Rhema
Rhema is a Greek word used throughout scripture to mean “spoken word.” The idea communicates a fresh word, resonating in your heart and spirit in a specific and meaningful way. We invite you to turn a listening ear to consider what The Holy Spirit is stirring in your spirit, mind and body this season.
Hello my friend, I want to tell you that God is speaking to you. How does that make you feel? Anxious? Comforted? Or maybe as a long-time believer, you've heard it a million and one times. Maybe its effect has become too worn with age.
Perhaps you've discovered that God doesn't yell (except through pain and suffering). That was a joke (and likely you're nodding your head right now). Most of the time, his voice is soft and subtle, and unfortunately drowning in our constant distractions.
If this blog title "Rhema" seems foreign, it's because it's an ancient root word from the Greek, used by both Plato and Aristotle to describe sentence structure. It's seldom used today, but in our Christian heritage, it translates to "God's word spoken to you."
But hold on, there's a crucial distinction between past and present here. Our “historical” vs our "right now."
We believers are taught that God HAS spoken through the ancient texts of the bible. And our modern brand of Protestantism teaches us that he also speaks to us in REAL TIME. Our faith is not just a historical belief structure, but an ongoing relationship with two way communication. Jesus is the Word made flesh, and The Word of God is active and alive in the present.
That's amazing and life-changing, as it should be.
But what about when it's not? In other words, how do we get stuck, mired into something far less than God intended? If I may, let me describe this in two words - knowledge and revelation. An unintended consequence of our life-long church attendance is a kind of "social familiarity" with the Word of God, and with the accompanying language (Christianese, as we jokingly call it).
I know that idea may sound off-base, but hear me out.
Unfortunately our human nature dictates that familiarity breeds taking something for granted. Knowledge can get tucked away and unused, in our mental archives. Plus it's all too easy, as we hurry through our daily lives as simply doers, to just check things off our to-do lists (or those To-NOT-do Ten Commandments). Staying busy can be emotionally easier than personally relating to our Abba Father. You know, hiding behind our workaholism.
Knowledge is not the end-all.
We also need revelation. An earlier pastor of mine used to refer to a "quickening of the spirit." Like a sudden wake-up call, it usually happens for me WHEN I'm too busy. It could be a new idea (an "ah ha" moment), but mostly it's something I've been dealing with for quite some time, but now I suddenly get it.
But here's the thing: we MUST take the time to listen.
And for that we need to not just slow down, we need to stop. And sit at his feet. Truthfully, we don't have unlimited capacity to pay attention. The white noise chaos even seems to invade our sleep and our dreams. Spending quiet awake time with God helps clear the clutter and quiet the noise.
But it's not a formula, nor should it be. It requires dialog - talking and listening. And best of all, it produces an authenticity in our relationship with our Father God. And that's when it gets real!
About the Author
Terry is a man in constant motion to explore new horizons. He has a thirst for new places and faces, and a deep love for the natural world - with a weakness for waterfalls and sunsets. All of this venturing out helps to both ground and inspire him, because it opens him up to people, with their vast, collective array of experiences, outlooks and responses.
He finds all of this fascinating and sees that it has encouraged the growth of something crucial in his Christian development: empathy and compassion toward his brothers and sisters on this planet.