Online Bible Study Reader’s Request: A Guide For Studying the Bible

This is for Cynthia and every other blog reader who wanted to know how I study my Bible.
I know it’s been weeks since you asked that I do a post on it, please forgive me.

 

Something happened recently that reminded me of the opening line I intended to use to start up the post on studying the Word.
In fact two things happened recently that reminded me of this post…
(1) My colleagues at the firm called me a “spirikoko” because according to them I always use the Bible for whatever I talk about. And I also surprised myself when we were arguing by linking Bible passages that I didn’t even know were in me.

 

(2) A corper I had been placing in my prayers for his salvation suddenly dropped by my house and somehow, we started discussing the Word and I again surprised myself by linking passages that I didn’t know were in me.
And both instances reminded me of the one answer I wanted to give to Cynthia when she commented on this post about how my sharing the word thrills her.

Truth is, it thrills me too because it is not of my doing.
I sometimes speak to people and have Bible verses falling out of my mouth and I am thinking “where did that come from??”
One Person does it all!
The Holy Spirit!

 

Now, I am going to take Cynthia’s comment piece by piece and give my guide and answers about studying the Bible piece by piece too.
Cynthia
June 3, 2015 at 5:04 pm
PS:- Frances I’m really smitten with the way u just throw the word of God around in these online bible studies o! I sha hope I get to your level someday you know. Do you have any useful tips for a mere girl like me(lol!!)cos that’s one area I’m really struggling with i.e reading the bible and being able to retain and regurgitate passages when the need arises. Perhaps u can blog about that in the near future eyy?*winks*…
Cheers love and remain blessedxxx.
OK, let’s begin…

 

Cynthia: Frances I’m really smitten with the way u just throw the word of God around in these online bible studies o! I sha hope I get to your level someday you know. Do you have any useful tips for a mere girl like me(lol!!)

 

Frances: I think I have answered this question in the introduction already but I say this with the most sincere of hearts, the Bible studies we see here every wednesday is not of me.
It’s all God.
I am serious about it.
The first time I began to see links between passages in the Bible was last year when I was still at Law school.
Then, when people were reading their books, I would take my book and my Bible to the class and read my Bible for like 2hours till I had to force myself to stop.
I started finding correlations in the Word like I have never seen before.
It was exciting!
I could open up Galatians and have the Spirit refer me to Romans.
I could open up Colossians and have the Spirit link it with Genesis.
It was so exciting! I had never experienced it before.
I remember explaining the study I wrote for Princess on “Am I saved” to my best friend and I was just rushing on with the words because the more I spoke, the more Bible passages came to mind, but it is not of me but of the Spirit.
Let’s check this out from the Word.
Acts 2:15-18
“These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days,’ God says,‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.Your sons and daughters will prophesy.Your young men will see visions,and your old men will dream dreams. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants—men and women alike—and they will prophesy.”
The Holy Spirit had just been released unto the believers and then people thought they were drunk.
And Peter came up to explain that they were not drunk and guess what Peter said while He was explaining it all to them?
He reached back into the old testament and brought forth a verse that spoke of the day when they would all be baptized in the Spirit of God.
And if you continue reading that passage, you’ll find out that Peter also linked David’s words in the Psalms to Jesus – how David spoke about Jesus.
How did Peter know that that old testament passage was talking about the Spirit?
He had only heard about the Holy Ghost from Jesus’s mouth, how then did He know that words spoken years and years ago referred to the Spirit?
How did He link it up together?
The Holy Ghost!
Remember that Jesus said, “the Spirit will teach you all things”- John 16.
I have found this to be true even in my own life.
How do I write the Bible studies we have here?
Sometimes I may be walking in my street or I may be in the bathroom and one passage just keeps ringing in my head, or I I just hear the opening words for what I know is a Bible study.
If I sit with it and start studying, it would seem like a whole new world opens up unto me.
I can hardly turn the pages of the Bible to meet up with the teachings the Spirit is giving me.
I use google a lot for Bible passages because most times I only hear the passages but may not know where they are.

 

So we have established first of all that knowing the Word, being taught the word of God cannot be done in human strength.
It is done by the Spirit of God in us.

 

And this is where it gets interesting…
Cynthia: I sha hope I get to your level someday you know.

 

Frances: I am not on any level.
Kai, I am still on the ground floor.
Take for example the conference I went to last two weeks.
The Word can make you mad you know?
Some preachers can delve into the Word soooo deeply, you burst out in tongues and you don’t know when you just start hmmming and jumping up!
The Word is alive!!!
The good news is, the only way to get higher in the Word is by the Spirit which we already have in us!
Hallelujah!
I believe I am writing to born again Christians?
The Spirit of God already dwells in you. You just have to start relying on Him more and more.
He is the one who will take you to a deeper level in God and thank God He is ready to fulfil that job description.
Remember that the natural mind cannot understand anything from the Spirit so you must lay yourself aside if you must increase in the Word
How?
By feeding the Spirit.
What’s His food?
The Word of God!

 

Which brings me to the next question…

 

Cynthia: Do you have any useful tips for a mere girl like me(lol!!)cos that’s one area I’m really struggling with i.e reading the bible…

 

Frances: Now first of all, you aren’t supposed to be struggling with reading the Word.
I am getting to realize that following God can be easy and not such a struggle if we will only but walk in the Spirit.
Now look at the Spirit’s job description…

John 16:7
“However, I am telling you nothing but the truth when I say it is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you [into close fellowship with you]; but if I go away, I will send Him to you [to be in close fellowship with you].”

 

He is a strengthener… days when you just feel all bland, He will encourage you to pick up again!

 

And then some weeks back I kept hearing Phillipians 2:13
“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

AMP version says…
“[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.”

 

Isn’t that amazing?
It is not by ourselves that we please God, it’s by His Spirit in us.
Simply rely on the Spirit.
How?
When He tugs you to read your Bible, obey.
When He taps you in the morning with worship songs in your heart, sing.
When He keeps popping a Word into your soul, check it.
I know we don’t always obey but that’s why the Spirit can also chastise us lovingly to get in track.
God has made this all so simple.
I know, when I first gave my life to Christ it seemed hard because I was just building the habit and even now, it is hard when I disobey Him but so easy and amazing when I obey.
So the struggle isn’t for us.
Keep in line with the spirit of God at work in you.

 

As for reading the Word of God, this is where I wrote about that I have no specific time for reading the Word of God.
Of course when I wake up in the morning I do my quiet time and read the Word but the deal is it’s not always enough.
When courts were on strike, I could wake up by 7 and be done with the Word by 9am, I had nowhere to hurry to and the time just flew by when the Spirit was opening the Word up to me
After that time too, when I go to work and have nothing to do, I read my Bible (maybe that’s why they call me spirikoko, such a wowo name.lol)
When I go to the store where I sell my eggs, I read my Bible or a book.
When I come back to the house and maybe I am chatting with someone and remember a Bible passage, I check it up.
When I go on my trips and get to the top of the mountain, I read my Bible – I don’t have a set time for reading the Word.
Some days, after my quiet time I may not read it again, some days, I can’t get enough, but ultimately, I make sure I feed my soul.
Some days it’s just one verse (like the day we had the study on fear), some days it’s the whole of Colossians… I just make sure I read the Word and feed the Spirit.
So how do you read the Word?
Carry it with you everywhere you go.
Make it a point of duty to feed the Spirit!
You are at work and you are free?
Get your Bible and dig in.
You are standing on a long queue? Open the Bible app on your phone and dig in.
You just got a new post notification from a Christian site where the Word will be shared?
Open up and dig in.
Little by little makes a mighty ocean and one day you will wake up and you can’t get enough of the Word.
I used to use only devotions for my quiet time for the day, now they aren’t enough, I want more.
That’s how reading the Word works, as you study and dig in, it’s almost like you are creating more space for more inside you.
Give time to the Word.
My recipe for reading the Word?
Read it and study it everywhere you go!
Like yello Mtn…only better!
Cynthia:I’m really struggling with …and being able to retain and regurgitate…

 

Frances: Again, it is not for us to retain the verses.
It’s just for us to put them in us.
I have read the Bible before when it’s seemed like I couldn’t remember nada and days or weeks later, repeated that same verse as I spoke to someone or the verse came back up when I needed it.
For example, our study on the blessing of the Lord.
I can’t remember when I read that “I am blessed of the Lord” but that day when I was struggling with wrong thoughts, the Spirit brought it to mind.
Joyce Meyer would say ” if you are diligent to put it in you, God would bring it out of you when it’s needed”.
How do you put the Word in you?
Refer to previous point again, “carry it everywhere you go. Work, traveling, quiet time, talking with friends..etc.”
Cynthia: Perhaps u can blog about that in the near future eyy?*winks*…

Frances: Yes Cynthia, thanks for the idea! I have blogged about it and more than my long words, I just hope we(including me), see that what we truly need to do in studying the Word is to rely on the Spirit of God in you.
If we would be diligent to put the Word in us, the Holy Ghost will bring it out of us when it’s needed.
Everybody can get to a higher level in the Word, it all depends on how much time we are willing to put into it.
The more time you put into knowing this love letter from God, the more He will open up other secret love letters hidden inside this love letter that He has written to you.
And all of sudden, you find yourself in the inner cactus, the one who hears the secret Word that makes you laugh and look like you are crazy to others.
You know that there are those people right?
Those people who the light of the Word burst through to and they just start dancing on the street…
Ok, you stick with putting the Word in you, be diligent with it, one verse at a time, one word at a time, one passage at a time and you come into a full spring of water that you can’t get enough of.

 

I pray that God will ignite a longing and thirst for His word – one that supersedes every other longing in us in Jesus name, amen!

 

I really enjoyed doing this!
Oh my!
To say that it’s ama-mazing to actually relate with a blog fam in this way is an understatement.
Why have I never asked you guys about what you want so I can give it to you before.
I know I roll with the Spirit in wednesday’s studies and more often than not, it hits what someone is going through but please, if there is something you want me to study on, hit me a mail at okorofrances@gmail.com and I will do my best to do a study on it even if I only post it after a while.

 

Can’t promise it will be done every wednesday but one wednesday each month as a reader’s request Bible study will be awesome yes?
Yes!
So please hit me up!

 

As usual, this study is avalible in PDF for those who would love to download and re-read.
I have added it to the page for downloads – subscribers shey you have the link?
Pop in and download today’s study.
Non blog subscribers, what are you waiting for?
Subscribe to blog via email below, get access to freebies like free PDF online Bible study downloads and also my book which will be out on monday.
Whoop whoop!
Subscribe to blog already.

 

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Till next time on #OnlineBibleStudy,
Love,
Frances.

 

UPDATE: Since this post if for all readers, not subscribers, you can actually click here to download the free PDF of this study, with no email required 🙂