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Good morning…

“Spiritual reading is not only reading about spiritual people or spiritual things,” I quietly read Henri Nouwen’s insights aloud to our Zoom class. “It is also reading spiritually, that is, in a spiritual way! Reading in a spiritual way is reading with a desire to let God come closer to us.”

“The purpose of spiritual reading . . . is not to master knowledge or information but to let God’s Spirit master us,” says Nouwen. “Strange as it may sound, spiritual reading means to let ourselves be read by God! Spiritual reading is reading with an inner attentiveness to the movement of God’s Spirit in our outer and inner lives. With that attentiveness, we will allow God to read us and to explain to us what we are truly about.”

Beyond reading spiritually, these ideas expand to transform other verbs. Might we listen spiritually? Speak spiritually? Serve others spiritually?

If we listen, speak, and serve with a desire to let God come closer to us, God becomes the focus of our everyday lives. How might it deepen our listening, our speaking, and our serving if we seek not to master knowledge or information but instead to let God’s Spirit master us? Living into each verb spiritually means to let ourselves be heard, spoken to, and served by God directly, intimately, One-on-one. If we develop an inner attentiveness to the movement of God’s Spirit in our outer and inner lives, we allow God to explain to us what we are truly about.

And we articulate these realities with the words imparted to us by the Spirit and not with the words taught by human wisdom. We join together Spirit-revealed truths with Spirit-revealed words (1 Corinthians 2:13, TPT).

Now I spiritually impart to you the next five segments in our Waking Up Whole: Mind, Body, and Soul study. We are each invited to read and to listen, to speak and to serve with inner attentiveness to the movement of God’s Spirit as we join together Spirit-revealed truths with Spirit-revealed words.

…Sue…

Week Two: Serene Mind, Part One

Segment One: Move into Love

Segment Two: How Do We Build This Hidden Life?

Segment Three: Fulfill Your Destiny

Segment Four: Where Healing Begins

Segment Five: Befriend the Darkness

To experience this evolving material in its entity, touch on this link: https://northsideumc.org/waking-up-whole-study

…Sue…