Several of my friends and brethren have complained to me that having a 10 verse set is not enough for their daily quiet time. Their solution has been to do the PRAY READ LOOK starting with the book of Genesis and then diving into somewhere else within the King James Bible to catch up on their more sophisticated reading plan. THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA
Why isn’t this a good idea? Will a basic problem with established Christians is that they have become used to just glossing over whatever it is that they do not properly understand. They have become used to the idea that some things can’t be understood and so therefore they just read pass them. In the same way when they hear messages that have concepts and ideas that they don’t properly understand and they just let them go. They have an idea within their heart and mind that God the holy spirit will reveal the things that he wants to reveal to them. So they have become used to just glossing over what they don’t perfectly understand.
We are not essentially looking for spiritual understanding. We are looking for and understanding of the format and the form and the words of the English that we are reading within the King James Bible. The mind is a self patterning system. This is both a great benefit and a great disaster. But the ordinary things of life we need a self patterning or a self organising brain. But the other things we dare not allow the brain to self organise itself to self patterning itself because if we do we will only reinforce incorrect concepts you those concepts end up being there as a result of the brain organising itself. The brain does not like an untidy mess. The brain will always organise whatever information enters into it. Whether that information is visual oral or auditory. Your mind is going to make up its own mind about how to sort out what ever you come across. It is your mission to take control and to, if the need be, retrain the way in which your mind organises certain types of data.
This is why it is so important when you have developed a habit of just glossing over certain things widely read the Bible or listen to message is being preached the you retrain yourself and your brain to take notice.
You are caught in a habit. If you if you read the Bible and come across portions that you don’t fully understand or you don’t properly understand you may take notice at the beginning of your study but the chances are that as time goes on and the verses role by your eyes that you will just let your brain organiser thoughts and the patterns.
If you have never read the Bible before this is a good thing. But if you have read the Bible many times or quite a lot or you believe that you know what the Bible says about certain subjects and certain passages you will just gloss over it as you read it. This is especially noticeable when you read large sections all portions of scripture.
The solution:
Pick 5 or 10 verses to use as a portion or a set and use this set for the PRAY READ LOOK sequence. Read through the set and then go back and look at the set. After you read it through preferably out aloud go to the start of the set and look at the words and the verse as a whole. LOOK at each verse by turn. If there are any words that you don’t understand look for the meaning. When you get better at this you will be able to find out how to use the King James Bible to define the words of the King James Bible. You may notice that in the book of Genesis there are comparatively few words or phrases that you will not understand. This is because there is a deliberate pattern to increase the level of understanding and comprehension of the King James Bible as you read the King James Bible from the beginning to the end in that set order.
This is deliberate design and is part of God’s preparation for our minds.
The King James Bible is going to pattern our mind as we read especially if we take the trouble to read it from Genesis to Revelation. What you are doing is that you are forcing your mind to be patterned according to your will. You are forcing your mind to be patterned by the concepts and the format of the King James Bible. Your mind is becoming used to the language and the syntax of the King James Bible. You are becoming someone who takes notice. Eventually taking notice will become second nature to you. BUT YOU HAVE TO FORCE THE ISSUE TO BEGIN WITH. Do not let your mind dictate to you, you dictate to your mind. Get into the habit of not letting matters of English comprehension and so spiritual matters just pass you by. Do not get into the habit of letting whatever God says within the King James Bible to you just be a mystery to you.
This is why you must LOOK. You look AFTER you have read and you read in small portions so that you do not fall back into the way you used to read and a manner that just glosses over the real meaning. Do you know the old English meaning of “gloss”?
You must pick the set that will be the number of verses that you are going to read in each set. You follow that set for 40 days continuously. If you want to read more than the number of verses that you have set for your set then you must repeat the set again (Pray Read Look). The second or third or fourth repetition does not count as a separate day within your 40 day cycle. In other words if you have chosen a set of say 10 verses then you will read at least one set per day for 40 days. You will pray, you will read and you will look at a set each day for 40 days.