Participants:
Series Code: WHO
Program Code: WHO210062S
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00:28 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn, and we welcome you to 3ABN
00:31 Worship Hour. 00:32 We're so glad that you are joining us. 00:35 And today, I'm excited because we are going to talk 00:41 about plugging into God's power source 00:45 so that we can become partakers of His divine nature. 00:49 Did you know that's what God wants? 00:52 He wants you to share in His divine nature. 00:56 And the way we do that is by plugging 00:59 into Rhema word power. 01:02 In 2 Peter 1:4, 01:04 the Bible says that God has bestowed upon us 01:08 His precious and exceedingly great promises 01:13 so that, for this purpose, 01:16 so that by these, by the promises, 01:20 you may become partakers of His divine nature. 01:25 I don't know about you, but I want that. 01:28 I know that's why God created us. 01:32 He created us in His image to be partakers 01:35 of His divine nature. 01:37 Let's pray. 01:38 Heavenly Father, we come in the name of Jesus. 01:41 Lord, my mind is scattered. 01:43 I just ask in the name of Jesus 01:46 for Your anointing on this presentation. 01:49 Help me to be surrendered to You. 01:51 Help me, O Lord, to just speak the truth 01:56 of Your word but with the power of the Holy Spirit. 02:00 And I pray for myself 02:02 and for all that you will give us ears to hear 02:06 what the Holy Spirit has to say. 02:08 We praise You, O Lord. 02:10 We thank You for the gift of salvation by grace. 02:13 We thank You for the gift of your Spirit, 02:16 and we thank You for the gift of Your Word. 02:20 O Lord, when we understand these great gifts of grace, 02:24 we will understand the effects of grace. 02:28 So now, Father, send Your Spirit. 02:31 Holy Spirit, we welcome You. 02:33 Come and teach us in the name of Jesus, amen. 02:38 When my husband and I lived in Texas, 02:41 our kitchen had an area, 02:44 a corner area that was dreary. 02:47 It was... 02:49 The overhead lights just cast shadows there. 02:51 The sun streaming through 02:52 the open windows didn't reach that area. 02:54 It was depressing. 02:56 So I'd had my eye on a particular 03:00 little Tiffany lamp that was at Sam's. 03:03 It was too expensive. 03:04 But one day as I was walking through Sam's, 03:07 it was on a clearance as a floor model 03:10 and at an unbelievable price. 03:12 So I bought it and I ran home and I plugged it in, 03:16 and it was such a joy because that area lit up, 03:22 and it was just beautiful. 03:25 What happened was it became the focal point 03:28 of the kitchen. 03:30 I left it on all day long because it just brought me 03:34 joy to see the yellows, and the reds, 03:37 and the blues, and it just lit everything up. 03:41 Well, one day as I was passing through in the afternoon, 03:45 I noticed that it was dark. 03:47 So I went and I got a light bulb, 03:50 changed the light bulb, and it was still dark. 03:54 And just before I bent over, this thought impressed me. 03:58 And the thought was, "What do you see?" 04:01 What I saw was just the lettered kind 04:05 of outline design that the creator had intended. 04:10 So as I leaned over, I noticed that it was unplugged. 04:15 And when I plugged it back into the power source, 04:19 it lit up again. 04:21 As I stood up, another thought impressed me. 04:25 Now what do you see? 04:28 What I saw was luminescent beauty, 04:32 vibrant colors. 04:34 The creation that the artist had intended 04:40 came to life with light. 04:44 Let me tell you something. 04:46 You and I are like that lamp. 04:49 We were created in God's image. 04:53 We were created as mysterious 04:56 and marvelously complicated human beings. 05:02 But unless we are plugged into God's power source, 05:07 we are dark and lifeless. 05:11 The Bible says the entrance of His Word brings life. 05:17 And, boy, King David knew where his source of life was. 05:22 He said in 2 Samuel 22, 05:24 "You, O Lord, are my lamp. 05:27 The Lord lightens my darkness." 05:32 Do you want God to lighten your darkness? 05:35 Do you want to become all that he created you to be? 05:40 Well, we are going to learn today how to partake 05:46 of his divine nature by plugging in to the Rhema 05:51 word power. 05:53 If you've been a Christian for long, 05:55 you are familiar with these two terms. 05:57 Logos. 05:58 Some people say logos, 06:00 I used to, learnt logos is correct. 06:03 But the logos word of God and the Rhema, 06:08 R-H-E-M-A, Rhema, Word of God. 06:13 Now there is a difference. 06:15 I have researched this greatly. 06:18 The logos 06:20 is the power of God's reasoning. 06:25 The logos is the sum of His thoughts, 06:29 the expression of His will. 06:33 The logos is basically God's purpose. 06:38 Now Jesus was always called the logos, 06:43 the Word of God. 06:44 "In the beginning was the word. 06:46 The word was with God, 06:47 and the word was God," that's the logos. 06:51 And Jesus called the entire Bible the logos. 06:56 When you look at John 17:17, 06:59 he said, "Oh, Lord, sanctify them by this truth. 07:01 Your word is truth." 07:05 Your logos word. 07:07 So this entire Bible 07:09 is the logos word of God. 07:13 Now it's interesting. 07:14 The Bible says in Hebrews 4:12 that the Word of God, 07:20 and this is the logos, 07:22 all of this word is living and active. 07:26 And in 1 Peter 1:23, 07:29 it says that you and I are born 07:32 again by the logos word. 07:36 But now let's consider what is the Rhema word of God. 07:42 The Rhema word 07:43 is a specific word that is spoken by God 07:48 with an applied purpose. 07:51 The Rhema word has an immediate 07:54 application for the recipient. 07:57 Listen to Hebrews 11:3. 08:01 It says, 08:02 "By faith we understand that the worlds 08:06 were framed by the word," 08:10 the Rhema, "word of God, 08:14 so that the things which are seen were not made 08:18 of things which are visible." 08:20 So the Rhema word of God framed the world. 08:25 The Rhema word. He said to the oceans, 08:28 "You can come this far and no further." 08:31 And they have to obey his Rhema word. 08:35 The word framed... 08:36 I thought this was so interesting. 08:38 In the Greek, it means to be equipped, 08:42 to be perfected in a right ordering, 08:47 a right arrangement, to be completed. 08:52 Now I want to submit to you 08:55 the problem in Christianity is similar today 08:59 as it was in the days of the Pharisees. 09:03 In Jesus' time, the Pharisees memorized 09:07 the logos word of God, but they never made it Rhema. 09:13 They didn't truly apply 09:17 God's purpose in their life. 09:19 And to plug into God's power source, 09:24 we have to turn the logos into Rhema. 09:29 Today we're going to let... 09:31 I'm going to give you eight scriptures that talk 09:33 about Rhema. 09:35 This isn't all of them, but I think these eight 09:38 will help us define what the Rhema word is. 09:43 And it will give us a practical way 09:46 of entering into this light 09:49 of God by plugging into His power source. 09:54 Let me just briefly list them. 09:56 The Rhema word is the sword of the Spirit. 10:00 The Rhema word, 10:02 the Bible says, increases our faith. 10:04 The Rhema word 10:07 is our spiritual nutrition. 10:11 The Rhema word sustains and upholds it. 10:15 It washes away the influences of the world. 10:18 It increases the effectiveness of prayer. 10:23 No Rhema word is impossible of fulfillment. 10:29 And the final point we're going to make today, 10:32 we will look at one scripture that talks about Rhema 10:37 and logos in the same scripture. 10:39 And these are Jesus' words. 10:42 And what His warning to us is, it is dangerous to reject 10:48 the Rhema word. 10:49 So let's get to go in on this. 10:53 The Rhema word is the sword of the Spirit. 10:56 You know, I used to say, 10:58 and you hear many Christians say, 11:00 "This is the sword of the Spirit," 11:02 as they hold up their Bible. 11:04 No, it's the sheath that holds the sword. 11:09 In Ephesians 6:17, it says, 11:12 "The sword of the Spirit," 11:15 which is the Rhema in the Greek, 11:19 "The Rhema word of God." 11:23 So the Bible 11:25 is the sheath that holds 11:29 the sword of the Spirit. 11:32 You know, when you think about this, 11:35 how did Jesus fend off the attacks of the devil? 11:40 How did Jesus basically 11:45 destroy the devil's strategies? 11:47 When Jesus was in the wilderness, 11:50 Satan came to him with three great temptations. 11:53 And each time what Jesus did is he took out 11:58 the sword of the Spirit and he responded to Satan 12:03 with a scripture. 12:04 Each three scriptures comes from Deuteronomy. 12:07 And when Satan would tempt him, he'd say, 12:10 "No, no, no, Satan, it is written." 12:15 And that's what you and I have to do. 12:17 You know, I've told this story before, 12:20 but it bears repeating. 12:23 Many of you are old enough to remember a movie called Zorro. 12:28 And in this, 12:29 Zorro was the hero of the day. 12:34 He wore this little mask 12:36 and he would go around saving the peasants, 12:39 saving everybody. 12:41 But every time that Zorro had completed 12:46 his victory, he would pull out his sword 12:50 and with three bold swipes, 12:55 he would leave 12:57 a Z on the gate or the house, 13:02 whatever it was, to let people know this 13:06 is my victory. 13:09 Well, you and I need to be a spiritual Zorro. 13:14 We need to pull out the scripture, 13:18 the individual scripture promises of God 13:22 and we need to apply them. 13:25 And we need to pull them out and go... 13:29 It is written with three bold swipes. 13:34 And as we do, we're declaring 13:38 the victory of God over the enemy. 13:43 So when the enemy comes at us 13:46 with guilt and condemnation, 13:49 when he is trying to take us down, 13:52 we need to pull out our sword and say, 13:55 "Uh, uh, uh, it is written, 13:59 I'm a new creation. 14:01 In Christ Jesus, 14:03 the old is gone and the new has come." 14:05 That's 2 Corinthians 5:17. 14:08 We need to pull it out and say, 14:11 "It is written, God works in me to will 14:17 and to do His good pleasure." 14:19 That's Philippians 2:13. 14:21 And then we need to pull it out and say, 14:25 "It is written, God will complete 14:29 the good work that he has begun in me." 14:33 Philippians 1:6. 14:36 See, the word of God is living and powerful, 14:41 and sharper than any two-edged sword. 14:46 In the Greek, two-edged is distomon. 14:49 And you know what it literally means? 14:52 Double mouthed. 14:53 Now I want to share with you something the Lord gave me. 14:58 I took this from Hebrews 4:12, 15:01 Isaiah 55: 9, 3, 11, and 13, Jeremiah 1:12, 15:06 Luke 1:20, and Habakkuk 2:3. 15:10 But here's how he gave it to me. 15:13 This is me drawing out my sword to say 15:18 he has given me the authority and eternal power of His word. 15:23 His word is alive and active, immovable, unshakable. 15:29 His word is a two-edged sword. 15:32 The first edge struck when He spoke it. 15:36 The second edge strikes when I speak it. 15:40 As I speak the word, I hear the voice of the Lord. 15:43 I am returning His word to Him 15:47 and His word does not return void, 15:49 but it accomplishes every purpose for which He sent it. 15:54 He actively watches over His word to make 15:59 certain it is fulfilled at the perfect time, 16:04 which He has appointed. 16:07 Do you see how to wield the sword of the spirit? 16:12 It is the scripture promises that we can pull out 16:17 and speak over our lives and put into practice, 16:21 which brings us to our 16:23 second point, confession. 16:27 And I'm going to say Rhema confession. 16:30 Confession of the word, which makes it Rhema, 16:34 increases our faith. 16:37 If you have your Bibles, turn to Romans chapter 10. 16:42 And this will be verses 8 and 10, 16:46 and then we'll look at verse 17. 16:49 Romans 10:8-10 16:53 says this. 16:55 Now I'm going to supply 16:57 the Greek in here. 17:01 Paul writes, "But what does it say? 17:04 'The word is near you.'" 17:07 And in the Greek it says, "The Rhema word is near you. 17:12 It is in your mouth and in your heart. 17:16 That is the Rhema word of faith, 17:21 which we preach." 17:23 So the word of faith has to be in our mouth 17:26 and in our heart. 17:27 He said that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus 17:32 and believe in your heart that God 17:33 has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 17:36 For with the heart, 17:38 one believes unto righteousness, 17:41 and with the mouth, confession is made 17:47 unto salvation. 17:49 So then as we go on to verse 17, 17:53 he says, "Faith comes by hearing, 17:58 and hearing by the word of God." 18:02 This doesn't mean that you're listening 18:06 just to what someone else says. 18:08 He just got through telling us, 18:10 "The Rhema word is the word that's in our mouth, 18:15 the word that we are confessing." 18:18 And I guarantee you, 18:19 when we bring out a single verse, 18:22 we pray it back to God, we speak it over our life. 18:27 There is power in the utterance 18:32 of hearing our living voice 18:36 speaking God's promises, 18:40 and it increases our faith. 18:44 You know, Paul was... 18:46 Here in Romans 8, 18:47 he is actually quoting from Deuteronomy 30:14. 18:53 In Deuteronomy 30:14, 18:57 the Bible says, "The word is near you, 19:01 very near you, in your mouth 19:06 and in your heart." 19:07 Why? 19:08 "So that you may do it." 19:14 So when we think of the Rhema word, this is the word 19:19 we're confessing. 19:21 I want to encourage you. 19:23 If you're a parent or grandparent, 19:25 confess the word of God. 19:27 Speak the word of God into your children's lives. 19:32 Speak the word of God into your own life. 19:37 Confess this word and do it. 19:42 You know, Romans 8:29, 19:46 the Bible says, 19:48 "For those whom God foreknew, 19:52 he predestined to be conformed to the image 19:57 of Jesus." 19:58 All right? 20:00 I just told you what the logos word says. 20:04 How do you feel? 20:06 Are you going "Whoo-hoo?" 20:09 See, if I speak it, it's one thing, 20:13 but if you take that verse and you make it 20:19 a Rhema utterance, an affirmation. 20:23 If you speak 20:25 and you're praying to God and you say, 20:28 "Thank you, Lord, 20:30 that I am predestined to be 20:34 conformed to the image of Jesus." 20:39 Guess what? 20:41 That will renew your mind. 20:45 It's something about when the word is in our mouth 20:50 and we're confessing it. 20:52 That faith springs eternal in our hearts, 20:56 and we began to believe God's promises. 21:00 Hearing our living, 21:02 living voices declare the wonders 21:06 of his truth increases our faith. 21:09 And you know, this is beyond just claiming a promise. 21:13 This is a confession, a word of faith that says, 21:18 "I agree with what God has said." 21:23 Like Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:13, 21:26 "We believe 21:28 and therefore we speak." 21:32 What are you speaking? 21:34 What is your conversation like? 21:37 What do you talk about 21:40 when you get into the word of God 21:43 and you speak it over your life in the morning that you 21:47 pray it back to the Lord with thanksgiving, it will renew 21:53 your mind because it causes His way 21:56 of thinking to become our way of thinking. 22:01 And we exalt God's Word over our own opinion. 22:07 All right, number three. 22:11 The Rhema word 22:15 is our spiritual nutrition. 22:17 Matthew 4:4 says, 22:20 "Jesus answered and said, 22:23 'It is written man shall not live by bread 22:28 alone but by every" 22:32 Rhema "word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" 22:37 See, think of this Bible, the logos, 22:43 as a smorgasbord. 22:46 Oh, you can come and look at all of these. 22:50 You know, the Bible says, "Taste and see 22:53 the Lord is good." 22:54 We can look through all of these promises and go, 22:58 "Oh, this is a beautiful story. 23:01 Oh, this is a wonderful plan that God has." 23:05 But you're going to die of spiritual malnutrition 23:09 if you don't take something from the smorgasbord 23:14 and digest it yourself. 23:18 You have to take God's promises 23:22 and inter apply them to your life. 23:26 Enter into the promise 23:28 and practice the Word of God. 23:32 Physical food relieves 23:35 a temporary physical hunger, 23:39 but spiritual food 23:42 will relieve your spiritual hunger. 23:48 It will feed you for eternity. 23:50 The Rhema word is our spiritual nutrition. 23:56 So as we take this Rhema word or the logos word 24:01 and make it really Rhema to us, 24:05 what will happen 24:07 is your spiritual vitality that you have will shoot 24:12 through the roof. 24:13 This depends on the amount 24:16 of promises that you're actually digesting, 24:20 that you're intaking. 24:23 In Revelation 3:20, 24:26 Jesus invites us to dine with him. 24:31 In fact, he says, "I'm knocking at the door. 24:36 Let me in and I will dine with you." 24:40 In Jeremiah 15:16, 24:47 here is a man who learned that God's logos 24:53 word became his spiritual nutrition 24:58 when it became his Rhema word. 24:59 He says, "Your words were found, 25:03 and I ate them. 25:04 And your word was, to me, the joy and rejoicing 25:09 of my heart, for I am called by Your name, 25:14 O Lord of hosts." 25:16 Is that your attitude as you approach Bible study? 25:22 Is the word of God the joy and rejoicing of your heart? 25:27 If it's not, it's because you're not 25:31 accepting it as Rhema. 25:34 You know, Job said in Job 25:37 23:12, he said, 25:41 "I have not departed from the commandment 25:44 of His lips. 25:46 I have treasured the words 25:50 of His mouth more than my necessary food." 25:55 Isn't that precious? 25:56 Is that how you feel? 25:57 I remember Kenneth Cox told me that when he was first... 26:02 And if you don't know who Kenneth Cox is, 26:04 he's resting in peace. 26:06 But he was a great Adventist Christian evangelist. 26:12 He's spent his entire life bringing people to God. 26:16 But I remember he told me, he said, "Shelley, 26:19 when I first became involved in ministry, 26:22 I was so busy preparing word studies, 26:27 preparing the message for my evangelism series. 26:31 I would go and visit with people." 26:34 And he said, "I was so busy that I wasn't taking 26:40 time to be in the word to feed my own soul." 26:44 You know, it's one thing, anybody can do a Bible study 26:48 and put a lesson together, but every minister 26:53 has to have that personal devotional time 26:57 where they're taking God's Word and digesting it. 27:01 And he said, "I came to this Job 23:12, 27:05 where Job said, 'I have treasured the words 27:09 of your mouth more than my necessary food.'" 27:13 And he said, "I thought about it, 27:15 and I thought, well, 27:18 I sure make certain that I eat 27:22 every day, couple of times a day." 27:26 And he said, "So I decided 27:28 if the Word of God was more important than my necessary 27:32 physical food that I wasn't going to eat 27:37 physical food till I'd been in Bible." 27:41 I think that's precious. 27:44 Isn't that precious? 27:46 He said his life changed. 27:50 Jesus said this in Mark 4:26-28. 27:56 Because some of you are going, 27:58 "I don't understand why speaking the Word of God 28:02 would increase my faith. 28:03 I don't understand how that helps me to put 28:06 His Word into practice." 28:07 But here's what Jesus said, 28:10 "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter 28:15 seed on the ground." 28:17 You know, in the parable of the sower, 28:20 he said, "The seed is the Word of God." 28:25 So the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter 28:29 seed on the ground and should sleep by night 28:34 and rise by day. 28:36 Okay, he scattered the seed. 28:39 Now he's in his bed sleeping and he gets up and it says, 28:44 "The seed would sprout 28:46 and grow and he himself does not know how." 28:51 It's kind of like, "All I did was scatter seed 28:55 and now it's growing." 28:58 And he said, "For the earth yields crops by itself. 29:03 First the blade, then the head, 29:06 and after that, the full grain in the head." 29:11 This is what it's like when you plant 29:14 God's promises in your heart. 29:17 As you speak God's Word, 29:19 as you pray God's Word back to Him, 29:23 what's happening is you are scattering 29:26 the seed in your heart, and it begins to grow. 29:32 At first, one day you just notice, 29:36 bing, there's this little blade that's popped up. 29:40 And pretty soon, it's growing. 29:44 And you see the head 29:46 and then the full kernels in the head hundred fold. 29:50 It's beautiful how the Word of God is alive 29:56 and active. 30:04 If I have a handful of corn 30:09 and I plant corn over here, 30:12 and I have a handful of wheat 30:15 and I plant wheat to the right, 30:20 what am I going to get on the left 30:24 where I planted the corn? 30:28 Corn. 30:29 What am I going to get on the right 30:32 where I planted the wheat? 30:35 Wheat. Why? 30:38 Oh, it's so simple. 30:41 Listen carefully to what I'm about to say. 30:46 The potential of the harvest 30:50 is wrapped inside the seed. 30:56 Did you hear me? 30:57 The potential of the harvest 31:02 is wrapped inside the seed. 31:07 Jesus is called the seed of the everlasting covenant, 31:12 the living word Jesus Christ is the promised 31:17 seed from Genesis 3:15 31:21 throughout the Bible. 31:24 Jesus called the written word 31:28 the seed of God. 31:31 Now listen to what I'm saying. 31:35 All of your potential 31:38 is wrapped inside the Word of God. 31:44 It is all about having a relationship 31:48 with the living word and a relationship 31:52 with the written word, 31:56 the seed of scripture. 32:00 As we plant God's precious 32:04 and exceedingly great promises, 32:07 this is how we begin to partake of His divine nature. 32:11 It has miracle working power to transform us. 32:17 And I love what James says in James 1:21. 32:22 The Apostle James says, 32:23 "Therefore, lay aside all filthiness 32:26 and the overflow of wickedness 32:29 and receive with meekness, 32:31 receive with humility 32:35 the implanted word, 32:38 which is able to save your souls." 32:43 Receive with a humility of mind. 32:47 When the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, 32:50 "You are a new creation. The old is gone. 32:53 The new has come," 32:55 you may not feel like that, but when you 32:59 receive that and say, "Lord, this is how You see me. 33:04 I am going to receive with meekness 33:06 and plant that Word in my heart." 33:10 And what happens as you confess it over your life, 33:13 as you pray it back to the Lord? 33:16 Bing! 33:17 Here's a little blade that pops up. 33:20 Pretty soon the head, 33:22 then the full kernel in the head. 33:24 And you begin to understand 33:28 your identity in Christ. 33:32 Okay. 33:33 The Rhema word sustains 33:37 and upholds us. 33:40 Hebrews 1:3. 33:42 I'm going to read this to you from the Amplified Version. 33:46 Hebrews 1:3 speaking of Jesus, 33:49 says, "He is the sole expression of the glory of God. 33:53 He is the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance 33:57 of the divine. 33:58 And he is the perfect imprint 34:02 and very image of God's nature." 34:06 See, Jesus is God. 34:08 He doesn't just reflect God's glory, 34:13 he radiates God's glory. 34:15 But here's our point. 34:18 It says he upholds, and maintains, 34:23 and guides, and propels 34:27 the universe by his mighty 34:31 Rhema word of power. 34:36 It isn't the logos, it's the Rhema. 34:39 You want to be maintained, sustained, upheld, 34:44 learn to make God's word Rhema. 34:47 Let me give you an example. 34:49 In Isaiah 26:3, 34:52 the Bible says, 34:54 "You will keep him in perfect peace 34:56 whose mind is stayed on You, 35:00 because he trusts in You." 35:02 I have a confession. 35:04 I woke up this past Sunday 35:07 and I was in great pain, still recovering from my surgeries. 35:12 I didn't get into my prayer time in my study 35:18 right away because I received a phone call. 35:21 I was ministering to a dear friend 35:24 who just lost her precious daughter, 35:27 and she was like a daughter to me as well. 35:31 Then I had a couple of more phone calls, 35:35 people who I was ministering to. 35:37 You know, in the last nine months, 35:40 we've lost 12 friends 35:42 and my husband's brother. 35:46 I want to tell you something. 35:48 Darkness is all around us. 35:50 And suddenly, here I woke up Sunday feeling badly, 35:55 getting into the Word. 35:56 I'm... 35:58 I didn't get into the Word, but I'm ministering to others 36:00 and I began to feel 36:05 as close to feeling depressed as I ever want to feel. 36:08 I was coming off of the spiritual high 36:10 and I think I was having an Elijah experience. 36:14 It was... 36:16 I tried to pray and I couldn't. 36:18 It was just kind of like, "Help, Lord. 36:21 What's wrong with me?" 36:22 I wasn't motivated to do anything all day long. 36:26 I didn't discuss it with my husband. 36:28 I didn't feel like talking about it. 36:30 Yes, I could still minister to others from the reservoir 36:34 that was in me of the Word of God and the compassion 36:37 and empathy, but I was feeling their pain 36:41 so much in my physical pain that, 36:44 truthfully, I got my eyes off the Lord. 36:48 And you know what's funny? 36:49 Just the day before I was saying, 36:52 "Thank you, Father, that you keep me in perfect 36:55 peace because You keep my eyes focused on You 36:59 and I trust in You." 37:02 Well, that's making the word Rhema, but see, 37:06 we have to hold on to that confession 37:11 of faith without wavering. 37:14 Hebrews 10:23 says that let us hold fast 37:19 the confession of our hope without wavering, 37:24 for He who promised is faithful. 37:30 I guarantee you 37:32 when I realized that my eyes were on the sorrow 37:37 of the world, that my heart was heavy, 37:41 that I was even feeling a little sorry for myself. 37:44 Will I ever be without pain again? 37:46 I realized I was focused inwardly 37:50 and on the temporal. 37:52 My eyes weren't focused on the Lord. 37:55 I lost my peace. 37:58 So once again, I said, 38:00 "Lord, thank You that You are turning my eyes 38:05 back to You. 38:07 And because I trust in You, 38:10 You will restore that perfect peace." 38:13 And He did. 38:15 In Hebrews 6:17-19, 38:20 it says that God gave us His promises with an oath 38:26 and it's impossible for Him to lie. 38:29 So we have this hope in the Greek. 38:33 The word hope is eager expectation. 38:38 So God gave us his promises with an oath 38:42 so that we can eagerly expect them. 38:47 And this hope, the Bible says, 38:50 is an anchor for our soul. 38:55 Firm and secure. 38:57 What does an anchor do? 38:59 Think about it? 39:01 An anchor holds you fast in a position. 39:05 It keeps you from drifting. 39:08 And it is only as we find our hope in the Word, 39:13 in God's promises, that we will have that hope 39:19 as an anchor for our soul. 39:21 But you can't hope in what you don't know 39:25 and what you haven't personally digested. 39:29 You've got to get into the Word. 39:32 Confess it over your life as a word of faith. 39:36 Believe God's testimony 39:39 of who He says you are in Christ Jesus. 39:43 Hold fast to His promises and don't waver. 39:48 All right, here's the fifth benefit 39:53 of the Rhema word. 39:56 Rhema washes away the influences of the world. 40:02 In Ephesians 5:25, 40:06 it says, "Christ..." 40:08 Also, this is verse... 40:10 Ephesians 5:25-27. 40:15 "Christ also loved the church and he gave 40:18 himself for her that he might sanctify her." 40:21 That means set her apart from evil 40:23 and cleanse her with the washing 40:27 of water by the Rhema word. 40:31 Did you get that? 40:32 He would cleanse her with the washing 40:36 of water by the Rhema word. 40:40 That he might present her the church to himself, 40:45 a glorious church, 40:47 not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, 40:51 but that she should be holy 40:55 and without blemish. 40:57 So the Rhema word washes away 41:02 the influences of the world. 41:04 Let me share a story. 41:07 When I was first married, 41:11 my husband and I lived in Dallas. 41:13 His family farm was a couple hundred miles away. 41:17 We would go down two or three times a month. 41:19 Actually, we'd make a quick trip to the farm to see 41:22 his folks. 41:24 Well, about a certain point, 41:26 there was a certain point in the journey 41:29 where my husband always pulled over for fuel, 41:32 and it was a truck stop. 41:34 When he did, I usually found it 41:36 necessary to run into the necessary room. 41:40 And I had long, blonde Farrah Fawcett hair. 41:45 And I would zip into that bathroom, 41:49 zip back out, and you know what? 41:51 We'd get into the car. 41:52 We'd be going down the road, 41:54 and my hair would smell like smoke. 41:59 Not something a new bride wants to go meet her... 42:01 See her mother-in-law smelling like smoke. 42:05 So at that time, 42:07 we didn't know how bad secondhand smoke was. 42:11 But I want to tell you, 42:13 secondhand sin has the same effect. 42:17 We live in a world that is filled 42:21 with the smoke of sin. 42:24 You're driving down the freeway and a man looks up 42:28 and he sees women on the billboards 42:34 that are scantily clad. 42:37 And you might divert your eyes and say, "Oh, Lord, 42:39 don't let that thought rest in my mind. 42:43 Don't let it make a nest in my mind." 42:46 Or you turn on the TV thinking, 42:48 "I'm going to look for something just for some 42:51 short entertainment." 42:53 And what happens is you turn on something 42:57 that is poking fun at sin. 43:02 Secondhand sin has the same 43:06 effects on your spiritual life 43:09 as secondhand smoke has on the physical life. 43:13 In Psalm 119:9, 43:18 the psalmist says, "How can a young man 43:21 cleanse his way, by taking heed 43:26 according to Your word?" 43:29 And then just two verses later in Psalm 119:11 43:34 he says, "Your word I have hidden in my heart 43:39 so that I might not sin against You." 43:43 See the beautiful thing about Rhema 43:47 is it washes away all that influence of the world. 43:53 When someone's telling a dirty joke, 43:55 you no longer laugh at it. 43:57 The Rhema word comes bubbling up in you to wash it away, 44:01 and you just leave the water cooler 44:03 so you don't have to listen. 44:06 Okay. 44:07 The Rhema word, this is our sixth point, 44:11 increases the effectiveness of prayer. 44:16 In John 15:7, 44:19 Jesus says these words, 44:21 John 15:7. 44:25 "If you abide in me..." 44:28 That means to dwell in me, take up residence in me 44:33 and my Rhema word, 44:37 not the logos word, but the Rhema word 44:41 abides in you. 44:45 "You will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you." 44:50 Let's unpack this. 44:54 In Psalm 37:4, 44:57 it says, "Delight yourself in the Lord 44:59 and He will give you the desires of your heart." 45:02 Does that mean, or did Jesus mean 45:05 when the Rhema's in us, 45:08 ask what you desire? 45:11 "I want a million bucks, Lord. 45:14 I want a Maserati, Lord. 45:18 I want to be able to win the Olympics." 45:23 Does that mean when Jesus says, 45:27 "If the Rhema word's abiding in you, 45:29 you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you." 45:35 Well, see, when you look at this, 45:37 "Delight yourself in the Lord, 45:41 He'll give you the desires of your heart," 45:43 here's what happens. 45:45 As you find your delight in the Lord, 45:50 that means you're going to find 45:51 your delight in spiritual things. 45:55 You're going to find you're going to be like... 45:59 Ezekiel said, "Oh, Your words were found 46:01 and I ate them. 46:03 They're the treasure of my heart. 46:05 I found them with joy and rejoicing." 46:08 So what happens as you delight yourself in the Lord? 46:12 He begins to line your will up with His will. 46:17 And if it is the Rhema word, 46:20 as Jesus says, that is abiding in us, 46:24 guess what's going to happen? 46:26 You're going to ask according to his will. 46:31 This is the revealed will of God in the Bible. 46:35 And when those Bible promises are in you, 46:39 then you are going to ask according to His will. 46:43 1 John 5:14 and 15 says, 46:47 "This is the confidence that we have in Him. 46:50 That if we ask anything according to His will, 46:54 He hears us. 46:56 And if we know that he hears us, 46:58 whatever we ask, we know that we have 47:01 the petitions that we've asked of Him." 47:05 But see, we're asking according to His will. How? 47:09 By the Rhema word. 47:10 We're praying the promises back, 47:14 God's own promises back to Him. 47:17 You know, 47:21 Isaiah 62:6 and 7. 47:26 I want to read this from the Amplified 47:29 because this helps bring out the meaning. 47:33 This is God speaking. 47:35 "I have set watchmen upon your walls, 47:38 O Jerusalem, who will never hold their peace 47:41 day or night. 47:43 You, who are His servants and by your prayers, 47:47 put the Lord in remembrance 47:51 of His promises. 47:53 Keep not silence. 47:55 Give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem 48:01 and makes her a praise in the earth." 48:04 What does the song or what does Isaiah mean here? 48:08 Put God in remembrance 48:10 of His promises by your prayers. 48:15 Do you think God, who gave His promises 48:18 with an oath, forgets them? 48:20 No, He doesn't forget his promises. 48:24 In the Bible, Exodus 4, "God is hearing..." 48:30 Or in the beginning of Exodus, 48:32 "God is hearing all of the cries of His people." 48:36 And it says, 48:37 "God remembered His covenant with Abraham, 48:42 Isaac, and Jacob." 48:44 Had God forgotten his covenant? No. 48:47 When God remembers something, it means He is about to take 48:52 action on it. 48:54 If He forgets something, like it says, 48:56 He forgets our sins, He's not taking action on it. 49:01 So what Isaiah is saying 49:03 is put the Lord in remembrance of His promises, 49:07 bring the promises before the Lord 49:11 and remind Him, "Oh, Lord, thank You that You said 49:16 you will complete the good work in me. 49:19 Thank You that You are faithful, 49:21 and You will make me spotless at the coming 49:25 of our Lord Jesus." 49:26 And know that God will bring it to pass. 49:30 Now here is one of my favorites. 49:34 No Rhema word 49:37 is impossible of fulfillment. 49:42 I'm going to have to read to you from two different 49:47 Bible translations to get close to the Greek. 49:52 In Luke... 49:53 Let me set this up first. 49:55 What happened? 49:58 A young teenager had signed 50:02 a marriage contract. 50:04 Her name was Mary. 50:06 She'd already signed the marriage contract, 50:10 covenant agreement with Joseph. 50:12 They were considered... 50:15 Their betrothal was actually a marriage, 50:19 but they weren't together. 50:21 And that was the idea of the times. 50:24 Often, they would sign a marriage contract 50:27 and it would be maybe a year before they came together. 50:30 And in that time, the women of the village would kind 50:33 of train up the young woman 50:35 how to take care of the husband. 50:37 The husband went off. 50:39 Generally speaking, 50:40 he built a room for them on his father's house. 50:45 And you see that in Israel today. 50:47 It's interesting. 50:48 You'll see multiple levels of buildings. 50:51 And then they've got the... 50:53 Whatever those iron rods are called that they put up 50:57 because they're leaving room for the next generation. 51:01 But anyway, Mary and Joseph were betrothed. 51:04 Now the angel of the Lord Or... 51:07 not the angel of the Lord. 51:09 Gabriel, an angel of the Lord, came to Mary and says to her, 51:14 "Hey, you're going to have a child. 51:17 And this child will be called the holy one of God." 51:21 And she's going, "How can that be? 51:24 I've never been with a man." 51:26 And he says, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, 51:29 and the one that you give birth to shall be called 51:33 the Son of God." 51:36 And you know what? 51:37 Mary could have said, "You've got to be kidding me. 51:41 God would choose me to be the mother of the Messiah? 51:47 I'm not worthy. 51:48 Oh, no, I'm not worthy." 51:51 She could have said, "No, I don't think so. 51:54 The whole village will be clucking 51:58 with gossip and criticism." 52:00 She could have turned the angel away and said, 52:03 "Not me," but she didn't. 52:06 And listen what the angel says to her. 52:10 And I have to tell you, 52:12 if she had turned the angel away, 52:16 her history would've been completely different, 52:19 but God would've found someone 52:23 who would receive that mission. 52:27 But in Luke 1:37... 52:29 I'll read it to you from the Amplified 52:32 because this brings out the Greek. 52:35 "The angel said to her, 'With God, 52:38 nothing is ever impossible.'" 52:40 Now that's where the New King James just stops. 52:44 But in the Greek, it's talking about the fulfillment 52:47 of the Rhema word. 52:51 So he says with... 52:52 In the Amplified, Luke 1:37, "With God, 52:56 nothing is ever impossible, 52:58 and no Rhema word from God shall be without 53:04 power or impossible of fulfillment." 53:09 Now I'm going to have to switch back for the next 53:11 verse to the New King James because it captures it 53:15 better than the Amplified. 53:17 Luke 1:38, Mary said, 53:21 "Behold the handmaiden of the Lord, 53:26 let it be done to me according to your Rhema word." 53:31 What faith. 53:33 It gives me goose bumps. 53:35 And then Luke goes on to record 53:40 the words of Elizabeth, 53:45 who says to Mary when Mary comes to visit her, 53:50 "Blessed is she 53:52 who believed that there would be a fulfillment 53:57 of the things that were spoken to her from the Lord." 54:01 No Rhema word is impossible of fulfillment. 54:05 All right. 54:06 I promised you 54:08 a scripture that uses logos 54:12 and Rhema in the same scripture. 54:18 And it's Jesus' words. 54:20 John 12:48. 54:24 He says, "He who rejects Me 54:29 and does let not receive My Rhema word." 54:34 That's the word that we are... 54:37 The sword of the Spirit, 54:40 the word that increases our faith, 54:42 that is our spiritual nutrition that sustains us 54:45 and upholds us and increases the effectiveness 54:48 of our prayer. 54:49 It washes away the influences of the world 54:52 and is not impossible of fulfillment. 54:55 He says, "He who does not receive My Rhema word, 55:00 has that which judges him." 55:03 And what is it? 55:06 The logos word. 55:10 The logos word that I have spoken 55:14 will judge him in that day. 55:18 What is Jesus saying? 55:21 He's saying 55:22 you've got to take this logos word 55:28 and receive it in your heart, have it in your mouth, 55:32 confess it over your life, pray it back to the Lord, 55:36 and that's how you really get it into your heart. 55:40 And he says, "You've got to obey." 55:42 You know, He said in John, 55:45 I'm trying to remember, 13:17. 55:49 He said, "Blessed are those who hear 55:53 and practice My word." 55:57 We're not just supposed to be hearers only, 56:01 we have to be doers of the Word. 56:05 I want you to know something. 56:07 A loving Savior 56:09 wants you to receive all that He has for you. 56:12 He has a plan for your life. 56:14 He will work in you to will and to do His good pleasure. 56:17 He is... 56:20 We've got to be totally dependent upon Him. 56:24 But having said that, we've got to consider this. 56:27 Our conduct reveals our attitude toward Christ 56:32 and the Word of God. 56:34 If we refuse to receive His word 56:39 and put it into practice, at the point that we reject 56:44 the Word of God, 56:46 we are at that same point rejecting Christ. 56:51 Have you been rejecting the Word of God? 56:54 I pray that the Holy Spirit 56:56 is bringing you to godly sorrow and repentance. 57:00 I pray that He will keep you from being overwhelmed 57:05 with condemnation because the Bible says, 57:08 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful 57:10 and just to forgive us our sin." 57:13 I pray that you will remember 57:15 God blots out your sins with the blood of Jesus, 57:21 but more than anything, 57:22 I pray you will make God's logos word 57:27 your Rhema word. |
Revised 2021-10-14