Learning to Read Scripture Spiritually

Holy Spirit Ascension approaches Scripture through PaRDeS, an ancient method of biblical interpretation that recognizes multiple layers of meaning within the text.

These layers are not treated as competitors. A passage may carry historical, practical, symbolic, and spiritual meaning at the same time.

Holy Spirit Ascension places particular attention on the spiritual and symbolic dimensions of Scripture, especially through biblical symbolism, metaphor, prophetic imagery, and dream interpretation.

Scripture repeatedly describes a relationship between what is visible and what is unseen. Hebrews 8:5 describes earthly things as a “copy and shadow” of heavenly things. Daniel 10:12–13 portrays an unseen spiritual conflict occurring alongside events on earth. Second Corinthians 4:18 distinguishes between things seen and unseen.

In Matthew 6:10, Yeshua teaches:

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

Holy Spirit Ascension approaches these passages as invitations to consider how physical events, images, and experiences may reflect realities that also exist within the spiritual realm.

Dreams communicate through images. Prophecy often does the same. Scripture contains beasts, mountains, rivers, temples, lamps, trees, stars, weddings, wildernesses, storms, fire, water, bread, blood, and countless other images that can function both literally and symbolically.

A wilderness may be a geographical place while also representing testing or transformation. A temple may describe a physical sanctuary while also becoming a picture of the person in whom the Spirit dwells. Light may describe something visible while also representing revelation, truth, or understanding.

The spiritual reading does not have to erase the literal one. It asks what else the image may reveal.

The physical world is commonly experienced through chronos: chronological, sequential time measured through moments, days, months, years, and calendars.

Scripture also speaks in terms of kairos, the appointed or fitting moment. Kairos is concerned less with the ticking of a clock and more with the fulfillment of purpose at the right moment.

This distinction becomes especially useful when studying prophecy, visions, dreams, and passages in which earthly events appear to reflect a larger spiritual reality.

The lessons within Holy Spirit Ascension accompany Formation because spiritual growth involves more than learning information about Scripture. Formation is designed to renew the mind and teach us to recognize the spiritual realities Scripture describes.

Some lessons examine biblical words, symbols, dreams, visions, and metaphors from another angle. Others explore hearing God, testing what we receive, developing discernment, understanding the spiritual realm, and recognizing the patterns through which God communicates.

As biblical understanding expands, the lessons invite you to practice what you are learning. You begin paying closer attention to your thoughts, perceptions, experiences, dreams, Scripture, prayer, and the fruit produced by what you receive.

The purpose is not simply to teach you what to see. It is to help you learn how to see, hear, test, and discern while developing an increasingly intimate relationship with God.