Ye Search the Scriptures (pdf)
How to Study the Bible

If we use our mind to read the Bible, the Bible we receive will be according to the kind of person we are. In using the mind to read the Bible, whether our mind is clever or confused we fail to touch the spirit. For God to reveal Himself through His Word, we need to touch it with the spirit. A remarkable thing about Bible reading is that unless our thoughts are objective, and our unharmonious thoughts are put away, our thought becomes a great hindrance to God, no matter how clever a person may be. Our human thought has no way to enter into Bible thought. There are two essential factors in Bible reading; our thought needs to enter into Bible thought, and our spirit must enter into Bible spirit. Our thought must enter into the thought of the writers who were inspired by God to write the Bible. In this way our thought and the thought of the inspired writer come to be in gear with each other. Our thought is to enter into the other's thought. A subjective person or a clever person is unable to enter into the spiritual thoughts of the Bible writers. Oftentimes people read their own thoughts into the Bible. Their own gears are moving, expecting to get a little doctrine or a little teaching. Their own heads dominate the reading of the Bible.

An unbroken mind seeks to establish its own system in the Bible. As a result, you cannot know the Word of God. God wants to break your thought into dust and ashes so that you no longer cling to your own thought trend and system. Your entire way of thinking is broken; you lose your own dominating thought. By this dealing you are enabled to touch the spirit of the Bible writer. (In preaching, some use their thought to quote the Bible, while others allow their thought to enter into the thought of the Holy Spirit. The latter have entered into the thought of the Bible. These two are totally different worlds.) The outward man must be broken before one can know the Bible. This is a fundamental principle of reading the Bible. Man's mind needs to be broken; the mind that has been poisoned by the serpent must be broken. For one to read the Bible, his thought needs to enter into the thought of the Bible writer. This, however, is only the first step, though the most important step.

God's Word is composed not just of thoughts as the writers of this world have thoughts. The Bible is basically different from all other books, for it not only contains thoughts but also exhibits the spirit of the writers. This is where the Bible differs from all other books in the world. The spirit of the Bible writers is exposed. In listening to the word of the prophet, we realize there is spirit as well as thought in his word. The spirit must break forth. The spirits of the majority of Bible writers are quite noticeable, such as that of David, Moses, John, Paul, and others.

For this reason the secondary requirement of reading the Bible is that our spirit must break forth to touch the spirit of the Bible writer. Suppose a true Christian mother has a naughty son who breaks the window of another's house and is heavily beaten by the owner of the house. When the son comes home crying, the mother asks him why he cries. Did he break the other's glass intentionally or accidentally? The son acknowledges that the did it intentionally. So, the mother says to him, "I will spank you." However, the spanking of the mother and the beating of the other person are totally different in spirit. Only one who who have the spirit of a mother knows how to discipline a child.

The spirit of the Bible writing is not limited by time but it is an eternal spirit. Our spirit today is able to touch the spirit of the Holy Spirit from the time of the writing; that is, to touch the spirit of Paul at his time. If our spirit fails to touch the spirit of the Bible writers, the words in the Bible are dead to us. Hence, we need on the one hand to touch the Bible thought with our thought, and on the other hand, to allow our spirit to enter into the spirit of the Bible writers. Only after the outward man is broken can our thought be useful and our spirit be released. Our disability in so doing hinders God's work. We do not give God liberty to do what He desires. However, God wants to use us, and has enlisted us in His work. He wants us to know His Word. He puts His word in our spirit so that we can use it to serve the church.

"But we will continue steadfastly in prayer, and in the ministry of the word" (Acts 6.4). Bot the words "ministry" and "word" are nouns. The apostles fulfill their ministry with the word. So, it is "the ministry of the word." God gives one or two words to man, and man uses this word or these words to serve people. Sometimes we have the word in our spirit, we have the burden, but we are unable to discharge the burden with the word. The outward man does not have the suitable words to express the inside burden. Having failed to discharge the burden, we carry the original burden back home. All this is because the outward man has not been broken. There are not t he living words to assist the inward man. Had there been the living words, the burden of the spirit would have been lightened. When the inward man meets the insubordination of the outward man, God finds no way to express Himself and the church is not blessed. The outward man is the greatest hindrance to God. Only those who have been broken by God have the words to release the burden within. The shell of the outward man, especially its thoughts and feelings, must be broken, or else none can be a minster of God's word. According to the Gospels, a woman who had had an issue of blood for twelve years came behind Jesus and touched the border of His garment, and immediately she was healed. Power has gone forth from Him. (see Lk. 8.43,48). Power came forth from the outermost of His body (the garment of Aaron stands for the outermost body). Many brothers and sisters have life within them, yet their life is unable to launch out. The word within is blocked by the unbroken outward man.