LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Sanctified
The work of "rhema"
"Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth" (John 17:17).
This is the second specific petition that the Lord made to the Father in favor of His disciples. To sanctify is to consecrate. To consecrate is to separate for holy service. The apostles and those that believed through them (up to our days) are separated from the world to carry out a holy service. The truth, that is to say, the Word, completes an important role in consecrating them, in preparing them for this service.
The word carries out a work of purification, similar to the one that water carries out.
The washing of water
"To make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word", Paul says in Ephesians 5:26. Here we see that purification (cleansing), through the word, precedes sanctity. More precisely, it is what makes sanctity possible.
The Greek word used here is a form derived from ‘rhema’, not from 'logos'. This may appear a merely formal matter, but it is not. There is a great difference between these two terms.
In English, both are translated as "word", because we don't have another word that specifies the difference that they have in Greek. But there is an important difference that must be clarified.
The washing of the church through the word doesn't take place through the action of 'logos', but through ' rhema '. When one has the privilege to listen to sermons, one usually receives a great channel of blessing, yet on specific occasions, when one listens to a sermon, one says: “God spoke to me.” This also happens with Scripture. Great profit is always obtained by reading it, but there are times in which one says: “God has spoken to me through this verse.”
'Logos' illustrates the word to us, but through the word as 'rhema,' God speaks to our heart. When this happens, a miracle takes place within: we have a word of God that will guide our life, that will fulfill a specific necessity, or that will take us out of the labyrinth that we were in. When God speaks this way to us, we are purified and washed. Then we are sanctified.
As we can see, this is not necessarily a matter of knowing the Book, nor is it about subjecting it to tests of truthfulness. Here it is about hearing God.
Daily Washing
Just as we need to wash and feed our body every day, we also need the washing of the water through the word every day.
The manna was picked up by the Israelites in the desert every day at dawn; likewise we must pick up the bread of life, the 'rhema' of God, every morning, before the sun comes out.
If the Word is mere information that is accumulated in the mind, it won't serve for much to add a little more to the memory each day. Its deposit quickly fills up and the mind becomes saturated. But the Word as 'rhema' never comes to this state. We will never be full up with it, because as we receive it we want to continue receiving more.
The greatest degree of purification received thus, will always demand an even greater purification in order to more perfectly please God.
The replaced Word
In our days there are many emphases in Christianity, and some of them dangerously replace the ministry of the Word.
Emphases exist on miracles, and by this means, large ministries and much place is given to the ministration of the saints in the fulfillment of miracles. However, the church is neither purified nor washed by miracles. Emphases on worship and praise also exist. When this is genuine, it is something holy, just and good, but it is not what washes and purifies the church. A marked emphasis on biblical study also exists, but this doesn't assure us that the people are receiving the 'rhema' of God. At most, it imparts 'logos'.
For them I sanctify myself
In order for a minister of the word to place the ' rhema ' before God’s people, he himself must first be sanctified, and be in the secret of God. In His prayer the Lord said: –And for them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. (John 17:19).
The Lord was sanctified first, so that His word could wash the disciples. Likewise this must happen with the ministers of the word. If they don't love the ' rhema ' of God, and don’t search for it, the people will remain without 'rhema'. If the people remain without ' rhema ', we will have a feeble people, without edification. They won't be able to carry out the holy service. They will live in the sphere of the profane: their thoughts will be low, their heart will have impure motives, their soul will always be caught between two thoughts. They won't be able to serve God.
Many cannot explain why there is so much desertion in the lines of believers. There is an important cause of failure here among God’s children. 'Rhema' is scarce, and therefore weakness usually takes them to the extremity of desertion.
With fear but also with resolution we can say -taking the Lord’s words - that if He Himself had not been sanctified, He would not have gotten the fruits that He got with His disciples. We won't be able to get anything from those who hear us –even less ourselves - if we don't have 'rhema'.
God’s people today are very weakened and incapacitated for exercising a holy service, because those that must enter into the secret of God to hear him are dedicated to less noble things, entertained in religious games of lesser value.
You give them something to eat
What can we say of those that are outside; those that have never listened to God? Are the words of God only a gift for Holy people?
The Lord says to today's ministers the same thing that He told the disciples when the multitudes were hungry: –You give them something to eat.
There were exhausted crowds in a remote place, waiting in silence around the Teacher. There were abandoned and dispersed multitudes, like sheep without shepherd. And today? Today they are still there.
The hunger of the unsatisfied soul, the crushing anguish, it is the despair that invites suicide, the dryness of the soul tormented by the weight of guilt, of the uncertainty of tomorrow, or of a hostile world. It is the fear of those that have been defrauded, or of those who have been abandoned by their closest companions; the failure, those indebted to society. They don't know rest, nor spiritual peace, they don't know about the rivers of joy, of the happiness of forgiveness, of the sweet flavor of grace. They have never eaten of the gentle fruit of righteousness. They are hungry! Hungry for God!
– You give them something to eat - the Teacher still says.
To whom does He say this? He says it to all those that love him and that want to serve him. Where are today’s prophets of the Most High God? The evangelists, the teachers anointed by the Holy Spirit? Where are they? Or, after having been satisfied, having been favored with gifts from heaven, do they begin to sleep an afternoon nap? Their table is supplied with rich foods. Won't they give a crust to the beggar that knocks on at door? Let us ask the Father to grant us His Word, and that by it we may be sanctified to carry out the holy service.