Today I had an encounter with Jesus. It impacted my spirit and pulled at my heart. Suddenly, I had a desire to make a change and respond to an invitation in a way I’ve never felt before.
I was on a zoom call with a group, and the facilitator introduced something I had never heard of before. Lectio Divina. She described it as a way to interact with scripture, to slow down, to encounter the author, and to engage in a deeper way with God through His word. I love the word of God, so I was interested, but I honestly didn’t think I would get as much out of it as I did.
Who is Jesus? Prepare to meet Him
Let’s learn how to get prepared. Set aside about 30 minutes with no distractions. Do what you need to do to find a space with no distractions. I find it easiest to be distraction-free early in the morning, because no one else is awake, and there are no notifications coming through my phone. You know your life better than anyone, so I have confidence you can find a way. Take a few moments to invite Holy Spirit into this Bible reading time. Connect with the presence of God, your spirit to His Spirit, and pray some kind of invitation. “God, I want to hear You.” “Lord, come and meet me in Your word.”
The 4 stages of Lectio Divina
Here are the 4 stages of the practice of Lectio Divina. It helps to imagine them as the four quadrants of a circle, with each practice being a point in the circle. As the fourth one is finished, you find yourself back at the beginning for another round, and Holy Spirit moves us seamlessly between the four points.
1. Read: To feast upon God’s word, reading is the equivalent of sitting down for a meal, expecting to be fed, and putting food in our mouth. When we read it, we receive that first bite. So read the scripture out loud, and receive the initial taste of His word. This is the top quadrant of that circle. Read it slowly, don’t rush. We aren’t trying to chow down some fast food in between appointments in our busy lives. Rather, we are sitting down for a meal, with the anticipation that it’s going to be amazing, delicious, filling, and we will leave satisfied.
2. Meditate: Read the word out loud again to meditate on it. If our circle moves clockwise, we move to the second quadrant, three o’clock. Holy Spirit will be active. At this stage, we chew the delicious bite of food. We break it down, identify the flavors, allow it to permeate into us. Certain words from the passage may be highlighted to your spirit. Memories may spring up. Images may come to your mind. Remember, you have a sanctified imagination, and you can trust the Lord to protect it while you're in His presence.
3. Prayer: This is our response to the word. Read it out loud again, slowly. Form it into a prayer. Savor the word, the things you’ve discovered in the previous readings. Allow Holy Spirit to move through your spirit and allow Him to help form His word into prayer. Moving around the circle, we’re now at six o’clock. Allow Him to move and adjust your understanding, and allow yourself to respond to whatever He’s calling you to. Take some time diving into the understanding He’s inviting you into.
4. Contemplation: Slowly read the passage again out loud. Allow yourself to be filled with the fullness of His word. You’re satisfied, it’s glorious. You’ve feasted, and you’ve received sustenance which will energize you, inspire you, keep you going, and keep you healthy and full of life.
Here’s the passage we did in our activation time:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NIV
The first time I read it, there was a sense of familiarity. I have read this passage many times. But I took her advice as she facilitated. I took my bite, and I put the food in my mouth. The second time we read it, the word “burden” was highlighted to me. As I chewed and broke it down, I saw God was inviting me to take a look at those two times “burden” was used. I saw one was used to describe my heavy burden, the burden which made me weary. The second one described Jesus’ burden, which He described as light. The second time we read through the passage, I began to see Jesus asking for a transfer of burden.
The third time went through the scripture, nice and slow, I started praying for God to show me how to do this burden transfer. Obviously, I know the scripture, but I’m not receiving the benefit of it in my life yet. How can I access what He is inviting me into? I started asking myself how I received the burdens I was carrying? I started inquiring with the Lord and asking Him to show me the burdens I carry that He isn’t asking me to carry. It caused me to see the burden transfer in the spirit, and imagine my life if I carried only His light burden. As I prayed through this scripture, I began to desire to transfer that burden to Him! My soul and spirit came into alignment with this life giving word, and I prayed for God to show me practical things to give to Him.
I can memorize scriptures until the cows come home, but until I actually let them shape my life, I’m going to continue to struggle in this life. I started to see I was carrying a burden of building the church that He doesn’t want me to carry without Him. It’s my calling to serve and build the church, however I’m not supposed to carry the burden. Jesus invited me to give that burden to Him. He will carry it and I am invited to carry His light burden. I started seeing I was carrying a burden to make things work financially, and as I meditated and prayed this passage, I saw Him offering to take that heavy burden off me and He exchanged it for His light one. Not that I won’t be involved in making things work financially for our family, but I can be involved while carrying His light burden. He highlighted about four different areas I was weary and heavy-laden, and He invited me in each one to exchange with Him. This all happened in about 20 minutes of slowly reading, meditating, and praying a passage of scripture.
The fourth time I read through the scripture slowly, Jesus had me experiencing a glorious fullness. I felt nourished by His word, full of life and hope, energized to move forward, and inspired to search out His easy burden as I give up the heavy load I was carrying by myself.
Saying Yes to His Invitation
Wow. What a beautiful encounter with His word today. I hope you’re inspired to join me as I set aside 20-30 minutes to practice Lectio Divina. Many of you know how much I recommend journaling your encounters and experiences with God. If you have time, take 20 minutes to journal about what you learned, what He highlighted, the prayer you prayed, what He revealed, or anything else you feel is relevant.
If you have a hard time believing you can hear from God, I encourage you to check out my other blogs, or pick up a copy of Belief Rehab: You Are Enough on Amazon.
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