David Diga Hernandez - How Do I Study the Bible? (5 SIMPLE Bible Study Keys)

The first key to studying the Bible is the most important. And that is revelation. The Holy Spirit is the one who authored the Scripture. The Scripture is God-breathed, meaning it comes from the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is your teacher. He is your guide in understanding the truth. In John chapter 14, the Bible says this, «He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him because he lives with you now and later will be in you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative, that is the Holy Spirit, he will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have told you. Now, when I first began to study the word of God, I was frustrated with my inability to understand what I was reading. I would read verse by verse only to realize that I didn’t understand the verses that I had just read. And I would read chapter by chapter only for time to go by and me to forget and say, „What did I just read“? It wasn’t until I invited the Holy Spirit to come and to give me wisdom, to come and to teach me the word that I really began to see the breakthrough in my understanding of Scripture. 2 Peter 1:20–21 says, „Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God“. 2 Timothy 3:16–17 says, „All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work“. If the Scripture is God-breathed, remember, it means it comes from the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit wants to teach you how to understand God’s word. You cannot understand spiritual truths without revelation from the Holy Spirit. Otherwise it’s just information, not revelation, and only revelation brings transformation.

So number one is revelation. Number two is dedication. This is having consistency in your devotion to the Scripture. This is enacting that discipline to reading or hearing the word of God on a regular basis. Actually, that means receiving it on a daily basis. Joshua 1:8 says, „Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. Matthew 4:4, „But Jesus told them, 'No! The Scripture say: People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God! '“ Jesus compared the word of God to bread. Bread sustains on a regular basis. It’s something you must intake daily. You must take in the word daily. The Scripture of the day will not do. Just watching Instagram reel preaching will not do. Just looking online at the daily devotion will not do. You must go deep in the word of God. You must be dedicated to the study of God’s word. You must be consistent. You must be faithful. You must be sold on the word of God. Now, each time you read the Bible, you become more familiar with it. That familiarity makes it easier to understand. Repetition brings familiarity. Familiarity is the foundation of understanding. So you may be frustrated now reading the Scripture saying, „Well, I didn’t understand that or I don’t really get that part or I don’t even know where to begin when it comes to reading the Bible“. But if you will just commit to reading the word of God, it will begin to make more and more sense to you. And each time you go through the Scripture, your understanding is increased, your knowledge is increased, and that familiarity with the word of God enables you to pay attention to more details. For instance, if someone is reading about the passover for the first time, they’ll learn about how God sent an angel of death over the land of Egypt and about how God protected the Israelites through the blood of the lambs. Once they are familiar with that story, they are more likely to make the connection between the passover lamb and Christ’s crucifixion. And that’s just one example of a spiritual truth that’s revealed as you are consistent in the word of God. So number one, revelation. Number two, dedication. Dedication is consistency, faithfulness. You must take in the word daily.

Number three, observation and interpretation. 2 Timothy 2:15 says, „Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth“. Remember this: The same God who gave you a spirit gave you an intellect. The same God who gave you a soul gave you that intellect. The same God who gave you a body gave you an intellect. There’s a reason God gave you a mind, an intellect. We must apply practical study to our spiritual devotion. Now, observation and interpretation are really one. When you observe the Scripture, when you make notes of the Scripture mentally, when you learn things of the Scripture, that information enables you to properly interpret what you’re reading. So here is the method that I use. I call it macro-micro-macro. This is my personal approach to studying the word of God. In other words, I start with the big picture, and then step by step I begin to zoom in on the smaller details. And once I’ve looked at the smaller details, I go back to the big pictures. So macro-micro-macro. And as you begin to study, as you begin to observe, as you begin to interpret, interpretation helps you to improve upon your observations and your observations help you to improve upon your interpretations. So how do we do this? How do we observe and interpret? How do we apply the intellect that God gave us to the study of his word? Well, first and foremost, you have to identify the book that you’re reading. 66 books in the Bible, you must look at the book and ask yourself, what kind of book is this? So we have the Law or the Pentateuch. This is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. You have the Old Testament historical books or narratives. This includes books like Joshua or Ezra or 1 and 2 Samuel. You have the wisdom literature or the poetic books such as Job, which could technically be a historical book. You have Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. You have the prophets, and some people divide the prophetic books between major prophet and minor prophet. All they mean by that is that it’s a larger book and a smaller book. So larger books of the Bible that are prophetic in nature include Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, which some would consider the minor prophets are books like Joel and Amos and Jonah. So those are the books of the prophets. And as I said, some people divide those into major and minor. Then you have the New Testament historical books or the New Testament narratives. This is Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Book of Acts. And then you have the Epistles. These are instructions for the church. Further still, some people divide between the epistles and the Pauline epistles, meaning the epistles that Paul the apostle wrote. And then you have the Book of Revelation, and this is debatable, but some would put it in a category all its own. Now, the kind of book you’re reading will have an impact on how that book is interpreted. So for example, be very careful about creating entire doctrines out of the book of the Song of Solomon, an epistle would probably be more accurate in daily application. In an epistle, I’m looking for teaching to apply directly to my life. In a historical book, I’m looking at how God interacted with people and I’m seeing truths about his nature revealed in that interaction. So for example, the way you study historical book would differ from the way you study an epistle. Now, once you’ve identified the book, then you can go and ask yourself more questions about that book such as who is the author? What is the purpose of this book? What is the overall theme? Not everyone includes this, but I like to include this, what is the overall tone of the book? What are the historical and cultural backdrops? Who are the recipients of the epistles? Or who is the intended reader for each book of the Bible? Each category has different applications for how you interpret it and each book specifically will have different answers to these questions. So let me break that down for you again. In observation and interpretation, you have to identify the book. What kind of book are you reading? Who is the author? What is the purpose of the writing of the book? What is the overall theme? What is the overall tone? What are the historical and cultural backdrops? And who are the intended recipients of the book? Now, so after you’ve identified the book and ask yourself those questions about that book specifically, then you can begin to go into the little details. Remember macro, the big picture. So the big picture is what is the book saying overall, what is the tone overall and so forth. And now we begin to break down the chapters and verses. And here’s a quick side note. Those chapters and verses were added later to help us reference portions of the Scripture accurately and efficiently. But the chapters and the verses sometimes can break up thoughts. And so you have to ask yourself, what is the idea or the thought behind this chapter? What is the idea or the thought behind this verse? And after we explore the chapters and the verses, then we go even further into the details and we look at the individual words or the terms. Now, this is where it’s very important to understand that the original languages vary in meaning as far as the terms and the words go based upon the context. So one word in the original language can mean one thing in one context and something else entirely in another context. And if you don’t understand how to apply context, this is why you have to look at the Scripture as a whole, if you don’t understand how to apply context, you end up with heresies like universalism where people play on the words to describe eternity and the afterlife. Now, a great tool that I would recommend to you for looking at the words is a resource titled Strong’s Interlinear Bible. It’s a free online tool. It’s something that I use. But remember, if you’re not a Hebrew or Greek scholar, don’t take too many liberties in trying to look too deeply in the words and change the meaning entirely. Just understand that the translations that we have are fairly accurate and comparing translation with translation and version with version can help you to get a bigger picture and a more accurate look at the Scripture. But be careful not to stretch things too far without understanding what the Scripture is actually saying. Make sure to apply context. That’s why I go macro and then micro, and not micro and then try to force the macro to mean what I want it to mean. So again, start with the overall big picture, move into chapters and verses, then break down the words, and then back out again, look at it as a whole. And as you loop through that cycle again and again, the observation helps to bring about more accurate interpretation and more accurate interpretation helps to bring about more accurate observation. They feed into one another. So that’s number three, observation and interpretation.

Number four, meditation. Psalm 1:1-3 say this, „Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither and they prosper in all they do“. Meditation is keeping the word in your mind. Repetition in thought. Meditation is repetition in thought. Now, when you hear the word meditation, it may freak you out a little bit because of a lot of the new age teachings that are floating around out there. But don’t let that freak you out because there is godly meditation and then there is ungodly meditation. The world says empty your mind, empty your mind, empty your mind, and leave space for anything. But the word of God teaches us to fill our mind, fill our mind, fill our mind with God’s truth. The object of your meditation should be the truth that you’ve received from the word of God by the Holy Spirit. So meditation is repetition in thought. If reading and hearing the word is eating, then meditation is digestion.

And finally, number five application. Jesus said that if we didn’t take care of or steward or make use of the revelation that we receive, then the understanding that we do have would be removed from us. But if we use well the revelation that we’ve received, more understanding will be given. Matthew 13:12 says, „To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them“. Application is a part of study because only in application can you experience the word of God. Living the word keeps you in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. It causes that fellowship to be unhindered. And in unhindered fellowship I have greater understanding of the word. Sin, disobedience, and apathy make you spiritually deaf and spiritually blind. It’s only in acting out the word, it’s only in applying the word that I become a recipient of even greater revelation from the Holy Spirit through the word of God. If I don’t make use of what I’ve learned from the Scripture, then God cannot trust me with more treasures of truth. So just to recap. Number one, revelation. Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and be sensitive to his presence when you study the word. Number two, dedication. Have consistency in your devotion to the Scripture. Be faithful to it. Number three, observation and interpretation. Let God use the intellect that he gave you to help bring you to a greater understanding of the Scripture and let that set proper boundaries so that you don’t just go making up your own doctrines. Number four, meditation. This is to keep the word of God in your mind. Think on it constantly. Meditation is repetition in thought. And number five, application. Don’t just read the word. Live it. Don’t just read from the Bible and hear it from podcast and so forth, but go and apply the word of God in your life. Apply what you know to be the truth and God will trust you with more treasures of truth.