Discovering The Jewish Jesus

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: What can you do to get in greater touch with this reality that Messiah, the hope of glory, is living in you? What are some steps that you can take?

We’re on a quest to discover more of God's supernatural presence in our life. This series is called God's Supernatural Presence. I know that those of you that love God, you want to experience more of his presence in your life. His presence is supernatural because his presence comes to us by his Spirit, and Spirit is by definition supernatural.

I left off by talking about the fact that sometimes sincere believers, those of us that really are hungry to walk with God, to know God, can be deceived if we're looking to experience him and to be led by him predominantly by what's happening in our circumstances and in the outer world. Satan is also in the world, and Satan can do false signs and give you what you feel to be a confirmation from the Lord when maybe it wasn't a confirmation from the Lord.

Let me give you an example of what can happen if someone isn't paying attention to the inner witness of the Holy Spirit and is only being led by the circumstances. Perhaps some of you can relate to this example because I've heard of this type of phenomenon happening many times. I recently read the testimony of a man who had been working in the secular world for many years. Over the past several years, he had sensed that the Father was supernaturally calling him into full-time ministry.

He was reluctant to leave his secular job to go into full-time ministry because he was having a hard time trusting the Lord with his finances. He thought, "If I leave my secular job where I can depend on the income to just walk into full-time ministry, not for sure knowing how my financial needs will be met, what's going to happen to me?" For several years, he wasn't obedient. Eventually, he surrendered to God's call on his life. He made the decision to leave his secular job and to follow Father God into full-time ministry to preach the gospel.

Within a week of making the decision to leave his secular job, they offered him a significant promotion. He would have gone up in the company and would have made more money. He really struggled because it was so attractive, and you could have easily thought, "Well, the Lord just spoke. God was giving his confirmation that he wants me to stay in this secular job."

Instead of paying attention to what happened in the outer world and thinking it was a confirmation from God to stay in the secular job, he instead listened to the inner supernatural witness of the Holy Spirit in his heart. He left the full-time job, followed the Father into full-time ministry, and ended up having great impact in the earth for the gospel and for the Lord Jesus. You see, you can't be led only by what's happening in your circumstances because what will happen if you do is that you're going to be led astray by false signs and wonders. The devil is also able to operate in the world, and he's able to do things to deceive, as Jesus said, even the elect.

So, we're picking up now today talking about how important it is to get settled in the fact that Jesus lives inside us and to learn how to become sensitive to the inner witness of the Holy Spirit. I call it intuitive listening. You begin to pay attention to whether you're feeling peace about something or if it’s not right. You realize that what you're feeling and what you're sensing and what you're discerning is oftentimes correct. I'm just saying oftentimes correct not because the Holy Spirit is ever incorrect but because we're human and we see through the glass dimly, so there are times that we can get it wrong.

When we pay attention to what we sense God doing on the inside, minding the peace—if we feel, "Yes, this feels right"—minding the check and saying, "This doesn't feel right"—paying attention to what's going on on the inside as opposed to being overwhelmed with the outer circumstances, we're going to be able to successfully be led by the supernatural presence of God. John wrote to us, and he said the anointing that you have received is from the holy one, and it's not a lie.

The key then to coming into a greater revelation and a greater experience of the supernatural presence of God in our life is to get in touch with the mystery that Paul revealed to us in the book of Colossians, that Christ, or Messiah, is inside us. I've talked in previous broadcasts about some of the things that are happening in the world today that are keeping us from realizing this truth. What I'm going to do now is I'm going to show you some things that you can practice in your life that will bring you into a greater realization of the abiding presence of God's Spirit in you.

What can you do to get in greater touch with this reality that Messiah, the hope of glory, is living in you? What are some steps that you can take? Number one, beloved, I want to talk to you about coming out from the world. I'm reading now from the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 17. Hear the word of God. We read this, the Lord is speaking through Paul: "Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean, and I will welcome you." In other words, if we want to come into a greater reality of God's presence, we have to come out of the world. We have to stop being so connected to what's on the outside.

For some of you, it's shopaholism. You're constantly going to the mall, looking to buy something, and you buy something and it gives you a little bit of a boost for a few hours, a few days, a few months, but pretty soon you feel just as empty as you were before you bought it. For some of you, it's Facebook. It’s a proven fact that when we get a text or when someone face-messages us, there's something inside us that triggers a chemical that makes people feel good, and so they get addicted to being stimulated by this connection to the social media, whether it be Instagram, Facebook, texting, etc. People are so addicted today.

A woman in our congregation recently had a vision about this. She said she saw a person and what happened was that there were little antennas that came from this person's soul and began to connect with these things outside themselves like Facebook, texting, and Instagram. Pretty soon, as they began to spend more and more time on these social media outlets, more and more antennas came out of their soul through their mind and connected them to these outer pseudo-realities, these false realities.

Soon what was happening, as she saw in the vision, is that there were all these little antennas from this person's soul that came out of their soul through their mind and they were connected to Facebook, Instagram, and texting. Now this person no longer was conscious of what was going on in their own soul where the movement of the Holy Spirit takes place, because the Holy Spirit dwells inside the soul that God created in his own image. Now what was happening, instead of being conscious of that, they were instead connected by these antennas to Facebook, Instagram, and texting. So they could no longer sense God dwelling inside them. It's like they became inhuman. This is what the world that we're living in is like today. They’re being dehumanized, depersonalized. Everyone's putting on a face. This type of behavior will keep us from being able to be sensitive to the supernatural presence of God in our life.

Dustin Roberts: You’re listening to Discovering The Jewish Jesus, and Rabbi Schneider will be right back in just a moment. First, though, I want to invite you to explore our Messianic content on our website. You can dive deep into topics like the Feasts of the Lord, the prophetic significance of Israel, and how Yeshua fulfills prophecy. Visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com and click on our ministry and Messianic contents tab, helping you understand the roots of your faith today. It can be easy to spend money on small things without thinking twice. But have you considered how big of an impact if all of you listening right now give a small gift? Maybe you've thought about it but said, "One day if I have enough, I can give a big gift." But any gift matters, and maybe God is calling you to invest in his kingdom right now. So please give today. Call 800-777-7835. And now, back to Rabbi Schneider.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: If we're going to come into an experience where we can be led by the Spirit and experience his presence, we're going to have to, as Paul told us, come out of the world. How do we come out of the world? We set boundaries in our life. We don't sleep with the phone next to our head at night so that if somebody texts us at three o'clock in the morning, we don't miss it, God forbid. We don't wake up in the morning and the first thing that we do is run over to our phone to see who might have texted us.

No, we come out from the world to become separated unto God. We put boundaries in our life. We can use technology. We use the internet, we can use Facebook to communicate with family and friends, but we don't let it master us. We come out of the world rather instead and we put boundaries around our life. I mean, the most simple thing you can do is when you wake up in the morning, don't look at your phone. Spend time with God every single morning. If you drink coffee or tea or whatever, get yourself a cup of tea, get yourself a cup of coffee, and just go to the same place. Have a room in your home or apartment that's kind of like your prayer room, the inner sanctuary, the inner chamber, and spend time with God listening to sanctified worship music, reading his word, reading some devotional, or reading some other book that's written by an inspired author of the Lord to bring you into the things of God. Start the day by putting God first and don't constantly make yourself a slave to the world and to the things that are going on outside of you. You come out, beloved, of the world. This scripture, by the way, is spoken of in very similar principle in the Hebrew Bible. We need to come out of the world, beloved, to spend time with him.

Secondly, stop running. Stop running. Why do so many of us run to all these things in the world, whether it's work, whether it's shopping, whether it's all these relationships, or whether it's that we always have to be talking to somebody? We can't stand being alone, some of us. Why do we do this? Because oftentimes we're running from an inner anxiety. We're running from ourselves. We're trying to cover up the anxiety we feel, the fear we feel, the confusion we feel, the lack of satisfaction we feel. We're trying to cover that up, trying to mask that with the things of the world.

It's no different than what Adam and Eve did when they sinned. As soon as they sinned, their relationship with God was cut off. Suddenly they felt insecure, empty, confused, and afraid. What did they do? Rather than turning to God, instead what they did was they tried to run from what they were feeling and they covered themselves up with the fig leaves. I want to read you the story from the book of Genesis chapter number 3. Hear the word of God. Genesis 3 verse 7 through 10: "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings." They began to run from the Lord. Then it says in verse 9: "Then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, 'Where are you?' He said, 'I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.'"

So, Adam and Eve's response to their feeling of being exposed, not being comfortable anymore in their own skin because they were naked before but they were totally comfortable—but now that they had sinned, they were uncomfortable in their own skin. What did they do? They tried to deal with that by running away. They thought they could run away from it by going someplace else. They tried to cover that feeling up with the fig leaves. Just like you and I are doing today. Not with fig leaves, but with television, with socialization, and running all over the place, always having to talk to somebody. We're trying to cover it up, but here's the problem. It won't work because wherever you go, there you are.

You can't escape it that way. It's always going to be with you. You're not going to be able to get away from it. So we have to stop running and we have to listen now. We have to, beloved, turn back to God, just like Adam and Eve basically did in some fashion when the Lord pursued them. God revealed to them their only way out is to face me again.

We talked about coming out from the world, disconnecting. We talked about stop running. And then we're going to talk about the next step here, which is, listen, beloved one, being still. You see, the Psalm tells us in Psalm number 46 verse 10, it says, "Be still and know that I am God." We have to still our soul. David said, "I have stilled my soul like a child that rest on his mama's knee. I have stilled my soul completely." We have to still our soul. We have to quiet it. We have to stop running. We have to stop covering things up. We have to just simply spend time sitting before God. It's uncomfortable. It takes discipline. It doesn't feel good.

But it's the only way to be made whole. It's the only way Father's going to be able to establish his foundation in us. Because as long as we're running, as long as we're trying to cover up our nakedness with being busy, we're never going to be made whole. We have to stop running and we have to be still and just sit before the Lord. In the ancient world, they had to be still because there weren't so many things going on like there are today. David, when he was a shepherd, learned how to be led by the Holy Spirit because he was just being still with the Lord.

The Lord spoke to me many years ago through a dream. In this dream, I was in this little room. It was a simple wooden room. There was nothing in the room at all. No pictures, nothing but a simple picnic table, a wooden chair on one side of the table, a wooden chair on the other side of the table, and there was one open window that you could look outside. Very simple room, nothing in it but a table and two chairs. I'm sitting in the one chair, and across the table from me is sitting somebody else. All I knew is that this person sitting across the table from me, beloved one, was a familiar friend. I didn't know who he was. I couldn't see his face. I just sensed in my heart whoever is sitting across the table from me is a familiar friend.

I knew in the dream that I'd been sitting in this room alone across from this man for a long time. I was getting real antsy just sitting there. I was getting real antsy and anxious just being still. I looked out the window and I saw that it was outside, it was beautiful. Something in me was like, "I just want to get out of this room. I want to go outside and I want to do something." As soon as I was about to get up out of the room in the dream and go outside to go do something because I was getting so antsy just sitting there being still across from this familiar friend, the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He said, "The person sitting across the table from you, this familiar friend, it's my son. It's Jesus. And if you'll just continue being still and facing him and not trying to run from what you're feeling by going outside to do something, if you'll just practice being still before my son and facing him," the Lord said to me, "you will be made whole."

And beloved one, beloved child of God, I say the same thing to you right now. Everyone that's watching right now, or virtually everyone, wants to experience more of Father's supernatural presence in our life. We want to experience more of Jesus. We want to have a greater experience with the Holy Spirit. But it's not going to just happen if we're constantly running to the things of the world. We have to come out of the world, choose to resist and flee from what's not of God. We have to sit before the Lord rather than running and be still.

If you and I will practice those disciplines, supernatural transformation will take place. These truths that I'm sharing with you, I didn't just read about them in a book. I began to practice them over 20 years ago. I want you to know, beloved, the process is slow, it's painful, and it takes a long time, but the things that I'm sharing with you are real. They're supernatural and they work. God wants to do something in your life beyond what you're experiencing right now. But in order for him to complete the process, you have to cooperate with the Spirit. Paul said bodily discipline is profitable, but spiritual discipline is even more profitable because it will bless you not only in the life to come but now as well. Beloved, let's pursue him and do what we need to do.

I've always liked a very simple approach to ministry in both my preaching and in helping God's people understand why it's important to support ministry with our finances. I'm reading a very simple portion of scripture I've referred to before, but I love it because it's so simple and so authentic. Listen to what John says in the book of 3 John verse 7 and 8, speaking of those that are sent out to preach the gospel. He says this: "For they went out for the sake of the Name." And then he continues in the eighth verse by saying this: "Therefore we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth."

You see, not everybody's called to do what I do. Not everyone's called to travel to Africa, Israel, preach the gospel all over the world, etc. But you can have a part in the lives that are being changed through my ministry, beloved ones, by supporting this ministry. I want to ask you, if you believe in the word that I'm preaching, if you believe in me, if you believe that there's authentic fruit and if you're being helped, I want to ask you to support this ministry financially. You're going to be blessed and have a reward for the lives that are being saved and changed.

Dustin Roberts: Amen. And if the Lord is calling you to join with Discovering The Jewish Jesus, give your gift online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Or call us at 800-777-7835. That's 800-777-7835. You can also text your donation. Just text the keyword GIVE to the phone number 88777. That's the keyword GIVE to the phone number 88777.

We're really grateful for your generosity. So as a token of our appreciation, we want to make sure that you receive our latest newsletter that's full of ministry updates, encouraging testimonies, and additional teaching points from Rabbi. Plus also our monthly free teaching booklet. And then I want to share something really exciting with you. Rabbi has a brand new book. And if you've been hungry for more of God's supernatural presence, this is the book for you. It's called The Mystery of the Tabernacle. Listen, when Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and it wasn't an accident. God was throwing the door wide open and saying, "Come in and be with me." Rabbi's new book walks you through every element of the Tabernacle of Moses, and it shows you how it represents our relationship with Jesus and how to walk through that open door all the way into the Holy of Holies. Get The Mystery of the Tabernacle today. Just go to discoveringthejewishjesus.com. And now let's wrap up today's message with a special blessing from Rabbi, first sung in Hebrew and then spoken in English.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: In the book of Numbers chapter 6, we find a personal blessing from God our Father. This blessing should touch our hearts because it's so personal. Father God wants to intimately bless you. So receive his blessing into your life today with gladness and an open heart.

Yevarechecha Adonai veyishmerecha. Ya’er Adonai panav elecha vichunecha. Yissa Adonai panav elecha veyasem lecha shalom.

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. 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 tomorrow when Rabbi Schneider explores Shavuot, also known as Pentecost, revealing a deeper meaning in God's unfolding plan. That's Friday on Discovering The Jewish Jesus.