Discovering The Jewish Jesus

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Breakthrough involves having opposition. In other words, when we took that first baby step, we were coming against or breaking through the lack of body coordination that we were experiencing before that first step. Spiritual breakthrough. This is so important because if we've got the heart of Yeshua in us, we've got the heart of a champion. And the heart of a champion is always pushing. Paul said this. He said, I forget what lies behind and I press on toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, towards the prize. So those of us that have our sights set on Hashem of entering into a greater concept of his presence, a greater experience of his reality with us, a greater experience of his power and glory in our lives, we're continuing to press on for breakthrough.

And if you think about it, as human beings, we were made for breakthrough. Think about us for a second, even as infants. Remember we came out of our mother's womb and we learned how to stretch our bodies. And in a sense, we were getting breakthroughs. We learned how to move our arms. And then one day, our mom or dad put us on the ground and slowly we learned how to crawl. But then the great day came when one day we were able to get up from crawling, stand up as infants and take our first baby step.

And our mom got on the phone and she called the relatives and she called her friends and said, my daughter, my son, he took his first step today. I saw my child take their first step. It was a great day of breakthrough. And the truth is that if we're once again growing in the Lord, we are continually breaking through to do something or experience something that we had not yet done before. Breakthrough involves having opposition. In other words, when we took that first baby step, we were coming against or breaking through the lack of body coordination that we were experiencing before that first step.

And so breakthrough means coming against something that before had hindered us. We think about Paul's words in the book of Ephesians. He speaks about spiritual warfare. He speaks about the fact that we have an opponent. We have an enemy. We have someone that's resisting us. He called the enemy Satan, spiritual forces, Paul said, of heavenly wickedness, darkness in high places. And he said our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principal powers and forces of spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. And he said that this fight that we're in is a wrestling match. And that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can win this wrestling match.

Many of you know that I was a very committed athlete in my high school days and I wrestled the same type of wrestling physically that Paul talked about spiritually in the book of Ephesians. But I was stuck. I had such high goals for myself. My goal as a wrestler was to be state champ in Ohio where I went to school and I lived it, I ate it, I drank it. I was so committed. I was so disciplined. I was like a professional athlete with the level of discipline that I had in my life. I mean running every single day.

I trained so vigorously. Wrestling at the time came before everything for me. I didn't yet know Jesus. But yet when I came into my 11th grade year, even though I had much success earlier on, I did not achieve my goals. And as I look back on it what the problem was is that I wanted to win so bad. I needed to win so bad that what I would do is I would get out into the wrestling match each week. We had tournaments and matches and I would get an early lead. Almost every single time I was ahead at the end of the second.

There are three periods in wrestling, each one two minutes each in high school. So I would come out wrestling to win, very focused on winning. And I would get a big early lead. And then once I got that early lead, I would stop wrestling aggressively and instead I would just think, okay, I'm going to win now. I've got a lead. Now just hang on to your win. So I would stop wrestling to win and instead I would start wrestling defensively, just trying to hang on to the lead that I already had. And doing that cost me many matches.

At the time I didn't realize all this. It was only afterwards that I realized that getting ahead and then just trying to hang on to my lead, in other words, from wrestling offensively and then switching to wrestling defensively, it cost me a lot of matches, but I didn't really realize what I was doing until later. And so what was happening was once again I had this high goal to be state champ. And yet I found myself losing as many matches as I was winning. And one day I wrestled this kid that I knew that I could beat.

And the reason I knew that I could beat him is because we used to scrimmage this school. In other words, we were going into an official meet against a school that my school had practiced against many times. And every time when I wrestled this kid that I was about to face in the real meet in a practice when we were practicing with this kid's school, I literally, I don't want to say this boastfully, but I literally manhandled this kid. I mean this kid was like a noodle to me. I beat him that easily. But all of a sudden we have a real match and I go into the real match and what happens?

I do the same thing. I go in I get a huge early lead and now I start thinking subconsciously, okay, you're ahead now. Don't do anything to blow it. Just hang on to your lead and you're going to win. And when I win into that defensive mindset, just wanting to hang on to my lead, you know what happened? I ended up losing that match to this kid. I manhandled every single time I practiced with them. And when that happened, I became so fed up of losing to people that I should have been beating that I said to myself, no more.

And it just so happened that the very next day we were wrestling a school and I was wrestling a kid that was one of the better wrestlers in the state of Ohio and I went out and I beat that kid. That day was a great breakthrough for me because I broken out of this kind of losing pattern that I'd got into because I would go from wrestling offensively to win and then just trying to hang on to my lead once I got the lead. I got so disgusted with myself that that had happened to me that I lost because of doing that that I said I'm never going to do that again.

I'm going to go out there from now on and I'm going to wrestle aggressively the entire match. And that day, beloved, after I lost to this kid that I knew I should have beat, that day I had a great breakthrough and for the rest of that season I consistently was winning. And it was such a marked time in my life. I remember that next day after I lost to the kid I should have beat and then wrestling a really high level athlete the next day and beating him. I remember getting out of the school bus that day.

We were driving back as a team from the school where the match was. And the coach announced on the bus to all the wrestlers that day that I was given the prize that you know for the best wrestler of the night and he gave me a coupon for a free pizza. I remember getting out of that bus when we got back to our school, getting into my car and I turned the music on and it was like I can't even explain what happened. Even though I didn't know God through Jesus at the time, it felt like a God moment to me.

I was like translated in to a state of bliss, a state of release, a state of freedom. I had just experienced great breakthrough. Breakthroughs are real. And I had a great breakthrough that day in a physical wrestling match. But you and I, beloved, are no longer wrestling physically, most of us today. Maybe you're a teenager and you wrestle, but the vast majority of us today, we're not wrestling physical wrestling matches. We're wrestling spiritual matches like Paul spoke about in the book of Ephesians. And I want to talk to you again today about how we can have breakthrough as we're wrestling powers of spiritual darkness.

Dustin Roberts: You're listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus and Rabbi Schneider will be right back. But first, here's a testimony from a listener who's been touched by Rabbi's teachings.

Guest (Male): I was a heroin junkie for 15 years, but but I am now one year clean and saved after following Rabbi Schneider.

Dustin Roberts: Amen. Thank you, Lord. And 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: Our primary text has come from the book of 2 Samuel chapter 5 where we've been looking at the life of King David, David Melech, the king of Israel, and how as soon as he was anointed king, the powers of darkness came to attack him. The powers of darkness in 2 Samuel were manifest through a group called the Philistines because the powers of darkness manifest through flesh and blood. And what we've been doing is we've looked at what David did when he was attacked and how he got breakthrough. We find that David, first of all, he realized he was under attack.

When as soon as the Philistines came, he knew what was going on. He heard about it. And so we talked about in earlier episodes that you and I need to gain a greater sense of the fact that spiritual warfare is real. You know, many of you can quote the scripture that I quoted earlier. Our fight is not against flesh and blood. We wrestle not, Paul said, against flesh and blood, but against powers of spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. Many of us have heard that scripture and we quote it, but the truth is even though we know it by heart some of us, we don't really have revelation about it.

We don't really believe we're under spiritual attack. We don't really believe that when things are bombarding us, when thoughts are coming to our mind that are tormenting us, our temptations are happening that we don't know why the temptation is so strong. We don't really have comprehension that we're under spiritual attack. We think that everything is in the physical world. I'm talking to you right now. We say we believe it, but if you look at your life, perhaps you'll be able to ascertain that you don't really believe it because you blame your problems on circumstances, on people rather than understanding that our real problems are not the circumstances and they're not the people.

Our fight is not against flesh and blood. Our real problem is the thoughts that we're having and thoughts come from the realm of the spirit. We're in a spiritual battle. It's not what's happening that's the problem. It's the way we perceive what's happening that's the problem. And the way we perceive what's happening is a spiritual problem and the thoughts that we 're having are either coming from the spirit of light and life, coming from the spirit of God, or they're coming from the powers of the enemy. Think about it. Jesus stood before Pilate. He was completely calm, completely at peace, filled with confidence, filled with a sense of triumph.

He knew he was about to be crucified. And Pilate was amazed and said to him, don't you know I have the power to crucify you? Many of us would have been terrified, shaking in our bootstraps. Some would have given up their faith because they were so afraid. But Jesus said calmly to Pilate, you would have no power over me unless it was given you from above. You see, it wasn't the circumstance that was the enemy. Jesus wasn't afraid of the circumstance. He wasn't reacting to the circumstance. Yeshua had higher revelation. He lived above it and he had breakthrough.

And we can look at many examples. Think of Paul, for example, in scripture. He's in prison and yet rather than having a bad attitude in prison, Paul said that his imprisonment was for our good because the gospel was coming forth through his writings while he was in prison. And because the word was being spread that he was in prison, it bonded the saints together. And so I'm trying to help us understand today that we are in a wrestling match. We need to get breakthrough and we need greater revelation to understand that our fight is not against flesh and blood and people and circumstances and the government and our employer.

No, the real fight is in our mind, in the thoughts that we're having. And these are spiritual things and we need how to get in touch with the spirit of the Lord within us. See, the Bible says that when David heard the Philistines were attacking him, when he realized he was under attack, he went down, the scripture says, into the stronghold. For us, the stronghold is going into the center of ourselves where Jesus is. He's within us and becoming secure in that and confident in that and knowing that the I am is in us and that we're more than sufficient and conquerors of anything that we're going to face, we can overcome.

And that the key is to be grounded in peace. We go into the stronghold. That's what David did first of all. And then after that, David looked to the Lord for what should he do? And God said to go against the enemy. So David arose from being still before the Lord. He arose from just abiding in God and being at peace and receiving in that secret place in the stronghold. He went from that place where he stood up. He went against the Philistines. And then when he went against the Philistines, he defeated them. And after defeating them, he said, the Lord has broken through my enemies before me like the breakthrough of waters.

In the same account in the book of Chronicles, we read that David said, God has broken through my enemies by my hand like the breakthrough of waters. In both instances, it's the same event. It's the same thing. But in the book of Chronicles, we find that the writer has given us some additional information that David said, God is broken through my enemies. But we find in Chronicles that David also said, God is broken through my enemies by my hand. In other words, the Holy Spirit in David was what gave David the power to break through the Philistine to break through his enemy.

How do we understand this? That on the one hand in the book of 2 Samuel, David doesn't say that it was by his hand. He just said it was the Lord did it. The Lord has broken through my enemies, David said in 2 Samuel like the breakthrough of waters. How do we understand it? I like to think of Ezekiel's vision. Remember Ezekiel's vision? Ezekiel said he saw a wheel. And he said there was an inner wheel. And outside of the inner wheel was an outer wheel. So Ezekiel, beloved one, had this vision. He saw two wheels.

There was an inner wheel and then another wheel around the inner wheel. And Ezekiel said, whenever the inner wheel moved, the outer wheels moved. But whenever the inner wheel stopped, the outer wheel stopped. And so the outer wheels got their life from the inner wheel. The inner wheel possessed the outer wheel. And it was this inner wheel that gave life and movement to the outer wheel. That's what happened here with David. David said, I broke through my enemies. The Lord broke through my enemies by my hand. What does this mean? It was God's working in David's heart and through David's life that gave him the victory.

It was God that gave him the victory. But God was possessing David and empowering David. And so David said, it's by my hand. This is what you and I are after in breakthrough. We're wanting to become so in touch with, so possessed by the living spirit of God that resides within us, that when he moves, we move. And because we're being possessed and motivated and filled with the spirit, everything we do becomes effective when we get breakthrough. If we just try to do it in ourselves in the flesh, there's no real power there. It's just flesh.

But if we're moving by the power of the like David did, we're going to experience true breakthrough. See, Paul said, it's no longer I that live, but Christ, he said, lives in me. When you and I can die to our outer impulses, when we can pull ourselves back from being so connected to the things on the outside to instead become one with the spirit of the Lord that's in us through the dying process of dying to the flesh, dying to our own impulses, to instead pull ourselves back, to learn how to get in touch with the Holy Spirit that's in our soul.

What's going to happen is we're going to be like that outer wheel. And whenever the inner wheel moves, the Holy Spirit we're going to move. And because we're moving by the spirit, we're going to have breakthrough in our lives. You see, Jesus said, he that abides in me bears much fruit. Yeshua said this, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. What does this mean? When you and I die to living by the flesh, when you and I die to living by our own abilities, when you and I die to being connected to the things of the world, like Paul said, he was crucified to the world and the world was crucified to him.

And instead we pull ourselves back and get in touch with the Holy Spirit within us, learning how to be led by him, we will experience significant, powerful breakthrough in our lives. The Bible says, all that are led by the spirit, these are the sons of God. Beloved, there's breakthrough in store love him. As you and I depend on the spirit, rely on the spirit, die to ourselves and are moved by him alone, we're going to enter in to more and more glory. And we're going to experience the presence of King Jesus in our life in ever fuller ways.

Beloved, I say this with authenticity before the Lord, discovering the Jewish Jesus is one of the best and most important ministries that you can partner with on the earth. We are reaching the world with the gospel and more precisely today we're reaching Jewish people with the gospel, which is the mandate of the church. Paul said to the Jew first and also to the Greek or to the Gentiles. Yeshua came and he first brought the message to the Jewish people and then the message spread from there around the world to Jerusalem, Samaria, and all the nations of the earth.

We are broadcasting right now in 97% of the homes in Israel that have television sets as well as a big portion of the entire Middle East. By you becoming a monthly partner with this ministry, you take a step forward and be part of God's steps on the earth to reach around the globe to gather in a harvest of precious Jewish souls. When Jewish people come to faith in him, that creates a spiritual climate for the Lord's return. Now is the time, I believe more than ever before, to bring the good news of the Jewish Messiah Jesus to them.

And you can be a part of doing that by becoming a monthly partner today.

Dustin Roberts: To partner with us in reaching Jewish people with the gospel, visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com or call 800-777-7835. You can also text the keyword give to the phone number 88777. Your support it's helping this ministry use technology to reach Jewish people in Israel with the good news of Messiah through digital outreach and billboards inside the land. People are encountering the message of Jesus. And we're hearing testimonies from Jewish people who are coming to faith. Did you know that 99% of Jewish people around the world don't believe in Jesus? It's a monumental task. We want to reach Jewish people with the gospel.

We want to see God's firstborn turn back to him. And when you give, you become part of that outreach. Your generosity it helps put the gospel in front of people who may never walk into a church, but they can still encounter biblical truth right where they are. So join our team, become a monthly partner. And if you do become a monthly partner, we'll send you a beautiful handcrafted shofar that's made in Israel. It's our way of saying thanks for partnering with us. You know, the shofar it's been used throughout scripture to gather God's people and to call their attention to the Lord.

We hope that having one in your home will serve as a meaningful reminder of God's faithfulness and give you a true tangible connection to the land of Israel. To become a monthly partner today, request your shofar thank you gift by visiting discoveringthejewishjesus.com or call 800-777-7835. Thank you for standing with Rabbi Schneider and discovering the Jewish Jesus as we bring the gospel to people all over the world. Your partnership moves this mission forward. Now here's Rabbi to speak God's sacred and special blessing.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: The ironic blessing in the book of Numbers chapter 6 is not a blessing that comes from an impersonal being out there somewhere in the heavens. This special blessing comes from a person, Yahweh, God Almighty, our creator and maker. So receive God's blessing into your life right now. 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 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 as Rabbi Schneider reveals the spiritual blueprint for us to follow to overcome opposition right here on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.