The Word Works!: THE RHEMA OF GOD II

Rhema releases some kind of energy and strength in you. Oh, the power of one revelation of God, one truth of God released into your spirit. It is worth more than much study in the flesh. Some believers complain they got nothing when they spoke the Word. But if you’ll interview such people carefully, you’ll get to know that they acted in unbelief and not faith. You can even go to Bible school and receive head knowledge, but not a Rhema Word from God. Rhema is a word that comes by revelation of the Holy Spirit, a life giving word. It brings to life anything that is dead in your life.

I found this in one Christian site: “There are enough churches stuffed with enough Bible knowledge to change the world, if it worked that way. Books, tapes, seminary, people saying, feed me, feed me, ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth, getting more and more knowledge, but it is all Logos and not Rhema to them. The Word becomes life, it becomes Rhema and you are fed when the Word goes forth out of your mouth. It becomes spiritual bread when you speak it. So if you want to become stronger in your faith, then start speaking forth the Word of God.”

In our world today, you look at some people’s lives and it’s a mess. You have some homeless, destitute, under bridges and on streets. Sometimes we think it’s because they didn’t have good education but this is often not the case. I’m not undermining the important of education though, but you can have the best of education and be poor. Get this; wherever people are, their tongues got them there. Your tongue brought you this far. Wrong confession is the problem with most believers. People would rather lay the blame of their misfortunes on God. They say, “God wanted me to have this and that’s it!” No and a thousand times no! It’s not God’s will that you just have anything.

If you didn’t know, God doesn’t run anybody’s life. If indeed, He were, then He must have been a failure, and He’s not. God has given us the Bible to influence our destiny and to control our future. Some people say, “When I get to heaven, I would have a lot to ask God for the terrible things He made me experience in life.” Well, you would have no question to ask God for what you allowed to happen to you. Whatever becomes of you is really up to you, not God.

It’s absolutely imperative that you speak forth the Word concerning you, because until you do, it will have no power and it won’t work! This is one of the major reasons why some believers seem to struggle in their lives. It’s like having a Bible in your hands. Even though it contains some scriptures on having power over demons, you just can’t deal with the demons by having it under your pillow. A verse has to be alive in you so that you can deal with the devil when he shows up. You wouldn’t have to open up the Bible to find a verse; the one that’s alive in you will stir up faith in you to deal with any situation.

If things go differently from how they ought to, you can change them; you can restore them. In the Bible days, the prophet Daniel was praying about the deliverance of Israel from Babylon. Being worried that there was still no change at the time, he took the book of Jeremiah the prophet and found out from it when the children of Israel were supposed to be delivered from captivity. Realizing from the book that the set time had come, he prayed and prophesied accurately, bringing about their deliverance (Daniel 9:1-19). He mended the aion of his day through the Word of God that came out of him.

Be careful about the things you say, especially about your children. Pastor David Yongi Cho tells a story of a woman who came to him and complained bitterly about her daughter. She talked about how wayward and evil sinner her daughter was. Pastor Cho said to the woman, “You’re in greater trouble than your daughter. Can’t you just for a moment see a beautiful, successful, honest, decent daughter?” She continued to buttress on how bad her daughter was, and how she was even in a hotel room with a man. Pastor Cho rebuked her words and said, “Well, as long as you see your daughter like that, that’s the way she’s going to be. But you can decide to see her coming back home born again, filled with God’s Spirit, a wonderful Christian.”

He said he wasn’t going to pray about it until she started seeing that, and instructed her to write this down and declare everyday: “My daughter is born-again. She’s filled with the Spirit. She’s a wonderful Christian and she’s coming back home.” She took the slip home and did as the pastor demanded. She read it aloud everyday until she got so filled with it and began to see her daughter like she declared. Take notice she didn’t see her daughter that good until she confessed and confessed and confessed. Several weeks later, she came back to Pastor Cho and said excitedly, “Pastor, my daughter is a wonderful Christian. She’s saved; she’s full of the Holy Spirit and she’s coming back home. Oh I just can’t wait, thank you Lord!”

Oh, only if Christian parents knew they could alter the future of their children through faith-filled words. It doesn’t matter how stubborn or bad your child is – be it in academics, social life etc. you can change it. Some go as far as cursing their children; no, do not let this be you. I know how most parents would like to talk about every evil behaviour they see their child come up with, but thank God knowledge is come. You can alter the future of your child to suite you. No matter how terrible they are performing, make it a point to talk the opposite of that – speak the rights words only about your children.

During the cause of my research, I found a tradition of Jewish mothers. I learnt that everyday as their children grew, they would speak God’s blessings upon their lives and confess His Word on them. The result was that apart from causing these children to become more confident as they grew up, the words actually followed them and caused them to prosper. This is scriptural. If you’re a mother or parent, you can do same. No matter how bad your children, if you’ll get a hold of the Word of faith and declare God’s blessings upon them, they’ll most definitely turn out to be the best ever!

Get this: do not curse or say wrong stuffs about the Church. Even if things are not really progressing or moving as they should, as far as the Church is concerned, mind your words. You can say, “The power of God is moving in the Church like never before”, instead of saying things like, ‘The church is weak, needing revival” and all sorts of negative things. Declare that things are working out right in the Church. Remember that you’re part of the Church and whatever you say about the Church will reflect on you and affect your life. Sometimes we’ve got to be smart as children of God; thank God for the gift of the Holy Spirit!

Talking about rhema, learn to be specific in your faith proclamations. You don’t say, for instance, “I have the best from God.” What is that best thing you want? Is it knowledge, then declare that you have the best knowledge from God. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8).

God doesn’t want us “beating about the bush”. If money is what you want, claim the specific amount. Don’t say, “I have money.” Be specific! Rev Kenneth E. Hagin tells a story of what the Lord once told him about money. The Lord said to him, “Don't pray for money anymore. You have authority through My Name. I have already put gold, silver, and cattle on a thousand hills. Instead of praying that I will do it, simply say, 'Satan, take your hands off my money.' Claim what you need.” He asked the Lord how to do this, and He replied, “If you need $200 this week, say, 'Satan, take your hands off my money. I claim $200 this week.” He continued to use this key and it always worked. We need to be specific.

When you take a look at the ministry of Jesus, He often asked people what they wanted Him to do for them. He could obviously see the need that the person needs such and such to be complete; yet, He asked for what they wanted from Him. If it’s wisdom you need for instance, you say, “I have wisdom now; thank God for it.” Why? Because the Word says, “it shall be given.” It didn’t say “sometimes” or “maybe”; it shall always be given. So you keep declaring, “I’m full of wisdom, The Spirit of God living in me is my wisdom, Christ is my wisdom. Thank you Lord!” (1 Corinthians 1:30). When you declare from the Word of God, knowing that it’s His will for you, it’ll inspire more faith in you.

God always answers our specific requests, so do not accept substitutes from the devil. We are to speak to specific mountains (problems) we’re dealing with (Mark 11:22-24). The Word says that he who has doubt in his heart is like the waves of the sea, which are troubled by the driving of the wind. And let it not seem to such a man that he will get anything from the Lord; for there is a division in his mind, and he is uncertain in all his ways. The person is double-souled, and is like the man who says today, “I will do such and such”, and tomorrow, “I won't”. The reason why the one tossed to and fro cannot receive from God has nothing to do with whether God would give it to him or not. It has everything to do with the person.

If the person doesn’t get a hold of what he claims, then it’s up to him. Contrast Jesus’ words “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32) and His other words “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12). It’s God's good pleasure to give us the kingdom but there is a warfare involved. We must take the kingdom. The only way to do this is through spoken words, the Word of God revealed to us as rhema. Our mouths are not just for eating and drinking; it’s also for charting the course of our lives.

Don’t forget that the Bible tells us to reign in life. The truth is that every one of us who has been born again and has received the life of God has come into a kingly state. Seems surprising right? There’s another reality, and it is that we’re no longer servants in the realm of spiritual death, but we have passed out of death and Satan's realm. We are supernatural men from the heavenly kingly lineage. When you consider creation from the book of Genesis, you’d notice that we were never made to be slaves. Adam was made to reign as a king under God.

We were made in the image and likeness of God. Our papa Adam was created on terms of equality with God, and he could stand in God's presence without any consciousness of inferiority. The problem is that he sinned and fell short of the glory of God. But don’t forget this was the reason why Christ came, to reconcile us to God, so that we can have back the dominion Adam lost to Satan. I do wonder why some people call us braggadocios when we declare we’re in the same class with God. Well, that’s the reason why we’re peculiar (1 Peter 2:9).

David wrote in Psalm 8:4-5: “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.” Some would get confused and conclude that this verse is talking about man being a little lower than angels and not God. Well, in some translations there is a number or letter by the word “angels” in this text. If you look in the margin you'll find that the Hebrew word here is Elohim – the same word or name for God. So the Hebrew Bible is actually saying that God made us a little lower than Himself.

After forming man out of the dust of the earth, God breathed into him the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). This so powerful. The word translated “breath” in this verse is the Hebrew word “neshamah” {nesh-aw-maw'} (Strong’s #5397) and it means spirit. God is Spirit and He imparted this to man so that he’ll live, praise God. This means that God has made us as much like Himself as possible. He made us in His very image and class of being that He is Himself. He gave Adam so much authority that He let him give names to His creation (vegetable, fruit, animal etc.) So is it a taboo to say that man belongs to the realm of God? Absolutely not!

God made man to be king and to rule over everything that had life (Genesis 1:26, 28). Man was master. He lived on terms of equality with God. Let’s not forget that God is a faith God. He created everything in the universe by faith. So since man was created in the image and likeness of God, we can confidently say that man is a faith man. He has a faith Father whom he’s in the same class with. A faith man lives in the creative realm of God. Adam lost all he had to Satan. But through the incarnation that God has given through the new birth, He has bestowed upon us the lost authority we had in the Garden of Eden.

Brethren, let’s give ourselves to the study of the Word of God to have our minds renewed (Romans 12:2). One of the greatest needs of church members today is to have renewed minds. We’re spirit beings, and the only way to feed our true self (spirit) is to give ourselves to the study and meditation of the Word of God. One major reason some believers think wrong is the inadequacy of the Word of God in them. You always can tell if a person's believing is right or wrong by what he says. If his confession is wrong, his believing is wrong.

If a Christian’s believing is wrong, his thinking is wrong. If his thinking is wrong, it's because his mind has not been renewed with the Word of God. We should treat God’s Word with the same reverence we would treat Jesus if He were here in the flesh. Joshua 1:8 declares, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” The word translated “meditate” is the Hebrew word “hagah” {haw-gaw'} and it means to “mutter”, “utter” or “speak”. We’re to mutter the scripture or more or less move and mutter!

You are speaking to yourself and allowing yourself to hear those words so that they will produce faith within you. The Word says you should not let the scriptures depart from your mouth; you are to speak it. “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach” (Romans 10:8). It is first put into your mouth, then it goes into your heart. Heart here stands for your Spirit; so the more you speak forth the Word, the more your spirit catches the revelation. You’re to make a conscious daily proclamation of the scripture, the rhema of God on what you want to change in your life.

How many times did you see the promises of God, got so excited and left it that way. You’re not to let go of that word that you need for the now. Maybe you spoke it once, but you didn’t rest in it, you didn’t mutter it to yourself and you didn’t confess it. What you’ve got to know is that because you didn’t rest on that verse of scripture and make confessions on it, you didn’t come to faith in it. Most of the time we get the wrong definition for faith. You see, faith is actually speaking the Word of God that isn’t so in your life, until it becomes so and releasing it by faith. The Bible says that God calls things that be no as though they were (Romans 4:17), and that’s faith. This is why I dealt with the fact that we’re in the same class with God, we’re His offspring.

Faith is calling something you do not have as though you had it. Look at Jesus. Lazarus was dead, but He referred to him as sleeping. This doesn’t make sense, isn’t it? The disciples got confused, so Jesus had to come to their level to tell them Lazarus is dead. He had been dead for 4 good days and stinking, but Jesus resurrected him. Everyone said Lazarus is dead, but Jesus said he’s sleeping. Jesus needed to wake him up from sleep and He did. Praise God! (John 11:1-44).You see, faith makes you look so foolish on the outside, but remember life is spiritual. If you’re spiritually tough, life is easy! That’s why we’re to study and meditate on the Word, for that’s the way to grow.