Once God has pointed out where He wants you to study, you will need to understand how deeply He wants you to go in that study. Does He want you to simply get general information about it, get workable information, specific information, or does He want you to exhaust the subject? Let’s examine how a mature Christian would go about cutting up the meat of the Word and eating it. Here is how we would start.

1. General information – Knowing the basic concept of a Scripture or a Biblical topic.

2. Workable information – Being able to express in one’s own words a Scripture or a Biblical topic.

3. Specific information – Being able to quote verbatim from a reliable translation and/or the original Hebrew or Greek a Scripture or a Biblical topic.

4. Exhaustive information – Within human limits, to have completely studied out all possible translations, renditions, usages, and derivatives of the words in a Scripture or a Biblical topic.

5. Spiritual information – Through extensive prayer, allow the Holy Spirit tell you what it says; AND allow Jesus to tell you how it is to be applied.