For the past two weeks, one of our pastors has given us a homework assignment. I shared last week’s assignment in my last post (in case you missed it).
The purpose of these assignments are to practice spiritual disciplines with the brain in mind. This exercise was written and developed by Edward B. Davis, Psy.D. (Biola University) and our pastor Jim Laffoon.
Did you know that most of our embodied, emotional experience of God is guided by brain activity in our right brain? (I didn’t either.) If we overly intellectualize our study of scripture, we only stimulate neural activity and growth (SNAG) in the left brain (which is especially logical, linear, and linguistic) — thereby just bringing changes to our HEAD knowledge of God. The exercises are designed to strategically SNAG the right brain, thereby disentangling us from “auto pilot” and postitioning us to better hear the Holy Spirit’s transformative, life-giving words to our heart.
Stage 1: The Word
1. Find a quiet place.
2. Still your mind.
3. Slowly transition to praying and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to a scripture that relates to what He desires to speak to your heart. This week, we used Isaiah 40:31.
4. Slowly read the scripture aloud several times. Read it slowly and deliberately, with varying levels of feeling, intonation, rhythm, and emphasis.
5. Next, write out the scriputre, using your non-dominant hand and using different-colored markers, pens, or crayons.
6. Then draw a picture around the scripture, pictorially depicting what the Holy Spirit seems to be speaking to you.
7. Spend 10 minutes prayerfully journaling about what the Holy Spirit is speaking to you.
8. Discuss this experience with someone.
9. Repeat this exercise several times.
Stage 2: WORSHIP
The purpose of this stage is to activate a way of worship that you don’t generally use. Push yourself to worship in a new way. For me, dancing, clapping, singing, praying in the Spirit — are not out of the ordinary. But writing with my left hand is a big stretch. Other than that, I am trying to come up with a different way of expressing my love and passion for the Lord. Again, the rationale for this exercise is to “SNAG” the right brain where our emotions and embodied experiences are seated.
Stage 3: Waiting on the Lord
We simply rest and allow God space to simply be with us. Enjoy being with the Lord and journal what He speaks to you.
The pictures I have included in this post are from this morning. The writing that you can barely read is with my left hand. I’m not sharing everything I recorded in my journal, but this is how I started.
I am thoroughly enjoying these exercises so I wanted to share them with you.
Isaiah 40:31
But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.
What is hope? As I thought about hope this morning I envisioned a present. Hope is something to be excited about isn’t it? We look forward with great expectation! God’s Word declares that those who hope in the Lord will never be put to shame (Psalm 25:3).
One of the definitions of hope is to EXPECT with CONFIDENCE.
As we expect with great confidence and wait on the Lord, our strength WILL be renewed.
God is faithful!
Let me know if you try these exercises too.
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