Discovering The Jewish Jesus

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: You're the bride of Christ. You're the bride of Yeshua. I want to challenge you right now. Will you live as a garden locked? Will you stop willingly letting things into your life through your eyes that defile you because of your love for Jesus?

I know, beloved ones, those of you that have been touched by God, you're going to be able to identify with the journey of the Shulamite bride in this book. Let's continue now as we're in chapter number three, picking up where we left off, verse number six. She says, "What is this coming up from the wilderness?"

Let me share with you what's going on here. The Shulamite bride had previously not fully yielded to Jesus's leading. She suffered for that. Her intimacy with him was broken. When she realized that disobedience caused a lack of experience in God's love, when she realized that her disobedience caused a separation, that she lost her intimacy because of it, she fully repented.

She said, "I'm never going to let that happen again." There was a big yes in her heart. She came back to Jesus and said, "I'm never going to let that happen again. I'm inviting you in now, Jesus, to every chamber of my heart." Once she made this full-fledged commitment in divine love back to God, something supernatural took place in her life.

God began to powerfully deliver her. He began to deliver her from every generational spirit that was keeping her bound. He began to deliver her from every doubt, from every fear, from every spirit of unbelief. Jesus, when she unreservedly said yes to him, began to draw her out of the wilderness, out of darkness, fully into his kingdom, the kingdom of light, the kingdom of love, the kingdom of the Son of God.

So listen to what she says. Remember, this is a prophetic song written in the poetic language of love. So chapter three, verse six, says this. She says, "What is this coming up from the wilderness? Like columns of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense. Behold, it's the traveling couch of Solomon."

Then she realized that this traveling couch of Solomon in verse number eleven was actually the wedding couch, that she was being delivered out of her wilderness, out of all darkness, being carried by the wedding couch of King Jesus to the marriage supper of the Lamb that we read about in Revelation chapter nineteen, verse seven through nine.

I want you to know here's a prophetic application in love for you, beloved one. When you completely say yes to Jesus, when you and I fully repent by saying to him, "Jesus, I don't care what it takes, I don't care what I have to go through, I don't care what the cost, I am saying yes, yes, yes to you God. You're the portion. I've made up my mind to follow Jesus, no turning back."

When you and I with unreservedness give our hearts to him, something supernatural takes over in our life. The delivering power of God himself begins to transport us out of our wilderness, out of darkness, out of everything in our life that's kept us sad, out of everything that's kept us down, out of everything that's kept us in bondage, out of everything that's kept us back.

God's power begins to deliver us out of that state fully into his love. And so she said in chapter three, verse six, "Who is this that's coming out of the wilderness?" She realized it was the traveling couch of Jesus himself and that she was seated on it and he was transporting her and translating her into his love, into his light, and into full freedom in the Holy Spirit.

That was going to culminate, get this now beloved, with them being married, just like the marriage supper of the Lamb in Revelation chapter nineteen. Once she made this decision to fully yield to Jesus once again, Jesus starts affirming her. You see, when you and I say yes to Jesus, we experience his love. That's why Jesus told us in the Gospel of John, chapter fourteen, verse twenty-one and twenty-three, that when we yield to him, Jesus said, "If you love me, you'll keep my word."

Jesus said, "When you love me and express it by obedience, I'm going to come to you and disclose myself to you. And my Father and I are going to make our home with you." In other words, Jesus was saying in John fourteen the same thing that we see revealed in the Song of Songs, chapters three and four: that once she said yes to Jesus, Jesus released her the knowledge of how loved she was.

I want to give you an opportunity right now. If you're ready to take this bold step out and say, "Jesus, I'll go anywhere. I'll do anything. I am making you King of kings and Lord of lords of my life right now. I am not going to let anything have first place in my life any longer. You're going to be my only first place."

If you are willing to yield to the call of God upon your life to make him first, he will release a new dimension, beloved, of the love of God in your life in power. You'll experience him in a way that you never have before, and the power of his delivering love will bring you out of all darkness into his marvelous light.

Now let me say, this is progressive. It doesn't happen in an instant, but there will be a new power and a new dimension of your love that will be released from your life when you fully open up your heart to him and yield to him. So let's pray together right now. Just repeat after me.

Father God, I want to thank you for a new revelation of the love of God as I yield myself completely to you right now. Jesus, you said if I would seek you first, that everything else would be added unto me. Jesus, I declare and decide that right now by your grace, from now on, I will put you first in my life.

I will no longer be intimidated by the fear of man. I will no longer be kept bound by the fear of rejection. I will let go of everything that's kept me from fully yielding to you. Jesus, I say yes to you and I yield fully now by your grace as best I can to the love of God in Jesus' name. Amen.

Beloved, something supernatural happens as we respond to God's love in our life. You see, this is a relationship. God does something, we respond. And when we respond to him, God does something more. Let me say it again. This is a marriage relationship between you and God. When God does something and you respond to him, God responds back to you.

Jesus affirms her as she responds to him, just like he's going to affirm you and I as we respond to him. And Jesus tells her in verse number one of chapter four, "You are so beautiful my darling, how beautiful you are my beloved." Then what he does, he praises her in his love and he affirms her in her beauty from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet.

So I'm just going to quickly go through. Verse number one, he speaks about how beautiful her hair is. Verse number two, how beautiful her teeth are. Verse number three, how beautiful her lips are and her mouth are and her temples are. Verse number four, he praises how strong her neck is. Verse number five, he praises her breasts.

On and on and on. He says in verse number seven, "You are all together beautiful, my darling, and there is no blemish in you. Come with me," he says in verse number eight, "my bride. Come with me from Lebanon." In other words, he's calling her out from where she is to journey with him as his bride. Listen again. Chapter four, verse eight. "Come with me from Lebanon, my bride." Verse number ten, "How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride."

And so as we respond to God's love, God is going to keep yielding himself and releasing more of his manifest presence into our lives.

Dustin Roberts: This is Discovering The Jewish Jesus, and Rabbi Schneider will be right back. But first, I want to ask you the most important question you could ever be asked, and that's: Do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?

If you haven't yet invited Jesus into your heart today to lead your life and ask God to save you from your sins, I want to invite you. Do that right now. If you're ready, then I want you to pray this prayer with me.

Father God, I repent of my sins and I ask you to cleanse me with the blood of Jesus. I accept Jesus Christ, your Son, as my Lord and Savior. Help me to follow you all the days of my life as you show me how. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Friend, if you just prayed that prayer, I'm so excited for you. Let us know by clicking "Find Jesus" at DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com. And now, here's Rabbi.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Here is a mystery. I want you to get this. This is truly a profound mystery. Look what Jesus says to her through the prophetic type of Solomon in verse number nine. Listen to this, beloved one. Jesus says to her, "You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride. You have made my heart beat faster with the single glance of your eyes."

Now I know that even as I say this, many of us are dumbfounded. We're thinking, are you serious? Are you telling me that Jesus is saying that my love makes his heart beat faster? And for so many of us, we can hardly comprehend this. We can't fathom how Jesus could say to us, "You make my heart beat faster."

But I want you to understand something. God is the most humble and sensitive being in the universe. Later in the Song of Songs, he actually says to her, "Turn your eyes away from me, for your love has overwhelmed me." And we think, how could that be? How could God say don't stare at me because your love has overwhelmed me? How could God say your love makes my heart beat faster?

But I want you to get this profound and deep mystery. God is all-powerful, but he has chosen to humble himself, beloved, to the point where he allows himself to feel what we feel, to be touched with what touches us, and to be affected, beloved, listen to this, by our affection to him.

He has voluntarily, listen to this, your God has voluntarily placed himself in such a posture of extreme humility with you that he actually gets pleasure out of your loving him back. He doesn't need us, but he's voluntarily chosen to humble himself and place himself in such a posture where he literally, beloved, is moved, get this now, by your and my love for him.

You and I, get this now, have the ability to move the heart of God. Listen what he says here. "You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride. You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes." In verse number ten, "How beautiful is your love, my bride."

God gets pleasure when you choose to love him. You see, beloved one, you have something that no one else can give God but you, and that's your affection. That's your love. And when you voluntarily, of your own free will, choose to love God by putting him first in your life, by praising him, by talking to him, that moves God's heart. That moves God's heart.

You see, when the Lord calls us his bride, when God calls us his partner, when Jesus tells us in Revelation nineteen that we're coming to the marriage supper of the Lamb, what we find in this, what is demonstrated to us through this bridal paradigm, is that God looks at us, beloved, as someone that can give him enjoyment.

In other words, can you think of being married to somebody that had no ability to move your heart? Would God call us his bride? Would he invite us to the marriage supper of the Lamb if he could get no pleasure from our love for him? Absolutely not.

He is always our God, but he desires that we would love him as an equal partner in love. In other words, he's always God. He's always our master. He's always our Savior. But another dimension to our relationship is as a marriage partner. Paul said, "I betrothed you to one husband, even Christ."

What this means is, beloved one, you can move the heart of God. God gets enjoyment from you. And what he's looking for you to do is to not just look at him as El Shaddai, to not just relate to him as the God that supplies your needs, but God wants you to relate to him also, listen to this, as a worthy partner in love, as someone that rises up in the Holy Spirit and loves him back.

God is looking for a marriage partner that will love him back. That's why he created us, beloved child, in his own image, so that we could love him back with the same love that Jesus loves him back. You and I can voluntarily of our own free will choose to love him back. And when we do, God's heart is moved by this.

Jesus is so moved by her affections. He says, "You moved my heart with the single glance of your eyes." And look what he says to her in verse number twelve. He says, "A locked garden, a garden locked is my sister, my bride. A rock garden locked, a spring sealed up."

In other words, she had become so pure in her relationship with him. In other words, she was living in such fidelity to him. She had closed her eyes to letting things in that would defile her. She had closed her ears to letting things in her ears that would defile her. He said to her, "A garden locked is my sister, my bride. A rock garden locked, a spring sealed up."

In the ancient world, there were two types of gardens. One was a public garden and anybody could come to a public garden. But there was also something called a private garden and the only one that could come to the private garden which was locked was the owner of the private garden. It was a garden only for the enjoyment of its owner.

And that's what Jesus is saying to her. "You have sealed off your life for me only. You have sealed me off for my enjoyment." And so I want to challenge you, church. You're the bride of Christ. You're the bride of Yeshua. I want to challenge you right now. Will you live as a garden locked? Will you stop willingly letting things into your life through your eyes that defile you because of your love for Jesus?

Will you willingly stop listening to music that defiles you so that you can be a garden locked because of your love for Jesus? Jesus wants us to guard our eye gates, our ear gates, those things in our life where things of the world can get in. He wants us to live in fidelity to him and break off any entranceway that we're giving the enemy.

Let me ask you a question. Will you declare to Jesus right now that you love him and you desire to be a locked garden for him, just like the Shulamite bride did? If you do, that will give him immense pleasure and you'll be blessed for it.

As we continue in the journey, beloved, of this baptism of love, because that's where this is going to, a baptism of love, she says to Jesus, "Jesus, I am so sold out to you." She says, "Do whatever you need to do in my life that you can gain complete possession of me and that the beauty of your love will be wafted abroad like perfume through my life."

She said, "Jesus, I don't care anymore. I am so radically sold out for you. All I want is you. I don't care what it takes. I don't care where I have to go. I don't care what I have to do. Jesus, all I want is for you to come in and live inside me, have your way in me, that your fragrance could be wafted abroad through my life." Listen what she says in verse sixteen of chapter four.

"Awake, O north wind, and come, wind of the south. Make my garden breathe out fragrance. Let its spices be wafted abroad. May my beloved come into his garden and eat its choice fruits." She's saying, "Jesus, whatever combination of north winds and south winds are necessary to take place in my life so that you can fully have your way in me, Jesus," she said, "I'm ready."

In other words, I'm ready to go through whatever trial I need to go through in order for you to be perfected in my life, in order for my heart to be fully yielded to you. I'm ready to go through any north wind because north winds are cold and difficult. But Jesus said, "Lord, whatever trial I need to go through for you to be fully formed in me so that your fragrance could be wafted abroad through my life, I'm ready. I'm holding nothing back from you."

But she realized that it wasn't just about the north wind. She realized it was also about feeling blessed. She said, "Awake, O north wind, and come, wind of the south." She knew that it wasn't just going to be trials, but it was going to be special blessings that Jesus would give her to bring her fully into the experience of his love, that he could fully have his way in her and that his fragrance could be fully manifest from her life.

What about you, beloved? Are you willing to yield yourself to Jesus in this way? If you are, if you'll yield to him in this and tell him and really mean it, I want you to know he's going to come and take possession of your life in a way that you have never experienced before.

I promise you, when you fully yield to Jesus, the Holy Spirit is going to baptize you with a fiery love that you have not yet known and something is going to happen in your life beyond that which you've known. Now join me as we continue in this journey of a baptism of love. It's important.

Isn't it true about all of us, we love to hear about what we like. In other words, we love hearing about the things that we already like, but the things that we don't like, we don't want to hear about it. Well, the reason I'm bringing that up is that sometimes God's people don't like hearing about finances because they don't want to surrender their finances to the Lord.

But beloved ones, it's really important because when we surrender our finances, what we're really doing is surrendering our heart and affections. That's why Jesus said man can't love both God and money. We've got to put him first. Some people say that giving financially, tithing, was just something that was in the Old Testament.

But in the seventh chapter of the book of Hebrews, we see Abraham come to Melchizedek, the high priest, who is a type of Christ. And when Abraham met Melchizedek, what did Abraham do? He offered up to God through Melchizedek a tenth of all he had. I just want to encourage you today. Let's surrender our whole lives to the Lord, which involves every area, even our finances.

Beloved ones, if you're not tithing somewhere, would you tithe to the Lord to Discovering The Jewish Jesus? I want to tell you, you'll be blessed and many souls will be saved.

Dustin Roberts: Amen. And to respond to Rabbi and financially support Discovering The Jewish Jesus with a gift of any amount, would you call us? Our number is 800-777-7835. Or give online at DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com. Each and every gift helps, regardless of size, and I just want to thank you for your generosity today.

I'd also like to talk with you about Passover. It's called Pesach in Hebrew, and it begins at sunset on Wednesday, April the first. It also concludes at nightfall on Thursday, April the ninth. It's an eight-day season. And if you'd like to learn more about God's specially set-apart times, visit us online at DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com and click on the resources tab and Rabbi Teaching Notes.

Passover isn't just for Jewish people, it's for all of us that are found in Christ. It's a personal invitation to remember how Jesus was the Passover Lamb. He said, "From now on, when you take of this cup and of this bread, do it in remembrance of me." It's such a beautiful time of the year. I absolutely love it. Again, learn more at DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com. And let's wrap up today's program now with God's special blessing, sung in Hebrew and then spoken in English.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Blessings trump curses. And in the book of Numbers, chapter six, 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. 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 challenges us: How do we love God enough to meet him in his suffering? Well, find out Friday on Discovering The Jewish Jesus.