Meditation

All permanent change in the Christian life is the result of the Holy Spirit’s power being released into our inner man. Our souls tend to be like dry, sun baked soil that is in desperate need to refreshing, life giving water. One way for water to reach dry soil is through irrigation ditches. The life giving water of the Holy Spirit flows into us like water through an irrigation ditch. Our responsibility is to understand the process and then open the gates and let the water flow.

The channels through which the living water flows are well know: worship, Bible study, prayer, and attending public Christian meetings. But there is another, vitally important way to receive the refreshing power of the Holy Spirit, and that is by reading good Christian books. But don’t read just any book, read books by authors that warm your heart.

Here are three little tests you can do to find out if you are receiving spiritual life and power from a book or simply receiving information. These same tests will work when evaluating Christian music or listening to preachers and teachers.

First, when I read this book, does it warm my heart? Am I aware of a sense of life giving power being imparted to me?

Second, when I am done reading, is it a little more easy and natural for me to spend a few moments praying that it would have been before I read from the book? Sin in human nature just flat out hates to pray. But whenever you open the one of the channels into your heart through which the Holy Spirit flows, you will find it easier to overcome the sense of resistance that the flesh exerts on us when we decide to pray.

Third, is it a little easier for me to resist the power of sin after I have spent some time reading this author? Is it a little easier to be good?

If an author impacts you in any of these three ways then you are probably going to want to get your hands on as much material as you can from this person and use it to nourish your soul.

As you apply these tests to the various forms of Christian media that you expose yourself to, you will become more and more aware of what the Holy Spirit is trying to do in your life. Jesus promised us that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth and He also promised us that the truth would make us free. We need to put those two things together in our minds and never let them be separated. The Holy Spirit works through the living word and through anointed teaching.

If you start reading a certain author, and you find that he or she is doing you a great deal of good, that doesn’t mean that all of the other authors are in some way inferior – it simply means that the person you are reading has the teaching that the Holy Spirit wants to impart to your life right now.