The key to having faith in a hopeless situation...

How does GOD speak to me personally?

The principle I'm trying to share with you today is such a powerful process, it is the key to miracles in life, it is the key to understanding GOD's will, it is the key to difficult decisions, it is the key to having faith in a hopeless situation. How does GOD speak to us personally?  The Bible says it's the HOLY SPIRIT's duty to take the Bible and make it apply to us personally, make it come alive. 

John 14:26 (NIV), "But the COUNSELOR, the HOLY SPIRIT, whom the FATHER will send in MY name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."  The job description of the HOLY SPIRIT is to teach us and to remind us. 

John 16:13 (NIV), "But when HE, the SPIRIT of truth comes, HE will guide you into all truth." 

So in these two verses, GOD, JESUS CHRIST says the HOLY SPIRIT is to do three things in our life:  teach us, remind us, and guide us.  It is the HOLY SPIRIT's job description to make the Scriptures apply to our lives personally in a dynamic way.  In other words, HE takes the logos and turns it into rhema.  HE changes it.  It's called illumination.  It's HIS job, HIS duty. 

There is nothing mystical about what I'm talking about.  This happens all the time.  It happens to you. 

Have you ever been in a church service where the preacher, the pastor is speaking and all of a sudden you feel like he's speaking directly to you?  You feel like there's nobody else is in the room.  You wonder, "How does that guy know?  How does he know I've got this problem?  How does he know that's exactly what I needed at that time?" 

The number one statement people use to say to me after church was, "How did you know that was exactly what I needed?"  My human nature would want to say, "It's just because of my superior knowledge of human behavior."  But I can't claim credit for it. 

The fact is, I simply get up and deliver the logos to you and the HOLY SPIRIT takes it and says "Bingo!  That's what it means to your life."  I say something to you here but sometimes it may relate to you in a totally different area.  GOD takes a general word that I say to everybody and makes it specifically apply to you.  HE gave you a rhema.  The HOLY SPIRIT illuminated it. 

Have you ever been counseling with somebody, talking with somebody about a personal problem – a friend or a neighbor – and you're thinking, "I wonder what I should say to this guy," and all of a sudden a Scripture verse pops into your mind?  Just at the right time, just exactly what you needed to say.  How did it happen?  GOD gave you a rhema.  The HOLY SPIRIT gave you a specific word, for a specific time, in a specific situation. 

Just a thought from the front porch…