The scriptures are the foundation of your relationship with God.

Why?

Because as the Apostle Paul explains:

            …faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God…

                                                                       Romans 10:17

                                                 King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)

So … to come to faith in Jesus, to know God, you must become familiar with the scriptures.

Knowledge of the scriptures alone, however, no matter how erudite or profound, is never a substitute for your relationship with God.

The scriptures are not God himself.

Their role is to point you to God —Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

The Scriptures are Also Your Story

The scriptures are also your story, just as much as they are the story of all the well-known characters in the Bible.

By this I mean that the scriptures tell the full story of all that the Lord has undertaken for you over these last two thousand years.

They are the story of all that He continues to undertake for you —even at the very moment that you are reading this —and will continue to undertake for you!

One helpful way of seeing the scriptures is as the story of how the Lord rescues YOU from anything, or anyone, that would try to prevent you from living an abundant, FRUITFUL, blessed, peace-filled and joy-filled life, hand-in-hand with Him.

This is the story of your and my ongoing salvation.

 If you wish to enjoy a real, meaningful journey with God, it’s necessary to spend some time familiarizing yourself with at least the basic aspects of your salvation story and with the three Persons at its centre: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Audio or video versions of the scriptures can bring them more alive for you and can be a good investment of money and time.

The Scriptures not Only as Logos,

But as Rhema

During my 7 years of severe trial, the Lord used several different means to speak to me. 

His chief means, however, was always through the scriptures.

Time and again, as I’d find myself struggling with a particularly demoralizing issue or facing a life-altering decision, the Lord would invite me to meditate/ reflect on/pray a certain passage of scripture.

 

In the course of doing so, a certain word or series of words in the text would jump right out at me.

Then, I would know deep inside me that the Lord intended this particular text as a rhema word to me for the particular situation, concern or problem that confronted me right then.

He would use this rhema word to

• • • encourage
    • warn
    • console
    • guide me in a certain way about a certain person or event that He knew I was struggling with and needed very particular guidance to deal with

 

This brings me to a vitally important point about the scriptures: the difference between God’s logos words and his rhema words.

In the fifteen months leading up to my second conversion, the Lord had shown me that there are two things that are utterly necessary for us to understand about the scriptures if we are to benefit from them in the way the Lord intends.

 

1. First, as I’ve already pointed out, you must become familiar with at least the basics of God’s settled, eternal, unchanging, written Word of scripture (His logos).

2. Second, it is critical to understand that, when necessary, the Lord —using His Holy Spirit —allows a specific part of His logos written word to become for you His spoken living word, a rhema word, a word addressed specifically to YOU in your current, particular situation.

 

What Rhema Words Are

A rhema word, then, is a specific word that God, through His Holy Spirit, selects out of His logos in order to speak directly to you —not to someone else, to YOU —at a certain time and for your particular situation, not for someone else’s situation —for YOURS.

 

Purpose of Rhema Words

Why does God speak rhema words?

God speaks a rhema word to you because He wants you to know and really understand that

• He LOVES you
• He KNOWS and UNDERSTANDS what you are having to deal with

How Prayer of the Heart

Helps You to Hear God’s Rhema Words

 

Praying with your heart is an unparalleled aid in hearing God’s rhema words.

When you pray with your heart, every aspect of who you are (your mind, will, emotions, conscience) engages directly with the Lord.

You pray (encounter God!) with your whole being in a way other forms of prayer might not necessarily do.

Praying with and from your heart, therefore, prepares every part of you (your mind, will, emotions, conscience, decision-making, words, thoughts, and actions) to HEAR CLEARLY, and RECEIVE, God’s rhema words.

This is how praying with your heart regularly for a few minutes each day profoundly sharpens your spiritual antennae.

So that, when the Lord is trying to communicate something to you, the chances of your hearing it —and hearing it clearly —are immeasurably greater than if you didn’t pray in this way.

But take note:

God does not speak these rhema words to you during your times of heart prayer.

He speaks them to you outside it.

For example, when you’re in the middle of an ordinary chore or activity such as…

• reading
• mowing the lawn
• waiting in an office for an appointment
• doing your grocery shopping
• attending a party
• reflecting on the scriptures
• washing the dishes
• preparing a talk for your work colleagues
• driving in your car
• cooking supper
• brushing your teeth
• tending to your sick child or grandchild
• talking on the phone (!)

Among other things, God can use rhema words to

• • • • encourage
      • warn
      • console
      • guide
      • bring you healing in mind, body, and spirit —especially in a time of pain, crisis, or trauma

He can use rhema words to see you safely through your pain or crisis or trauma so that you can maintain your peace, joy, strength, and freedom and receive full healing in mind, body, and spirit

So …in your journey with the Lord, it is important to remember the difference between logos words and rhema words and how the Lord uses each one.

In fact, in my experience of walking with God intimately over the last 37 years, understanding this distinction can be critical to your relationship and friendship with God, your spiritual journey, and your overall health and wellbeing.

                                             

Trusting God

But in order to hear the Lord speaking to you through His rhema words, you have to be able to trust that God desires greatly to speak directly to you.

In other words, you have to have developed your trust in Him.

And to develop your trust, you have to KNOW that He loves you just as you are, sins and all, without any attaching conditions.

There is a simple, highly effective, and guaranteed way to KNOW, to EXPERIENCE FOR YOURSELF, that God loves you just as you are, sins and all, without having to change you first.

This is the way of entering into His presence directly and praying with your heart.

Because as night follows day, once you are in the Lord’s presence, you will also EXPERIENCE HIS LOVE —firsthand, directly, one-on-one, for yourself, without the usual filters.

If you do this regularly for a few minutes each day —the same time it takes to drink a cup of coffee —your trust with the Lord builds steadily.

 

As your intimacy builds, your TRUST continues to grow.

Soon, you will have developed the confidence necessary to ask the Lord questions.

Soon, you will soon develop the confidence to EXPECT Him to answer you.

At the same time, you will develop the confidence to present your anxieties and problems to Him without fear or reserve.

Gradually you and the Lord will have started a 24/7 conversation —a genuine, intimate, two-way, free-flowing conversation that will last for the rest of your life.

And you’ll take your conversation with the Lord with you when you meet Him face to face, when He looks into your eyes for the first time in person, in eternity.

Are you starting to see how trust grows?

As your trust develops, and you are reading or reflecting on the scriptures, you’ll start to recognize when the Lord is speaking a rhema word directly to you, into your situation.

You’ll gradually have a certainty about this.

----

Had the Lord not communicated to me His magnificent gift of rhema words during 2 severe crises in my life, it would have been immeasurably harder for Him and for me to have related to each other in the intimate way we did, and continue to do.

It would have been incalculably harder for me to trust Him and to receive His sorely needed wisdom and guidance.

It would have been far harder for Him to fully rescue me and heal me in my times of inner pain, trauma, or assault from the forces of evil.

As a result, I would have missed out on a KEY portion of my own salvation story!

Are you starting to see the intimate connection between the scriptures (both logos AND rhema) and your salvation story?

Here’s how I helped the scriptures come alive for Nel, a Retired Librarian

Jan’s approach truly enlarges our understanding both of the scriptures and of prayer. With her guidance and accompaniment, I arrive at a much richer understanding of both the scriptures and of the God at their centre.

A Warning from Jesus Himself

About Mis-Using the Scriptures!

An intellectual knowledge of the logos, the written and unchanging word of God, is vital.

But you should never be tempted to confuse this intellectual knowledge of God with a knowledge of God the Person.

Saul, who later became Paul the Apostle, had known the Old Testament scriptures inside and out.

Yet he missed the Lord!

It would take a dramatic conversion for him to come to know the person of God at the centre of those scriptures.

So …never be tempted to regard the scriptures as a substitute for a relationship with God.

The scriptures are the proverbial finger pointing to the moon.

The finger is not the moon.

It merely points to the moon!

Likewise, the scriptures are not the Person. They only point to Him!

In case you think I am making this up, I ask you to listen carefully to the words of Jesus Himself as He makes this very same point to the self-righteous Pharisees:

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

John 5:39-40 NKJV

(My emphasis)

In other words, says Jesus, the scriptures ‘testify’ to God, but they are not God Himself.

If you make the mistake of thinking they are, says Jesus, you will have neither Jesus nor eternal life!

So … Jesus makes a clear distinction between searching the scriptures for testimony of Him and meditating on and praying the scriptures in order to develop a direct relationship with Him.

The latter requires a HEART connection that takes precedence over the scriptures as a merely intellectual concept.

When you’re dealing with any kind of challenge, including personal pain and/or evil, the one thing you cannot afford to do is to miss the Lord.

You see, it is He alone who has the power to heal your broken heart, and enables you to resist, overcome and draw huge blessings out of the very evil that aims to destroy you and your loved ones. 

Exercise

Reflect for 2 minutes on the following:

When Jesus quoted the scriptures to the Devil during His temptations in the wilderness, He was not merely reciting words of scripture.

He was praying the scriptures with His whole being, His heart, thereby genuinely uniting Himself with the Person at their centre, His Father.

When YOU use the scriptures as preparation for prayer of the heart, YOU are in fact praying the scriptures in a similar way!

 

Scroll down for your Recap …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recap …