eugene Peterson (author of the Message Bible) led by Dr. Alex Tang. I then read Eugene Peterson’s book on the art of spiritual reading entitled ‘Eat This Book’. Peterson was trained as a language teacher and taught Greek and Hebrew before he became the pastor of a local church. From there he recognised that the language of the Bible is not for theologians but for ordinary members living in today’s world. Hence, bible reading should be easy, without referring to threevolume commentaries, but spending time in meditation, reflection and deep thinking (The Message, Preface, page 7).

1. CAN WE HEAR GOD’S VOICE? 2. SPIRITUAL READING 101

Scripture as text: learning what God reveals

Scripture is God’s word to us to enter into a relationship with Him. It is personal and relational. We are to participate in reading/ listening with the realisation that the Word is comprehensive and covers everything that is needed between author and reader. Through reading and listening we are in conversation with the Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, we have built barriers to our reading with the Replacement Trinity: our needs, wants and feelings - our sovereign self 1. We can easily deceive ourselves by focusing on our needs and feelings and being self-centred and we must guard against it.

Scripture as Form; Following the Way of Jesus

Scripture must also get into our inner-self for it to be manifested outwards; just like food provides nourishment to our body. We are to taste, chew, swallow and digest Scripture as St John was told to eat the scroll (Rev10). The Word comes in different forms, mainly through stories, stories that we can identify with in our daily routines; Jesus Himself was a master of story-telling.

Scripture as Script; Playing our part in the Spirit The third aspect of spiritual reading is to cultivate practices that make us receptive listeners and better followers of Jesus. It means participatory reading that leads us to walk in obedience, to follow the Jesus way. Reading Scripture as liturgy is one way of helping Christians to first come to the sanctuary, the place of adoration and worship; then out of the sanctuary into places of the world to live out the obedient life2 . How did I develop this further? Let me share with you two examples. We can distinguish between traditional and spiritual reading as follows:

Traditional Reading

Genesis 1-2 Creation vs Science Problem of existence of evil

Rev 6 - The seven seals The four horses are symbols of war and destruction. Images are linked to the visions of Zechariah.

Interpretation - War, famine and inflation will be global and widespread. Spiritual Reading

Genesis 1-2 • Creation story as a poem, not a scientific explanation • Rhythm and movement expressing God’s joy that creation was good

Rev 6 - The Lamb is in control; he alone can open the seals and let events happen. How long? And who can bear it? The saints who have the seal of the Lamb. What is our response?

Ch7. Interlude; worship and sing to the Lamb.

Genesis 1 -2

A traditional reading (how I used to read the passage) of Genesis 1-2 would focus on the creation story, on whether God created the world ex-nihilo (out of nothing) or there was pre-existing substance. Theologians have tried to explain the existence of evil and when evil came into the world. There is much debate on the meaning of the seven days and whether the Creation account was in chronological order. Theologians try to find answers to skeptics who doubt the accuracy and logic of the Creation account.

A spiritual reading of Gen1-2 would focus on the language rather than try to give a scientific explanation of Creation. Is it a poem

or a narrative of the Creation? There is a pattern and rhythm in Genesis 1 that justifies reading it as a poem on Creation. There is a certain tempo… and God said, and God made, and God blessed… There is also repetition… And there was evening, and there was morning…

There is also a process, step by step, day by day… light and darkness, sky and sea, earth and vegetation. There was also a response from God… and God saw that it was good. Spiritual reading helps us to recover the rhythm of Genesis 1; the gift of time (seven days), and we sing to the glory of God and his creation3 .

Revelation 6, 8:1-5

The traditional reading would focus on the symbols: the four coloured horses, their relation to Zechariah’s vision, and the interpretation in relation to current world events and the end-times - war, famine and pestilence.

A spiritual reading would focus on St John as a pastor to the seven churches, rather than John as a theologian. The first century was chaotic. There was rest, and conflicts (persecution); good, and evil in everyday life; blessing, and curses. John had visions of the end-days. How should a pastor reflect and encourage the congregation to respond to the events following the opening of the seals? 4The answer is in Revelation 7. The church was called to pray and worship in response to the calamities and events of their time. John saw visions of multitudes of angels and saints singing, praising and worshipping the Lamb on the throne. 4. PRACTICAL METHODS OF

SPIRITUAL READING 4.1 LECTIO DIVINA

The most common form of spiritual reading is Lectio Divina, a way of reading the Scriptures that was developed through the centuries by devout monks and saints to help us in formative ways, not just to make an impression on our minds and feelings. It has four elements; lectio (we read the text), meditatio (meditate), oratio (pray) and contemplatio (live)5. The last part, contemplatio means living what we read, finding a way to let the passage of scripture speak to us afresh its relevance to our immediate circumstances.

As I grew in my journey with spiritual reading, I followed some of Jesus’ teaching methods. Jesus was a master story-teller. The four Gospels report the preaching and teachings of Jesus - sometimes in a formal setting like the Sermon on the Mount, but mostly in casual encounters while eating meals in a home, strolling in fields or responding to questions from disciples, seekers, friend or foes. Luke records Jesus’ journey from Galilee to Jerusalem (Travel Narratives, Lk 9:51-19:44), where Jesus encountered many individuals along the way. Some He healed, others He had a conversation with that revealed who they were or what they were looking for in life. As Jesus held conversations, He also told many parables on the way to Jerusalem and the cross.

4.2 STORY-TELLING – JESUS’ TEACHING METHOD

3. Eugene Peterson, Christ Play in Ten Thousand Places, (Hodder and Stoughton, London 2005) 69 4. Eugene Peterson, Reverse Thunder, The Revelation of John and the Praying Imagination, (HarperCollins Publishers,

New York, 1988) 9 5. Eugene Peterson, Eat this Book, The Art of Spiritual Reading (Hodder and Stoughton, London 2006), 91

The parable has a unique language and it always involves the hearer. Sometimes the hearer has to use some imagination to listen to and comprehend what is said. Surprisingly, the meaning or lesson from the parable is often not something new, but rather gets us to notice something in our life that we have overlooked for a long time6 .

Parables are stories that deal with everyday life: farming, weddings, planting trees and looking for lost coins. They are spoken in places outside the temple, and the language is not so religious as the usual “God talk” we Christians love to use. The results of our spiritual reading should help us connect with our friends, colleagues and family, the way Jesus used parables in everyday conversations with the Pharisees, tax collectors, the blind, the lepers and the harlots. Prayer and worship are what we all do, but not enough of. There is corporate prayer during Sunday celebration and cell group meetings every week. Personal prayer is perhaps the most lacking of our spiritual disciplines. We can incorporate “pray with the Psalms” sessions by reading, meditating and sharing on Psalms in our annual calendar. Here are some suggested Psalms and themes.

4.3 THE PSALMS – PRAYER

AND WORSHIP

A third method of applying spiritual reading is prayer. The gospels tell us much about Jesus’ prayer life. Luke records nine instances of Jesus’ prayers. He prays in the wilderness, up in the mountains, and often withdraws to pray alone. He prays for his disciples; He also prays with them. Jesus has not stopped praying. Today, He is praying and interceding for us. Prayer is the language of the Trinity, intimate and personal.

The Psalms are a wonderful collection of prayers; many are David’s prayers in good and bad times. The Psalms express David’s heart to listen to God. Listening is the first step to effective prayer. Prayer is giving attention to God. Prayer is also engaging and emotional. The psalmist often cries and complains to God; then in silence waits and listens to God’s voice7 . I have always struggled to pray with the Psalms. The language of Psalms and the cultural gap add to the impediments in appreciating, reading and understanding them, notably the ‘complaint’ psalms. Psalm 57 uses poignant language to describe David’s period of distress as he escaped from the pursuit of Saul. In expressing anger and frustration, the psalmists often cry to God, and the use of metaphors and hyperbole (often ambiguous) is to evoke feelings in us to feel and identify with the psalmist8 .

Psalm 29

Psalm 104

Psalm 57

Psalm 114 Spiritual Reading Response

Adoration and worship psalm Hear God’s voice.

Song of Creation Praise God for His royal splendour in creation of the world.

David fled from Saul into the cave Cry to God for deliverance 57:4 - I lie in the midst of lions...whose teeth are spears and arrows.

Nature subject to God’s will Israel’s deliverance from Egypt God of miracles Praise God as Redeemer.

6. Eugene Peterson, Tell it Slant (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2008), 19 7. Eugene Peterson, As Kingfishers Catch Fire, A conversation on the ways of God formed by the words of God (Waterbrook, Penguin, Colorado, 2017), 61 8. Walter Brueggemann, Praying with the Psalms, (Cascade books, Oregon, 2007) 18

In February our cell group discussion centered on Psalm 29. I was doing my lectio on this psalm earlier that week, and my reflection from my journal is below;

• Presumptuous prayer – I have a tendency to pray/talk to God without listening to him. Then I read and meditated on Psalm 29 for three days. As I read, read and read again many times, paused and meditated,

I could see patterns and rhythms in the psalm. The voice of the Lord or thunder requires a response, and the first response is to hear the thunder. God is speaking, so I must listen.

• Pattern, Rhythm and Metaphors in Psalm 29 - As I meditated further, I noticed the use of rhythm and metaphors. There is movement in verses 3-9; the psalm is not static. The voice of the Lord is over the waters, breaks the cedars, shakes the desert of Kadesh and strikes with flashes of lightning. These are high-intensity activities that signify that the God of Creation is in control of the forces of nature.

• Imagination – This psalm encourages us to read with imagination the metaphors, hyperbole and poetic language. There is joy in the psalm as a calf and wild young ox skip and dance to the voice of the Lord.

• Worship and Adore – Psalm 29 calls us to worship and adore, and give God the glory as we approach His Presence. There is no laundry list of prayer requests, which is usually how I pray. To pray with Psalm 29 is to cry “Glory” in His temple, and to recognise that the Lord is sovereign and eternal. He sits enthroned in heaven and he is Olam (Eternal God). My prayer life was transformed further as I read, prayed and meditated further on Psalms 57, 60, 108 and 116. It takes time to read slowly, and practice silence and solitude to feel the rhythm and movement in the prayers. Listen and God will answer in His time. Then we will enter into His Holy presence and converse with Him.

The cell group meeting in early November reflecting on Psalm 104 culminated from a week of reading, meditation and journaling (a new practice for some). In 2022, my cell group also read and discussed Psalm 29, Psalm 42 and 2 Samuel 1 (a lament song) at our Friday meetings. The regular ‘word sharing’ part tends towards doctrine, church practices and moral living, with emphasis on interpretation and application of truth. We can add to this by studying the same passage with the eyes of our heart, seeking the heart of God in our time of fellowship9 . The goal of spiritual reading is to develop a conversational relationship with God and allow the Spirit to lead and guide us in reading the Scriptures.

CONCLUSION

9. Richard Foster, Life with God, A life transforming new approach to Bible reading (Hodder &Stoughton, London, 2009) 73

“... spiritual reading is to cultivate practices that make us receptive listeners and better followers of Jesus. It means participatory reading that leads us to walk in obedience, to follow the Jesus way. Reading Scripture as liturgy is one way of helping Christians to first come to the sanctuary, the place of adoration and worship; then out of the sanctuary into places of the world to live out the obedient life”