10 INDISPENSABLE REQUIREMENTS FOR INTERNALIZING THE WORD

1. You Must Be Born Again – and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
   1. 1 Cor. 2:9-10 – Note “to us”
   2. 1 Cor. 2:14 – A dead body cannot know anything because it has no spirit. Likewise a person without the spirit is like a physically dead body because he can’t know anything spiritually.  “Man is like a pillar of salt, he’s like Lot’s wife, he’s like a log or a stone, he’s like a lifeless statue which uses neither eyes nor mouth, neither sense nor heart until that man is converted and regenerated by the Holy Spirit.  And until that happens, man will never know God’s truth.”[1]

2. You Must Be Utterly Diligent – We cannot approach the Bible in a haphazard way.  There must be commitment to it.
   1. 2 Timothy 2:15
   2. 1 Timothy 5:17 – The Greek word is Kopiao which means “Hard Labor.”

3. You Must Possess A Deep Hunger for God’s Word
   1. 1 Peter 2:2 – a baby desires one thing- milk
   2. Job 23:10b
   3. Psalm 119:97; 19:10b
   4. 15:16

4. You Must Be Holy –
   1. James 1:21 – Holiness precedes Perception of the Word.
   2. 1 Peter 2:1
   3. “This book will keep me from sin or sin will keep me from this book.” (Dwight L. Moody).

 You Must Be Taught by The Holy Spirit to understand the Bible; you must hold the Bible in your hand and the author in your heart.

5. 1. 1 John 2:20, 27
   2. John 14:24

 You Must Be Prayerful –

6. 1. Begin your Bible Study with prayer. “Lord, teach me your truth and show me what I need to know.”

 You Must Make Time–

7. 1. If you will obey God in the 1^st things He commands, He will multiply your time.

8. You Must Learn to Meditate on The Word–
   1. Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:1-3; Deut. 6:4ff; James 1:25

9. You Must Live out The Word
   1. James 1:22

 You Must Share The Word – in witness, worship, warfare, etc.

 

 

Note:  I was inspired to write this article after reading John MacArthur’s How to Study the Bible, pp. 84-87.

[1] John MacArthur, How to Study the Bible, Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2009, p87.