Relationship with God: God and you, you and God, sharing life together. God loving and leading, guiding and correcting, you loving in return and following, learning and sharing with others. Telling them they can have the same kind of loving relationship with God when they believe Jesus is God’s son.
God leads and guides us through the person of the Holy Spirit who lives in the heart of each believer. God also shares himself, and teaches and guides us through the Bible. The Holy Spirit and the word of God always agree, because the Bible is comprised of writings that have been inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The Bible is God’s letter to us for us to use while here on earth, and studying the Bible can be fun, and is rewarding. There are several ways to get the most out of your personal time in Bible study and we will cover all of them in the following weeks. Applying the principals of the Bible in your life will change your life for good, which is God’s desire for you because He loves you. He has given you his Holy Spirit to help you along as you renew your mind with His truth.
If you know little about the Bible don’t despair, everyone starts out knowing the same thing, which is nothing. We all start at the same place at the beginning of our relationship with God, and as a Believer in Christ, the Holy Spirit is with you always to guide you and help you understand, but it’s up to you to get started. Are you ready? Ok. Besides your Bible, you will need another book, the Strong’s Concordance of the Bible.
This is not the partial concordance that is in the back of some Bibles. It is a separate book that tells the meaning of the words in the original languages. It is easy to use, much like a big dictionary with just a few differences. If you study without a Strong’s you may be misled with words and meanings, and when you share what you think is accurate with someone who is less knowledgeable than you – the Bible has a phrase for that, it is called the blind leading the blind and what happens to them is they both fall off in the ditch. (Matt 15, Luke 6) No one wants that to happen, and no one who takes the time and effort to study to get to know God and themselves more, wants to remain spiritually and Biblically blind in some areas, so this column is meant to encourage your study efforts, not discourage them. I encourage you to consider, or think about, how the Holy Spirit is with you He is with you now and thank Him ahead of time for the help and guidance, for he will never leave you and loves you and will guide you in all things. Studying in partnership with the Holy Spirit is important to understand what you read. He is the one who gives revelation that you have not seen before, He puts the spotlight on things.
As you rely on the Holy Spirit and increase your knowledge accurately you will not only stay out of ditches, but will learn to live the victorious life God desires for you. We (myself included) in general have ignorant spots when it comes to knowing the Bible. No one wants to be responsible for leading another down the path of ignorance so I am a huge supporter of following the leading of our teacher, the Holy Spirit in study while using a Strong’s Concordance, and encourage each believing household to use one. Christian bookstores will carry them, and the folks at Strong’s Watch Shop in Ava usually have some for sale. The King James Version is recommended for Bible study, though other versions will do, as long as you get the Strong’s Concordance that goes with each version. Example: If you have a King James Bible, you will need a King James version of the Strong’s concordance.
The King James Version of the Bible is not the earliest authority in scripture. That may surprise some folks. The translations go back further, to the original manuscripts that were hand printed on scrolls in different languages. These are the earliest written authority, the very earliest being the Ten Commandments which were written on stone by God.
So, as a believer you are to be lead by the Holy Spirit, but how can you recognize when the Holy Spirit is teaching and guiding you? The Bible says let the peace of God rule your hearts (Col 3). So, as you are reading the Bible, as a word remains in your thought, or sticks out, look it up in the Strong’s and see where the Spirit leads. The Holy Spirit may be showing you something, a revelation just for you, that you would otherwise miss without following the language trail. The more time you spend with Him, the more you will begin to recognize the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
Sharing life together, God and you, you and God. He loves you!
Until next time, God
