SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #58 ---- 2/22/99
Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
As We fight The Good Fight
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #59 ---- 2/22/99
TITLE: "Have You A Word From God? (part two) ---- Prov 3:5-8
Dear Co-Laborer in the Kingdom:
Today I greet you from The Ark. I don't know if you've ever written from
such a site, but this is a first for me. It looks very different from
what I imagined, and it is highly unlikely it will float ---- or ever
did.
Actually, I'm at The Ark Retreat Center down on Table Rock Lake in
southwest Missouri for an annual area wide Bible and evangelism
conference. This is my fifth year to participate, and it is always a
delight. This trip, however, I feel incomplete because Jo Ann is not
with me. Tuesday my father was admitted to the hospital with what
appeared to be congestive heart failure.
Tests revealed otherwise, and he came home Friday. Because my mother is
semi-invalid, Jo Ann remained to care for them over the next several days
while I am away ministering. As God brings them all to mind, I would
appreciate your prayers.
Saturday I joined fourteen other evangelistic singers for a 2.5 hour
festival of praise and worship. Sunday I preached and sang in two
wonderful little churches in the area. Monday morning I serve as the
lead off batter with the first of many sermons given by some 22
evangelists over the next two days. Tuesday morning I sing again. So
---- it's a busy time.
HOW IS IT WITH YOU?
Every letter I write I am aware of just how important you are to the
Kingdom's work, and I wonder just how you are doing. You may find it
hard to believe that someone who perhaps doesn't even know you personally
could still be concerned for your well being, but it is indeed true.
After all, if the Lord Jesus is personally interested, isn't it possible
that He could put that same interest in the heart of another?
My deepest desire is that these weekly letters will never lose a sense of
"personal-ness" to you. They are very personal to me, and I long for
the day when you and I see each other face to face, and, together, we can
someday see Him in the same way.
THE REALITY OF RHEMA:
In our culture of intellectualism, scientific discoveries, and high tech
communication, the need for a special Word from God often seems both
unrealistic and unneeded. Yet, as I mentioned last week, I don't know
what I would have done over the years if God had not, in certain special
moments, taken His wonderful "Logos" Word from off the pages of The Book
and thrust them deep into the reality of my spirit with such power that
they shot into the awareness of my soul in blazing, bold print color.
The questions, then, are whether or not this is real, whether it is to be
desired, and whether it can be expected.
To me, the answers to all three are an emphatic "Yes!"
If Jesus declared, "My sheep hear My voice ---- and ---- I know them!",
then it seems completely logical for us to conclude that He will make His
Word alive to our souls at times when we need to hear His voice clearly.
There are more than adequate illustrations of this phenomenon in the
Bible. Last week I mentioned that there were at least fifteen passages
where the word "Rhema" (the revelatory personalized applied word from God
"voiced" into your being) is used.
1. Mt 4:4 -- Jesus makes it clear to Satan that man does not live by
bread alone, but by *every* "Rhema" (applied revelational truth) from
God's Word, and declared great victory.
2. Mt 26:75 -- Peter is reminded of the "Rhema" Jesus spoke to him
about his denying Christ, and it brought great conviction.
3. Lk 1:38 -- Mary acknowledges her awareness of and submission to the
"Rhema" from God delivered by the angel concerning the birth of Jesus,
and she confesses surrender to His Lordship.
4. Lk 2:29 -- Simeon bears witness of Jesus in the temple, yielding to
the "Rhema" of God's promise that he would not see death before he had
seen the Messiah, demonstrating fulfillment of life and the faithfulness
of God's promises.
5. Lk 3:2 -- John the Baptist receives the "Rhema" of God concerning
who his cousin, Jesus, actually is, and begins to proclaim it,
demonstrating courageous obedience.
6. Acts 11:16 -- Peter experiences "Rhema" revelation concerning Jesus'
statements about John the Baptist's ministry, creating assurance to the
early Church leaders in Jerusalem.
7. Acts 28:25 -- Paul, empowered by the Holy Spirit and equipped with
"Rhema" from God, spoke with convicting power to the Jewish leaders who
had visited him in Rome regarding how Israel had rejected the Messiah as
Isaiah had predicted, and the message was now being given to the
Gentiles, resulting in missionary expansion.
8. Rom 10:8 -- Paul declares that it is the "Rhema" of faith that he is
preaching, that brings true salvation.
9 . Rom 10:17 -- Again, Paul makes it clear that "Rhema" ---- applied,
revealed truth ---- is what produces saving faith. "No man comes to the
Father except the Holy Spirit draw him."
10. Eph 5:26 -- Paul indicates that the washing with "Rhema" is what
sanctifies and cleanses us, resulting in a glorious church without spot
or wrinkle, and manifesting holiness and blamelessness before the world.
(Logos without "Rhema" seldom produces anything more than a list of
legalistic rules.)
11. Eph 6:17 -- Paul declares that "Rhema", and not "logos" is the real
weapon of the Holy Spirit, assuring victory when it is used. (That is
why memorizing and spouting scripture often doesn't work for some people
---- the Logos has not been converted into "Rhema".)
12. Heb 1:3 -- The writer describes the Lord Jesus Christ as the One who
upholds all things by the "Rhema" ---- applied, revealed truth ---- about
His power, manifesting His sovereign authority.
13. Heb 6:5 -- A puzzling passage indicating that some who have heard,
understood, and tasted the "Rhema" of God but have not followed through,
showing the great consequence of failing to act on such revelation.
14. Heb 11:3 -- The writer declares that when God spoke in "Rhema", the
worlds came into being from nothing. God spoke, and it was so.
15. I Pet 1:25 -- Peter indicates that, while all created things
eventually die, God's "Rhema" lives forever, and that is the message that
was preached to you and me.
So ---- there is ample evidence that God speaks to our innermost being
---- simply because He has chosen to do so.
WHEN DO RHEMA'S COME?
In the above verses we see a variety of circumstances ---- some
extraordinary, some mundane. In general, we must conclude that Rhema's
come simply when God chooses to give them ---- whenever, and to whomever
He chooses.
Well, my friend, for whatever reason, God chose to give me the second
Rhema shortly after Jo Ann and I were married. And, frankly, it was
neither particularly sensational or personally desired on my part.
In order to appreciate the significance, however, of this special
passage, you need to know that there were a variety of ingredients
surrounding our marriage that necessitated some type of special assurance
that it was, first, of God, and second, that it would endure.
We were both young, and I was an extremely immature, insecure,
frightened, and self absorbed young man with a very unhealthy and
unbiblical view of husband-wife relationships. I was only two years
beyond the experience I described last week with all my emotional and
spiritual baggage still clinging to me in some degree. And, I had
already been engaged to another girl whom I expected to marry.
Jo Ann, on the other hand, knew when I first showed up in her home church
as the son of the new pastor that she was going to marry me. That
notwithstanding, I proceeded on my merry little way ---- until God
brought me up short, and finally caught me up to where she had arrived
two years earlier.
Having just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary three weeks ago, and
with Jo Ann's birthday coming up this Friday, I can tell you, my friend,
that this particular word from God is one of the most blessed passages in
the entire Bible for my family. Though in the early days I did not,
today I cherish it and cling to it as if it were fresh bread given to a
starving man.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your
understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your
paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn
away from evil. It will be healing to your body, and refreshment to your
bones." (Prov 3:5-8)
WHAT DID YOU SAY, GOD?
Now, this verse is for everyone ---- but it's Not just for everyone.
Understand what I mean?
It may not speak to you, but even as I read it again this very moment, my
heart pulsates with the excitement that came to my soul some 40 years
ago.
Jo Ann was actually the one that called it to my attention ---- and I
resented the fact that she got it before I did. However, after I got
over my "pride" thing, I knew she was right ---- that God was right.
At first I didn't see it ---- actually didn't want to see it. But, there
was enough spiritual hunger and insight penetrating through all the walls
I had built around myself that I finally began to comprehend the reality
and the enormity of what God was saying to us.
I still remember the day as if it were yesterday. I was a soon-to-be
senior in college, we had already been through enough marital turbulence
to satisfy twenty years of marriage, and we were sitting in our little
apartment having some devotional time together.
With the sweetness of a teen age girl madly in love with her stumbling
hero, but with the wisdom of a woman far beyond her years, she came
running to me with the enthusiasm of a child and showed me her
"discovery" ---- "Honey, if we will make this passage our 'marriage for
life' guide, God will make our life together more than we could ever
dream!"
By this time, we already had enough wounds and scars we had inflicted on
each other that it was natural to doubt the promise of this passage. Yet
---- I knew it was true. I knew it could happen.
And ---- it gave me hope! I never doubted Jo Ann, her love for me, nor
her spiritual maturity for such a young woman. But I deeply doubted me.
I wondered what kind of love I really had for her ---- was it "agape"?
If it was, then that kind of love wasn't anything like what I thought it
would be.
I wondered if I could work through my emotional garbage adequately to
make her happy ---- I fervently wanted her to be happy.
I wondered if I had it in me to be the kind of husband she needed,
wanted, and most certainly deserved.
So, when the light came on, and that passage was translated from Logos to
Rhema, I was stunned ---- I was speechless ---- I was awed.
I was thrilled!
And, for the very first time since I had known her, I saw my wife through
the eyes of "Agape" love.
She was beautiful! Gorgeous! Fabulous! Awesome! Wow!
What I learned later was that I was now seeing her through the eyes of
Jesus ---- I was seeing her the way He saw her ---- and she was
absolutely a full-fledged, flat-out "Keeper"!
A second thing I learned many years later is that marriage exists on
several levels. When this happened, Jo Ann and I had been physically and
legally married for quite some time.
Our intellectual marriage took some work, and our emotional marriage even
more. But we became spiritually as one the evening God opened my heart
to that wonderful promise.
I will be forever indebted to Jo Ann and grateful to the Lord for opening
the wonderful truths of Proverbs 3:5-8 to me. It has, indeed, been all
that God intended ---- the bedrock promise from His Word that our
marriage was 1) by His design, 2) that it could and would survive any
storm that came its way, 3) that it would prosper and be blessed, and
4) that it would be wonderful.
It has been all that ---- and so much more.
DOES YOUR MARRIAGE HAVE A RHEMA?
My friend, one of the greatest needs today is for marriages to have some
Divine promise to rest on. You don't have to look around long to realize
that our traditional conditions and foundations of marriage are often
crumbling at the feet of many husbands and wives.
The "'til death do us part" won't carry it. "Marriage for life"
convictions may not sustain a marriage as they once might have.
You need a Rhema for a marriage in today's world.
Does your marriage have one?
Has God given you His word that your marriage will last ---- and prosper?
You may have given your word, but has God given you His special word?
I am here to tell you, my friend, that ---- He Has! You may not have
heard it, and you may not have seen it. You may not have received it.
But ---- I believe there is a Rhema ---- a special revelatory Divine Word
for every husband and wife, for every husband-to-be and wife-to-be.
If you don't already know what it is, you'd best be searching it out.
Life's storms are greater than ever, the future is shorter than ever, and
the task is more demanding and challenging than ever.
I urge you ---- I beg you ---- find out what God has to say about your
marriage, my friend. If you don't have a word from God that is clear and
sure concerning your marriage, you will have a hard time hearing what
else He may be saying to you about your ministry, your family, and your
life in general.
REJOICING IN THE RHEMA:
"Father, I praise you with all my being for my wife, and for the
revelation of your Divine and eternal purposes for the two of us together
as husband and wife. You are an incredible God! Thank you, thank you,
thank you!
"I pray that You will encourage, heal, reassure, restore, or repair any
marriage that needs Your special touch today. Oh, Father ---- what You
have done for Jo Ann and me, I pray You will do again for someone. Let
them know the joy and purity of a marriage only You could offer ----
physically, intellectually, emotionally, and Spiritually. Amen"
Dear friend ---- be blessed in Jesus' mighty and wonderful name.
In His Bond of Grace and Love,
Bob Tolliver ---- (Rom 1:11-12)
Copyright February, 1999. All rights reserved.
If this letter has blessed you and you know of someone else who needs to
be encouraged, feel free to forward it in its entirety to all such people
you know.
If you would like a list of past issues which you could receive upon
request, just let us know.
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Hang in there! I'm with you!
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TO SUBSCRIBE, send any message to <[email protected]>.
Bob Tolliver -- (Rom 1:11-12)
Life Unlimited Ministries
E-Mail: [email protected]
Ph: 417-275-4854
Fax: 417-275-4855
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