John Bevere - How I Study the Bible (A Hands-on Tutorial)
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I now want to move into the real practicalities of reading scripture. It is really important that we have—I’ve personally tried to do this electronically because I do a lot of things. I preach with my iPad, I read the Bible from my phone, I read the Bible from my iPad, but I still like, when it comes to my time alone with the Lord, to have a physical paper Bible in front of me. Okay, why is that? Because I want to be able to highlight areas that God speaks to me. Usually, what I do is try to go through a Bible in a year. Can I tell you I’ve only done it once, I think, in my life? And I’m going to tell you there’s a reason. There are these daily reading Bible programs, right? People will miss three or four days and then they’ll try to catch up by reading those three or four days that they missed.
Can I tell you, if you miss six or seven meals—let’s say you’ve gone two and a half days without eating—are you going to eat seven different meals? Are you going to have a steak and vegetables and a salad here, and then over there you’ll have chicken and noodles, and then for lunch, have a couple of scrambled eggs? Are you going to sit down and eat seven meals? No. You know what you’d do? You’d almost kill yourself! This is what I tell people: If you miss a day, first of all, don’t get upset with yourself. I’ve missed days—many days. Don’t get upset, but don’t try to make up for yesterday. Our goal is not to get through the Bible; our goal is to hear from God. When we sit down and read, we want the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus like we’ve never known Him before. There are days that I spend 30 minutes and I haven’t even gotten through a chapter. Do I get upset about that? No.
You see, this is the one I’m going through now, and guess what? I just finished it recently, and I think it took me about two years to go through it—maybe a little over two years. The thing is, I didn’t care because I’m not setting a goal. Now, there have been times in the past when I’ve read the Bible chronologically. I’d say the same thing: If it takes you two years to do that, don’t let it upset you. Take the time; let the scripture be digested into your spirit. You know, when you eat, you don’t take one bite and swallow; you chew on it. You meditate. When you’re reading the scripture, you’re meditating on it; you’re allowing space for the Holy Spirit to speak to you.
Let me just show you: this is a New Living Translation. Now that I’m almost all the way through it the second time, I’m probably going to move to another version because I just like doing that. Why do I do that? Because, as you know, it’s very difficult to translate the Hebrew, the Aramaic, and the Greek into the English language. The very fact that there are several translations means different translators are capturing different emphases of various verses. So I make sure that I’m going through even paraphrases to get more of a feel for what the Holy Spirit is saying in that scripture. It really opens up things. I chose a couple of years ago to go through this particular Bible, and this is the New Living.
If you come close, you’ll find out that, first of all, I have a set of these pens. I actually have them in my drawer. My guys didn’t anticipate this, but you can buy these anywhere—on Amazon, for instance. These are special pens that, when you open them up and use them in your Bible, they don’t bleed through. They’re actually special. You know, I used to get so frustrated because I’d highlight something, then I’d turn the page over and be like, «Oh my gosh!» But these don’t bleed through. I also found a highlighter, and I use a pencil, so I have seven different colors of these pens. I think they come in packages of seven, that’s why. Blue is what I use to highlight the promises of God or something that’s very, very important. I’ll use black, which is what I use for cities that are important—let’s say the king’s name that’s important. I have many other different colors, and you can set up your colors however you want. Just figure it out before you start.
I just flipped open today to the book of Ephesians; let’s look at chapter 4, verse 11. Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church. I’m not racing when I read this; I’m absorbing it. The apostle, the prophet—I circle the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastors, and teachers. I see there are five different ministries—most of us know that—but look at this next statement: «Their responsibility.» I highlight «their responsibility» because that’s important. I happen to be one of those five categories, and I want to know what my responsibility is. So, I just lost my lid there! I make sure that I highlighted that because it really spoke to me: «John, this is your responsibility.» Alright? It is to equip. So I highlighted the word «equip.» My responsibility is to equip you. I want your time reading the Bible to be enriching so that you hear from the Holy Spirit, okay? God’s people are to do the work and build up. So there’s the second responsibility: to equip and to build up. I highlighted both of those: «the church, the body of Christ.»
Then you keep going. Now, that’s a very important scripture to me, so I highlight it. It’s not a promise, so it’s not highlighted in blue. If I come over here to the end of chapter four, it says, «Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Imitate God.» Now, a lot of times people separate the end of the chapter from the next chapter. This is all one thought, and I see it as one thought, so it’s a very important thought. It’s not a promise, but it’s an important thought, so I highlighted this in blue.
If I come over here to Ephesians 6, you’ll find, «Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. Honor your father and mother; this is the first commandment with a promise.» So you see, okay—blue highlight, promise. One day I’m reading my Bible, and I realize, oh, I’ve heard so many teachers say the New Testament is not do’s and don’ts; the New Testament is all dues. Well, I went through and counted 11 total don’ts in Ephesians: «Don’t be drunk with wine; don’t steal; don’t lie; don’t be idolaters; don’t be fooled by those…» and on and on and on. So that was a real revealing moment for me. I actually was planning on reading a different book in the New Testament, and the Holy Spirit said, «No, son, I want you to read Revelation.»
I was just getting ready; I was looking for a book to read. Here’s a time when I divert from my normal reading plan. I was going to read a different book in the New Testament, but I felt the Holy Spirit say, «Read in the book of Revelation.» So even though I had just read it like five months ago, I didn’t argue because I’ve learned that when the Holy Spirit interrupts my reading plan like that, it’s because He wants to say something to me. It’s so important to hear God that you spend time in the Word of God, and I believe that this lesson is so valuable practically for you because I don’t want you under pressure. Man, oh man, I didn’t read my four chapters today! I don’t care if you just read four verses; if the Holy Spirit spoke to you out of those four verses, you got more than the person who read three entire books of the Bible without getting a thing. So remember, it’s not quantity; it’s quality. Allow Him to reveal Himself to you in the scripture.