John 15:7 AMP If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

In the 2016 movie “Copying Beethoven” a fictionalized account is made of the last years of Beethoven’s life depicting his struggle with not being able to hear his own music. In the movie a dialogue takes place between Beethoven and his young assistant Anna Holtz regarding how he creates his music:

Ludwig van Beethoven: “The vibrations on the air are the breath of God speaking to man’s soul. Music is the language of God. We musicians are as close to God as man can be. We hear his voice, we read his lips, we give birth to the children of God, who sing his praise. That’s what musicians are, Anna Holtz. And if we’re not that, we’re nothing.”

You have to listen to the voice speaking inside of you. I didn’t even hear it myself until I went deaf. Not that I want you to go deaf, my dear.

Anna replies: You’re telling me that I must find the silence in myself, so I can hear the music.”

Beethoven: Yes. Yes. Yes. Silence is the key. The silence between the notes. When that silences envelops you, then your soul can sing.

In John 15:7 Jesus makes the statement: “If you abide in Me and my words abide in you…” We naturally assume that the words He is referring to is regarding the Bible. Yet history reveals to us that at that time there wasn’t any written record of Jesus’ words. The New Testament had yet to be written. The Old Testament had been recorded on scrolls with  no chapters or verses, and the only way you could access them was by attending a synagogue service. The book hadn’t been invented yet, and the only people who had access to these scrolls were the religious elite. The question begs to be asked, “To what “words” is Jesus referring?” The answer to that question lies in the original translation of the passage. In that translation the word used for “words” is the Greek word “rhema.” The Greek language had two words for the word. One word referred to written words, called “logos.” We find this word used in John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word (logos)…” But in John 15:7 quite the opposite word is used, and that word is “rhema.” Rhema words refer to words that are spoken, and revealed. Jesus was teaching His Disciples that if they wanted to abide in Him they had to connect to the internal Voice of the Spirit, or what we would refer to as the “Still Small Voice” of God. Which is very profound. If you were to insert yourself into the story, imagining yourself listening to Jesus give directions to His followers the night before His crucifixion what would you be thinking? I know what I would be thinking. “How are we going to abide in your words if you are not here? If you die who is going to give us Your words? How am I going to remember what You said?” In other words I believe that I would be dumbfounded, shocked, even panicked at the thought. But Jesus comforts them at the end of this chapter with the following words: John 15:26“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truthwho goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.”  Before chapters and verses were created for the Bible this discourse of Jesus proceeded. And in this discourse He was seeking to comfort and address their concerns: John 16:6-15 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:  about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

Thus you can deduce from this information that Jesus wanted His Disciples to be centered in Him and the Holy Spirit. In our modern day culture that is centered in the written word, more than what is said, this sounds peculiar and strange. Yet it shines light on the fact of how far down the modern day church has been plunged in darkness and ignorance. May we learn from the words of Beethoven that until we become deaf to the outside world we will never hear the “Voice” speaking inside us. May God give us grace to be deaf to the world but listening to Him and for Him.