How to Go Deeper with the Word of God
- Boma
- Apr 20, 2024
- 7 min read
There are different ways to engage with the Bible such as Bible reading, Bible study, Bible meditation or Bible memorisation. These are all important spiritual disciplines to develop. Since Jesus is the Living Word of God, we get to know Him more as we spend consistent and dedicated time with His Word. The more time we spend with Jesus the more like Him we become.
Why We Need to Go Deeper with the Word of God
Through the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:1-15), Jesus told us several things stop the Word we hear from bearing lasting fruit. When the conditions are optimal, the harvest may be 30, 60 or 100 fold. Matthew 13:23 (ESV) explains that we need to both hear and understand the Word of God to be fruitful Christians:
As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."
If, when we hear the Word of God, we read and run or listen and leave we limit our ability to understand what we have heard and therefore the effect and impact of the Word of God in our lives.
The Bible tells us the process of transformation occurs through the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). Renewal is not superficial. It is a deep and thorough overhaul or renovation of our minds leading to transformation. A changed mind is a changed person. The mind is where we perceive and understand things. We can only behave in line with our understanding. Our understanding directly impacts our actions.
We are not transformed physically by one visit to the gym or one healthy meal. We need consistency and dedication to transform our bodies. How much more our spirits?
Allowing the Word of God to penetrate our minds more deeply leads to deeper understanding. The better we understand the Word of God the more our understanding is renewed to His way of thinking. The more we think like God, the more we behave as He wants us to. As Christians, we have the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5; 1 Corinthians 2:16) but until we understand what this truly means we cannot live as though we do.
We will struggle to trust a God we barely know. We trust God more as we know God more. We know God more through spending time with His Word and His Spirit. We always need both. A close relationship with the Holy Spirit is essential to rightly dividing the Word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). Our minds cannot make sense of the Word of God in a way that leads to transformation. Understanding the Bible goes beyond natural comprehension. We do not bypass our mental capacity but we must go beyond its bounds to begin to understand the nature, character, and plan of a boundless God. This is why faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17).
The Word of God is living and active (Hebrews 4:2). When we actively engage with this precious gift we will be transformed. A superficial relationship with the Word of God will not produce the deep results many of us desire.
How to Go Deeper with the Word of God - 5 Ways
1. Read through the Word of God Systematically
You've read this far, so hopefully you agree that the Word of God is important. There is a degree of transformation we can experience through regular and consistent Bible reading alone. It is an important spiritual discipline because we cannot expose ourselves daily to Jesus, the Living Word, with an open and expectant heart and remain the same. I believe it is important to read through the Bible as this helps us see and begin to understand God's plan for His creation. From there we can better understand God's plan for us.
The Bible is a large book and it can be daunting to think about reading through it all. However, we often overestimate the time needed to read through the Bible so it can be encouraging to see how long it would take to read through each book of the Bible. Even with this information, it can be difficult to know where to start and how to divide the Bible into manageable chunks. As a result, lots of us read the Bible without a plan and then fail to complete it. The saying goes: to fail to plan is to plan to fail. Bible reading plans break the Bible into daily readings across a period of time like 90 days, 6 months or a year.
We do not have to start at Genesis and end with Revelation (although this is a perfectly fine way to do it), but our spiritual growth requires us to eat a range a spiritual food. The Bible is made up of the Old and New Testaments but can be further divided into the Law, historical writings, the Prophets (major and minor), wisdom and poetry, the Gospels, Acts, and the epistles (or letters).
There are lots of ways to mix up our daily readings so we are not reading straight through. We just need to pick one and have a plan to help us stick to it. Good plans are SMART so they are
Specific: Must clearly state exactly what I hope to achieve
Measurable: Must have a method to track my progress
Achievable: It must be reasonably possible to implement each step of the plan
Relevant: Must help me achieve my desired goal.
Timebound: Must have a deadline
The best Bible Reading Plans have all of these.
It can also be useful for motivation and discussion to start a Bible Reading Plan with at least one other person. So, choose a Bible Reading Plan and get reading.
2. Meditate on the Word of God
When we decide to dig deeper into the Word of God by adding reflection and appropriate response we deepen our understanding. I recently selected a single verse from each of the 31 chapters in the Book of Proverbs to Read, Reflect and Respond to daily. I posted some of my reflections on Instagram. I could not have anticipated the impact of this exercise.
Having read through Proverbs multiple times recently, I have become increasingly familiar with it but by digging deeper into individual verses I discovered treasures of meaning and was more able to reflect on how to apply the instruction the verse contained.
I remembered concepts from previous verses more readily and was able to compare related verses as I progressed. I eagerly anticipated delving into the next reading and truly delighted in the Word in a new way.
I intend to embark on more verse-a-day meditations and studies and will share more on the process.
3. Memorise the Word of God
Memorising Scripture makes it readily available to us. This can be useful when we face challenges, when we pray, or when we want to encourage someone spontaneously. Being able to recall Scripture can help us quickly identify whether someone we are listening to is correctly quoting or applying Scripture. Adam and Eve had not memorised God's instructions about the trees in the Garden of Eden so did not recognise when the serpent misquoted God. In fact, they misquoted God first and the snake capitalised on their ignorance (Genesis 2:16-17; Genesis 3:3). When the devil tempted Jesus in Matthew 4:1-11, Jesus' accurate quotation and application of the Word of God silenced the devil on that point and he moved on and then left in defeat.
I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. - Psalm 119:11
I have set myself a challenge to memorise Psalm 119. In preparation, I will first memorise some verses about the Word of God. This is not a necessary prerequisite, but I want to know by heart scriptures that I can draw on to keep me motivated in what will be a long journey.
I will be sharing my progress along with Bible memorisation tools and techniques, so be sure to subscribe at the end of this post so you don't miss them.
4. Study the Word of God
Bible study is an important way to go deeper with the Word of God. Study is more than reading and reflecting. It often requires us to use external resources to further our understanding of the text. Some people study the Bible through Bible schools or courses but we can all study the Bible with the Holy Spirit as our teacher outside of a class.
We can study the Bible by book, chapter, or by verse. We can choose to study characters from the Bible, its writers, or time periods. The Bible can be studied by word or by theme. There are a myriad of ways to study the Bible and a variety of techniques. I will share some ways I like to study the Bible and the tools I use.
5. Write out the Word of God
I have found that writing out portions of the Bible helps me to understand it better and easily links with each of the spiritual disciplines above. In my weekly email, I give you 7 scriptures on a theme so you can Write the Scriptures with me. I encourage you to meditate on these as you write them out. You may decide to memorise one or more of them and delve further into the theme through study. And of course, you must read each one to write them out.
How to Go Deeper with the Word of God - Final Thoughts
Spiritual disciplines are our way of partnering with God's vision for our lives on earth. The understanding and revelation come from God (see Luke 24:45). God is the one who reveals Himself to us in His Word. We cannot hope to understand God without God. So any attempts we make to go deeper with the Word of God must start and continue with humility and reverence of God, and if they don't we will soon find ourselves there. We do not grow in knowledge and understanding to sound spiritual to others or to become proud. In fact, the deeper we go with the Word of God, the less we realise we know and understand and the more awe and wonder we have for God.
Blessing in Action: How to Go Deeper with the Word of God
Asking the Holy Spirit to examine your heart, write down the answers to these questions:
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