Back in 1981, the Lord mercifully got my attention. I had run from the call of God to preach for ten years. Finally in a place of desperation, I totally surrendered to the Lord and for the first time I truly understood the words peace that passes understanding. The circumstances that brought me to my knees did not immediately change, but I had. The Lord began to give me insight into His word. The types and shadows now leaped off the pages of scripture. My appetite for His word was insatiable. During this time I remember listening to two cassettes that made a great impact in my life. One was by Peter Lord called "Why I" in which he talked about 3 kinds of men. He talked about the man with the wrong purpose, the man with no purpose, and the man with the right purpose. I must confess that I had been walking as a man with no purpose. The other tape was called "Key to the Life of Faith" by Manley Beasley. I remember that in that tape I first heard the word "rhema".  On that tape Manley tells the story about a time when he was two and a half years old and lay dying of an infection. The doctor had told Mrs. Beasley that it would not be long and he would gladly stay with her until little Manley had passed. She grabbed her Bible and went outside under a tree. In a little while she came in and told the doctor he could leave. The doctor assured her he would be glad to stay. Mrs. Beasley told him that he could go on, that her son was not going to die. Years later, she told Manley that the Lord had told her that he was born to preach and that she had sense enough to know that he couldn't preach dead. She had received a "rhema" word from the Lord.

 

 

"Rhema" means spoken word. It is when God speaks a word in our spirit. He can do it any number of ways, but just to list a few:

1. The illumination of scripture. Have you ever been reading the word and suddenly something jumped out at you and was quickened in your spirit.

2. Prophecy.  A legitimate prophecy either corporate or personal. Did the word bear witness with your spirit?

3. Dreams and visions. Sometimes our dreams are not a product of what we ate for supper, but the Lord revealing something to us.

4. The small still voice of the Spirit. If we are born again God's Spirit is resident in us and the Spirit speaks to us the words of the Lord.

 

If we are not hearing God we are dying of spiritual malnutrition. Jesus said his nourishment came from doing the will of the Father.

 

A few years back something turned out different than how I thought God had said it would. I was discouraged and cried out to the Lord asking Him if I could even hear him. I'll never forget what He quickened in my spirit. This is what I heard in my spirit. "Son, you do hear Me. My words are sometimes distorted by your perspective or perceptions. In order to hear Me, you must believe that you can and do hear me, for faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Without faith it is impossible to please Me, so if you cannot hear Me you cannot please me."     If we are to walk in faith, we must be hearing the Lord. Faith pleases Him. One preacher said we don't have a faith problem as much as we have a hearing problem.

 

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word (rhema) of God. Ephesians 6:17  The "rhema" is part of our weaponry. In 1 Timothy 1:18, Paul tells Timothy to war with the prophecies given concerning him . God-given prophecies are weapons to be used against the enemy.

 

I used to say that when you get a "rhema" word from the Lord that word would be tested, but one day the Lord gently rebuked me. He reminded me of a scripture I had set to memory years before. The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times. You shall keep them, O Lord, You shall preserve them from this generation forever. Psalms 12:6,7

You see it is not God's word being tested; it is our heart.

 

In Matthew 13 and Luke 8 we see the parable of the sower. The seed was the word of the kingdom. There was nothing wrong with the seed. The seed had the DNA of God with all the potential that God purposed for it to have, but what determined the increase? The condition of the soil determined the increase.

 

We are transitioning into a new time and a new season and it is a crucial time for us to hear the voice of the "Good Shepherd". There are voices vying for our attention, but we know the voice of our shepherd and the voice of another we'll not follow.

 

 

Herb Dean
RborVitae5@aol.com