Can You Really Hear God When You Open Your Bible? - Dr. Meghan Good

And so we come to what does it mean to hear God in Scripture? What exactly are we talking about here?

Yeah, I think when we listen to the Bible, there are a lot of different ways we can listen.

There are different ways that people come to the Bible.

Some people come just for interest, right, to read it as literature for cultural information.

And some people come maybe in a more academic sense to criticize or scrutinize.

But to read the Bible as a person of faith.

I think that there are two different things we can mean when we talk about listening for God.

And one is that we're listening for God's universal message that is spoken through Scripture, that God has specific things to say in these words to the church across time and space.

But another thing we can be doing, listening for God's voice, is listening for God speaking through Scripture, where the text that we're reading just opens us to an encounter with God, much like you might have in prayer or in a dream or in a vision or anything else, where you're having a more personal encounter and experiencing what God is saying to you.

And both of those, those are quite different kinds of experiences.

They're different ways of reading.

It's almost like the Holy Spirit interacting with the text, isn't it? Making it come alive for us.

Yes, absolutely.

I often think like a university professor might be reading scripture, but they're not looking at scripture to hear God's voice, are they? So it's the differences in the posture of our hearts as we read.

Absolutely.

I think it really is more about posture than technicalities, right? I think of the posture as you're putting yourself under the text as something that you are expecting to speak to you in a live way and something that you're prepared to submit yourself to as it speaks.

And I agree with you, that's the fundamental difference.

Yeah, I remember as a young person trying to work this out myself, because I think you can approach the text in a very intellectual way.

And, you know, scientists, historians, archaeologists have all looked at the text to try and work things out.

And I remember, you know, when I was teaching the Bible in in higher level education, the issue was what is the Bible? What am I trying to get out of it? It's not a science.

It's not even a history book because they weren't writing history.

What were they writing? They were writing theology.

They were writing about what the meaning of life was and who God is.

So the point is, you know, at the end of the day to reveal Jesus, the perfect image of the invisible God.

And so when I'm coming to read, it matters why I'm reading this, doesn't it?