KEY TO LIVING GOD'S WILL

      When God's Word is meant for limited situations or persons, it's called "rhema"; otherwise, it's "logos". For example, the Bible says sell all and give to the poor and follow Jesus. That's a "rhema". If everyone did that, they would have no way to support their families or enjoy homes, and they would be impoverished. However, if the Lord called you to evangelical poverty as He did St. Francis of Assisi, then there would be an anointing. If the Lord called you to exercise faith for a mountain-moving miracle, then the anointing would accompany that faith. You can cause a disaster if you don't know about the anointing for certain kinds of miracles-if you were to interpret a "rhema" as a "logos".

      There was a young priest who read the passage in Matthew 10:8 that says go out and cure the lepers and the blind and raise the ead-clearly a "rhema" passage. As he had a funeral that day, the priest went to the undertaker's parlor and in the presence of all the family and the mourners told them to pray with him that the deceased would arise! Peter did it, Paul did it, and many saints performed that miracle of raising people from the dead. The young priest felt he could do it, too, if he exercised his faith.

      He walked over to the corpse and laid hands on it. The family stood about totally bewildered. It would be terrifying if the deceased did sit up in the coffin and yet a joy if he did. They didn't know whether to have anticipated joy or fear or hesitancy-in short, they were torn with all these conflicting emotions. The priest said to the corpse," In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to rise from the dead!" But he had no anointing to do that and nothing happened. There was no inner positive assurance and so his faith was not a substantiated faith, but simply wishful thinking. It certainly was not a matter of aligning himself with God's will. He didn't ask to know whether it was God's will to raise that person from the dead. All he said was, "I'm assuming it is God's will."

      The result was that the faith of the family and friends gathered was shattered. They left nervous wrecks, a heavy guilt trip laid on everyone. The figured they, too, must not have had enough faith. Secondly, they now doubted the Word of God to be true because it says to go out and raise the dead and here it hadn't worked. All because of the imprudence of acting without the anointing or the full gospel message that the anointing and the certitude must be present.

     In the next installment, I will continue on "Anointed Faith" with part two.