It’s always been a chore for me to maintain my spiritual life. The biggest problem is that when I read the Bible, I do so almost exclusively with an eye to preaching, and seldom with an eye to my own spiritual growth. But then a few years ago I read an article by Wayne Cordeiro, pastor at New Hope Church in Oahu, Hawaii, about what he calls the “University of the Holy Spirit” in which participants practice something called the SOAP plan. He writes, “A carpenter brings his tools. An athlete never forgets his gear, and a musician never leaves behind his instrument. Avid students of life will attend the University of the Holy spirit with these five essentials: Bible; pen; journal; Bible-reading plan; daily planner/PDA.” (from “The Divine Mentor,” by Wayne Cordeiro, ©2007 Bethany House Publishers, page 84-85)
The first four of these are obvious, but the daily planner/PDA is not. Bringing this is important because God may highlight activities in which you should engage in order to be faithful to Him. For example, you may read a passage in which Paul mentions a letter, which reminds you of a letter you need to write to Mrs. Johnson thanking her for her service. The word “service” reminds you that you need to talk with Bob about the service project next weekend. Weekend reminds you that you promised to plant the garden this weekend – and on it goes until your mind is so full of “to-do’s” that you can’t hear the voice of God through all that clutter. The solution – write it down where you will use it, and forget about it so you can focus on what God has in store for you that day.
As you begin, pray and ask the Holy Spirit to "highlight" some portion of your scripture reading for that day. This will be the verse that "jumps off" the page for you. Then begin the SOAP process.
Your journal is a record of your devotional times. In it you write – word for word – the lessons He teaches you. When you record your entries into your journal, make sure you write word-for-word, the same way you speak. Don’t use bullet comments or an outline. A year from now you won’t remember what the bullet comment means. But if you write the entry out verbatim, it can be used as a lesson much later without any loss of effect.
In your journal, write out the following:
S – Scripture: As you read when a particular passage strikes you write it down word for word as it will be the focal point of your journal.
O – Observation. Context, what is going on? There are not multiple interpretations of Scripture – simply different contexts from which it understood. What is God doing in that specific situation (usually a paragraph or so)
A – Application. How does the principle God is teaching you apply to your situation? Is it revealing your sin? Challenging you? You should always answer the question: How will I be different today because of the truth I have just learned? Normally a fairly lengthy portion.
P – Prayer. A written prayer – scripted word for word. This is your communication to God in response to the lesson. It is normally a brief paragraph.
Links to a few Bible reading plans are in the column to the left. To view them, you must have Adobe Reader, which is free. Go to adobe.com.
There are many good journals available to use. New Hope has several on their web site. You can use a composition notebook, spiral binder, whatever. I use a spiral notebook or a Moleskin notebook. It is very helpful to title each entry and include it in a table of contents for later reference. Some folks catalog theirs by Title, Scripture, and Theme. But however and whenever you do it, the point is, grow in your relationship with God.