'COVER TO COVER' BIBLE CHALLENGE: READ THE BIBLE IN 6 MONTHS

21 BENEFITS OF READING THE WORD OF GOD

Far too many people have no time to spend reading the Word of God. They have time for every other business on earth, but not the reading the most important and best-selling book of all time: the Bible. Let me ask you: Do you read your Bible? Do you have time for God to speak to you through His Word. Most people I have come across in the Church of Jesus Christ have never taken the time to go through the entire Bible. Yet God has commanded us to do this over and over again in the scriptures... 

Joshua 1:8  This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Do you want to be a successful child of God? If yes, then a constant reading of the Word of God will be indispensable for you. This is the only book that God have to mankind to read. Every other book comes secondary to the Spirit-inspired Word of God.


I have written this note, because the Spirit of God impressed it on me that it is time for His people to read His Word and know it well. But before you go into the reading of the Word, before you even get started, here are 21 reasons why I believe you should never neglect the reading of God's word as a part of your daily routine. At the end of this note is a proposition for you; I hope you will take it. Now to the benefits:

1. You will be able to overcome Satan’s temptations. The Word of God will teach you what is right from wrong and anytime Satan tries to tempt you into sin you will be able to repeat the will of God for you back to him.

  Matthew 4:3-4, “The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

2. You will begin to mature in the things of God, and will be able to tell right from wrong, unlike many who are born again but still do not know what God requires from them.

  Heb 5:13,14  “for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”  


3. Your faith will grow. Faith is given to us as a ‘mustard seed’, which is the smallest of seeds, at the time of spiritual rebirth, but it is our responsibility to grow it into ‘great faith’. This will empower you to receive answers to your prayers and also command life situations and they will obey you.

  “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17)  


4. You will be filled with hope as you see what God has done and promised to His people [in the Word].

  “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4).  


5. You will obtain freedom from areas of bondage to sin in your life and start walking in holiness. The more you focus on doing what the Word of God teaches you to do, the more you will lose an awareness of sin and will begin doing what is right in the sight of God.

  “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).    

To sanctify is to ‘make holy’. The Word is like water when it is used to clean things and places; it cleanses and removes us from paths of defilement.

John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”  


6. You will know the will of God for your life [which will also help direct your prayers for more answered prayers]. Many people want to know the will of God for their lives; but unknown to many as well is that the Word of God is the starting point of understanding God’s will for our lives.

  Rom 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”    

1 John 5:14 “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”  


7. You will become and be known as a wise person.

  Proverbs 2:6 “For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.”    

Job 32:7-9 “I said, 'Let days speak, and many years teach wisdom.' But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand. It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right.”

8. You will become prosperous and successful in all you do [because you will learn the principles of God as He has taught them in His Word].

  “his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Ps. 1:2-3).  


9. You will receive power to overcome sin. The reason why many people do not do what God requires from them is because they lack knowledge. But when you know the Word of God, you will be kept back from destructive ways.

  Psalms 119:9 “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.”  

v.11 “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

10. You will be comforted and transformed into a strong believer, able to withstand tough times in your life.

  Psalms 119:28  “My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!”    

Psa 119:50  “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.”  

11. You will find wisdom and direction concerning difficult decisions in all areas of your life. When other people are struggling to find which way to go, the Word of God will be your compass in life helping you to make decisions which will leave other men in wonder.

  Psalms 119:105, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”

12. You will receive God’s prescribed way of life for men to live on earth. The Bible is God’s manual for the human life on earth. The letters in BIBLE have been used in the acronym ‘Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth’.

  2 Timothy 3:16-17, “There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.”  


13. Your mind will be washed from worldly patterns of thinking and moved into the divine mindset. Everyone has a pre-mindset according to how they lived their lives prior to knowing God. The Word of God will give you the new mindset that God wants for all His people.

  Ephesians 5:26 says, “That He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word.”  


14. You will be filled with joy as you see the power and love of God in demonstration. Also, when you see what God has prepared for you in the future, you will be filled with great excitement.

  “ Jeremiah 15:16  Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts.”  


15. You will begin to learn hearing the voice of God. This is especially for those who are still learning to know God’s voice. The Spirit of God will quicken you through the Word you have been reading and use it to help direct you into the will of God for your life.

  John 14:26  “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”  


16. You will be able to gauge your spiritual growth as you compare your life to the Word. Just as you use the mirror to check out your physical condition, the Word of God is the mirror that will reveal to you your spiritual condition.

  James 1:23 “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.”  


17. You will be taught how to stay humble [as you see the punishment of pride and the reward of humility in the men and women whose lives are recorded in it].

  Deut. 17:19,20  “And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.”

18. You will become powerful and formidable in spiritual warfare [when you are able to quote the Word and also unleash spiritual weapons which are recorded in the Word against the enemy].

  Eph 6:17 “and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  

19. You may think you are perfect but as you read the Word you will become aware of previously unknown and hidden weaknesses in your life. All your secrets will be exposed to you by the Spirit of God who uses the Word to speak to us.

  Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

20. You will be kept from backsliding [as you ‘hear’ and read the Word]. Because many do not remember the Word of God, they are easily drawn away from Him.

  Hebrews 2:1 “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”

21. You will learn to fear the Lord. When you see what God does to those who are disobedient through the Word, you will learn how to stay away from sin.

 Deu 17:19  “And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them.”




Now, the Bible contains 1,189 chapters (Old Testament, 929 chapters; New Testament, 260 chapters). Reading eight chapters per day, you can read every chapter in the entire Bible in the next six months. If you are interested in taking the COVER TO COVER BIBLE CHALLENGE, then you need to go and ask to be added to this group https://www.facebook.com/groups/my2015mustshine/ for a copy of this document and also for a copy of the Bible Program to take for the next 6 months from Sunday April 19th to October 4th 2015. It is time you knew everything the Bible has to say (and for those of you who have already read it before and before, you can refresh yourself one more time).

CLICK THIS LINK TO DOWNLOAD THE 6 MONTHS COVER TO COVER BIBLE CHALLENGE.

Blessings!


Apostle P. Williams
Apostolic Revival Church,
Mfangano Trade Center, 3rd Floor,
Mfangano St., Nairobi.