Illumination is the ultimate alarm clock of the Christian life. I’ve found that it’s the great joy of studying the Bible in small groups.
When things feel sleepy in my walk with Jesus, it’s illumination and action that are always the cure.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worked through a well-worn passage of Scripture in a small group setting, something I’d taught previously or read multiple books on or taken tests on or whatever… and someone will say something or share a learning from a passage that’ll WAKE ME THE HECK UP.
That’s the power of small groups. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit. That’s why we say the Bible is alive.
It’s not that you’ve just never seen something before. Illumination is a special thing, way cooler than your own intellect.
What is Illumination and How Does it Work?
Illumination stems from the fact that unlike a piece of literature, the Bible is a living document. The Holy Spirit continues to work in and through it throughout time.
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
Theologian J.I. Packer describes it like this:
The work of the Spirit in imparting this knowledge is called “illumination,” or enlightening. It is not a giving of new revelation, but a work within us that enables us to grasp and to love the revelation that is there before us in the biblical text as heard and read, and as explained by teachers and writers. Sin in our mental and moral system clouds our minds and wills so that we miss and resist the force of Scripture. God seems to us remote to the point of unreality, and in the face of God’s truth we are dull and apathetic. The Spirit, however, opens and unveils our minds and attunes our hearts so that we understand (Eph. 1:17-18; 3:18-19; 2 Cor. 3:14-16; 4:6). As by inspiration he provided Scripture truth for us, so now by illumination he interprets it to us. Illumination is thus the applying of God’s revealed truth to our hearts, so that we grasp as reality for ourselves what the sacred text sets forth.
Why Are You Talking About This?
I think it’s really easy to forget about the power of illumination. In my experience, illumination happens most profoundly in community. My fear is that far too many people, if they do any Bible study at all, do so alone. Whether it’s the pastor creating a teaching for the congregation or the person in the pews sitting to listen to the teaching… both are often done in isolation from others. A pastor sits in his office or study or a favorite coffee shop and crafts the message alone, it’s often a private process, more inspired by the looming deadline than crafted by illumination in the community of others. This is writing a monologue. A congregant often hears the teaching from the pulpit as a monologue and has no outlet to discuss what’s been taught.
This isolation can’t squelch the work of the Holy Spirit… He’s God, He can work through anything. But what I’m saying is that to truly make the most of studying the living Word, you need community for the power of illumination to be revealed.
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
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