Hearing God's Voice Produces Faith

Hearing God’s voice produces faith. Many people long for faith and struggle for faith and run to and fro seeking faith, but they don’t achieve it because they haven’t discovered the secret of faith. Faith comes by hearing God’s voice.

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ,”

This is stated in Romans chapter 10, verse 17. So faith comes from hearing, hearing from the word of Christ.

We need to understand that in the New Testament Greek, there are two distinct words, each of which in English is translated by the English word “word.” These two distinct Greek words are logos (L-O-G-O-S) and rhema (R-H-E-M-A). Now, if we don’t see the difference, we won’t grasp the meaning of what I’m saying today.

Let’s look at logos first. Logos is one of the great concepts of the Greek language. Let me say that I studied Greek since I was 10 years old, and I’m qualified to teach it at university level. I only say that just so that you may know I have some idea of what I’m talking about. Logos is one of the great concepts of the Greek language. It has all sorts of meanings. It means mind, counsel, reason. It’s comprehensive.

Really, logos in the Bible is the mind of God. It’s the counsel of God. It’s God’s total purpose. For instance, listen to what David says about it in Psalm 119, verse 89.

“Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.”

Another translation says, “Your word, O Lord, is eternal. It stands firm in the heavens.” That’s God’s logos, His total counsel. It never changes. It’s eternal. It’s out of time. It’s in heaven. It’s settled. From beginning to end, it’s there all the time, always. It’s the mind and counsel and purpose of God.

This logos, this counsel of God, is summed up in a person. John chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, says this,

“In the beginning was the Word’ (logos) ‘and the Word’ (logos) ‘was with God, and the Word’ (logos) ‘was God. He was with God in the beginning.’”

So Jesus is also the personified logos. He’s the total counsel and purpose and mind of God. You remember Jesus said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” I represent everything the Father is, everything the Father does, everything the Father wills, every plan, every purpose. I represent it. That’s logos.

And it’s settled forever in heaven. It can’t be changed. It’s eternal. Now, the word rhema has a different meaning, though at times, of course, they overlap. The word rhema means specifically a spoken word. It is not a rhema unless it’s spoken. God’s word, God’s counsel, is settled in heaven forever, whether it’s spoken or not. It’s there. It’s eternal. But a rhema is only a word that is spoken.

Now listen to what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 4 and verse 4, and He uses the word rhema.

“He answered and said, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”’ Every rhema that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Every proceeding word.”

So there’s the counsel of God, if you can picture it, eternal, unchanged, complete, in heaven.

But we don’t know the whole counsel of God. We can’t apprehend with our finite minds the whole counsel of God. But God measures it out to us in a rhema, in a word that’s spoken to us, and a word that becomes personal, and a word that we receive personally. So man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The total counsel of God is imparted to us in portions as we’re able to receive it, rhema by rhema by rhema.

The implication of what Jesus said is that God has a rhema for us each day. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but every day the proceeding word of God, the word of God, the rhema that comes out of the mouth of God shall be his portion for that day.” So that’s the difference between logos and rhema. Logos eternal, in the heaven, unchanged. Rhema coming down to us, personal, a word that we hear, something that’s spoken.

And so you see in Romans 10:17, it has to be rhema.

“Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from” the rhema, the word of Christ.

If it weren’t spoken, we couldn’t hear it. We can’t hear the logos. That’s eternal. That’s the counsel of God in heaven. But we hear the rhema that brings that little portion of God’s counsel we need at any given moment to us personally. And that’s how faith comes.

Listen, I hope I will not offend you, but the Bible doesn’t say faith comes from reading the Bible. Lots of people think it does. Why not? Well, be honest. Many times you read the Bible and hear nothing. All you have is black marks on white paper in front of your eyes, and you can go through that process for an hour and get no faith. But another time, you can just pick up the Bible, open it, and one sentence leaps out of the page, and you say, “That’s it. That’s what God’s saying to me right now.” I can’t tell how many times that’s happened in my life. Sometimes quite accidentally, I just open the Bible. The Holy Spirit focuses my eyes on a verse. God says, “That’s it. That’s my rhema.” And when you hear that rhema, that’s a lot more than reading the Bible. That’s the personal word of God. That’s God’s voice speaking to you. And faith comes by hearing the spoken word of God.