Rabbi Schneider — Eternal Word
I'm excited, beloved ones, to beginning with you, to be beginning today with you a brand new series. I'm calling it Mysteries From the Gospel of John. The first three gospels in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels.
The reason that Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels is because they cover very similar material. Matthew, Mark and Luke all write about the same historical events in the life and ministry of Jesus. The Gospel of John, however, is very unique. John brings to the surface deep mysteries. And we're gonna be looking at some of these mysteries in the weeks ahead. I pray that it's real blessing to you.
I know that I really love the Gospel of John. Now we're gonna begin today in the Gospel of John, chapter 1. I'm gonna start right at the beginning in verse number 1. In fact, those of you that tune in on a regular basis, I encourage you to bring your Bible to the, to the television set as you're watching, take some notes.
It's really a fascinating and life-changing Word that we're going to be going through here over this next season of time in this study. Let's begin. Again, John, chapter 1, the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse number 1. It says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
Now I want you to understand that who we're talking about here is the pre-incarnation of Jesus; that Jesus, the God-Man, Christ Jesus, manifested into human history in space and time. We read about it in John, 1:14, where John writes for us: And the Word became flesh. So once again, think about this, the Gospel of John starts out by saying:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And then in the 14th verse, John writes: And the Word... Who is the Word? This One that is God, this One that has always been with God, John says, once again in John, 1:14: And the Word became flesh.
Now I'm focusing for a second, beloved ones, on this word that we're calling the Word. And the Word became flesh. A lot of times when Christians hear the expression, the Word of God, they immediately and only think of the written Word, the Bible. But the Word of God is bigger than just the Bible.
The Bible is the Word of God, but the Word of God is a bigger concept than just the Bible because the Word of God actually refers to God himself, who has always been. Let's look at this Scripture again. I want you to see this with me. I'm gonna read John, chapter 1, beginning in verse number 1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. So once again we're seeing that the Word has always been. But in space and time, approximately 2,000 years ago, the Word became flesh; that God himself came to earth, clothed himself in humanity, and he then became the visible, material expression of the Word.
Now I want you to think about something with me. A lot of times when we think about the Word of God, we're only thinking about the Bible. But I want to say to you once again that when you received Jesus, the Living Word came to dwell inside you. In fact, the Bible says that when we receive the Holy Spirit, Jesus said you have no need of anyone to teach you for he, himself, will teach you all things.
Now this doesn't mean that we don't need teachers, that we don't need pastors, that we don't need the written Word. But what it means is that we have received God who is the Living Word. I was recently listening to a scriptural transformation program that I put together called Seize My Word. If you don't have it, I encourage you to go to my website and get the CD called Seize My Word.
What I did was I went through the New Testament and I took the words of the New Testament writers and the words of Jesus, and I turned them into what I call personal scriptural affirmations. So for example, we read, Paul wrote in one of his letters, in him, Paul said, you have been made complete.
Well what I did was I simply turned that into a personal Scripture affirmation that I confess back and I say, in him I have been made complete, or I am complete in Christ. So what I'm doing then is I'm confessing the Word.
So I've been going through these personal Scripture affirmations for months, and months, and months, and sometimes it just feels like I'm just saying the same thing. And one day when I was a little discouraged, I asked, I said, God, are these things really changing me? Are these really transforming me? Because it seems like I'm just confessing the same affirmations day after day out of your written Word. And then I felt like the Holy Spirit, beloved one, spoke intuitively to my heart and he said this.
The Word of mine that's transforming you, because remember, I was confessing your words are transforming me. Remember Jesus said in the Gospel of John, he said, my Word has made you clean. And so I was saying, Lord, just by me confessing this Word, is it really changing me? Am I really being transformed? And it was like the Lord spoke intuitively to my heart and he said to me, it's not just the written Word that's transforming you.
Yes, the written Word is transforming you as you're believing in it, reading it, speaking it. But the Lord said to me, it's also my Word inside you that's transforming you. In other words, the Living Word, beloved ones, lives in you and me. What we read here was: In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. And then in the 14th verse of this same chapter, we read:
The Word became flesh. So who is the Word that became flesh? Jesus. If you're a believer, who did you receive? You received Jesus. That means the Living Word, the Rhema, Living Word of God, lives inside you.
So what the Lord was speaking to my heart, what he was speaking to my spirit in this episode that I'm speak, revealing to you now was he said to me, it's not just you confessing the written Word that's transforming you, but it's because my Living Word is in you.
And as I am applying truth to your conscience and to your heart, as I am even giving you intuition through divine listening, through, through, through, through intuitive listening, as I'm listening to what the Holy Spirit is saying, through my intuition, as that, as that is happening, that Living Word inside me and the Living Word, beloved one, inside you, get, get it now, it's transforming you.
God's Word, Jesus is the Word, he lives in you; Christ in you, the hope of glory. And as you practice intuitive listening to the Holy Spirit, as you practice believing that Jesus is in you, that the Holy Spirit is in you, and practice listening to your conscience, listening to your intuition, training yourself in the written Word of God, as you're open to the speaking of the Holy Spirit into your life through dreams, visions, prophecy, but especially through your conscience and through your intuition, what is happening, listen, beloved ones, you're being transformed by that Word.
Let me give you an example. Maybe some of you here, I'm a very extroverted person, some you are extroverted people. Years ago the Lord began to show me to pull back my energy a little bit, to, to be conscious of my energy. And that wasn't something that I specifically read about in the written Word, but that was something that the Lord was intuitively implying, applying to my heart and my mind.
He began to just give me a sense that I need to harness my energy more, that I need to become more aware of my body language, that I need to become more aware of my surroundings, that I need to become more aware of the other person when I'm having a conversation, that I need to become more sensitive to the environment and to groups of people around me.
He was giving me that information, beloved one, listen now, through the Living Word that lives inside me, and he was manifesting his Living Word to my mind, to my conscience and to my heart. Do you see, beloved, God in heaven has come to earth as the Word. The Word has always been. In the beginning was the Word, John, 1:1, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And then John, 1:14, And the Word became flesh. And the Bible says, and as many as received him, right, John said, and as many as received him, John said, to them he gave the right to become the children or the sons of God. You have received, those of you that are, are his, you have received the Word.
The Word lives in you. You have the written Word, which is our only rule for faith and conduct, for right doctrine, and you also have the Living Word, in you.