Rabbi Schneider - An Integral Walk with God
I'm moving in right now to another element involving walking with God. I'm going now, Yedidim, beloved ones, to the book of Joel chapter number 2. If you have your Bible, you might want to turn there with me. Joel chapter 2 today. This is an end times chapter. It speaks about what the Lord is going to be doing on the earth during the last days. Many of the other Hebrew prophets wrote of this same phenomenon about what the Lord would do on the earth during the last days. For example, Isaiah says that all our sons and daughters will be taught of the Lord. We read in another portion of Scripture that the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth. So as we approach the end times, we see that there's an outpouring of God's Spirit.
Beloved, this outpouring began in Acts chapter 2 on the Jewish holiday of Shavu'ot that we call in Greek Pentecost. Joel prophesied of this event in the second chapter. I'm reading now verse number 28 and 29. Yedidim, hear the Word of the Lord. "And it will come after about this", the Lord is speaking. "And it will come about after this that I will pour out my Spirit on all mankind. And your sons and daughters will prophesy". We're going to be talking about what it means to prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. We're going to be talking about hearing from the Lord in our sleep. And on even your male and female servants I will pour forth my Spirit. Let me read it again. It will come about after this that I will pour out my Spirit on all mankind.
So the first thing we learn is that the Lord is going to pour forth his Spirit. You don't have to be a king, you don't have to be a prophet. You just have to come to him and say Jesus, I want your Spirit. Because Yeshua told us if we being evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will the heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to those that ask him. Why is he the heavenly Father? Because he's such a good Father, and there's no one else like him. And the supreme gift, beloved, that God the heavenly Father gives us is his Spirit. So the Father says there's going to be a time I'm going to pour out my Spirit on the earth. And the Lord told us it was at Pentecost that this happened, because at Pentecost, Peter, Kephas, stood up, and he said these men are not drunk as you suppose. Because the Spirit of God had come upon them so powerfully, they were kind of like woozy. And Peter said these men are not drunk as you suppose, but this is what was prophesied by the prophet Joel.
And then Kephas, Peter, quoted the Scripture from Joel chapter 2 that I'm reading right now. So once again, the 28th verse, and it will come about after this that I will pour out my Spirit, my Ruach in Hebrew, the breath of God, the life of God. I'll pour forth my life on all mankind. Anyone, everyone that comes to Jesus, anyone that says I will, everyone that comes, he gives the gift of his Spirit. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. It just means to be able to speak by inspiration of the Spirit. We're going to talk about prophesy and the Hebrew word that it comes from and what it means. And you're going to find that many of you have prophesied, and you haven't even realized it. And he said and your old men will dream dreams. He's not talking about accomplishing big things. He's not talking about having a dream for life. He's talking about God speaking to us, beloved, in our sleep at night while we're dreaming.
We're going to talk about that. And he says your young men will see visions. And I'm going to teach you how to see more clearly when the Lord is communicating to you through a vision, that sometimes is so subtle that you don't even realize, beloved, that it's happening. And if you're not paying attention or expecting it, you might not even realize that you've had a vision and miss it completely. You're going to see that not all visions are like Revelation chapter 4 where John sees the Lord seated on the throne or like Isaiah in Isaiah 6 where Isaiah sees the Lord on the throne and falls on his face. Those are awesome, powerful visions. But most visions, beloved, are very subtle. They're pictures that the Lord puts in your mind, that if you're not paying attention, you'll miss them completely. We're going to talk about that, and we're going to teach about how you can more directly hear from the Lord and walk with him through paying attention to prophecy, dreams and visions as Joel has mentioned here. In verse number 29, and even on the male and female servants I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
So Father God, we ask you now to teach us and train us, Father God, to hear from you through prophecy, dreams and visions.
I want to say at the outset, beloved, why does the Lord give prophecy, dreams and visions? And does the Lord give prophecy, dreams and visions only to a select, elite, spiritual few? The answers to those questions is this, beloved. Prophecy, dreams and visions are not some gifting that has to do with some specific task for the building of ministry necessarily. But prophecy, dreams and visions are designed, beloved, listen now, to bring us into communication with God. Prophecy, dreams and visions, beloved, are the Lord's means, listen, of communicating with his elect. I'm going to go to Acts chapter 2 now in case you have any doubt about this. Because some of you are unfamiliar with this. You've never been in a church perhaps that has taught on prophecy, dreams and visions.
Some of you, you've been taught that the only way to know God is through reading the Bible. Absolutely we need to read the Bible. We need to know and study it. But beloved, there's more than just reading the Bible. It's about the Holy Spirit's reality present here now speaking to us individually, personally. And oftentimes he does it through prophecy, dreams and visions. So let's see this in Acts chapter 2 so that you don't just look at it from the Hebrew Bible and scratch your head and really wonder whether it's from you, wonder whether you can believe this, kind of afraid. I'm going to read it now from the New Testament that we call the Brit Chadashah, and you're going to see that prophecy, dreams and visions are for you, for now, for this age, for the New Testament church. Hallelujah.
And so I'm reading from Acts chapter 2. And when the day of Pentecost, and many of you know Pentecost is a Hebrew holiday. When these first believers were gathered together in Acts chapter 2, it says and when the day of Pentecost had come, they were gathered together. They were not there, beloved, to celebrate some new Christian holiday. They were there, beloved, because they'd been doing the same thing for already 1500 years. It was the day that the Lord revealed himself to the children of Israel 1500 years earlier at Mount Sinai. So there they were, gathered in Jerusalem on Pentecost, which just is the Greek name meaning fifty, or the Hebrew Shavu'ot because it took place fifty days after the Hebrew festival of firstfruits. We read about this in Leviticus 23. It took place fifty days after Yeshua rose from the dead. Because what date did Yeshua rise from the dead? On the feast of firstfruits.
So here they are gathered together in Jerusalem, remembering how the Lord had revealed himself to them 1500 years earlier at Sinai, not expecting anything necessarily to happen. They're just there remembering. And suddenly, the Holy Spirit moves in like a violent, rushing wind, the whole house shakes, and then the Spirit of God manifests himself there and rests of each one of their heads, beloved, as a tongue. What's a tongue? A tongue is a speaking oracle. What does a tongue do? A tongue communicates. When you speak a word, what moves? Your tongue moves. Your tongue forms the word. So why did the Holy Spirit reveal himself in Acts 2 when he came to earth for all mankind as a tongue? Because he's revealing to us, beloved, that his preeminent function is to communicate to us.
Remember that Jesus said I will send you the Spirit. He will take of mine, and he will disclose it unto you. He will reveal me to you. He will take of myself, and he'll show you what's to come. The primary feature, beloved, of the Ruach HaKodesh is that he communicates to us. He takes of Jesus and reveals those things to us. Yeshua said he will teach you and he will guide you into truth. How does he it, beloved? Through speaking to us. Amen. So the Holy Spirit is God's communication to us. God is a speaking God. And so the Holy Spirit comes as a tongue of fire, amen. And he comes upon the disciples. And the power of this experience is so great that somehow the disciples there, they were exhibiting some type of physical behavior, some type of physical movement, it appeared as if they were drunk.
And so we're continuing on in the text there in Acts chapter 2. Remember, this is for you. And here's what we read. And when the day of Pentecost or Shavu'ot had come, they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributing themselves, and they were resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak. The Holy Spirit comes as a tongue, he fills them, and what do they begin to do? They begin to communicate. They begin to speak. And they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were bewildered because they were each one hearing them speak in his own language, and they were amazed and marveled, saying why, are not all these Galileans who are speaking? In other words, how is it that these Galileans can speak these foreign languages? And of course, the Holy Spirit was giving them such power, was so taking possession of them, so living through them, so manifesting through them, that they were empowered to speak languages that were real languages, but languages they didn't know in the natural, proclaiming the glory of God so that everyone around could hear God's glory being proclaimed in their own language. In verse 8, and how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?
And then we continue on now in verse number 12. And they were all continued in amazement, and they were greatly perplexed, saying to one another, what does this mean? But others were mocking and saying they're full of sweet wine. But Peter, Kephas, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them, men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give heed to my words. For these men are not drunk as you suppose, for it's only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel, which is the Scripture, beloved, that I just got done quoting in Joel chapter 2. And then Peter quotes the same Scripture.
Again, Acts chapter 2, beginning in verse 16. But this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel. And it shall be in the last days, God says, that I will pour forth of my Spirit, my Ruach, upon all mankind. And your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my bond slaves, both men and women I will pour forth my Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy. So what was the experience of those believers in Acts 2 when the Spirit of God had been poured out upon them, and what is the experience that the Lord proclaims in Acts 2 should be ours, those of us upon whom the Spirit of God has been poured out on?
Beloved, the Word of God is very clear and very precise concerning what the experience should be of those upon whom the Spirit of God has been poured out upon. Our experience should be, beloved, that we are going to be in communion with God not only through the discernment of the movement of the Holy Spirit inside us through his checks and his peace, as I talked about on my earlier broadcast in this series, but also, beloved, in this realm of mystery that the Holy Spirit defines as, listen now, prophecy. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Dreams. Your old men will dream dreams, Peter said. And visions. And your young men shall see visions. So if we're walking with God, if we're walking arm in arm with God, if we're walking with God and having fellowship with him through the Holy Spirit, we should be experiencing, beloved, the communication of the Father's love to us through his Spirit that should be manifesting in our life through the divine vehicles of prophecy, dreams and visions.
This series is called As Enoch Walked With God. Romans chapter 8 tells us as many as are led by the Spirit, these are the sons of God. And I am suggesting that to be able to be led by the Spirit, to be able to walk with God as Enoch walked with God, we need, beloved, to learn how to hear from the Lord through prophecy, dreams and visions. Certainly, beloved, the characters that are written about in Scripture learned how to do this. I'm going to take you on a survey now beginning in the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, then going through the New Testament showing you how many of God's servants, how many of his sons and daughters were led by him through prophecy, dreams and visions. And God never changes. The same as he was then, he's the same now. Not only that, beloved, but prophecy, dreams and visions should even be increasing in our lives because the Spirit of God has been, hallelujah, poured out. So we're going to begin then. I'm just going to be doing some reading.
And the reason that I'm doing this is because I want you to get a Biblical perspective of how important prophecy, dreams and visions are. And many of you, again, this is new, so I'm doing this now to lay a Biblical foundation for you so that you can begin to see that this is not some strange thing, but this is solidly rooted, hallelujah, in the Word of God. The grass withers, the flowers fade, hallelujah, but the Word of the Lord, bless his name, abides forever. So we're going to do just a brief survey. And in the weeks to come, we'll be looking at even more, and we'll precisely be looking at some of the ways the Lord led his servants in the New Testament both to give them direction, to warn them, and to tell them what needed to be happening in their lives. I'm going to begin now in the life of Abraham. I'll just be reading some selected Scriptures to show you how Biblical this is.
This is not some strange thing. This is something, beloved, that you should be expecting in your life. Because remember, Peter said at Pentecost because the Holy Spirit has come and because God has poured forth his Spirit on all flesh, the experience of those whom the Spirit of God has been poured out upon should be prophecy, dreams and visions. So we're looking now precisely at dreams. Genesis chapter 15, verse 12. Hear the Word of the Lord as it relates to Abraham. Now, when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. He fell into a trance, he fell into a dream, and God began to reveal things to him.
We're going to be looking at these individually in next week's broadcast and the week after that. In Genesis chapter 28, we hear these words beginning in the 10th verse. And Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head and laid down in that place. And he had a dream. And we're going to look at that dream where he saw the ladder extending from heaven to earth and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the ladder and what was communicated to Jacob in that dream and how it helped him on his journey through life. I'm going now to the book of Bereshit, Genesis chapter number 37, verse number 5. Hear the Word of God as we study the life of Joseph.
In verse number 5 of Bereshit 37, Genesis 37, we read this, then Joseph had a dream. And then obviously he told it to his brothers. And we know the story of Joseph and the dreams that he was having and how it launched his destiny. We continue on. You see how common this is. This is something we should expect. We should expect, beloved, to hear from the Lord in our sleep at night. Elihu, one of Job's counselors, the Lord didn't rebuke Elihu. Elihu said this. The Lord speaks once, yea twice, when no one is listening while they we are fast asleep in their bed. In other words, Elihu was saying God is speaking to people, he's speaking to people when they're sleeping, but people aren't listening to him.
You see, beloved, in Judaism we teach that when we sleep, we're loosed from a lot of the physical things that bind us during the daytime. And in that state of sleep when we're loosed from a lot of the material connections and responsibilities of life that we have in the daytime, we're in a better place for the Lord to speak to us. And it's oftentimes in our sleep that the Father will speak to us. He's doing it today. He did it to Jesus' father, didn't he? How did Jesus' father know to take Jesus to Egypt? Because the Lord spoke to Joseph, Jesus' father, in a dream. We're going to continue in the New Testament in a minute. But right now I'm in the book of Genesis chapter number 41, verse number 1. And it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream.
And again, this was a dream from the Lord. And so God speaks to all types of people in dreams. And then we read in the book of Numbers chapter number 12. Let's hear the Word of God from the book of Numbers. B Midbar Numbers is called in Hebrew. Once again, the grass withers, the flowers fade, but the Word of the Lord, hallelujah, abides forever. Numbers chapter number 12, verse 6. Hear the Word of God. And he said hear now my words, the Lord is saying. If there is a prophet among you, the Lord is speaking to Moses and Miriam and Aaron. The Lord says hear now my words. If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord shall make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream. So how does the Lord communicate with people? How does the Lord communicate to human beings?
Here, beloved, we're reading that the Lord communicates to human beings in the flesh through visions and dreams. And what did Peter and Joel say would be the result of those whom the Spirit of God had been poured out on at Pentecost? He said they would be hearing from the Lord. God manifested himself as a tongue of fire. How would they be hearing from the Lord. In visions, hallelujah, and in dreams. Visions and dreams, beloved, are for you if you're a born again child of God because it's one of the ways that the Holy Spirit communicates to us. They're not for some. They're for all God's people because God desires to communicate, hallelujah, with all his people.
Daniel chapter number 7, we have a similar incident, beloved. In Daniel chapter 7 verse number 1, we read the Word of God and we read this. In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed. So I want you to be expectant. Our faith and walk with Jesus is a living reality. It's something to be experienced. It's not something just to be thought about. It's not something just to read about. It's vital. It's living. It's active. Jesus is alive. And he wants to communicate with you and I. One of the ways that he's still doing it, beloved, is through prophecy, dreams and visions. Prophecy, dreams and visions have not ceased because the Bible's been written. The Bible's the thing that tells us. The Bible's the book that tells us that prophecy, dreams and visions are for us today.
So Father God, I pray for these that are watching this broadcast right now. I pray, Father God, that you will bless them by giving them the ability, Lord, to hear you talking to them. Father, I ask you to release prophecy, dreams and visions to these that are watching this broadcast right now. I pray that some of these that are watching right now, Father, will have an encounter with you even tonight and in the next week ahead through prophecy, through a dream, or through a vision, Father God, that's unlike and beyond anything they've ever had before.
God bless you, Yedidim. I want you to know today the Lord loves you. May God bless you and keep you and make his face shine upon you. You were created for glory. You were created for Jesus. Shalom.