At my church in Midland/Odessa, we offer an eight-week class called Free Indeed and an all-day Saturday activation designed to heal wounds from the past and break bondage from the enemy. The second week of the class is designed to teach us how to hear God. We put that class upfront because much of our healing and much of our freedom depends on hearing God speak to us.
As you know, all things in the kingdom come to us by grace, but that grace is often activated by an expression of faith. How often did Jesus say, “according to your faith”? One of the verses that nearly every Christian knows is, “So then, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Rom.10:17). Those who discipled me as a young Christian believed that verse meant that faith comes through Bible study. Of course, Bible study is essential, but that would mean that faith comes from reading the word rather than hearing the word of God.
Generally speaking, there are two Greek words that are translated “word’ in reference to a communication from God. The first is logos. It typically refers to the written word of God or the revealed word of God for all men – the scriptures. The second Greek word is rhema. Rhema is a fresh word of God for the moment for an individual or a church. That expression or communication by God would be what we typically call a prophetic word for a person or a church or a word of knowledge in which the individual receives a revelation specific for himself or a situation he or she is dealing with.
Interestingly, the Greek word in Romans 10:17, which declares that faith comes by hearing the word, is the word rhema. Certainly, faith can and does come through reading the written word, since the word (logos) of God is active and living (Hebrews 4:12). But, in his letter to the Romans, Paul emphasizes the personal experience of hearing God speak to you as a major faith builder.
I still remember the first “prophetic word” ever spoken over me by a man I had never met and who knew nothing about me. He referenced some experiences I had walked through in another church a year or two earlier. He then spoke to some questions and personal conversations that my wife and I had talked about on the way to church that morning, and declared some of the things God was getting ready to do in my life. The experience of hearing this man “read my mail” was amazing, but the greater impact on me was the confirmation that God truly was personally involved in my life and had actual feelings about the things that had happened to me. My faith grew in that moment more than in years of Bible study and sermons. In many ways, logos teaches us about God, but rhema allows us to experience him.
Many of us have a general belief in the promises of God and a general belief that God loves us because he loves everyone. Fewer of us actually believe that he is intimately involved in our lives and that his promises are for us personally, not just for the church as a whole. When we begin to hear God, our view of him and ourselves changes. Our faith becomes personal rather than general.
What we need to know is that God is speaking to us all the time in many different ways. His goal is to develop an intimate relationship with us, so he reveals himself to us as a person who wants to build a friendship with us and even as a suitor wanting us to fall in love with him.
When hearing God, we can make two mistakes. The first is believing that God no longer speaks to his people except through the written word – which is what many churches teach. If we believe that, then we will simply ignore his voice when we hear it or tune it out altogether. The second mistake is believing that God only speaks to us in one way, when he is actually revealing himself to us in many ways.
Sometimes we hear the still small voice in our head and recognize it as something from the Father that the Holy Spirit is uploading spirit, into our conscious mind. Occasionally, people still get to hear his audible voice. At times, by his Spirit, he highlights a passage of scripture that takes hold if us and reveals a truth that changes us. Sometimes he speaks to us through his people – the preacher, a group leader, a friend, an author, a stranger, etc. At other times, he reveals himself through his creation like an artist that has revealed his heart and his dreams in a painting. He even reveals himself in the midst of terrible tragedy with a grace for the moment and a peace that passes understanding while we are sitting in a cold, sterile waiting room. In a time of need, when we can feel as if God has abandoned us, he reveals his love through his people in every card, phone call, bouquet, and casserole that comes to our door in that time of need.
When we recognize these rhema moments, it builds our faith … not just that God exists, but that he exists for us. We discover, over and over, that he loves us personally and has a personal destiny in mind for each of just as any loving father would. The average believer misses most of these communiques from heaven. Even those who believe God still speaks to us, may wonder why God hasn’t spoken to us lately because we tune into only one expression of himself to us.
We need to learn to recognize his voice and the revelation of himself to us on a daily basis – even an hourly basis. We need to know that he is speaking, even when we don’t hear the small still voice or the thunder from heaven. He shows himself to us in a sunrise, in a parking place when we need it, in a job that opened up for us, in a call from a friend, a dream at night, or another answered prayer. These, and more, are all ways he is speaking to us. Listen for him, look for him, sense his quiet presence…and faith will grow.
