PRINCIPLES OF STUDY
2 Timothy 2:15-16; "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness." (KJV)
Let me tell you a story from my own life. In 1993 I was in my office during a season of prayer. I was fighting a growing frustration and during my prayer time I gave voice to that frustration. "God" I said, "I feel like I have preached it all." I had come to a time in my life and ministry where there was no freshness to the Word. I would read, but the Bible had become boring to me. It was like reading a novel and knowing what was coming on the next page. You see I had faithfully read through the scriptures many times and I was familiar with all the stories and verses that my movement spoke upon. Even though I would pray and read, I was not receiving anything fresh - God was not speaking to me through the pages of the scripture.
Since I needed to find something fresh to preach I had resorted to reading other's books. Every week I would find some author's book that I hadn't read or that I had not read recently and I would outline their revelation and then stand up and preach it like it was my own. I was constantly looking for books to read because I could not seem to dig it out for myself. Well, my library grew during that time but I didn't.
I would longingly reminisce about the early days of my Christianity when each morning I would arise early just to break open the Bible because each page was new and fresh. When I began my Christianity there was an entire movement of people learning the Word and experiencing the freshness of God, but those days seemed to be gone ever, and all that was left was a duty to read the scriptures daily. I would schedule my Bible reading time in the first part of my day so I could get it over with, and then move on to the book I was reading. My strokes in ministry were coming from successful program administration and church functions, but I was drying up spiritually as a minister, and I couldn't seem to find an answer.
I would travel to church conferences, nearly every month, looking for a freshness of God’s Word and a move of His Spirit to ease my problem. But what I found were seminars on the "new program" of the day. I guess I was not the only minister experiencing the problem.
So there I sat in my office, "Lord, I feel like I have preached it all and there is nothing fresh and new left." But then a book caught my eye on my shelf; it was called "Interpreting the Scriptures." I picked it off the shelf and began to glance through the pages and found immediately that it was a book on the subject of Hermeneutics (the Science of Biblical Interpretation), so I threw it on the desk and said "Cemetery" (my slang for seminary), and went back to my prayer, "Lord, I feel like I have preached it all." But that book started calling to me so I picked it up again and began to read. What I discovered was the answer to my prayer.
A Spirit-filled instructor in a Bible college wrote that book. He had been given the assignment to teach a class on the Interpretation of the Scriptures and couldn't find a textbook that allowed for the revelation of the Holy Spirit, so he wrote one.
Through the first pages of that book I learned that the Holy Spirit had a language all his own. Not just tongues but a way of saying things using tools like symbols, types, parables and allegories. Up to that point I had only read the Bible and just studied the Greek or Hebrew words, but I had never realized that the Holy Spirit used figures of speech and idioms just like we do. Through the understanding gained through that book I began to learn His language, which enabled me to unlock the hidden mysteries of the scriptures.
Jesus said "…for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known." (Matthew 10:26) I didn't realize that there were a lot of hidden and covered things in the scripture. By just reading through the Bible many of these things were not apparent, but once I learned some of the keys suddenly I found an entire New World of understanding. But then something more happened, as I learned how to interpret the scriptures, fresh revelation began to flow again from the Spirit.
It can best be described as swimming in the ocean thinking that you had seen it all but then someone introduced you to scuba diving. Once you went below the surface you found a whole New World of life that you never knew existed. Jesus said "Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand." (Matthew 13:13)
Let me give you and example; in Matthew Jesus told a one-line parable just for ministers and church leaders.
"Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." (Matthew 13:33)
I had always been taught that the leaven spoken of here was Christians, and God was sending us to the world so that, even though we were small in number, we could change the world. But that is not an accurate interpretation. Leaven in the scriptures always represents false doctrine and sin. Jesus said many times to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Paul said "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Corinthians 5:8) God wants unleavened bread (Christians) in his Kingdom.
This parable was spoken to the twelve who were getting ready to take charge of the birthing of the Kingdom on earth and the Lord was warning them, that just like leaven, if a little sin and false doctrine was allowed in the Church it would leaven the entire thing. Satan is trying to bring in his leaven, not just to the world, but into the Church. Listen if we allow ourselves to look too much like the world to get a few noses and nickels on Sunday's then we are leavening the lump.
Well, the knowledge of interpreting the Scriptures, which that book started in me, has changed the way I study and preach. Today my favorite book is the Bible - I can't put it down. Each page is so full of fresh revelation that I have trouble looking to other books.
This growth in me has also caused a problem. It is now hard to listen to some "TV preachers" that I used to like because of their lack of revelation. I didn't realize how many times ministers miss-interpret the Scriptures. Listen my fellow ministers, just because were preaching, doesn't mean that we are preaching it right.
At the beginning of this article I listed a verse from 2 Timothy "Study to shew thyself approved unto God…" Notice that this does not say "read to show yourself approved", or "pray to show yourself approved", but study. I used to just read and then sit and pray like God was just going to speak some world changing revelation to me. I still pray a lot but I found that if I do not study then I do not hear anything. It is like the amateur golfer who played a round with a pro golfer. When the round was finished and the pro had won by a wide margin the amateur said, "I guess that the game of golf requires a lot of luck." To which the pro replied "Yes, and it seems like the more I practice the luckier I get."
Listen my friends; there is a lack of revelation in many churches today, not because of a lack of desire but because of lack of understanding on how to study. Proper study will trigger fresh revelation. You can be right hearted but a false interpreter, if you do not learn how to rightly divide the Word.
The leaders who once fed us during the past moves are now gone. Just re-preaching their old revelation is not necessarily the word for today. This lack of present revelation has caused many ministers to resort to programs instead of revelation to build the church. It is time for the leaders of the Kingdom to become studier's again. God is talking but we do not understand the language that he is using. Let's learn how to rightly divide the Word of Truth and bring revelation back into the Church of the Lord Jesus.
I have a two DVD series with included study outlines on this subject. Just click on the banner below to go to my website.
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