Prophetic Rhema – BT3:  “The Promise” is the rhema Word of God not logos, gramma, or graphe writings

 

 

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Do your own homework with Wikipedia’s “Rhema (doctrine).”  Rhema words are always directly-spoken/heard first-hand in the here and now, never heard or read or learned second-hand.  As we’ve seen in the previous BLOGs, logos is the common word for “communication that focuses on message content rather than on the delivery method as rhema does.” Thus “the logos of God” is best translated “Message of God” instead of “Word of God,” which not one English bible consistently does!

 

The relationship of rhema to logos is seen in Hebrews 12:18-21, 25 that recounts from Exodus 20:18-21 God attempting to speak personally to all of the Jews on Mt. Sinai by His “Voice whose directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words made the hearers beg that no further logos message be spoken to them.”  Isn’t that what ultra-conservative, bible-only Christians are doing when they discount modern-day prophecy in exchange for bible study?  They really are no different than the Pharisees who “diligently search the graphe scriptures supposing that you may take hold of genuine-life everlasting by-the-means-of them, but it is they that witness/testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me for genuine-life” per John 5:39-40.  Coming to Jesus is not the same as coming to the bible!  They opted for the bible!

 

Gramma “letters” or “written code” literally means “alphabet or words formed from such,” and is where we get the word “grammar.” Graphe is a collection of these “letters” into a book, in this case, translated “scripture” that strictly speaking makes up ONLY the Old Testament, according to all Jews and even all Christians until 208 AD when a Roman Catholic theologian named Tertullian starting applying the term to New Testament writings in order to brag to the Jews and Christian heretics that Christians had authoritative “scripture” also!

 

It just breaks my heart to see so many English translations obscure the radical difference – even Wikipedia states there is “a substantial distinction” – between these completely different-in-kind Greek words of rhema and logos, mistakenly translating them both as the “Word of God.”  What the NT says about each of these is completely different-in-kind, but you will never know any of this from reading many English bibles that obscure this essential truth – see Bible Info!

 

Every promise of God comes through trusting-relying-faith, just as “the promise to Abraham and his offspring . . . [obviously] came not through the [much later] Mosaic Law of conditional-favor but through the righteousness of trusting-relying-faith” (a).  So we are to be “imitators of those through trusting-relying-faith and patience to inherit the promises” (b), who “through trusting-relying-faith . . . obtained promises” (c), so “remember your leaders….imitating their trusting-relying-faith” (d), even that “we might receive the promised Spirit through trusting-relying-faith” (e).  How does this relate to prophetic rhema words? <Notes> a) Roman 4:13, b) Hebrews 6:12, c) Hebrews 11:33, d) Hebrews 13:7, e) Galatians 3:14.

 

Is your trusting-relying-faith limited to relying on God to speak to you only through a bible of men’s writings who once had first-hand contact with God, but long after this fact, were loosely collected by many other men, many who were no longer directly in contact with God, especially if you read the early Church writings to see that many of these men were very politically motivated?  Then that is YOUR limitation.  If you can still do this after finding out that countless manuscripts having been lost or destroyed by the ravages of time and warring invasions, and that scholars are still arguing over what the actual text is from those we have found (textual criticism), let alone an accurate translation of them (hermeneutics), then that’s YOUR limitation and you get what your trusting-relying-faith can accept!  Your reality is limited by your faith!

 

If you simply don’t believe these facts I’ve state, start using Wikipedia and other scholarly resources to dig into these topics:  Bible Manuscripts, Textual Variants, Textual Criticism, Bible Translation, and Bible Canon.  You will be absolutely shocked that many of YOUR views of the bible gathered from pulpits and Christian book tidbits is not based on much fact!  However, if you have trusting-relying-faith in God’s promised-Spirit that you can hear first-hand just as much as the original writers did, even from such verses about “the promise” as Acts 1:4, 2:17-18, 33, 39, then that’s exactly what you will get also!  Our trusting-relying-faith is the only thing that limits our genuine, experiential, relational epignosis knowledge of God!

 

The real promises of supernatural, zoe genuine-life are through the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of Christ’s Holy Spirit (a), which is God’s singular “Word” (b) spoken faithfully by Jesus (c) because He had the Holy Spirit without measure (d). This sure isn’t scripture but “every directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word that comes from the mouth of God that man shall zoe genuinely-live on” (e).  Many preachers claim: “The bible is God’s Word that will never come back empty-handed, but accomplish what it was sent out to do.”  However, God actually says:  “My [singular] directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word that goes out of My mouth that … shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (f).  Directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of God make nothing impossible for Him (g). <Notes> a) John 6:63, 68, b) John 8:47, c) John 17:8; 14:10, d) John 3:34, e) Matthew 4:4 citing Deuteronomy 8:3, f) Isaiah 55:11, g) Luke 1:37.

 

Rhema words have the Spirit’s power to create universes (a).  It is Christ’s powerfully-enabling Voice that sustains all things (a).  God’s rhema word endures forever and it is this that originally made up the content of the preached logos gospel message (b).  This verbal preaching is the apostles’ witness (c) and ordinary Christians preaching the logos gospel message of God with boldness that God gave them by the Spirit (d).  Their logos gospel message of rhema words alone can save us (e), because it is Christ’s rhema words that will judge all people on the last day (f). <Notes> a) Hebrews 1:3, b) 1 Peter 1:25; Acts 5:20, c) Acts 5:32, d) Acts 11:14, e) John 12:47-48, f) Acts 4:31.

 

Furthermore, it is the “directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word that is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that is, the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word of trusting-relying-faith that we proclaim” (a) that produces trusting-relying-faith by hearing the directly-spoken prophetic rhema word of Christ (b).”  But how?  By their preaching:  “Their voice that has gone out to all the earth, their directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words to the ends of the world” (c) – not by reading about any logos messages in a bible thousands of years later!  Rhema words need to be near us, that is, in our mouths (d) and on the tablets of our hearts as was promised (e), for this is God’s real desire (f). <Notes> a) Romans 10:8, b) Romans 10:17, c) Romans 10:18, d) by the confession of our faith: 1 Timothy 6:12; Hebrews 10:23, e) Romans 2:15, 10:8-9; 2 Corinthians 3:2-3; Jeremiah 17:1, 31:33 cited in Hebrews 8:10, 10:16, f) Proverbs 3:3, 7:3.

 

God’s rhema words are what washes, ceremonially ‘cleans,’ or sanctifies (a) the Church (b), not a logos messages in a bible canonized 367-397 years later!  Rhema words of God are the ‘goodness’ Christians are to have tasted and/coupled tasted the Holy Spirit’s miracles of the coming age (c).  It is what we are to treasure up and ponder (d).  Christ’s directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words are what is to abide/remain in us, and if they do, then our prayers are answered (e).  Rhema is the voice of the Holy Spirit spoken through the apostles and prophets (f), thus it is the very nature of prophecy (g). <Notes> a) makes holy or pure, b) Ephesians 5:26, c) Hebrews 6:5, d) Luke 2:19, e) John 15:7, f) Acts 28:25; Romans 10:18, g) n@buw’ah, prophetei: a discourse emanating from divine inspiration.

 

I bet you didn’t know that the “sword of the Spirit” that we are to use in spiritual warfare is absolutely not bible verses?  But I was taught that!  Despite what you have heard from the pulpit and so many fluff Christian books, quoting bible verses against the devil isn’t what Paul was talking about! Paul strongly urges:  “Take up . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word of God, thru-the-realizing-channel-of all proseuche conversational-prayer and/coupled deesis supplication-prayer, [that is,] at every time routinely, proseuchomai conversationally-praying by the means of the Spirit” (a). <Notes> a) Ephesians 6:17-18.

 

The NET bible correctly sees this last present participle phrase “proseuchomai conversationally-praying by the Spirit” as the HOW-to step of “take up . . . the sword of the Spirit.” Hearing God speak to us directly doesn’t come from bible study but through patiently-waiting, listening, and watching conversational-prayer, and that’s how we do spiritual warfare – not memorizing scripture so we can shotgun them back to Satan!  I used to have 100s of bible-verse index cards just for this reason and I struggled even more with sin, because “the gramma letter kills, but the Spirit gives zoe genuine-life” (ba). <Notes> a) 2 Corinthians 3:6.

 

Once during a spiritual counseling session, my counselor-friend Elizabeth Brown had a clear vision of “a cold winter with lots of pure white snow that had become as hard as glacier ice. It once was “living/fresh water” in that it rained from the heavens and flowed upon the lands, but over a long winter it had become so hard that few animals could live from it.

 

God’s directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words were actually “fresh, running, and life-giving” water when they were first given thousands of years ago, but once it was written and communicated second-hand to others and collected by men into a canon by 367-397 AD and now read thousands of years later from copies of copies of copies of manuscripts (the number of such is unknown) now removed further from the original intent by translations into 3,324 other languages, they are certainly by definition no longer “fresh, running, and life-giving.” Do you think God meant for us to live off this “glacier ice?” Maybe if you are an Emperor Penguin!  See Spirit-Power-BT3.

 

When you READ written information as logos messages gleaned from gramma letters or graphe books of scripture, whether you later then speak these as directly-heard rhema words to others or write them down with even more gramma letters into a personal letter or epistle or collect them into graphe books like “scripture” for others to read, any of this reading in this long process requires rational, left brain cognition of the logos message’s content to be sunesis understand by rationally ‘connecting the dots’ in order to benefit from it. However, this largely relies on your eyesight and reading ability (or finger sensitivity for brail) and concentration skills, vocabulary comprehension, and mental prowess of IQ, cognitive skills, etc.

 

All of this certainly favors the “wise and learned/understanding” people but excludes the little children – whom the kingdom actually belongs to (a).  It also excludes the blind (b) or dyslexic (c), the uneducated, the poor (d), and the mentally impaired – the other “least among you.” <Notes> a) Matthew 18:3, 19:14; Mark 10:14; Luke 18:16, b) unless they can read brail, c) if they haven’t been retrained to read, d) who often can’t afford to be educated in order read.

 

However, God “shows no favoritism or partiality” (a), so why would God rely on a written bible in multiple ancient languages, which even the scholars are still debating about, to convey His nature and will to others?  Furthermore, shouldn’t we “speak and teach rightly, showing no partiality, but truly teach The Way of God,” like Jesus did (b)?  Did Jesus make it His ministry to teach their bible, the Old Testament?  Some Christians believe so, but Jesus only cites the Old Testament to answer trick questions and to point out its incompleteness and their utter need for a Him as a Messiah to save them from their sin!  Should our ministry of preaching and teaching show partiality to the “wise and learned” by expecting bible reading and intelligent comprehension?  Aren’t Christians to show no partiality in everything we do (c)?  Wasn’t the New Covenant Way supposed to do away with reliance on all forms of man’s “might and power,” especially that of the Jewish religion, and rely solely on the New Covenant’s Spirit of enabling-power (d)?  <Notes> a) Acts 10:34, Romans 2:11, Galatians 2:6, Ephesians 6:9, b) Luke 20:21, c) 1 Timothy 5:21; James 2:1, d) Zechariah 4:6.

 

Reflections:

 

 

As Christian musicians, are you looking to the wrong “word” like the Pharisees did for the promises of God?  Are you trying to fight Satan with bible verses?  Are you trying to live off of 2000 year-old water, supposing this is still “living water?”  Or will you also become a prophet and actually know God and receive the enabling-power of the prophetic-rhema words of God?  Or will you remain duped by the Catholic theologian Tertullian that the New Testament is just more scripture to read, study, memorize, and do as more Christian rules?  If our faith keeps us stuck in the OT way of understanding scripture, than that will limit our experience of God.  Are you studying to hear God when you were told to pray?  Doesn’t requiring the reading comprehension of the bible show favoritism to the “smarty-pants” people, when we are repeatedly told that God doesn’t require this, so neither should we?

 

 

 

 

 

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