(dbar), which is pronounced dah-bawr, means word or speech. 
(midbar), which is pronounced mid-bawr, means a wilderness that is a place of Word or a place of speech.RHEMA IN THE CHURCH: BETWEEN EXODUS AND GENESIS IS REVELATION
Jesus did not give a mission to His church; He formed a church for His mission.
—CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT3
After the RHEMA of salvation occurs within the heart of the believer, the next successive and progressive revelation is the revelation of the church. It’s the second stage of the rocket that we discussed earlier. And who is the one who builds the church? Jesus. Let’s look at the guiding verse for RHEMA in church: “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it” (Matthew 16:18).
I like churches and I love the body of Christ. Churches do heaps of “God things” and good things both inside and outside of the church walls. Churches give people hope, inspiration, and knowledge, and they teach people to worship the Lord. Churches provide stability. People make friends at church. People come to Christ. Church is family. It’s familiar. Churches have Sunday school for children and youth programs for teens. People seek God’s presence there. Believers develop and grow in character as they attend church. People learn how to deal with problems rather than let problems deal with them. Churches are pillars of truth. Love, mercy, forgiveness, and grace are all found there.
Pastors of churches become part of people’s families for special occasions like births and marriages. Churches are there for sad occasions like funerals too. They introduce people to the Word of God, the Bible, and help guide them in what it means to apply it to their lives. People sick in body, soul, and spirit get well in churches. Many people mature spiritually in churches. Churches move members from relationship with God to fellowship with God and others. Church is a special community within the community. It is a light set on a hill.
But (you knew I was building up to something, didn’t you?) I am concerned about a crucial aspect of churches that I have consistently noticed worldwide. As someone who is more apostolic by nature, I always look for what is lacking, wanting, and in need of building up in the body of Christ. Somewhere along the way, we have lost our way in equipping the saints for real life. I’m not saying we should get rid of all the good things about church. But can we add something important and strategic to all those good things?
Here’s what I’m not seeing very often. I don’t see teams of pastors or prophets or teachers or evangelists or apostles equipping the saints on how to discern and use RHEMA, the sword of the Spirit, correctly, accurately, and fully. Church should be a garden of LOGOS and RHEMA where God walks with us and talks to us and tells us that we are His own. There’s corporate anointing there that can be found only when two or three are gathered together in His name. Church was designed to be a place of revelation and illumination to both the lost and the found. It should be a place where truth with understanding—not just information—is dispensed.
When I do come across teaching on RHEMA or hearing from God, it is in the “Spirit” side of the church. I see it used but not used wisely. It usually ends up with some wonderful people who have a great heart thinking what they are speaking is God speaking through them. They use the sword, but there is little skill in how they wield it. They are generally absorbed with whatever emphasis their church or they individually are seeking. Because of the misuses and abuses of this tendency, the other side of the church, the “truth” side, is afraid to even mention a spooky word like RHEMA. Because of this, these churches generally turn into LOGOS studies. Anything other than knowledge accumulation is generally discarded.
Remember, Jesus will build His church and He will build it in His way. Jesus means it when He says, “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit [the original language says that ‘God is a Spirit’] and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24). Both sides have what the other needs. Just think what could happen if the two swords could be used together. That key will open gates!
John 4:25-26 highlights Jesus’s conversation with the woman at the well as follows: “The woman said to Him, ‘I know the Messiah is coming (He who is called the Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He.’” Notice that Jesus speaks and will declare all things, not just a few things. He desires that when He speaks, we listen, learn, speak, and act on what He says. He builds His church by giving His church the whole counsel of God’s general LOGOS and specific RHEMA.
If all we have is truth without light, then we will underachieve in all that God has for us. The Jews had LOGOS but were in complete darkness. Saul, who became Paul, had his doctorate in the Torah but was in complete and utter darkness. Saul was imprisoning believers when he had only the LOGOS. He had the truth without light. But when he saw the light, he saw the whole truth clearly. Saul became Paul after he experienced a RHEMA.
Until we have truth with light, the gates will remain closed. Remember that the gates are in the church realm. God wants to walk with us and talk to us like Adam and Eve in the garden of LOGOS and RHEMA. We have access to His heart. We have His identity. We have been given an assignment. Jesus builds His church by declaring to us all things that we need for our present circumstance—when He is ready and we are ready.
A Time of Preparation: From Egypt to the Wilderness
Recall that in the three successive revelations in Chapter 11, I mentioned that salvation is where we get out of Egypt and that the church is a type of wilderness. In salvation we get out of bondage (flesh), but in the church bondage gets out of us. In salvation we get out of Egypt (world), but in church Egypt gets out of us. Salvation is where we got out of hell (the devil’s domain), by God’s revelation and Christ’s sacrifice, but church is the place where Jesus gets hell out of us by conforming us into His likeness and image.
If I add the kingdom stage to this idea, I can say it this way: in salvation, we get out of hell; in church, Jesus gets the hell out of us; and in the kingdom, we use the keys to unlock the gates of Hades so others can get out of hell and then go to church to get the hell out of them and enter kingdom ministry to release others to unlock the gates. Get the idea? That’s called New Testament ministry. The enemy loves it when believers get stuck in the second stage and stay in the church. This is because they never get to the Promised Land.
The church is a type of wilderness. This is not a denunciation of church. When the Israelites escaped Egypt, they were the lowest-tech people in the world. For years, they had been in captivity. All they knew was making bricks without straw. Pharaohs and malevolent dictators do that to you.
The future nation of Israel was in a frustrating position. They were on their way but, if not given knowledge and wisdom from God in all areas of His Word, they were going to be in the way. They had the capacity but lacked the competency to govern themselves, much less the nation called and chosen to be a blessing to all the nations. They were raw, uneducated, and unprepared. They were called “the children of Israel” in the wilderness. They were going to have to grow up and get equipped for the work of their future ministry. They were going to have to learn how to work with God. They were going to have a new “mindskin” to have a new wineskin. A transformation was going to have to take place. Living in a place like Canaan or the Promised Land requires it. You don’t give the keys to the car to a two-year-old child. That’s not wise.
What was God’s plan? God did what He usually does with His people under construction. He took them into the wilderness. There weren’t many restaurants or cell phones or Starbucks out there like there would be in Canaan. There was nothing to steal in the wilderness. God needed a quiet place where they would be protected and grow up in all aspects into His ways. They didn’t know it, but for the next forty years they were going to “reform” school. These wilderness years would be a time of reformation, preceding another reformation that would take place several thousand years later. Why did God do this? Because God walks with and talks to people in the wilderness. He gives His people His Word while they are in the wilderness. Between the exodus from our old nature to the genesis of our new nature, there must be revelation of God’s Word—the two swords of the Lord.
The Church in the Wilderness
There are some incredible verses in Acts 7:35-38 that are confirmed in Acts 3:22-26. Take a moment to read these passages because these concepts are important. Get ready to enter the revelation zone:
This Moses whom they disowned, saying, “Who made you a ruler and a judge?” is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush. This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, “God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren.” This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers; and he received living oracles to pass on to you (Acts 7:35-38).
Moses said, “The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren; to Him you shall give heed to everything He says to you. And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.” And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days. It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, “And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways (Acts 3:22-26).
Look at Acts 7:38. Stephen, who is speaking what he just heard from the Holy Spirit, calls Israel the congregation (or church) in the wilderness. The Greek word he uses here is ekklesia, which is the New Testament word for church. The words ekklesiazien and sunagogein were often used in the Old Testament, which church and synagogue are obviously derived from.4
We have established the church or wilderness idea. But who is the one who builds the church? Who does everything within the church? It is Jesus. Stephen quotes what Moses said to the church in the wilderness, and then Peter gives us further insight into who this “man” was. He starts off by quoting the Old Testament: “The Lord God shall raise up for you a prophet like me from among you. Listen to this prophet. All prophets before and after him will be speaking of him” (see Deuteronomy 18:15).5
Do you realize it was Jesus who did everything in the wilderness for the Israelites, the church in the wilderness? Jesus was there in Egypt, He was there during the parting of the Red Sea, and He was there in the wilderness. The Rock was rolling with them and was of them (Jesus was a Jew), with them, and for them. In Acts 3:26, we see that Jesus did this for the Jews first! Now it’s our turn! Paul went on to write about how this was an example for us:
For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:1-4).
The rock was Christ (the Messiah). Jesus was building the church in the wilderness. Moses knew who the Rock was; it is no wonder Moses got stuck on the wrong side of the Jordan. But he eventually got over to the Promised Land—he was at the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. This is encouraging.
God is forming us and filling us—getting us well and fit for duty. He is showing us that we are totally dependent on Him. We can’t do it on our own. He is taking us right into where He wants us. It’s a Promised Land, and the architect and builder of it is God. God is also forming us so that we can be part of “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” The church (or the body of Christ) is a great place to prepare for that coming kingdom. He is the greatest body builder of all time—and He does it in the wilderness. The wilderness is the space and time between being set free to fulfill your purpose and the fulfillment of that purpose.
God Uses Wilderness Experiences in His People and His Church
One of my closest ministry friends is a man by the name of Joshua Churchyard. He pastors a church, Church of the Way, in Benoni, Johannesburg, South Africa. He is prophetic and loves to think about the in-depth meanings of Hebrew terms in the Bible. He wrote the following exhortation for us to see not only the what but also the why of God’s pattern of using wilderness experiences in our lives:
The country of Israel is known as the land of milk and honey. Bees in the northern area of Galilee produce delicious honey. Shepherds and their milk-producing flocks of goats live in the desert regions.
The image of milk and honey symbolizes the fertile land and the desert/wilderness area. The desert is important in hearing first and then obeying or speaking what the Lord gives us.
The word for wilderness in Hebrew is MDBR (midbar) and the root of that Hebrew word is DBR. (dbar), which is pronounced dah-bawr, means word or speech. (midbar), which is pronounced mid-bawr, means a wilderness that is a place of Word or a place of speech.
Bamidbar is the Hebrew name for the book of Numbers. It means “in the wilderness” and is the first word in Numbers. The setting for the book is in the desert. Numbers 1:1 says, “The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying….”
The desert is a place in which God speaks His words to us. The ancient Hebrew people could be called people of the desert. Many of their journeys and significant encounters with God in which they heard Him speak took place in the desert.
Abraham was a desert person, Moses could be called a desert person, and David spent many of his years in the wilderness. Even Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert. There will be times when God leads us into the desert in the same way that He led the Israelites into the desert. Why? To speak to us.
It was in the desert that God spoke the Ten Commandments and the law to Moses. And the desert/wilderness is where the Spirit led Jesus after His baptism to be tempted by satan. Jesus then left the desert in the power of the Holy Spirit.
John tells us grace and truth came through Jesus. As this incident is described in Matthew 4, Jesus refers to the LOGOS and RHEMA. In the desert, Jesus heard the Father speak RHEMA to Him. When He came out of the wilderness, grace and truth were released in power to accomplish His divine plan. He lived by the bread of RHEMA in the wilderness, and He returned from the wilderness to do His ministry in power.
In the desert, flocks of sheep and goats depend on their shepherd for their survival and existence. If they do not hear first and obey second, they will die in the wilderness. They depend on the shepherd for water, food, shelter, and protection.
In today’s tumultuous world, we find ourselves in the wilderness. However, the wilderness is the place where God speaks to us and leads us through the storms the wilderness brings, if only we will hear first and speak and obey second. In these desert places, believers need two swords—LOGOS (see Hebrews 4:12) and RHEMA (see Ephesians 6:17). Look at what Jesus said in response to a half-truth pulled from God’s LOGOS and spoken by the devil: “But [Jesus] answered and said, ‘It is written [LOGOS], Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word [RHEMA] that proceeds out of the mouth of God’” (hearing, speaking, and doing what God just uttered). Jesus understood what happens in the desert.
In the desert, we learn to become totally dependent on God for our existence. If we don’t trust Him and follow Him, we will not survive. In John 10:27, Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice” and follow. This is another picture of the wilderness where the sheep listen to the voice of the Shepherd and follow Him wherever He leads. The Lord provides manna and water for every journey and revelation He sets in His sheep’s path.
If they continue to not listen and to not follow Him, they will miss God’s provision, protection, and destination. Sheep in the desert are totally dependent on their Shepherd to lead them in paths of righteousness. Tracks made in the desert lead to protective shade in the heat of the day.
Hosea 2:14 says, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her” (ESV). It’s in God’s heart to speak to us in the desert for that is where we recognize the necessity of listening to Him. Those who want to hear first and speak second need an epiphany of the wilderness as a place of God speaking.
Abraham, the father of our faith, was a desert person. Moses was a desert person. David was a desert person. Paul spent thirteen years in the desert of Arabia. They were all trained to hear first, then speak or act second.
Our journey of life leads us to and through deserts where we get to hear God with clarity and exactness. He will lead us on paths of righteousness by RHEMA, faith-infused utterances from God for illumination, clarity, or direction concerning how to thrive in wilderness times and in times of ambiguity. Remember, let the Word speak to you a word before you speak a word.
As someone once said in a conversation we were having, “If you can live in the desert, you can live anywhere.” Moses said to the people of Israel, “If you can’t make it through what’s happening now, wait until you see what will happen in the future. You need to be prepared. Otherwise, the Promised Land will chew you up and spit you out.” The Word was journeying with the Israelites as they went on to their future. The Word was training them to reign through His word. Just read Deuteronomy 8. God didn’t merely lecture them; God went on the journey with them. The Word not only gave them the word but also showed them how to use the word. He moved them from “It is written” to “It is written and here’s how to apply it.” That’s true discipleship. They started as the lowest-tech people in the world and came out the highest-tech people in the world. They moved from the early wilderness stage of “Why me?” to the mission-accomplished third stage of “What’s next?”
Most of the old crew didn’t make it. They sang that old song to God, “I’m stuck in the middle with You!” They couldn’t go forward and they couldn’t go backward, so they just went in circles. To use church vernacular, they could have been a forty-year-old Christian, but instead they ended up being a one-year-old Christian forty times. It was the younger ones who made it to the other side. There are still heaps of Calebs out there. The millennials would be smart to listen to them. Why? Because if they made it this far, they probably listen to God. Age doesn’t matter when it comes to spiritual maturity.
Between Exodus and Genesis Is Revelation
What caused the Israelites to grow up in the wilderness? It was the LOGOS and the RHEMA of God. It was both swords—light on one side and truth on the other—that sustained, nourished, journeyed with, protected, and delivered them. In those forty years, they moved from members to ministers. The Rock followed them—He never left or forsook them even when they wanted to forsake Him. They had ups and downs and all arounds. Jesus was LOGOS to them in the beginning, light to them in the middle, and RHEMA to them in the end. They were delivered from Egypt in the exodus, but they were delivered to their Promised Land in the genesis of their nation. In between those two times, there was a slow revelation taking place.
Here is my concern for our own day: if church people don’t have both knowledge and understanding of the Word of God, then how will they be able to have wisdom? How will they know the implications of what they are doing and why they are doing it? For example, if people don’t know why they worship by singing from the Word of God, then their experience will most likely be just a good feeling or perceived as a concert.
Jesus, facing starvation in His wilderness experience, quoted Deuteronomy 8:3, saying, “It is written [LOGOS] that man shall not live by bread alone but on every RHEMA that proceeds from the mouth of God” (see Matthew 4:4). As the Son of Man, Jesus needed RHEMA to stop the tempter—and so do we!
Shouldn’t we as the church be making sure that our people know the ways of God by knowing both the LOGOS and the RHEMA of God? Isn’t that what was required by God in Deuteronomy 8 in the Israelites’ wilderness experience? “Learn My ways by learning My word.” Otherwise, we just have dead orthodoxy or misguided enthusiasm. No wonder so many today are sick and dying. They don’t have the manna (daily bread) on their journey from exodus to the genesis of what they were created for via revelation. The devil quoted LOGOS to Jesus in Matthew 4:6, but Jesus, who is the LOGOS of God, responded with RHEMA in Matthew 4:7. He had both swords and He used both.
Pastors, are your people equipped to handle that type of assault, especially when we have a runaway culture like our current one? LOGOS and half-truths taken out of context are everywhere. Are your people equipped to hear the real voice of God through any other vehicle besides preaching or reading (but not understanding) the Bible? Do they know how to position themselves to hear God? Do they know how to make the invisible visible by making the inaudible audible? When you are in the Land of Promise, these things become important. Your spiritual life and physical life depend on them.
When people initially receive Christ, they are like the children of Israel after they escaped Egypt. They are what the Bible calls babies in Christ. They will need some care if they are to grow up. How are they going to grow up in a spiritual sense? They will not be nourished by loud music, a million-dollar sound system, or fog coming up from the stage. That’s nice gravy, but it is not the meat. The meat is the combination of LOGOS and RHEMA. Do you know who said that? Jesus, who is the Rock that rolls with us as we grow in the church: “In the beginning was the [LOGOS], and the [LOGOS] was with God, and the [LOGOS] was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2).
Skillful Swordsmanship Learned Through Experienced “Wordsmanship”
We can hear God through many different ways. We can hear Him through listening to preaching and reading the Bible, or even through receiving a prophecy from others. God or other believers might speak a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom to us. We might receive wisdom through counselors or mentors. And God even speaks through His creation. Just look at stars on a clear night from atop a mountain—those stars are proclaiming, “Look what God created!” You might hear God through your conscience. You might hear God as you meditate or through a still, small voice. Sometimes God speaks through natural disasters or events. God speaks through angels, and sometimes God can even speak through a donkey, as in the case of Balaam.
God can communicate through almost anything. The form is not necessarily what is important; the function—listening, perceiving, sensing, and hearing a faith-infused utterance of God that provides illumination, clarity, and direction is what is important. But always validate RHEMA with the Bible. RHEMA will never contradict LOGOS. The two swords validate each other—they always work together.
God can and does use RHEMA when people don’t know the LOGOS. This is often seen with people who start seeking God. They don’t know anything about God, but suddenly they have faith for finding Him. They know they need to go to church and get saved. They are compelled to do it and do it now. But after they receive Christ, God will bring in LOGOS so they can add knowledge to their experience. And we can see RHEMA in action in Christians who know in their spirit they are supposed to do something or not do something. Then, months or years later, they’re reading the Bible and they see it written about what they did or didn’t do. That’s positive reinforcement from Heaven.
How does a person, whether saved or not, know something is true even when they have never heard it from the Bible? Remember the verse in Matthew 16:17? “Blessed are you…because flesh and blood did not reveal [that Jesus is Lord] to you, but My Father who is in heaven [did].” Sometimes the Father says, “Let there be light,” while at other times Jesus is the Light, appearing as in the case of Saul of Tarsus in blinding light. But most often in this age, the Holy Spirit does the work. He guides. He illuminates our way. He helps us find the way so that we can know the truth and thus experience His life. The important thing to remember is that this activity doesn’t start from Earth; rather, it starts from Heaven and then comes to Earth.
We Have the Advantage
When Jesus was about ready to leave the earth, He made an incredible statement to His sorrowful followers:
But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you (John 16:7,13-15).
Jesus is saying to His disciples and to us, “You have the advantage. You aren’t slaves any longer. You are My friends. Friends know what the Father and the Son are doing. The Holy Spirit will disclose it to you. You have a Guide; therefore, you have guidance. You have light and truth. Just like in the creation of the world, the Spirit will hear first and then create what God spoke. He will inform you of everything pertaining to life and godliness.” Jesus wanted His disciples to get used to the idea of being led by the Spirit of God. This was a new deal. In the Old Testament, the Spirit came upon people of God’s choosing for God’s appointed purposes, but in the New Testament, the Spirit is in all believers, empowering them for action.
I want to make a definite distinction between a RHEMA and a “prophetic” prompting or sense or feeling. A prophetic prompting is what we think God is saying to us or through us to another. It may be God or it may not be God. Most people go by a prophetic prompting or a sense that what they think they are hearing is from the Lord. This is fine because many times these types of promptings are true and a blessing.
The difference between a RHEMA and what I just described is faith. RHEMA has faith attached to it. It’s a faith-infused utterance from God that will resonate with you. When God speaks to you or when someone else does, faith for the utterance will come with it. The most important indicator is not whether the other person has faith for what he or she is saying, but whether the receiver of the word has faith for what is spoken. You have heard from God through the deliverer of the message. The message didn’t originate with the messenger. God, speaking through him or her, validates the message by an impartation of faith for illumination, clarity, confirmation, or direction.
The Holy Spirit Guides You into Truth with Light
Have you noticed when receiving a prophecy, a word of knowledge, or a word of wisdom that some parts may resonate with you and other parts don’t? Perhaps it is because the one giving the message may know in part and prophesy in part. Some parts are for you and some parts aren’t. Listen for the parts that have a revelation or a “that’s it; that is what I needed” element to them. That is probably the RHEMA part of the word given to you.
Or perhaps you are reading along in your Bible and the Holy Spirit gives you an aha of the verse. Suddenly, you have clarity and understanding that you didn’t have before. You have so much understanding that you start to do what the verse says. You are convinced and you now have faith to apply it when you didn’t have it before. You say to yourself, “Yes, this is God. I’m doing it.” That is a RHEMA, and you need to know it is a RHEMA that has come from God because it has faith attached to it. That is what we live by, especially in the wilderness.
How do you know a voice is God’s voice speaking to you personally or corporately? Ask yourself, “Does it sound like God? Is it biblical? Is it wise? Do people who love me and love God agree with it? Is faith attached to it? Do I have confidence that this is God? Do I have peace? Does it benefit others? Is it a blessing?” Answering these questions will help in discerning the voice of God.
Two Practical Examples of Receiving Rhema
Here’s another practical example of receiving RHEMA that comes from the beginning of Jesus’s ministry. The multitude was pressing around Jesus “listening to the LOGOS of God.” Jesus decided to get into a boat belonging to one of the fishermen named Simon Peter, and He told him to go out a bit from the shore so everyone could hear Him while He taught. When Jesus finished speaking, He said to Simon Peter, “Put out into the deep water and let your nets down for a catch.”
Peter (the professional fisherman) said to Jesus (who was carpenter), “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but at Your RHEMA [bidding] I will let down the nets.” Peter sounded a bit skeptical, but he recognized something. He sensed something. He did it despite his training and experience as a fisherman. He obeyed Jesus’s words because he had a faith impartation, maybe not a huge faith impartation, but enough to respond to the Lord with action.
Sensing when faith is being imparted is a big deal. People called to kingdom ministry need to know when that happens, and church is the place to learn it, they learn how to handle it and let it be part of building Jesus’s church. Mature believers in the church provide guidance so young newbies don’t get spooked when the Spirit starts moving.
We read on that Peter won the fishing tournament. He called over his business partners and they also caught a huge haul. A RHEMA spoken by Jesus to Peter affected and blessed others. Peter heard first and spoke and acted second. But he would have missed the whole experience if it wasn’t for LOGOS and for RHEMA. Why did Jesus tell Peter to cast out the net on the other side? Because God told Him to. RHEMAS can be for practical purposes too.
Here’s the final example, which provides insight into what and how to ask from God. People in the church need to know this for good swordsmanship. Good swordsmanship is not using God’s Word as a vehicle to ask for anything our flesh wants; in other words, don’t walk after the flesh and ask amiss. Remember, God watches over His Word to perform it; He doesn’t watch over our word to perform it.
Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My RHEMA [faith-infused utterance from God] abides in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7 paraphrased). In other words, as we remain or abide in Christ, just like a branch of the vine abides in the vine, our desires become His desires. We are to pray for His will to be done on the earth just as it is done in Heaven. Our job is to bind whatever has been already bound in Heaven and loose whatever has already been loosed on earth. When Heaven communicates what to bind and loose, that is a RHEMA. Faith is attached to it as we hear first and then speak second.
Many Christians take John 15:7 out of context, thinking it is a free ticket to whatever they want. But that is us speaking first and then trying to make God hear second. Nimrod did that. He went before God. Other Christians never loose what God wants on earth as it is in Heaven because they are afraid of asking amiss. It’s a message of sorts, but not if we listen to God’s message. This is normal. This is the way God’s kingdom works.
How a Large Church Gauges Heaven-Inspired Prayer and Rhema
I would like to introduce you to Pastor Dan Steffen of Pure Heart Church in Glendale, Arizona. We were recently talking over coffee, discussing the ideas in this book. Dan got excited because Pure Heart has set up a way to measure or gauge the ahas that happen during messages or sermons. I thought this might be helpful to many of you pastors, leaders, and intercessors, so I asked Dan to explain their method.
As the senior pastor of Pure Heart Church in Phoenix, I am committed to helping people respond to the voice of God. I am convinced that our loving heavenly Father longs for us to hear His voice. As a good Father, His heart is to impart not only His truth but also His wisdom and direction into our hearts and minds.
I was having coffee with my friend Ed Delph at a local Starbucks, and he was downloading to me all his latest adventures (I love these moments with Ed). He started to unpack a book idea he was working on dealing with the idea of recovering RHEMA. I was intrigued. I am forty-seven years old, so I am old enough to remember when the power and blessing of RHEMA was derailed by many abuses in the church (so much more to say there, but this isn’t the place). Needless to say, I was fired up to hear that Ed was going to reintroduce this life-changing experience with God to today’s generation.
I told him that as Pure Heart has grown from hundreds to now thousands, it has become more and more impractical to make room in our four weekend services to share individual Pure Heart family members’ RHEMA moments during the service. It was then I told Ed about a RHEMA idea we recently put into practice.
We have tapped into the power of communicating a RHEMA word from God in real time by utilizing the technology of the smartphone and launching the “text a prayer” program during each weekend service. I tell our people, “God is speaking to us all the time, and oftentimes during the teaching or worship, we have an aha moment. It’s at that moment of our awareness of His voice that transformation begins. The aha moment may be the conviction to change a behavior, seek reconciliation, begin to serve, or receive an insight into our relationship with God. Maybe you are reminded of someone you love who is hurting and the Holy Spirit prompts you to pray right now.”
For this reason, we have put a phone number in the weekend teaching notes that provides immediate access to the intercessory prayer team by text. People can reach out and have others join them in responding to the Holy Spirit.
The first text our team received confirmed God was going to use this idea to help us experience RHEMA together. The first text prayer request simply read, “Pray for my uncle who is in the hospital.” That was all the details given! The team started praying and before long the intercessor receiving that text had her own RHEMA moment. She heard, “The health issue with the uncle is related to his heart.” The team began to pray specifically for this man’s heart. After the team finished praying, the person who sent the original text sent another text: “So sorry I didn’t give you more detail. My uncle is in the hospital with a heart condition.” Our team went crazy—high fives all around.
Each text is responded to with this reply: “We are praying Now! We invite you to come to the front of the stage after service for additional prayer with our prayer team. If you would like to have further contact with our prayer team, please e-mail us at the following e-mail….”
Maybe this will get us started on what the Lord would lead us to do in making sure that we are accessing light and truth within church. Marketplace ministers could do this in the mountain to which they have been assigned.
What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do
When Israel came out of Egypt into the wilderness, they had no idea where to go and what to do. Until they matured, they needed to follow God’s leader as God’s leader followed God and the Rock that rolled on in front of them. They were in way over their heads, and most of them knew it. The wilderness was the place where God showed them how dependent they were on hearing Him. They needed guidance and a guide. God was about to lead them through the wilderness to a place they had never seen. Their lives were in His hands.
That sounds like a new Christian to me. When I first received Jesus, I was lost in the wilderness. I needed guidance as well as a guide. I am grateful I made it to a church and met some really committed young Christian adults in a Jesus-music band. They led me as they followed Jesus. The church experience initially seemed strange, but it grew on me. I had arrived in the second stage. I could hear God’s voice in others, in the pastor, and in my thoughts. But I had to learn something I had never learned before: I had to learn how to dance. An article from my column “The Church-Community Connection” for the northwest Phoenix newspaper, The Glendale Star, explains. I think it says all I need to say here about guidance:
One of my favorite and least favorite things to do is dance. I’m not a natural at dancing but, of course, I married the dancing queen. Man, can Becky dance! She was trained by her father. She has more natural rhythm than Ricky Ricardo. Go figure!
In my teenage years, I was onstage all over Phoenix, Arizona, playing guitar in a rock-and-roll band, so I never learned to dance. When Becky and I dance, we’re like a Yugo dancing with a Ferrari. It’s not fair! Mind you, I’m an expert at the hold-me-close, sway-back-and-forth, and slow-side-step stuff. But that works for one or two slow dances and then I can’t fake it anymore. When you marry the dancing queen, two slow dances are not enough. Becky likes that infomercial that says, “But wait…there’s more!”
I’m thinking about giving in and, torture of all tortures, taking dancing lessons. I’m going to become vulnerable, teachable, and a follower for the sake of the dancing queen. I probably will like it. Don’t tell Becky.
I’ve started thinking about dancing. I think it’s incredible that even though Becky can dance circles around me, she follows me. I’m amazed that when I move my hand forward or backward, she follows. When I step on her foot accidentally, she says it’s her fault because it’s her job to follow. That is her role and responsibility on the dance floor. If I step on her foot anywhere else, I’m toast!
Let’s consider this thought: Dancing is a type or shadow of the way we follow or abide in God. We are free beings under divine guidance! A number of years ago, before the days of social media, this idea circulated through the cyber world via a forwarded e-mail message. When I meditated on the word guidance, I kept seeing -dance at the end of the word. I remembered reading that doing God’s will is a lot like dancing.
When two people try to lead, nothing feels right. The movement doesn’t flow with the music, and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky. When one person realizes that and lets the other lead, both bodies begin to flow with the music. One leads with gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back or by pressing lightly in one direction or another. Then it’s as if two become one body, moving beautifully. The dance takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and gentle guidance and skill from the other.
My eyes drew back to the word guidance. When I saw “g,” I thought of God, followed by “u” and “i.” “God,” “u” and “i” “dance.” God, you, and I dance. To receive God’s guidance, we must become willing to trust that the Lord of the Dance is gently leading, still proceeding, guiding us in and to His perfect light! It reminds me of God’s role as leader in my life. I listen. I follow God’s hand movements. When God speaks, I hear. What God speaks, I speak. What God sees, I see. What God does, I do to the best of my ability. God, you and I dance.
That’s the picture of the Hebrew word mahanaim in the Bible. The story is in Song of Songs 6:13. Solomon and his no-longer-swarthy wife/helpmate dance the whirlwind dance of two companies. That dance is a prophetic picture of God and humankind in sync—Christ and His body flowing together. That’s a picture of the two becoming one with a leader who leads from love. As I choose to follow the Lord of my own free will, we dance!
Like I said earlier, I’m starting to enjoy dancing. As I lead, Becky follows me of her own free will. I have the privilege as well as the responsibility of leading her, not driving her, in the dance of this life. We are both free beings under divine guidance with equal status but different roles. And we dance. I hope you dance.
The Israelites who learned to dance and be led by God according to this analogy made it to the Promised Land. Between the exodus and the genesis, there is always revelation.
Notes
1. Vance Havner, Pepper ‘n’ Salt (Grand Rapids, MI: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1966).
2. Used by permission of Lance Wallnau.
3. Quoted in J. D. Greear, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015).
4. This information is taken from http://www.pickle-publishing.com/papers/church-in-old-testament.htm, accessed March 27, 2017.
5. Remember the verse that says, “The spirit of prophesy is the testimony or testifying of Jesus” (Revelation 19:10). Now look at Acts 3:26: “For you first, God raised up His Servant (the actual word is Child, with a capital C) and sent Him to bless you….”