Has anyone else experienced words in the Bible 'jumping out' at them?

[Raykay]

Jumping out isn't the best way of describing it, however what happened was undoubtedly spiritual.

I was handed a pamphlet with a list of verses. As I started to read these verses some of them would jump out at me or rather the surrounding of the verse would jump out/shine out of the page. It was similar to this image: http://paratus.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/url.jpg
However the shine lifted more sharply right around the verse rather than being lifted everywhere around the page as seen in the image. I do not recall whether the rest of the page was blurred or shining as my focus was on the verse itself. Each time this happened it would last one second or so and I would feel a piercing warmth in my heart. This warmth was so powerful I did not want to indulge in it as I started to become emotional and wanted to keep myself together around others.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Edit: To provide context to what happened: The first verse that jumped out at me was "For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him." Ephesians 1:4. This verse jumping out at me along with the others that I only vaguely recall now (this happened three years ago) let me know that God was truly with me. At the time I was having a mental breakdown and had called out to God to help me and had him in my thoughts often. This experience among others changed my perspective of God from being distant to near and grew my faith in him. Three years later and I am in my third year at university and studying what I perceive to be God's will for my life.

Edit: To clarify what happened, these verses jumping out at me were completely unexpected and out of my control.

 

[Johnny4ChristJesus]

Jumping out isn't the best way of describing it, however what happened was undoubtedly spiritual.

I was handed a pamphlet with a list of verses. As I started to read these verses some of them would jump out at me or rather the surrounding of the verse would shine out of the page. It was similar to this image: http://paratus.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/url.jpg
However the shine lifted more sharply right around the verse rather than being lifted everywhere around the page as seen in the image. I do not recall whether the rest of the page was blurred or shining as my focus was on the verse itself. Each time this happened it would last one second or so and I would feel a piercing warmth in my heart. This warmth was so powerful I did not want to indulge in it as I started to become emotional and wanted to keep myself together around others.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Thank God and consider yourself blessed of Him! What did He highlight and why? The experience is only really significant if it changes you. Paul could talk about going to the third heaven, but if Paul looked like the rest of the world, what would it matter and why think it was of God?

 

[Tharseo]

Jumping out isn't the best way of describing it, however what happened was undoubtedly spiritual.

I was handed a pamphlet with a list of verses. As I started to read these verses some of them would jump out at me or rather the surrounding of the verse would shine out of the page. It was similar to this image: http://paratus.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/url.jpg
However the shine lifted more sharply right around the verse rather than being lifted everywhere around the page as seen in the image. I do not recall whether the rest of the page was blurred or shining as my focus was on the verse itself. Each time this happened it would last one second or so and I would feel a piercing warmth in my heart. This warmth was so powerful I did not want to indulge in it as I started to become emotional and wanted to keep myself together around others.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Huh. You have experienced something unusual. Don't get too excited yet. What words you see "jumped out"? How do you interpret them?

 

[Norbert L]

Jumping out isn't the best way of describing it, however what happened was undoubtedly spiritual.

I was handed a pamphlet with a list of verses. As I started to read these verses some of them would jump out at me or rather the surrounding of the verse would shine out of the page. It was similar to this image: http://paratus.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/url.jpg
However the shine lifted more sharply right around the verse rather than being lifted everywhere around the page as seen in the image. I do not recall whether the rest of the page was blurred or shining as my focus was on the verse itself. Each time this happened it would last one second or so and I would feel a piercing warmth in my heart. This warmth was so powerful I did not want to indulge in it as I started to become emotional and wanted to keep myself together around others.

Has anyone else experienced this?

I have had similar experiences.

I think in the long run you're going to have to figure out whether this is going to mislead you or not. Perhaps look at it as a pleasure like food. Nothing wrong about it all by itself but it can lead/temp you into gluttony. However in this case it seems to be more about how these verses make you interpret them. Is it the correct one or not.

 

[Raykay]

Thank God and consider yourself blessed of Him! What did He highlight and why? The experience is only really significant if it changes you. Paul could talk about going to the third heaven, but if Paul looked like the rest of the world, what would it matter and why think it was of God?

.

I would not say the experience is not significant if it did not change me. Afterall Jesus spoke of the parable of the sower, how you can receive the word but not have it change you for various reasons. However it does not mean Jesus did not speak to them. Similarly, even if this experience did not change me it would not mean that it was not significant or that what happened was not of God. It could simply mean that I did not take the verses to heart.

The first verse that jumped out at me was "For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him." Ephesians 1:4. This verse jumping out at me along with the others that I only vaguely recall now (this happened three years ago) let me know that God was truly with me. At the time I was having a mental breakdown and had called out to God to help me and had him in my thoughts often. This experience among others changed my perspective of God from being distant to near and grew my faith in him. Three years later and I am in my third year at university and studying what I perceive to be God's will for my life (I had an experience a few months before going to university that confirmed this to me)

 

[Raykay]

I have had similar experiences.

I think in the long run you're going to have to figure out whether this is going to mislead you or not. Perhaps look at it as a pleasure like food. Nothing wrong about it all by itself but it can lead/temp you into gluttony. However in this case it seems to be more about how these verses make you interpret them. Is it the correct one or not.

Could you elaborate on the experiences you've had? I have come across pastors talking about scripture jumping out at them but no one goes in to detail about what they mean when they say this.

Also could you elaborate on your analogy to food? and what you mean when you say "However in this case it seems to be more about how these verses make you interpret them."

 

[usexpat97]

Two things can be at play:

1) Could be that sometimes words just jump out at you. Like "hippogryph" jumps at you when you read Harry Potter.

2) Could be God saying, "This is my Word, but these are my words, to you, right now."

You need quiet time to sort out the difference. God appreciates that you are seeking Him, either way.

I have made life-changing decisions this way. And no one's going to tell me that trying to do what God tells me to is the wrong thing. I stand by those decisions, and the process.

 

[Raykay]

Not being able to verify it does not invalidate it. Concluding it is the result of a vivid imagination without having experienced it is simply irrational. I was able to observe and make an evaluation on the basis of what I observed. You have not observed it therefore jumping to your conclusion requires making unreasonable assumptions.

 

[Raykay]

Two things can be at play:

1) Could be that sometimes words just jump out at you. Like "hippogryph" jumps at you when you read Harry Potter.

2) Could be God saying, "This is my Word, but these are my words, to you, right now."

You need quiet time to sort out the difference. God appreciates that you are seeking Him, either way.

I have made life-changing decisions this way. And no one's going to tell me that trying to do what God tells me to is the wrong thing. I stand by those decisions, and the process.

I think when I described it people aren't given an accurate picture of what happened, its nothing that you can make happen or force.

 

[StrivingFollower]

What happens with me is like all the words in a paragraph will float a little and sometimes shine. It feels like the deep meaning jumps out at me quick when this happens. It's not uncommon that it happens to me. It's probably God's mercy because I'm a slow reader lol.. But yea I feel a deep connection to God when it happens, it's nice.

 

[Johnny4ChristJesus]

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I would not say the experience is not significant if it did not change me. Afterall Jesus spoke of the parable of the sower, how you can receive the word but not have it change you for various reasons. However it does not mean Jesus did not speak to them. Similarly, even if this experience did not change me it would not mean that it was not significant or that what happened was not of God. It could simply mean that I did not take the verses to heart.

The first verse that jumped out at me was "For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him." Ephesians 1:4. This verse jumping out at me along with the others that I only vaguely recall now (this happened three years ago) let me know that God was truly with me. At the time I was having a mental breakdown and had called out to God to help me and had him in my thoughts often. This experience among others changed my perspective of God from being distant to near and grew my faith in him. Three years later and I am in my third year at university and studying what I perceive to be God's will for my life (I had an experience a few months before going to university that confirmed this to me)

So why do you say it didn't change you then? By what you described, it did. A real encounter with God changes people. It isn't just to brag about some special experience one has. Not everyone who heard Jesus preach encountered God, as the soils share. Not everyone who reads the words of Scripture encounters God. Encountering God is something special. Never let it go.

 

[JCFantasy23]

Edit: To provide context to what happened: The first verse that jumped out at me was "For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him." Ephesians 1:4. This verse jumping out at me along with the others that I only vaguely recall now (this happened three years ago) let me know that God was truly with me. At the time I was having a mental breakdown and had called out to God to help me and had him in my thoughts often. This experience among others changed my perspective of God from being distant to near and grew my faith in him. Three years later and I am in my third year at university and studying what I perceive to be God's will for my life.

To me this sounds believable and a reach out to you in your despair. When I was younger, if there was a subject I had been confused about or wondering about in my personal life, I could open the bible randomly and the page I would come to would answer the situation somehow or clear something up. That no longer happens to me but did when I was a teenager and was going through a lot of issues.

 

[Raykay]

So why do you say it didn't change you then? By what you described, it did. A real encounter with God changes people. It isn't just to brag about some special experience one has. Not everyone who heard Jesus preach encountered God, as the soils share. Not everyone who reads the words of Scripture encounters God. Encountering God is something special. Never let it go.

I didn't say it didn't change me, my first paragraph was simply to clarify that even if it didn't it would not mean it wasn't divinely inspired. I agree to an extent about having an encounter with God changes you however I think I could have made the most of it by mediating on the verses which I did not. I got caught up in the amazement of what happened that I did not think to mediate on them.

I think in the back of my mind I may have been bragging, however, I primarily made this post to see if others have had a similar experience. Hence why I skipped the significance of it.

 

[Tharseo]

I didn't say it didn't change me, my first paragraph was simply to clarify that even if it didn't it would not mean it wasn't divinely inspired.

No, if it does not change you, it is highly probable that it comes from the devil but not God. God never speaks to people in vain.

What happened to you definitely seems possible to me. God speaks to me many times through the Bible, whether to guide me to a new spiritual heights or to tell me what principle should I use to make certain decision. It never "jumps out" though, but it can go deep into my spirit and change my inner being fundamentally.

 

[StrivingFollower]

Anything that makes you understand the fundamentals of God's philosophy more, the love of God more, that makes you braver, that makes you mentally stronger, and feel more present in reality. More appreciative of God's way and creation.. anything that makes you feel like that is a huge blessing. It can come from a spectacle, but really anything and it's a blessing.

 

[Norbert L]

Could you elaborate on the experiences you've had? I have come across pastors talking about scripture jumping out at them but no one goes in to detail about what they mean when they say this.

Also could you elaborate on your analogy to food? and what you mean when you say "However in this case it seems to be more about how these verses make you interpret them."

One of the best words to describe scripture jumping out at you is resonate, it strikes you deeply and it feels exceptionally relevant to an important concept about life. Basically a particular verse will resonate as if it's an important message of personal inspiration directed at you. It can create an emotional response because it's an answer to something very important.

I used food as analogy because I think it's more common than other big types of pleasure like alcohol and sex. What can be less obvious when dealing with the subject of interpretation, how that too becomes pleasurable is because knowledge can be something to be desired. Genesis 3:6 The apostle Paul also comments on how it can go wrong. 2 Timothy 4:3

 

[Raykay]

One of the best words to describe scripture jumping out at you is resonate, it strikes you deeply and it feels exceptionally relevant to an important concept about life. Basically a particular verse will resonate as if it's an important message of personal inspiration directed at you. It can create an emotional response because it's an answer to something very important.

I used food as analogy because I think it's more common than other big types of pleasure like alcohol and sex. What can be less obvious when dealing with the subject of interpretation, how that too becomes pleasurable is because knowledge can be something to be desired. Genesis 3:6 The apostle Paul also comments on how it can go wrong. 2 Timothy 4:3

When you say resonate, are you describing your experience of it, or do you think that's what I experienced? I assure you that this is not the case. I wish I could describe precisely what happened. It was not simply a feeling (although it was accompanied by one). This verse 'jumped out' either at the beginning or near the beginning of reading the verse. I did not read the verse, resonate with it, then experience a feeling. It came out of the blue. It was completely unexpected and even after I experienced it the first time, I did not expect others to.

I still do not quite see the connection between my experience and interpretation and pleasure or sin. There was no interpretation in my experience. I experienced something that was out of my control. There was no interpretation involved. Although I interpreted this experience as coming from God. That is by far the most reasonable explanation how else would verses in the bible unexpectedly jump out at me?

 

[usexpat97]

This is YOUR relationship with God. There's not much the rest of us can do but encourage you to keep seeking. It's probably for the best, anyway. We have relationships of our own with Him.

 

[Norbert L]

When you say resonate, are you describing your experience of it, or do you think that's what I experienced? I assure you that this is not the case. I wish I could describe precisely what happened. It was not simply a feeling (although it was accompanied by one). This verse 'jumped out' either at the beginning or near the beginning of reading the verse. I did not read the verse, resonate with it, then experience a feeling. It came out of the blue. It was completely unexpected and even after I experienced it the first time, I did not expect others to.

I still do not quite see the connection between my experience and interpretation and pleasure or sin. There was no interpretation in my experience. I experienced something that was out of my control. There was no interpretation involved. Although I interpreted this experience as coming from God. That is by far the most reasonable explanation how else would verses in the bible unexpectedly jump out at me?

Then take your explanation at face value, while you were reading a verse without regard to any of its' meaning, it gave you an uncontrollable response.

Being that scripture is written by an author who is communicating a story to inform the reader and you found yourself out of control irregardless to that information. It strikes me as an experience without regard to what the Bible is trying to tell people.

 

[Raykay]

Then take your explanation at face value, while you were reading a verse without regard to any of its' meaning, it gave you an uncontrollable response.

Being that scripture is written by an author who is communicating a story to inform the reader and you found yourself out of control irregardless to that information. It strikes me as an experience without regard to what the Bible is trying to tell people.

I updated what I had initial written:

To provide context to what happened: The first verse that jumped out at me was "For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him." Ephesians 1:4. This verse jumping out at me along with the others that I only vaguely recall now (this happened three years ago) let me know that God was truly with me. At the time I was having a mental breakdown and had called out to God to help me and had him in my thoughts often. This experience among others changed my perspective of God from being distant to near and grew my faith in him. Three years later and I am in my third year at university and studying what I perceive to be God's will for my life.

The verses jumping out let me know God was speaking these verses to me. This was the significance of it. Also, although I am not sure this is what you were implying, tongues is uncontrollable so I don't see a problem with my experience being uncontrollable.