In order to understand how prayer works, you must understand that God speaks two ways. He speaks generally — the Word of God to everyone — and that is called logos. He also speaks personally to individuals through his Word, and that’s rhema. That’s one way God answers your prayer.

How does God speak to us personally?

Scripture says it’s the Holy Spirit’s duty to take the Bible and show us how it applies to us personally:

“The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and make you remember all that I have told you” (John 14:26 GNT).

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13a NIV).

In these two verses, Jesus says the Holy Spirit does three things in our lives: He teaches us, reminds us, and guides us. In other words, he takes the logos and turns it into rhema. It’s called illumination, and it’s his duty.

There is nothing mystical about what I’m describing. It happens all the time. It happens to you! Have you ever been in a church service where the pastor is speaking, and all of a sudden you feel like he’s speaking directly to you? You wonder, “How does that guy know I’ve got this problem? How does he know that’s exactly what I need right now?” God took a general word for everybody and made it specifically apply to you. He gave you a rhema.

Have you ever been talking with a friend or neighbor about a personal problem and thought, “I wonder what I should say right now,” and all of a sudden, a Scripture verse pops into your mind — at just the right time and 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.

That’s the way God works in our lives. The Holy Spirit takes the Word of God and shows us how it applies to us. You could say he makes God’s Word real in our lives.

One of the results of God providing you with a rhema is that it builds tremendous faith in your life. It always produces faith. The Apostle Paul says that faith comes by hearing the rhema of God, which produces a more powerful and effective prayer life as you see the Word of God working in your life.