Discovering The Jewish Jesus

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: God wants you and I to fear Him. In fact, He requires it. We need to walk before Him, beloved, with reverential fear.

I was recently reading a very famous Jewish classic written back in the 18th century called "The Path of the Just." And this book was based on the scripture Deuteronomy 10:12. Let me just read right off the bat, Deuteronomy 10:12 for you. "Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul."

And as I read that verse that this book "The Path of the Just" was based on, it really struck me. It was like a big flame of fire hit my soul. And of course, this word from Deuteronomy 10:12, it's part of the law. But I know as New Covenant believers, we're not under the law, and yet we can't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Although we're not under the law in the sense of being judged by it, again, let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater because Paul said that the law is holy, spiritual, and good.

In other words, the problem isn't the law. Paul said the problem is us, that are flesh and have a nature that's contrary to the law. We pursue the things of the flesh where the law is spiritual, and we're unable to live up to the law's requirements because of our imperfection. And so when Yeshua died on the cross for us, He released us from the curse of the law, but it doesn't mean that the law has no relevance. We're not under it, beloved, but once again, the law is spiritual.

Remember, Jesus said, "Don't think I've come to do away with the law and the prophets. I've not come to abolish, but fulfill." Again, we're not under the letter of the law, but beloved, we still need to understand God's self-revelation to us through the law. And so as I was reading Deuteronomy 10:12, it really hit me. And I prayed. I said, "Father God, I'm a New Covenant believer. I'm being led by the Spirit as I pursue You through Yeshua, and yet I'm feeling that this verse that I just read in Deuteronomy 10:12 is really speaking to me and that Your Spirit is speaking to me from it."

I said, "Father, if You want me to take ahold of this verse with the teeth of faith and really delve into this, I ask You to confirm it to me." So what I sometimes do, and obviously the Lord is not obligated to speak to me this way—He does sometimes and other times He doesn't—but oftentimes I'll ask Him, "Lord, if You want to say something to me, I'm just going to open up the Bible and I ask You, Lord, just to speak to me through it. I'm just going to open up randomly." Again, not every time I open up the Bible after praying that prayer do I open up to a passage of scripture that I feel was from the Lord. But once again, sometimes it happens.

And so I prayed that prayer, "Lord, I just feel that this verse, Deuteronomy 10:12, that You're really wanting to impart something here to me from it. So I'm going to open up the scriptures, and if You're really wanting me to take ahold of this verse and dwell deep into it and flow down the river of this word for a while, let me open up to a scripture that will confirm it to me."

So beloved, I kid you not. I open up to the Bible, just looking for a confirmation that God was speaking to me from Deuteronomy 10:12 very specifically. What do I do? I open up the Bible, and it opens up—listen—to Deuteronomy 10:12. So the Lord absolutely was confirming to me, "Yes, I want you to take ahold of this verse for your life right now." So with that foundation that led me first to study it for myself and now to relay that unto you today, again, I want to take a step back.

Beloved, we are New Testament believers saved by grace through faith, but the law of God contains a self-revelation of who He is, and there's still prophetic application for our life today. With that said, let's read it again. Moses is speaking here. He's talking to the Lord, and Moses said in verse 11, "Then the Lord said to me, 'Arise, proceed on your journey ahead of the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to the fathers to give them.' Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul."

There is weight, beloved ones, on the Torah. There is weight in the first five books of our Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, that the church calls the Pentateuch of the Old Testament and the Jewish people call the Torah. There is weight on this portion of the word of God. It is extremely weighty. And when I read the Torah, I am struck with the authority of the Lord in the Torah. And as I read Deuteronomy 10:12, I felt the authority of God gushing into my soul.

And the Lord is releasing to you and I right now a revelation as to setting the course of our life. You know, as we're looking at this verse right here, I want you to notice that when the Lord is saying to His people through Moses, "What am I asking of you?" This is the question that's being asked in Deuteronomy 10:12. God is inspiring Moses to relay to Israel the question that God is asking. What is God asking of Israel? And what is He asking of you and I today?

Listen again to how the verse begins: "Now Israel"—and we're the Israel of God Church. We haven't replaced Israel. We're not national Israel. But the scripture says that when we receive Messiah Yeshua, we're grafted into the commonwealth of Israel. And in the spiritual sense, the church is the Israel of God. Again, not replacing national Israel, but we've been grafted into the covenant that began with the founder of the Jewish people, Abraham.

Listen again. I'm just trying to stress the point that this applies to you. "Now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you?" And then God begins to speak through Moses to tell the Jewish people and to tell now you and I today what He's requiring of us, what He's looking for from us, what He wants from our lives. He's looking for us to relate to Him in such a way that we're aligned with the Spirit. "Now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you?" Notice the first thing that the Lord says: "But to fear the Lord your God."

Let's take a step back. God is wanting us to respond to Him. We're not robots. We've been given a will. We have to choose to come into alignment with Him. Now consider that with this paradigm. We focus so much on the grace of God that sometimes we lose perspective of the fact that we're to fear God. We are so much about God's grace that sometimes we don't have a recognition that the fear of the Lord is not in opposition to the grace that God gives us.

The Bible tells us that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. The scripture says that the fear of the Lord is clean and it converts the soul. So many times people today, all they talk about is how God loves me. They make Jesus their buddy and they have no sensitivity to the fact that God is holy and awesome and we need to fear Him. Some people say that the fear of the Lord is just respecting God, that the fear of the Lord is just reverencing Him. And yes, the fear of the Lord is respect. The fear of the Lord is reverence.

But beloved, beyond that, the fear of the Lord is what the scripture says it is. It's the fear of the Lord. When Isaiah saw the Lord, he fell on his face. When John saw the Lord, he fell on his face. Beloved ones, the fear of the Lord is healthy. I'm not talking about fear that cripples, but I'm talking about the fear that recognizes that we stand before the Eternal One, that we are so insignificant in size compared to Him, that we stand before the One that knows everything, that's all-powerful, that has no beginning, that has no end. And the right response to that is to fear Him.

Jesus said—I said, Jesus said—I'm going to say it again. Jesus said that we're not to fear man that can kill the body, but rather Jesus said we should fear Him that's able to destroy both soul and body in hell. This is the real fear of God. There's consequences for sinning. There's consequences, beloved, of rejecting God. And the consequences of sin involve the fear of the Lord. I know as a believer, I'm fearful of sinning because I know if I sin without recognition of God's presence, God will bring judgment and discipline into my life.

Now, when I speak of judgment, I'm not speaking of wrath, but I'm talking about God disciplining those that He loves. That's His judgment for the believer. And the consequences of being judged by the Lord, even though the purpose of it is out of His love, but the consequences could be very painful to those beloved who He has to judge through discipline.

Guest (Female): I was a witch all my life. I started using drugs and alcohol. I gave my life to Jesus. You were the reason I did. Amen. Thank You, Lord.

Dustin Roberts: To submit your testimony, go to discoveringthejewishjesus.com, just click on Ministry and submit your testimony today. Your support can change lives. Every day, people around the world are coming to know Jesus as their Messiah through this ministry. Whether you give a one-time donation or commit to a monthly partnership, your contribution helps us to keep spreading the gospel and reaching hearts in need. To donate or become a monthly partner, visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com or call 800-777-7835. Now here's Rabbi Schneider.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: We should fear the Lord. The fear of the Lord keeps us on the right path. That's why it's a healthy thing for children to have a healthy fear of their parents. They know their parents love them, but they also know that if they step out of line, there's going to be consequences and the consequences will hurt. I wonder how much the church today has lost the fear of the Lord. And when God says, "What am I requiring of you, Israel?" and remember, church, once again, you and I are part of the spiritual Israel.

What is the Lord requiring? The first thing, beloved, is we need to have a healthy fear of Him. This doesn't wash away the fact that we know that He loves us. We know He loves us. Again, knowing that God loves us and fearing Him are not two different things that are not related. They're part of the same thing. They're part of how to be rightly related to HaShem, our Creator. So I want you to hear today as I was praying to the Lord, "Is Deuteronomy 10:12 for me today?"

Beloved, the Lord specifically answered. So when I opened up the Bible—I just opened it up randomly. I didn't try to open it up to any specific spot—when I opened it, it just opened up and it was on Deuteronomy 10:12. God was saying, "Yes, I want you to dig into this. I want you to eat this word. I want you to consider the relevance of it for your life today." And I believe that the Lord also did it, church, so that I could deliver this word to you. God wants you and I to fear Him. In fact, He requires it.

We need to walk before Him, beloved, with reverential fear. Again, not that it cripples us, not that it stops us from realizing how much that He loves us, but we need to recognize how awesome and powerful He is. That's why the scripture says the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Let's continue on. "Now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God," listen now, "to walk in His ways."

What does it mean to walk in the ways of the Lord? Number one, to walk in the ways of the Lord, beloved ones, requires spiritual sensitivity. We have to have a sensitivity that we receive through divine intuition, through revelation of the Spirit, and through the written word of God. We receive what we need, listen now, to understand His ways so that we can walk in them. We understand sin. The Bible tells us that as we mature in life, as we mature in our walk with the Lord, we're able to discern the difference between good and evil.

We acquire divine sensitivity. We acquire an ability to recognize when we're in the Spirit and when we're not in the Spirit, when we're abiding in Yeshua and when we're not abiding in Yeshua. We get trained in righteousness, and as we're being trained in righteousness, we more and more walk in His ways. Remember, that's what the verse says. "What does the Lord require of you?" Number one, to fear Him. Secondly, "to walk in all His ways."

As we read the word of God, as we surrender to the Spirit of God, we learn how to practice humility. We learn how to guard our tongue from speaking that which is displeasing to the Lord. Sometimes people don't recognize that even though they may not be cursing, their speech can still be displeasing to the Lord because it's just empty words. Jesus said, "Be careful what you're saying because you'll be judged for every empty word." God wants to teach us how to train our tongue. This has to do once again with walking in His ways.

James told us that the tongue is like the rudder of a huge ship. The rudder is just a very small portion of the ship, and yet depending on what direction that rudder is pointed, it controls the trajectory, the direction of that entire ship. And so it is, beloved, when it comes to walking in the ways of the Lord. Our tongue has to be tamed, not only in what we don't say, but in what we do say. Is what we're saying releasing life? Is our tongue being used to minister and to build life into the body and to release a witness into the world?

Are we walking in the way of the Lord with our tongue, or are we speaking about things that have no value and sometimes worse yet, agreeing with darkness by getting into criticism, accusation, negativity, judgment, etc.? Beloved, walking in the ways of the Lord involves learning how to be giving people, not being stingy people, but giving people.

Maybe some of you have had this experience. There's been a few times in my life where I have heard in the night heavenly music. It doesn't happen often. It's happened probably less than 10 times in my life, but a few times in my life in my sleep, I've heard the most beautiful music I've ever heard before. I mean, it wasn't from this world. It was music that was coming to me from the atmosphere of heaven.

But only one time—I've heard that and I said, happened several times, not many, but several—but only one time when I heard the heavenly music, were there words with it. All the other times, it was just the music. But one time when I heard the music, there were words with it. And there were two phrases with the music. I'm not going to give you one of the phrases because that's for another time.

But one of the phrases I will speak right now because it applies to what we're talking about. We're talking about being giving people. And as the heavenly music was playing, I was actually ministering in Zambia at the time. It was in the middle of the night as the heavenly music came to me, there was a phrase that was being sung with the music. And the phrase that was being sung with the music, beloved church, was listen now: "Take out the decimal point."

In other words, if you have $30, you take out the decimal point and the 30 becomes 3,000. If it's $50, you take out the decimal point, it becomes 5,000. So the Lord was telling me, "Listen, I want you to give big. I want you to love big. I want you to be a big giver. I want you to be a big lover. I want you to take out the decimal point. I want you to be a giving person. I want you to be a person that sacrifices of yourself, that gives, because God says that He's a God of love and by nature, love has to give."

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. We're talking, church, about walking in the ways of the Lord. And one of the ways we walk in the ways of the Lord is by the giving of ourselves. God wants us to be big givers, big lovers, big building people up. Remember Jesus said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." That's giving. We're talking about walking in the ways of the Lord.

The Lord is wanting us to fear Him, and the Lord is wanting us to walk in His ways. And sometimes the one leads to the other. Sometimes we fear the Lord, and because we fear the Lord, we walk in His ways. We might not want to do something. We might not want to give, but because we fear the Lord, we step out and give. Maybe it's just making that phone call to somebody. We don't feel like making that phone call. We are just tired, but the Holy Spirit's been speaking to us, "I want you to reach out and call that person." Because we love God and because we fear Him, we do what we don't feel like doing and we obey Him.

And so beloved ones, as we close today, I want you to understand that the revelation that's proceeding from my mouth right now, although it's from the Torah, although it's from part of what we call the Old Testament, it is for you and I today. Once again, Jesus said, "Don't think I've come to abolish the law and the prophets. I've not come to abolish but fulfill." And then He went on to say, "And everyone that teaches the principles of how to live out of the law and the prophets," He said, "will become greatest in the kingdom of God."

Jesus wants us to understand the self-revelation of His Father that's contained in the Torah. And beloved, that's what we're doing here today. Father, I bless everyone that is listening to this broadcast. Father God, we love You. We want to fear You, God, with a holy fear, and we want to walk in Your ways because Daddy, we want to be pleasing to You. And we're so thankful that You chose us. We love You today, Daddy, in Jesus' name.

I want to read for you the book of Deuteronomy—we call it in Hebrew Devarim. I'm going to the 14th chapter. I'm going to be reading from the 22nd and the 23rd verse. Hear the word of God. The Lord is speaking here and He says, "You shall surely tithe all the produce from what you sow, which comes out of the field every year." And then He continues at the last part of the next verse, He says, "so that you might learn to fear the Lord your God always."

Do you know that fearing the Lord as we study today is related to tithing? Because when we tithe, we're giving God the respect He deserves by declaring that we believe that everything that we have comes from Him. And beyond that, the Lord said the tithe is His. So we're just really giving back to God what's already His to begin with. We're just cooperating with Him. Beloved, if you want to put today's teaching into practice in your life, if you're not tithing, do so, and God promised He would bless you for it.

Dustin Roberts: Amen. And we're really grateful for your gifts of any amount. So as the Lord leads you to support this ministry, visit us online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com and give there. Or if you prefer, give us a call at 800-777-7835. And you can also mail your check in the mail. Our address is Discovering The Jewish Jesus, P.O. Box 777, Blissfield, Michigan, 49228.

And in case you didn't have time to write that down, make sure you're getting your pen ready right now. That's Discovering The Jewish Jesus, P.O. Box 777, Blissfield, Michigan, 49228. And today I'd like to share with you a free gift that we have available. It's our self-deliverance teaching bundle. And it's an engaging resource that includes Rabbi Schneider's step-by-step PDF guide, and that'll explain how you can recognize spiritual strongholds and footholds that the enemy may have in your life, and it'll help you close the door to those strongholds using scripture.

You'll also receive an MP3 audio file where Rabbi teaches and prays along with you for freedom in Messiah. So make sure to claim your free deliverance bundle right now just by visiting myfreegift.com/freedom. And now here's God's sacred and special blessing. Rabbi.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Blessings trump curses. And in the book of Numbers chapter 6, we find the Aaronic blessing that God commanded Moses' brother Aaron, the high priest, to speak over the children of Israel. There's power in blessing, beloved ones, so take part in receiving Father's blessing upon your life today.

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 you, beloved one, His peace. And now in Hebrew:

Yevarechecha Adonai v'yishmerecha.

Ya'er Adonai panav eleicha vichuneka.

Yissa Adonai panav eleicha v'yasem lecha shalom.

God bless you and shalom.

Dustin Roberts: I'm your host, Dustin Roberts. This program is produced and sponsored by Discovering The Jewish Jesus. Be sure to join us again when Rabbi Schneider reveals what the Lord requires from us. That's Tuesday on Discovering The Jewish Jesus.