Principle #2: Give God the glory if others praise your teaching. Daniel the prophet did.     Daniel answered before the king and said, "As for the mystery about which the king has inquired, neither wise men, conjurers, magicians, nor diviners are able to declare it to the king. However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place." (NASB) Daniel 2:27-28   Is it not amazing that Daniel did not walk in and take some credit for "having solved the mystery?" He did not! Most of us do. After we teach we are eager for someone to tell us what a great lesson, study, or message that was. We need to give God the credit even when the people praise us.     Principle #3: How often we forget that the Holy Spirit is the real teacher and not we ourselves,     Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him. (NASB) 1 Corinthians 2:13-14   We can teach all we want, but unless the Holy Spirit is teaching THROUGH US no one will really learn. And if they do learn something that is life changing, something that is very meaningful - guess who the teacher is? We are only the tool that God uses. Before we study, prepare, teach or preach we need to pray and submit to Him and yield to Him. We need to ask Him to teach us before we can teach others and ask Him to control what we teach. We need to submit to Him what we learn and what we teach and then give Him glory for the results. He is the teacher's teacher!     Principle #4: James 3:1-2 warns us to be accurate in what we teach because we will be judged for our teaching. What kind of judgment is He talking about? We do not know. He does not say. Unfortunately, accuracy only comes with time as we study faithfully. It is best to use study helps but be careful to always ask why did they conclude that? Why did they say this or that? Remember God holds you accountable - not the author of the book you read. He wants a faithful man.     Guidelines: As a starter, let me suggest that you review the lesson on "How to Study the Bible" entitled "Solid Roots Study 2." The study suggests a basic core library that would be great to have. It will provide some basic principles to follow.     Second, there are some basic w not included in that study I have pulled together from my files. The materials are somewhat incomplete. They talk about principles for interpretation, application, and guidelines for using illustrations. The first chart in the download simply shows the various teaching styles and the benefits of those styles. Everyone is different. The teacher needs to use a style with which he or she is comfortable. However, I would avoid the free and dialogue style as it leads to a sharing of doctrinal error. If your style is open discussion, either close or interlace the study with teaching about the truth.       < Back   Next >
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