Summary:

The Bible is God’s way of revealing the invisible spiritual world to us, It is His owmers manual / users guide for our lives. He wants us to understand: 1) Who He is, His nature, and His roles. 2) Who we are, Why we are here, Why we struggle, and How to reach our full potential. 3) His spiritual kingdom, How it works, Expectations for participating.  4) Our free will to choose, The Benefits of engaging and aligning, and the consequences for ignoring it and continuing on our own.

The Bbile is an amazing  and sophisticated piece of literature but it can be intimidating when you first approach it. It requires an investment of your time and energy to read the written text, it takes more investment to process and understand the dozens of literal stories and wisdom writings and glean the messages available at that surface level.  It takes another level of investment to work through the various parables and metaphors to understand the messages available at that slightly deeper level. The more you work with it, the more understanding you gain, and the more powerful it becomes for you. An amazing thing happens as you process this content, it becomes very personal and very alive inside you. You start to understand the bigger picture of this spiritual world we live in, you relate to the various characters and their struggles, and you begin to understand and embrace the various teaching points. This all becomes a mirror for your life; Where am I living up to this standard and where am I still missing the mark. You start to understand your purpose here and expectations for your life, you understand How much God has invested in you and how much He wants to help you realize your full potential. As you become more mature in this content, you use it as a framework and philosophy to guide how you live your daily life, you are able to refer to specific verses to defend your choices. When you fully understand and embrace this content as truth it becomes a powerful tool: You can quote verses defensively to fend off attacks as Jesus did in the wilderness, or you can use it offensively as a virtual legal case to gain back ground previously lost, ie destroying works of the devil. 

The biggest challenge can be to overcome our heardened heart. Life is full of challenges and we become very focused on our earthly life: How should I make a living? Where should I go to school? Where should I live? What should I eat? How do I deal with the people around me? Who can I trust? How do i protect myself? Who should I date / marry?. Our inherent nature makes us self-conscious and left to our own desires we become very self-centered, choosing to think, say and do things for our own beneft to the detriment of others. The conscience in our heart knows this is wrong but we convince ourselves that we should do it anyway, either no one will notice, or we have no other choice, we really need to do it for our benefit. This repeated process of rationalization and overriding the signals from our conscience results in a numbing effect the bible calls “hardening of our heart”.  The more our heart becomes hardened, the further we become issolated from God and from other people. The antidote is to focus on Love. God is love, God loves you. He loves you so much He sent His son. He knows you, cares about you, and wants you to climb out of the mess we are in. All we need to do is acknowledge Him and ask Him to lead us. Once you do it, you will never look back.      

So why should I care?

You are a spiritual being developing in a temporary physical body. We are born oblivious of the spiritual world all around us and your inner spiritual nature. We are born oblivious to influence of the spiritual world on our earthly lives, and oblivious to the eternal consequences of our choices in this life. All of this must be discovered. 

At the end of this earthly life, your physical body dies and your conscious soul carries on.  Where you will spend eternity is a direct function of choices you make in this life. If you committ to loving God with all your heart, you will spend eternity with Him in heaven. If you chose to love yourself more than you love God, You will spend eternity separated from Him, His love, and His truth.  That may not sound like a big deal, but there is no bigger deal to be had. All Love and All Truth comes from Him. Seporation from Him and His Love and His Truth allows evil and falsity to flurish and dominate. Just imagine spending eternity surrounded by people who are dominated by evil and falsity: a continous and unending barage of lies, deception, manipulation, humiliation, abuse, torture, pain, and suffering targetted directly at what ever they figure out bothers you the most. Doesnt sound like a pretty place. The good news is you can avoid all of it if you get with the program now, before it is too late.        

What is the Bible?

The Bible uses combinations of historical accounts, narrative stories, nuggets of wisdom, parables, poetry, symbolizm and imagery to convey the messages. It can be a bit intimidating due to its size and complexity but it is well worth the effort to dig in and work through it. 

The primary narative arc goes something like this:

1. God created the heavens and the earth so that His Love had a place to manifest
2. God created Man in His image so that His love could flow through them
3. God gave Man some simple rules to keep Him on track
4. He gave Man free will so they would explore, learn, be creative
5. Man wanted to become more like God and violate the rules
6. Mankinds selfishness has consequences, and it has only grown worse ever since
7. God has worked several strategies to restore what man has damaged: Floods, Covenants, Prophets, Coming in Person, Release of the Holy spirit 
8. The only way to realize your full potential is to align with His expectations, deny your self and your selfish agendas, and follow Jesus

A couple of key observations helped me make sense of all this:

1. God always works through human individuals to do His work on earth: Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Prophets, Jesus, Disciples, Preachers, Teachers, You, Me, etc  
2. The Word of God is divinely inspired and captured by a dozen different humans over several centuries. It is amazingly consistant throughout, and highly interwoven with cross references, and it is highly traceable back in time.
3. Many times God leads someone to live out a story line in thier life and then that historical story is captured by another person in writing and is now used as a teaching point. ex: Job,  Jesus and the Gospels
4. Most of the characters are flawed. You can relate to them in some way. God uses flawed characters to do amazing things.
5. The most amazing part to me is that God came here as a baby named Jesus, learned from scripture what was expected of the messiah, used the scripture to resist the devil and live a sinless life, and was willing to allow Himself to be tortured and killed on the promise of ressurection and salvaiton of all of mankind. That is some very serious faith!

The Word of God is an active spiritual tool; It does work inside you once you get it into your brrain and start to embrace it with your heart.

1. It paints pictures: Heavens and the earth, God is love, His love is perfected when it flows through you, God leading His people out of slavery 
2. It sets expectations:  Love God with all your heart, Love your neighbors as yourself, 10 Commandments, Don’t sin,  You are accountable on judgement day 
3. It provides a mirror:  Am I living up to this expectation? Would I do any better than this flawed character?

The Word of God must settle into our heart before it can do its work in us. Our normal life experiences will harden our heart and make it resistant. We become entirely focused on ourselves and our earthly life – our immediate circumstances and being successful. We need to break through the crust of a hardened heart to get started,  

So what are we trying to do?

Over the course of your life, You must discover the spiritual world, It is not intuitively obvious. Some folks never find it in this life, and only figure it out after it is too late.  The spiritual world drives everything in the physical world. There are opposing forces in the spirituual world; those pulling for good and those pushing for evil. The spiritual world is invisible for the most part so folks can’t really learn much about it on their own. I wish we each came with a users manual “Quick start Guide” that said somethingl like: Welcome to the world, You have been set up as a flawed person and will suffer consequences until you figure out there is a better way. Until you figure that out you are actually an agent for evil, and will be an easy victim. Once you do figure it out, you can decide to work for the good guy, reset the flawed nature, overcome the forces of evil, overcome the obstacles and thrive. Thankfully, we do have a users manual to help us discover and understand it.  The Bible is a bridge between the spiritual world and our earthly world. It is product of the spiritual world; God flowing divinely inspired words through humans into writings for our use in understanding spiritual reality. The Bible can be a bit intimidating due to its size and complexity. , the variety of and its exstensive use of symbolizm, imagery, parables, .  If you take the Bible seriously and apply yourself to understanding it, you can discover and activate your spiritual self, connect your spirit to its’ original source, and unlock your full potential; both for the rest of this life and for eternity in the next.  Let’s walk through how this works.

The “Word of God” has been a foundational element of God and His kingdom since the beginning  

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

The “Word of God” is fundamental  Truth

“The sum of Your word is truth,” Psalm 119:160

“Now, O Lord God, You are God, and Your words are truth” 2 Samuel 7:28

“…Your word is truth.” John 17:17

The “Word of God” is eternal and unchanging

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33

“But the word of the Lord endures forever.” 1 Peter 1:25

“The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.” Isaiah 40:8

He sent His Word to help us discover the spiritual world, and to help us get aligned with it.

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;” 2 Timothy 3:16

His words are of a Spiritual nature

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63

When we receive His Word, it brings life into both our spiritual and physical physical bodies

“His words brings life to those who find them” (Proverbs 4:22)

“God sent His word and healed them…” (Psalm 107:20)

“His words bring health to all their flesh.” (Proverbs 4:22

In order to receive His word, we must “Hear” it with interest and intention.

“…and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.” Luke 5:15

Hearing requires intentional Looking with your eyes, Listening in your ears,  Understanding it in our brain, Accepting it in your Heart, and willingness to change. 

“For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.” Matthew 13:15

Your Heart controls your life

“Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.” Matthew 12:35

You need a noble and good Heart to be receptive and hear

“But the ones (word of god seeds) that fell on the good ground (and grew well) are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.” Luke 8:15

Focus on God with your mind, and it will purify your heart.

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:7-8

The critical part of getting your mind focused is to feed it good things through your eyes.

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.” Matthew 6:22-23

Choose to stay focused and dwell in His Word

“My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.” Proverbs 4:20-22

Allow the Word to work in your mind

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2

The Word becomes active in your heart and mind  as you bring it in and reflect on its meaning and relevance to your life

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12

Keep your intentions focused on pursuing God and His kingdom – your eyes, your mind, your will

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33

Once you hear the word in your heart it will release faith

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17

Your spirit will know when faith has been released – You will “know in your knower”

               “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” Romans 8:16

He sent His word…all you need to do is get it into your heart.

“He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions.” Psalm 107:20

HOW:

How can I keep scripture in front of my eyes?

Daily reading, by topic, or sequential, or mixed devotional

How can I incline my ears?

Listen to great preachers

Dan Mohler

Barry Bennet, 

Andrew Wommack

Rick Renner

Dwell / Meditate / Pray over scriptures related to key topics in your life

Google: “God loves me bible verses” and several collections will come up…

BibleStudyTools,com – has a section organinzed by topic…scroll to find you topic, click it and you will get a collection of relevant scriptures

These are bible search engines.  Enter your key words in the search field and get a colleciton of potentially relevant verses to read through

Knowing-Jesus.com

OpenBible.info

Journal to hear His Voice

Lean about Journaling and hearing His voice from Mark Virkler

Ex: Add a journal entry… How do I know God loves me? ….and fill in the message you get from reading over the collection of scriptures and meditating on them

How can I hold His Word in my heart?

Learn the bible stories, parables, key sayings and their context

The Bible Project – is a well done animated video exploraiton of the bible

Coaching on How to Read the Bibile: How to interpret the different literary genres: Narrative, Poetry, Prose  

Study of Key Themes:  Image of God, Tree of Life, Covenants, Need for a Messiah,  etc

Study of Key Words: Grace, Mercy, Womb, Shalom, etc

Overview of Collections of Books within the Bible: The Torah, The Prophets, The Wisdom Books, The Gospels, The Epistles

Overview of each individual Book of the bible: Genesis, Exodus, … Revelation

Learn / memorize key scriptures for hot topics in your life

Use them as a basis for routine decisions in your life:  Should I do this or do that…   You will reap what you sow

Apply them as basis for decision making for key situations in your life.

Use them in real time as situations arise during the day – stay focused on Him and His higher purpose for you and your life

Talk to God

• • Tell him how much you appreciate him
  • Thank Him for never giving up on you
  • Thank Him for calling you to be more like Him
  • Thank Him for working inside you like a potter works with clay
  • Ask Him to help you hate sin the way He does, and to help you root it out of your life
  • Thank Him for helping you get selfish agendas out of your life
  • Thank Him for helping you love Him with ALL your heart
  • Thank Him for helping you love others MORE than yourself
  • Thank Him for helping you to become a bright light in a dark world

Hope this helps. Leave a comment. Have a great day!