Most of us have used highlighters, those brightly colored markers that allow us to emphasize certain words in an article or other printed material. When we see highlighted words, they stand out to us- they practically jump off the page.

When we spend time in God’s Word, the Holy Spirit will cause Scriptures to practically jump off the page at us. He draws our attention to certain words, phrases or entire verses to show us something we never noticed before. This is what I call illumination, where God highlights things in the Bible to introduce more unerstanding to us. When He does this, it really supercharges our faith and promotes our spiritual growth.

The Holy Spirit loves to be what we might call God’s Holy Highlighter. He enjoys illuminating or bringing attention to something in Scripture that revolutionizes our walk with God.

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power Ephesians 1:17-19 (NKJV)

When the Holy Spirit shows us something new in the Word, it enhances our knowledge and understanding of God. We come to know Him better and we see more of Who He is and what He has for His chidren.

If you aren’t experiencing illumination of the Word, it may be for a couple reasons: 1) You don’t spend much time in the Word, or 2) You haven’t invited the Holy Spirit into your study time. Holy Spirit leads us into all truth and if we do not spend time in the Word of truth, He has nowhere to lead us. In other words, we have to give Him something to work with. And if we want to open ourselves to more illumination, we need to involve Him in our Bible study by simply asking Him to teach and lead us as we read.

Illumination makes our relationship with God more exciting and vibrant. As we spend time with the Holy Spirit in reading and studying the Bible, we will receive illumination to light our path and set us ablaze. God’s Holy Highlighter will cause those words to jump off the page!