Excerpt One From... God's Amazing Words of Love
The Cross and The Sword
In the past few years, God has been teaching me to live according to Galatians 2:20, "For I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live, Jesus Christ now lives in me." I acknowledge that I have died with Christ and that He now wants to live His life in and through me. That is the Exchanged Life. And I agree with every part of it. I know in my spirit that it is truth! But, practically speaking, "how do I live that kind of life on a daily basis?" God has shown me that the answer to that question is found in the last part of the verse... "The life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me."
How do you live by faith? Christian teachers and preachers toss around that phrase, but so many times we don't hear practical applications about how to do that. That's the missing piece that so many defeated Christians are seeking.
There is only one way to live by faith. Romans 10:17. "Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God." It's a very practical chain of events. We hear God when we study His Word and hearing that Word brings faith to our lives. I am by no means a Biblical languages scholar, but I have great reference books, so I looked up the word used for "Word" in that passage, and it's RHEMA!!! Faith comes by hearing a RHEMA!!! The Greek word rhema means a "particular" word from God. It's a specific verse or passage that speaks directly to your situation. When you are tempted or tested by trial, you can act in faith when God brings to mind a particular word from His Word.
It's not just hard to live the Christian life. For us, it is impossible. The only One who could ever live the "Christian" life is Christ. The only way you can live the Christian life is to let Him live His life through you. So in thinking about how to live by faith, we have to look at the life of Christ and notice how He did it when He walked on earth physically.
When it came time to do battle with Satan, how did Jesus do it? With the Word. And it was with a particular Word customized for a particular temptation. Rhemas. Over and over, when Satan tempted Him to sin, He quoted a particular verse of Scripture, customized to match the customized scheme. So if that's how Jesus did it when He lived on planet Earth, doesn't it stand to reason that Jesus will do it the same way as He lives His life through us?
So how does He do that through us? Often, He brings to our minds a RHEMA just when we need it. Here's how the process works best.
The Greek word used for the Word of God is "logos", which means the general word (the Bible). God gives us His Word, the Bible, the "LOGOS." When we "live in the Word (the LOGOS)," the Word (LOGOS) becomes alive and active in us. Just like we are "in Christ" and yet Christ is "in us", it's the same for the Word. We are to live in the Word as the Word lives in us. Romans 10:8 says, "The word is near you, it is in your mouth and in your hearts, that is the word of faith we are proclaiming." Again the word for "word" is RHEMA (particular word). It's already in you because Jesus is the "Living Word" and He is in you.
Now, here's the really good part of this process. In John 1:14 where it says that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, the word for "word"there is not RHEMA. It's Logos, the general Word of God. The LOGOS (Word of God) was made flesh in Jesus, who dwelt among us. But Jesus who was LOGOS pulled a particular verse out of the Logos (general Word) that He was and spoke RHEMAs (particular words).
Get this - this is really exciting. Jesus was LOGOS (general Word) when He was made flesh and dwelt upon the earth, yet according to Romans 10:8, in us He is RHEMA (particular word). Why is that? It is for one reason only. That is what is needed to fight Satan in spiritual warfare. Just a general knowledge of the Word (LOGOS) isn't enough. To be victorious against the enemy, we have to allow Jesus, our RHEMA who lives in us to fight for us.
Ephesians 6 says to take up the "Sword" of the Spirit which is the Word of God. Again, it's RHEMA. To fight Satan, we must allow Jesus, (the RHEMA that is IN US) to give us understanding through His Holy Spirit, so that when we need a particular weapon, He will bring a customized Word (RHEMA) to our minds that will perfectly match the customized attack from the enemy. And if we do that, we will be victorious every, single time. We will win over temptation, over insecurities, over worries, etc. Jesus will not lose.
For months, the term "The Cross and The Sword" kept rolling around in my mind. I kept questioning God about it because I knew there was something He was going to teach me about the Christ-life that had to do with that term. Now, I know what it was. The Cross part is the dying with Christ and then Him living His resurrected life in and through you. The Sword part is the principles and precepts by which Jesus, The Living Word, will live His life in and through you! You cannot live by the sword without first dying at the cross. The second part (living by the Sword) is dependent on the first part (dying by the cross), but the first part (dying by the cross) is incomplete for daily victory without the second part (living by the sword).
Believers live in the Word (Logos) and study its principles and precepts (not because of a requirement, but because God's Word is a precious gift that brings abundant LIFE). Then Christ (the Rhema Word that lives in them) through His Holy Spirit will interpret that study into RHEMAs for them and use the rhemas to fight their daily battles and live their daily lives. There is absolutely no area of life that Christ in you cannot handle.
Basically, what God has shown me is that the Exchanged Life means dying by the Cross and then living by the Sword. Jesus is the Sword, the Living Word of God in us. That's how His resurrected life is manifested in us and through us as the Living Word. The life that I now live, I live by faith... faith in Christ, the Living Word of God.
