Bible Comes Alive
Welcome to the Holy Spirit Untethered. My name's Amber Beals, and it is my job and my mission
Amber:to allow the Holy Spirit to speak through me, to help demystify who He is, what his role is, and to deeply encourage you to seek a relationship with him. Alright. Let's get started. Hey, guys. Welcome back to the Holy Spirit Untethered podcast.
Amber:My name is Amber, and I'm your host. And I'm so happy that you are here listening to this episode. If you tuned in last week, last week, I talked about the waiting season, the wilderness, and the joys of being in that, and I spoke on leaning into your season. So if you haven't already, go ahead and check out that episode. That was a pretty good one.
Amber:This is my 3rd solo episode, so you're getting a little bit more of me this month. I promise next week, we will have a guest, and I'm really excited about this guest. So you guys are in for a treat for next week. But in the meantime, today, I wanted to talk about and this is actually a request from one of my listeners, Sheila, Sheila Grant. Shout out to you.
Amber:She is amazing. She does my hair. She makes me look pretty. So, Sheila, this one is for you. I I put Sheila on the spot because she always is just praising me for this podcast, and she's just super good at encouraging me.
Amber:So thank you, Sheila. It it really does make a difference to hear that these episodes are blessing you and that you're getting a lot from them. And I swear I don't pay her, but she does promote my podcast a lot. So I'm really grateful for that. But when I was in her chair getting my hair done last week, I asked her, I was like, Hey, is there something that you would want to hear more about?
Amber:Is there a topic that I haven't touched that you would want to learn more about? And I think I kind of put her on the spot because she was like, But, you know, she is a fan of being practical and just having those tangible, okay, well, how do I do this? And I think those are really good questions. Because a lot of the times, like, we're in a place where we want to do well, we want to do the things that the Lord wants us to do. But how do we be obedient in certain areas of our life that maybe there's not like a step by step process on how to do those things.
Amber:So today, I'm gonna be talking about reading scripture. So we know we're supposed to do that. We're supposed to be in God's word, and we're supposed to be seeking his face and and doing all the things. But sometimes it's like, okay, well, do I read, like, a whole book? Do I read 5 chapters?
Amber:Do I read 1 chapter? Do I read a couple of verses? Like, what does that look like in my life? Am I supposed to do it every day? Am I doing it every, you know, 3 times a week, 1 time a week, 2 2 times a week?
Amber:So I wanna dedicate this episode to that in terms of how we read scripture, where our heart is supposed to be, and how the Holy Spirit plays a part in that. Alright. So before we get into that, let's go ahead and pray. So if you can, and it's safe to do so, go ahead and bow your head and close your eyes and pray with me. Alright.
Amber:Dear heavenly father, I just I thank you for this day. I thank you for this opportunity to come onto this podcast to just really teach about who you are and your holy spirit and just the practical things that you want us to do in our lives and ultimately glorify you through those things. So, lord, I just pray that your holy spirit would speak through me. I pray that my words would fall away and that you, holy spirit, would speak up, that your words would come up. And Lord, I just pray that you would prepare all of our hearts to receive this message and not just receive it, but take it and run with it.
Amber:Lord, we thank you for that. Jesus' name. Amen. Alright. So we all know we're supposed to read the Bible.
Amber:Right? Like, unless you're a brand new Christian or if you are, welcome. It is pretty much common knowledge when you become a Christian that you're supposed to be reading the bible. A lot of the times, if you're in a group setting and you accept Jesus in your heart, you are given a Bible. Like, that is the first thing as a Christian you were given because this is important.
Amber:Right? Well, I wanna ask the question, why is it important? And can you answer that question? Why is it important to read scripture? Okay.
Amber:So what you said is probably true. Whatever you said, good job. But I just kinda wanna break it down a little bit because I had to challenge myself and be like, okay, well, why isn't it important to read scripture? Like, 1, the Lord tells us to do it. Okay.
Amber:That's good enough for me. But there are reasons for why he tells us to do the things that we're supposed to do. Right? He is a logical god. So why are we supposed to do it?
Amber:Why are we supposed to read his scripture? And I I wrote a couple things down. So the first thing that I wrote was, you need to understand the good news and what you believe in. So you accept Jesus in your heart. You accepted his gift.
Amber:You have the Holy Spirit with you. You are now on this journey of glorifying the Lord and becoming more like Jesus. But that's just the basics. Like, that is the most important part of the scriptures is the good news that you are saved when you believe and you profess that Jesus is your savior and he is lord. But that is just the beginning.
Amber:That is like, okay. Great. I do the things, like, I know it. I believe. This is awesome.
Amber:I'm changing. But it's so important to read his word because you need to understand what it is that you believe in. And in first Timothy 416, it says, take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them for in doing this, you will save both yourself and those that hear you. So he is talking about how we are to heed yourself into the doctrine, and what he means by the doctrine is scripture.
Amber:We need to know scripture so that, one, we know what the truth is, and we are constantly being reminded of truth. So in turn, that saves yourself, but then it also saves others because you know what's true. You are constantly filling yourself with truth. Now when you speak to others, it's going to be truth. It's not gonna be tainted because you are constantly going back to the truth and making sure that your doctrine is correct because you're reading it.
Amber:Right? So really important to understand it. 2, it is a weapon. So if we go to Ephesians chapter 6, I wanna read verses 11 through 16. And it says, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Amber:For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness in this age, against spiritual hosts of weakness wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith with you, which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Now I know that was a lot, but what I really wanna focus on is that last part, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of god. So the word of God is your sword.
Amber:It is your weapon against the enemy. It's your weapon against your flesh. It's a weapon against all the things that are there to be obstacles in your race with the Lord. And we see that even Jesus uses it. So when Jesus was tempted and he went into the wilderness, right, we talked about this in the last episode.
Amber:He goes out into the wilderness and he's tempted. Now I know in scriptures, it says, like, Satan asked him, like, 3 questions, which is, like, he tempts him with food. He tempts him with being in control of all the world, like being a dictator, whatever. But I don't think out of those 40 days that Satan only asked him 3 questions. I'm pretty sure that Satan just did through everything that he had at Jesus because this was his opportunity to make him stumble, to make him sin, to fall into sin.
Amber:And Jesus, a lot of the time, is referred to as the second Adam that was sent to Earth because we have the first Adam, which was the first man that was created, him and Eve, and they both fell for temptation. They both were persuaded by the enemy, by Satan to eat the fruit of knowledge. And it caused all of us to be living in this world, in this fallen world. It's all because they did not resist that temptation. So Jesus, who is also called the second Adam, he had to conquer and and pass the test that the first Adam did not.
Amber:So in that wilderness period, he was just being berated by Satan and tempted beyond whatever to make him stumble. And Jesus's response always was, it is written. Like, whenever Satan offered him something, he goes, well, it is written in the scriptures this. And so he is using the scripture as a weapon against the enemy. He's using the scripture as his sword to get through this trial, to get through this season.
Amber:So super important because in in the bible, it says that the scriptures are your weapon. It has everything. It has, like, you know, the boots of peace, the gospel of peace, all that all the things. But we do have a weapon. Most of the armor of God is defense, but scripture is our our weapon.
Amber:So super important. Number 3, you get to see the character of God. So when you read scripture, you're understanding who the lord that you serve is. You're getting to see through Old Testament and New Testament, you get to see how he reacted and how he handled certain situations in the past, and you get to see this common thread throughout all the stories. Even some of the stories that are a little out there, they have a common thread of the character of God.
Amber:And you get to really see who he is through that. You get to see his heart. And I think that's really special. Especially as you develop your relationship with the Holy Spirit, he's gonna reveal those things to you. So that's actually my next point.
Amber:So now that you know why it's important to read scripture, I want to highlight what the holy spirit's role is in scripture, and then I'll go into how how it's supposed to look like in our lives, at least a more practical that practical thing that Sheila was asking for. So the Bible without the Holy Spirit, the Bible before you are saved is a book of good news. It has good news, but it's a book. It's just words on a page. And as soon as you believe what those words say and you accept Jesus into your heart and you become a newborn Christian and you become spiritually alive, because scriptures say that we are spiritually dead until we accept this gift.
Amber:And then we become spiritually alive once we accept the Lord and we believe that Jesus is truly our savior and the only way to get to the father is through Jesus, then these words on a page become alive. I'm sure you've heard of the living word. This book is not living until you have the Holy Spirit. It's a book of good news. Don't get me wrong.
Amber:I believe there are people who become saved just by reading the Bible because they felt led to read it, But the scriptures don't come alive until you have the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will lead you through scripture and reveal things to you that maybe you didn't notice before. The Bible is one of the only books you can read over and over and over again, 100 of times, and still get something different from it. You can read the same verse so many times, and the Holy Spirit is gonna reveal something different about it. Be like, man, how many times? Like, you look at your Bible, maybe you've read it, like, 10 times, and you have, like, highlights and notes all over it, and you go back through it, and you're like, woah.
Amber:I did not catch that the last 10 times I've read this verse. Like, that's crazy. And that is the meaning of the living word. That is what happens when you have the holy spirit and you partner with the holy spirit to read scripture and allow him to just pour into your life and and really reveal and highlight things that you may have missed. And it also depends on your season.
Amber:So sometimes you'll be you know, what if you're in a wilderness season or in a season of of abundance? Maybe you're discipling somebody, and you're reading scripture, and then he highlights certain things that will help you in that season. That maybe you didn't see it that way, that from that perspective before, and now you are because you're ready to receive that message. And I think the Lord is very timely. I mean, he's outside of time.
Amber:Right? So he sees everything. He already knows everything that's gonna happen, but he chooses what time we get to see it or what time we finally understand it. Right? Because you and I are linear.
Amber:That's that's how we experience our world. That's how we do it. That's all we know. And so he knows that because he created us, so he created us that way. So he's going to reveal things to us at times where we are ready to accept that revelation or that understanding from the scripture.
Amber:So I think that's really cool. So no matter how many times you read the scripture, what I always do is I always ask, like, holy spirit, please reveal to me Jesus today in scripture. Please reveal to me things that you want me to know at this point in time. And then I read. So super important.
Amber:So now that you understand the importance and how the Holy Spirit kinda plays into that, the next thing is the practical part of it. Right? So it's all about a heart posture, and I've said this before. The Lord is not wanting you to, like, every every day, have, like, a schedule in the morning. I do this, you know, from 5 AM to 6 AM.
Amber:If you get up early, I don't. But say use a time block. That's that part of the day to read scripture, pray, and then you kinda just mark it off. And then you go about your day. That's not what the Lord is really looking for when you seek his face, when you read his word.
Amber:He wants you. And, yes, it it does help definitely to have, like, a habit, like, a a somewhat of a schedule to be like, no. First thing, I'm gonna read my scripture. The first thing I'm gonna do. And I think it's really important to read scripture in the morning because or at least whatever time you wake up, if you wake up in the afternoon.
Amber:Just like tithing, where you're supposed to give 10% of the first, I believe that's true for your day. You give the first 10% or the first part of your day to the Lord. And that's what I try to do. I try to when I wake up, the first thing I'm gonna do is I wanna make my coffee. I wanna sit down on my couch, and I wanna read.
Amber:And then I do a devotional, and then I read, like, the life group book that we're reading or whatever. So, like, I kinda go through, you know, the things. And my purpose isn't to just, you know okay. I checked my box. I did it for today.
Amber:It's because I love the lord. I love reading the scripture. Now that if you had asked, like, Amber from 7 years ago that I say I love reading the bible, I mean, I think she would be shocked. Not, like, roll her eyes like, oh my goodness. Really?
Amber:Like, just be shocked because, like, I have tried so many times to make a habit of reading scripture just from my own striving, just from me trying to put it in my schedule and make sure I do it for the day. Like, I've tried so many times, and it lasts maybe, I don't know, a month. And they say it takes 30 days to develop a habit, but I guess I need longer because, like, I would do it for, you know, a month, sometimes 2 months. And then I would just stop because I got bored. And that was because at the time, I wasn't really partnering with the Holy Spirit to help me read scripture.
Amber:Now that I have the Holy Spirit, that desire is in me to read his word. Even things that I don't completely understand, I'm like, holy spirit, if you said it, I believe it. Help me understand it. And if he doesn't help me understand it, then okay. Well, I still believe it, and I'm just gonna move on.
Amber:And maybe later, I will be able to understand it. So it's more of a heart posture thing to have that desire to know your Lord, to know your savior, to know the Holy Spirit who lives with you, who lives inside you. So it's more about that. So if you start like, say, you miss a couple of days because life happens because it you know, life happens and you skip a couple days. Well, the enemy will probably take that and try to make you feel shameful about it and try to make you live in that port that point of, like, you know, guilt where guilt becomes shame and you use it as a an identity.
Amber:Like, I'm a bad Christian because I didn't read my bible every day because I skipped 3, 4 days. Maybe I didn't read it all last week because x, y, and z. But I wanna encourage you I wanna encourage you that that is not the case. The Lord doesn't want you to live in an identity of shame because that's not who he created you to be. He just wants you to stand up, look at the desire of your heart, and you want to seek him and you wanna read his word.
Amber:Okay. Get up and do that today. That's okay. He's gonna meet you where you're at. So if you're not perfect, if your attendance is not perfect, that's you putting that on you.
Amber:Floor's not putting that on you. He wants your heart. So I don't want this to become such an obsession to, like, do it every single day. I want it to be a priority in your life, but it shouldn't be an obsession. Like, if things happen, that's okay.
Amber:You'll get to it. You'll do it tomorrow. 1st thing in the morning, I'll do it tomorrow. And you commit to that. So that is it being a heart posture thing.
Amber:Now as far as how often you read, just try to do it more often than not. That's kind of my gauge of, like, I on average, I'm about 5 times a week. That's my average because Monday through Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I'm normally up really early or whatever, and life just kinda gets in the way. So I just try to do it 5 days a week. Sometimes I miss a day during the week, and I do it on Saturday.
Amber:So it just depends. But I again, that heart posture thing, I do it more often than not. And when I don't do it, I miss it. That's the place that you wanna be at. Not because it's a shame thing, but because you actually enjoy spending time with the Lord in his word.
Amber:You actually enjoy learning about him and his teachings and how we're supposed to live this life because that's what the scripture is. It's a map for us to to help us live lives the way that the Lord intended us to. So, again, more often than not, but, again, heart posture. The other thing is, like, well, how much of it should I read? And, guys, I think that's gonna depend on the season of your life.
Amber:If you are super, super hungry for the word, sometimes you're gonna sit down and you're gonna read a whole book of the bible because you're just so into it, and you are so hungry for what the Lord has to give. Other days, you're just going to open your scripture and you're gonna read 5 verses. And you're gonna get so much out of those 5 verses because you're just really seeking the Lord, and you're really opening up your heart to him. For me, I try to read 1 chapter a day. Now that's not very much.
Amber:It's 1 chapter, but it's obtainable for me to be able to dedicate time to that one chapter and allow the holy spirit to speak through me through that one chapter. It's not a race. I I'm not a huge proponent to reading the bible in 1 year. Like, there's some of those challenges that do that. And, you know, that's great to, like, just say that you've you've read the whole bible or, you know, that you are trying to get through it.
Amber:But for me, that is not you're not reading for you. You're reading for that challenge. And I think it's more important that you retain the knowledge that you're reading instead of just trying to get through it and read 5 chapters in a day or however many you need to read in order to meet your quota of finishing the whole bible in a year. So I wanna encourage you that reading the bible does not have to be linear. Like, we are linear, but we don't have to read scripture that way.
Amber:And it wasn't even written in chronological order. So it's not if you're trying to make sense of it from a chronological sense, like it's it's not gonna it's not really gonna add up really. So there are some bibles out there that are written in chronological order. I haven't read any of them, but I do I know they do exist. For me, I allow the spirit to lead me in what scripture he or what book he wants me to read that day.
Amber:I mean, I'm not gonna jump around. Like, I'll finish a book. I'm not gonna jump in the middle of, like, Ephesians and then go over to Genesis or something. I'm not gonna do that. Like, I'm a little too OCD for that.
Amber:Like, I have to finish the book. But at least finish the book, and then I'll be like, okay, do I go on to the next book? Or, Lord, where are we going now? Are we going to the Old Testament? Or go back to the new testament?
Amber:Like, what are we doing? And sometimes he gives me some, you know, some insight on what he wants me to read next, and other times he doesn't. And so then I just read the next book. I'm not gonna overthink it because it's his word. Right?
Amber:Like, he's gonna speak to me in whatever part that I'm in. Right? He wrote the whole thing, so I don't think you can really go wrong with that. And I have to be honest. I have not read the entire book of the bible.
Amber:I have not read all of it. I have read the new testament several times because I just felt led to read and reread the the new testament. I've read a lot of books in the old testament. I'm in the old testament right now. I'm in Isaiah right now.
Amber:But if when you read one chapter a day, it's gonna take a minute to get through the old testament when go one chapter a day. But my goal is not to go through it quickly. It's to go through it and thoroughly try to understand what I'm reading and to seek the face of the Lord, which is through his word. So, yeah, I I think when you are super hungry for the word, you're gonna be reading a lot more. And when you are super busy, like you're in a busy season of life, then sometimes just a couple of verses will be enough.
Amber:Like, again, I say this so much. It's a heart posture thing. Like, it's the desire to seek the Lord and to seek his face. So that has to be what's more important to you that you are seeking him. Now one thing that I thought was really interesting, I had listened to it was a short.
Amber:Like, you know, the shorts when you doomscroll on Instagram or or Facebook or wherever. Like, you just scroll up, and then there's these short videos. Well, I saw one with John Revere. Shocking. I know.
Amber:But it was an episode where he's interviewing this guy that brings up the statistic about people who read their scripture and how well they do in certain areas of their life if they read scripture so many times a week. So I'm gonna bring that up really quick. So in this, it's a survey that they did, and it's by Center For Bible Engagement. And I'm gonna include it in the show notes so you guys can see the study. But they basically surveyed 650,000 people around the world, and they surveyed people from 8 years old to 80 years old.
Amber:They did it from 24 countries, 75 different denominations. They surveyed people in churches, schools, and then just the general population. And what they found was really interesting. So the key discovery is that the life of I'm I'm quoting this. A key CBE, which is this organization survey, discovery is that this life of someone who engages scripture 4 or more times a week looks radically different from the life of someone who does not.
Amber:In fact, the lives of Christians who do not engage with the Bible most of the days of the week look no different from the lives of non believers. Now that's crazy. So, basically, they surveyed people who read the Bible once a week or engage with Bible once a week, people who did it twice a week, 3 times a week, and they didn't see a significant difference until it was 4 times a week. And they call it the power of 4. Basically, it says somebody who engages with the Bible 4 more times a week is 228% more likely, that's 228%, more likely to share their faith with others if they read their bible 4 more times a week.
Amber:Now when they surveyed people who did it 4 times versus 5 or 6 or 7 times a week, the percentage wasn't that drastic. It was going from 3 times a week to 4 times a week that the percentage just skyrocketed. So 228 percent of people that engage with the Bible with at least 4 times a week are more likely to share their faith with others. 407% are more likely to memorize scripture, 59% are less likely to view pornography, and 30% are less likely to struggle with loneliness. Wow.
Amber:Like, those percentages are high for the difference in just reading scripture 3 times a week versus 4 times a week. And I think if you have the right posture, that right heart posture, you're gonna wanna desire to read your scripture at least 4 times a week. So you're gonna see that improvement in your life, in your spiritual growth. And one thing that I wrote that was just really, really the point of all this is you are responsible for your spiritual growth. It's up to you.
Amber:The lord gives you the tools. He gives you the resources. He gives you his his spirit. He gives you his spirit, but it's up to you to do it. It's up to you to do the things, to read his word, to pray, to get involved with community and be engaged with your church and just allow him to use others to speak to you as well.
Amber:Like, this is all dependent on you. He's a gentleman. He's not gonna force you to do any of these things. He's gonna highly encourage you to do these things, but it's your race. It's your race to finish.
Amber:It's your race to go all the way. And the only way to do that is to actually do the things that he wants us to do. The number one commandment that Jesus gave us was to love one another as we love ourselves. That's the number one thing we're supposed to do. But how are we to know how to love one another if we don't read the word?
Amber:If we don't read about Jesus and see his life and see how he loved others, how do we do that if we don't know how? Like, we have our own definition of love and what that looks like. And I think we all have a moral compass that the Lord put in there, but that practicality of how to love people, that's in scripture. He's the example for that. And how are we gonna know if we don't read it?
Amber:We need to read his word. We need to seek the Lord through scripture. We need to allow the holy spirit, give him that tool of scripture to speak to you. If you have problems hearing from the holy spirit, read his word. He's going to speak to you through his word.
Amber:You just need to dive deeper. You need to be more consistent. You need to show up. And not because of, oh, just another box to tick. It's because you care about your Lord.
Amber:You love your Lord. You love Jesus. We can only love because he loved us first. And so we need to know who he is, and we need to know his character and how he did it so that we can be transformed to look more like him, so we can see the evidence of it. Anyway, I hope this helps you guys.
Amber:Thank you, Sheila, again, for suggesting this topic. I think it was a really good topic to just cover and incorporate the Holy Spirit into it. So if you guys were blessed by this message, I encourage you, please share this episode with somebody that maybe struggles with it. If it just blessed you and you just wanna share, then please go ahead and share it. I'm trying to just get this podcast out to the nations.
Amber:Lord encouraged me to do this podcast. This was not my idea. I'm doing it all for him and his glory and just allowing his words to be put out into the world into the ends of the Earth. Alright, guys. Well, I hope you have a great week, and I will see you next week.
