How to Actually ENJOY Reading the Bible (5 Strategies Nobody Taught You)

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Success by the Book Podcast, the place where Christians who want to experience the extravagant goodness of God in all areas of their lives come from mentorship. I am your host, Dr. Inna, and I'll be unpacking the secrets I have learned from the Word of God over the last two decades. Let's dive in. This is a genius level strategy of Satan. This is a genius level trick of Satan to keep us away from the Word of God. Okay? And I'm going to show you. Let me go ahead and show you. We're just going to hit the ground running here. Let me go and show you how much of a trick this is. It's a trick. And after today, you can never, ever, ever, ever fall for it. Now, let's let's read the scripture here. This is success by the book, after all. Ephesians chapter 6, verse from verse 10. It says, Finally, my brethren. So this is the end of the book. Okay. Sorry from Ephesians chapter 1. It gets to Ephesians chapter 6. And it's like, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Now it didn't say be strong in yourself. Okay. The Bible didn't say be strong in yourself. It said be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Okay. Okay. So how are we going to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might? It goes on in verse 11. It says, put on the whole armor of God, not part of the armor, not some of the armor. You want to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. What do you need to do? Put on the whole armor of God. That have that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. What does this mean? And the wiles means like the tricks and all of that. You cannot stand against the wiles of the enemy if you don't have the whole armor of God. Please understand what the Bible is saying. Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God so that you'll be able to stand against the wiles of the enemy. So I want to be this person who can stand against the wiles of the devil. What do I need to do? Put on the whole armor of God. And the Bible starts listing the armor. It says, you know, it's it says um from verse 14, it talks about um the breastplate of righteousness, shudding your feet with the preparation from the gospel of the peak of peace, take up the shield of faith. So it's listing different parts of the armor. And if you look at it, they're all defensive. Okay. So the shoes you have on, that's defensive, the girdle on your waist that's defensive. Um, the shield of faith that's defensive. And the Bible talks about the first offensive weapon. So all of that is to protect yourself. Now, what you used to actually fight, the very first one. This is what it says in verse 17. It says, and take the helmet of salvation. So the helmet is also defensive, and the sword of the spirit. This is the first offensive weapon. The other one protects you, right? This is the first thing that you can actually use to fight. And it says, the sword of the spirit. Thank goodness we have a sword. What is the sword? The Bible says, take up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Hello. The Bible says, Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might, put on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Okay, you can stand his tricks and all of that stuff. And the the offensive part of the of the armor of God is the word of God. And so, well, wouldn't it be like Satan to then make us feel like the Bible is boring? Who can read the whole Bible? Oh my goodness, that's for pastors, or that's for people who are fanatics, or I just go and listen to the word on Sunday, and that's enough. Ma'am, sir, put on the whole armor, and part of that armor is the sword of the spirit. And what is the sword of the spirit? It is the word of God. The word is my weapon. You need to be able to fight the enemy and win. You need the word of God. So imagine Satan playing tricks on us and keeping us away from the word. Not anymore. Not anymore. From today, we are people who use our sword. Okay. We we learn about our sword, we use our sword, we own our sword, and it would be the reason, right? One of the reasons, because it's the whole armor. It would be one of the reasons that we are able to stand against all the wiles and tricks of the enemy. The word is my weapon, so no, it's not boring, and no, is not too hard to read, and no, it's not old school, and no, it's not from fanatics, and no, it is for me. Okay, why is it for me? Because I want to win. I want to win, and part of the equipment I was given for winning is the word of God. The word of God is my weapon. I love my Bible, love it. Okay, this is the path to my victory. This is a tool given to me for my victory. Are you kidding? I love my Bible. Okay. I remember Satan is not your friend. I know people like to make it seem like he's not there, but of course, every good enemy is gonna make it look like they're not there. But the Bible says he comes to steal, kill, and destroy. What is one of the ways I fight? His stealing, killing, and destruction. The word of God, the sword of the spirit, my weapon. Yes, so I'm gonna read my Bible and I'm gonna help everybody in the world, everyone in my world read their Bible. Let me tell you something. When I found out about the word of God, I sold my kids on it, I sold my mentees on it. In fact, in a rise and shine, we did a 365 challenge. The team can tell me how many people signed up for it, but it was thousands of people because I was like, hey, we cannot. Can you imagine having a helmet, having the the girdle around your waist, having the breastplate and all the stuff, and you only get to punch with your hands like you have no sword? When you're fighting somebody who wants to steal, kill, and destroy you? What? I love my Bible, okay? So that's why we're doing what we're doing today, because we've caught the thief, and the thief wants us to come to the to the battle without our weapons, and we're not silly people. Of course, we're gonna come to the battle with our weapons, okay? So, what do we need to do? So we fall in love with the word of God. What do we need to do? So we enjoy reading our Bibles, so we get so much out of reading our Bibles. What do we need to do? And I pulled out five things we can do, and these five things are gonna make you love reading the word, they're going to help you get a lot out of the word. You're going to you're going to fall in love with your word. Okay. Okay, so let's go. I'm gonna give you five things, and it'll change your life. So, first thing number one, okay. Five, five, five ways. Five ways, five things you need to do. Number one, know the ROI. Okay, so of course, I'm an entrepreneur, so I use a lot of business terms. Um, ROI, if you're not a business person, is return on investment, right? So you want to know the return on investment. Okay, so sometimes we feel like, oh, I should just do this because it's a good Christian thing to do. Listen, the Bible talking about Jesus said to about Jesus, he said it says, knowing the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Jesus, this is in Hebrews, Jesus endured the cross, but part of the reason he endured the cross is because he knew on the other side of it, he would be the king of kings, he'll be the lord of lords, he'll have a name above every name that I didn't mention that name of that name, every knee must bow. He knew that he'll have all of us as brothers and sisters, he knew he knew all of these things. Okay, so for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. In the same way, if you're gonna read your Bible and reading your Bible, we're gonna we're gonna talk about how to make it more enjoyable and all of that stuff, but it is work. Reading your Bible is work, praying is work, getting to know God is work, growing your faith is work. The things you have to do for your faith, they are work. Now, the more you're clear on what happens after you do it, the easier it would be for you to do the work, right? Okay, so let's look at it this way. If if I told you that um, you know, there is this investment opportunity in a company that is pre-IPO, so they've not gone public yet, and but there's a private placement, so you can invest at a much more favorable rate than the people who come in later. Um, and there is a guaranteed 10x return on investment, which means if you invested $200,000 uh, you know, uh after a year, that $200,000 will be $2 million. Okay. Now, if that's the case, what do you do? You you you you invest all you want to invest because it's upside, upside, upside. And let me tell you what happens when somebody does that. They then go and they're like, praise the name of the Lord. I got access to a private placement, I got this opportunity to invest $200,000, and they're excited even though their bank balance is less than $200,000. Why are they excited when their bank balance is less? Because of the ROI, because they know that very soon that $2,000, $200,000 is going to be turned into $2 million. So they don't cry about their investment. They don't say I lost my money, they don't say I lost time on that meeting. They're so excited. Why the ROI? So if you don't know the ROI on reading the word of God, you read it and it's like, you know, like you lost time reading it, like it was so boring. It was like all of this kind of stuff. Uh-uh. If we know the ROI, then we will give up Netflix to watch it. We will give up meaningless, meaningless but fun conversations to read our Bible. We would use some of our lunchtime to read our Bible. We will wake up a little earlier to read our Bible. We will figure it out. And we will figure it out because we know what happens on the other side of it. Okay, if you're getting it so far, type in the chat. I am getting this. Okay, so let's look at some of the ROI. Okay, now, first of all, we already looked at Ephesians 6, right? What is what is the ROI on the word of God from Ephesians 6, 17? Um, is the word of God is the sword of the spirit, and by that word we gain victory. So you want to be a victorious Christian? You are a Christian who studies the word of God. You are the Christian who studies your Bible, you're a Christian who reads the word. Victory. So every time you're reading, you're like, I'm setting myself up for victory. I'm setting myself up so I can be the person who is able to stand against all the wiles of the enemy. He can throw something at me and I will win because I got me a sword of the spirit. That's one ROI. Okay, let me read another scripture for you here. Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 16. Paul was telling Timothy about scripture. Now pay attention to this. It says, I'm reading from the New King James Version, it says, all scripture. So when you're studying your Bible, all scripture, including the genealogy, all scripture, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. So the Bible is the word of God, the scriptures, that is the word of God, okay? And it is profitable. Okay, now it's gonna go ahead and list what it's profitable for, but it is profitable. So all scripture is inspired by is given by the inspiration of God, and it is profitable. There are benefits, there's an ROI, there's a reason to study it, there's stuff you get from studying it. It is profitable for me to read my Bible. Okay, it is profitable for doctrine. Now, doctrine talking about the truth, like the truth, the foundational truths of the word of God is profitable for doctrine, is profitable for reproof. Like when you read the Bible, the Bible then shows you, aha, see, this anger thing, um, that's not actually in alignment with the word of God. That's not the way you're designed to function. You read the word of God, it's like, you know, how you kind of believe that Christians should be humble and broke and all of that stuff. It's not in alignment with the word of God. Um, you'll you'll you see, like the Bible says that you know, love is patient. You see here, not patient, not patient, not patient. It is, it is, it is a mirror that allows you to look at yourself um through the lengths of who lens of who you are designed to be, to say, oopsie, not in alignment, okay, is profitable for correction. So you are acting this way. This is the proper way to act, this is the proper way to think, this is the proper way to expect, this is the proper way, and for instruction in righteousness. So let me tell you something, okay? And it's important that we understand that it is impossible for you to live like a Christian if you don't study the word of God. It is impossible. This is the reason why somebody will tell you, oh, God told me that that that man over there is my husband. Meanwhile, that person is somebody else's husband. Because you don't read the word of God and you don't understand that God said in his own word, I hate divorce. Now you're going to mess somebody else's home up in the name of the Lord, like the Lord, quote unquote. Right? Okay. You're you think, oh, you know, uh, because I'm a Christian now, I'm not supposed to have anything. I'm just supposed to kind of go through this world any kind of way. Like you, it's not, it's not in the book. It's not in the book. People will say, oh, this is the dispensation of grace. So you can live any way you want, and it's acceptable to God. I'm like, the only way you can believe that is if you don't read the Bible. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Jesus said, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I say? Right? And so it is not possible. Like we it it's not common sense, like God's ways are not common sense. We can't just come up with it, it's in the book. So you want to live in alignment with the way God wants you to live. You want to be heaven-bound, you want to be all of those things. It is impossible without the word of God. You can be genuine and um have good intentions and still be wrong. You can be. So, how do we know the word of God? Okay, so that's that's another ROI. Now, one of my favorite ROIs, let's look at this here. This is I read this this morning in Horizon Shine. Um, if you don't know, Arise and Shine is a prayer meeting we do every morning at 6 a.m. Eastern, best place to be every morning at 6 a.m. And we pray and we study the word and we do all of these things. So if you're not a part of us, come join us. It's so good. Okay, so here, Psalm 119. I read it this morning from verse 97. Now pay attention to this. It says, Oh, how I love your law. This is David talking, okay? And it's very important we think about who David is. David was not necessarily a religious, he was not a priest, David was a king. So you may be like, Oh, well, this is for pastors. No, if you are a marketplace person, what I'm talking about is for you. If you're a politician, this is for you. If you're if you're a stay-at-home mom, this is for you. Work a job, this is for you. Well, like whatever it is your vocation is, this is for you. He was a king, he was not a pastor. Okay. Oh, how I love your law. So that's another word for scripture. That's another word for, well, in our time it would be Bible, right? Oh, how I love your law. It's my meditation all the day. So this guy is thinking about the word of God all day. He says, verse 98, you through your commandments make me wiser than my enemies. If you want to be wiser than your enemies, just throw up an emoji to prove I want to be wiser than my enemies. You want to be wiser than your enemies. He's saying the thing that got me to be wiser than your enemy, my enemies, is your commandments, your word. Your word. That's what made me wiser than my enemies. We're talking about the return on investment of studying the word of God. Okay? Okay, so you through your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers. And I don't want you to think about teachers only like second grade and fifth grade. I want you to think about the people you're learning finances from, the people you're learning um business from, the people you're learning how to run your home from, the people like all of this stuff. It's like I am wiser than my teachers, I am wiser than the experts, I am wiser than them. Why am I wiser than them? He says, For your testimonies, another another name for the word of God, if you will, are my meditation. So I am looking at your word, it's made me wiser than my enemies, is giving me more understanding than all my teachers. All my teachers. And then he goes in verse 100 on in verse 100 to say, I understand more than the ancients. So even people who've been around for a long time, people have who have vast experience and all of that stuff, I understand more than them. How? Because I keep your precepts. So not only do I meditate on your word, not only do I read your word, I obey your word, and it has made me wiser than the ancients. So wild, so so beautiful. So is there a ben, and I could go on and on. Like we could have a whole session that's just the ROI. We could go for an hour just on the ROI of studying the word of God, right? But I want you to think about it. You want to be victorious, the word of God. You want to be wiser than your enemies, the word of God. You want to be wiser than all your teachers, which means you're an expert of experts, the word of God. You want to be wiser than the ancients, the word of God. You want to be somebody who follows after God and is heaven-bound, like ready for God whenever he's ready at all times and pleasing in his sight, right? The word of God. And so, oh my goodness, we cannot afford to be outside the word of God. So the next time you have to do a Bible study or want to read your Bible, all of that, just remember what am I about to do? I'm about to set myself up for victory. I'm about to set myself up so I'm wiser than all my enemies, have more understanding than my teachers, and I have more understanding than the people with long experience. They've been there forever, all of that kind of stuff. And I will be in a position where I'm obeying the word of God, I'm I'm I'm showing up as someone who loves Jesus because if you love me, keep my commands, and I'm keeping his commands, showing him that I love him. I'm not just crying in worship, I love you, Lord, but I'm also demonstrating my love for him by being obedient. That is what I do when I read the Bible. That is what I do when I meditate on the scriptures. That is what I do when I spend time in the word. So, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna spend time in the word. I am going to read, I am going to meditate, I'm going to obey, and by this word, I am going all the way to the top. I will be victorious always. And I, when I'm done with all of this stuff, heaven bound, bam. Success on every side. Why? Because of the word of God. Let me tell you something. I'm an entrepreneur, the word of God has changed my business because I so many of the principles I use in my business, they are straight from the word of God. Why is the most brilliant book in the universe? Okay. Okay. All right. So let me give you before we move to the second one, let me give you a statistic here. This was very fun to read. Um, this is um, this was Lifeway that did this research. They saw that regular reading of the scriptures decreased anxiety by 30%. Regular reading of the scriptures decreased anxiety by 30%. I want you to think about that. Why? I was reading my Bible. My anxiety level, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, 30%. Okay. And they saw people who read their Bibles four or more times a week decreased destructive habits like alcohol, alcohol, alcoholism, addiction to porn, and anger issues by 30 to 60 percent. How did they do it? Reading the word four or more times a week. There, so what are you doing? I'm gonna go study my Bible and just think of it. Oh, I'm taking, you know, I'm taking my my anxiety meds, right? That's what we do when we study the word of God, right? So we're not we're not doing God a favor when we study the word of God, we're doing ourselves a favor, a huge favor. You're doing yourself a huge favor. So every time you go to read the Bible, it's not this Christian tradition. No, you are setting yourself up for success in all nine areas of your life. Okay, okay. So before we go any further, if you have not signed up for the 365 challenge, the team is gonna post the link again. Uh, team, just make sure you post it in a way it's uh is is hyperlinked so people can click on it. And I want you to sign up for the challenge. And there are a number of things in the challenge, but the the thing you're committing to is I am going to read four chapters of my Bible every day, right? Remember the statistic we read about four or more times a week. Reducing destructive habits. So you have teenagers, and you're like, oh, teenagers these days. No, sell them on reading the word. Sell them on reading the word every day. If they read the word every day, and all this mental health stuff, right? They're taking an anti-anxiety medication. They're reducing their likelihood of you know being involved in destructive habits and all of this stuff. That's what you're doing. Okay. So 365 challenge. You want to, so it's there, dcgeorgia.org forward slash challenge. You want to sign up for that. We're reading four chapters of the Bible every single day. Oh my goodness, one of the best things you can do. Okay. So how do you set yourself up to enjoy reading the Bible more? Just understand what it is that happens when you do it. Okay. All right. Second thing. Second thing. What is the second thing we want to do? We want to unlock the Bible with prayer. Unlock it with prayer. This book is a closed book. It's not an open book. It's not like, of course, you can open it and you can you can read the words, and the words are English, but it doesn't mean you understood anything, right? We understand the word of God by the Spirit of God. This is why somebody can have a PhD in this, and I'm not disrespecting anybody. Please don't hear what I'm not saying. Okay. But you can have a PhD in this and have no faith. You can have a PhD in this and live the exact opposite of this. You can have a PhD in this and have no power, no results, nothing. Right? Okay, so let me show you this. Let me show you this. Um, Matthew chapter 13. Jesus was now Jesus was speaking, so he had spoken. Um, and when you see it, I want you to think about it as scripture. We are reading what was written about what he spoke, but he was speaking. So see just the scripture. So he had just finished speaking to the people, he spoke to them the parable of the of the sower. And his disciples came and said, Why do you talk to these people in parables? Like they don't know what you're talking about, right? Okay, same thing. People read the Bible, it's like we don't know what the Bible is talking about. All right, so let's let's look at what Jesus said here. So Matthew chapter um 13. I'm gonna read from verse 10. So just go with me. Hold on, let me get there. Matthew chapter 10 from verse 13. Okay, so um where am I? Oh, no, no, no. That's not it. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. That's not where I'm going. Where is the parable of the sower? Is that okay, Matthew chapter 13, verse 10. I was somewhere else. Okay, and the disciples came and said to him, Why do you speak to them in parables? Please pay very close attention to this. Verse 11 He answered and said to them, Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. Right? For whosoever has to him more will be given, and he will have in abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has, will be taken away. Therefore, I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see. Please hear this. Seeing they do not see. So can your eyes be open and you don't see? Yes. He says, and hearing they do not hear. So can your ears hear, but you didn't hear? Yes. And nor do they understand. This is not going to be us. We're going to look at something. And in them, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, Hearing you will hear and shall not understand. God forbid. Okay, for us. And seeing you will see and not perceive. For the hearts of these people have grown dull. So you see, there were three problems. They could they they couldn't see, they couldn't hear, and their hearts couldn't understand. Their hearts were dull. Okay? And it's not talking about their physical eyes and their physical ear and their physical heart. It was talking about their spiritual faculties. So you can see with your spiritual eye, your physical eyes, but your spiritual eyes are blind. You can see, you can hear with your physical ears, but your spiritual ears are deaf. You can have your physical heart doing what it does, but your spiritual heart is dull. So it can't understand. Okay? It says in verse 15, for the hearts of these people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing, their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their ear, with their eyes, and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should hear them. So the transformation happens when the word of God collides with eyes that can see, ears that can hear, and a heart that can perceive. So what do I do when I read the word of God? I come to the word of God with humility, understanding that the fact that I understand English and the fact that I can understand what the words are saying does not mean I understand the meaning, does not mean I understand the essence, does not mean that it's revelation. I come to the word of God with humility. This is a requirement, people. When you find yourself, maybe your pastor is preaching something and you're like, ooh, I've heard that. I know that. I know where pastor is going with this. You've automatically said, I'm not a candidate for revelation here. I'm not a candidate for understanding here. Like my ears, you know, my ears I've closed, my heart, I've used all. No, we approach the word with humility and depending on God for understanding. Depending on God to see, hear, and understand. So when I pray, this is what I pray, because I've already looked at the other guys. I was like, Yeah, I don't, whatever that is, I don't, I don't want that. Okay. But what he said to the disciples in verse 16, it says, But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears for they hear. Okay. So I pray to God. I say, Lord, anoint my eyes that I may see, anoint my ears that I may hear. Anoint my heart that I may perceive, that your word will be spirit and life to me, that I'll get revelation from your word, that your word will transform my life. Okay. So I pray. I pray for my spiritual faculties. I want to invite you to do the same thing. Never approach the word of God like it's some history book. Don't approach the word of God like it's some you know Christian religion thing I need to do, or all of that. No, because the revelation from the word of God can take you to the top. The revelation from the word of God gives you victory. God told Joshua, Joshua had this big assignment. He was supposed to take over from Moses, and he was going to conquer the promised land for the people of God. And God said to him, All right, he says, Josh, let me give you a strategy. Okay, you want a strategy? I'm gonna give you a strategy. This is in Joshua chapter 1, verse 8. He said, This book of the law, your Bible, shall not depart from out of your mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do all that is written therein. Then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. What was the strategy God gave him? The word. So the word is powerful. So we're not gonna approach it like, oh, we're reading historical accounts of David. No, David killed Goliath. If you had the revelation he had, you will kill your Goliath. So you're like, Lord, open my eyes, give me understanding of this, help me to see. Okay, so that's one thing I always pray. Give me eyes that can see, ears I can hear, heart that can perceive. The second thing I always pray is, you know, um, I don't know if this has happened to you. There's a there's a day in worship, and our worship, our worship team, oh, they're so amazing. They're leading worship, they're taking us to the throne room of God is so amazing. And we're worshiping, and I'm like, man, Lord, I know I don't know you as much as I could know you. Reveal yourself to me, like help me to know you better. Okay. And he's like, ma'am, I wrote 66 books. Okay, you want to know me more? Read my books. Read my books, okay? So when you read the Bible, there are three powerful revelations you can get from it. You can get the revelation of who God is because we don't know other than the word. Now we know from encounters and all, but the even the encounters we have to judge by the word of God, right? So we know by the word. So one of the things I can get is a revelation of God. The other thing I can get is a revelation of who I am in God. Now, I may know who I am as my parents' child, I may know who I am as a physician, I may know who I am as an entrepreneur, but hello. Who you are in God, like it, like I am literally the daughter of God. Do I know what that means outside of the word of God? Of course not. I have no clue what that means. It is when I go in the book, I'm like, oh. So when God wanted to create, he used his words. Monkey see, monkey do. That means in our family where I'm from, we create with our words. Amazing, right? I discover that oh, I've been given a name above every other name that I dimension of that name, every new must pop. Oh, fascinating. Apparently, this is how we roll. Okay, so you don't know who you are in God outside of the word of God. So when you read the word, you get a revelation of who God is, you get a revelation of who you are in God, you get a revelation of God's way of doing things. God's way of doing things, right? Okay, so when I go to study the word, I'm like, Lord, as I sit to study, open my eyes to know who you are, who I am in you, and your way of doing things. Because hello, the Bible says you're talking about God, your ways are higher. God said, My ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts, right? Now, if you think about it, you can add that God's results are higher than our results. And so if we would read if we would drop our lower way of thinking and take up his way of thinking, and we would drop our way, uh normal way of acting and take up his way of acting, guess what happens? We get much bigger results, right? So if I can discover God's way of doing things and I can do it that way, then I get results that are now signs of wonders. People are like, What? How did she do that? She did that by looking at how God does stuff, and she does it that way too. Right? So when I pray, what do I pray? Lord, anoint my eyes so they can see, anoint my ears so they can hear, anoint my heart so they can perceive. I pray, Lord, that give me a revelation of who you are, give me a revelation of who I am in you, give me a revelation of your way of doing things. And then the other way I pray is I pray in the spirit. Oh, praying in the spirit is so good. I double dare you, okay? Take an hour, pray in the spirit, then open your Bible and tell me if it's boring. No such thing. Like activate your spirit, right? Active your spirit, unleash the activities of the Holy Spirit, like pray in the spirit. The more you build this habit of praying in the spirit, the more you pull out of the word of God. It's just the way it is, right? So pray, pray, be a person of prayer. Now, we're talking about the word, but the word and prayer are Siamese twins. They cannot be separated. They are Siamese twins that are joined at the heart and the brain. Okay? They have one heart and one brain. You can't, you can't, you can't split them. So if you study the word without prayer, you don't get the life from the word. It's minimal life, minimal light, minimal revelation, minimal all of that. If you pray without studying the word, you have encounters, but you can't decipher, you can't discern because you don't have the word as a foundation. You know what I mean? Like, so either way, these don't work without each other. They I mean they they work, but you don't get the full benefit and you put yourself at risk. It is a risk to be a person of deep prayer, no word, because you can have encounters with Satan and you won't even know. You will know, you won't know. Oh, this thing I heard is inconsistent with the character of God. You won't know. Okay? Okay, so if you're here, you're not filled with spirit, you don't pray in tongues. Team has posted the information there. You can send us an email at admin at dcgeorgia.org. We would be happy to explain it to you and all of that stuff. If you have not built the habit of praying in the spirit, come join us every morning, 6 a.m. on Horizon Shine. It's on Zoom, YouTube, um, and Facebook. And you just build sometimes we just have tongue-thatongs. We come there 50 minutes straight, boom, praying in the spirit. Build your capacity to do that. The more you do that, the more you understand the word of God, the more you enjoy it, right? Okay. All right, so that's prayer. Woof, we're only at number two. Pray for me. Pray for me. And Lord, I pray for everyone on this, on this, um, on this session and everyone who watches the replay. And I pray for everyone, Lord, that you anoint their eyes so they see, you anoint their ears so they hear, you anoint their heart so they perceive. Lord, I pray as they study the word that you give them, you give them revelation of who you are, revelation of who they are in you, revelation of your way of doing things that out because of this session, because of this training, you will raise unto yourself generals, mighty men and women who by prayer and the word will become signs and wonders in all nine areas of their life and in everywhere they they show up, in the marketplace, everywhere. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, number three, what do we do? So we can enjoy the word of God and we can get the most out of it. Number three, discuss it. Discuss it, discuss it. Okay, so the Bible talks, it says, okay, let me read this scripture. I was just gonna quote it, but let me read it. Proverbs 27. Let's go to Proverbs, okay? Proverbs 27. We live in this, we live in a time where it's like me, myself, and I, I don't really do people, it's just me and my Lord. Let me tell you, the God of the Bible ain't about you and your Lord, He's about you, your Lord, and the people in your life and the other like God is a God of family, he's a God of community, he's a God of groups, he's a God of all of that stuff. And if you're deciding I want to do my life solo, that is not it's not in the Bible, it's anti the scripture. The only way you can believe that and walk that way is if you don't read the Bible, you won't see it there. We're not designed to do this life alone. Okay, Proverbs chapter 27, verse 17. It says, as iron sharpens iron. So if you have an axe and you want to sharpen it, what do you use? Another iron. As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. Okay, so iron sharpens iron in iron world, man sharpens man, people sharpen people. So you take one person who's studying the word and another person who's studying the word, and you put those two together and they start sharpening each other. Okay, so one man, so a man sharpens, sharpens the other.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Okay, I want to do something fun here. Let's see. You guys type that in the chat. I'm gonna pull up something here. It's gonna be, I think it's gonna be fun. Let's see, let's see what happens here.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

Okay, let's see. Um, I knew I was gonna find something good. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Okay, the amplified Bible. This is what it says. It says, as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens and influences another. Get this through discussion. I didn't see this before. This call, right? As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens and influences another through discussion. Hello, people of God. Listen to me. You take the Bible, you know that there's an ROI, you're reading your Bible, you pray to unlock it, and then you go sit to discuss with another believer doing this, it will blow your mind and rock your world in ways you cannot imagine. So reading the Bible is good, and we must all do this because remember, it's two reading people coming together to discuss that creates this, right? So discuss the word of God. It is a way you sharpen, sharpen your understanding, sharpen your ability to pull revelation, sharpen your ability to dissect, to memorize, all of that stuff. It gives you the gift of accountability, all kinds of it is so powerful. Okay, so pay attention to this. In we do something, and I'm gonna do a teaching about this. We've done it for in August. So in a few months, it'll be a year, right? We've done it for about 10 months. Um, and I'm gonna do a whole training on. If you want to train it on it, when I start talking about it, you can say, Dr. Una, do it. Okay, but we do this thing we call the Commonwealth, okay? And the Commonwealth is a meeting of my kids and my siblings' kids. Okay, so these are all cousins. So there are, I have four children, I have three siblings, and among them they have eight children. So we have um we have 12 cousins, and then um I have an I have a son that I acquired. His name is Nehemiah, he's Makita's son, but he he's one of them. So there's 13 children. Okay. So there's 13 children, they're from the ages of four all the way up to 18. That's the age range of these of these 13 children. And I'm talking children now. I'm not talking grown-ups. These are children. I don't teach them in the commonwealth. In the commonwealth, I'm well, I do some, you know, but mostly I'm a facilitator. And so I may come up there and I've said, okay, let's read this scripture, Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23. Guard your heart with all diligence, for it determines the course of your life. And I would give, I would have them read it from you know, different people would unmute themselves. This is all happening on Zoom, unmute themselves, they'll read the scripture. And I'm like, okay, so I'm gonna give them five minutes. I'll have one of the parents put some nice meditation music, and I just have them read it from different translations, write it out, ask questions, ask how it applies to them, all of these things. And then after the five minutes, they get to say the aha's they got, the takeaways they got from that verse. I cannot even begin to describe to you the level of revelation. Children from the ages of four to eighteen are able to pull out from the word of God. This is them where iron is sharpening iron through discussing the word of God. It is brilliant, like they're I'm I'm just like, are these children? Like sometimes I will have the parents unmute themselves, like, please can you ex? Can can like I I'm I'm about to do cartwheels here. I cannot believe what these children are coming up with. Like, what do you think? And they're like, apparently, I came to class. I thought I was coming to, you know, you know, supervise my children, whatever, but I came to class. What was happening? Children discussing the word of God. Children. And so this is the deal. You do it for your own self. Grab three people, four people, eight people. You guys sit down, read a scripture, go through the scripture, and then discuss. So I'm gonna give you guidelines. There's this very popular Bible study method that's called discovery Bible study, okay? And it's this same thing, it's more discussion than teaching. It's it's facilitated conversations, okay? And they have four steps. So when they they would read a passage of scripture, I'm gonna give you the four steps. And so if you you can then take it and you know, go do your own Bible. So you're part of a small group. When it's time to discuss the word of God now, it's no longer a time to lurk, it's no longer a time to not listen, it's no longer a time to be on your phone because you understand that as iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens, you know, another when they discuss. Okay, okay. So when you read it, it's like, okay, number one, what does this say about God, Jesus, you know, his character, his nature, the way he functions, all of that stuff? What does it say about him? What does this say about people? Or what does it say about me? Right? That's the second prompt, if you will. The third prompt is so what am I going to start doing, stop doing based on what I read? Then, number four, um, who am who needs to hear this? Who will I share this with? Who will I share it with? So, what does it say about God, about Jesus, about his nature, all of that stuff? What does it say about people, or what does it say about me? What how am I going to apply this? What am I going to start doing? Stop doing all of that. And then four, who am I going to share this with? It's a very simple thing. But if you would take scripture that you read and sit with a friend and you guys start unpacking like a number of friends, Who are also reading and you start unpacking this, you will enjoy your Bible. You get so much out of it, and you start becoming brilliant at pulling revelation from the scripture, and you and you start getting brilliant at defending what you believe in the word of God. And oh my goodness, oh my goodness, is it so good? Discuss it. Discuss the word of God. Discuss the word of God. Discuss the word of God. Okay. All right. Uh we have two more. Okay. Number four. Number four. Um, you guys are saying do it? Okay. All right. Soon and very soon. We will get to it. Okay. All right. Get to a critical mass. That's number four. Get to a critical mass. Okay. Now, you know, you know, when you want to boil water, it doesn't boil at three degrees. It doesn't boil at five degrees. It doesn't boil until it gets to the boiling point. It doesn't boil until it gets to the boiling point. Okay. When does water boil? A hundred degrees Celsius or 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Okay. That's when water boils. Does water boil at 211 degrees Fahrenheit? No. Water boils at 212. In the same way with our Bible reading, there are levels and levels of revelation and insight and all of those things. And you read a certain amount and new things unlock. Okay. So how do we get to a critical mass? Is by reading and reading and reading and reading. And the more you consume it, the more your appetite for it increases. When people tell me, oh my goodness, the Bible is so boring. I know they don't read their Bible. I don't need anybody to tell me they don't read. Because if you read, the more you read, the more you're like, I mean, like you read Genesis, you're like, are these guys for real? Like, are these people for real? You read about Jacob and his two wives, you're like, oh my goodness, we can we can write a few movies out of this. We can write a few movies out of this story, right? It is so fascinating. It is such an interesting book, right? So the more you read it, the more your appetite for it increases. The more you read it, the more you are convinced you should read it. The more you read it, the more you fall in love with it. Right? Okay, so you you want to keep reading, keep pressing in, keep reading, keep searching for understanding, keep reading. And the more you read, the more the appetite, the more you read, the more the capacity, the more you read. It's like so good. Okay. So we press in, we don't stop. Sometimes you feel it, sometimes you won't. Sometimes you're like, oh, that was so amazing. Sometimes you be hustling to get through it. It doesn't matter. Just keep pushing and pushing and pressing and pushing and pressing. What are you going after? Critical mass. Because you know, I get to a point and boom, and another level unlocks. I get to another point and boom, another level unlocks. Now, this is very closely related to number five. Number five is experience it. Okay, what do I mean by that? You read the Bible. The purpose of reading the Bible is to do the Bible. What did God tell Joshua in Joshua 1.8? He said, This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that you may observe to do. He didn't say meditate so you feel all warm and fuzzy. He didn't say meditate, ooh, only to build your faith. He said, Meditate so you may do. Okay? So the point of the reading is so we know God, we know his ways, we know who we are, and we act accordingly. Okay. So we read it so we can do it, and then we do it, we get the result. When you get the result, when you get the result, you the the level of love you will have for reading your Bible will blow your own mind because you're like, oh, oh, hang on, I wasn't even doing that seriously. And this is what happened. Let's keep going. Okay, let me read a scripture for you. Uh, Luke chapter 6. I love the Bible, I love the word of God, I love God, I love being a Christian. I love, love, love. Okay, this is what Jesus said. Luke chapter 4, Luke chapter 6, verse 46. It says, But why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things which I say? Verse 47: Whoever comes to me and hears my saying and does them, I will show you whom he's like. He's like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and he could not and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. So here's somebody, they're like a house planted on a rock because they heard the word and they did it. So the storms of life came and shook the house, and and not shook the house, beat against the house. But it couldn't take down the house, the house stood. So when the storm was done and the storm was tired, the storm went away. And it was man one, storm zero. Okay? Now, but there was another person, verse 49. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without foundation. You know how irresponsible it is to build a house without a foundation? That is how irresponsible it is to hear the word of God and go, like, yeah, I know the word of God says that, but right? Right? Because this is what it says. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation against which the stream beat vehemently, and immediately, the second the storm came, immediately it fell. Who wants to build a life where when a storm shows up, you fall immediately? I don't want that kind of house. You don't want that kind of house, you don't want that kind of life, I don't want that kind of life. I want to build a life that will that will defy challenges. Okay, okay. And it says, yeah, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great. So now, but that is that's not even the angle I'm coming from. So, first of all, we we just want to learn from him and do what he said so we can be these people who will be who will live these lives. But then I want you to show you something. The storm came to both of them. I want you to imagine you're reading the word, you're doing the word, you're learning the word, you're going in his ways, you're doing all of these things, and boom, a storm hits and it hits everybody. Like COVID came, COVID as a as a phenomenon hit everybody, hit the world, right? Okay, but now because of the word, somebody stood, and because somebody else wasn't doing the word, that person fell. And imagine you were the person who stood on a scale of one to ten. How much would you enjoy reading your Bible after that? Because I had that experience during COVID. I one of the businesses I run is a private practice. And during COVID, private practices were dropping like flies, like disappearing. But at the beginning of the pandemic, I started adjusting my goals. Like I started, you know, there's a pandemic and all. And God stopped me in my track, he tracks, he said, Is my word only true? He's like, What are you doing? I'm like, Lord, there's a pandemic. I don't know what's happening in heaven over there, but there's a pandemic on the earth. Okay, so I'm adjusting my goals for the times that we live in. And God is like, so my word is only true in the absence of a pandemic. And I mean, I was like, um, when you put it that way, no, your word is always true. He says, then you don't adjust your goals, you build your faith. I'm like, yes, sir. And then he brought me to the scripture that is actually where Arise and Shine got his name from, which we studied, we were, we sat on that scripture for probably a whole year. He said, This is what my word says in Isaiah chapter 60. Arise, shine, for your light has come. The glory of the Lord is risen upon you. Says darkness has cut is has covered the earth and gross darkness, the people, but my glory is risen upon you. He says, This is the time to shine. Yes, I know there's darkness, I know darkness has covered the earth, and gross darkness the people, but it is time to shine. And by that revelation, my businesses did better in 2020, like so much better in 2020, the year the pandemic started, than in 2019. So I had a Luke chapter 6, verse 46 to 49 experience where the storm came and it beat and beat and beat, and when it was done beating, it went away. And Dr. Una and God, we were one and the storm was zero. And so you the so the word of God is not this religious thing I do. I recognize it as the source of the life that is a sign and a wonder. I recognize it as a source for the wisdom of God that will help us win in the storms of life. I recognize it as a thing that is the guarantee that having done all to stand, I can stand and I will win. So I enjoy reading my Bible, I enjoy searching it, I enjoy asking God questions, I enjoy discovering the truths in the word. Why? Because I'm like, whoa, look at what the word did for me in 2020. What? Okay, I'm having so much fun. Right? Okay, so I the Bible is not boring to me. I enjoy reading my Bible, I get so much out of my Bible, I use it to manage my life, I use it to run businesses, I use it to, you know, to train my kids, I use it to think to figure out what to do with my health. Like the Bible is life for me, and the Bible can be life for you, and you can love it, and you can enjoy it, and you can be a D, you can be an evangelist for people reading their Bible by default because you have experienced it. So don't just be a here, a reader, be a doer. Go on adventures with God based on his word. Pick the word, obey it, look at the ripple effect of it. You're like, that's what happens when you obey the word of God. What? Okay, don't do that. All right, all right, all right. So this is what I have for you guys, okay? Make a fresh commitment, minimum of four chapters a day. I'm a person who reads my Bible, I'm this person going after critical mass, and I read it and I obey it because I want to experience it so that you know I can enjoy it even more. Be this person, minimum, four chapters. You're this person, you read four chapters, you read four chapters, you read four chapters. You're like, where will I find the time? Figure it out because you know, with the things you want to do, you find you figure it out. Figure it out. Look, you will find a time, you'll find a place, right? Take away some of the social media time, take away some of the Netflix time, take away some of the time. You sit chatting on the phone, talking about things you need to repent of after you're done with the conversation. Pick any of them, right? And start studying the word and start studying the word and pray to unlock it and discuss it and remember the ROI on it and and get to that critical mass and experience it and keep going at the word of God, keep going at it. You be that person, and be an evangelist, be an evangelist for people reading their Bible. Sell everybody you see. I took one hour to sell you on reading your Bible. Sell everybody in your world on reading the Bible, sell them on reading. I've sold my children on it, sold mentees on it, sold all of our eyes on shine on it, sold. I've sold, I've even sold some unbelievers on it. Right? Sell people, be that person, take this video, share it with somebody else. What are you doing? You're living a life that triggers a Bible reading movement. Why do you want to do this? Because 10%, it is only 10% of believers who have read through their Bible once in their lifetime. Let us be the people who will tip that statistic. Let us be the people a few years from now, they'll be like, whoa, how do we get a 50%? And it will be my fault, it'll be your fault, and it'll be the fault of people who are, you know, who hear this from us, who also share with other people. That's all we do. You read, you be an evangelist for the cause, you trigger Bible reading movement, and God will honor you for it. So get ready. Your best days are from here on out, because now you're a person who is looking at the word to get a revelation of God. And the Bible says, they that do know their God will be strong and do exploits. You get a revelation of who you are in God, so you can show up like the son and daughter of God you are, and you get to know God's ways. And just the way his ways are higher than our ways, you start doing those ways, you start getting God-level results, and your whole world will be turned right side up. If this has helped you in any way, I would love for you to join the movement and share this episode with your friends, family, and the Christians in your world. By doing this simple thing, you could be changing the trajectory of someone's lives, their family, and their community. That makes you a world changer and they will love you forever.