The Lectio CourseSample

Introducing Lectio Divina: Hearing God in Jesus

Welcome to The Lectio Course reading plan. Over these next five days, we’re going to grow and go deeper in our ability to hear God’s voice using a powerful, ancient form of prayer called Lectio Divina, which simply means "sacred reading."

The aim is that, by the end of this plan, you’ll find that you’re getting more out of the Bible, feeling more peaceful, walking and talking with God more enjoyably, and hearing him more clearly in your daily life.

To begin, let’s turn to the Bible. In John 10:27, Jesus says: ‘“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”’

The primary mark of discipleship, according to Jesus in this passage, is listening—not preaching, not attending church, not reciting the creeds. First and foremost, followers of Jesus are marked out by the way they listen and obey. And this doesn’t just mean knowing lots of Bible verses because the root Greek word used here for "listen" is akoustikos (ἀκουστικός) from which we get the word acoustic. Jesus is saying that his true followers are those who recognize the acoustics, the nuance, the intimate, personal tone of his voice.

So how do we actually do it? How on earth do we learn to recognize the acoustics of God’s voice in the kind of way Jesus describes?

Well, one of the oldest, simplest, and most powerful tools for hearing God’s voice in and through the Bible is Lectio Divina. This is an approach to Scripture that emphasizes reading it prayerfully, slowly, and with imagination. It’s about the heart more than the head—less about Bible study than turning the Bible into a conversation with God.

In the 12th century, a monk called Guigo systematized Lectio Divina into four helpful steps. In Latin, these were "lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio"–read, meditate, pray, contemplate.

1. Read the text.
2. Meditate upon the text, allowing your mind to explore its meaning.
3. Pray the text, turning your thoughts into prayers.
4. Contemplate the Lord, moving your focus away from the text, onto Christ himself.

In the remaining four days of this plan, we’re going to explore each one of these steps, applying them first to how we hear God in the Bible, and second, excitingly, to how we hear his voice beyond the Bible in the whole of life.