I. Pray

1. Bibles: each participants should have a copy to use if possible. Having more than one translation within the group helps but the same translation may be used.
2. Ask God to forgive you for your sins.
3. Thank God for His gracious presence and for giving us the Bible as His Word.
4. Ask God to guide you with the Holy Spirit as you select, study, and apply the text to be selected.

II. Selecting the Text

1. Randomly choose someone from the Group to select either Old or New Testament.
2. Ask a second member of the group to choose a book of the Bible from the testament selected above. The group's facilitator only should open his/her Bible to the book selected and discover how many chapters are contained in the selected book.
3. Ask still another member of the group to select a chapter number. The facilitator should then announce how many verses are in the selected chapter.
4. Finally, ask a fourth member to select a number representing the focus verse of the study.
5. All members of the group should now open their Bibles to the Testament, book, chapter and verse selected.

III. Conducting the Study

• Understanding the verse selected is the first and most time consuming aspect of the Spirit-led Bible Study. The facilitator should ask one or more of the following questions:

1. What's happening in this verse? This question is designed to develop an awareness of the verses context and setting. Read the verses or paragraphs surrounding the text in order to well establish the context and setting.
2. What phrases or words stand out to you in the verse selected? Allow the group time to briefly express themselves at this point. Avoid long discussions which tend to redirect one from the Spirit-selected text.
3. What type of text is this: a teaching, a rebuke, an exhortation, a command, etc.? This information aids the group in contextual analysis.
4. What questions arise from the text? Encourage the tough questions -- "why?" or "how?" And use the Bible to answer the questions whenever possible. Again, avoid long discussions that may detract from understanding and applying the Spirit-selected text.

• Facilitator should be ever mindful of commentary opportunities which would add to the discussion at hand.

IV. Applying the Lesson

• Applying God's Word to life is the purpose of the Spirit-led Bible Study . . .

1. What does THIS text mean to YOU? The facilitator must carefully guide the group to not make generalized remarks here.
2. Discourage general remarks should as "This verses teaches that Christians are to love everyone!"
3. Strive for first person observations. For example, "In this verse, God is telling ME that I should forgive and love a particular co-worker who has been rather rude this week."

V. Close In Prayer