Hi all,
I received so many emails and messages about how last week’s ‘Thoughts’ changed the way people think, it seemed good to go into a bit more detail summing up the question; Do you know the Word, or the Word?
Daily Bread – not what you think
Matthew 4:4 says: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes out of the mouth of God.”
That word ‘Word’ is rhema, meaning God speaking to a person. This is not talking about the logos, the general reading of Genesis through The Revelation – all that is good. But we don’t live by the logos, we live by and live for and hunger for, a rhema, a word from God to us directly and personally.
We do not live by bread alone, which refers to the food of the flesh. In the same way our physical bodies receive nourishment from bread, so too does our spirit man receive spiritual nourishment from God speaking directly to us. I live to feel His Spirit in me, to sense His presence, His direction, His revelation. Live for that!
That hunger for a rhema drives us in the same way when we get physically hungry we are like a hungry lion on the prowl for a gazelle – we won’t be satisfied until we have it!
We are to equate our appetite, our hunger, for a fresh and direct Word from God, a rhema, with food. Do we? Isn’t it much easier to find a verse to memorize each day, which is well and good, but it isn’t necessarily a rhema to us. But have you had those days when you go through the routine and that one day that verse just jumps out at you and sinks down inside, and you know it is for a purpose? That’s a rhema from Him to you. The other days were logos days, but when you get that rhema you want more! Oh to live in His presence, to hear His voice alone!
Washing of water with the rhema
In Ephesians 5:26 we are told that “…husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify it (set it apart with purpose) and washes us (cleanses from the dust and dirt of the world) by the washing of water by the Word…” (you guessed it; washing of water by the rhema)
My focus is not on the behavior of the husband, but on the statement that Jesus washes us not by a logos, not by the general counsel of God Genesis through The Revelation, but He washes us by a rhema to us.
If you think to the times in the Lord most precious to you, it was probably a time when you felt His presence, His peace, His warmth, His word directly to you for comfort and cleansing and peace in your spirit – He washes us with a rhema word from Himself directly and personally to us.
Holds it all together by a rhema of the Father’s power
In Hebrews 1: 1-3 we find an amazing set of statements. It says the Father spoke in times past to the fathers ‘in many ways and many parts’, but in these last days has spoken to us by His Son. This Son is who the Father used to make the universe, and He the Father has made Him heir of all things.
This Son is the exact representation of the Father’s image and is the brightness of the Father’s glory – and this Son holds all things together by “the Word (rhema) of His (Father’s) power…”
Jesus doesn’t hold all things together by the logos nor the power of the word, but rather all things in the universe are held together by a rhema from the Father: The rhema of the Father’s power. Your life. My life. All held together by rhema from the Father through the Son – the Father who so loved us He gave us His Son. The Father is the power, the Son is the word – the rhema – of that power.
This is emphasized again in Hebrews 11:3 where it says “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared (prepared, planned as an architect) by the Word of God (rhema), so that the things which are seen were not made by visible things.”
The worlds, or we might say ‘the universe’ from which our earthly bodies were made, was framed by a rhema from God. Jesus is that rhema from the Father, and it is the Father’s power released by rhema that created us all. How is it then we think we can apart from Him, have faith? How is it so many have become so arrogant to turn Life into a formula and religious exercise?
We must know Him, that is the only solution. We set out hearts by including Him in all we do, conversationally including Him, giving thanks, expressing gratefulness when we notice good timing in our lives, or thanking Him in spite of a surprise in our lives that gives us pause.
It is a life-long journey this thing called discipleship, and in fact we are just getting to know Him, for we are talking about knowing an infinite God over infinite time, which means infinite revelation and depths of knowledge we cannot imagine in this life.
But the great apostle Paul, in his most intimate letter, to the Philippians in 3:10, said even then with all his knowledge and all his experiences, even then he said his great desire was “to know Him.” Amen brother Paul, amen.
New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
