Rabbi Schneider - Prepared for Battle
Some time back, I was deep in the mountains of Colorado. And I went to sleep one night in this tiny little cabin at over 10,000 feet altitude. And this night, the Lord spoke to me by His Spirit. It was clear. It was audible. There was no mistake in what I heard. The Spirit clearly said this to me in my sleep. He said, "Your only gift is breakthrough". And I have to tell you, when the Spirit said that to me, it shook me up. It made me feel bad. The next day as I was thinking about this, pondering about it, it took me quite by surprise. I thought, "Lord, it really kind of hurts me that you're saying this to me: that my only gift is break through. What do you what do you mean by this"? I thought, "Lord, you know, what about the other things that you're having me doing? What about the teaching and the preaching and the evangelism and so on"?
And I didn't quite know how to understand this word. But as time went on, I felt like the Spirit was saying to me, "Listen, I have other people that preach and teach and evangelize. It's not that you're not being used of Me and doing those things well by My Spirit". But the unique gift, I thought the Lord was saying to me, "that I placed upon you that is very rare in the earth is a gift for a breakthrough". Now, what is breakthrough? Breakthrough is going through the wall where others have not yet gone. And so I believe there is an anointing for breakthrough on my life that has both brought me into new dimensions in the Spirit, as well as bringing our ministry into places that others have not yet gone. But furthermore, beloved one, I believe the gift of breakthrough, the anointing of breakthrough that is on my life will be translated into you during this broadcast today.
So, Father, as we begin today, I just ask that the remarkable power of your Spirit that you've placed upon me to propel people into breakthrough would be released into those that are hearing today with an open heart and Father, are listening with ears of faith. I declare breakthrough, beloved one, over your life. That your heart will move into places in the Spirit that you've never entered into before. That your consciousness of God's love will expand. That your knowledge of revelational truth that will bring freedom into your life will be increased through the teaching of these words, and through the anointing on my life, it will be transferred into you. And I also declare breakthrough in your life in circumstances, things that you're up against.
Maybe some of you have been trying to purchase a home and you've not been able to do that. Maybe it's landing a job. Maybe it's in your marriage. Regardless of what it is, our God is a God of breakthrough. I'm not preaching something here that is outside of biblical confines. We're going to go for our text today to the book of 2 Samuel 5:17-25. There is a coordinating scripture to this, meaning there's another place that the same event is recorded in the scripture that I'm going to not read in its entirety, but I want to reference in for you for your notes today.
The same event that we're going to read in 2 Samuel is also spoken of in the book of 1 Chronicles 14:8-17, which I will refer to in small ways at times, because there are some nuances in the 1 Chronicles reading of it that is not contained in 2 Samuel. The grass withers and the flowers fade. Hear the Word of God. I'm going to go through it and take it apart, piece by piece so you can digest it. Let's begin. "When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek out David". So let's take this apart. What happened? The Philistines, which were the enemies of God, they were the enemies of Judah, the enemies of God's people, and the enemies of David, the Philistines, when they heard that David was anointed king, they went out to seek him out. What do we mean here by "seek him out"? They want to hunt him down. They want to kill him. I want you to hear this first principle. It was when the Philistines saw and heard that David was anointed that they attacked him.
Let me read it again. "When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek out David". They went to seek him out to destroy him. The point is, beloved, for you, understand that when God is bringing you into a greater dimension in His anointing, when He's bringing you into something new in the Spirit, when He's bringing you into a greater empowerment, or when He's bringing you into a new revelation, when He's bringing you into a new sacrifice of obedience, understand that the enemy sees that and he will, the enemy will respond by trying to stop you. Just as the Philistines when they heard that David was anointed king, they attacked, the same thing happens in you and I today. And hear me now. You will always be in a fight down here because the enemy is always going to resist God's increased anointing in your life.
I remember years ago I was a brand new believer, and I was eating up the Word of God. And I came across a passage of scripture in the book of Hebrews. And the author of Hebrews said this, "Those who are going to please God must, number one, believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him". And as a new believer, when I read that God will reward me if I seek Him, it was such a simple recipe for success in the Lord, knowing Him more, experiencing more of His freedom and fullness that immediately I said, "I'm going to take tomorrow and I'm going to spend the whole day seeking God". Because the Lord promised me if I seek Him, He's going to reward me.
So the next day came, I got up in the morning. And from the time I got up in the morning, beloved ones, to the time I went to sleep at night, all day this day, all I did was seek God. I prayed, I read the scriptures. All day long, from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed, I sought God. And I can remember it as if it was yesterday, just a few days ago. I remember after seeking the Lord all this day, walking into my bedroom that night, and I literally remember seeing myself, I see it, I can see it in my mind's eye. As I grabbed my door handle into my bedroom to open the door, I had this great sense that something fantastic was about to happen to me because I just spent, I told myself, all day seeking God, and he's a rewarder of those that seek Him.
So I went to sleep that night with a great deal of anticipation and excitement of something good coming my way. What happened to me that night, beloved, it was so horrendous, it was so horrific. I can't even explain it to you, but I'll do the best that I can. I went to sleep that night. And rather than experiencing some blissful moment because I just got done seeking the Lord all that previous day, rather than that happening, what happened was that I was attacked by the most powerful, violent spirit that I had ever encountered in my life up to that point. I can't even explain it to you. All I knew is that when it was happening, I knew that I was being spiritually attacked and the power of this spirit that attacked me was so intense, it was so powerful, it was so violent, it felt to me like I was a ball that was being slammed against all the walls of my bedroom. Like, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Like I was just being thrown violently against the walls of my bedroom.
Now I know that doesn't make sense because it was a spiritual attack and I wasn't literally being thrown, you know, bombarded with walls of, you know, drywall. But that's exactly what it felt like to me, and that's how I experienced it. And when I woke up that next morning, I knew that I had encountered something so powerful, something so dark, something so supernatural, it shook me up. I felt like I just got run over by a Mack truck. And the thought entered the back of my mind, I knew that the enemy was trying to place the stop there. The thought he was trying to place in my mind was this: if you continue to do what you just did by seeking God all day, what you did yesterday, if you do that again, I'm going to do the same thing to you again. The enemy was trying to stop me from seeking God.
You see, this is what happened to David. When the Philistines saw that he had been anointed king, they came to destroy him. The same thing happened to me and still happens to me. When I'm moving forward to the Lord, either in my own spiritual walk with Him or when I'm doing something ministry-wise, the same thing happens to me. The enemy responds by trying to stop us through attacks. And beloved one, the same thing will happen to you. Because we live in a spiritual world and the darkness hates the light. And for reasons that we don't fully comprehend, God has orchestrated it so that you and I will have to fight in this world. We could just wish that the Lord would protect us from every challenge, that He would protect us from every fight, that He would protect us from everything that the enemy tries to use against us. But God doesn't always do that.
Remember the apostle Paul prayed in the book of Corinthians. Paul said there was a messenger of Satan. That's exactly what the language says. Paul said there was a messenger of Satan that came and brought torment into his life. And Paul said he prayed to the Lord a number of times about this. And when Paul prayed to the Lord three times, he said, "Lord take this thing away. This assault from the enemy, remove it from me". And he said the Lord responded to him after that third time, and said, "No, Paul, I'm not going to stop this attack, because my power is going to be made perfect in your weakness, and my grace will be sufficient for you, Paul, to get through this".
So in other words, Paul was saying that he encountered this attack from the enemy. He asked the Lord to remove the attack, but God said He wasn't going to remove it. Instead, God said His grace would be sufficient for Paul to get through it and to overcome. And during the attack, the Lord said, "Paul, you're going to have to rely on me in your weakness during this time, but my power will be perfected in your weakness. For power," the Lord said, "is perfected in weakness". Paul went on to say, "I will therefore boast in my weakness rather than my strength, because His power is perfected to me when I go through challenging times. And I cling to Him through these times".
And so I want you to understand that the reason that the Lord allows us to be attacked at times is because as we hang on to God, through the attack, we get strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let's review. David was anointed king. "Anointed" is a word that we read about in the Brit Chadasha, the New Testament. It's a clothing of the Holy Spirit. It's a clothing of power. It's a clothing of revelation, it's an impartation into us from the Ruach hakodesh. When the Lord does something new in our life, when we're making progress in Him, either personally or in our circumstances, the enemy sees that and he responds by attacking, trying to stop our progress. You need to not get derailed when you get sidetracked. Maybe the Lord led you to start taking a step of faith with your finances, and all the sudden, bam, you get this big bill.
The enemy wants to stop you from being faithful to God with your finances because he knows that if you surrender your heart to God, He's going to open up a channel. The Lord will use that to open up a channel in your soul to pour His Spirit into. Maybe you're witnessing. And as soon as you take a step to start witnessing more, bam, somebody gets hostile, he comes against you and screams at you and swears at you. The enemy is trying to stop you from your advancement. And the same thing is true when we're advancing in our internal life, in our soul. We're surrendering to the Lord in a new way. We're practicing the presence of God in a new way. And all the sudden, as we start moving forward in our internal walk of faith, we start having terrible dreams at night.
I remember a neighbor friend of mine told me that when she began to earnestly seek God, she started having all these demonic dreams. And I'm sad to say that she shared with me that she stopped seeking God because she was afraid of the demonic dreams that she was having when she began to seek the Lord. Beloved, this is illustrated in what happened to David. And I'm speaking to you right now, if you want spiritual breakthrough in your life, you can't let the attack of the enemy stop you. You have to keep going forward. Even as happened to me, when I told you I spent all day seeking God, and then the devil attacked me that night and I felt like a dodgeball being wham, wham, wham, wham, wham across the walls in my room. And the enemy put the thought in my mind that next morning when I woke up, "If you continue to do this, I'm going to keep attacking you like this," I had to resist that thought. And I had to say, "No, I will not be stopped by the enemy".
Notice how David responded. He didn't let the enemy stop him. Rather, he went low in the Lord's spirit. Listen what the scripture says. "When David heard of it", when he heard the Philistines were attacking him, when he became aware of, beloved one, that he was under attack, notice what he did. "When David heard of it, he went down to the stronghold". Let's take this apart. First of all, David recognized that he was under attack. And sometimes, that's where you and I break down. We are moving forward in the Lord and the enemy attacks, but we don't realize we're under attack. We start blaming the circumstances, we start blaming people, or we give up faith without realizing what is actually happening is that because we're moving forward, the enemy is attacking us just like he attacked David, when he heard that David was being anointed king.
So once again, we need to realize when we're moving forward, when we're advancing and all of a sudden, something goes wrong, either in the material realm or in our own spiritual walk, like the examples that I shared being attacked in your dreams, you need to realize what's happening, stay strong. And beyond that you go even deeper in the anointing. Listen what happened. "When David heard of it, he went down to the stronghold". Now a stronghold is a place of defense. Metsuda in Hebrew. He went down deep in the Lord. He went down to a secret place. He went down to a place of defense and he got strong in that place. He was protected in that place. And while in that place, he was able to receive from the Lord what he needed to be able both to resist the attack and take authority over the attack and defeat the aggressor. So rather than you and I getting pushed out of our lane by the enemy when we come under attack, what we need to do instead, if we're going to get breakthrough and maintain it, is to go deep to go into our stronghold.
Now, what does it mean to go into a stronghold for you and I? Of course, David went into a physical stronghold. He went into a physical place of defense. But the Hebrew Bible gives us a material illustration of things that are applicable prophetically to us in the spirit. In other words, the Hebrew Bible illustrates for us in the natural realm what is actually going on in the spiritual realm. So how do you and I go into a stronghold when we're under attack? Well, I may not have time to finish that concept today, but let me begin simply by sharing this with you. I noticed early on in my life, in my walk with God when I was tremendously burdened by something, I would without even ever having been taught how to pray in a prayer language and without even knowing what it was when I was doing it, I began to go into low gear and begin to pray in a prayer language.
Again, no one had even taught me about it. It's almost like if you have an older vehicle, and you're going up a steep hill, you need to put your vehicle in low drive. That's kind of what happens to me. When I'm up against something deep and it requires deep prayer to overcome and to carry it and to get over it, I will almost subconsciously without even making a decision, I will just begin to pray from the spirit using my prayer language. I'm going to talk more about personal prayer language on next week's broadcast. Because there's a lot of confusion about this. What is the gift of tongues? Is being baptized in the spirit the same as speaking with tongues? Do you have to speak with tongues to be baptized in the Spirit?
There's a lot of confusion, and in my view, a lot of wrong teaching about all that. So join me next week as I talk about going into the stronghold. We're going to look at several ways to do that. First of all, we're going to talk about a private personal prayer language from the book of Corinthians. I'm going to bring clarity to that. And I think I'm going to give comfort to everybody. And then we're going to look at other ways we can go into a stronghold in order to resist and overcome the devil's attacks. This is Rabbi Schneider speaking breakthrough over your life today. Both over your life circumstantially and much more importantly, into your heart and mind spiritually. On behalf of the Lord's grace, I love you today. God bless you and Shalom.