Discovering The Jewish Jesus

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: The Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh as we say in Hebrew, the Ruach, the breath, the holy breath of life. They were all filled with the Ruach HaKodesh and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit was giving them utterance.

Baruch Hashem, which is Hebrew for "bless the name of the Lord." The word of the Lord is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword. I have found over the 40 plus years that I've been walking with the Lord that the people that seem to be most excited about Yeshua, about Jesus, in their walk with God are people that are experiencing God's activity, his presence, his supernatural in their lives even now.

You know, David said if he didn't believe that he could experience the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, meaning in his present life, he would have fainted. Some people think that all we can do in this life is study the Bible and go to church and we just have to wait to die and go to heaven to truly experience God. But nothing could be further from the truth. God is here and he is now and he communicates with his people. And one of the primary ways, beloved, that he communicates with us that know him are through our dreams at night.

I want to take you now to the Hebrew prophet Joel and we're going to look now at Joel chapter 2. I'm going to be reading there beginning in verse number 27. I want you to listen carefully because Peter is going to quote this same passage of scripture in Acts chapter 2 when he talks about what took place when the spirit of God fell at Pentecost, or we say in Hebrew, Shavuot. Hear the word of God. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord abides forever.

Beginning once again, Joel 2 verse 27. "Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God and there is no other, and my people will never be put to shame. It will come about after this that I will pour forth my spirit on all mankind, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servant, I will pour out my spirit in those days."

So the Lord is prophesying here through Joel about what he is going to do in a last days movement by his spirit. Now let's keep that in mind as we turn to the New Testament, and we're going to go here to the book of Acts chapter number 2. The Brit Hadashah, the New Testament, Acts chapter 2. I'm going to begin reading in verse 1. "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place."

Now I want to pause because when we think of Pentecost, we think of the giving of God's spirit that took place 2,000 years ago as the believers were gathered together there in Jerusalem. But understand that these first believers, when they were gathered, they didn't first think about the giving of the spirit. They were thinking about what happened at Mount Sinai 1,500 years earlier on this exact day. In Judaism, in Hebrew, we refer to it as Shavuot.

The New Testament was written in Greek, and so the Greek word for Shavuot, the equivalent of it, is Pentecost. Shavuot meant "weeks" because in the Torah, there was a special day that took place seven weeks and a day after Passover. We simply say in the Greek Pentecost, which means 50. In other words, seven weeks plus a day equal 50. Well, Pentecost equals 50. I'm trying to make the point that oftentimes Christians think that Pentecost is a New Testament holiday, when in fact Pentecost was rooted in the Torah.

So these believers were gathered together in Jerusalem as they had been doing now for 1,500 years ever since this law, this holiday, was given to them. And they were thinking as they were in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 2, they were thinking how 1,500 years earlier, the Lord had revealed himself in glory on top of Mount Sinai and then he wrote his law on the tablets of stone. So while they're gathered thinking about this memory that happened 1,500 years earlier, suddenly the same God that appeared at Mount Sinai writing his law on the tablets of stone, he manifest himself again in glory.

But this time he does it in tongues of fire and he writes his law in their hearts. Now the reason I am going to continue to read here in a moment from Acts 2, and the reason we're going over Acts chapter 2, is because in Acts 2 after the spirit had fallen in the way that I just described, people didn't know what was going on. They had never seen anything like this before. The power of God's glory was so strong that people almost seemed like they were drunk.

They were moving around, they weren't standing up straight, they were so overwhelmed by what happened, even as the priest couldn't stand when the glory of God filled the first temple because of the weight of it. So the same type of phenomenon was happening here, and some began to laugh at them and mock them and say, "Look, these guys look like they're drunk." And then Peter stood up and he said, "These men are not drunk. What you're seeing," Peter explained, "is what Joel prophesied in Joel chapter 2." And then Peter quoted the scripture that I just got done reading for you from Joel chapter 2.

So with that introduction, let's continue to read now Acts chapter 2. I'm going to begin again in verse number 1. "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came a noise like a violent rushing wind and filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit."

The Ruach HaKodesh as we say in Hebrew. The Ruach, the breath, the holy breath of life. They were all filled with the Ruach HaKodesh and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit was giving them utterance. Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when the sound occurred, the crowd came together and were bewildered. Each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, "Why are not all these who are speaking Galileans?

How is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?" And then the text continues in verse 12. They all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" Listen now. "But others were mocking and saying, 'They are full of sweet wine.'" Now listen what Peter does. But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them, "Men of Judea and all you who live in Yerushalayim, let this be known to you and give heed to my words.

For these men are not drunk as you suppose, for this is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel." And what Peter is going to do now is he is going to quote from Joel chapter 2, as I got done stating and quoting earlier in the broadcast today. Hear it once again, Peter quotes it, verse 17. "'And it shall be in the last days,' God says, 'that I will pour forth of my spirit on all mankind. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.

Even on my bondslaves, both men and women, I will pour in those days forth of my spirit.'" And so the point that I am making here is that both Peter and Joel said the same thing that relates to the topic of our message today, which is on dreams. What they both stated, Peter and Joel, is this: that when God's spirit comes upon us, one of the manifestations and the blessings that will come to us as believers for possessing God's spirit is that we will dream dreams.

"Your old men will dream dreams." Now it's just not old men that dream dreams. Peter is speaking about all classes of people. All peoples will have the experience of being able to prophesy, which is simply to be able to speak by inspiration of the spirit. I'll talk about that further. We'll be able to see in the spirit. I'm going to explain that, to see visions. And we will have dreams at night that will come from God that will direct us in life. And I'm going to primarily be focusing in this series on dreams that we have at night. Once again, your old men will dream dreams.

Dustin Roberts: This is Discovering The Jewish Jesus, and Rabbi Schneider will be right back. But first, we have a free gift for you. If you're battling heaviness or patterns that you just can't shake, it may be spiritual oppression. Don't wait for others to deliver you. Rabbi's free self-deliverance bundle includes a step-by-step PDF with scripture and an MP3 guide to help you close every door to the enemy and live free in Jesus. Get yours at myfreegift.com/freedom.

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Now I am not talking here, just to be very explicit, I'm not talking about having a dream for your life. I'm not talking about someone who says, "This is my dream. I want to go to this place on vacation," or "My dream job is this." We're not talking about those types of dreams. We're talking about supernatural presentations that come to us in the night by the Holy Spirit when we're sleeping that reveal to us the things of God.

Now before I get heavily into dreams, I want to briefly cover the other two phenomenon that both Peter and Joel mentioned we will experience because of the spirit's being poured out on our life. The three manifestations of the spirit being poured out on our life are prophecy, dreams, and visions. Right? Your young and old will prophesy. They will speak by inspiration of the spirit. The Hebrew word for prophesy is "naba". And the most elementary definition of this Hebrew word is simply to speak by inspiration of the spirit.

It doesn't have to be "Thus saith the Lord." It doesn't have to be presented in such a mysterious way all the time. To speak by inspiration of the Lord can be something as profoundly simple as you're driving in your car and suddenly you feel this inspiration in your heart that you're supposed to reach out and call your mother and just ask her how she's doing. Or you just feel this inspiration in your heart that you're supposed to reach out and call a friend and tell them that you love them or pray for them.

Sometimes that inspiration is actually coming from the spirit. So when you simply pick up the phone because you feel inspired to, you dial the number of that person that you felt inspired to call and you just say, "I just felt inspired to call you. I just want to tell you I love you, want to find out how you're doing, and want to pray for you." That, my friend, is prophecy in the most simple form. You're speaking by inspiration of the spirit. You're calling somebody. You're saying, "I just wanted to reach out, tell you I love you. I was thinking about you."

And you did that because the Holy Spirit inspired you to reach out and say that to that person. Now obviously there are many different levels of prophecy. Prophecy can get very deep in terms of God giving you information about secrets in somebody's life and knowing those secrets and being able to speak to somebody about secrets in their life. We've heard of those types of things happening that someone comes to somebody and shares with them something that no one knew about them but the Lord.

But God gave them the spirit of prophecy to be able to see that hidden mystery and then to speak to that person about that and the result is that person that has been spoken to realizes that God knows them and loves them and their heart is opened up to receive God's love and to believe him. In other words, if somebody calls me, let me give you an example of a prophecy that came to me one time.

Years ago, when my daughters first started driving, I got panic-stricken with fear every time they got in the car. What really set it off was my daughters got in two accidents, and those two accidents that happened, one of which could have been very, very serious, really put me in a state of fear whenever they got in the car driving. It got so bad. I was so paralyzed by this fear that literally one day when my daughters went out the door together with my daughter driving—you know, she's a young driver, just starting out, 16 years old—I was so afraid for their life I didn't know what to do. I went to sleep in the middle of the afternoon, which is just so unlike me.

In my sleep, I see myself—I am dreaming now—but I see myself crying out to the congregation that I pastored at the time. And in my sleep, I'm crying out to my congregation, I said, "Pray for me. I need you to pray for me." Then I wake up. As soon as I wake up, my phone rings. It's somebody in my congregation. While I was in my sleep crying out to my congregation, "Pray for me. I need your prayers," somebody in my congregation in real life calls me and she says to me, "Rabbi, I don't know what's going on, but I want you to know the Lord just put you right in front of my face."

And she said, "I'm praying for you." That was prophecy. She knew to pray for me and then she literally called me and said, "Rabbi, I'm praying for you" at the same time right after, probably, in my sleep, in my dreams, I was calling out to my congregation, "I need you to pray for me." Speaking by inspiration of the spirit. That woman called me and spoke to me by the inspiration of the spirit. And so one of the effects of having God's spirit poured out on us is that we speak by the inspiration of the spirit.

Sometimes you're speaking by inspiration of the spirit, you're prophesying, you don't even know it. Again, there are other levels of prophecy. It has to do sometimes with being able to prophesy about the future, but I am keeping things on a simple form right now. We all prophesy. And then we find that the second characteristic or the second benefit and blessing that we experience because God's spirit has been poured out on us is we see visions.

And so the scripture says here that your young men shall see visions. Now when we think of seeing visions from God, we think, for example, of Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6 where he was caught up to see in the spirit world and he saw the Lord on his throne, and it was so overwhelming to Isaiah that Isaiah fell to the ground and he cried out, "Woe is me." Or when we think of a vision, for example, we think of some of the visions of Ezekiel, or we think about John in the book of Revelation where he is called up and in chapter 4 he sees the Lamb on the throne and he sees the incense in chapters 4 and 5 and all these things going on there and he's overwhelmed by it.

But I want you to know, beloved, most visions that God gives his people are very subtle. They're not visions that blow you over. They're visions that are subtle that if you're not paying attention, you'll miss them. You see, generally God speaks not in an earthquake or a violent fire, but generally he speaks with a gentle wind. And so, for example, you'll see a simple picture in your mind. A picture tells a thousand words. Many years ago, I was leading a prayer meeting and there was a man sitting across from me in the prayer meeting and all of a sudden, I just saw a simple picture in my mind.

It was so gentle. If I wasn't conscious and aware, I would have missed it. And I saw a hammer coming down on this guy's head that was sitting across from me. And I said to him, I said, "I don't know if this means anything, but I just saw a picture in my mind and in the picture in my mind, I saw a hammer coming down on your head." And he said, "Rabbi, I just found out today that I was getting sued." A hammer was coming down on his head.

So when I said that to him, he knew God must care, God must love me, God is with me in this. He sees what's going on. Because I was able to communicate that to him, he knew that God was fond of him, that God knew exactly what was going on in his life and God was with him through what he was going through. So prophecy, dreams, and visions. We've talked today a little bit about visions and about prophecy.

But what I really want to center on, beloved one, in this series is receiving communication from the Lord through our dreams at night. Whether you know it or not, you're dreaming. I believe that by you sitting under the teaching in this series, God is going to open you up to better receive from him in your sleep. He's going to knock off your life what's preventing you from hearing him speak in your sleep and as a result, you're going to be guided in your life and directed by the Holy Spirit in a greater way.

Shalom and God bless you, beloved ones. In 1978 when the Lord miraculously revealed himself to me as Jesus, I was instantly so excited. I started telling everybody about Jesus. I went out and bought a New Testament, started devouring the word of God. I was going to churches all over the city. And you know what? The only thing that cost me was gas money and the price of buying a Bible. But now that the Lord has raised me up to preach the gospel all over the world through television and on the ground crusades, this costs money.

And beloved, I can't do it without you. The Lord has ordained that the gospel is financed through the finances of his people. I want to ask you today, if you believe in me, if you believe in this ministry, if you believe the kingdom is being built through this ministry, just sow a financial seed immediately and become a partner with us and you'll be blessed, beloved, because you're going to have a reward for the souls that are being changed in this ministry. Thank you and shalom.

Dustin Roberts: If God is calling you to give to Discovering The Jewish Jesus, give a gift of any amount by calling us today. You can reach us at 800-777-7835. That's 800-777-7835. You can also give online by visiting us at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. I also want to take a moment and say thank you today. Your faithful support has opened doors that we really couldn't have ever walked through alone. And because of your faithfulness, we've launched a Spanish language program.

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You can also give online by visiting our website discoveringthejewishjesus.com or send your check in the mail. Our address is Discovering The Jewish Jesus, PO Box 777, Blissfield, Michigan 49228. That's PO Box 777, Blissfield, Michigan 49228. And now, here's Rabbi to share God's sacred blessing with us as we wrap up another week of engaging and encouraging messages. Rabbi.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: The words from the Aaronic Blessing in the book of Numbers chapter 6, verses 22 through 27, help us to realize how good God is to you and I personally. So receive his blessing into your life and then beloved one, go bless somebody else in Jesus' name 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.

Yevarechecha Yahweh veyishmerecha. Ya’er Yahweh panav eleycha vichuneka. Yisa Yahweh panav eleycha veyasem lecha shalom. God bless you and shalom.

Dustin Roberts: This program is produced and sponsored by Discovering The Jewish Jesus and I'm your host Dustin Roberts. Come back next week when Rabbi Schneider shares a glimpse into biblical prophecy, dreams, and visions. That's Monday on Discovering The Jewish Jesus.