Joyce Meyer - Get in the Word
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Get in a Bible study. Study the word. It's great to hear preachers. I'm glad you watch my program. I'm really glad you came to the conference. But I want you to study and we have things to help you. And don't use the excuse, "I can't understand the Bible". There's too many modern translations of the Bible for anybody to say they can't understand it, and there's too many other books and things to help you study.
2 Corinthians 3:18, let's put these scriptures up real quick. 2 Corinthians 3:18, "And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into his very own image in ever increasing splendor from one degree of glory to another". So, how are we changed? From looking into the Word of God. We see in the word what Jesus is. We see what we're not. We say, "God, I want that to change. Will you help me? Will you work in me"? And then God goes to work. Amen.
James 1:21, I love this scripture. James 1:21: "So get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness, and in a humble (gentle, modest) spirit receive and welcome the word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save your soul". That doesn't mean the power to be born again. You're already born again. Your spirit is all fixed up. Honey, you got it. It's the soul that needs to be saved now. My mind, my will, my emotions. God is working his way out of our spirit, out through our soul, and finally out through our body, where the world can get some benefit out of what Christ has done in our life. Approach the word respectfully with a humble spirit, "I need this. I need this".
Joyce Meyer: Well, first, let me tell you to have a very happy new year. And I just believe that you're gonna have a lot of great things happen in your life this year. You know, God's word is powerful, but studying his word is key to utilizing its life-changing principles in our lives. It would be nice if we could just download the Bible into our hearts, but it doesn't work that way. Ginger and I are going to share some of our experiences with studying scriptures, and so we're gonna just have a little discussion here. Well, Ginger, how do you go about it?
Ginger Stache: You know, I think a new year is a great time to think about a fresh start and "What do I want to accomplish"? And that's one of the things I do is every new year, I really pray. You know, "God, what do you have for me this year"? A lot of people talk about a word for the new year. You know me. Maybe God will give you something to kind of focus you. And that happens many years, but not always.
Joyce Meyer: Yeah, I have a friend that calls me every year and says, "Well, what's the word for this year"? Now, of course, I feel like I have to come up with one.
Ginger Stache: "Wait a minute. Let me think". Yeah. So, I think that seeing this is a great opportunity to say, "Okay, God, what do you want"? 'cause studying the word, and I'm sure when you first said that we might have had some people that were thinking, "Oh, I can't do this". You know, "I don't even know how to talk about this". And so, for them not to go away, to listen to a lot of your suggestions.
Joyce Meyer: Well first, I want to say that we don't study the word for God. It's not something we do for him. He likes it when we study the word, but only because of what it does for us.
Ginger Stache: Yeah.
Joyce Meyer: And I think that's very important because I think so many people look at it as an obligation, "I have to read the word today". And the other thing I want to say is reading is totally different than studying. So, these are very important points to me that I've tried to make for the last few years. Because, yes, it's great when you have time to just read a chapter in the Bible, but it's always great if you can take some time, I'll say, even in your week, and actually study. And study means you start reading a chapter and something catches your attention and you need to dig a little bit deeper and so...
Ginger Stache: Like a word or something that you need help in or something you don't understand.
Joyce Meyer: Yeah, something you need help with or something you don't quite understand, or you know, maybe even something you don't agree with, right off, you know. But it's so easy to study the Bible now because of everything that's available on the internet.
Ginger Stache: Yeah.
Joyce Meyer: I mean, when I first began the study, it was a project. I mean, I would have to have a concordance and a dictionary and I just all I mean, all kinds of books and stuff around me. And you're goin' from this book to that book to this one to that one. And now, let's say you read something about anxiety, and you think, "Well, I have a real problem with that. You know, I wonder where else in the Bible I can find more on that". Well, all you have to do is put in your search engine, show me all the scriptures in the Bible about anxiety, and you can even ask for it in a specific translation and they'll give it to you. So, I think it's really important for people to understand that you are doing yourself a favor when you study the word because you're learning how to live the life that is gonna be the best for you. You know, it's like, I think so many people look at everything that God tells them as an order. And, you know, if you don't do this, God's gonna be mad. And but the thing is, is his word just reveals to us the life that's gonna work.
Ginger Stache: Yeah.
Joyce Meyer: If you wanna get right down to it.
Ginger Stache: I'm sure there was a time, 'cause you have this wonderful love for God's word and a passion for reading it. But there was probably a time in your life that you didn't have that, that you didn't understand what it would give you. So, for everyone who's watching right now, who's like, "I kind of want to do this but, you know, I'm not sure if I want to put the effort into it or if I have the time". How would you encourage them to get to the place where you are now?
Joyce Meyer: Well, first of all, i, even from the time Dave and I got married, I always tried to read one chapter a day in the Bible. But to be honest, I was doing it out of obligation, and I would do it as quickly as I could. And I probably couldn't have remembered anything that I read. But when I was filled with the Holy Spirit in 1976, every believer has the Holy Spirit, but that's different than being filled with the Holy Spirit. I always say, "We have the Holy Spirit, but does he have us"? You know. And I came to a place in my life where I was very tired of being unhappy, of doing everything that I felt like I was being told to do as a Christian. Although, I really wasn't. And I just, more or less, came to a point, I came to the end of myself. It was like, "God, you have got to do something". And to be honest, at that point, I didn't really much care what it was, as long as, you know, I was just tired of arguing with my husband and being unhappy and being discontent. And God touch me, filled me with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is our teacher, and he gave me a love for the word. But you do need to realize that the Holy Spirit is your teacher. Now, I'm a teacher, but the Holy Spirit is your teacher. And so, I can teach something, but I need a strong anointing on my life for what I say to make sense. I always say, "We don't need information: we need revelation".
Ginger Stache: So, knowing that the Holy Spirit is our teacher takes a huge, I think, pressure off of us.
Joyce Meyer: Well, and to depend on him for that. And when I start...
Ginger Stache: "I can do this because of him".
Joyce Meyer: Yeah. When I start to read or study the word in the morning, and I spend time in the word every morning, I always say, "Holy Spirit, help me understand what I read".
Ginger Stache: Yeah, yeah.
Joyce Meyer: Because we can, there's so many things that we read that we don't understand. And I know that there are people watching that say, "But I don't understand the Bible". So, I want to throw a question at you. You always get to ask me the questions, but today I've got one for you. What do you do when you come to something in the Bible you don't understand?
Ginger Stache: So, I do much of what you said. And one thing I like to do, utilize a search engine, utilize Google. And I will often start with understanding a little bit about who's saying it or who it's talking about. Like if it's something that Paul said, I'll Google, "Tell me what was happening with Paul at this time". Because when you realize that Paul was in prison, when he wrote some of the things that he wrote it helps you understand it better.
Joyce Meyer: Well, and some of the things that Paul said, he said them because of the customs of the day. But, you know, one of the things that I do when I don't understand something: I'll give it a try to understand it, but if I still don't understand it, I just do what I call "Put it on a shelf". I think people sometimes waste a lot of time trying to understand something they don't understand. And maybe you only have a certain amount of time. Say you've got 30 minutes to study the word. Well, don't waste 20 of it trying to understand something you don't understand.
Ginger Stache: Oh, that's great.
Joyce Meyer: Set that on a shelf and say, "God, I really don't understand this, and I need you to bring me revelation, but I'm just gonna go on with my study for today". You can always go back to things like that later.
Ginger Stache: I think that's really wise because first of all, we are not going to understand everything.
Joyce Meyer: I mean, there's things in the Bible I don't understand, and I've been studying it for 45 years.
Ginger Stache: Exactly. I've studied the Bible, literally, as long as I could read. And, you know, not always real effectively, by any means, but there are so many things that I don't understand. But there are many things that I do understand now that I didn't before because of the Holy Spirit helping me, or like you said, not to allow that misunderstanding to come between me and what God wants me to learn. Because there have been times that I'm like, you know, "This doesn't make sense. I don't get this". You can put it down and walk away or you can do like you said and continue going and say, "God, show me what you want me to get from it".
Joyce Meyer: Right, yeah, and then you may even have another time where you just wanna spend just some special time trying to gain more understanding on that specific thing. There's some things, especially in the Old Testament, that I just go... You know. It's like...
Ginger Stache: Yeah, definitely.
Joyce Meyer: I just don't, I mean, I trust God. So, I know he had a reason for what he told them to do.
Ginger Stache: Some of them are like, "Wow".
Joyce Meyer: But there again, it was a whole different time. And so, it may have made a lot more sense then, than it does now. But people definitely need to not let the devil convince them that they cannot understand the word, because God will help us understand it. And maybe you don't understand all parts of it, but don't let that prevent you from the part you can understand.
Ginger Stache: And realize it's okay not to understand everything, not to know all that stuff. And you know, if there's something else that I read that I really don't quite get what it's going, and like you said, studying more about what you really need is, I'll just Google that thing. And that will give me more understanding of what I just read as I read other things that Jesus said about it or what else, what other scriptures connect to that.
Joyce Meyer: And it's also very good to read books about the Bible. Like books that, you know, like, I've written, I don't know, over 150 books, now. And so, I give a lot of explanation in those books for things in the Bible. And not me, but there are hundreds and thousands of people who do that. And really, I learned a lot. Do you know the first book that I read after Dave and I got married? I read, it was about this thick, it was a children's Bible storybook.
Ginger Stache: That is such a great idea.
Joyce Meyer: But it was so simple. And it was all the stories in the Bible, about Ruth and Esther and David and all the different things and, you know, Samson and Delilah. And I read those stories and they really helped me have a foundation of understanding. And I didn't have to figure anything out, they were written for a child and so I could get it and understand it all. And so, you don't have to start with a Book of Revelation, you know, written by some genius that's got four degrees. You know, start with something simple and maybe some teaching CDs or things that you download. There's so much available to people today. That really, to be honest, there's, and I don't mean this in a wrong way, but there's no excuse not to study the Bible.
Ginger Stache: Well, we're gonna come back and ask a few questions that all of our viewers have asked from social media. But before we do that, let me just ask you this one thing. The most important thing that anybody can do to start a new year out right is to begin investing their time, spending it with the Lord. How would you suggest that they start that new practice today?
Joyce Meyer: Well, we have things available that can give them guidance. We've got a book that they can get free, a hard copy of, or they can download it online. We also have a thing called the "30/30 challenge," where we encourage people to study the Bible for 30 minutes a day for 30 days, and we give them things to study. And there's other Bible studies available. If you wanna Bible study, there's all kinds of people that write good Bible study books or, you know, things that you read a certain part and then you're asked a question, and you answer the question, or just start with you and the Holy Spirit. And, you know, I don't, I think that everybody's plan is individualized. And even in the way that I study the Bible, I may study one way for a month and then I may study another way for a while. And, you know, for a season, I always had a goal to read six chapters every day. And now, I'm not doing that quite as much. You know, I might like, we have a study Bible called the "Everyday life study Bible" and I even like to use it myself because it's full of articles about what that chapter is about.
Ginger Stache: Yeah.
Joyce Meyer: And so, even that, you can, if you buy a good study Bible in whatever translation you like, and I like ours so, you know, they can get ours or if not they can get somebody else's. But there's, you can join a small Bible study group, get in a good group with people where you can ask questions. I think that's so important for a young believer, especially, to be able to ask a question and have a group that you can discuss that with.
Ginger Stache: So just start somewhere.
Joyce Meyer: Start somewhere.
Ginger Stache: Pick up that Bible and start somewhere.
Joyce Meyer: Do something lest you do nothing.
Ginger Stache: Yeah, good. Well, we'll be back in just a few minutes to answer some of your questions about studying the Bible. Some really good questions. So, stay with us.
Joyce Meyer: Well, now, we're gonna take time and answer some of your questions sent in through social media about how to study the Bible. Well, Ginger, do you have something interesting for me?
Ginger Stache: We do. And this is the best way to learn how to do anything. Start doing it. Ask people who also do it, and they'll know how. So, Andrea, from Minnesota, asked this, "I struggle with staying in God's word daily. What would be helpful to keep me motivated to study the Bible and to spend time with God"?
Joyce Meyer: Well, I think that really understanding how important it is for you. And once again, I said this on the first half of the program, but we study the Bible for us, not for God. Not to get some checkmark with God that I studied the Bible today. I think that having a time. I have a set of part time: I've done it for years. And when I get up in the morning, I get my coffee, I go somewhere where I can be by myself, and first I pray, and then I study. And it's really just a matter of having that time. Like Dave used to spend his lunch hour at work studying the word because he had to get up so early in the morning.
Ginger Stache: Yeah.
Joyce Meyer: And so, he would, sometimes he'd walk around the neighborhood by where he worked and pray. And sometimes, he would sit in his car and, you know, read a book. And you don't always have to read the Bible. Sometimes you can read a book that is about the Bible. I'm reading a book, right now, called "The gentle love of the Holy Spirit". It's an older book by a.B. Simpson. And this is my third time to read it.
Ginger Stache: And it's probably full of scripture.
Joyce Meyer: It is. Well, it's full of scripture and it's got all kinds, I've got all kinds of stuff underlined in it that really meant a lot to me. And, you know, I read three chapters in the Bible this morning, and then I spent time reading that book. I wrote a little bit in my journal and, did some...
Ginger Stache: A lot of it's habit, isn't it?
Joyce Meyer: Yeah, did some praying. A lot of it is habit. And I was talking to the Lord this morning about maybe sometimes adding a second time during the day where I would spend some time with him, but I'm not gonna make a law out of it. As soon as you make a law out of something, then your flesh just doesn't want anything to do with it. So, it has to be something that you want to do. At first, you may have to just do it because you know that it's good for you. It's not, here again, it's not something you do for God. It's good for you to do it. But I think, you know, for her it's like, you gotta set a time. Just like you have a time you leave for work, you have a time when you eat dinner, you need to set aside a time and that's what you do. And you have to be pretty strict about it because the devil, especially in the beginning, he will try every way that he can to cause that time to be interrupted. And so, that's what I recommend to start forming a habit.
Ginger Stache: Yeah, that's good. Talking about motivation too, one of the things that I have found that motivates me is, like you said, writing some things down. So, when I find a scripture that God really speaks to my heart through, I'll write it down and I can look back at it. 'cause, I mean, honestly, sometimes you read through, and nothing stands out quite as much. So, when God really says something that you just know it's for you, that it's touching your heart, you know, I'll write that down and that's really motivating. And, and I'll write down answers to prayer and things that I've seen God do. And that is really motivating when you begin to see the impact of studying God's word, you want more and more of it.
Joyce Meyer: Yeah, and when you sit and write things out in longhand, it helps you get it on the inside of you.
Ginger Stache: It does, so much.
Joyce Meyer: You know, I didn't have a computer when I first started and I had to write everything out and I think it was helpful to me. And I always encourage people, it's good to listen to me, but look these scriptures up yourself and actually look at them. You know, I think today, we've become far too dependent on just sittin' back and lettin' somebody else feed us, and we need to put a little effort into it.
Ginger Stache: That's a really good point. Okay. Next question. This is Margaret, from New York. Margaret says, "I'm currently reading a book of the Bible and I'm using a study reference, but I'm still not understanding the book at all. Are there any books of the Bible that were harder for you to understand and what helped you"?
Joyce Meyer: Well, some of the Old Testament books like Leviticus... I was so glad when I got finished with Leviticus.
Ginger Stache: Let's be honest.
Joyce Meyer: I made a commitment to read it, but it's all about the intricacies of the law. And we don't live under the law anymore. But it was, interesting to me, to see how challenging it must have been to follow that many rules and regulations. And, you know, some of them were from God, but people have a tendency to add, and add, and add, and add, and add. So, yes, for her question, it is very hard. And I would just say, if you are trying to study a book of the Bible, that you just really are not grasping, then I would go to something that you can understand. Because the whole point of studying the Bible is to learn something, especially that is gonna help you in your practical, everyday life. We all need to have a foundation of good doctrine, but Jesus is very practical. And he teaches us how to treat people. He teaches us how to have a right relationship with him, how to have a right relationship with our self. This morning, I was just reading in Timothy, and it talks very strongly about taking care of your parent, your elderly parents, and grandparents, even if you have to put aside some of your responsibilities at home in order to do that, that's a very important thing to do. Well, there's probably a lot of people that don't even understand how important that is. And it actually says that if an unbeliever does it and a believer doesn't, that the unbeliever's better off than the believer. But there's things that I don't understand. I figure I still got a lot to learn when I get to heaven.
Ginger Stache: Yeah, there's so much to learn. I've also learned that there is a blessing in reading God's word, even if we don't understand it, it's something the Holy Spirit just does. It's not like you said about checking things off your list, but it's all inspired, it's all God's word. And when we do it with the intent to get what God has for us and to grow closer to him, even if we don't understand everything that's happening...
Joyce Meyer: That's very true.
Ginger Stache: Then there is a blessing in that.
Joyce Meyer: Because God really is, he cares about our heart.
Ginger Stache: Yes, yes. Okay, Rebecca, from Australia, says, "Is it okay if I study the Bible on my own and not go to church? And vice versa, is it okay to go to church but not study the Bible"?
Joyce Meyer: Well, I think the best answer is to do both. You know, I'm not gonna tell anybody that it's okay not to go to church. I mean, it's not, your salvation's not based on you going to church. But to be honest, I think a lot of times people look at it, well, like, "I don't get anything out of it". Or "Why shouldn't I just stay home and watch it on tv"? But how about lookin' at it a different way instead of going to church to get something for yourself, how about going to serve and to be a blessing to somebody else?
Ginger Stache: Yeah.
Joyce Meyer: What if you went with the intention of watching for somebody that seems like they're hurting or lonely, and you went specifically to be friendly with them or try to help somebody?
Ginger Stache: Yeah, that's great.
Joyce Meyer: And so, you know, obviously we go to learn too. But you should never just pick one over the other. I mean, one of the things you can do is if your pastor has a sermon, then you can use that for your study for the next week.
Ginger Stache: Yeah. So, it's not enough just to go to church and listen to other people tell you about the Bible. You need to crack it open yourself.
Joyce Meyer: I don't think so. I think, I mean, anything's better than nothing. You know, it's better to go to church than to do nothing. It's better to go to church and listen to other people than nothing. But I tell people all the time, if you have to choose between spending time with God personally and studying his word and comin' to my conference, I'd rather that you spend time with God because that's something that is, you just, you develop a relationship with him when you spend time with him.
Ginger Stache: Well, I'm excited to see what this encouragement for people to start this new year in the word will do.
Joyce Meyer: Well, I just want to encourage you once again to make a beginning and ask the Holy Spirit to help you. So, we're just offering you a free resource today. It's a little booklet called "How to study the Bible," by, guess who? Joyce Meyer. So, you can get it as a hard copy like this, or you can get a digital copy from Joyce Meyer Ministries app. We love you and we want you to know the word because God has got a great plan for your life, and you may not even know about it if you don't study his word. Have a great day.