Rabbi Schneider - Knowing in our Mind vs. Knowing in our Heart
Many of us, when we think of eternal life, we think about going to heaven, we think about living forever, but listen to what Yeshua said when he described eternal life. Once again, reading from the gospel of John chapter 17 verse 3. Yeshua said: And this is eternal life that they might know thee, speaking of God, and Yeshua HaMashiach whom thou hast sent. I'm gonna read it once more: And this is eternal life that they might know thee, the only true God, he was praying to his Father, and Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach, whom thou hast sent. Yeshua defined eternal life beloved as knowing God. I've taken as our theme text for this series of messages on how we can come to know the Father, his Spirit, his presence, his love for us in an intimate, real and tangible way. I've taken as my theme Scripture for this series, Genesis chapter 5 verse number life of Enoch.
Now Enoch was one of the first human beings upon the earth. There were no Bibles yet, there were no Scriptures yet, yet the Scripture says that Enoch walked with God. Hear the Word of God, beginning Genesis 5 in verse number 23: So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years, and Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. The question we should ask our self at this point is how did Enoch come to be able to walk with God? Was it his study of Scripture, was it his church attendance, was it his wit? No, we know there's only one way; he was sensitive beloved to the Spirit of God and came into a relationship with God through the Ruach Hako-dosh, the Holy Spirit.
This is why Jesus tells us in John chapter the Holy Spirit is key. I wanna read for you know from the gospel of John, chapter number 14 and chapter number reveal to us how it was that Enoch was able to walk with God, though there were no other believers that he was having fellowship with in an intimate way that we know of. I mean he could have had a relationship with, you know, but it wasn't anything but one thing that was giving him this relationship with the Lord that was so beautiful and so intimate that God actually took him off the earth, they were so close. There's only one way it could have been: because of his walk with God through the Holy Spirit.
So listen what Yeshua said in John chapter 14, beginning there at verse number 16. Yeshua said: I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper or Comforter, that he might be with you forever. That is the Spirit of Truth of the Holy Spirit, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold him or know him, but you know him, because he abides with you and will be in you. The reason Yeshua is saying there: you know him because he abides with you and will be in you, was because the ministry of the Holy Spirit was upon these that Jesus was speaking to, but he wasn't inside them yet, because Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 hadn't yet come. And the Spirit of God only began to indwell man in permanency in, in a complete way upon the earth after Pentecost. So Yeshua says I'm gonna give you the Spirit of God, he's gonna be with you and will be in you.
Now he continues on this theme as we continue, he says this. In the 16th chapter beginning in verse number 7: I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper, the Holy Spirit shall not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. Let's continue on as he continues to minister to us about the Holy Spirit in verse number 12: I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now, but when he, the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will disclose, that's manifest, reveal. This is a tangible experience, it's him giving you something, revealing something, showing you something so that you're gonna be aware of it and experience it. The Holy Spirit's alive, he's a person. Yeshua says he's gonna come to you, he's gonna disclose to you, he's gonna reveal to you, he's gonna make known to you.
Notice there's real relationship here between two people; the Holy Spirit and the one that he's revealing to, he will disclose to you what is to come. And he shall glorify me in the 14th verse, for he shall take of mine and shall disclose it to you. In other words Yeshua says he's gonna take out of me the mystery of the Godhead, he's gonna take of the person of Jesus, and he's gonna disclose it, reveal it, and fill it with us with it. The Holy Spirit is gonna communicate to us God himself. And he continues in the 15th verse: All things that the Father has are mine, therefore I said that he takes of mine, the Holy Spirit and will disclose it to you. How did Enoch walk with God beloved? Through the Holy Spirit that Yeshua spoke of here, and it's the only way that you and I can walk with God today, and yet there are too many of us upon the earth right now that call ourselves believers, that are not depending on the Holy Spirit.
We're depending on our intellect, we're depending only on Bible study, we're depending only on religious forms: going to church, or performing religious obligations, trying to be good people, but we're not beloved, depending on the Ruach Hako-dosh. And it's only the Spirit of God himself that can communicate to us that which is of God. We think we might know something when we know it in our mind. But beloved, knowing something in our mind isn't the same as having it revealed in our heart by the Holy Spirit. Some of you may have heard me share this story in times past, but I wanna communicate it again, cause it made so clear to me this distinction that I'm sharing with you concerning knowing something in our mind, versus knowing it as having been revealed to us in our heart by the Spirit of God. God bypasses our minds often times and he reveals things to us in our inner man in the inner person.
There's a lot of people that know the Bible in there mind very well, yet they're not spiritual people. Beloved, I remember years ago as I was ministering in a church one day. It was a cold bitter winter night, again I apologize to you for those of you that have heard me share it before, but I believe it'll come to you fresh again now to make this point that the Holy Spirit wants to make. I was ministering in a church one night, it was freezing, it was a cold winter night. I brought my dance troop with me from my Messianic congregation, Adat Adonai. I preached in the service, the dancers danced before the Lord in the service. I brought our Messianic praise team with me as well and we had a great night of fellowship in the Lord that night: serving the Lord, preaching his Word, etc.
The service ended, it's dark outside now, people begin to leave, the dance troupe begins to leave and I'm still in the church building. All of a sudden, the husband of one of the dancers runs into the foyer and he says hurt, my wife is hurting. She just fell. She was walking out to the car, she slipped on the pavement and she really hurt herself, she bruised her knee really badly and she's sitting in the car. Will you please come and pray for her? And I was so grieved by that, I said Lord, this woman just got done dancing before you. I mean why did you let her fall like that? I mean Father God, how can I trust you if I'm seeing all these people around that say they know you, and say they love you, and they seem to be just falling and failing.
I said Lord now; I realize that you bring us through trials, and difficult things, and that sometimes you bring us through difficult things in order to bring about a greater good in our life. And I believe Lord that your ways are higher than my ways, and I might not fully understand this incident, but Father God, I just can't believe that you just, you had a purpose that you wanted her to fall, so why did she fall after she just got done dancing for you? And Father God, if you let her fall I said, how do I know that I can trust you, because if you didn't protect her from falling, how do I know you won't protect me in my life? How do I know if I can trust you, because it didn't seem like you were there for her?
And I said God, Father; I just can't hide this dilemma anymore. I see too many people around me that claim to be Christians, and claim to believe in you, and love you, and yet they seem to be making poor decisions, and running into all types of problems in every area of life, living in defeat where your Word says that we should be the head and not the tail, and be living in victory. So I can't reconcile Father God, what your Word says should be the experience of the believer, versus what I'm seeing in your people's life. There seems to be a disconnect. I see too many of your people falling and failing, and the reality of your Word doesn't seem to be manifest in their life, and Father, I don't get it anymore. And if you didn't do it for them I thought, how can I trust you Father to do it for me? I said Lord; I can't deny this problem anymore. I just, I need an answer, I said I'm not gonna be able to go on in my walk with you Father until I have an answer for this. And I just made up my mind, I was just gonna wait on God until I have an answer. I'd felt I couldn't go forward anymore until the Lord revealed to me the answer to this dilemma that I was seeing. And so I just was sad for several days. I just was content just to wait and be sad. I couldn't move forward until I had an answer.
About 3 days beloved, into this experience of just waiting on God and being sad, I came out of an appointments office in a business parking lot that I was at one day. I got in my truck to begin to drive away, and listen to me Yedeed when I say this to you; the Spirit of God powerfully spoke to me deep inside my heart, and this is what the Spirit of God said to me. And he didn't speak it audibly, but it was so clear and so precise, I absolutely heard the voice of God's Spirit. Here's what he said to me: The reason my people are falling and failing like you're seeing, is because they're not trusting me. But here's what I want you to get. If you would just say the word trust God to me, I heard that Word so many times; it would have no affect on me. I mean it would be like water off a duck's back.
How many times have we been encouraged, just trust God. It doesn't even register anymore to us; we've heard it so many times. But when the Spirit of God said that to me: the reason you're seeing my people falling and failing is because they're not trusting me. Beloved, when the Spirit of God said that to me, there was meaning in the word "trust". In other words, it wasn't just a word, T R U S T, that I heard with my brain and my intellect. It was a word rather that was filled with life. Remember Jesus said the words that I speak unto you are Spirit and are life. When the Spirit of God said that to be beloved, it wasn't just that I heard the word "trust", but it was filled with revelation in my heart and here's what the revelation was: It was full, and rich, and what it was was they're not clinging to me; he filled the word up with meaning. And the meaning he gave me when he said they weren't trusting me was the meaning of clinging.
He said my people are failing and falling, because they're not clinging to me. If they'd be clinging to me, I'd be upholding them, but they're not clinging to me, they're not depending on me, they're not holding on to me; they're just going off relying on themselves, not even aware of me. And so they're falling, and they're hurting themselves, and they're finding themselves failing. See the reason Yedeed beloved one, I told you that story was to emphasize the difference between just Bible reading versus depending on the Spirit of God. We need to do both, but too many western believers, all they do is read the Scriptures without depending on the Holy Spirit. We need to be dependent on the Holy Spirit. Yeshua said, I am gonna send you the Ruach Hako'desh, the Holy Spirit, and he will lead you into all truth.
John told us in 1 John: You've received an anointing from the Holy One, he is not a lie. This anointing that we receive beloved is an anointing to know Jesus, it's an anointing to walk with God, it's an anointing beloved to have a real communicable relationship with the Father and with the Son through the Holy Spirit. But too many in the western world live like IBM executives; they wanna line everything up logically, they wanna think through everything with their mind, rather than looking to the Holy Spirit and asking the Holy Spirit what he wants. Beloved, the Spirit of God blows where it wishes and we don't know where it's coming from, or where it's going, and so it is with everyone that's born of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is above logic. My ways are not your ways saith the Lord, for even as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
We need to stop relying just on logic, we need to stop relying on just our mind, we need to stop relying on just our natural resources, we need to stop taking a false comfort in people around us beloved, and we need to begin to depend on the Holy Spirit, and we need to develop the courage to be obedient to him. Because if we're not courageous in following the Holy Spirit, if we don't develop a focus beloved, to look to him alone, we are gonna fall, and we are gonna fail, and we're not gonna be led into the truth, and we're not gonna be led into intimacy with God. Because Jesus said unless you pick your cross, deny yourself and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.
Beloved, Jesus has something real for you: it's intimacy, it's love, it's divine romance. He wants to speak to us, he wants to make himself known to us, he doesn't want our faith in him just to be about reading about what he did for other people. He wants our faith beloved, to be about what he's doing also for us personally. He wants us to have a passion to be able to speak to people and say Jesus did this for me, Jesus is real to me, Jesus is alive. But you're not gonna be excited, and I'm not gonna be excited about Jesus beloved, in a passionate way until we've experienced him, hallelujah, for ourselves.
The Spirit of God is real. Jesus said unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of the Spirit of God. Beloved, we're talking about something that is scientific in the spiritual sense. The Spirit of God is real. That's why those first disciples in Acts chapter 2 were able to speak in unknown languages. There were known languages, but languages that were unknown to them. If they didn't know Chinese and there was a Chinese person there that needed a witness; they'd be able to supernaturally proclaim the Gospel in Chinese. How were they able to do that? Because there was a real person, a real life force, a real entity, the person of Jesus through the Holy Spirit that had come inside and indwelt them.
The Lord beloved, wants us to be able to walk with them, even as Enoch walked with them, but it's not gonna happen until we begin to forsake everything else and lean beloved, and take a hold of the reality of the Spirit of God. But I've got news for ya; in today's culture, the devil is capturing our young people and capturing some of you by all his gizmos and gadgets. You know something that looks good at first, in the end it could be death. All these gizmos and gadgets, it's amazing to me. We sit down and we go out to dinner with 12 people to enjoy each other's company, and here we are sitting down at a dinner with 12 people, to go out to dinner together, and everybody at the table is sitting there on their I-Phones, and Droids, and Smart Phones, and texting away, and no one at the table is fellowshipping with each other, because they're so connected to all this technology, that it has become a demonic force, leading people outside of themselves into some cyber space that isn't real.
I want you to know beloved, this is a trick of the enemy to take people outside of themselves, into the darkness so that they're not aware of God's Spirit in them, so that they're not sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and eventually what the devil is gonna do, is he's gonna program people's minds for all these gizmos and gadgets that they've got connected to. People are addicted to them. Why are they so addicted to them? Because there's something demonic about them. I wanna encourage you beloved, put down that Droid, put down that I-Phone, put down that Smart Phone, use it as a tool, but don't let it be your master. Don't wake in the morning, the first thing every morning, go to sleep with, you look at your Droid, look at your I-Phone, whose texting me, who's emailing me. Some of you are sleeping with it right next to your bed.
Beloved, I'm telling you, it's a trick of the enemy. The Spirit of God is in you, but you'll never be aware of the Spirit of God in you when you're connected to all these gizmos and gadgets that are outside of you. The Bible says all that's in the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life; it's not from the Father, it's from the world. Beloved, Jesus is in you. The enemy wants to lead you outside of yourself, and outside of the reality of his Spirit in you, to keep you from God, and to keep you addicted beloved, to something that's gonna put you in chains. Do you wanna walk with God, beloved? You have to make a decision. What are you gonna choose to love? I'm telling some of you right now, we need to crucify these addictions to the cell phones, the I-Phones, and all the other technology that's become our master.
Do something about it; if you need to, go back to your regular phone and check your emails a couple times a day, rather than constantly being addicted to that thing that you're holding in your hand, and keeping in your pocket, playing with all day long. Make a decision beloved to get back to simplicity so you can cultivate an awareness of Jesus. And the same thing is true with the television set and all the other things. All these things beloved, can be useful if we use them as a tool, but the problem is they've become too many of our masters. And if we wanna know Jesus, we need to make a decision: are we gonna choose our own indulgences, and our own lust, and allow these things to control us? Or are we gonna say no Jesus, I want you; this is a trick of the enemy to take me away from you. I wanna ask you, who will be your master?
I hope these aren't just words that are making you excited. I hope there are some of you that are listening to this, and you're convicted by it. I know a lot of you are, but I pray that there'll be some that'll do something about it. Or that many of you will not just hear this and say: he's right, and then just go on to the next show after this and nothing changes. But I pray right now Father, that you will break in and demolish the works of the devil, Father God, and set your people free from these demonic strongholds that are making them addicted to their cell phones, their I-Phones, their... and all these other things that are connecting them to a world Father God that isn't real. Because Jesus said I am the Life, Amen. Jesus said I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. Are these gizmos and gadgets connecting you to Jesus or are they connecting you to something else, Amen, Amen?
Some of you are addicted to Facebook. Beloved, some of you, all day you play on that Facebook; let me tell you beloved, that is another trap for many of you, because you know you could be, pretend to be anybody you wanna be on Facebook. No beloved, is that really, is that really nurturing your experience with the Lord to spend hours every day on Facebook? Having people betray themselves to be often times, somebody that they're not. I saw one person on Facebook beloved, this person had so many financial problems, had problems holding down a job, had problems financially and it just had wrecked their life, and yet they were posting on their Facebook site the Dow Jones Industrial average, making it look as though they were some kind of financial wizard and guru, pretending to be something that they're not.
Beloved, let's not try to impress the world, Amen. Let's stay hidden, Amen, in Jesus. That way we'll know him and we humble ourselves beloved, get below all this superficial demonic, and get low, hallelujah in Jesus, where it's quiet in humility where we can hear him, and be led by him beloved, and learn hallelujah, to love him. Jesus is in you and he wants to reveal himself to you. He's around us and he wants us to know that, but we have to do something too. The Lord said draw near to me and I will draw near to you. Seek and you'll find, knock and the doors will be opened, ask and you'll receive. We have to desire him beloved, and draw near, and do our part, and he in turn beloved, will do his part and release the revelation of himself to us, hallelujah, through the Ruach Hako'desh.
You see the Holy Spirit is in us. When you were born again beloved, and when I was born again, when we received the Spirit of God. I know that for some of you, you can't remember when that happened. Some of you were raised in church, for you don't ever remember having this like turn around experience where you were an alcoholic, and suddenly you got born again and now you're not an alcoholic anymore. Praise the Lord when that happens. My conversion was radical, but some of you don't have an experience like that. You can, you remember believing for as long as you can remember. Even you were raised in church, but beloved, whether you had a radical salvation turnaround experience, or whether you just remember yourself always being a believer; the reality is that if you know the Lord, it's because the Spirit of God came into your life at some point.
Maybe you didn't even know exactly when it happened, but there is no way into heaven except being born again. Jesus said unless you're born again of water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus don't marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. Beloved, I want you to know this: if you're born again, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus, he's in you, but here's the key beloved. Even as Jesus is in us through the Holy Spirit, the Bible says: know ye not that you're the temple of the Holy Spirit? Even as he abides in us beloved, listen, we need to learn how to abide in him. He in us beloved, and us now abiding in him.
And so Father, we ask you today, Father God, come I pray. Strengthen us on the inside Father God, to know the reality that you're inside us. Give us that security Father God that will stay inside you. You in us, us in you: walking with you Father in Jesus.