bible basics for kingdom living

331 Pages·2003·0.74 MB·English

Bible Basics
for
Kingdom Living

An Introduction to the “Deep Things” of God

by
Bern Zumpano, M.D.
Bible Teacher

Former Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and
Professor of Neurosurgery (retired)
Oral Roberts University
School of Medicine

Copyright © 1998 by Bern Zumpano, M.D.

Harbor Light Publishers, P.O. Box 161322, Miami, Florida, USA 33176
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scriptures quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International
Version. © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Internationa l Bible Society.
Dedication

This book is firstly dedicated to the Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, at One with the Father and
the Holy Spirit, who has made me to KNOW Him, His Word and His Ways; that everyone
who reads this book will come closer to that same revelation of Him…to that end is this book
written,

then, to the memory of my late wife, Rosa Maria, and my late son, Gian-Andrew, both of
whose love of Jesus and walk in the Spirit taught me many wonderful things even through
their untimely deaths…

Then to my sons Joseph, Daniel, Cary, and my daughter, Roseanne, God’s blessings to me
during good times and bad, whose unconditional and steadfast love for me has allowed me to
see Christ living in them and through them, and whom I will always love and cherish in Him,
and to my grandchildren and descendants to come, each and every one…

And to teach and every one of my disciples and students in the Word, whom the Lord Jesus
Christ is discipling through me, and whom I have also come to love and cherish as He does,

…to Him and to all these, this book is dedicated.

Bern Zumpano, M.D.
Miami, Florida
May 19, 1998

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BIBLE BASICS FOR KINGDOM LIVING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Index Order of Bible Study Topic Lessons

Page

1. The Word of God ……………………………………………………………11
2. Salvation ……………………………………………………………………..29
3. Faith ……………………………………………………………………….....36
4. Baptism in the Holy Spirit ……………………………………………….…43
5. The Love of God and the God of Love ……………………………………..53
6. Prayer………………………………………………………………………. . 57
7. The Practice of Fasting ……………………………………………………..67
8. Hearing Gods Voice ………………………………………………………...74
9. Other Ways God Talks to Us-Dreams, Visions, Trances,
Revelations, the Word …………………………………………… 82
10. Holiness…………………………………………………………………… .88
11. On the Problem of Sin……………………………………………………....93
12. The Anointing ……………………………………………………………....99
13. God’s Grace ……………………………………………………………… 110
14. Abiding in Christ: The Secret of Spiritual Power ……………………… 116
15. Spiritual Warfare ………………………………………………………… 123
a) Satan and his Works ……………………………………………….. .125
b) Satan and his Kingdom on Earth: Introduction to Demonology…… 129
c) Demonization in Christians…………………………………………. 135
d) Demonic Spirits and their Ministry ………………………………….145
e) Principles of Discerning Spirits……………………………………… 150
f) Binding and Loosing…………………………………………………152
g) Deliverance ………………………………………………………….155
h) Cursed Objects ……………………………………………………... 164
i) Blessings and Curses ………………………………………………... 174
16. The Doctrines of the Church ………………………………………………… 184
a) What is the Church” …………………………………………………184
b) The Doctrine of Christ ………………………………………………187
?) Doctrine of Repentance from Dead Works…………………………. 197
d) The Doctrine of Baptisms …………………………………………...202
e) The Doctrine of Faith………………………………………………. 218
f) The Doctrine of Resurrections ………………………………………231
g) The Doctrine of the Laying-on-of-Hands…………………………… 235
h) Healing ………………………………………………………………240
i) The Doctrine of Eternal Judgements ……………………………… 242
17. The Flesh ……………………………………………………………………… .247
a) Definition and Problem of …………………………………………...247
b) Gods prescription for appropriating victory ………………………….250
?) Relationship to the Heart of Man …………………………………….265
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d) Lack of Submission: Demonic Infestation and Soul Fragmentation …..277
e) The Problem of Obsession …………………………………………...307
f) When is the Problem Demonic………………………………………. 316
18. Defilement …………………………………………………………………..320
19. False Doctrine Scriptures which Define the Holy Spirit’s Position………327
20. Sound Doctrine Scriptures which Define the Holy Spirit’s Position…….. 329

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BIBLE BASICS FOR KINGDOM LIVING
INTRODUCTION
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
This book is NOT a replacement for regular Bible reading or study. It is for the
believer who is serious about his/her desire to know more about God’s Word and who will
take the time to spend time in the study of the Scriptures. We are COMMANDED by the
Scriptures to STUDY and CORRECTLY divide or KNOW the Word of God (2 Tim. 2:15).
God wants us to STUDY the Bible, not just read it. This requires spending prayerful time at a
set time EVERY DAY so that the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, can feed your spirit.
You do not need to be a scripture scholar, contrary to popular belief. Many people fear the
Bible or have been told to stay away from it by uninformed sources who really know little, if at
all, about what the Bible is or how to use it. The fact is that the Bible teaches itself and its
truths become self-evident and self-proving over time as the reader applies them. It is a matter
of entering into the study of scripture with the proper ATTITUDE and TRUST of the Holy
Spirit to teach you since 1 John 2:27 tells us that we have no need to be taught by ANY man,
for the Holy Spirit will teach us all things through THE ANOINTING (the empowerment of
the Holy Spirit on a person or thing such as the Scriptures). His power is living and ministers
to our minds and teaches us the truth and how to recognize it. He then confirms the truth to
us by allowing us to live it out as an experience. After you read through the Bible several times
you will come to realize that your life is the actual living out of different Bible experiences that
are happening before your very eyes. This, in turn, is a testimony of the fact that God is REAL
and that He has pre-planned it to be this way because of His love for us and His desire to
teach us through His Spirit. Therefore, we must approach the Bible with a heart of open
TRUST of the Holy Spirit, BELIEVING that everything that He says therein is TRUTH
because it is His REVELATION.
Disregard what man says about the Bible and give heed to what the Bible says about
itself. Man is not your source. God is your source. In 2 Tim. 3:16 the Holy Spirit tells us that
ALL SCRIPTURE is INSPIRED by God. The New Testament Greek word here for
“inspired” means “GOD-BREATHED”. In other words, the Scriptures were given to man
through divine inspiration, that is, God “breathed” them into the minds of the apostles and
prophets and by His Holy Spirit, guided them in what to say and write down. The Holy Spirit,
then is the AUTHOR of the Scriptures through the guiding and leading of the minds of men
who had consecrated their lives to God. The anointing on the Word of God placed there by
the Holy Spirit will TEACH you (1 John 2:27) and give you UNDERSTANDING in ALL
THINGS (2 Tim. 2:7). When? When you are “born again” of the Spirit (John 3:3-5) and have
INVITED Jesus aloud into your heart to be Lord and Savior, repenting of sin and renouncing
it, confessing Him before men as your Lord and Savior, the resurrected Christ (Rev. 3:20).
Many people do not see the necessity of this and do not take God at His Word. Their problem
is UNBELIEF. The Scripture says that God knocks on the door of our heart and we MUST
invite Him in and receive Him, not by good works (which are the testimony that our faith is a
living faith in Him although they do not save us) BUT BY FAITH IN THE LORD JESUS
CHRIST AND HIS BLOOD ATONEMENT. Trusting Faith. In Him. And NO OTHER.
(Eph. 2:8,9). Then, walking a faithwalk of daily scripture reading, daily prayer, getting into
Christian community and weekly worship with others, the Holy Spirit continues to minister to
our spirit which He comes to indwell, making us a NEW CREATION and WITNESSING
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continually to our spirit, teaching us His truths (Ro. 8:14,16; 2 Cor. 5:17). Salvation is received
by TRUST-FAITH in the Christ. Teaching by His Spirit is received in the same way... by
YIELDING (TRUSTING) the Holy Spirit to do it WHEN you ASK Him to do it, in Jesus
Name, then TRUST(!) that He does it! (John 16:24; John 14:13,14). So the way to be taught
the Bible by the Holy Spirit is to be saved first, that is, receive the Holy Spirit, and then be
LED by the Spirit by ASKING Him to teach you. Pray a prayer something like this before
each Bible reading session and speak it aloud:

“Holy Spirit, please open my mind and my understanding to your Word this day and
every day. I TRUST you to teach me and to give me understanding for what it is that
you want me to learn today. Get it into my spirit. Give me YOUR revelation of the
truth as it really is, not as men say it is. I yield and TRUST on you for it, in Jesus’
Name”.

Then begin your scripture reading and study and be confident that the Holy Spirit
WILL teach you just what He wants you to know for that day. Do NOT be concerned about
what you do not understand while you are reading. In such instances, simply mark the page
and verse, continue on, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the meaning to you, and TRUST that He
will. Go back to it in one or two days and reread it. In most instances, you will get the
revelation of the meaning almost immediately if not immediately. If not, continue on,
TRUSTING that the Spirit will give you the revelation in time, or when you re-read the Bible.
Bible reading is a life-long endeavor and the Holy Spirit will teach us something new to keep
building our knowledge of His truth and His ways EVERY time we re-read it.

Before getting started it would be wise to familiarize yourself with the names of the
books of the Old and New Testaments and their proximate locations in the Bible. Searching
the scriptures is easier if you purchase book tabs having the name of each Bible book on them,
on the first page of each book of the Bible, staggering their location of the pages so that each
can be seen without blocking the other. These can be purchased at low cost at most Christian
bookstores.

Scripture references commonly are abbreviated to symbolize the source book of the
Bible, its chapter and verse location. Usually the first two or three letters of the book name are
abbreviated to represent the book. For example, the New Testament book of Romans would
be abbreviated as “Ro.” and the Old Testament books of Isaiah and the Psalms would be
abbreviated “Is.” and “Ps.”, respectively. These are followed by chapter reference to the left of
a colon, and verse reference to the right of a colon. For example, Ro. 8:16 means that the
reader should turn to the book of Romans, chapter 8, verse 16. Early on in your Bible study,
until you become familiar with the relative locations of the different books in the Bible, you
should feel free to find their location by using the index and page number in the front of your
Bible, particularly if you do not have Bible tabs placed on each of the books. Do NOT be in a
hurry and do not get overwhelmed and frustrated. Just TRUST that things will come with time
and they will.

Every believer should endeavor to read through the Bible at least once a year. This is a
separate endeavor from Bible study lessons. The reason for this is that it is important to
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understand the plan of salvation as outlined from the book of Genesis to Revelation, as the 66
books of the Old and New Testament, written over 1500-1600 years by over 30 different
authors, lay the plan out so that we can see what God was doing with His creation over time.
This cannot be done by “hop-scotching” through the Bible by reading various passages and
verses “here and there” throughout the Bible. God is a God of ORDER and AUTHORITY
and, because of this, we must begin at the beginning of the Old and New Testaments and
proceed to read to the ends of each.

There are several methods by which the reader can read through the Bible in one year
or a little over one year. Here are two for your convenience:

1) Read 2 chapters of the New Testament, 3 chapters of the Old Testament, one
Psalm, and one proverb from the book of Proverbs, each day. Reading time
approximately 30 minutes daily.

2) or read 4-5 pages of the Bible daily, beginning with the New Testament first, since
believers are firstly New Testament people and must early on come to know and get
rooted in the doctrines of Christ; then reading 4-5 pages of the Old Testament. Or,
alternately, 2 -3 pages of the New Testament and 2-3 pages of the Old Testament daily;
some students of scripture reserve some time in the mornings to read the New
Testament and some time in the evenings to read the Old Testament.

I prefer to have students of Scripture learn the New Testament at the same time that
they are learning the Old Testament. Before reading the New Testament from
beginning to end, I first highly recommend that they “quick-start” or “jump-start” their
faithwalk by doing the following at least once:

a) FIRST read the Gospel of John-which will teach you about WHO Jesus
Christ really is, His Godhead in the Father.

b) SECONDLY read the book of Romans which teaches you HOW you are
SAVED by Jesus.

c)THIRDLY read the book of Hebrews which teaches you about FAITH and
how to have strong faith.

Then you can begin reading the New Testament beginning at the Gospel of Matthew
and continuing in order through the book of Revelation (Apocalypse), not worrying
about how much of the latter you under stand since understanding Revelation is much
dependent upon first understanding the book of Daniel in the Old Testament. It will
come over time. The Spirit will teach you and lead you into the understanding of it.

So the first component of learning the Bible is to determine to read daily from the
beginning to the ends of both the Old and New Testaments so that you can come to
understand WHAT God is doing... then and NOW. This will be your responsibility and it is
understood that at the same time that you are doing these Bible lessons, that you are
independently studying and reading the Bible from beginning to end as a separate
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responsibility. Remember, the Scripture says “...study (!)... TO SHOW YOURSELF
WORTHY...”.

This brings us to the point of using these Bible lessons. These lessons have another
purpose. The purpose is to teach the reader, through the anointing of the Holy Spirit on the
Word and text, to WALK IN THE POWER of the Holy Spirit, including receiving the
BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT (which also should be asked for) and GIFTS of the Holy
Spirit (1 Cor. 12), particularly the “knowledge” gifts of word of knowledge, word of wisdom,
and discernment of spirits. These gifts of discernment will enable you to see a higher level of
revelation behind the written Word of God (the “logos” [Greek] ). This higher level of
revelation of the written Word is called the “rhema” or REVEALED Word and represents the
EMPOWERMENT of the Holy Spirit, the special revelation of the Word, to EFFECT a
CHANGE in your spirit, soul, and body, a TRANSFORMATION. It is a sovereign work of
the Holy Spirit and an operation of the spiritual gifts through the Holy Spirit Baptism. You
will come to know, recognize and understand it over time, as you learn about the Holy Spirit
Baptism and its necessity. By the way, this is NOT the same as baptism by water. There is a
lesson on this subject in the text.

How, then, can this text be used? There are two methods available, both quite
acceptable since it is the Holy Spirit who is doing the teaching and who is quite able to get the
information into your spirit. The two methods are:

1) text and Bible:

� If you elect to use this method, simply start at the beginning of this
book and read each Bible lesson. Look up EACH scripture reference as
it appears in the order in which it appears. Remember to pray ahead of
time to ask the Holy Spirit to give you revelation and understanding and
to get the scripture meaning into your spirit. Do not be in a hurry to
complete the Bible lesson. Work at your own pace, depending on the
Holy Spirit to lead you. Then, step out in FAITH and when the
opportunity arises, ACT on the Word that you have learned. This is the
way that you APPLY the Word to your life and its circumstances to
SEE IT WORK by trusting FAITH that His Word is TRUE. It will
work for you because it works for others. And the Bible says that God
is NOT a RESPECTER of persons. That means that what he does for
others HE WILL DO FOR YOU. When? When you step out in
FAITH (the will to believe from the heart) and TRUST HIM and
TRUST His Word. His power and anointing will ALWAYS follow your
ACTION of FAITH. That’s IMPORTANT to know.

2) text, Bible and audio tapes:

� Audio tapes of most of these Bible lessons are available upon request
by asking for a catalog list of tapes from:

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Souls’ Harbor Church of the Covenant
P.O. Box 161322
Miami, FL 33176-5653, USA

Please send a self-addressed stamped envelope.

This method has proven to be extremely effective in teaching the Bible principles in
this text because it affords the reader the opportunity to not only read the text and follow-up
by searching out each Bible verse reference in the different books of the Bible, but to also
HEAR the major Bible references EXPOUNDED UPON for more in-depth detail. Many of
the things being taught are also reinforced through illustrative examples and personal
testimonies.

To use this method, simply begin listening to the audio tapes through, once by
themselves. Then rewind and begin at the beginning of the tape again, following along by
reading the text of the particular lesson being studied. When the tape mentions a particular
scripture reference, STOP the tape player. Find the scripture reference-in the Bible, push the
PLAY button on the tape player and continue to follow along as the scripture verse and its
meaning are discussed on tape. Do this procedure each time a new Bible verse is mentioned
on tape. By so doing, you will become a part of the tape Bible class and get a more in-depth
exposure to the teaching. Again, don’t forget to pray ahead of time for the Holy Spirit to
minister His Word to you.

You will come to walk in the POWER of the Holy Spirit when you learn to accept
God at His Word. Accept it and interpret it LITERALLY unless the Holy Spirit shows you
that the Bible verse is to be figuratively interpreted. In all such instances, this will be self-
evident. You will quickly find that unless you accept God at His Word, that is, unless you read
and ACT upon the Word as LITERAL TRUTH, it will NOT work for you. God wants you to
TRUST Him. He WANTS you to TRUST that WHAT HE SAYS (the Bible) is TRUE. He
wants you to ACCEPT this by FAITH and He wants you to ACT on what He says,
TRUSTING Him. When you do so, you will QUICKLY find out that He WILL RESPOND
to your FAITH and will PERFORM His Word ON YOUR BEHALF. It is His PROMISE to
you, for He told the prophet Jeremiah, “... I AM bound (OBLIGATED) by My Word to
PERFORM IT...”.

I pray that the Holy Spirit will give each and every reader and believer a thirst for His
Word and a desire to pursue the lessons in this text with a holy perseverance so that His
blessings will come upon ALL who are willing to study and SEEK the true KNOWLEDGE
of the Lord and His Spirit. To that end this text is written, to the glory of the Father, His Son,
and His Spirit.

May God’s blessing be upon each person who embraces this endeavor with enthusiasm
in the Lord, to His glory. Upon completion of these studies, it will become readily apparent to
the believer what great difference there is between a faithwalk in POWER and a faithwalk in
words of men. In 1 Corinthians 4:20 the apostle Paul tells us that God’s kingdom comes in
POWER and not in words. Not in words. We can sit in a church week after week hearing
words, words, words, and never applying them to see the POWER. And the kingdom will not
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be there if the POWER is not there. It is to this end that the Spirit of God has put this burden
upon me... to teach the believer HOW to WALK IN THE POWER OF THE HOLY
SPIRIT. It is to this end that I pray that these basic lessons will bring the believer to the
fullness of the Spirit and His power through Him by laying that foundation in the Biblical
doctrine of Christ. There IS NO other foundation.
Bern Zumpano
Miami, Fl.
February 15, 1996

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