“Study to Show Thyself Approved Unto God”

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By D. Brandt Berg

Audio length: 13:05
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The more you study the Word of God and really dig into the Word, the more it will become a constant source of pleasure to you—a source of enjoyment, inspiration, encouragement, edification, information, and continuous guidance. Real study time is not only reading time, but also listening to God time. The minute you begin to stop, look, and listen to the Lord’s recorded written Word, you are immediately putting yourself in the position of being willing to listen, so then the Lord can begin to speak to you and give you His living Word.

To feed from the Word and hear from the Lord this way, to spiritually graze in the green pastures by the beautiful still waters of His Word that He has for you,1 you need to bear in mind what my teacher used to tell me in typing class, that the most important thing is not speed, but accuracy. When you’re reading the Word of God, it’s accuracy that’s important. So it’s important that we read His Word carefully, prayerfully, and thoughtfully.

You can miss a lot of the meaning, the real depth of what the Lord’s talking about, unless you stop to really think about it sometimes and apply the Word to your personal situation, and ask, “How is that true and how is that so?” Not with a questioning or a doubtful attitude, but one of faith, knowing that you can learn even more lessons if you search further and dig deeper.

Remember also, the Lord loves a mystery. He likes for you to learn to dig things out. To find the real precious jewels, you sometimes have to do a little mining, a little digging, and put a little effort into it. He said, “I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.”2

As with the most precious metals and jewels, gold and silver and diamonds, you have to hunt for them and dig them up and find them. He purposely doesn’t make it too easy for you. He says, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.”3

If you will diligently and prayerfully labor in His Word, He will greatly reward you, and you will agree with David, who exclaimed, “Thy Word is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.”4
Effects of the Word of God

The Word of God always has an effect. No one can hear or read the Word of God without being somehow influenced. Everyone who hears the Word is affected one way or another. Here are some of the dramatic effects of reading and living in His Word:

Life and victory: “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.”5

The wonderful water of God’s Word can revive you even if you seem to be spiritually dead. Even if you’ve neglected the Word for a long time, if you’ll only drink it in again, you can again become beautiful and fruitful. Just as we’ve seen seemingly “dead” trees, shrubs, plants and gardens which were utterly barren and lifeless and leafless spring to life and become productive again when properly watered, so the water of His Word can bring you, though spiritually withered, new life and virtual resurrection if you will soak in His Word.

It’s reading the Word that kindles the desire to change in your heart—because you will be inspired, revitalized, renewed, invigorated, challenged, enthused, and filled with faith from His words.

His Word seeds excite you, and they invite you, and they exorcise you, and they right you, and they plight you, and sometimes they bite you, or indict you, or fight you, or enlight you (make you glow), and enheight you, and enmight you (make you strong), and requite you, or right you, or sight you, or invite you and delight you.

The Word is the secret of victory or of defeat. It’s the secret of success or failure. It all depends on how you treat the Word, and how you live in it and live on it, or try to go on without it. That’s the secret. The secret of power and victory and overcoming and fruitfulness and fire and life and warmth and light and spiritual maturity is the Word!

Growth and strength: If you stay close to the Word and really let it change you, you will grow steadily, and mature into what the Lord wants you to be. A lot of your spiritual growth is up to you and how much nourishment you receive.

Jesus told us that His words should abide in us, and that “as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.”6 So in order to have the strength to do our work for the Lord, we have to spend time getting filled up with His Word. As the old saying goes, “You cannot do the Master’s work without the Master’s power.” And to get it, you must spend time with the Master feeding from His Word.

Even getting out the message to others is not as important as getting into the Word yourself first. We need to get the Word in as well as out. Otherwise, you’ll never have the spiritual strength and stamina or the spirit that will sustain your bodily strength and stamina to keep going, unless you are drinking in the Word and being spiritually nourished and strengthened by it yourself first.

Faith: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”7

You get faith from reading the Word. Faith is built by faithful study of God’s Word. You have it because you’re full of the Word of God.

The best way to encourage your faith is to bury yourself in the Word of God. Encourage your faith with His Word and hang on to the Lord! Just read His Word and you will believe.

Freedom: “If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”8

The only way on God’s earth to find true freedom is to continue in God’s Word. There’s no other way to be truly free. His Word is His truth, and His Word is what makes us free, nothing else. So if you want freedom, it comes from living in the Word, knowing the Word, and following the Lord and His truth.

Cleansing: “Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you.”9

The only way to be thoroughly cleansed from the spiritual stench of the old, stinking, soiled, filthy, dirty clothes of your old past life and your sinful self is a good bath in the pure water of the Word to thoroughly wash away all the old pollutions and any further desire or taste for them.

So if you need cleansing, go to the washing of the pure water of the Word, and let God’s truth cleanse you and rid you of all the filth and hogwash of this world and your own sinful heart.10 “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word ... Cleansed with the washing of water by the Word.”11

Spiritual ballast: “The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.”12

If your faith is founded on God’s Word, it doesn’t even matter how you feel, you know the Word is still the same. God’s Word is still just as effective and unchanging, regardless of your feelings. And it is your faith in His Word that counts and will pull you through in times of severe trials or tests. “For this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”13

The Word of God is your spiritual ballast, your hope of salvation, that will keep you steady and on the firm foundation of truth. If you retain His Word in your heart, and your faith is founded on the Bible, they will preserve you no matter what you may go through. Even though you may sometimes be weakened, you will still stand if you remain on God’s firm foundation of faith, balanced firmly with His Word.

Our weapon: “The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”14

The Word of God is our spiritual sword that drives away and defeats the Devil every time we use it. When Jesus Himself was tempted by the Devil, He fought back with the Word.15 So when the Enemy comes around, take out your sword and whack away. He can’t take it. He’ll run every time. Sock it to him with the sword of the Spirit! The Word! That’s the stuff that victories are made of!

Nothing scares the Devil like the Word of God. He just can’t take it; he can’t stand the Word. The best way to put the Enemy out of action is with the Word. Just bury him in a flood of truth, and he and all his doubts and fears will flee.

The Word is also a light that drives away and defeats the Enemy’s darkness. “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”16 When the Devil attacks you with his doubts and his fears and his discouragement and his temptations and all the rest, turn on the light of God’s Word and the shadows will flee.

Surgical scalpel: “The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”17

When witnessing to others, never underestimate the power of the Word. There is absolute power in the Word of God. This sword of His Spirit is sharp enough to pierce the hardest armor, so that the warmth of His Spirit of love can flow into their empty hearts. As a witness for the Lord, you can wield His Word to cut and remove the cancers of evil that afflict so many today.

His Word is the most powerful weapon in the world, sharper than any two-edged sword, sharper than any other weapon on earth. It can do more than split atoms; it has greater power than the hydrogen bomb! For it can even divide asunder the soul and the spirit of man. And can change hearts and change minds and win people to Christ and His cause.

Help us, Lord Jesus, to fill our hearts and minds with Your Word so that we really get close to You and get to know You and to depend on You. Help us to saturate ourselves with Your Word. Inspire our hearts by Your wonderful Word.

Help us to read and put into practice all the things Your King David said about Your Word in that marvelous Psalm 119. He talks so much about Your Word, and that’s where he got his strength and his life and his wisdom and his power and his victory. David lived in Your Word night and day, as we do also, in trying to teach it to others. In Jesus’ name.

Let’s keep the connection strong with His Word and His Spirit, His truth and His love, in humility and obedience, amen?

Compiled from the writings of D. Brandt Berg, originally published November 1988. Adapted and republished March 2015. Read by Jon Marc.



1 See Psalm 23.


2 Isaiah 45:3. The Bible scriptures in this post are from the King James Version (KJV).


3 2 Timothy 2:15.


4 Psalm 119:72.


5 Psalm 1:2–3.


6 John 15:4,7.


7 Romans 10:17.


8 John 8:31–32.


9 John 15:3.


10 Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 12:2.


11 Psalm 119:9; Ephesians 5:26.


12 Psalm 37:31.


13 1 John 5:4.


14 Ephesians 6:17.


15 See Matthew 4:1–10.


16 Psalm 119:105.


17 Hebrews 4:12.