Analyzing scriptures can at times feel like an undertaking. What does this mean? How do I interpret this? What is even happening in this story?
These are all common questions that bog people down from knowing scripture deeply and fully.
Here I am going to show you how I analyze scripture to identify crisis and communication to get results that I can use in everyday life.
Pre-mortem thinking is something I speak about all the time. But what is it exactly? A pre-mortem, or premortem, is a managerial strategy in which a project team imagines that a project or organization has failed, and then works backward to determine what potentially could lead to the failure of the project or organization. I use this same strategy in analyzing scripture.
The formula I use is:
Acquire all information
Assess where the source came from
Communicate your actions fully
Look at all premortem thinking solutions
We want to understand a BASELINE. A baseline is how someone on average acts, speaks, responds, or their common behaviors. Then we acquire all the current information:
-where are we in a timeline
-what was the antecedent
-analyze communication
-asses actions already taken
We then look at the source in which we are receiving the information.
-who is speaking
-what is their background
-what is their worldview
-how did they come about this information
From here, we can see where someone in the story (timeline) was and is currently. We can then ask specific questions to design a plan that communicates clearly.
-what are the communication barrier possibilities
-what is the best response
-what line of questioning will result in the least confrontational route (minimal risk)
-what goal are we working to achieve
-prepare hypotheticals
When we use these steps in looking at scripture it will look like this example I use in my podcast on EVE. (Gen 3:1-5)
Where are they (the garden)
What tactic in communication did the serpent use (ego elicitation)
What was Eve revealing (she wanted to seem knowledgeable)
What was he soliciting (knowledge)
What tactic did he use to acquire engagement (third-party perspective)
What could Eve have done differently in that moment (premortem hypothetical possibilities)
How would this have potentially changed her trajectory (hypothetical solves)
In this way we can see these types of motives revealing themselves in our daily lives, how do we respond, how can we see the enemy moving in on us, how can we equip ourselves for those moments?
This is how we prepare ourselves for spiritual and mental battles.
Knowing how the enemy moves prepares us to be on offense instead of defensively reacting. We can become experts on how to respond simply by analyzing the scriptures.