How to read and study the Bible is an important question many people ask. It is something that people need to learn in order to grow closer to God and have intimacy with Him.
Knowing how to read and study the Bible offers numerous benefits. Such as spiritual growth, guidance, and comfort. It provides a foundation for understanding God’s will. And strengthens one’s faith through reflection on God’s teachings and character. Regular Bible reading and meditation can help navigate life’s challenges, inspire hope, and promote a sense of peace.
Additionally, it fosters a deeper connection with God. And it allows you to grow closer to God and more like Jesus. Consistently engaging with God’s word the Bible also allows for personal transformation. Helping you to live a more purposeful, compassionate life in alignment with biblical principles.
How To Read And Study The Bible: A Guide to Understanding God’s Word
Learning how to read and study the Bible will help you to learn to hear God’s voice. Hearing God’s voice is the most important part of your prayer & fellowship time with God. It is absolutely vital to have intimacy with God. You cannot have intimate fellowship with God, and become one with God without hearing God’s voice. And you cannot have a partnership with God in His great Kingdom work if you do not reverently listen to Him. You need to read God’s word the Bible daily and seek God with all your heart to know God. And to know God’s calling on your life.
In John 10 Jesus tells us that His “sheep” or true followers know His voice and they follow Him. You cannot truly know and follow Jesus unless you can hear His voice. And unless He reveals Himself and His ways and His will to you.
John 10:4 “When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.”
John 10:27 “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
God Wants To Speak To You
Why read the Bible daily ? Because God speaks to you primarily through His Word the Bible. God reveals much about Himself, His will, and His plans through the Bible. And God teaches us how to live to please Him. And about life the way God intends it to be.
* Read Exodus 33:11-34:11
Exodus 33:11 tells us that God spoke to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Verses 13-18 show us that Moses had a humble & seeking & hungry heart (hungry for God), and because of his heart for God, God was able to reveal Himself and His glory to Moses. Moses also faithfully served and followed God, however God would lead.
Exodus 33:11 “The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.”
Exodus 33:13-18 “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.” The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
Let God Speak To You Early In Your Fellowship Time With God
Read God’s Word the Bible early in your quiet time. Let God speak to you first, and have first place in your time with Him. Then you can lift up your prayers to God and make your requests.
Read 1 Samuel 3:9-10. Your heart attitude needs to be “speak Lord, your servant is listening.” The Biblical word for listen means to “reverently listen to God, with the intent of doing or following whatever you hear. Even before you hear it. Is this your heart attitude ?
1 Samuel 3:9-10 “So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
The Biblical word for Listen means to hear God’s voice – with the intent in your heart of doing whatever you hear God speak
How to Read And Study The Bible
In order to learn how to read and study the Bible you need to immerse yourself in God’s word. The Bible is not just another religious book. It is a love letter written by God to teach, guide, convict, correct, and encourage us.
Deuteronomy 8:3 “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”
Deuteronomy 30:15-19 “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed… Now choose life, so that you and your children may live”
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Jesus Is The Source of Life – Abundant Life & Eternal Life
Jesus is The Source of abundant life here on earth, and of eternal life in heaven with God. We need to spend time with Him in prayer and in His Word to experience the abundant & full life God wants us to have.
John 14:6 “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Remember, God wants you to have the fullest, most satisfying & fulfilling life. Never forget that without close fellowship with Jesus, you cannot have the abundant life (purpose & meaning) that God wants you to have. Jesus is The Source of abundant life. If you do not regularly, daily read God’s word the Bible, you cannot have intimate fellowship with God and abundant life. God wrote His word personally to you, so that you, His dearly loved child, would follow Him & have abundant life.
Read And Study The Bible Daily
Reading the Bible allows you to grow spiritually closer to Jesus. And through your time in God’s Word and in prayer, God is able to mold and shape you, to be more one and in unity with God. And to mold and shape you to be more life Jesus. And filled with Jesus’ abundant and victorious life, and His power & strength, and His glory.
Read 2 Timothy 3:16-17. God gave you His word to teach you, to correct and transform you. And to train and help you to seek and obtain the fullest and closest fellowship and partnership with Him. It is His primary way of speaking to you and instructing you. And to help make you the best you can be – which is to become more and more like Jesus.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 “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.”
1 Peter 2:2 “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation”
How to Read and Study the Bible: A Guide to Understanding God’s Word
Beware Of False Teachers
These days you need to be very careful and read God’s word the Bible daily, in order to not be deceived by false teachers. There are many false teachers and churches that are not preaching and teaching God’s word the truth.
Matthew 24:24 “For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
Acts 20:28-30 “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.”
Read And Study God’s Word The Bible Will Set You Free
John 8:31-32 “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
What do you need to be set free from ? Do you need to be set free from fear ? Anxiety ? Worry ? Deception & lies ? Insecurity ? Depression ? Discouragement ? Sin ? Something else ? Run to Jesus and His Word – He wants to set you to know Him- Truth, and Jesus wants to set you free !!!
The Word Of God Helps Purify Your Heart & Mind
2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the LORD’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the LORD, who is the Spirit.”
Ephesians 5:25-26 “…just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.”
Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God-this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
How Can You Be Holy And Pure ?
Psalm 119:9 “How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word.”
God wants you to be a special and holy person of glory, completely set apart from evil and the things of the world. He also wants you to become the very best person you can be, which in God’s definition is to become more and more like Jesus. Holy like Jesus; loving like Jesus, joyful like Jesus, kind like Jesus, patient like Jesus, faithful to God like Jesus, passionate about God like Jesus, and passionate about reaching the lost like Jesus (see 1 Timothy 2:4, Luke 19:10 and Matthew 4:19)
How to Read and Study the Bible: A Guide to Understanding God’s Word
Reading And Studying God’s Word Encourages And Assures
“The only way to remove the fear from our lives is to listen to God’s assurances to us in His Word.” – Oswald Chambers
Since God is Truth, His Word and His promises are all truth. When you read God’s word the Bible and let God speak to you early in your prayer time and early in your day, He will bless you and encourage you through His word.
God’s Word Is A Spiritual Weapon
In Matthew 4 Jesus fights temptation and lies by the enemy and wins by quoting Scripture 3 times, saying “It is written…”. Jesus gives you the perfect example of how to fight against and win over temptation, lies, and deceit, which are some of Satan’s primary tools to get you away from God and in bondage and defeat.
Matthew 4:1-4 “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
God’s Word Teaches You And Guide You
Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”
Isaiah 30:21 “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”.
Psalm 16:8-11 “I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
Isaiah 48:17-18 “This is what the LORD says- your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
God’s Word And Principles Protect You And Are For Your Good
Psalm 19:8 “The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.”
1 John 5:3 “In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome”
How to Read and Study the Bible: A Guide to Understanding God’s Word
The Positive Effects Of Living By God’s Word
Psalm 19:7-11 “The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the LORD are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”
As your loving Heavenly Father, God cares deeply for you and wants to protect you from anything that can be harmful to you. He wrote His Word out of love for you, to protect you, to guide you, to bless you.
1 John 5:3 reveals the proof of whether you and I truly living out of love for God – reverence and trust and obedience to Him and His Word… “this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome”
Read And Study God’s Word As If You Are Digging For Great Treasures
Psalm 119:13-14 “With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.”
When God is your First Love, your Passion, and your Treasure, God’s word the Bible will become a priceless treasure in your life.
Matthew 11:25-27 “At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, LORD of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Matthew 13:10-12 “The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”
Make God Your First Love, Your Treasure, and Your Passion
When God is your First Love, your Passion, and your Treasure, and if you are humble before Him, God will reveal to you truth and who He is. Then you will know God in real and personal ways.
Proverbs 25:2 “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.”
Isaiah 43:22 ” Yet you have not called on me, Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, Israel.”
Isaiah 64:6-7 “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins.”
Don’t miss the great truth that the treasure you are digging for in God’s Word is God Himself. When you can truly say that Jesus is your treasure and the most valuable person or thing by far in your life, then you are truly living in a passionate love relationship with Jesus and you are truly living.
How to Read and Study the Bible: A Guide to Understanding God’s Word
Read God’s Word The Bible As If It Were A Love Letter From God
From Howard Hendrick’s “Living By The Book” – “Read the Bible as if it were a love letter from God.
Learn to observe as much as you can when you read God’s Word.
After Observation, next is interpretation. And then Application.
You cannot correctly Apply God’s Word in your life unless you correctly Interpret it, and you cannot correctly Interpret His Word unless you Examine & Observe all that you possibly can. Here are some great tips to help you to read God’s word the Bible and to observe all that you can:
ASK QUESTIONS WHEN YOU READ THE BIBLE: Who, What, Where, When, Why, What now ?
- For example: Who is speaking ? Who is he/she speaking to ? Who is in the verses ?
LOOK FOR THINGS THAT ARE:
- Emphasized (Jesus saying “truly truly”,…)
- Repeated over and over again
- Related (“if … then”, “therefore”,…)
- Alike
- Unalike
- True to life (real life & real people)
God sent His Son Jesus to suffer & die for you, out of a great love for you. God sent His Word the Bible to you out of great love for you also. Always read God’s Word as a Love Letter from God, and always read it as though God is personally speaking to you (put your name in the verses).
Other practical tips to help you to read God’s word the Bible and hear God’s voice:
Remember you are spending time with the Person of God. And you are reading a personal letter of love from your Heavenly Father. You are not reading a religious book of laws or rules.
Personalize God’s Word so that it fits your specific circumstances. Find verses that fit with what you are going through. Find verses and promises in the Bible that fit your circumstances.
Read God’s Word aloud, as though God Himself is speaking to you. Because God IS personally speaking to you. Hearing God’s words aloud helps you to focus better on what God is saying to you.
Personalize God’s Word by putting your name in the verse or promise. For example in Deuteronomy 31:6 God is saying – “[Your Name], I will never leave you or foresake you.”
There are so many benefits and reasons why you should read the Bible daily. It is a love letter written from your Heavenly Father who loves you very much. And who wants very much to have close fellowship with you. And who also cares very much and wants to help you to have the fullest possible life.
Knowing that the Bible is not just another religious book helps me a lot. Knowing that the Bible is actually God’s word in the form of a love letter helps me to see God as He really is – a personal relationship oriented God, and not some far away spiritual entity. It makes it so much more personal to me.
Pursuing Intimacy With God is committed to helping you with the most important thing in your life… your intimacy with God , your fellowship with Him, and your partnership with God in His Kingdom work & mission.
There are hundreds of Bible verses and great truths & promises in the Pursuing Intimacy With God studies.
** New Expanded Edition of Pursuing Intimacy With God Bible Studies Book – 40% more material
Ebook version of Pursuing Intimacy With God on Google Books
Pursuing Intimacy With God ebook Kindle version
Book of Revelation Bible Study Series
Other Links
Religion vs Relationship With God
Why Should You Pray & Spend Time With God ?
Is Jesus Your First Love ? Part 2
Prayer Is Passion To Seek & Know God
God’s Purpose & Mission For You And Your Church
Spiritual Gifts: All Christians Have Gifts
Jesus Wants To Heal You & Set You Free
Salvation & The Gospel Of Jesus Christ
The Kind of Christian & Church God Wants
Kevin Bart has been a follower of Jesus for over 40 years. Kevin has taught Bible study classes, small groups, and discipleship classes for many years. He developed Pursuing Intimacy With God Bible studies website and book after many years of seeking God and studying His word. Kevin and his wife Nancy have 3 sons and 2 precious grandchildren.
Kevin is a former business owner, and current international missions ministry leader with more than four decades of combined business and ministry experience. After building and running a successful business for 23 years, with God’s guidance and blessings, he sold his company to dedicate himself to full-time global missions.
For over 20 years, Kevin and his wife Nancy have led a self funded international missions ministry. Utilizing learned business and financial management skills, as well as knowledge and experience in travel points and miles, to date they have had more than 5o mission trips to 36 countries in the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
After many years of studying the Bible and the Book of Revelation, and writing many Bible studies and articles, Kevin finally finished Unraveling The Mysteries of the Book Of Revelation. Hopefully it will be a blessing to many people.
