SOME PRINCIPLES WHEN READING THE WORD

Words are the communication between one person’s thinking and the hearer’s understanding. There is only One God and He is the Word (John 1:1). God, Who is Spirit, purposes to talk with us, His creation. Words in the ‘spirit realm’ are thoughts. Jesus was THE WORD MADE FLESH to dwell among us. Jesus was the Mediator between God and man. Word is the mediator between God-think and man-think. Details are important because every word and expression of God is made up of letters. Let us train ourselves to ‘tune in to’ God’s wavelength and we will clearly hear what the Spirit is saying to those who desire to hear Him. Jesus said, ‘My sheep hear My Voice’. Beware! Knowledge of the ‘letterword’ puffs up ... study, study and only study will  end in death ... for knowledge (even of the Scriptures) still comes from the same tree (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil)! Bible Schools and the like mostly pass on what a man has discovered ... many men have produced many groups with their special ‘statements of faith’! The Holy Spirit is the Teacher within each one and He will lead one into all truth ... such truth is never up for debate, right? The Life in the Word, of the Word must be allowed to come forth and express our Father in this our seen realm.

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. To desire such is to desire a genuine relationship with Christ-Jesus. When the scriptures come alive by revelation, then the Word (Christ-Jesus) will be your life in the flesh. The KJV is used for one has to read it slowly allowing the Spirit to quicken its content and intent to you. Remember above all, that the Bible is not meant to be grasped via education but by revelation from the Lord.

First steps of preparing the heart and mind of the hungry and therefore teachable, is to listen to the Spirit’s teaching and applying the life of the Word. Remember ‘talk’ is correctly spelled ‘walk’!

1. ‘Reading’ and ‘studying’ the WORD OF GOD overlap if one is to gain the maximum benefit from doing either or both. One does not read the Bible like you would a library book of fiction etc. Because it is the word spoken by the Lord, every word counts. John 1:1 tells us that God IS the Word;therefore every word is an expression of Him.

2. ALL . . . ALL . . . all scripture is profitable (II Timothy 3:15+16)

(15) And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, WHICH ARE ABLE TO MAKE THEE WISE UNTO SALVATION THROUGH FAITH WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS.

(16) ALL SCRIPTURE is given by inspiration of God, and is PROFITABLE FOR DOCTRINE, FOR REPROOF, FOR CORRECTION, FOR INSTRUCTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS:

The Word is profitable for one’s WALK, TALK and GROWTH. Remember God put it together so that YOU can grow up into His Image.

2 Cor 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding AS IN A GLASS THE GLORY OF THE LORD, are changed into THE SAME IMAGE from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Eph 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, MAY GROW UP INTO HIM IN ALL THINGS, which is the head, even Christ:

3. HIS WORD is HIS WILL expressed; you will hear it WHEN you want to! The written Word ( LOGOS) is the outbreathed word from God containing the full intention of the Speaker. The specific spoken word ( RHEMA) is a part of the ‘LOGOS’ that God applies to a life or situation. . . Romans 10:17 Faith comes by hearing the RHEMA word.

4. Purpose to be a ‘doer of the word’ that God reveals to you. James 1:23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not A DOER, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

Remember that God never ‘invites’ someone to do anything . . . HE ‘commands’ and expects obedience because we love Him. John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

5. Watch for the following as you read:

a]. SINGULARS and PLURALS. The King James Version (KJV) is very good in distinguishing between the ‘YOU’s’ . . . when singular, the word reads THOU and the plural is shown by YE or YOU. Similarly THY is singular and YOUR or OUR is plural. Here is an example showing the importance of these words: the phrase ‘OUR BODY’

2 Cor 4:10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in OUR BODY. The word ‘body’ is singular and the adjective ‘our’ is plural and thus speaks of the corporate body of Christ which we are.

By contrast ‘OUR BODIES’ . . . speak of our individual bodies. Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. LITTLE WORDS that are so very important.

b]. ALL - it simply means ALL and simply does NOT mean ‘some’, ‘many’ or even ‘most’ . . . all = 100%. Likewise ‘SOME’ does NOT mean all neither does ‘MANY’ mean all.  Romans 3:23 For ALL HAVE SINNED, and come short of the glory of God; Hebrews 2:10 For it became him, FOR WHOM ARE ALL THINGS, and BY WHOM ARE ALL THINGS, in bringing MANY SONS unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

c]. WHEN and IF are always with conditions or special conclusions! The word AND just wants you to include what follows! So don’t leave it out!

d]. When words LIKE and AS are used, then we know that the it does not refer to the original, but to something similar.

e]. THEREFORE and WHEREFORE begin a conclusion to what has just been discussed.

f]. WORDS THAT GET REPEATED many times in an account, a chapter or chapters. For example, Revelation chapters 3 to 5, the word ‘THRONE’ occurs many times and thus links these chapters together.

g]. Words that CONTRAST or COMPARE two or more actions in regard to a subject. — John 3: verses 3 and 5 . . the subject is the Kingdom of Heaven, but the two contrasted verbs are SEE and ENTER which are very different from each other.

h]. The TENSE being used — is it PAST, PRESENT OR FUTURE ?

i]. Change of PERSON . . . thou, he, she, ye, you, they, them etc. Read Psalm 91 and observe the differences!

6. Allow THE ORDER OF THINGS or people to stand out — for example look at

I Thessalonians 5:23 and also Genesis 49, for the order of Jacob’s sons.

7. When reading about a person, look for the changes that take place in the life as well as their reactions to certain circumstances.

8. COUNT items, list or sizes. See the list of spiritual meanings to numbers of the Bible later.

9. Also remember that GOD measures in CUBITS not yards or meters! God is interested in DETAIL. . . if the spinning of the earth around its axis was ‘off’ by a microscopic fraction of a second, the world would not be!