How to get the most out of a Bible teaching or a sermon.

Everybody knows the parable of the Sower but not everybody noticed that this story told by Jesus created very distinct “stories” when heard by three people – Matthew, Mark and Luke. I talk about it in “ Devil fights the Word” teaching, where we analyze and compare those “three stories” and we make very intriguing discoveries when doing so. The point is:

The Holy Spirit may be speaking various things to people listening to exactly the same sermon. The same sermon may give different revelations and anointings for people (not always), which will rather complement each other then contradict. Having said that, it may be particularly useful to discuss with others the teaching you were listening to, as they may have noticed different things than you have.

Very similar situation shall occur when you will listen to the same teaching multiple times:

The Holy Spirit can reveal to you different things each time you listen to the same teaching. You may also enter various levels of anointing and revelation, especially when you combine it with a prayer and take time to create an atmosphere for the Holy Spirit to work.

There is one more thing, which may take place when you listen to sermons delivered by people under anointing of the Holy Spirit (or/and you are also under anointing). The Holy Spirit often speaks to people about subjects entirely not related to the topic of the sermon! It happened to me many times! So a sermon is on love, but God will give you revelation that you should buy the house you looked  at last week. Possibilities are endless.

So what happens when the revelation hits you during the sermon? Usually your mind drifts away! No matter if the revelation is on the subject or of the subject of the sermon, your mind goes on the journey, and you will lose good few minutes of the teaching before you will get back on track. There is nothing wrong with it, as this is the way God works in us, but it gives us one more reason for getting the sermon on MP3 or CD and to listen to it many times.

Those divine reasons for losing focus during a sermon are well justified but very often our mind drifts away for more earthly reasons. If we do not come to a church, ready and already focused on God and his Kingdom our thoughts will go astray extremely easily. Instead of thinking about what a preacher is saying we will think about our children’s school problems, issues at work and a row with our neighbour. In such a case, you will lose most of the teaching and revelation will not flow.

The above also happens because of our nature. Our perception is limited, and we can stay focused only for a certain amount of time. So naturally we will lose some parts of the sermon without a fault on our side.

Let’s get a little more spiritual again. Everybody knows a passage from the Letter to Romans - Rom 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The only way to build up your faith is to listen to the Word of God as often as you can. It also means that it is much better to read the scripture out loud than to read it in your thoughts. Exactly the same applies to listening to sermons and teachings.

When an anointed preacher speaks - God is touching people. God’s revelation and faith flows and fills people. To build your faith on healing, you should listen many times to a good anointed teaching on healing. It will work for you in a similar way as listening multiple times to the Word of God. In addition, your knowledge and understanding will grow.

Power of confession.

Things we were just talking about are based on something I call a “law of confession”, which is based, on already mentioned verse from the letter to Romans “faith comes by hearing” with its entire context. Let me tell you how it works!

When you speak out loud multiple times the same phrase from the Bible, it also goes to your ears. You hear it each time you speak it! So in this straightforward way, you can hear the Word of God whenever you want to. It will continually build your faith. So it is not a magic trick – tell your mantra 100 times and it will happen. It works because it builds your faith each time you speak it. One day when you say it, your faith will be so strong that it will happen. Miracle will take place.

Sometimes it may take 100 times, another time only few, and often you may have to confess something for a few years, daily, before it will happen.

There is one more aspect to it, which actually requires whole separate teaching to explain it properly. Today we will just touch it.

Speaking with the authority.

As born again believers, we have God’s given authority to speak things into the existence. When you speak out loud God’s Word it does its job the same way as when Jesus was speaking it, but the results highly depend on the level of your faith (Jesus’ faith was 100%). So if, your faith is on a good level, and you speak with the authority, things will happen straight away because they have to obey the Word of God.

Dig your own well!

You can take your revelation, knowledge and understanding to the whole new level by doing a research on your own. When you have listened to a teaching a few times, it is time to do some digging in the Word of God. What are the easy ways of doing it?

1. Check all the verses from the sermon in your Bible, see if there are any comments or similar verses, follow those leads and write it down.

2. Look for similar verses with a concordance, write the most intriguing ones down. Compare them with original verses. Try if you can generate new thoughts or discover fresh aspects related to the subject.

3. Compare your verses with different translations of the Bible. I always compare with KJV and Amplified as they give excellent insight and will enhance your understanding.

4. Reach the original text! There is an easy way to do this without knowledge of Hebrew or Greek Website www.e-sword.net provides a free bible software that contains many translations and the King James version with strong numbers among them. It also contains Strong’s Dictionary (Hebrew and Greek). When you click on a number beside a word in this translation (KJV+) it will display original meanings of the word. Software also allows you to find other places where this word was used. I have discovered many deep truths with the help of the above.

5. Ones you are through those easy steps, write down what you have discovered. Start praying and pondering over your work, this will lead you to a deeper revelation. I usually pray during the entire process and between the different steps I take. It increases anointing and helps revelation to flow freely.

I hope that this short overview will help you better understand the Word of God and to go into deeper revelation. I believe that it also explains why you must have a CD or MP3 copy of the teaching to get the most of it. Without it, it is simply impossible and even taking notes (which is an important part of studying the Word of God) will not change it.