How You Could Discover More of the Most Influential Book in the World With this Powerful Tool

Mikella VanDyke is a Bible study teacher who uses her gifts to encourage women to love God’s Word. Using her signature approachable style, she will help you conquer any confusion you have surrounding the Bible. Through her personal story and the Inductive Bible Study method, she presents a systematic, empowering approach that helps readers go from confused about how to do deep Bible study to having clarity on what to focus on. As you chase the sacred narrative woven through the pages of Scripture, let Mikella guide you to a deeper understanding of God’s Word and the ultimate destination of the journey: a Savior full of wisdom, depth, truth, and love. Today I invite you to join us for a heartfelt conversation about Bible Study. It’s a joy to welcome Mikella to the farm’s table today…

Guest Post by Mikella VanDyke

After spending most of my childhood as a missionary kid in Thailand, I have used a variety of transportation methods in my lifetime.

I was brought to school by a rickshaw—a man pedaling a bicycle with us kids sitting in the back of the cushioned open-air vehicle. I have been escorted around town on a motorbike and a dirt bike, and I’ve had my fill of tuk-tuks (three-wheeled motorbike contraptions) and songthaews (bus-like public transport vehicles). The airplane revolutionized transportation, and I have been on airplanes countless times. 

Airplanes have changed what we can see, experience, and learn. Like an airplane, the Inductive Bible Study method can transport you to a new vantage point.

It can take you to a land that I truly hope you will make your life in: the Bible.

It’s a land that, if you choose to live in it, will produce fruit by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. A land where you will learn and lean into God. A land where you will realize that God is ever present.

A land where your heart can be trained to see His daily provision for your every need. 

In a far greater way than modern transportation, the Bible has profoundly impacted humanity.

“As we take refuge in the pages of Scripture, we find a who at the end of the journey: a God who loves us and desires to have a relationship with us.“

The Bible is the most influential book in the world.

Its writing took place over a span of 1,500 to 1,600 years on three different continents. The Bible has stood the test of time, and we see this over and over again. It is in this remarkable book that we draw near to God and He draws near to us. As Psalm 34:8 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”

Dwell upon His words as you taste His goodness. As we take refuge in the pages of Scripture, we find a who at the end of the journey: a God who loves us and desires to have a relationship with us. A God bent on His pursuit of us. He is within us and around us, and He communicates to us through the pages of Scripture. What great news that He has made His dwelling in our hearts!

If I had never found Inductive Bible Study, I know God would have been gracious to reveal to me much about His Word, but I don’t believe I would understand the Bible at the depth I do now. While I was getting my MA in practical theology, God used Inductive Bible Study to transform my life. As I sat in on my first hermeneutics class as a mom of two kids, the professor explained we would need to root ourselves in the historical context and find at least ten to fifteen observations in the text. I remember being overwhelmed at the thought How will I find that many observations in this passage?

But in that class, I was trained to see what was already there.

“…slowly studying a passage of Scripture and seeking to understand its context is a completely different matter. On this path, you read God’s Word with no other intention but to really know Him.”

We live in a sound-bite culture, barely able to focus on one thing for long. Our attention spans have dropped to around 8.25 seconds, shorter than that of a goldfish.¹ When it comes to spiritual matters, this does not bode well for us because studying God’s Word takes time.

In our jam-packed lives, it is becoming increasingly difficult to convince people that there is value in spending time saturating oneself in the Word. Some people manage to complete Bible-in-a-year plans, and there’s no doubt a benefit of getting a rooftop view of the whole Scriptures. Reading the Bible in a year is a wonderful, time-consuming goal. But slowly studying a passage of Scripture and seeking to understand its context is a completely different matter.

On this path, you read God’s Word with no other intention but to really know Him.

On this path, you spend enough time with God to gain His perspective, testing the familiar sayings that are meant to encourage us but in reality are often taken out of context.

Can the Inductive Bible Study method help you? Yes! Is this method inspired? No! But can it guide you in your study and make the Word come alive to you? Yes!

There is no one right way to study the Bible. There is no perfect time of day, either—Bible reading looks different in every season.

What I do know is that the Bible will change your life, just like learning to study it in-depth changed mine. It will change your outlook on everything in life.

Reading God’s Word in an orderly way is like cleaning and tidying your house. If my home is cluttered, it is a lot harder to vacuum and mop without bumping into things.

But once I’ve cleaned and ordered my house, I can see more clearly what else needs work. In the same way, an orderly method to approaching God’s Word in your personal Bible study will lead to much fruit. 

Adapted from Chasing Sacred: Learn How to Study Scripture to Pursue God and Find Hope in Him by Mikella Van Dyke, releasing in September 2024. 

1. John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry (Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook, 2019), 39.

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