When I first began my journey into the Word of God as a baby Christian, I began reading in Matthew and read book by book. It was wonderful… I learned an incredible amount. Of course, as we grow in the word, we sometimes change how we study to dive into a particular topic or to read in chronological order…no matter what though, we can still be fed and grow by reading the word, book by book.

Unfortunately, at some point, I shifted from reading the word productively book by book, topic studies or in chronological order, to praying for the Holy Spirit to show me what to read then waiting for direction (a voice or notion in my head I would call my “spirit”) on where to go next. This meant that I rarely studied the Bible in a way that resulted in spiritual growth. If I did get a verse pop into my head, I was derailed trying to figure out why God was giving me that verse and what it meant. I thought I was being led by the Holy Spirit.

The obvious problem is that I stopped reading the word productively… but the less obvious problem was that I was learning to rely on guidance from a source other than the Word of God. I lost sight of this truth:
¹⁶ All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:¹⁷ That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. –2 Timothy 3:16-17

This means that I can fully trust that the Word of God will guide me…and if I rightly divide the word of truth and let it be a light to my path, I will be following the perfect will of God.

The problem was I believed the Holy Spirit functioned in a way he doesn’t. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the Holy Spirit would tell me what verse to study in the word…or what shirt to wear… or what to have for breakfast…etc. The Bible was given to tell us how to live our lives, but inside those guidelines of “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind ,and strength” and “Love your neighbor as yourself”… there are all sorts of choices we make on our own. God seriously doesn’t care if we have a tuna sandwich for breakfast, as long as we give thanks.

The Holy Spirit does guide me by bringing to remembrance scriptures when I need the guidance and instruction….and always the verses fit the situation. The Holy Spirit teaches me as I read by giving me understanding into the word….often by bringing other scriptures to remembrance that align and add more light to what I’m learning. This is how the Holy Spirit guides a person. The Holy Spirit isn’t going to tell you, “Read to Hosea Chapter 2 verse 16”.

So, to answer the question on how I decide what to read next, I just read chapter by chapter, book by book…. and if I get distracted doing a study of something else, I go do that… and return to the book by book study when I’m done… because the entire word of God is a path to knowing Jesus better. The Holy Spirit can’t bring things to your remembrance if you haven’t invested your time reading the word. The Disciples were able to remember what Jesus taught them to record those things in the Gospels…but the Holy Spirit also beings the things we study to our remembrance to guide our path through the word of God.

The idea of asking the Holy Spirit to tell you where to study is seeker behavior. Seeker behavior is when you crave feelings based experience because you have mistakenly come to interpret feelings with the move of the Holy Spirit and guidance from God. This then replaces the Word of God as your authority, which is why you wait for feelings/thoughts to tell you what to study in the word. You are not seeking to know Jesus better, you are seeking to tick off the box next to “Study the Bible” and you are seeking an experience not a lesson.

God is not trying to confuse you… your Christian walk is not some sort of puzzle you constantly have to solve to advance, like one of those escape rooms. God has given us clear instruction when he gave us his word… and so many of us look at the word as arbitrary to our walk with God…and it’s absolutely not…it’s vital. The very elect from Matthew 24:24 (For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.) Are those who actually know the Word of God….if the deception of the end times is so profound that even the very elect could possibly be deceived, what chance does someone have that isn’t reading the word of God with purpose. We have people out here waiting for a thought to guide them to a verse they then try to retrofit into some part of their life… they are not reading the word with purpose or to build a solid rock foundation that will withstand the storms of testing. Not being invested in the word is spiritually deadly.