40. Why Random Bible Reading Blocks You from Hearing God—and What Busy Christian Physicians Should Do Instead

Feeling like you’re too busy for a structured quiet time? Maybe you’ve told yourself, “I just want to stay flexible and let God lead me to whatever page He wants.”
But what if that mindset is actually keeping you from hearing Him clearly?

In this episode of Heal the Healers, Dr. Inga Hofmann challenges the “flip-open-the-Bible” approach and reveals why true flexibility with God comes from consistency—not randomness. She shares how daily habits and routines create the space for the Holy Spirit to speak powerfully into your life… even as a busy physician juggling work, family, and call schedules.

You’ll learn:

• Why all Scripture—not just a few favorite verses—is alive and active (Hebrews 4:12).
• How to build spiritual “margin” through daily rhythms.
• What true flexibility with God looks like (and it’s not throwing your Bible in the air).
• Practical ways to deepen your relationship with God through consistent time in the Word.

If you’re ready to move from spiritual survival mode to daily renewal, this episode will stir your faith and help you create space to hear God’s voice every day.

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Transcript

0:00

Hey friend. I'm just curious, are you the type of physician that is like, oh, what am I gonna read in my quiet time today? Or have the mindset of I need to be flexible so I don't have a particular Bible reading plan. I wanna make sure that God can speak to me into my daily life, and therefore I will just. Flip open the page to wherever it might land. Well then this podcast is for you because I wanna get you out of the mindset that God only can speak through randomness and that he cannot speak through a Bible reading plan because that is just not the truth. So stay tuned for after the music and we will be right back and have a little chat about this. This should be fun. Well, welcome back. Hey, my Heal the healers physician friends. I'm so glad to chat with you on another podcast episode. And this really came about as I prepared podcast episodes about Bible reading plans. Daily quiet time habits, which let's be real. It can be really challenging as a busy physician to squeeze those in. But if you have followed me for a while, you know that despite me understanding very well that it is not easy to have consistent quiet time as a busy physician that I also feel like, Hey, there's no excuse we can fit a million other things in kit schedules, sport activity, driving our kits around scrolling on Facebook and so forth. We can't find 15 minutes at least to spend with the Lord. So I wanna encourage you in that. But here's the thing. I spoke a lot about sort of systematic Bible reading plans, how to get started. There's plenty of other podcast episodes that I have recorded on this. Even just go back to the last one, to the episode prior to this, and you will hear me talk about how to just approach reading the Bible in a year from a practical perspective and sort of my journey. So go back and listen to that if you haven't. But today I'm really one of. Focus on this mindset that I hear a lot of people have. And honestly, as a baby Christian, I did the same dumb thing. A lot of people think that God cannot speak through a reading plan that God only speaks to us being open and flexible. And yes, we need to be having an open. Mind and an open heart to actually hear the voice of God. That is a different topic and I will definitely address that in an upcoming episode. But it's sort of this mindset that I don't wanna stick to a rigid Bible reading plan because I have this belief in my head that the Lord can only speak if he basically guides me to the scripture, sort of mystically randomly in some way. And while I would say that there are moments that might be true, that is actually not the general rule. So imagine this, and I see this a lot and as I confessed, I've done this as a baby Christian myself. You basically sort of flip open the book. Throw the Bible up in the ear and then wherever it opens up, wherever the page opens up, that's what you're supposed to be reading for the day. And maybe you even swirl your finger and close your eyes and drop your finger on a spot in the Bible and then you're like, this must be the verse that God is leading me to. And maybe it's cured when you're five, but let's be real here for a moment. And I'm gonna be a little bit honest here. To me, that sounds a lot more booboo and actually like witchcraft than being guided by the Holy Spirit. Sure, God can move the page open to wherever he wants. He is God, he can do anything. But it's really coming from this very. Funny place. The Holy Spirit can absolutely guide you to the scriptures that you need to hear in this season, but I would challenge you to believe that that is the way he does it. He will appear and give witness to your own spirit, and he will be a witness, maybe even to your thoughts and intellect about, you know, what are you challenged with in your life right now? What are the scriptures you need to be hearing? Perhaps you're dealing with fear or loss. So the Lord wants to pour into your scriptures of love and not suddenly point you through I don't know, you end up on your. Random exercise of throwing the Bible in the air and end up in a genealogy on Leviticus, and you have no idea what that means. So I wanna just challenge that belief today about I need to be flexible so God can speak. And by doing so, I'm not prescribing to a routine Bible reading plan, but I'm just gonna flip open the page. So I wanna just kind of debunk ahead to use that word, because it's. Used in weird ways these days, but I wanna just kind of put that in its correct perspective and say, I would say that is actually false, and here is what the word of God tells us. The word of God tells us it's not like a specific passage that only speaks because the entire Bible, the entire Canaan of the Bible is. Inspired by God, he actually breathed into those words. It's not just people being inspired by the Holy Spirit, but the, the Lord himself breathed on those words. It's what he is basically breathing out and grading. And yes, he used people to get it on paper, but Hebrews four 12 tells us for the word of God. That means all scripture is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit joins and mirror. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Such a powerful verse. So many ways we can interpret that. And I actually did a very early podcast episode on really. Understanding with my medical head on this scripture as it penetrates so deep, it's so sharp, it's so accurate, but here is what it says. It is all scripture basically, that is alive and active, and we have made it to be sometimes that only some scripture is alive and active. No, no, no, no, no. The word God itself says all of it is life and active. And it is so sharp that it will penetrate and divide soul and spirit. These are actually two different parts and I encourage you, you really need to learn what the Bible says about your body, your mind, which is where your part of your soul and your spirit, because that is really important for your daily life. That's why we are doing a whole series and heal the healers right now on physician wellbeing, where we look at fortifying our bodies. Our soul, which means our minds, emotions, thoughts, et cetera, and our spirit, because we must be sharp in all those three areas and fortified and strengthened to actually walk strong in the Lord, especially these days. So just a little side note. If you are like, interested in that and say, I really need to understand the word deeper, how it applies to me as a physician being a community of other physicians, join Heal The Healers. I will put a link in the show notes how you can join. It is a fantastic community for you to grow. If you are the person who says, I need some help and I need to go deeper, and I need to be held by the hand, and I want to be in a company of physicians that are believers and follow the Lord with all their heart and might that also get my crazy life and the challenges we are facing in medicine, then that is the community for you. But well now I digressed all the way. So what I wanna say here, the word is very clear that all of scripture is actually active in our life and critical for our life. So do not think that there only certain parts The Lord speaks through. He can speak to all of them and I would challenge you, you might be sitting in genealogies. And one time you read it and you're like, this is boring. I don't know what I'm reading this. Might, I say that it was not boring and irrelevant for the people that it was addressed to, but he can speak to you another time. You read that genealogy and you get the fear of the Lord on you because you're like, wow, all these people matter and so I matter. Where you find some very curious thing in a genealogy that you never picked up because all these things actually do matter and they are a bigger part in the story of God and our salvation. So never PPO a genealogy or the book of Leviticus. Anyways, so this is the first part I wanted to really, really internalize all of scripture. I know you know this, but are you actually believing it in your daily life? All of scripture is active in a life, and it will be good for instruction and for shaping your life and yield to the spirit of the Lord. So that is important. So this sort of, I need to be flexible and open the Bible to wherever it lands is really a very, I would say he mean laugh. I'm not trying to say that to put you in a corner, but it's a bit of a immature, baby Christian way to think about that. And if that's where you are at right now, say main. I wanna come up to a higher ground. So then, ask the Lord. Say, Lord, I wanna come up to a higher ground. I don't wanna be like Paul described, like we read in scripture, those that are still taking milk. I wanna have some real fortified fruit for that, you need to read the word of God, the Bible, consistently, meaning every day without fail. So that's really important. Spend time with the Lord and in his word. I would say to the part of flexibility actually, we create flexibility in our lives. And this is a general rule, even for you as a physician and how you prioritize, you create flexibility and margin. Whether that's to do the things that you wanna create time for or whether that's to hear the voice of God, we create it by creating habits, routines, and systems to create margin around our life so consistently. Being in the word of God and consistently showing up is actually what gives God flexibility and opportunity to speak into your life. But for that, you have to show up everything you deciding. Oh my goodness. I'm just gonna flip open the page and I'm gonna read as I fancy today. Because I want to stay flexible. No, flexibility is being available. And being available to the Lord and being available in your heart, in your mind, in your spirit to say, I'm gonna receive. I'm gonna sit here and receive. For that, you have to create routines for that. You have to create margin and room in your life to actually have. The Lord be able to speak into your life. And that means, again, it comes all back down to having a consistent time with the Lord. There is no substitute for it. I'm sorry if you think so. It's not a podcast, it's not even listening to me. You can be mentored by me all day long and I do mentor people one-on-one. I coach physicians in their academic practices. I mentor people in their spiritual work. We can do that all day long, but you have to learn how to get bread for yourself. That means you get in the presence of the Lord. You spend time with him in prayer. That means listening, not just blocking out your request. And also to read his word so that you understand his character, his will and what he says about you. So I got all on the web train here. That was not in my notes. Hallelujah. So flexibility comes from being available that is really important. Now you might still say Inga. There are times where I feel like I just need to read and focus on something else other than what is sort of trickling through my daily Bible reading plan. And I would say totally go for it. You can always add in layers of extra flexibility as you're guided by the Holy Spirit. So I want to be very clear. The Holy Spirit very well can guide you to reading and studying of certain either passages or books of the Bible as he sees fit based on. What he knows about your life, not only your current situation, but also your destiny. And that is, only possible when we really surrender to him and when we create consistent habits. To read his word, to be able to flexible to then, number one, hear what you're supposed to be. Studying maybe on top of your daily reading and what he really has you meditate on. So, let me give you an example because this was definitely very true for me, especially this year, but also I would say the last couple years. So I had my daily Bible reading plan that made sure I read the whole thing, cover to cover in a year and maybe a little bit faster this year. Praise the Lord. Because I just, I just couldn't stop sometimes and I have the luxury of time to sit there longer, but that's also. Where the Lord has me, right? So that I can minister to others and to people like you. I need to be sitting in the presence of the Lord and not just sit there for five minutes and then run. Because you cannot impart something into somebody else. What you don't carry, what you haven't walked in. What you haven't walked out, worked out with the Lord or sit in his presence about you probably get that. But, so I was following my Bible reading plan, but numerous times this year, either by assignment of being in a school for prophets or just by staring up in my personal life where the Lord had me read certain things, and I'm not saying this to both, I'm just telling you how to. Here the Lord in this there were times where I'm like, early on I was like, okay, I'm in the Old Testament. I feel like I wanna have some extra New Testament, so I just layered on the gospels and did that. In addition to the regular reading plan I read through Acts and Luke a couple times because I felt like especially I'm doing it again now I'm reading yet again through some of these things because I feel like the Lord is really saying, this is a blueprint you need to know now. That was just based on Holy Spirit instructions, the times when I deeply studied the prophets several times, and several of them this year just on the journey that I am on. So the Lord might pull you on a journey and highlight scriptures or books to you. He wants you to ponder on deeper and then do that, and that's where flexibility really comes in, and that's where the Holy Spirit can give you revelation and understanding. So in summary, I really wanna encourage you today stay flexible to the Voice of the Holy Spirit, and let's make a habit out of sitting with the Lord every day by reading his word in prayer, in meditation, on his word, meaning. We fill ourselves with the word and God's truth and not empty ourselves. That's eastern meditation that is contrary to scripture. So make room for the Lord. Be being flexible. Create consistent habit and routine to read the word and then. Be flexible in what the Holy Spirit is telling you. Flexibility again, is not me throwing up the Bible in the air and see where it lands that is actually not flexible at all. But rather me having a hard posture of flexibility because remember. The Lord can speak to all of the scripture because the word of God is active in alive and it will penetrate and divide soul and spirit again. Hebrews four 12, so I bless you today. I bless you that you will. Just get stirred up in greater desire and revelation to in just longing to understand the word of God, to study it more deeply that new passages and scriptures will open themselves up that you have previously perhaps discredited or said. I find it hard to understand. In fact, right now, I feel this is for somebody. I'm breaking agreement. I'm saying I'm breaking agreement with any. Things you have declared before, and you wanna pray that out probably loud to yourself if you have made this agreement with yourself. That I cannot ever understand certain books of the Bible or certain passages or break that agreement right now and say, holy Spirit, come and fill your brother and sister right now to understand the. Full counsel of the Word of God and really give them understanding by the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is the one who teaches and instructs us in all things and all truth. So I bless you to read the word to sit in it and to also be able to get divine strategies from the Lord to create that margin in your life through routines and habits to have extra margin on top of that. For the Lord to step in and take you on a journey so that you may know him, that you may know his word even deeper and encounter the Holy Spirit in a whole fresh, new way. And Jesus name, amen. So I hope that blessed you today. If it did, please leave a review and cheer with a friend. That really blesses me big time, and it is such a great way to reach more physicians. And the medical community and really encourage them in their faith because this journey is very isolating. Also, if you are like, how can we stay in touch? You can email me. I will put my email in the show notes. It's inga@ingahomann.com. You can join Heal the Healers. If you are like, I'm the kind of girl or a gentleman who is ready to dive deeper and be in a company of Christian physicians for sharpening training, equipping. Then this is for you. If you like, I'm. Ready to maybe explore a little, but not taking that type of a big step yet. I have a free Facebook group where you can join us. So just look for here, the Healers community. It's also in the show notes below. So join us and do make sure you are on my email list because here's the thing. I am. Not always consistent on Facebook, on the social medias and find them increasingly, Adobe is a distraction and also not reaching the people that need to hear things. So I am focusing more intentionally on this outlet and on really communicating with people directly versus. Blowing it out there somewhere in the, in the air and hoping it will stick somewhere in an algorithm. So you have to be on my email list to really stay in touch, know what's going on about. I start to release more prophetic words through my email and you won't get them necessarily on social media. I'm also sending prayers and encouragement, and that's actually a way you can just reply and say, Hey, this really encouraged me today. Lots of people do that, and it blesses me big time. So make sure you are on my email and the easiest way to do that is just sign up for my newsletter's, a funny way to call it, but it's called The Weekly Dose. Just go to inga homan I-N-G-A-H-O-F-M-A-N-N do com slash weekly dose. Yeah, it is a weekly dose of Holy Spirit inspired encouragement. Prayers, teachings, nuggets, prophetic words for you as a Christian physician. So make sure you're on that and don't miss out on that because that is free to you. That is my ministry to you and I hope it blesses you. So have a wonderful day and stay tuned. Until next time and in upcoming episodes, we are gonna talk about something that people ask me about. All the time. Well, how can I really hear from God? How can I be sure it's God's voice? Can I hear from God? What does his voice sound like? We're gonna talk about all those things. Talk to you soon and have a great day. Bye.