The scriptures have been, and continue to be, foundational to my faith journey and development.

For me, the scriptures are inseparable from Jesus, from the Father, and from the Holy Spirit.

You see, the scriptures keep leading me to Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

In exactly the same way, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Father never stop leading me back to the scriptures!

Not surprisingly, therefore, the scriptures also play an indispensable role in my prayer.

To take this example: in my preparation for praying with my heart,  I meditate s-l-o-w-l-y, twice, on a short passage of scripture for about 15 – 20 minutes.

During this meditation, I ‘chew’ the words in my short scripture passage like a cow chews its cud!

This ‘chewing’ is far more than simply a matter of reading the words of scripture at the level of my intellect. Instead, my ‘chewing’ allows the passage to reveal its deeper meaning for me personally on this particular day at this particular time.

Please note that ‘chewing’ is NOT the same as analyzing. I do NOT analyze the scripture passage, and neither should you!

Analyzing is counter-productive to genuine prayer.

Analyzing is a function of the intellect, not of the heart.

And it’s to your HEART that the Lord wants to communicate!

From My Intellect/Mind to My Heart

So I avoid analyzing like the plague!

Instead, I allow the words of the scripture to percolate all the way down from my intellect to a far deeper and broader dimension, the dimension of my HEART.

To understand what your ‘heart’ is, go here .

And to understand how to let the words of scripture percolate from your intellect through to your heart, please get my FREE 2-Step Guide here. It’s titled:

How to Regain, and Maintain,

God’s Lasting Inner Peace and Joy:

A Guaranteed Way to Experience God’s Presence, Love and Rest One-On-One

Note: In no way is this to reject or devalue your and my human intellect. It’s merely to recognize that you get to know the Lord primarily with your HEART, not primarily with your intellect.

How I See the Scriptures

For me, the scriptures

• record the history of creation
• record the individual personalities, actions, and personal contributions of all the Jewish-Christian faithful men and women over centuries
• record the faith of each of my Christian ancestors who followed the Lord as their ‘north star’
• record the faith-challenges of all my Christ-follower ancestors who prophesied, followed, served and, in the end, sometimes had to give their own lives for the Lord
• introduce me to my Saviour, Brother, Friend, and Healer
• introduce me to Jesus’ mother and my own heavenly mother, Mary
• introduce me to Jesus’ ascension and return to the Father
• introduce me to the Holy Spirit, as promised by Jesus
• introduce me to the birthday of our Christian church
• introduce me to the Apostles and disciples appointed and commissioned by Jesus
• explain how these men carried out the mission the Lord had entrusted to them: namely, to preach Jesus’ good news, to save souls, to deliver souls from evil spirits, and to heal those who were/are sick —physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally

Each of the above-listed components of your and my Christian history is important for understanding your and my story over roughly 4,000 years.

As you and I know well from personal experience, it’s completely impossible to know, value, or understand ANY person unless you know at least the main points of her or his story!

Exactly the same is also true for all 3 Persons of the Trinity:

• the Father
• the Son
• the Holy Spirit

Am I beginning to convince you that without the scriptures my journey of faith would lack a foundational and utterly indispensable element?

A  FAITH-Transforming Moment in My Life:

God Invites Me to See the Scriptures in a Brand-New Light

Forty-one years ago, in my second conversion the Lord invited me to see the scriptures in a brand-new light.

This happened during a special period of 15 months. It began with a profound and deeply painful personal trauma and ended with one full year of 3-times-a-day periods of contemplative prayer!

As preparation for contemplative prayer (prayer in which you deliberately choose to let go of all words, thoughts, feelings, and images), the Lord invited me to enter into His direct presence.

In the Lord’s direct presence, I was able to soak in and imbibe God’s healing love and peace and joy far more directly and far more fully than in what you and I normally think of as ‘prayer’ or have been taught  ‘prayer’ to be. Yet it is, in fact, the way Jesus Himself taught us to pray. 

Not surprisingly, in this way of praying without thoughts and words but with one’s whole being, (what Jesus and the Father call our ‘heart’), Jesus himself becomes your Teacher.

And when Jesus becomes your Teacher of the scriptures, He transforms your actual CONSCIOUSNESS!

You can never look back.

Personal change takes place at an ultra-deep level.

You’re on the way to that actual transformation into the Lord’s own image that is the single goal of our faith journey (see 2 Corinthians 3:18, Romans 8:29, 2 Peter 1:14, 1 Peter 1:15 -16)!

As I persevered (more-than-willingly!) in this way of praying 3 times a day for 365 days, my relationship with the Lord became steadily more powerful —automatically —and in a completely natural way.

In fact, it took me some time to begin to digest and understand what an astounding gift I was being given and how profoundly it was impacting me!

What Jesus had invited me to experience —whenever I wanted or needed to — on a regular basis, was nothing less than revolutionary for me.

But the amazing repercussions didn’t end there. Soon, Jesus led me to His Father, the God of the Old Testament. This God had always seemed remote to me. Now, however, He came fully alive just like His Son, Jesus.

There was no longer even a faint dividing line between the Old and New Testaments!

You see, I met person-to-person the Son, the Father and, soon afterwards, God the Holy Spirit.

The Scriptures not Only as Logos but as Rhema

When Jesus himself becomes your Teacher, another revolutionary thing happens.

You begin to understand that on certain occasions the Holy Spirit uses the words of scripture to speak to you directly, at a specific time, and for a particular purpose. 

You begin to see that on certain occasions, the Lord chooses to change His settled, eternal, written word of scripture, logos, (see the section titled The Scriptures not Only as Logos, But as Rhema) into rhema, (see the section titled The Scriptures not Only as Logos, But as Rhema), a word from God spoken to

• a PARTICULAR person
• at a PARTICULAR time
• in a PARTICULAR place

God uses these rhema words to speak to you and me directly and personally in whatever current situation we might be facing.

These completely supernatural revelations from the Lord make all the difference to your and my understanding of a specific bewildering, challenging, or traumatic situation in our life and to your and my ultimate HEALING and VICTORY over it.

But God doesn’t limit His rhema words to your life’s pain-filled times. He provides His rhema words in your life’s very good times too.

You will experience rhema words as words of special authority. They bond you to the Lord in a way that simply knowing and/or reading the scriptures as logos might not. 

A Word of Caution about the Scriptures:
Jesus’ Own Warning to Us!

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life;

and these are they which testify of Me.

But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

John 5:39 - 40 NKJV (My emphasis)

It‘s perfectly possible to be able to recite the scriptures faultlessly and still not know the Person to whom they point!  The Lord Himself pointed this out to the Pharisees (John 5:39 – 40).

Jesus knew that a mere intellectual proficiency in the scriptures did not in itself guarantee conversion of a person’s heart (the deepest center of her/his being). Rather, Christ pointed out, eternal life and being born anew is guaranteed only by being willing to come to the Person to whom they point: namely, ‘to Me’ (John 5:40)

Nicodemus (John 3:1-10) was a case in point. As a Pharisee and teacher, Nicodemus knew the scriptures well. Yet he was in danger of missing Christ himself. Christ explained to Nicodemus that a mere proficiency in the scriptures would not by itself guarantee that he would know Christ. To know Christ, the Lord explained, Nicodemus would have to be born into God’s Spirit as well. 

Similarly, Saul (later the Apostle Paul) knew the scriptures inside out, having been taught by the most distinguished and expert rabbis of his time. Yet Saul had not recognized the Lord to whom the scriptures pointed! Instead, he had actually persecuted Jesus and connived in the murder of Jesus’ beloved follower, Stephen.

Paul had missed the target!

Are You Missing the Target?

So be aware of the Lord’s warning:

You can know the scriptures backwards and still miss the Person at their centre, the Lord Jesus!

You see, the Lord wants more than a knowledge of the scriptures. He desires a living, permanent relationship with you.

You are His daughter.

Jesus is your brother.

And Jesus wants to be your friend (John 15:15).

Each one of these relationships requires that you know the scriptures and the Person at their centre with your HEART!

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Disclaimer

No content on this website should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified health professional or
clinician

Watch out for Part 4 next month: Was there a particular event that Led Me to Mentor Christian Women on Their Faith Journeys?

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Watch Part 1 here! 

Watch Part 2 here!

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Want to discover how to know the scriptures with your HEART?

If you do, scroll down to get my FREE 2-STEP GUIDE

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And to Sonia’s interview with me? 

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