STUDY

LISTEN FOR GOD’S VOICE WHILE READING
God, in his wisdom, has seen fit to make the written word available to us and we do not want to ignore his gift. Unlike the faith heroes of Hebrews 11 who had no written Bibles, we have many versions of the Bible to choose from when reading.

We must be careful in our reading, however, because God has alerted us to the fact that all scribes (i.e. writers of God’s word) have mishandled the law so badly that he considers their writings to be lies. We must also be humble enough to consider that what God said about his people not having eyes to see or ears to hear applies to us and that we also have mishandled and misquoted scripture.

STUDY TIP: See Bible History for understanding of how God’s word has been mishandled and misquoted.

If we believe that all scripture is good for training in righteousness, we will apply what God said about walking by faith and not by sight and  hearing God’s voice to ourselves. We must keep the following truths in mind:

When Christians read Old Testament commandments to listen to God’s voice, they should not think the commands were only to Jews and ancient Israel. That is dispensational thinking. All of God’s commands are for us who live today — not yesterday or tomorrow.

People who lived in Bible times could not see the spiritual meaning of the Bible or hear and understand when God spoke to explain it to them. They are the same as religious people who live today who should learn from the experience of Bible characters. But, religious people who humbly admit that that they do not know how to listen to God’s spoken voice make the first, critical step toward inviting God to open their spiritual eyes and ears so that they can hear God’s voice while reading the Bible.

People who read using only their intellectual minds cannot understand the spiritual truth contained in the literal words of the bible because they don’t listen with their hearts for spiritual wisdom and understanding that comes from the spirit of God (i.e. his voice). The principle of listening with your heart while reading the words is revealed in Isaiah 29:18:

“On that day the deaf will hear words of a book, And out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.”

STUDY TIPS: To appreciate the full meaning of this verse, it is first necessary to understand the symbolic meanings of deafness and blindness.

When reading Isaiah 29:18 we are prompted to ask “what, or when is that day when the deaf will hear and the blind will see?” The answer to this question is found in this link that tells us that the day in question is the day we hear God’s spoken voice.

People who lack the ability to hear God’s spoken voice are limited in their understanding of bible symbols, parables, signs, types, allegories, copies and shadows. Using their intellect and reason they may convince themselves that they understand the bible, but they do not understand God. The only way to understand and know God is to hear God’s spoken voice.

People who do not hear God’s spoken voice may understand the literal truth of the Bible but they do not have the spiritual truth that will set them free from religion. Thus they remain slaves to religion. They may have the intellectual truth of the literal Bible in their minds, but the spiritual truth of the Bible is not in their hearts.

STUDY TIP: Only New Covenant disciples are able to interpret the mysteries and secrets hidden in the symbolic language of the Bible. They are able to interpret the many Symbols, Signs, Types, Parables, Copies, and Shadows found in the Bible because God has written his laws on their hearts.

Hearing God’s spoken voice is the evidence that indicates God has written his laws on the hearts of people. It can be said, therefore, that people who deny the ability to hear God’s voice also deny that God’s laws are written on their hearts. That denial confirms that those people are Old/First Covenant religionists who interpret the Bible literally — not symbolically.

The ability to hear God’s spoken voice is evidence that someone has been born again. Only people who have been born by the spirit are able to hear the words of the spirit of God spoken to the heart. All others are born of the flesh. They only understand human wisdom and are unable to understand spiritual words.

When we read the Bible with our natural eyes and interpret with our natural minds, all that we get is the literal words and their literal meanings as we understand them in our own cultures. This is predictable because that is how we are trained to learn. But God’s ways are not man’s ways. God’s way is to use the ears of our hearts to listen to his spoken voice which will explain the mysteries of the Bible in God’s spiritual language that transcends cultural meanings. He speaks in the language of the culture of the Kingdom of Heaven which is God’s unique language. Therefore, when we study the Bible, we should also be listening for God’s voice to interpret the spiritual meanings of the words that we read.

In God’s view, those who read and think they understand because they read the literal words and act on what those literal words say, are blind and deaf. They see with their natural eyes and understand with their intellectual minds, but these capabilities are not what God wants us to use to hear and understand him.

In religion, intellectual capabilities and skills used to read and interpret the literal words of the Bible are praised by religious people who value human wisdom and biblical facts. Children and adults who can quote scripture are regarded as very spiritual even though they are not born again. But the ability to memorize scripture is not a capability that God values. Memorization represents worldly knowledge — not Godly knowledge. God, being spirit, only values spiritual capabilities. Being able to read natural words and interpret their spiritual meanings is a spiritual — not intellectual — activity. When we listen with our heart, the spirit of God that teaches us all things according to the terms of the New Covenant.

Anyone can report on the literal meaning of the literal words of the Bible but only God, and true prophets who speak for God, can interpret the spiritual meaning. True prophets like Jesus, Paul and Old Testament prophets who are sent by God to speak for God are also called angels, messiahs, high priests, witnesses, warriors, servants, shepherds and apostles

We should never depend on the understanding that comes through natural eyes and ears — ours or anyone else. We can trust true prophets because they hear God’s spoken voice and speak what they hear to us for God. False Prophets, on the other hand, use their intellectual minds to interpret the meaning of the literal words of the Bible. We should never depend on human teachers (i.e. Pastors, Priests, Rabbis, Apostles, Bishops, Elders, Deacons, Overseers, Rabbis, Popes, Missionaries and Evangelists) to interpret the mind of God for us. Why should we depend on human teachers when God wants to teach us himself and insists that we listen to his voice? We should only and always depend on what we see and hear in our spirits — not only on the literal words of the Bible.

Suggesting that we should not rely on the literal words of the Bible will be regarded as blasphemy to Old/First Covenant religionists who have created their doctrines and religious practices based on the literal Bible. But we remind them that the Bible says that if the law (i.e. religion) was able to impart life, righteousness would have been based on religion. If so, the promise to Abraham would be irrelevant and there would be no need for a New Covenant (i.e. Jesus).

Nevertheless, because God has given us the Bible (i.e the law) as a tutor to lead us to faith (i.e. New Covenant), we begin with the Bible but we do not end with the Bible for understanding. Rather, we apply the “first the natural and then the spiritual” principle while reading the literal Bible to discover what the spirit of God will reveal to us through it.

God remedied our inability to understand the spiritual law by sending messiahs, true prophets and angels to heal us of spiritual deafness and blindness. Until we are healed (i.e. our spiritual eyes and ears are opened), we are not able to understand the spiritual meanings of the following kinds of scriptures:

The spiritual meanings of these scriptures have always been hidden from religious people — including Jews and Christians. Lacking understanding of spiritual things, they always wrongly think that the literal/natural interpretation of the Bible was all that God had to say about a subject. They put their trust in their fleshly ability to read, understand and apply literal human words and in the fleshly interpretations of those human words by religious leaders who convinced them that they understood the spiritual meanings of those words. Thus, they themselves, and the people to whom they listen, functioned as gods for them because they were not listening to God’s voice for spiritual understanding.

The result of this history is that religious people are ignorant of the fact that there is a spiritual Bible (i.e. God’s voice) that leads to life that goes deeper than the literal, written Bible that leads to death. The literal Bible is what religious people read and understand with their intellectual minds. The spiritual Bible is what God communicates by his spirit to teach his people who listen to his voice.

STUDY TIP: See Religious Laws and Spiritual laws for more about the differences between the literal and spiritual Bible.

God portrays people who only understand with their intellectual minds as slaves to the law of sin (i.e. religion). These are found mainly, but not exclusively, in the Old Testament. The Bible portrays people who understand the spiritual Bible as New Covenant disciples. These are found in both the Old and New Testaments. Messiahs are the only characters who understood the spiritual meanings of all the difficult scriptures that have confused and misled generations of Jews and Christians.

All of Jesus’ teachings, his conflict with religion, and the way he conducted his life, clarified and explained the spiritual meaning of the Law and the Prophets. It was necessary for Jesus to come to interpret and live out the spiritual meanings behind the symbolism of the law and prophets because religious people then and now are spiritually dead for lack of understanding of the spiritual law. Teaching the spiritual meaning of the literal Bible was Jesus’ purpose in life. Teaching the spiritual meaning of the literal Bible is also the purpose of Jesus’ followers.

Not even Moses or the Apostle Paul understood everything. This kind of understanding is available only to New Covenant disciples who read the Bible like children and who are unafraid to ask questions as they seek for spiritual wisdom. 

STUDY TIP: See BE LIKE A LITTLE CHILD: ASK QUESTION for the  curious, inquiring attitude found in disciples.

True disciples will ask for the meaning of things they do not understand instead of pretending that they do understand or instead of being indifferent or curious enough to ask for an explanation. They know that God has hidden truths for them to discover and they are faithful to dig until they find what he has hidden. They are not satisfied with literal interpretations of the literal words of the Bible. They hunger and thirst to hear God’s spoken word.

This attitude contrasts with the wisdom of Old/First Covenant religionists who proudly believe they know-it-all because they have studied and even memorized the literal Bible and have heard many inspiring teachings from religious leaders. Their idea of digging for truth is listening to a sermon, listening to a teaching tape, listening to religious music, going to a spiritual movie, going to a conference, participating in a Bible study group, reading a book by a religious author or doing a daily devotional. They do not qualify as children eager to learn and will not learn anything more than literal truth because they choose to receive instruction from false prophets instead of digging their own spiritual wells.

Religious people pursue these human resources instead of seeking God because they wrongly think that, when God said ‘faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ”, he meant that hearing God’s voice means the same thing as reading words written by men on a page, and that hearing a message from a religious leader with their natural ears is the same thing as hearing the spirit of God speak to their hearts. They are not the same!

Nevertheless, there is great value in reading the Bible. But that value is acquired only when we read for the right motives using our minds while listening for God’s voice to reveal mysteries and explain parables to us.

STUDY TIP: See How to Hear God’s Spoken Voice for understanding of what you are listening for.

We will know that we are maturing spiritually when they see evidence that they are in the process of being born again.

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