How To Study The Word Of God
How to Study the Word of God
by
Mary Giangreco
www.neverendingword.com
Getting Started: Read Your Bible
Most don t know where to begin when studying the Word or even reading the Word. There came a raised hand out of the audience with a question, Where do I begin reading in the Bible? As an unbeliever I made the mistake of beginning with the Book of Genesis. I was lost after reading the first chapter and proceeded to close the book, not to open it until years later. However now, as a believer, I can understand this book and what it means to the rest of the Bible. The question asked was appropriate because most people really don t know where to even begin to read in their Bible.
There are many Bibles on the market today and many translations that make reading easy to understand. The One Year Bible is a good place to begin and there is even a Chronological One Year Bible that rearranges Scriptures and puts them in the order the events happened. If you have any Bible (other than the Chronological), here is a simple way to begin reading.
Get a Post-It pad and take out seven sheets; these will become your book marks. Open your Bible to Matthew and on the Post-It write Matthew 1 and place it in your Bible right there in the first chapter of Matthew. This will be your first place to begin to read your Bible. After you have read Matthew chapter one, cross out the number 1 and write 2 beside it, moving the Post-It to that new chapter. The next time you open your Bible you ll begin with chapter 2.
Do the same thing with the other six Post-Its except you ll write Romans 1, Acts 1, Revelation 1, Psalms 1, Proverbs 1, and for the last Post-It you get to pick a favorite book from the Old Testament to read. This will get you familiar with your Bible.
While reading, be sure to have some 5×8 ruled index cards and a pen handy in case the Lord begins to speak to you about a Scripture. I ll explain why you should use the index cards instead of a notebook in the next section. Always remember, reading your Bible should be fun. Have some stickers that are small enough for the margin of your Bible to place next to the Scriptures as pointers. If you come across Scriptures that talk about love for example, heart stickers are always good. There are many Scriptures on the mouth, so some cute stickers shaped like lips might be a good choice. What could you use for prosperity Scriptures, a dollar sign perhaps? The point is to make it easy to locate key Scriptures. There are a variety of stickers out there on the market so get creative.
Storing the Word of God
Have you written notes on the back of your church bulletin or heard something said that was really good and you wanted to remember it but didn t have anything but a scrap piece of paper to write on? You ended up with all these pieces of paper with scribbled notes and didn t know what to do with them. I ve been there. Take all those scrap pieces of paper and either throw them out or reorganize them. You can put them in a manila folder and label them miscellaneous if you can t part with them. I ve done this and haven t looked at those scraps of paper since. There is a better idea.
Earlier I mentioned 5×8 ruled index cards. There is a reason I recommend cards for this kind of studying rather than writing in a journal or notebook. First, writing in a notebook is very limiting in that, once a note is written it must forever remain in that part of the notebook. Sure you can tear out part of the page, or even the entire page, but you end up with all those loose scraps of paper again. Second, it s very difficult, if not impossible, to find things you wrote sometime in the past. With cards, you can write your little snippet of revelation or information on one or a series of cards, which can then be stored and accessed conveniently. And because you ll be putting the subject of your notes at the very top of the card (you will won t you?), you can keep them sorted, making retrieving the information much easier. You should also date your cards in the upper right corner and make your mark by putting your initials on the upper middle part of the card. The date helps to look back later and see where you were then and where you are now. The initials remind you where you got the information; your own revelation or study, or a message from a pastor or someone else.
Of course, as the Scriptures begin to speak to you, you ll need a place to put all these cards. I recommend you purchase a card file box and some A-Z 5×8 ruled index cards. The A-Z indexed cards will help keep all your thoughts and studies organized and insure you will have information at your finger tips. I call this card file box the Scribe s Householder or Treasure Box that is made up of things new and old, Every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old. (Matthew 13:52). Your card file box will hold revelations, teachings, rhemas dreams, visions, desires and the purposes and plans of God revealed through your prayer life. The card file box represents your quality of life in the Word of God. Out of your card file box can come creative expression in the form of sermons or even your first book. This will depend upon your interests; the key point is the Word can enter into every part of your life and bring healing; for it is life. In your card file box are the things, new and old which is a Jewish expression of great plenty, it will hold your thoughts and ideas of yesterday and your thoughts and ideas of today. Your card file box can be your endless supply of the Word of God that brings peace, joy, patience, comfort, wholeness, healing and most of all hope for the future.
Banking on Memory Only
Imagine that a revelation, a single word, or even a thought from the Lord, as an ICE CUBE. Say you are storing this ICE CUBE in your mind. The CARES of the day or just the CARES of life come in. Day by day and little by little the ICE CUBE of revelation from the Lord begins to melt. Before you know it the revelation begins to disappear. Your revelation from the Lord becomes a puddle of water and soon a vapor, disappearing into thin air. This is what the enemy wants to happen; he is banking on it.
Your card file box represents thirty, sixty and hundred fold. Thirty-fold is when the Holy Spirit has said something to you, whether it is one word, a sentence, or has given you an impression of something. Don t bank on memory only but write it down on a 5×8 card. This thought is thirty-fold. When you begin to write down from the thirty-fold, it will multiply into sixty-fold. More times than not, when the thirty-fold is written down, more comes. If you share your thirty-fold and sixty-fold with someone, it will become a hundred-fold and will be tailor made for the person you are talking to. The Holy Spirit can use you in the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom. The hearer will say, I needed to hear that or the next time they see you they ll say, You know, I thought about what you said all week, it really ministered. And as that person is hearing it, it becomes their thirty-fold. If they take it home and write it down they will receive sixty-fold, and if they share it with someone else they will receive one hundred-fold and the process starts over and over again. Be sure not to bank on memory only but write the revelations down, no matter how insignificant they may seem.
Your Journey Begins
This is only the beginning of the journey of studying the Word of God. There are many more techniques on how to study the Word and how to receive revelation from it. There are also other resources that can be used, such as the Strong s Exhaustive Concordance with Hebrew and Greek Dictionary, Vines Complete Expository Dictionary, various Commentaries, Bible Dictionaries and many books written by Christian authors.
The key to studying your Bible is to read it and then write down what the Holy Spirit speaks and shows you.