Hearing God Through His Word

I want to talk about one other area that is very important to our ability to hear God speaking to us. And that's the area of having an ongoing exposure to the storyfound in the Word of God.

We all know the Word is important in our Christian life. The Word of God is our guide. Some have called it the plumbline, the thing that everything we do and think must line up with.

Spitit-Inspired

All scripture is divinely inspired. In other Words, men did not come up with the Scriptures, even though the Bible came through men and was recorded by men. It was written through the inspiration of the Spirit of God. So, God Himself wrote it by the inspiration He gave to those men.

But many people, even Christians, don't really believe the Bible is the infallible and unchanging truth of God. To many people, it's just another book.

Is the Bible a Book for Today?

They often think, well, it was probably good back in the day when it was written, but times have changed. We're living in a modern world, and it's just not relevant for today.

And you may have noticed that things we used to call sin, society today says they're perfectly fine. And they say, How can this ancient book still be useful?

God Does Not Change

This is why it still applies to us today, because the Lord doesn't change with the times, nor does His Word. If it was true back then, it's true today, and it will be true forever.

The Bible is a Story

Now, I want to tell you something about the Bible that may surprise you. The Bible, the Word of God, is essentially a story. Did you know that? It's been called the "greatest story ever told.""

Let me explain. When I was 29 years old, the Lord was dealing with me and drawing me by His Spirit. I wasn't saved or born again or religious, but I was under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that no man comes to Me except the Father draws him.

And I remember having an unusual thought one day. And the thought was this: how sad it would be for someone to live their entire life in this world and never read the story of the Bible.

I had read parts of the Bible before, but I had never read it as a story. Now, we had one of those old coffee table Bibles, you know, the great big ones, that just sat there in the living room, and so, one day I brushed the dust off of it and started reading.

Start Reading

Where did I start? Genesis, chapter one. I had never started at the beginning of the Bible to read the story all the way through. There is a story in the Bible that's fairly easy to follow, once you get over the boring parts, like the genealogies.

And so, every night during TV time, I sat there on the couch reading that old Bible. I wasn't being religious about it, I was just reading a story.

Everybody Loves a Story

And I found it to be a very interesting story. Did you ever think about it? God made us to be creatures who love stories. Even small children love stories. That's how we're made. We're built that way. It's in our DNA.

And I was just reading the Bible as a story, and by the way, a really fascinating story. How many of us have actually read the story of the Bible? I mean, detail by detail, directly from the Bible?

The Characters of the Story

I read through the book of Genesis and into Exodus. I read about Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and his brother Esau, Jacob marrying Rachel and Leah, Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers, and all the traditional Bible stories.

And for some strange reason, I cried when I read about Joseph revealing himself to his brothers. It just touched my heart for some reason. God has a way of softening us up with His Word.

It's a truly captivating story. And as I continued, I read about Moses and about the children of Israel coming out of Egypt and wandering in the wilderness for forty years and eventually entering into and possessing the promised land of Canaan, where they settled. And it was still a very fascinating story.

And then I read about Saul becoming the king of Israel during the time of Samuel, and then David becoming king. David had a number of sons, one of whom was Solomon. And the life of David with all his struggles and challenges was in and of itself an amazing story.

Even God is One of the Characters

And by the way, all of these Bible characters had their own personalities, and you get to know them as you read. And guess what, even God Himself is a character in the story, and we find out things about Him. God holds conversations with Abraham and Moses and others.

And Jesus is, of course, the main character in the story of the New Covenant.

Those Who Read the Bible Know the Bible

So, by the time I got born again in the Baptist Church, I had a really good knowledge of the story of the Bible. In fact, I discovered that I knew more about the Bible than most of the church members, and I was just a new Christian, a "babe in Christ."

You see, the problem we have with the Bible is that we take the few things the Lord has shown us about the Bible, the revelation He has given us by His Spirit, and we replace the Bible with it.

Then, in our mind, the basic Bible, the story of the Bible, is not enough for us. It's not spiritual enough. And so, we stop reading the Bible, and we go looking for someone who can give us some revelation. Oh, how foolish we sometimes are!

The truth is that the basic Bible, the story contained in the Bible, is more than enough. And we should read through it and then read through it again, over and over. That's called being in the Word, or abiding in the Word, and the Lord speaks to us through His Word.

Remember, we're still talking about hearing the Lord's voice. And the more we read His Word, the more our hearts will be in tune to hear His voice, on a regular and consistent basis.

The Story Has Power

The story of the Bible has great power in it. It is the Word of God. And if all the Bible reading we ever do is reading the story of the Bible faithfully, both Old Testament and New, then that's enough. The Lord will show us things about it.

Let me give you an example of what I'm saying. I was reading through Exodus a few days ago. And I came to the part where the children of Israel walked through the Red Sea on dry ground, and Pharaoh's army was drowned. And out of the blue, Moses just begins to sing a song of victory. And one line goes like this.

Now, I've read that verse many times over the years, but this time the Word 'habitation' seemed to jump out at me. I will prepare Him a habitation, which means a place to dwell in.

And I thought, could that be a key to hearing the voice of the Lord, preparing Him a place of habitation? Psalm 22 says that the Lord inhabits the praises of His people. We draw near to Him when we give Him praise, and when we pray, and when we read His Word, and so on.

Remember, Abraham built altars everywhere He went. He always prepared a place in his life to meet with God. And we should do that too if we want to hear His voice and receive His leading.

Delight Yourself in the Story

Here's another thought that will illustrate this idea of reading the story of the Bible.

Notice. It says that his delight is in the law of the Lord. Now we think of the law of the Lord as being the Ten Commandments and the rules and regulations given to Israel through Moses, but that's only a very small part of the law.

The law itself refers to the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. And, of course, it does contain the law, per se. But it's also a story that gives context to the law. It contains the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

And so, the law of the Lord, the Torah, which contains the first five books of the Bible, is a story. What am I saying? The man who meditates in the law of the Lord day and night is a man who meditates in the story of the Bible.

And it says that he will be like a tree planted by the waters, and his leaf shall not wither, that is, he stays youthful, and whatsoever he does will prosper and be successful.

Now, will reading the story of the Bible do that for us? I absolutely believe it will. But only if we read it and let it become an ongoing part of us. Can you see how important it is to read the story of the Bible?

I think we ought to read the full story over and over. I started over in the book of Genesis just recently, and the story is just as fascinating to me now as it was the first time I read it back before I got saved. I am always surprised at how fascinating the story is.

So, let's make it a priority, a continuing priority, to always be actively reading the story of the Bible, and allowing that story to continually bring us into and keep us in the world of the Word, a world in which it's easy to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow Him all our lives. Amen?