“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word (ῥήματι) that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)
‘The logos is universal for all humanity, while any intellectual changes for a specific individual believer are categorized as rhema. Under this system, “rhema” is a broad term that includes many types of spiritual interaction. Rhema is the general term that refers to the Word, God uses in communicating His specific will to an individual.” Bill Hamon states “A rhema is an inspired Word birthed within your own spirit, a whisper from the Holy Spirit like the still, small voice that spoke to Elijah in the cave. It is a divinely inspired impression upon your soul, a flash of thought or a creative idea from God. It is conceived in your spirit, but birthed into your natural understanding by divine illumination. A true rhema carries with it a deep inner assurance and witness of the Spirit. Citing John 1:1,14 Bill Hamon holds “Jesus was the eternal Word revealed and manifest in mortal flesh” and can be called by the personal name “Logos”. Citing Timothy 2:15 Hamon defines the less personal usage “logos” as “the Scriptures as a whole”. He defines rhema as “a specific word from the Lord that applies it to us individually. …The Logos is like a well of water, and the rhema is a bucket of water from that well. …Truth is truth, and the Logos and rhema are one with God.” The logos “is the standard of all truth…the rhema, [is that] which provides the precise word needed for the specific situation. All Christians must live by the logos and receive the rhema as needed.” Under this definition the method of receiving rhemas “may come by many ways. A rhema may come while reading the Bible, as God quickens a certain text, or it may come to us through the spoken words of another person. The reference is not to the whole Bible as such, but to the individual scripture which the Spirit brings to our remembrance for use in time of need, a prerequisite being the regular storing of the mind with scripture”. Hamon, expounding on Romans 10:17, goes on to say that a rhema is “that timely, Holy Spirit-inspired Word from the Logos that brings life, power, and faith to perform and fulfil it…[it] must be received with faith by the hearer in order for it to fulfil its mission.’ Source: Wikipedia.
It is with such Rhema Word, God has been “calling” me with all these titles: Christ, Jesus, Bridegroom, Son of David, Capstone, Lion+Lamb, Beloved, Expected One, etcetera. I am sharing this with the hope that the church will receive it as good news.
Foolproof Mechanism for receiving Rhema
Bro. Bakht Singh and his co-workers taught the Church to get the rhema of God or the will of God in daily portions as you read the Bible one chapter a day from Genesis to Revelation.
I for one do not agree with that approach. Allow me to explain, using a real life scenario.
I asked a friend, how he found the will of God for one particular important decision in life. He said he began reading the Bible from Matthew onwards one chapter a day and finally he found God’s will (a ‘Yes’) when he came to the book of Romans. I told him there would have been a hundred ‘No’ verses from God between Matthew and Romans. He had wishfully ignored those ‘No’ verses and clung to the ‘Yes’ verse in Romans. You see, that method is not the correct method to get the Rhema or find God’s will. (But i am not denying that God, in His compassion, provides His Rhema through that method as well.)
The foolproof mechanism is as follows: Section out the 66 books of scripture into few sections, each identified with a distinct spirit. Then on any specific issue for which you want the will of God (Rhema), open one of those sections at random. And the verse or paragraph that your eye falls on is the Rhema. Lord Jesus Christ Himself found His “Calling” in this manner (Luke 4:16-21). It is not childish. It is a child-like faith.
Note: For this mechanism to work, you need to be pure, since only pure people will see the face of God (Matthew 5:8; cf. John 1:1). Purity begins when you wash all your sins in the Waters of Baptism. And you continue in purity through the Footwashing ordinance, as you introspect (examine yourself) on a regular basis around the Lord’s Table/Communion/Eucharist.
And if on any particular day the Rhema is, “Judas hung himself” and another subsequent Rhema is, “You do likewise,” be ready like Abraham (who offered up his son) to offer yourself at the altar—God is testing you. Just as God provided for Abraham a substitute, he may do likewise for you as well. Or like Hannah’s Samuel, God may be wishing to use you in His ministry. Remember, one who does not hate one’s own life is not worthy of being His disciple (Luke 14:26).
May God bless you with His Rhema! Amen!