Sabbatical #12: Hearing God through Scripture

I’ve wanted to “listen” to God better in my life. It’s kind of the focus of my sabbatical, I guess you could say. I’m reading Dallas Willard’s Hearing God. It is really challenging – in terms of following Willard (he’s a smart cookie) and actually doing it. He always does a great job of inspiring us to live a God-immersed life. He is a man calling for discipleship, excellent living in the here-and-now, not just in heaven.

God’s Word isn’t limited to Scripture, according to Willard, because God is a communicating Person, but it is the surest way to genuine transformation because it shows us how to live and how to get there.

When we engage the Word, we should not focus on quantity, but quality. I totally focus on quantity. I need to work on slowing down in Scripture and submitting myself to it. These are Willard’s tips on reading for transformation:

1. Information – this text means something and God communicates through it.
2. Longing for it to be so – you actually want this change to change your life.
3. Affirmation that it must be so – trusting what God says is true even if it doesn’t line up with our experiences.
4. Invocation to God to make it so.
5. Appropriation by God’s grace that it is so – this cannot be faked. “The ability for it will be given as you watch for God to move in your life.” (Willard 164).

I know it is just a sketch, and probably incomplete, but it might be helpful. I know the book will be helpful, if you're interested.