SPIRITUAL GROWTH – HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE

As newborn babies, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. 1 Peter 2:2

The bible is God’s message to mankind. It contains the mind of God, the will of God and principles that guide our daily Christian living. The word of God is instructive, inspiring, comforting, with a wholesome nugget that refreshes the life of every Christian. The word of God is food to the soul and life to everyone that lives thereby. The bible is to the spirit what food is to the body. Reading the bible gives spiritual strength and energy because; the bible is the Bread of Life.

When a person establishes a relationship with God at the point of salvation, there is need for a corresponding spiritual growth. For example; as a child is being born into the world, provisions are made by the parents for appropriate feeding, to avoid death. Likewise, God has made adequate provisions for His children’s spiritual sustainability. This time; through reading the word of God – The Bible.

Growing spiritually through reading the word of God can be explained this way; imagine a person who stays without food or water every day for weeks and months, what do you think will happen to the fellow? He will become so feeble and faint or can even die of malnutrition. Similarly, when a farmer plants a crop, he waters and feeds it with manure else, the plant will whether and die. That is what happens when, Christians stay without the word of God. They become so spiritually weak and powerless that, they end up being spiritually dead.  As a result, they will not be able to know God personally and have a good relationship with Him.

Temptations abound everywhere in all corners, only a good infilling of the word of God can keep us victorious.

We live in an unpredictable world. Daily meditating on the word of God will give you power to overcome sin and satan. So, to live a Christian life without reading the bible daily is like dying of thirst in the middle of an ocean. Also, you cannot have a fruitful Christian experience and grow spiritually when you do not have the word of God in your heart.

When you begin to fill your heart with the word of God (The Bible), you will start experiencing a great change in every aspect of your life. Satan understands this; that is why he keeps Christians unnecessarily busy, distracted and lazy to study the word of God – for therein lays the roadmap to all your successes in life. Before leaving home each day, be sure to have established your mind in the word of God. By so doing, you keep yourself adequately prepared and positioned to counter all life’ challenges.

The Bible is the believer’s daily manual. We consult it to know the mind of God for every given situation. Yes, when believers follow what is written in the Bible, they can never get it wrong.

You see, the bible is a spiritual book and need to be approached likewise. That is, before reading your bible, you need to pray and tell the Holy Spirit to minister to you through His word. On our own, we cannot understand anything in the bible,  that is why we need the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

• Set out a time to read your bible daily. Best time is usually in the morning, before starting your day. Mornings are seen to be best because, at that time, the mind is fresh and clear. Secondly, nothing can be better than starting your day with Jesus.
• Read one chapter per time. This is to avoid clustering your mind with so much. I suggest taking a particular book of the bible and studying it from the beginning to the end. For example, you can take up the book of Romans and read one chapter of it each morning till you are done reading the entire book.
• Read the bible meditatively, with a searching heart. Do not rush through it, read like you are searching for something. Like that, you will discover a whole lot of truths and revelations.
• If you can, choose a verse that connects to you and memorize it. Process it slowly through your mind to receive a REHMA. (Rehma is a divine insight/revelation from God on a particular issue.)
• Get a pen, a highlighter and a notebook for your bible study. Highlight bible instructions and warnings with colour red, while you highlight Gods promises with colour green. This is easy reference. Any new insight or revelation that you have read in the bible, write them in your notebook, also write the date and time close to it. This will help you keep a track of what God is teaching you through His word.
• . Read the bible as if it is speaking to you. Make it personal to your life. It was originally written to the Israelites and the believers in the early church, but now they are no more. You and I and other believers represents the audience in the bible. The instructions in the bible are for us. The promises are also for us.
• The bible is alive and active. That is why, it is written in present continuous tense. The bible is the mind of God (in written form) so every single word therein is powerful and practical. When you read out what is in the bible, it is as good as you echoing the mind of God
• You need to have faith and believe everything you read in the bible because, we need faith to connect to Gods word.
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• TAKE ACTION
• Get a cardboard paper and write HAVE YOU READ YOUR BIBLE TODAY? Paste it on your wall as a daily reminder.
• Memorize a verse of the bible each day and process it through your mind for at least, ten minutes.
• Get a bible reading plan if you do not have any.
• .Set a weekly goal on bible studying. For instance, you can set a goal that, at the end of this week, I want to study the book of Romans. Then divide your weekly goal to daily tasks. That is, from Monday to Friday, you will read two chapters each day. Then on Saturdays and Sundays, you will read three chapters daily to finish up the sixteen chapters.