Anticipating God's Voice

The Holy Spirit wants to teach all who are eager to obey, just as Jesus taught His disciples when He was here. "Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45). He invites us to begin reading with a conscious dependence upon the Spirit to teach us to listen and to be our Guide.

"God has actually given us his Spirit...so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us" (1 Cor. 2:12 NLT). The Spirit reveals to us what God is thinking! Our own intellect reveals only what is humanly possible to understand, but we're looking for those truths the Spirit wants to reveal. So before we open our Bible we ask the Holy Spirit to be our Guide.

Remind yourself that God's presence is within you. Many times we have no conscious sense of His presence, but we are to trust that the Spirit indwells us to teach us. Treat Him as if He were in you, and you in Him; and He will respond to your trust. The consciousness of His presence will become real and delightful.   

Andrew Murray, the brilliant writer on prayer, gave these weighty words on Bible reading in The Secret of Adoration: "Give God time to reveal Himself to you. Give yourself time to be silent and quiet before Him, waiting to receive, through the Spirit, the assurance of His presence with you, His power working in you.   

"Take time to read His Word as in His presence, that from it you may know what He asks of you and what He promises you. Let the Word create around you, create within you a holy atmosphere, a holy heavenly light, in which your soul will be refreshed and strengthened for the work of daily life."   

Thank You, Father, for promising to give wisdom to all who ask.  

"Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32).