Listening to God: Using Scripture as a Path to God's Presence

This book is an excellent introduction to the spiritual discipline of lectio divina (divine reading) of Scripture. The book is divided into six parts of five sessions each. Each part has a common, well chosen, theme from Scripture. The book can easily be used in groups or individually. This is a spiritual discipline that every Christian should have some experience with. Many Bible study guides encourage you to dissect Scripture to understand its meaning, intent, bacground, context, etc. This is important and has its place. But lectio divina helps us let God's Word study us. It lets God form our character through reading, meditation, listening, and prayer. The steps outlined for each session may seem repetitive, but this is important for practice. By the end of the book the process comes naturally.

There are few pre-made Bible studies that I do not despise. Too often they do all the work for the participant. They remind me of the regurgitated food a mother bird feeds her children--enough to sustain, but growth doesn't really happen till we're booted out of the nest. That said, Jan Johnson's "Listening to God" is one of the exceptions.Though Johnson walks us to the right spot in the field and gives us the best shovel, the digging is left to us. What a rich field it is...More so than any study I have yet read, Listening to God has called me to reflection and prayer. Truly having God's voice wash over me has transformed my life. I have learned to wait and be still before the One who loves me most.Johnson's methods are not new. This guide teaches us one of the greatest spiritual disciplines known to Christ-followers throughout the centuries--Lectio Divina (don't be scared by the big, Latin sounding term...it only means divine reading). The participants in the study come not to debate or intellectually mull over the text. Instead, the text is savored, reflected on and prayed over. For me, this has meant the texts have become a part of me. In the past I have tried to live out the "applications" of studies. I usually forgot what I was "supposed" to be doing in a few days. With this study, the words of the text have become grafted into me--more strongly rooted in my soul. For that I must give Jan Johnson my deepest thanks and give "Listening to God" my highest recommendation.