Bible Study Methods; How To Study Your Bible.

Hello friends, I couldn’t wait for it to be Friday again. Thank you for joining me today. I believe you’ve been blessed so far.

Today, I will be talking to you on how to study your Bible.

We have dealt with the ancient yet potent life of God’s word, we have talked about His nature and last week we talked about our attitude towards the word of God and how to receive from Him through The Word. All these have mostly been a discussion of heart posture. Today however, I want us to talk about the practical way to study your Bible. The practical way to flip those sheets and be intentional about every single word in every sentence, every single sentence in every paragraph, every single paragraph on every page.

Having put our hearts in the right posture with the help of the Holy Spirit, it is imperative that we are not haphazard about our study.

2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

It is imperative then that we give ourselves to studying the word of God and doing it deliberately. There’s a principle I have observed overtime called the Principle of interaction. Take for instance a baby (which is what we are upon salvation) when a baby is growing, the people they interact with is what will form their definition of right and wrong, their choice of words, their manners and everything that proceeds out of them because when you interact with a thing, it’s not just your senses involved, your heart is totally engaged.

I want to talk to you on a 4-step method of studying your Bible called “S.O.A.P”. I was privileged to be in attendance in a small conference where this was taught and it blessed me in no small way.

At the end of this episode, just like I did after the teaching at the conference, you might realize this is exactly how you have been studying your Bible. So you may ask “what’s the purpose of this episode then?” The purpose is that you know it deliberately. Knowing it deliberately greatly reduces the chances of falling into the unprofitable religion of Bible study, knowing this will help you get more intentional about your study.

Alright then, having laid that foundation, let’s dig in.

Just for the record, I don’t recommend coffee on your table or any form of edible substance if you want to seriously study. I have tried being that sophisticated but it seriously distracted me. Don’t laugh at me.

Now, before you begin your S.O.A.P, you should start with a “P” I call “Prayer”. I believe it is important to pray before you start your study. I am not going to give you what to say of course (let the Holy Ghost lead your prayer for we know not what to pray or how to pray) but I will say that you remind yourself of who and what the word of God is and what it can do and thank God for it. I also recommend you get yourself writing materials and highlighters (if you don’t mind a messy bible). Now, Let me explain S.O.A.P.

S- Scripture

O- Observation

A- Application

P – Prayer

1. SCRIPTURE

Of course for you to study the Bible, you need the Bible and not just the Bible, you need a particular portion you want to study (not necessarily a large portion). Let me say this and I want you to hold it dearly, “Make sure you have a portion of the scripture you are studying at any time ‘T’ of your life”. What am I saying? that you should be studying while walking or working or driving? No!!! I am saying don’t leave your study of scripture to the wind to decide. So wherever your fan blows the pages of your Bible to is where you read, don’t do that!!! Now there are times the Holy Spirit leads you to scriptures to study for a particular day (but then you know this is the Holy Spirit leading me to read that portion).

There are various ways to pick what portion to study in the Bible. You can read books of the Bible, you can study on Bible characters, you can study on topics and also study on themes (all these are available on the world wide web, just search “bible study plans”)

Always have a portion from the Bible you’re studying, this way, you are always brought to the Bible because you have something you are studying. Amen.

2. OBSERVATION

This refers to the things noticed in the passage read. You cannot observe anything If you are not attentive. This means you have to read with all attention and interest. It means you can’t read out of duty, because your heart will be absent.

So while studying, the Holy Spirit will point your attention to things, you’ll see things, you’ll have questions, this is where you write down stuff, this is where you gingerly highlight your Bible (please don’t highlight so people know you’ve been studying… You’ve received your reward in full).

I usually had a fear of being wrong about my observations but let me let you in on a secret. You can only be wrong about your observation if you stop your studying that day, as long as you continue studying daily, you’ll see the correct thing and you’ll be corrected. Sometimes, you were not wrong, you just didn’t get the full Picture in your first observation but now you’re getting it in another study. So have no fear, the word and the Spirit will fish out any and every wrong observation for you and make you clean.

If you have doubts, write them down as questions. You are not sure about something, something seems unclear at the time? Write it down as a question.

3. APPLICATION

I always believe this is where the bulk of the meditation is. At this point, the word of God is laid side by side your own life for cross examination. The Lord has said love your neighbor as yourself, do I love my neighbor? Do I love them as I love myself? Is there any hidden motive or the only motive is because God has commanded It? You begin, intentionally, to cross examine your life in line with God’s word. You begin to see what and where in your life the word must be injected if not you will sin against God because now you know the truth (the Bible says he who knows what to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin to him).

Listen to me, the word of God judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart, if the word comes to you, it lays everything bare. It reveals your deepest desires ,thoughts and intentions. It doesn’t do this to shame you… No!!!!…. It is so that you may repent and you may receive grace from your Lord to live up to His original blueprint, His unchanging standards.

When it opens you up to yourself this way, be wise enough to admit your fault, to confess and repent cos then will He open up to you, imparting faith and grace into you. Amen

I actually enjoy this point a lot cos it’s like that moment a pregnant woman’s water breaks. She’s about to enter into the labour room… Into Prayer

4. PRAYER

I believe strongly and I say it every chance I get that the word of God must bring you to pray. I do not believe after going through such examination, such piercing from the double edged sword, such dividing asunder of flesh and spirit, you can just close your Bible and walk away, No sir!!! You will see the need to pray, to bring yourself to alignment. You will be compelled to pray by the word…. Aaahhh!!! I believe Jesus’ heart was burning from the word of His father which kept echoing “You’ll have to die”… His eyes were flooded with visions of what He must suffer before final death. But His will was shifting… He saw in the word what must be but the Messiah’s will was shifting and it pierced His heart…. His heart began to bleed from the revelation of the truth and he took 3 of his disciples and went up a mountain and said “my heart is sorrowful unto death”… He went a little further and fell on his face and prayed. Kai!!!!!

Maybe you don’t have burdens to pray because you’ve not been looking upon the word of life.

This is the labour room… There’s no caesarean session here… You must birth the reality you just saw in the scripture.

Acknowledge your frailty, declare your weakness and inability unto Him who knows and is able to make you strong in Him. Acknowledge His strength and His standard and ask to become what He demands (this is repentance).

Note, sometimes, this happens from a strong burden that has permeated your emotions, sometimes it doesn’t. so you cannot live by your emotions. Just know the right thing to do is to pray whether or not you feel anything.

Conclusion

Let me bring this episode to a close. These 4 steps don’t promote rigidity in study, this is 100% spirit led. It’s not a forced rhythm. It flows like a river and that is why some were already on this track before they read about this or ever heard about anything like this. Again, this is just to break that chain of duty and religion of bible study which robs you of the life transforming experiences you should have.

You may be reading this and you can’t seem to take away the thought of the need to learn memory verses. It is good to know scriptures, I wouldn’t say memorise them, I’d rather say know them. I don’t see how you will study a scripture, observe it, apply it and pray about it and it will not stick.

In the place of prayer, the questions you wrote down, can be explained, other times, the answers will come to you while you are engaged with something entirely different. But they won’t go unanswered. I encourage, also, that you ask fellow believers who study their bibles questions.

I pray that this takes away religion and duty from your fellowship and gives you the sweet savor of fellowship in Jesus name. Amen.

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Thank you for joining this week. I’ll write to you next week on what the word of God does to you. God bless you.

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