 I know you have a desire to understand and apply God's Word, but perhaps you struggle with studying the Word of God. So I want to give you five simple keys that you can apply to your study time, to understanding and applying God's Word. The first key to studying the Bible is the most important, and that is revelation. The Holy Spirit is the one who authored the Scripture. The Scripture is God breathed, meaning it comes from the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is your teacher. He is your guide in understanding the truth. In John chapter 14 the Bible says this, He is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive Him because it isn't looking for Him and doesn't recognize Him. But you know Him because He lives with you now and later will be in you. But when the Father sends the advocate as my representative, that is the Holy Spirit, He will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have told you. Now when I first began to study the Word of God I was frustrated with my inability to understand what I was reading. I would read verse by verse only to realize that I didn't understand the verses that I had just read. And I would read chapter by chapter only for time to go by and me to forget and say, what did I just read? It wasn't until I invited the Holy Spirit to come in to give me wisdom, to come in to teach me the Word that I really began to see the breakthrough in my understanding of Scripture. Second Peter 1 20 to 21 says, above all you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the Prophet's own understanding or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit and they spoke from God. Second Timothy 3 16 and 17 says, all Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. If the Scripture is God breathed, remember it means it comes from the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit wants to teach you how to understand God's Word. You cannot understand spiritual truths without revelation from the Holy Spirit. Otherwise it's just information, not revelation and only revelation brings transformation. So number one is revelation. Number two is dedication. This is having consistency in your devotion to the Scripture. This is enacting that discipline to reading or hearing the Word of God on a regular basis. Actually that means receiving it on a daily basis. Joshua chapter 1 verse 8 says, study this book of instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. Matthew 4 4 but Jesus told them no. The Scriptures say people do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Jesus compared the Word of God to bread. Bread sustains on a regular basis. It's something you must intake daily. You must take in the Word daily. The Scripture of the day will not do. Just watching Instagram real preaching will not do. Just looking online at the daily devotion will not do. You must go deep in the Word of God. You must be dedicated to the study of God's Word. You must be consistent. You must be faithful. You must be sold on the Word of God. Now each time you read the Bible you become more familiar with it. That familiarity makes it easier to understand. Repetition brings familiarity. Familiarity is the foundation of understanding. So you may be frustrated now reading the Scripture saying well I didn't understand that or I don't really get that part or I don't even know where to begin when it comes to reading the Bible. But if you will just commit to reading the Word of God it will begin to make more and more sense to you. And each time you go through the Scripture your understanding is increased. Your knowledge is increased and that familiarity with the Word of God enables you to pay attention to more details. For instance if someone is reading about the Passover for the first time they'll learn about how God sent an angel of death of the land of Egypt and about how God protected the Israelites through the blood of the lambs. Once they are familiar with that story they are more likely to make the connection between the Passover lamb and Christ's crucifixion. And that's just one example of a spiritual truth that's revealed as you are consistent in the Word of God. So number one revelation. Number two dedication. Dedication is consistency, faithfulness. You must take in the Word daily. Number three observation and interpretation. Second Timothy 2 15 says study to show thyself approved unto God. A workman that needed not to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of truth. Remember this the same God who gave you a spirit gave you an intellect. The same God who gave you a soul gave you that intellect. The same God who gave you a body gave you an intellect. There's a reason God gave you a mind, an intellect. We must apply practical study to our spiritual devotion. Now observation and interpretation are really one. When you observe the scripture, when you make notes of the scripture mentally, when you learn things of the scripture, that information enables you to properly interpret what you're reading. So here is the method that I use. I call it macro, micro, macro. This is my personal approach to studying the Word of God. In other words, I start with the big picture and then step by step I begin to zoom in on the smaller details. And once I've looked at the smaller details, I go back to the big picture. So macro, micro, macro. And as you begin to study, as you begin to observe, as you begin to interpret, interpretation helps you to improve upon your observations and your observations help you to improve upon your interpretation. So how do we do this? How do we observe and interpret? How do we apply the intellect that God gave us to the study of His Word? Well, first and foremost, you have to identify the book that you're reading. 66 books in the Bible. You must look at the book and ask yourself, what kind of book is this? So we have the law or the Pentateuch. This is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. You have the Old Testament historical books or narratives. This includes books like Joshua or Ezra or first and second Samuel. You have the wisdom literature or the poetic books, such as Job, which could technically be a historical book. You have Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. You have the prophets and some people divide the prophetic books between major prophet and minor prophet. All they mean by that is that it's a larger book and a smaller book. So larger books of the Bible that are prophetic in nature include Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel. What some would consider the minor prophets are books like Joel and Amos and Jonah. So those are the books of the prophets and as I said, some people divide those into major and minor. Then you have the New Testament historical books or the New Testament narratives. This is Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the book of Acts. And then you have the Epistles. These are instructions for the church. Further still, some people divide between the Epistles and the Pauline Epistles, meaning the Epistles that Paul the Apostle wrote. And then you have the book of Revelation and this is debatable, but some would put it in a category all its own. Now the kind of book you're reading will have an impact on how that book is interpreted. So for example, be very careful about creating entire doctrines out of the book of the Song of Solomon. An Epistle would probably be more accurate in daily application. In an Epistle, I'm looking for teaching to apply directly to my life. In a historical book, I'm looking at how God interacted with people and I'm seeing truths about his nature revealed in that interaction. So for example, the way you study a historical book would differ from the way you study an Epistle. Now once you've identified the book, then you can go and ask yourself more questions about that book, such as who is the author? What is the purpose of this book? What is the overall theme? Not everyone includes this, but I like to include this. What is the overall tone of the book? What are the historical and cultural backdrops? Who are the recipients of the Epistles? Or who is the intended reader for each book of the Bible? Each category has different applications for how you interpret it and each book specifically will have different answers to these questions. So let me break that down for you again. In observation and interpretation, you have to identify the book. What kind of book are you reading? Who is the author? What is the purpose of the writing of the book? What is the overall theme? What is the overall tone? What are the historical and cultural backdrops? And who are the intended recipients of the book? Now, so after you've identified the book and asked yourself those questions about that book specifically, then you can begin to go into the little details. Remember macro, the big picture. So the big picture is what is the book saying overall? What is the tone overall? And so forth. And now we begin to break down the chapters and verses. And here's a quick side note. Those chapters and verses were added later to help us reference portions of the Scripture accurately and efficiently. But the chapters and the verses sometimes can break up thoughts. And so you have to ask yourself what is the idea or the thought behind this chapter? What is the idea or the thought behind this verse? And after we explore the chapters and the verses, then we go even further into the details and we look at the individual words or the terms. Now this is where it's very important to understand that the original languages vary in meaning as far as the terms and the words go based upon the context. So one word in the original language can mean one thing in one context and something else entirely in another context. And if you don't understand how to apply context, this is why you have to look at the Scripture as a whole. If you don't understand how to apply context, you end up with heresies like universalism where people play on the words to describe eternity and the afterlife. Now a great tool that I would recommend to you for looking at the words is a resource titled Strong's Interlinear Bible. It's a free online tool. It's something that I use. But remember, if you're not a Hebrew or Greek scholar, don't take too many liberties in trying to look too deeply in the words and change the meaning entirely. Just understand that the translations that we have are fairly accurate and comparing translation with translation and version with version can help you to get a bigger picture and a more accurate look at the Scripture. But be careful not to stretch things too far without understanding what the Scripture is actually saying. Make sure to apply context. That's why I go macro and then micro and not micro and then try to force the macro to mean what I want it to mean. So again, start with the overall big picture, move into chapters and verses, then break down the words and then back out again, look at it as a whole. And as you loop through that cycle again and again, the observation helps to bring about more accurate interpretation and more accurate interpretation helps to bring about more accurate observation. They feed into one another. So that's number three, observation and interpretation. Number four, meditation. Psalm chapter one verses one through three say this, O the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or stand around with sinners or join in with mockers, but they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither and they prosper in all they do. Meditation is keeping the word in your mind. Repetition in thought. Meditation is repetition in thought. Now, when you hear the word meditation, it may freak you out a little bit because of a lot of the new age teachings that are floating around out there, but don't let that freak you out because there is godly meditation and then there is ungodly meditation. The world says empty your mind, empty your mind, empty your mind, and leave space for anything. But the word of God teaches us to fill our mind, fill our mind, fill our mind with God's truth. The object of your meditation should be the truth that you've received from the word of God by the Holy Spirit. So meditation is repetition in thought. If reading and hearing the word is eating, then meditation is digestion. And finally, number five, application. Jesus said that if we didn't take care of or steward or make use of the revelation that we receive, then the understanding that we do have would be removed from us. But if we use well the revelation that we've received, more understanding will be given. Matthew 1312 says, to those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. Application is a part of study because only in application can you experience the word of God. Living the word keeps you in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. It causes that fellowship to be unhindered. And in unhindered fellowship, I have greater understanding of the word. Sin, disobedience, and apathy make you spiritually deaf and spiritually blind. It's only in acting out the word. It's only in applying the word that I become a recipient of even greater revelation from the Holy Spirit through the word of God. If I don't make use of what I've learned from the Scripture, then God cannot trust me with more treasures of truth. So just to recap, number one, revelation. Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and be sensitive to His presence when you study the word. Number two, dedication. Have consistency in your devotion to the Scripture. Be faithful to it. Number three, observation and interpretation. Let God use the intellect that He gave you to help bring you to a greater understanding of the Scripture and let that set proper boundaries so that you don't just go making up your own doctrines. Number four, meditation. This is to keep the word of God in your mind. Think on it constantly. Meditation is repetition in thought. And number five, application. Don't just read the word. Live it. Don't just read from the Bible and hear it from podcasts and so forth, but go and apply the word of God in your life. Apply what you know to be the truth and God will trust you with more treasures of truth. I want to pray with you now. I want to pray that God would give you a hunger for His word, that the Holy Spirit would ignite a fire in you, that you might become a student of the Holy Spirit. So Father, in the name of Jesus, we ask now that you begin to cause us to hunger for your word and Holy Spirit, I pray that you would teach us. I want you to say that to Him right now. Say, Holy Spirit, teach me your word. Father, I pray you honor that prayer. I pray, Lord, you would light that fire and cause us to be devoted wholeheartedly to the word. In the name of Jesus, we pray. I want you to say it because you believe it. Say amen. And now, here is a question for conversation. What are your goals for your growth in God's word? Let me know in the comment section down below what are your goals for your growth in God's word. What will you begin to do now to see yourself grow spiritually as you devote to the word of God? And what are some goals that you want to see in your spiritual life concerning your devotion to the word of God? And now here are some comments from another video that we did. The Good Shepherd, three caring things Jesus does for you. If you haven't seen that video yet and you want to know the Lord as the Good Shepherd, then I recommend you go and watch it. And while you do that, make sure you're subscribed to us on YouTube and click that notification bell when you subscribe and follow us wherever you're watching us. So here are the comments from the Good Shepherd, three caring things Jesus does for you. Tinsie Thomas writes, that was the perfect message for my husband and I, especially today. Thank you Lord for your love. Thank you Pastor David and Brother Steve. Prayers and blessings from India. Our kumson writes, thank you very much. I really needed this message. Indeed he is our caring and loving shepherd. Thank you Jesus. Martha Rooster writes, powerful message. I love the Encounter TV channel. The preaching and the worship are such a blessing and bring me closer to God. And Kanili Keho writes, thank you Pastor David. Your teachings never fail to bring me back to the heart of worship. Thank you Jesus for always being the good and faithful shepherd. Prayers and much love from Nagaland India. Alice Baradas writes, I thank God for this timely and awakening message. I could sense that the Holy Spirit was ministering to my heart while watching this video. God bless you Pastor David and the Spirit Church and Encounter TV family Shalom from the Philippines. I want to read a scripture to you Proverbs chapter 3 verse 27. Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it's in your power to help them. In other words, if it's in your power to do something good. If it's in your power to help a cause. If it's in your power to make a difference. Do it. Do it for those who deserve it. And I can't think of anyone more deserving than Jesus. 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