Discovering The Jewish Jesus

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: I will strengthen you. He's going to strengthen you, beloved one. Whatever you're facing, Hashem, my Father God and your Father God, he's going to strengthen you. Surely I will help you. He's going to get you through.

I'm in the deep forest of Colorado, and when I was here a year ago, the Lord spoke to me in a very deep way from the 41st chapter of the book of Isaiah. I wanted to share that with you today. I began in the eighth verse last time, and I covered this: that we have an identity in him, that we're chosen, that we exist for the purpose of serving him. God called Israel his servant, even as Yeshua was the ultimate servant of the Father that laid down his life unto the Father even unto death.

Then finally, the Lord called Abraham here his friend. Israel, Jacob, Abraham my friend. Think how the blessing of Abraham in the book of Galatians has come upon every believer, Jew and Gentile alike, in Messiah Yeshua. I talked last time about the tenderness of what that means. I'm going to press on now to the next verse. Continuing to verse number nine, we read this: "You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called from its remotest parts and said to you, 'You are my servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you.'"

Think about your life, understanding that there's application for you, that the entire Hebrew Bible was not written just for the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but it was written for us also. Paul says upon whom the end of the ages has come. You who were once far off, Paul says to the Gentiles in the book of Ephesians, have been brought near. You are now grafted into Israel. So this word is for you. Listen. The Lord says, "You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called from its remotest parts and said to you, 'You are my servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you.'"

Some of us can remember what it was like before Father revealed Jesus to us. I know that for some of you, you were raised in church and you remember believing in Yeshua for as long as you can remember, and your salvation experience was just a gradual process. But for many others, like me, we were in the farthest parts of the earth. We were living in darkness. We were living under the tyranny of satanic oppression. We were trapped in fear. We were addicted.

Some of you were addicted to drugs, some to alcohol, some of you addicted to all types of illicit sexual relationships. You were living in depression, walking with people that were so far away from God. Consider from where the Lord brought you. Consider from where he redeemed you. With an outstretched arm, he delivered you out of darkness. So the Lord says to you, "You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called from its remotest parts and said to you, 'You are my servant. I have chosen you and not rejected you.'"

When there was only darkness upon us, when we only felt separation from light and from life, God broke into our world and said to us, "You are my servant. I have chosen you and not rejected you." Some of you can remember that day when your world turned from darkness to light, and we should never forget that. We should never forget that because sometimes we can forget where we've come from and we can stop being grateful. Sometimes we just begin to take for granted what we have.

You get something new in your life and you're so thankful and so grateful for it, but after a while, the newness wears off and you just take it for granted. You forget to be thankful to the Lord. But the Lord is saying to all of us, "You need to understand what I saved you out of. You need to remember where you were before I redeemed you, and you need to always stay fresh in your thankfulness to me."

Father, we just want to say to you right now, thank you, Father God, for these words, for reminding us that we were so lost. We were so far away. We were so much under the oppression and the tyranny of Satan and demonic powers before you redeemed us. And yet, in the midst of that darkness, you broke in and saved us and called us your servant, your chosen one, and your friend.

I remember the story of a friend of mine, a worship leader. He was going through a terrible time in life. He was a young man in his 20s, didn't know the Lord, wasn't walking with God, and his girlfriend broke up with him. For some reason, he just went down into a tailspin of depression. He was thinking of committing suicide. All of a sudden, he was driving in his car one day and the light of Hashem, the glory of Jesus, broke into his world and saved him as he was driving in his car.

His life changed 180 degrees. He's running after Jesus now, and he was never the same again. He was on the road to committing suicide, and yet God redeemed him and broke in, giving him a brand-new future and a brand-new life. The good news is, beloved, as you and I continue to look to him and seek him, the Lord's going to continue to bring us into more and more realms of his glory and his light.

So let's continue on. He says, "You whom I called from the remotest parts of the earth and said to you, 'You are my servant.'" What a privilege and blessing to be the servant of the Lord. We're going to serve somebody. We're going either serve ourselves, we're going to serve man, we're going to serve sin, we're going to be a servant of some type of addiction we have, or we're going to serve God. Jesus said if we'll serve him, we'll be free indeed.

He continues on and he says this: "Do not fear, for I am with you." When we really know deep down in our inner man that God is with us and for us, he's going to defend us. Like David said, "You are my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? You're the defense of my life. Whom shall I dread? When my enemies came upon me to devour my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though a host encamp against me, I will not fear. Though an army rise up against me, in spite of this, I will be confident."

When we really know that Father God is with us and will defend us, that he's going before us, that he's going to protect us, we're going to have such confidence, such joy, such God-confidence. Many of us can recite this verse. We can go to Isaiah 41 and we can read it: "Do not fear," verse 10, "for I am with you." But do we really believe it? Isn't that the point? We can read it over and over again.

The Lord tells us over a hundred times, "Do not be afraid, for I am with you." We know that Jesus said, "I am with you even to the end of the age." But do we really believe it? And if we believe it, do we know what that means? To know that the God of glory, the God of power, the God of might, the God that sovereignly reigns, that he's for us. He's always going to see us through.

Regardless of what mountain, what challenge, what obstacle, what trial, what difficulty in life we're facing, God is with us and for us and will always, every single time, overcome, ascending over the trial, getting victory in the battle, because God is with you and with me. We are his friend. So the Lord says here, "You are Abraham my friend. You are Jacob my chosen one. You are Israel my servant. I am with you."

This should bring joy and confidence and laughter. We need to rebuke the spirit of unbelief. We need to break off the foul spirit of doubt, and we need to believe and affirm what God says: "I am with you. Do not be afraid." If we're afraid, it's like a foul spirit that is like a slap in God's face. God says, "I'm with you. Do not be afraid. I've made you more than a conqueror."

Dustin Roberts: You're listening to Discovering The Jewish Jesus, and Rabbi will be right back in a moment. But first, I want you to know that our desire is to see God move powerfully in your life. If you have a prayer request, we invite you to submit it online at DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com. Our team will prayerfully lift up your request to the Lord, believing with you for God's guidance and love in your life. Submit your request today.

"For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" Friends, this verse in Romans shows us that when the Jewish people come to Christ, we too will be blessed. The church will experience a spiritual awakening. Help us fulfill this calling to reach Israel. We can't do it without your faithful support, so partner with us today by visiting us online at DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com. And now, back to Rabbi Schneider.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: The Lord continues here: "Do not fear, for I am with you." Then he says, "Do not anxiously look about, for I am your God." Listen to that again. "Do not fear for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about, for I am your God." What could this mean? What is God saying when he's saying to you and to I, "Do not anxiously look about, for I am with you"?

What he's referring to is looking about in the world, fearful about what's going to happen, anxious about what's going to happen. We begin to have all these musings, these ponderings, these vain imaginations, these thoughts that exalt themselves above the knowledge of God. We worry about this scenario or that scenario happening. We worry about getting robbed, our tire getting flat on the road, or getting in an accident.

We worry about our children or our grandchildren. We worry about somebody breaking off a relationship with us. We worry about getting fired from our job. And the list could go on and on. Lord says, "What are you doing? I am your God. Do not anxiously look about." I remember there was a time not so long ago that I was imagining some type of fearful outcome about a situation that I was dealing with.

The Holy Spirit spoke to me audibly—when I say audibly, I just heard his silent voice say, as I was worrying about this potential outcome of a difficult situation I was dealing with, the Holy Spirit spoke one word to me. He spoke the word "horizontal." Now when I say the Holy Spirit spoke to me, don't take it lightly. I oftentimes hear the Holy Spirit speak to me. It's like a silent voice. I can't even fully explain it.

Even as we have physical ears, the Lord has also given us spiritual ears where we can literally hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. This is why Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice." This is why Yeshua said in the book of Revelation, "He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches." When we believe in the reality of the Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh, constantly speaking to us because he's alive and he's here and he exists to communicate the mind and the heart of Father and Jesus to us, when we're aware of that and believe in it, we're always going to be looking up and listening. We're always going to be paying attention to what's going on in our inner man. We're always going to be expecting and anticipating direction and leading from the Lord.

Back to my point. The Lord said here, "Do not anxiously look about, for I am your God." I, in my own life, was thinking about an outcome of a situation I was facing that produced anxiety in me. All of a sudden, I heard and saw very subtly, because the Holy Spirit's voice is usually very soft and subtle so that if you're not paying attention and don't have faith, you'll miss it. The Holy Spirit said to me this word: "horizontal."

I thought, "What is God saying?" God is saying to me, "Don't look out there. Don't look anxiously about wondering what's going to happen on the surface of the earth in your circumstances. Don't look out, fearing about what's going to happen horizontally in your circumstances. But rather the Lord was saying to me, 'I want you to look up. I want your thoughts to be vertical. I want you just to have faith and confidence in me.'"

So the Lord says here, "Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about, for I am your God." In other words, God is saying, "Don't wonder what's going to happen. Don't ponder what may happen in your circumstances. Don't think horizontally. Don't have vain imaginations about what's happening on the surface of the earth, but rather," the Lord says, "look up and believe in me. For I am your God and I am with you." I speak, beloved ones, the same thing over you right now.

You might be in a state where you've been worrying about something. Maybe it's your health. Maybe it's your finances. Maybe it's just the devil tormenting you about something. I break that off in Jesus' name right now. Those are vain, foul thoughts. God doesn't want us to be concerned about those things. He wants us instead to look up in him, trusting in him, trusting in his word.

Jesus said, "Believe in God, believe also in me." Yeshua said, "Let not your heart be troubled." This is vertical thinking. Rather than letting our imagination run wild, opening ourselves up to fear, we bring ourselves back to the word of God where Yeshua said, "Let not your heart, my beloved one, be troubled." We have to take responsibility to some degree. Yeshua said to us, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Believe in God and believe also in me."

I encourage you, my friend, to fight the fight of faith. This is spiritual warfare we're in, and the devil works through the powers of the air, through the thought realm. We need to cut horizontal thinking off. We need to stop looking anxiously about and instead return to our center, return to God, and look up, knowing that he is with us. "Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God."

The Lord continues, "I will strengthen you. Surely I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." God is promising that whatever battle you're facing, he's got a hold of you. He is going to help you, and you're going to be victorious. Listen again: "Surely I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

Let me read it one more time because I want these words to enter your soul with fire. "Do not anxiously look about, for I am your God. I will strengthen you." In other words, God's going to empower you to win your battle, whatever it is. I notice in my life sometimes that when I hit a battle, when I first hit the battle, it hits me like a ton of bricks. I feel it in my gut. It is so terrible.

There's not even words to describe how terrible it feels oftentimes when the enemy blows at me with powerful winds of darkness. It feels terrible. But a few days later, I might be facing the same exact battle, and I'm living above it now. I'm feeling God's joy now. I'm feeling God-confidence now. Same battle, but I'm no longer feeling overwhelmed by it. Now I'm feeling fortified. Why? Because God has strengthened me.

That's what he's saying to you right now. "Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you." He's going to strengthen you, beloved one. Whatever you're facing, Hashem, my Father God and your Father God, he's going to strengthen you. "Surely I will help you." He's going to get you through. "Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

I want to encourage you today to think like a victor because you are a victor. The Bible says because of Father's love for you, you are more than a conqueror. Anything that you're ever going to face in life, anything in the future that you'll ever run into, anything that the Lord will ever permit the enemy to throw at you, you might be reeling for a moment. You might be reeling for a day or two.

As you continue to look to Hashem, as you continue to open your heart to him by crying out to him for help, he's going to strengthen you. He's going to help you. He's going to uphold you by his right hand, and you're going to walk right through the enemy, and you're going to come out the other end of that thing with your hand raised in Hashem and Father God victorious and a conqueror because King Jesus loves you. He has promised to never leave you or forsake you. Father loves you and me more than we realize right now. He's encouraging us to be faithful to him, even unto the end of the age.

Beloved, faith is a gift, but faith demands our obedience. Think about it. Abraham received the gift of faith from God, but he had to be obedient and offer up his son. When we're obedient to the call of faith, our heart is open and we're able to receive Father's blessing. I want to ask you today, if you're being blessed and encouraged by this ministry, would you offer to the Lord your tithe or your offering through this ministry?

God tells us in his word, number one, that we should honor him with our tithes and offerings, and number two, that we should do it through ministries that are feeding us. It's because of your obedience that the world is being blessed through Discovering The Jewish Jesus. As you are obedient in offering the Lord your tithe and offering, it will open up your heart to receive even more of God because our faith opens the door for Father's blessing in our life.

I want to thank you in advance, beloved, for your tithe and offering through Discovering The Jewish Jesus. I know as you're obedient to the Lord, he's going to bless you because of it. I love you. God bless you and Shalom.

Dustin Roberts: Amen. You can give a gift of any amount to Discovering The Jewish Jesus just by visiting us online at DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com. If it's easier for you, just give us a call at 800-777-7835. You can send your donation in the mail. Send it to Discovering The Jewish Jesus, P.O. Box 777, Blissfield, Michigan 49228. Or if you want to text in your donation, just type the keyword 'Give' to the phone number 88777.

Also, I wanted to share with you today that we'd like to bless you with a free gift this month. It's our Self-Deliverance Teaching Bundle. It's an engaging resource and it includes Rabbi Schneider's step-by-step PDF guide that explains how to recognize spiritual footholds and how to close open doors through scripture. You'll also receive an MP3 audio file with prayers that you can model, extra teaching, and declarations that have been designed to help you walk in lasting freedom in Messiah Jesus.

The bundle's available right now for free at MyFreeGift.com/freedom. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you've been blessed by Rabbi's teaching. And now here he is to speak God's blessing over your life today.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: In the book of Numbers chapter six, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people. The Lord said, "When you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them." Receive the impartation of the Lord's blessings.

(Rabbi chanting in Hebrew)

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance and the Lord give, beloved ones, his peace. God bless you and Shalom.

Dustin Roberts: I'm your host, Dustin Roberts, and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering The Jewish Jesus. Join us again tomorrow when Rabbi Schneider shows how your response to fear and opposition can position you for victory. That's Friday on Discovering The Jewish Jesus.