75And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So he went out and wept bitterly. [simple_tooltip content=’69 Now Peter sat outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came to him, saying, “You also were with Jesus of Galilee.”
70 But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you are saying.”
71 And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, “This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth.”
72 But again he denied with an oath, “I do not know the Man!”
73 And a little later those who stood by came up and said to Peter, “Surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you.”
74 Then he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!” Immediately a rooster crowed.
75 And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So he went out and wept bitterly.’](Matthew 26:69-75)[/simple_tooltip]
“Peter remembered the word of Jesus” says it all!
There are several Greek words used for word. The Greek word used here is rhema, and it literally means, “a spoken word; an utterance, a saying, but specifically a spoken word appropriate for the situation.” It’s not the Bible lying on your coffee table that makes the enemy flee. It is the Word of God hidden in your heart, activated by the power of the Holy Spirit, and spoken in the appropriate situation that destroys all deception and makes you free.
The word rhema brings to mind what Jesus said in John 6:63, that “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” The words that we speak from the written Word of God are empowered by the Holy Spirit. The Word by itself doesn’t make us free. It is the Word we know and speak in faith that will deliver us [simple_tooltip content=’And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’](John 8:32)[/simple_tooltip]. The Word is effective and powerful because it is God’s Word. His Word supersedes all authority of the church, of reason, of intellect, and of the enemy. When we connect His Word with our heart, and our heart connects His Word to our situation—then we have a rhema word.
This is exactly what Peter was doing just after he denied Jesus the third time. Sometimes a rhema word will come after your worst failures, and that is because the Holy Spirit is reminding you of the only Word that can restore and get you moving again. You can rise above any failure today by listening to the Holy Spirit who will always put you in remembrance of the Word of God—and then that rhema word will set you free.
