Rabbi Schneider - Getting Into Alignment
This message that I'm declaring is one of the most fundamental truths that we need to have operating in our lives, to walk with God in an experiential way, knowing Him as our Father, knowing His love. Knowing, beloved ones, that Knowing, beloved ones, that because we are loved, we have life in ourself. You see, if you think about the relationship even from an earthly dimension, it is the sperm of the father that is the catalyst that causes birth to come forth. And so it is in our walk today. The only way we can walk with true life... I'm talking about life that will sustain us, I'm talking about life that's real life, that will give life not only to our mortal bodies, to our flesh, but to our soul. The only way we can walk through life growing healthier as opposed to falling into decay and destruction is if we're living by the life of not our earthly father but Father God.
Hear what the Word of God teaches us in John 5:25-27 in the sense of realizing it's the Father Himself that gives us life so that we can live forever and live in health and in victory in this world. And the reason that I'm stressing this now is that when you and I are depending on Father God to give us life on a daily basis, we're truly clinging to Hashem. We're clinging to God as our Father to sustain us life, to continue to give us new life, to continue to cause newness of life to well up from within us every day. When we're dependent on this, we're going to receive that life that's going to cause us to actually to become younger rather than grow older.
Now, I know that our flesh will inevitably grow old and we'll get wrinkles and lose our hair and all those types of things. But I'm not talking about our flesh. I'm talking about being renewed, as the Bible says, daily in our inner man so that the last years of our life, even if you live to 85 or 95 years old, you can be, in your heart, younger than you ever were before, because you're being continually revived and rejuvenated in an ever-increasing way by the life of Father God. I actually knew somebody like that. This woman was 85 years old. And every time I saw her, she was like more of a little girl, so in love with God.
This is what the Bible says in John 5:25-27. Yeshua is speaking. He says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, a time is coming and even now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself". So Yeshua is saying here that He was living by the life of the Father. And He was saying that now when we look to Him, He said, "The time is coming," and he said, "and now has arrived, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live". He's talking about right now.
You and I were dead in our transgressions and sins, but the Father through the Holy Spirit is working in our life through King Jesus, through the Son. And when we hear, when the Father opens our ears to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, and we hear, not in the literal sense, but intuitively, we respond to the Holy Spirit, what happens is we live. That we're made alive. The Bible says that we were dead in our transgressions, in sin, but God made us alive. And so if you're really alive, you're living by the life of the Father. And the more that we cling to the Father, the more that we look to the Father for life, the more that we depend on Him for life, the more alive, the more young, the more rejuvenation we're going to experience in our life. We're going to go from breakthrough to breakthrough. We're going to go from strength to strength.
We say in Hebrew: Sheh Telchu Me'koach Le'koach. May you go from strength to strength. I'm looking for breakthrough as I get older in life. I want the youngest days in my life could be the time in my life where I'm most advanced physically. You see, Jesus' first miracle was He turned the water to wine when the good wine, the wine that was first served ran out. And so there was the natural wine that was served at the banquet, at the wedding, at the feasts there. And then that natural wine ran out. And so Yeshua spoke over water, and He turned the water to wine. And the people were amazed. And someone said, "What is this"? Usually, when someone hosts a party, they save the good wine first. And then when people are drunk, then they serve the poor wine. But they said in this banquet the good wine was served last.
And I believe that there's an intuitive miracle to perceive there. And that is this. That in Jesus, the best years of our life can be the last years of our life when we're living by the life of the Father. Isn't that good news? Doesn't that give you hope? That life doesn't have to get more and more, you know, go on a downward trajectory as we age. We can get younger and younger as we advance in age because we're living by the life of the Father. Fathers also, beloved, protect. I talked about this on the last episode, but I want to go to a scripture now.
I'm going to the book of 1 Peter 1:3-5. Hear the Word of God. "Bless it be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope", now notice it's the Father, "Blessed to be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has caused us to be born again". Now, when we speak about being born again, we're not talking about some type of religious persuasion. We're not talking about some crazy fringe, fundamentalist movement. And I'm not saying that fundamentalists are crazy. I'm just saying the way that the world categorizes Christians, they think people that talk about born again, you know, they're the born again types, they are those real fringe Christians.
Now, we're not talking about some type of religious denomination. When the Bible speaks about being born again, it's literal. It's a scientific phenomenon through which we receive new life. That's why those believers in Acts 2 began to speak with languages they had never learned. Why? Because the spirit of divine life was within them and gave them the supernatural ability to speak a foreign language. So when we are born again, we have literally received the zoe (life of God). Zoe is the word in the original Greek that speaks about God's life. So there comes a time when we received Jesus that we literally, at that time, receive the Holy Spirit.
And so the Father is the one that caused us to be born again. He put His spirit within us. It's a literal thing-you're alive. It's not a religious doctrine or persuasion. It's a scientific spiritual reality. "He caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead". When you understand that you've been born again by God the Father and that Jesus has truly, literally been raised from the dead, hope will come in your heart because you will then know that you can conquer anything. That anything you will ever face, you will overcome and conquer. Why? Because you are in Jesus that was raised from the dead. Jesus overcame every earthly reality, every earthly obstacle. That stone was rolled away, and He rose from the dead. And when you're born again and now have your life in Him, no matter what you face in life, you will overwhelmingly conquer because you're in Him.
That's why Peter says here, "You were born again to a living hope". I know when I was born again, when Jesus revealed Himself to me in 1978, suddenly, hope sprang into my heart. I was broken before that, I was oppressed, I was confused, I was in fear. But when God the Father revealed Himself to me through the person of Jesus, in an instant, hope came into my heart. I went from looking down into feet to looking up in victory because I know that Jesus rose from the dead and is now seated at the Father's right hand. And because the Father chose me in Him, I am ascending up out of the darkness into the light. And so Peter said, "You've been born again to a living hope". And Peter says this: "Hope is to", says this: "Hope is to obtain an inheritance".
When we think about obtaining an inheritance, we're talking about something in the future. If you speak about having an inheritance, it means it's something that you're going to be taking possession of to be taking possession of in the future. I want you to think about that. Peter said you've been born again to a living hope to obtain an inheritance. Why am I stressing this? Because too many today are living for the now. They're thinking that somehow it's this world that's going to cause all their problems to disappear. They think somehow if they can acquire something in this world that they're going to become instantly content and happy. But the heroes of the faith, they were not living for this world. They were living to obtain an inheritance that was reserved at heaven for them.
Listen to what Peter said here. "You've been born again to a living hope through Jesus Christ from the dead," listen, "to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away", and hear this next part, "reserved in heaven for you". This inheritance it's something in the future. It's reserved in heaven for you. You've got something to look forward to. It's heaven. Jesus said, "Rejoice that your names are recorded in the book of life, in the book of heaven, in the kingdom of heaven".
And so I want you to hear that too many today are being taught that this world is what it's all about. They're going to church services, and they're hearing all about how they can get a promotion, how they can have more money, how they can live without any problems, how they can get the perfect marriage partner, how they can get a new whatever. It's just a misplaced message. Sure, I'm thankful for all those blessings in my life, and we should all bring all our desires to the Lord. But if the primary focus of our heart is that it's going to be what we're going to receive in this world, then we're deceived. Because when you think about the heroes of the faith... Think, for example, of Paul, his life.
Was he getting everything that this world had to offer, which in turn was making him happy? No. Paul was living with imprisonment. He was being beaten, he was shipwrecked, he was whipped, he was imprisoned, he died in prison. He wasn't getting all the things in the world for his happiness. His happiness came from his relationship with God the Father through Jesus. He said that through Jesus and his relationship with the Father he had learned how to be content with every situation. The point that I'm making, beloved, is that biblical faith understands that what we're living for is the inheritance that's reserved in heaven for us.
Think about Jesus. Jesus said, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man," he said, "has nowhere to lay his head". Was Jesus, living, you know, everything in this world, was what He was teaching was the answer to success, was the answer to fulfillment? No. Jesus was living for one thing: for His relationship with the Father. He was living an obedient life, you know and in love with the Father. That was what made Him complete.
And so I want you to understand that you and I had been given life by the Father and we've also been given inheritance by the Father. And even though He blesses us with things in this world, our primary focus should not be what we're going to receive in this world. But our primary focus should be what we're going to receive when we see Him face to face when the kingdom of heaven is fully brought to bear.
You see the patriarchs of old, they didn't live for this world. The Bible says that they didn't, Moses, for example, he never even entered the promised land. The patriarchs of old were not settled for this world. They were aliens and strangers in the earth. It says they were looking for the city whose architect and builder is God. So I want to encourage you to look heavenward and know that your best days are yet to come. If we don't have our eyes fixed on the kingdom of heaven, if we don't have our eyes fixed on the revelation of Jesus at His second coming, knowing that that's where we're going to receive our award, we need to get back into alignment with biblical faith, because we should be looking beyond this world to the world to come.
That's why Jesus said, "Don't rejoice that you're able to drive out demons. Rejoice that your names are recorded in the book of life". And fathers also, beloved, they discipline and they teach. And I talked about that. I talked about that last week. Before I end up closing today, I want you to know that while Yeshua was on the earth, He was always fully cognizant of His relationship with the Father. He was always walking in divine fellowship with the Father.
The only time that Jesus wasn't conscious of the Father's love and affection, the only time He wasn't conscious of His unity with the Father when He was on the cross taking our sins. And because He took our sins in His own body on the tree, He felt that sense of separation. That's why he cried out on the cross, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me"? That was the only time Yeshua was not conscious of the Father's love, of the Father's presence. Jesus said, "I and the Father are one".
So the point is, is that you and I should be focusing every day and coming into an experiential revelation of the fact that we are walking in fellowship and in union with the Father. That should be our goal every day. Father, help me to enter into a deeper communion with you. Help me to become more conscious of your presence in my life. Father, help me to enter into a deeper experience of Your love for me.
Now, I realize that we can't walk by feelings. Feelings come and go. And we can't control our feelings, even as we can't control whether it's going to be sunny or cloudy today. Unless you're living in Arizona where it's sunny every day, right? But you understand the point. We can't control our feelings. They pass. We have no control over them. And there's times that we don't feel that connection. But taking a step back and looking at it from a distance, when we set our eyes and our focus and our goal on coming into a deeper walk with the Father and experiencing Him in a fuller way, over time, even though we can gauge it by our feelings on any given day, but over time, we're going to come into a greater and greater experience of His love, a greater and greater peace because we know that He's with us, and a greater and greater joy that will be in our life because of a relationship with Him.
Again, you can't always measure it on a daily basis because feelings come and go. But when you take a long-term approach and just keep being faithful every day, you're going to find that over the years you're going deeper and deeper in the love of God and coming into a greater and greater experiential walk with the Father. So, beloved, I just want to encourage us all today, encourage us all today, let's get back into alignment. Some of us have been in environments where all the focus has been on Jesus.
And we should focus on Jesus. But the problem is when all the focus is on Jesus and the focus is not on the Father. Because Jesus never claimed to be the destination. He claimed to be the way to the destination. Yeshua said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father but through Me". You see, the Father is the one that loved you and I so much that He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. And because He loves us so much He sent Jesus to this earth to die for our sins. And then He is actively now working in our lives to draw us to Himself through Jesus. And He's at work in our life through the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of his Son. Beloved, He'll always be with you, and He will never leave you or forsake you.