Rhema

Rhema (ῥῆμα) in its biblical/Christian sense, the core meaning is quite straightforward:“a word, saying, utterance, statement, or something spoken.” In the Greek New Testament it commonly refers to something that is said or communicated.

Rhema versus Logos

Two Greek words are commonly translated into English as“word”:

Logos (λόγος) can mean word, message, discourse or reason, and has a particularly profound meaning in passages such as John 1:1.
Rhema (ῥῆμα) tends more towards a particular utterance, statement or spoken word.

In some Christian traditions, this distinction has developed into:

Logos = the established or written Word
Rhema = a specific word that becomes meaningful to you in a particular situation

So, for example, you might have read a sentence in the Bible many times. Then one day, because of something happening in your life, that particular passage suddenly seems extraordinarily relevant and speaks directly to the situation. Some Christians would describe that experience as Rhema, the general word becoming a personally significant or immediate word.

There is an important qualification, however. The strict equation “Logos = written Bible, Rhema = personal revelation from God” isn’t universally accepted by biblical scholars or Christian traditions. The underlying Greek distinction isn’t quite that neat, and the words can overlap considerably in New Testament usage.

So if you’ve encountered someone saying “I received a Rhema” or “God gave me a Rhema word,” they’re normally using Rhema in that later Christian sense of a specific message, insight or piece of Scripture perceived as speaking directly into their present circumstances, rather than simply using the ordinary Greek meaning of “utterance”.