Introduction
I am not perfect, and even if I am a bad person, I still have people I love and friends I cherish. I can also talk about how I interact with my loved ones or friends I know. This is not something related to knowledge, it is just the accumulated experience of getting along with each other. Based on this reasoning, I wrote this article to describe my experience of how the Lord spoke to me through the Holy Spirit. I hope to leave it to others as some indicators for finding God’s dialogue with them. If someone encounters a situation like mine, how they can handle it so they can continue to walk on their narrow path of dialogue with God. Moreover, I have not taken a basic course in theology. The Bible verses recorded below are God’s responses to my questions that moved me through the Holy Spirit when I read the Bible daily. As 1 John 2:27 says,
“And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him remains in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you remain in Him.“
Please note here that the scriptures in the Bible were written by God through the Holy Spirit, inspiring the authors. Scriptures that come from the same Holy Spirit will not contradict each other, and will only complement each other, allowing readers to know God better. Therefore, don’t just read the scriptures in one place and say no need for anyone to teach you. And declare that there is no need to learn the knowledge of the Bible. It is because, in 2 Peter 1:5-7, the Holy Spirit wrote through Peter that we also need knowledge, but knowledge is not everything. It is only another part of our spiritual journey walking towards the Creator of the Universes.
“Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.“
I will divide the following three aspects of experience into three short articles in this first part of the article.
- Mentality, time, place, preparation and reason (this article)
- Dialogue method of how God is speaking to me
- Reasons and methods of identification it is truly from God
Mentality, time, place, preparation and reason
Mentality
Isaiah 55:11 records that the true God, who created the heavens and the earth, and all things in life, speaks according to the law.
“So will My word be which goes out of My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the purpose for which I sent it.”
For this reason, the Old Testament, Isaiah 45: 23,
“I have sworn by Myself;
The word has gone out from My mouth in righteousness
And will not turn back,
That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.“
and the New Testament, Romans 14:11, the Holy Spirit also recorded the same prophecy sworn to Himself from the mouth of God through the apostle Paul – “TO ME EVERY KNEE WILL BOW“
Then we, the world, whether we are God’s people or not, will definitely kneel down to the Lord when God the Son returns to judge the world, whether in awe or fear. Therefore, in terms of mentality, we can learn to kneel to the Lord earlier in this life, pray for His mercy and grace, and talk to us. This is the same mentality as we hope that our children can have “Early Childhood Education”. The sooner we kneel to the Lord, the better. Readers can think about it, a person who has never knelt before God, what will he need to go through in the future before he will willingly kneel down to the CREATOR and worship Him? Moreover, I once recorded in the third paragraph at the end of “Struck Down, But Not Destroyed (Part 1)” that a missionary couple shared with me that kneeling down to pray and read the Bible can help us humans become humble and learn to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. For the above two reasons, when I am willing to be humble, I will kneel down, pray to the Lord, and ask Him.
People can kneel down in many forms. Some forms are more comfortable for the body. While others vary from person to person and are more difficult to last. It doesn’t matter whether you are comfortable or not. You must find the form that can calm your heart the most and make you most eager for God’s words. This is one of the most important of keeping your original heart and seeking God’s dialogue with yourself. As for ways to calm my mind, there are two. The first one is that the muscles on the back of the calf and thigh are close together, the weight of the upper body is supported by the leg muscles, and the Bible is read in the hands. See the example of this form in the below picture.
If there is a height-adjustable chair, it is also good to kneel on the ground and put the Bible on the seat to read. As for how long I can kneel. My legs will become numb and I will lose consciousness after about fifteen minutes because there is no blood circulation in my legs. So, when that happen, I will sit on the floor and continue to read the Bible or pray to God until my legs are no longer numb. If my heart is willing or time permits, I will kneel down again and continue reading the Bible and praying. If you are on a hard surface, you can put down a soft cushion to make your knees less uncomfortable. The second form is similar to the first, except that when praying, you will kneel down and put your hands on the ground to reduce the weight on your legs so that the legs will not be numb during prayer. See the example of this second form in the picture below.
Please note that the skin on your knees will begin callused due to years of kneeling on the ground. This is normal. If you are a person who loves external beauty, I just hope you can decide for yourself. I can only assure you based on Isaiah 45:23 and the New Testament, Romans 14:11, that the sooner you kneel before God, read the Bible and pray, the better. As for me, after repenting a few years ago, I prayed because my knees were injured, “Lord, can I still kneel down to pray and read the Bible?” The Holy Spirit gave me a promise: “Yes, don’t be afraid.“ Until today, I knelt down and my left knee started to feel slight pain. The Lord still protected me and I could still kneel down, longing for Him to talk to me. Don’t give up just because of external factors, ask our Lord to help us, bow down to Him, ask to have mercy on us, and talk to us. The worldly trauma in this life will pass. We can kneel down and learn to listen to the Holy Spirit talking to us. This is what I say from the bottom of my heart. It is worth it and the net profit in return is great! A man once shared with me that after a quarrel with his wife, he had strong thoughts of divorce came to his mind and he almost picked them up, but God’s words came to his heart like a wake-up thunder call, “What God has joined together, no person is to separate.” This is Mark 10:9, what the Lord Jesus said. Those negative divorce thoughts that came from nowhere dissipated from his heart and did not affect him anymore. This was a gospel power that changed the rest of his life! It was the same in my past. If the Lord hadn’t said to me in my heart when I entered my father’s house and prepared to take revenge, “Forgive your father, and forgive yourself.“ Then I would have become history. Details are recorded in “One Thought Repent Longing to Heaven (1)“. As it is written in Romans 1:16-17:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written: “But the righteous one will live by faith.”“
Time
As for time, for me, early in the morning, when my wife and child have not yet gotten up, and I have just woken up. After washing my face and brushing my teeth, it is best to be refreshed and mentally unarmed to prepare for the day’s work. And it is the best time to go to God to meet Him. As Psalm 143:8 records:
“Let me hear Your faithfulness in the morning,
For I trust in You;
Teach me the way in which I should walk;
For to You I lift up my soul.”
Until I repented a few years ago. from then on, at night before going to bed, I will willingly kneel down, read the Bible, and pray. At night, due to the day’s work, there will be more distracting thoughts in my heart, and it is the best time for the Holy Spirit to examine my heart to see if it is consistent with Him. As 1 Corinthians 4:4 says:
“For I am not aware of anything against myself; however I am not vindicated by this, but the one who examines me is the Lord.”
Place
As for the location, the Lord taught me Matthew 6:6.
“But as for you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
Later I discovered that while I was reading the Bible and praying, for some reason, my sense of hearing is very sensitive to the sounds around me, such as the chirping of birds outside, the sound of cars passing by, the sound of the phone ringing, the sound of receiving messages on the mobile phone, etc. Mute my phone and mobile phone, and don’t bring the mobile phone with me to the inner room. When I came to my inner room and closed the door, external sounds would be minimized. Only then I could read the Bible and pray without being affected. That is my private space. When there are no other people surrounding me, I can learn to express my inner feelings slowly to the Lord. I can be happy, I can be thankful, I can let the Holy Spirit review my past experiences in my heart, and I can be sad, I can shed tears and cry bitterly, it is a private space where only the Lord is with me. Closing the door is just the best environment. If there is no such environment, don’t be discouraged. In your heart, still keep the original intention of seeking God to talk to us. At any place, pray to your Heavenly Father in secret. He will definitely respond to you. As recorded in Isaiah 57:15:
“For this is what the high and exalted One
Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, says:
“I dwell in a high and holy place,
And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit
In order to revive the spirit of the lowly
And to revive the heart of the contrite.”
The true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, Himself has said that HE will dwell with those who have a contrite and humble spirit. Since God Himself has said it, HE will definitely do it, because according to Isaiah 55:11, His own promise is true to His words as Law in Heaven and Earth.
Preparation
The other four items I prepared were shared with me by a missionary couple and are useful when reading the Bible. Adding my experience to it, I need the following items:
- A larger and good paper quality Bible
- A pencil
- A dark wood colored pencil
- A floor or table lamp for reading the Bible
A larger and good paper quality Bible
A good paper-quality Bible can be used for decades. I need to take good care of it and preserve it daily so that God, through the Holy Spirit, can touch my heart and speak to me when I read the Bible. I can highlight the verses that speak to me from God for decades to come. During the years of use, I discovered that what God had said to me before would come true, letting me truly know that God is faithful. A larger Bible can record more feelings or understandings. When I am getting older and my eyesight is worsening, it will be easier to read a larger Bible. If the reader has never read the entire Bible of the Old and New Testaments once, I highly and highly recommend that the reader try to read the complete Bible of the Old and New Testaments for the first time. You should read slowly and do not try to complete it in only one year. This is my lesson learned. The process of reading the entire Bible for the first time is very crucial. When I finished reading the entire Bible in sixteen months for the first time, a large part of my fear and desire for God to speak to me disappeared because I had already read it once. As Paul said, knowledge makes one conceited. The self-confidence that I don’t know where it comes from accumulating like a mental flu. Making me lose my appetite longing for my Lord to speak to me directly. Even though I am still reading the Bible every day, it has made me lose a lot of my desire to focus on listening to my Lord rather than focusing on knowledge because I have already read the entire Bible once. I often long to go back to the days when I didn’t read the entire Bible for the first time. During that time, I completely let go of myself, not thinking about my worthiness or unworthiness, or being praised or ridiculed. I could only focus on reading God’s words, hoping that He would speak to me with grace and mercy. Under the light from the lamp, the surroundings around me seemed to be slowly dimming, and I could only see the Bible open in front of me and the lamp shining on the Bible. There is my private space with only the Lord and no one else. It is only through my self-confidence that I, myself, can ruin that space. If someone had reminded me at that time, after reading the Bible for the first time, my focus on the Lord might diminish. I would rather slow down even more and more of my reading speed. Because of this matter, I deeply regret it for a long time. I personally experienced the following combination of my feelings and the Scriptures are very true.
“So what if you are spiritual? So what if you understand all things?
John 15:4
Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me (Jesus).
Philippians 3:7-8:
But whatever things were gain to me, these things I have counted as loss because of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
But please readers, please don’t misunderstand. There is no medicine for regret in this world, but the true God who created heaven and earth has a way to help me. In the last few years, my Lord gave me indications on when I did not focus on Him again when I read the Bible. However, in the beginning, it was difficult for me to accept that those methods of making me focus again came from the Lord. So please keep your original heart, the heart that seeks God to talk to you, and slowly enjoy the process of trying to read the Old and New Testaments for the first time. Don’t rush to complete it. Just read God’s words every day and that’s good enough. If you don’t understand something from the Scriptures, spend a few days on those verses repeatedly over and over again, and praying in your heart, asking the Lord to open your heart and let the Holy Spirit teach you to understand what God wants you to understand. After I finish reading the whole Bible for the first time, I will write on another blank Bible page the date and year I finished reading the entire Bible. So that after I finish reading the Bible next time again, I can write the new completion date on that page with a grateful heart as my reference. Because a born-again Christian will never stop reading God’s word every day if his heart is in tune with the Holy Spirit with him/her. Just like when I talk to my wife and son every day, I may not always understand the things and feelings they encounter every day, but I will not stop talking to them every day.
A Pencil
A pencil is used to record the date and year of the verses in which God spoke directly to me. Please remember that next to the scripture, you can also add a few words about your own feelings and what learned. If you feel deeply, one or two sentences will be a good remark. The combination of those Scriptures and the remarks have been my guide for life. The first time I recorded the scriptures that God spoke to me was on October 2, 1992. At that time, I was just a new Christian who had not yet known how to confess and repent, and had not yet been born-again, but the Lord was already there moving me and speaking to me. My Lord Jesus is the one through whom I am praised! Because as John 3:17 says,
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
A dark wood colored pencil
A dark wood colored pencil, which can be dark red, dark blue, or dark brown is better, not black or yellow. It is used to underline those verses where God speaks to me so that I can remember what God said to me the next time I read that passage. Do not use ball pens or highlighters as they may get wet and make the scriptures behind them unclear.
A floor or table lamp for reading the Bible
The lamp can be used to pray and read the Bible in the inner room when it is still dark and the door cannot be closed. It can also be used to illuminate the Bible in the hall or other open spaces when it is still dark. The lamp only needs to be able to illuminate the Bible in my hand and objects within one or two feet nearby. When the place is dark two feet away, I find that I can focus more on reading the Bible without distraction. You can also avoid turning on the headlights, which may wake up your sleeping family members.
A humble reminder
But keep in mind that the dialogue between God and you should only be an intimate matter between God and you alone. Please do your best to protect those God’s words that are spoken in your heart. Without God’s permission, or as Psalm 131:2 describes it,
“I have certainly soothed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child resting against his mother,
My soul within me is like a weaned child.”
If you don’t have a peaceful mind like a weaned child, do not tell others about what God spoke to you. Just like a normal person would not say the most intimate words between himself / herself and his wife / husband to others. Only keep those words in your heart, as recorded in Luke 2:50-51:
“And yet they (Joseph and Mary) on their part did not understand the statement which He (Jesus) had made to them.
And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued to be subject to them; and His mother (Mary) treasured all these things in her heart.“
Conclusion
Dear readers, the above is my experience in reading the Bible, waiting and longing for God’s word to come to me. After my conversion in the past few years, it was just the mentality, time, place, preparation, and why that the Lord taught me to learn to spend time with Him. Even if readers can do what I share, it doesn’t prove anything. These are just the paths taught to me by the Lord. The readers can refer to the experiences I have left for their own path. It is up to you to ask the Lord to teach you. Don’t worry about how to get started. The Lord will teach His people, as Isaiah 35:8 says. Although I am ignorant and have no basic theological knowledge, I will not be lost. Our Lord will teach us. Glory to the living God!
“A highway will be there, a roadway,
And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it,
But it will be for the one who walks that way,
And fools will not wander on it.“
In the next short article, I will share my experience and according to the Bible the ways the Holy Spirit speaks.
Christian Faith Discussion 