Biblical Success - Running With Rhema PowerНамуна

In the Greek language there are two words that are commonly used to describe the Word of God. The first and most widely known and understood is “Logos” or the written Word we call the Bible. God’s Spirit inspired or “moved on” men to record His words to them, often through them to others as prophets, and then moved on others to collect them saving them for use as “scripture” including both the Old and New Testaments for s today. These writings have been miraculously preserved and protected by God into what we refer to as Scripture or The Holy Bible.

The best way to know God’s will is to know God. The best place for any Christ-follower is in the center of God’s will.The Logos reveals the ways and truths of God to us. As we read it we can invite His Spirit, Who lives in us, to help us learn progressively to understand more and more about God and his character, commands, and principles. No matter where we are in terms of how long we have been in the race, or how far we have come, there will always be more to learn about our infinite Father and His Love, and how we can relate to Him best.

In both my research and personal experience the practice of the day’s “First Hour” has been both the most effective and the best time of day to study the Word to “know” or gain intimacy with our Father. Every great saint and hero of our faith attests to long term and consistent blessing and benefit of the discipline that my personal experience has also confirmed and produced. Starting each day with our Creator and asking for His help and guidance by absorbing His Word guided by His Spirit isproven a key element in many a successfully run race.

The second is the word “Rhema” which means “to speak or spoken word” and it is often used to refer to God’s Word made personal to us, or as pastor Bill Hammon offers on Wikipedia “A general term to refer to all of the means of God communicating His specific will to an individual. A rhema is an inspired Word birthed within our own spirit, as a whisper from the Holy Spirit like the still, small voice that spoke to Elijah in the cave.” Rhema may come to us in many ways but the most reliable and effective is through personal study and meditation on the scripture with the desire to apply it combined with two-way prayer. Not only speaking to God but allowing and expecting Him to speak to us through the Logos.

I have developed the practice of spending my first hour of each day with God in His Word and His Spirit, seeking to know Him and to learn from Him. This has become the cornerstone of my faith. Of course I go to church, listen to Christ-centered podcasts, read tons of books on both faith and Christian disciplines as well as topics helpful to my personal calling. But all the other sources, I submit to Gods’ Logos to judge. Wisdom may come to us through many sources but no wisdom is godly if it cannot be validated by the Logos,

I have never heard God speak to me in an audible voice but I have heard Him speaking countless times as I have read, memorized, or mediated on His Logos. One of the functions of His Spirit is to teach or help us to remember Jesus’ words. (John 14:27) our challenge is not to only remember them but also to apply them in our lives.

Often rhema comes to us as we face faith challenges that the Holy Spirit whispers to us to apply the written Word in life situations. We “hear” Him in our spirit as He brings the logos to mind either from reading it or hearing it preached or spoken by a friend, and we are challenged to act in and on our faith, which means we don’t know what the result may be. When we obey, stepping out in faith and trust, the rest is up to Him. When we have done our part He does truly amazing things and Rhema becomes part of our personal testimony.

Storing rhemas in our hearts and minds builds our faith like nothing else can. When God has spoken to us and we know that He has, and we obey by faith and see Him work, we learn to trust and obey Him more and more over time and that’s what a successful Christian life looks like.

Hebrews 12 tells us that we are running a “Race set before us” and exhorts us to lay aside several things that hold us back from running our best race. We are exhorted to “put off” things like weights and sins in order that we can run with endurance. And we should surely do that. But we should also “put on” what will motivate and encourage us in the nitty-gritty of our lives to press on and bear fruit! Rhemas stick with us over time. Memorizing scripture is a great thing but in actuality, unless it is applied, it stays in our intellect waiting to be put into action.

As James reminds us “Faith without works is dead.”

Tomorrow we will talk more about rhema(s) and I will give you one personal real life example from my life but for now: “What examples can you recall of a rhema word in your life, a time that you heard the “whisper of God”?