By John David Hicks
God reveals His will in the Bible and speaks into your spirit (Rev. 2:7). In the Greek, logos is God’s written word and counsel. The rhema is God’s spoken Word to you personally. “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). You can recognize God’s voice when He speaks in the Bible and through the Holy Spirit as He speaks into your spirit. The question is, are you listening?
A.W. Tozer put it like this: “What sense does it make for God to be silent and write a book and then be silent again. What makes the Bible distinct is the voice of God. Otherwise it’s just a book. It is God’s personality that gives life to the book…Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John.6:63). The life is in the speaking words. (Both LOGOS and RHEMA). God’s word in the Bible can have power only because it corresponds to God’s word in the universe. It is the present Voice (RHEMA) which makes the written Word (LOGOS) all powerful. Otherwise it would lay locked in slumber within the covers of a book.”
The rule of prayer is “Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete” (John 16:24). When you ask in prayer you give God the opportunity to fulfill His Word. “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).
Your part in prayer is to “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7–8). Paul said, “We also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13). Jesus promised, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matthew 21:22).
God reveals His Will to you through a logos or rhema word. You ask that it be fulfilled according to His Word. “And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend” (James 2:23). This faith filled prayer “is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14–15).
James reminds his readers, “You do not have, because you do not ask God” (James 4:2). If you lack wisdom, “ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (1:5). If you need guidance for tomorrow, rely on God (4:11-16). If you are troubled; need forgiveness or healing, come to God (5:13-16). Remember, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (5:16).