How to Study the Bible: The ABC Method

There are only 26 letters in the English alphabet. Master them and you can spell any word that exists, whether it's cat or catastrophic, whether it's dog or dogmatic, it doesn't matter. There are only 10 digits that exist, 0 to 9. You master them and you can solve any equation. But what if I told you that God's word has the exact same kind of foundation and 90% of the body of Christ have never been taught what it actually is. Well, today I'm gonna give it to you, and by the end of this video, I'm gonna also hand you a self-test you can run on your own Bible study to see if you've been building on the foundation or assuming what scripture means during your study time. Assuming you study, hopefully you do, or at least you intend to after this video. Have you ever tried to read the Bible and it just doesn't click? Or even worse, Have you watched two people read the same verse and walk away with two completely different meanings, and there's really no way to tell who's actually right? Well, I want you to think of a specific moment. Maybe it was a Sunday school class, maybe it was a family argument at Thanksgiving, maybe it was in the comment section where somebody quoted a verse with total confidence and it landed completely different than how you'd read it. And you didn't have a tool to check who was right. You just had a feeling. Maybe you still don't, and that's not a small problem. It's the reason denominations split. It's the reason families stop talking about faith at the dinner table. It's the reason that you've probably gone quiet in a Bible study more than once because you didn't trust your own read of the text enough to speak up. And it's not just theory. I can't tell you the number of times I've watched well-meaning believers argue over the exact same passage on tithing, one of them convinced it's still a command, the other one convinced it ended at the cross, Both quoting the same book, both raising their voice, and both walking away more sure of themselves and less sure of each other. Nobody in that room had a way to test which reed was actually built on text and which one was built on what they wanted to be true. And here's what I want you to hear: you're not the problem. You were just never taught the system. So let's ask the real question: is there an actual foundation to Bible study? The same way there's one for spelling and math. Because if mastering 26 letters unlocks every word and mastering 10 digits unlocks every equation, then what's the small set of things that unlock the entirety of God's word? And that's what we're building today. I call this the ABC method, not because it's literal letters, but because the same principle applies. You master a small foundational set and you can handle anything built up on top of it. And in God's word, that foundation begins with order. Then the four laws: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and my favorite, division. But here's the misunderstanding that I need to name first. Most people try to study scripture without ever learning the foundation. But would it be wise to try to divide before you ever learn how to add? And I need to actually— I need you to actually sit with this instead of nodding past it, because if that's you, It means every conclusion you've built so far has been built on guesswork, wearing a costume of conviction without the foundation for confirmation. You might have called it faith, but it was actually a shortcut. And it's okay, because it's not from a lack of sincerity on your part. It's from missing knowledge of a process that you may never have been given. Well, today we're gonna fix that, because we're going back to the first step. We're gonna build this the way that God himself builds everything, starting with the first foundation called order. In Genesis chapter 1, verse 5, it literally says, "And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." I want you to notice before anything significantly happens in scripture, God starts counting. Day 1. Not day whenever. Day 1. And if you look at Jesus reinforcing this same exact principle in the New Testament, in the book of Luke chapter 14 and verse 28, He says, for which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? In other words, before you build, you count, because order always comes before revelation, every single time. And this is not a suggestion, it's a law. You break it and everything you build after it is unstable, no matter how sincere you were when building it. Think about what happens when somebody skips this. They open a random verse, they feel something, they build a whole belief system on it, and they never once ask what came before it or what came after it. And I want to be the first to say that's not Bible study, that's Russian roulette with the spirit of error. This is why order comes first, because without it you won't be able to complete the process that this entire method for your study is built on. Let's look at it. 2 Timothy 2:15, it says, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Look at the two words, rightly dividing. And here's what almost nobody tells you. Division, it is the highest of the four basic math operations, and it is mathematically impossible to divide correctly if you've never learned to add, subtract, and multiply first. Well, the word of God works exactly the same way. You cannot get truth out of it by trying to divide, to try and separate truth from error. If you skip the 3 steps that come before it, you're wasting your time. So let's walk through all 4. Not as nice, not as some nice categories for a lesson, but as 4 governing laws. You break one and the next one doesn't bend around it, it breaks with it. So I'm going to show you what it looks like when somebody skips one so you can catch it in your own life. Law number 1. Addition. Matthew 6:33 says this: But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. See, whenever you prioritize God's word, addition begins. He adds peace, he adds clarity, he adds provision, because these things align with his will. Now here's what addition looks like when it's broken. Somebody who reads the scripture the same way they scroll social media— fast, looking for a highlight, never actually seeking first, nothing gets added because nothing was ever sought. That's not humility. That's laziness wearing a religious outfit. Law number 2: Subtraction. John 15:2: Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Let me be the first to clear this up. Subtraction isn't punishment. It's preparation. Before God can add many times, he will remove things that do not belong. And I want to be direct with you on this one because this is the law everybody tries to quietly ignore. See, nobody skips addition. Everybody wants more and nobody skips multiplication. Everybody wants increase, but subtraction— people will fight, negotiate, and even try to spiritualize their way out of letting God cut anything from their lives. You're praying for growth while you're protecting the exact thing that's blocking it in the same breath. And I got news for you. If you've never let God subtract anything from your life, a relationship, a habit, a belief that you inherited but never tested, you won't be ready for what he wants to add. You're asking for a harvest while guarding the weeds. And at this moment, I want you to actually think of a personal thing that you already know needs pruning from your life. You've been avoiding it because it's comfortable. Hold on to the thought because we're going to come back to it. For now, we're moving on. Law number 3: multiplication. Genesis 1:28 says this: And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. Now I want to move forward a little bit with to the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 10, where he says, Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and the increase of your fruits. This is why one person who actually studies right can easily disciple 12 people who never would have gotten it on their own. Moving on though to law number 4, my favorite, division. 2 Timothy 2:15 again, study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. This is the highest law. This is the one that cannot be reached by favoritism. It cannot be reached by feelings. It can only be earned by mastering the 3 that comes before it. Now here's the reveal, because I want you to actually catch yourself in this. Out of all 4 operations, which one do you think gets skipped the most? Subtraction. See, because everybody wants addition, multiplication, and if we're being honest, who doesn't want to feel like we're rightly dividing the word of truth from error? But nobody wants the pruning. But watch this. If you skip subtraction and you go straight to trying to divide, you're not dividing truth from error. You're simply dividing your preference from everybody else's preference. And then calling it discernment. And that's the trap. And that's why two people can read the same verse and both walk away certain they're right, because one or both of them skipped the operation that would have corrected them. Now let's make every bit of this concrete, because this isn't just math that we're talking about. This is a heart check. And I'm going to walk you through exactly what I'd walk somebody through if they were sitting on the other side of the table from me. Here we go. Here's a basic word problem. Sarah had 10 hours in her work week for free time. She spent 2 hours praying, 1 hour reading the Bible, and 5 hours watching Netflix. Here's the question: how much time did Sarah really give to God? And what does the allotment of her time say about her priorities? Now let's actually run Sarah through all 4 operations the same way we just built them. Let's do addition first. Did Sarah seek first? 3 hours out of the 10 went intentionally towards God, and that's, that's not, that's not nothing to look at. But when 5 went to entertainment and 2 disappeared without examination, we can't actually call those 3 hours first. Addition was partial, we could say. Let's move on to the next part. Go through subtraction. What needs to be pruned? We shouldn't automatically assume every minute of entertainment is wrong because that's not the question. The question is whether Sarah ever examined those 5 hours or the 2 hours she lost completely. And she needs to ask what was interfering with what she claimed matters the most. Moving on to the next operation, number 3, multiplication. What could Sarah have recovered even if she accounts for one of those hours and invests it consistently? One hour that she would take and recover back can become 52 hours over a year. And then now multiplication has something consistent to work with. Moving on to the last, which is my favorite: division. Can Sarah rightly divide truth from error in her priorities if she cannot first honestly divide where her time went? She can feel confident about putting God first, but the numbers, they tell a different story. See, 'cause confident is not discernment. Confident comes from evidence that has been properly examined. Once again, this isn't just math, this is a heart check. And if looking at Sarah's week already has you thinking about your own, I want you to hold on to that. I turned this entire process into a free foundation audit that you can use to complete your actual week. And I'll tell you how to get it at the end. But I wanna show you something. Addition teaches you how to build up your faith. Subtraction teaches you how to cut off the interference. Multiplication shows you how God exponentially increases your impact when you obey. And division teaches you how to rightly divide truth from error, starting with the truth about your own work week. Now let's take the Sarah problem out of the hypothetical and put it on you directly. When Jesus was asked a trick question about taxes, he answered it with a principle that governs way more than money. He said this: Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. That's a factoring statement. It means this: different things get sorted into different accounts, and each account has its own rate of return. Now, here's the natural life version of the exact same law. If your job takes 30 to 40 hours a week for you to actually pay your bill, Nobody expects a full-time paycheck for 2 hours of part-time effort. Your manager isn't confused about that. Your bank account isn't confused about that. Only in the Kingdom of God do we act confused when we put in scraps and it produces scraps. There's so many believers who are trying to live off a part-time effort in a full-time kingdom. 2 hours here, a sermon clip there, a verse in a caption, and you're wondering why your discernment still feels thin. Why your prayers may feel like guesswork, and why you still can't tell truth from error when it's actually costing you something to be wrong. It's not because God is withholding. It's because you've never rendered what the account actually requires. Now I'm put— and I'm not putting a percentage on this. I'm not telling you it's an exact number for you. I'm telling you the law. Results follow investment. And kingdom success was never built on leftovers. You can just look at Joshua in Joshua 1:8. Where the Lord says, "This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate therein day and night, that you mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then shall you make your way prosperous, and then shall you have good success." God didn't tell Joshua to feel confident. God gave Joshua a formula. He said, "Meditate day and night, do according to all that is written, and then, and then, and only then attach the promise of success to it. See, God gave Joshua a formula, not a feeling. And that's the whole point of everything we've built today, because your success in God is never random. It's always tied to you being able to apply the right system. And based on the system that we built today, you now understand how to study. But guess what? Knowing how to study does not mean you know how to interpret correctly, because the biggest problem I see on a daily basis is not the method. It's always what's happening in you while you read. So in the next teaching, I'm gonna show you why people still get the word wrong even when they think they're studying it right. Make sure you subscribe for that one because this and that method, they go together. They're built to work hand in hand. Remember this, 26 letters unlocks every word, 10 digits unlock every equation, and order plus these 4 operations unlocks your ability to actually understand the scripture starting today. That's step 1. Step 2 is next. All right, here's the self-test that I promised you at the top, and I need you to actually hear me on this. This is not a nice set of reflective questions. This is a mirror. If you answer these honestly, something in you is going to get exposed, and that is the point. That's what a real diagnostic does. Ask yourself some questions. Where am I actually seeking first? Not where do I say I put God first? Where does the actual time go? Another thing to ask yourself is, what has God been trying to prune out of my life that I'm protecting instead? Ask yourself the next question: what is God ready to multiply in my life if I gave him consistency instead of leftovers? And the last one, which was probably the hardest one, ask yourself this: am I rightly dividing truth from error Or am I just dividing my opinion from everybody else's opinion and calling it discernment? Now go back to the one thing I asked you to hold on to earlier when we started. The thing that you already know needs pruning. It's not a coincidence that you thought of it. That's the word of God already doing its work in you before you ever finish this video. That's what rightly built discernment feels like. It doesn't wait for a class. It starts working on you the moment you actually apply order. And if none of those 4 questions expose anything, if you sail through all 4 feeling fine, let me tell you, that's not a passing grade. That's a sign you weren't honest on at least one of them. So go back and answer it again. You can write all 4 of the answers down on a piece of paper if you like, or you can just use my free Foundation Audit. It'll walk you through your real calendar, show you your screen time evidence, and it'll give you hours that you can account for and the ones that you can't. Because you may already know where some of your time went, but it may be the hours that you cannot explain that reveal where you need to put your attention first. The audit takes you through all 4 operations, and it helps you identify the parts of the foundation for your life that you need to give attention to. And on top of that, it'll give you a 7-day plan to begin correcting it. Once again, it's free. You can get it through the link below this video because it's pinned in the comment. And let me tell you, that's not homework. This is the actual foundation audit that this entire video was built towards. 26 letters, 10 digits, and now 4 laws that you can render against your life starting now. Not someday when it's convenient. Today. Hey, listen, thanks for supporting me. Be blessed. My name is Sedrick Davis, and I am God's Prisoner.