Logos and Rhema

I am currently involved in two Bible studies. My small discipleship group is studying Acts, and I am leading a women’s study on Wednesday evenings at my church. The study I am leading is Beloved Disciple: The Life and Ministry of John. The ten-week study includes five lessons per week to complete independently and a weekly 50-minute video to watch as a group. Beth Moore is the author of the study and the speaker on the videos.

The way I’ve been preparing is to complete the five lessons for the week a day or so before Wednesday. Then, on Wednesday mornings (“Mother’s Morning Out”), I prepare for a thirty-minute discussion to precede the video. As I prepare, I pray for God’s direction, and I look back over the week’s lessons at the passages I’ve highlighted and the notes and prayers I have recorded in the margins. So far, God’s direction has been very clear as to what He would have me discuss, and everything I have covered so far has taken almost exactly thirty minutes. As I make notes for our discussion, scripture is constantly coming to mind to back up the points I want to make. I usually know the book where the verse is found, but I don’t always know the chapter and verse. This is where the Blue Letter Bible comes in handy.

As I was preparing for this week’s meeting, God directed me to share a brief testimony with the group about my preparation process. The purpose of the preparation testimony was to demonstrate how the Holy Spirit applies knowledge of the Word. I shared with them how verses constantly come to mind. I never have to search for a verse to back up what I want to say. Rather, a verse initiates a point. I wanted them to understand that if they will commit to studying and knowing the Word, the same thing would happen for them. The Holy Spirit would bring verses to mind when they need them. I shared that I can’t take credit for it because my memory for the mundane has diminished significantly in recent years, but my knowledge of the Word has not. The explanation is found in John 14:26: But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

I never watch the videos in advance but I do usually go ahead and complete the Video Response Sheet using the leader’s handbook in case Beth goes too fast and we miss a point; but this week, I didn’t think to do it. So going into the video, I knew very little about what to expect, and it certainly didn’t inform my preparation for the discussion. The first part of the video discussed divine inspiration of scripture—doctrine about which I am well-informed and agree with completely. Part 2 was titled “Grasping God’s Primary Intention through His Inspiration of John’s Gospel.” Following is an excerpt from the completed Video Response Sheet (Week Five, page 92):

1. One of the overriding themes in the Gospel of John is presented from the very first verse: Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, John wanted his reader to know and to recognize the Word.
2. The Greek term for Word is Logos. Basically, it refers to the expression of God revealed to man. God revealed Himself through His Son and His Word.
3. The only way we will ever really know the Word, both the Person and the print, is to know His words. Both of these verses [John 15:7, Ephesians 6:17] employ the Greek word rhema.

As Beth was reading John 15:7,—If you abide in Me, and My words [rhema] abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.—God spoke to my heart as clearly as any human being in the flesh has ever spoken. Something to the effect of “Katy, as you demonstrated in your testimony earlier, My words [rehma] abide in you. You know the Word [Logos]. It’s time to stop living in defeat and short-changing the work I have done in you.” It was all I could do not to jump up, pause the video, and testify.

To use a phrase my pastor likes to use, I was “freed up.” I tend to be extremely self-critical and to dwell on my sin and short-comings. I also have always been hard pressed to understand exactly what people mean when they talk about their relationship with Christ. It sounds so touchy feely. But later that evening, as I was reflecting on what God was teaching me, I wrote the following words in my journal: “Just as I was wrong to think that walking in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16) would result in some supernatural spirit/energy/ability-not-to-sin boost, I was also wrong to think that my relationship with Christ would be touchy feely. Why would He have a touchy feely relationship with me when I am NOT a touchy feely person?! Your relationship with me was designed for the way you created me!”

It is really hard for me to express exactly what I have grasped here and what it means to me. The bottom line is I have known for a long time that I am saved, and I also recognized that I have a better-than-most knowledge and understanding of Scripture. But now I can say with complete conviction that I know the Word, and because of faithful study, He has gifted me with knowing His words. Now I am prepared for Him to do far more abundantly beyond all that I ask or think according to the power that works within me (Ephesians 3:20).