Rabbi Schneider - Destiny, Direction, and Dreams
Enoch walked so closely with the Lord that God his presence. This is a prophetic shadow, beloved, of the Lord's call on our life. As you and I walk in harmony with him, we ascend in his Spirit, and the Scripture says we've been raised with him and seated with him in the heavenly places. And so we're calling this series As Enoch Walked With God, the subject matter being, beloved, how we can walk more intimately, more in harmony, more closely with the Lord, even as Moses walked with the Lord, and the Lord said about Moses he was a man whom he spoke with face to face. Now, we've covered much on this subject. There's tremendous material in this subject. Perhaps it's the most indepth teaching I've ever given on how to walk in intimacy with the Lord. So I encourage you to get the entire teaching. I am getting back right now to where I left off last week. I'm talking, beloved, about dreams.
The reason I'm talking about dreams is the Lord will oftentimes give us specific detailed information for our lives through our dreams at night. David said the Lord instructs me, Psalm 16:7, in the night when I'm sleeping in my bed. We are now taking a survey through the Scriptures to make the point how often the Lord speaks to us in Scripture through dreams. Let me say it another way. We're making the point how often the Lord spoke to the figures in Scripture through their dreams with the application being, beloved, that if he spoke to them in dreams, he's the same yesterday, today, and forever, and he's still speaking in dreams to us today.
In fact, dreams have not decreased, they've increased since Acts chapter 2 when the Spirit of God has been poured out upon all flesh and Peter stood up and said this is what was prophesied by the prophet Joel, God's Spirit has now been poured out on all flesh, and as a result, Peter said, your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. He was talking about all classes of people. Everyone on whom the Spirit of God had been poured out on would be receiving dreams from the Lord. You see, beloved, dreams are not a specific gifting for a task, but rather, the Lord gives dreams to communicate with his people.
Now, scientists tell us that everybody dreams a minimum of an hour a night. So it's not a question of whether you dream. But for some of you, you have a hard time recalling your dreams. Beloved, I want you to begin to get a sense of expectancy that God is speaking to you in your dreams. And at the end of this material, at the end of this section, I'm going to talk to you about how can develop your spiritual ears to get more out of your dreams, to be able to recall them better, and to be able to hear from the Lord through them. You see, Elihu said in the book of Job chapter 33 that God is speaking to man once, yea twice, when man is sleeping in his bed.
Father, we want to hear from you in our dreams. So I pray that you'll use this teaching, Father God, and this survey through Scripture of how often that you speak to people in dreams, that you'll use it in our life today to open our ears and to hear from you, Father, in the night.
Beloved, to disregard your dreams, to not pay attention to them, to not give consideration of them, to not take them seriously as a vehicle through which the Lord is communicating to you is to disregard the voice of God. Listen to your dreams. Now, on last week's broadcast, I talked first of all about Abraham. I said that the Lord revealed the future to Abraham in a dream in the book of Bereshit or Genesis 15. And I talked about the fact that the Lord sometimes speaks to us in dreams about the future. He'll show us things in our sleep that are going to happen in the future, sometimes to prepare us for the future, other times, beloved, just to make us aware that when he shows us something and then it comes to pass, we become so aware that this is real, God's alive, he's speaking to me on this earth because he showed me that was going to happen in my dream, and it happened just like he showed me.
I shared an example of that in last week's broadcast in my own life. I want to share a new example today. I remember, beloved, years ago, I was pastoring this church, and we had some really close friends in this church. There were no problems between this family and myself. We got along beautifully. And I had a dream one night that these people that I was so close with, that they were going to turn on me. There was nothing going on in the relationship at all that would cause me to feel that way. I wasn't suspicious of them at all. But I had a dream that they were going to turn on me. Within a week, beloved, they did. But you know what? I was stronger and more able to deal with it when it happened because the Lord prepared me for it in advance by showing it to me in a dream, just like he did Abraham and just like he did others, beloved, through the narrative in the Bible.
I also spoke last week about Jacob. We say in Hebrew Yaacov. And how Jacob, he was fleeing for his life because Esau was after him because, remember, he had taken the birthright. And Jacob was fleeing. He had left his family. He was in the desert. He was alone. Imagine what he must have felt like, leaving everything he knew. It wasn't like today, where so many people move to different parts of the country and still communicate by cell phones and e-mails and all these things. No, Jacob was leaving all his family, everyone he knew, everyone he loved, every part of him that was familiar. He was leaving all the familiar parts of his life, beloved, behind to go start a new life for himself because he was afraid for his life because of Esau. And now here he is, beloved, he's in the middle of the desert leaving his family behind, and he's just completely alone, has no idea what the future holds for him.
Remember the story. He goes to sleep, he puts his head on the rock. What a pillow, a rock, huh? And while he's sleeping with his head on that rock, beloved, he has the dream of the ladder ascending from earth to heaven, the angels of God ascending and descending on the ladder. And the Lord speaks to him and said Jacob, I am with you wherever you go, and I will accomplish all that I promised concerning you. So in Genesis 28 we read about how Jacob gave the assurance in his life that the Lord was with him. Even though his life was hard and even though he had to be a pioneer forging ahead through difficulty, he gained tremendous assurance when the Lord revealed himself to him in a dream. And beloved, I know that for some of you, you've experienced the Lord revealing himself to you in a dream to give you the assurance that he was with you.
I shared in last week's broadcast about a time in my life where the Lord revealed himself to me in a dream, and he told me you're on the right path. God, beloved, will sometimes reveal himself to us in the night while we're sleeping to encourage us, beloved, that he's with us and that we're going the path in life that he wants us to go. And then lastly last week, I talked about Joseph, and I talked about how Joseph had a series of dreams. And we read about these dreams in Genesis, in Bereshit chapter number 37. And I talked about there how number one, beloved, Joseph's destiny was launched from the dream. Because remember, Joseph saw the sun and the moon and the stars bowing down to him, and then he saw the sheaves bowing down to him. And when he told his father and brother and mother about these dreams, they were so infuriated, remember, that the brothers conspired against him, they ended up taking him into the desert. They were going to kill him, then they decided to throw him into a pit. Then he was taken out of the pit and sold into slavery, eventually wound up as a slave in Egypt.
But remember what happened. You know the story, how eventually there was a famine in the land of Canaan, and Joseph was in Egypt where there was plenty, and Joseph's brothers who were living in Canaan went down to Egypt to buy grain, and Joseph revealed himself, he took them under his wing. And Joseph's dream was fulfilled. They ended up coming to Egypt, bowing down to him. And it was actually Joseph's dream, beloved, that when he shared it that launched the fulfillment of it. Because when he shared his dream, his brothers became so infuriated that it launched the series of events that eventually brought Joseph's dreams to fulfillment. Because he wouldn't have ended up as a slave in Egypt and then eventually being promoted to just under Pharaoh in Egypt having jurisdiction over the whole land. That would have never happened had Joseph not shared his dream which so infuriated his brothers which so made them jealous that they, remember, threw him into the pit.
So sometimes the Lord will even use a dream, and then we'll share the dream, and he'll even use the dream to launch our destiny. I know in my life when the Lord revealed himself to me in a vision of the night, in a dream back in 1978 as Jesus the Messiah, when I saw Jesus appear on the cross in color in a vision of night in my sleep with a ray of red light that beamed down on his head, then I got up and started sharing that dream with everybody, many of you know my story. I share it in my book, Awakening to Messiah, my spiritual autobiography, that my parents, as a result of that, they hired the most famous deprogrammers in the world to come down from California to Cleveland and deprogram me, and I went through so many things as a result of all this, but it was through going all those things that the Lord actually made me the person I am today so I can be able to preach to you right now all over the world on this broadcast, Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
God actually used my dream, the dream he gave me, and the sharing of it, beloved, to launch my destiny and to create the circumstances that would bring me, hallelujah, to where I am today and hopefully being a blessing in the Lord by his grace to many. So sometimes, beloved, the Lord will use our dreams to launch our destiny. Now, there's something also special about Joseph's dream that we talked about, and that was his dreams were typical, beloved, in that they were so symbolic. Remember, we read about his dreams in Genesis chapter 37. First, remember, we see the sun and the moon and the stars bowing down, we see the sheaves bowing down.
And of course, the sun and the moon and the stars and the sheaves bowing down, these were symbolic of Joseph's family bowing down to him. And we asked ourself the question last week, why did the Lord not just reveal himself to Joseph in a direct way? In other words, why did Joseph not just have a dream and in the dream see his mom and dad and brothers bowing down to him? Why see sun and moon and stars? Why see sheaves? Why not just see the dream as it actually took place, actually see the literal people that were going to bow down to him bowing down to him rather than having these people symbolized in this symbolic language? Well, beloved, the point is, is that the Lord will often speak to us symbolically in our dreams, just like Jesus oftentimes taught symbolically using parables because the Father wants to draw us closer to himself by causing us to seek for understanding of what the dreams, what the symbols represent.
If the Lord made it so easy that we didn't have to inquire as to what the meaning of the dream was, then oftentimes it would result in less intimacy with God. But when we have a dream and we know it's from the Lord, but we don't understand it, and it causes us to get on our knees and to keep seeking the Lord, Lord, I really believe that dream was from you, what does it mean? When we keep asking, beloved, then we are brought closer to the Lord. Because remember, the Lord said you shall find me when you seek me with all your heart, he said in the book of Jeremiah. And remember what Yeshua said, seek and ye shall find, ask and you'll receive, knock and the door shall be opened.
So I believe one of the reasons that the Lord oftentimes speaks symbolically in dreams, beloved, is because he wants us to really seek his face for the interpretation of the dream, and through seeking his face for the interpretation, beloved, we're brought to walk closer with him. And remember what the name of the series is, As Enoch Walked, hallelujah, With God. And so we've talked about. The Lord will give dreams to reveal the future to us. The Lord will give dreams, beloved, to give us assurance like he did Jacob. The Lord will give dreams to launch our destiny like he did with Joseph. Now I'm going to press on to some new material. I want to talk about, beloved, that sometimes the Lord will give us dreams, very important, for the purpose now, of giving direction.
How oftentimes do we need direction in life? We always need direction in life, right? I mean, the Bible tells us the general principles for faith and living, but oftentimes the Bible doesn't reveal to us specifics in regards to direction. If you want to, for example, buy a house, is it time to buy a house, or is it not time to buy a house? If you're thinking about making a move to another part of the country, the Bible oftentimes, it's not going to tell you if you should make the move to another part of the country or what part of the country to move to. Many of you that will be getting married, the Bible doesn't tell you to marry Bob or Jill, right? But the Lord himself can speak to us, beloved, and give us direction about these specifics of our life.
And so we need to be life. And so we need to be paying attention to our dreams, because sometimes God will give us the direction to the answers that we're seeking from him through our dreams. This was certainly the case we read, for example, with the life of Paul in Acts chapter 16 verse number 9. Paul was trying to fulfill his call, he was a missionary, remember, preaching the Gospel to the nations. And in Acts chapter 16 as Paul is seeking to fulfill God's purpose and plan for his life, we read these words in Acts chapter 16, verses number 9 and 10. And it says in verse 9 of 16 of Acts, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.
Now remember, I qualified on last week's broadcast that a vision of the night is a dream. And I showed you that from the book of Job chapter 33, verse 15, where Elihu says and the Lord speaks once, yea twice to man, in a dream, a vision of the night. So a dream or a vision of the night is the same thing. So in Acts 16 verse 9, Paul's having a dream. He's having a vision, hallelujah, of the night. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A certain man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him and saying coming over to Macedonia and help us. What's happening? Paul's having a dream. And in the dream he sees a man from Macedonia calling out to him, come and help us.
Let me read it again. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A certain man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him and saying come over here to Macedonia and help us. And verse 10 says, and when he had seen the vision, immediately he says we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the Gospel to them. So Paul discovered God's direction for his life, how to fulfill his missionary calling in a dream. God told him where to go in the dream. We find a similar instance of this, beloved, in the book of Matthew. Remember, these are New Testament instances now. These aren't just instances that happened only in the Tanakh. These are instances that are happening, beloved, in the New Testament. As I've often said, dreams are not decreasing, they're increasing, because the Holy Spirit's been poured out.
I'm reading now in the book of Matthew chapter 2, verses number 19 through 23. But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph. Now, this is Jesus' father. So Herod had died. You remember the story. We're going to talk about it in a moment. Joseph, Yeshua's father, had brought Jesus into Egypt after his birth. But when Herod had died, because Joseph was warned, we're going to see in a moment, to take Jesus out of Israel because Herod was killing the male children. But here we're reading about how Joseph is now in Egypt, he is keeping Jesus safe there. And it says in verse number 19, but when Herod, the one that was killing the Hebrew children, but when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying arise and take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead. And as a result of this, beloved, Joseph took Jesus back into Israel.
How did Joseph know to take Jesus out of Egypt back to Israel? Because the Lord, beloved, in verse number 19 and 20, appeared to Joseph in a dream. Now, you see, I keep stressing this because some are watching this right now as they hear about me talking about how the Lord reveals himself to us today, to his saints today in their dreams at night, and some of you, this message is like rolling off your back like water off a duck's back, as if I was talking to you about that I saw a flying saucer the other night. I mean, some of you are just not paying attention to it. It seems too out there to you, it seems too outer space to you. And I'm trying to make the point, beloved, this is not outer space. This is real, this is for you, this is now, and this is today.
I remember years ago, as we're speaking about gaining direction from the Lord, and I remember years ago, this is going back 20 years ago. I was living in a certain area. It was a small town. I was shepherding there. I knew it was time to move. I didn't know where to move. And I went to sleep one night, beloved, and in my night, I had a one-second dream, a one-second vision of the night. Oftentimes, some of the dreams that I have will only be one second long. It'll be a powerful image in living color that will be so impactful and so emotionally charged, so powerful that I'll know it's from the Lord. And as I was living in this small town, knowing that it was time to move on, wondering where to go, I went to sleep one night, and above my head in my dream there was a halo that appeared. It was a rainbow halo. And inside the rainbow halo, beloved, was the word Columbus, Ohio.
And as a result of that dream, I moved to Columbus, Ohio, hallelujah, and the Lord prospered me there. There was another time when I was looking at two Messianic congregations and trying to determine which one I was to shepherd. Remember, we're talking about God giving us direction through our dreams. The reason I'm sharing this with you is not just to share my own experiences, but because I want you to know that what God did for me, he can do for you. And as I was wondering which one of these two Messianic synagogues to shepherd, the Lord showed me in a dream, beloved, which one to shepherd. Dreams, beloved, are for you, they're for now, and they're for today. Sometimes, as we continue on, the Lord will warn us in a dream. We just got done looking at how the Lord will oftentimes direct us in a dream. Sometimes he'll warn us in a dream.
This is what he did for Joseph in the book of Matthew, chapter number 2, verse number 12 and 13. Listen to the Word of God. And having been warned by God, Matthew 2:12, and having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their own country by another way. And when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying arise and take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt. And so Joseph was warned not to go to a certain place and where to go by the Lord through an angel in the night. And God has warned me many times in my sleep at night. And if I wouldn't have heeded those warnings, beloved, if I wouldn't have paid attention, the outcome could have been disastrous. For example, if I would have gone to the other Messianic synagogue in the last example that I showed you, rather than going to the one that the Lord showed me to go to, it could have been extremely painful.
I remember I was about to buy a house one time. And I went to the house that I was about to buy, and I sat outside in the backyard by the house that I was about to buy, and I sat down outside there on a bench that was there. And I said Lord, I said is this the house that you want me to buy? Is this the house you have for me and my family? Then after praying to the Lord, I went home and I went to sleep.
That night, beloved, I had a dream. I saw myself in the dream sitting on that same bench that I had just several hours earlier been sitting on, praying to the Lord, is this the house, now in the dream, I see myself sitting on that same bench, except I'm in a stockade. You know what a stockade is? It's like two wooden blocks that go around your neck and your arms so you're trapped. And the Lord was telling me don't buy that house. I don't know how I would have been trapped, but I know it would have led to some type of bondage. I thank God, beloved, that he warns us in dreams. He has many more things, beloved, to say to you and I while we're walking with him during our journey on this earth. And he will speak to you, I believe, beloved, because Acts chapter 2 tells us that he'll speak to us through our dreams at night.
So Father God, I pray for these that are watching right now, these that are hungry to hear from you, these that are looking to know that they've tangible way, I'm asking, Father, will you release dreams to them through your Holy Spirit and angels, giving them direction, Father God, giving them encouragement, warning them, and showing them, Father, how to walk with you, even as Enoch walked with you.
God bless you, Yedidim. The Father loves you, Yeshua loves you, and shalom.