Reading with Your Heart

By François JE Davel

Reading with your Heart presents a prayerful reading habit to the reader. This habit can help us to read the Bible with our hearts. It will enable us to enter into the holy presence of God every time we practise it.

Believers need a first-hand encounter with the living God. The best place to find these encounters is within the Bible. This book presents a Bible reading habit that is easy to practice. Engaging the Bible will no longer be a struggle. The reason for its success is that it relies on the size of our hearts. It does not depend on our understanding.

Reading with your Heart explains why our hearts are important in our faith lives. It presents an ancient habit in the language of our times. The intent of the book is to help us apply its knowledge in our daily lives.

The beauty of this reading habit is that it guides us into reading with the heart. In this prayerful reading, we allow the Holy Spirit into our hearts to transform us. When we regularly enter into the holy presence of God, we will encounter the living Word in the written Word.

Bible reading will never again be a duty. It will be an adventure as we develop a profound relationship with God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: François JE Davel
• Release date: Apr 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005525118

Book preview

READING WITH YOUR HEART

Reading With Your Heart

Encounter the Living Word in the Written Word

François JE Davel

Copyright © 2021 François JE Davel

Published by François JE Davel Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by François JE Davel using Reach Publishers’ services,

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Edited by Laura Grey for Reach Publishers

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

Website: www.reachpublishers.org

E-mail: [e-mail]

FRANÇOIS JE DAVEL

[e-mail]

All Scripture quotations are, as indicated, from the:

• The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

• Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org

• Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

• New Living Translation – Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used with permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. New Living, NLT, and the New Living Translation logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers.

Someone recommended that I read the Bible, and it was then I discovered that I knew nothing about it.

– Cliff Richard

One of these days some simple soul will pick up the Book of God and read it, and believe it.

The rest of us will be embarrassed.

– Leonard Ravenhill

You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilization to pieces, turn the world upside down and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of literature.

– Mahatma Gandhi

Until the Bible begins to talk to us, we really have not been reading it.

– A.W. Tozer

The authority of Scripture is greater than the comprehension of the whole of man’s reason.

– Martin Luther

When asked, "What is more important: prayer or reading

the Bible? I ask, What is more important:

breathing in or breathing out?"

– Charles Spurgeon

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Bible Power

2. Bible Engagement

3. Introducing Heart Reading

4. Step 1: Receive

5. Step 2: Reflect

6. Step 3: Respond

7. Step 4: Rest

8. The Process

9. Preparations

10. Some Benefits

11. Group Heart Reading

12. A Historical Overview

Sources Consulted

Introduction

Strive to give the Word of God its rightful place.

– Dick Eastman

Anybody who knows me will know that I am passionate about the Bible. I have been for most of my life. To me, one of the most wonderful privileges human beings have is to engage God through His living Word. The Bible gives us direct access to God Himself.

From an early age, the Bible charmed me. I enjoyed exploring the Bible to discover all the stories I knew from Sunday School. One day I read the most amazing verse with the promise to prosper and be successful. I found the Bible presented the secret to success. This verse motivated me to spend even more time in Scripture.

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

– Joshua 1:8 [NIV]

At seventeen, I had another life-changing encounter with the Bible. I prayed about a girl and thought I received a clear answer from God to enter into a relationship with her. The complete opposite happened when she started to date a friend. It was devastating, rattling my faith in God. I was vulnerable, with my emotions spinning between anger and disappointment. Still, I did what was obvious to me. I turned to the Bible to hear what God had to say about it.

For almost a year, I searched for an answer to the relationship that never happened. All I heard from the Bible was God telling me to shift my focus, to work with people and their spiritual needs. My frustration grew as my questions remained. I became very selective in my reading to find an answer. Still, God kept