Rabbi Schneider - Why Fear Is a Training Ground
You see, we need to turn the Word of God, Beloved, into prayer dialogue. Sometimes we're not profiting the way we should be by the words of God, by the words of Yeshua. Sometimes we're not receiving the full profit from them because we're just reading them and we're moving on rather than letting them sink in, rather than letting them saturate, rather than taking ahold of them by turning Scripture in, beloved, to a prayer dialogue with the Lord. So the Lord said, "I'm a shield to you". Well we may not be fully convinced of that so what do we do? We pray:
Father, help me to know that you're a shield to me. Father, I believe but help me with my unbelief. Show me and help me to trust you, God, that you're a shield to me.
The Lord commanded the same thing to Isaac. In Genesis 26:24 the Lord said to Isaac, "Do not fear, Isaac, for I am with you". We're just reviewing last week right now. I am with you. So why was Isaac not to be afraid? Because the Lord, Beloved, was with him so that was the encouragement that Isaac needed, that was the assurance that he needed, that was the confidence that he gained to not be afraid knowing that God was with them and what does it mean when God's with you? It means he's going to be reigning in your circumstances; he's going to be paying attention to the details of your life. He's not going to leave you alone. He's a shield, he's with you. And to Jacob, the Lord also revealed himself, and to Jacob the Lord showed Jacob that God was with him on earth.
You see, Jacob had the dream and in the dream that he had at Bethel, Jacob learned that God wasn't just a God that was far away, high above, that wasn't involved in the very circumstances of his life, but God showed Jacob a dream, right, of a ladder that went from earth to heaven right where Jacob was laying his head on the rock there and on this ladder that went forward Jacob was laying his head all the way up to heaven, Jacob saw the ladders going up and down from earth back to heaven, and Jacob awoke and what did he say? He said, "Surely, God is in this place". What place does he mean? It means the place where he was laying his head, that God was with him right there in his life, in his circumstances, on that sand, with that, you know, right there at that rock. Jacob, Lord, surely, God is with me and I didn't realize it. In other words, Jacob gained the confidence to know he wasn't alone. Jacob had lost his family.
Remember, he left from his old family, because he was afraid for his life, because Esau was going to murder him, and so he's all alone, leaving everything that he had known in life, walking through the desert with no one but God comes and says to him, "Jacob, I'm with you". Jacob says, "You're with me, God, and I didn't realize it". And God is with you too and so you don't have to be afraid, and, Beloved, some of the things that you see, you see with Christian people, and you think there are terrifying situations.
Let me tell you a story, it's a true story, I'm not going to mention the person's name, but somebody went to a healing crusade, and they were standing in line to get in the healing crusade and they were waiting outside for a couple of hours to get in the crusade, and this person that was... that I'm referring to, he noticed this individual, this child in a wheelchair that just like they were in really bad shape, and so eventually the doors opened, they got into the healing crusade, and many were supposedly healed during the midst of the crusade, and after the crusade, as that man was walking out, he noticed that, that same child that was in that wheelchair was still in the wheelchair, that evidently they had not been healed, and this person, when he saw it, he got mad at God and he started saying to God, you know, "What did you... this is real, you know, why didn't you heal that person"? "Look at them, why didn't you heal them"?
And all of a sudden the Lord opened this person's eyes to see that person in the wheelchair in a totally different light and rather than just seeing somebody in a wheelchair that seemed to have a physical deformity, instead what this person saw when God opened their eyes was, that this person was just immersed, that was sitting in that wheelchair in like the bubble of God's presence, that it might have looked terrifying from the outside but in reality there was nothing to be afraid of at all for that child that was in the wheelchair because God had that child encased in a bubble of his presence and of his Shalom. That child was probably more at peace than that man was that was standing there in perfect health, wondering why God hadn't healed him. We cannot be deceived, Beloved, with what we see with our eyes. We must make up our mind, Beloved, to trust God and to trust his Word.
Now I want to continue on, and I want to talk about some of the specific things that people tend to get afraid of in their life, and how we need to use the Word of God to come against these things. Well, probably the greatest fear that can be associated with most of our fears is something that has to do with what's going to happen tomorrow. We fear what will happen tomorrow. Will we run out of money? Will we get sick? Will we get old? Will we wind up in a nursing home? We're going to talk about some of those individually but I want you to first of all understand, Beloved, that fearing like this and using your imagination to project all types of disasters that can happen to you tomorrow, that's using your imagination in a foul way. It's using your imagination in a way that God did not create it to function. It's giving your imagination over to darkness and lies.
Our imagination wasn't given us to have all types of foul thoughts of doom, and destruction, and chaos about what's going to happen to us tomorrow. Our imagination, Beloved, was designed to meditate on the Lord. What did Psalm 23 say? "Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life". So when we start seeing that our imagination is going into a projection of tomorrow that causes fear, and anxiety, and doom, we need to recognize, Beloved, that we're having at that point a foul imagination and we need to bring our imagination back, realizing that our imagination is captivated in that moment in wickedness, and in darkness, and that it's not of God but it's of demons. We need to reject it and bring it back to the Word of God.
You see, beloved, we need to be warriors in this. This is not something that we can overcome passively. Seven times in the first two chapters of Revelation Yeshua said, "He that overcomes will inherit these things". Overcoming takes effort. We need to come against fear, Beloved, aggressively and as a warrior. We need to pull our imagination back from fearing about what's going to happen tomorrow and instead we need to focus on what God says and we need to war to take ahold of what God says. We need to grip God's Word, Beloved, and keep crying out to him to strengthen us in it. Yes, you might believe it for a few moments and then find yourself warring again. What do you? You bring your heart back and again to begin to warfare with the Word of God. This may not be a battle but you'll be able to overcome in a day or a night. It may takes weeks, for some it may take years, but you will, and can, and you must win this battle, and you will if you give your heart to it and focus, Beloved, on what God says to do rather than giving your mind over to the enemy that will take it captive with fears and destruction.
Let's look in the Book of Matthew, chapter number 6, verse number 34, as we think about fears that are associated with things that may happen. Tomorrow I may lose my job, I may lose my house. Again, we'll talk about these individually but I'm speaking now just about this phenomenon of fearing tomorrow. In Matthew, chapter 6, verse 34, Yeshua said, "Do not be anxious". You could substitute the word fear there. "Do not be anxious for tomorrow for tomorrow will take care of itself". And so what do we do? We recognize that when we're fearing about what's going to happen tomorrow it's a sin, that we've given our mind over to evil, that we're saying to God, God, you're not real, I can't trust you. That's what we're doing.
We're saying, God, I might believe you're in heaven up there, and you know, I hope that when I die that'll I go to heaven but I can't really trust you for what's going on in my life down here and we need to say that's a lie. That must grieve God. It grieves me that I'm grieving God. Satan, I reject you, I cancel your fear, I'm going to bring myself back to you, Lord. Jesus, you told me not to be afraid of tomorrow. It's going to take care of itself. You're going to be with me tomorrow even as you were today. You're going to be a shield to me tomorrow just like you were to Abram. You're going to go before me and fight for me tomorrow just like you did the Israelites. I'm going to trust you, Father, that all my needs will be abundantly for tomorrow.
Now in the economy that we're living in, many I know are living in difficult situations and you're wondering how you're going to live economically. You're afraid of running out of money. I understand, Beloved, that, that may feel like a real danger to you. There may be real reasons for you to be in the natural. If you don't have God's help, why you would have that fear? For some of you, it can overwhelming but I want you to know, Beloved, David said he never saw the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread. Listen to what Jesus said a bout fearing about running out of money. In Matthew chapter 6, verse number 25, first of all, then we're going to go to the Book of Jeremiah.
Remember, we need to come against these fears, Beloved, with the Word of God, and God can do a mighty and powerful work in your life if you'll take this opportunity that you're fearing about running out of money, if you'll take that as a opportunity from him to overcome fear. He can bless you. You can crush Satan and his fears under your feet. It can be a great training ground for you and you can arise out of the dust from this thing as a real warrior trained to use the Word of God in your hand like a sword, destroying the works of the enemy. It can give you great strength, great courage, and bring great freedom and victory into your life and put you into a position to be used in a mighty way. But today is the day we need to make up our minds to break this thing off our life and to stop fearing, not when the money comes in and say, oh, we're not afraid anymore. No, that's not what we want to do.
We want to defeat fear now. We want to look it in the face just like those disciples who are on the boat and they saw the winds and the waves. Jesus looked right at those winds and waves and rebuked it. Then he rebuked his disciples and said, "Why were you afraid"? "Believe and you'll be made whole". Hear the Word of God, Matthew, chapter 6, verse 25: "For this reason," Yeshua said, "I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, do not be afraid or worried as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, or for your body as to what you shall put on". "Is not life worth more than food and clothing"? And then Yeshua gives all the examples of how the Lord takes care of the lilies, and the birds, and they don't work, they don't toil or reap, and yet God provides.
And Yeshua says, "Don't worry about running out of money; your Father knows you need money and he'll prepare, he will go before you and he'll bring a solution to you". "He'll give you the needs that you have". "He'll provide the money that you need for your food". "He'll provide a roof over your head". "He'll provide clothes on your body". Yeshua said, "Don't worry about that, just seek God first and his righteousness". I love a Scripture in the Book of Jeremiah that speaks about the same thing that has to do with financial worries. In the economy that we're living in right now so many people are concerned with how it's going to affect them and some of you have already been very significantly affected but hear the Word of God to Jeremiah in Jeremiah, chapter 17, verse 7 and 8.
I want you to understand, Beloved, we need to believe that the Words that I'm reading to you from Scripture are living, and active, and sharper than a two-edged sword. They're able to bring deliverance and salvation. Yeshua said, "The words that I speak to you are Spirit and are life". The Lord said in Isaiah 62: "To this one will I look to ye that trembles at my Word". The Word of God is our lifeline. These are not just pleasantries; these are not just pretty sentences and poems. These are real. This is the heart and mind of God. We need to take ahold of it. God says, "Seize my Word and stop letting fear and worry in".
Hear the Word of God, Jeremiah, Beloved, chapter number 17, verse number 7 and 8: The grass withers and the flowers fade but the Word of the Lord abides forever. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is in the Lord for he will be like a tree planted by the water that extends its roots by a stream, and will not fear when the heat comes but its leaves will be green and will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit. Listen again. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord for he will be like a tree planted by water. There's always a supply. When you trust in the Lord, the Lord is saying there's always going to be a supply for you. If you look to me as your source rather than the world as your source, there's always going to be a supply. If you're looking to the world as your source, when the drought comes in the world, you're source is going to dry up and you'll have a problem but if you're looking to me as your source, the Lord is about to tell us, even if there's a drought in the world, even if the world dries up, the Lord says, you're leaves will still be green because I'm going to be your source and I'm going to provide.
Listen again, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord whose trust is in the Lord for he will be... and that word, trust, it has the idea of clinging, we're clinging to the Lord, we're holding onto God as our source. For he will be like a tree planted by water. That's a good thing. That's a fruitful thing. You'll be like a tree planted by water that extends its roots by a stream. You're going to receive and receive. And will not fear when the heat comes. In other words, things around are falling apart.
Psalm 91, a thousand fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, it doesn't matter, there's a drought around you, you're going to still have life because you're planted in the Lord. You're watered and you'll not fear when the heat comes but its leaves will be green and it will not be anxious or afraid in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit. God can prosper us, Beloved, even when the economy is bad. What's the answer? Clinging, hallelujah, to God. Clinging to God. Our needs will be met; we'll have more than enough, even, Beloved, when the economy is bad in the world. We must make up our mind that God will provide. I know that many of you are afraid right now. You're like those disciples on the boat. They saw the winds, they saw the waves. Yeshua rebuked him and he said, "Why are you afraid"? "Only believe," he said. The remedy, Beloved, for fearing is faith.
So Father, we ask you to strengthen us by your Spirit. We ask you, Father God, to strengthen us with the divine energy, the divine life, Father, the aish, the fire of the Holy Spirit. Strengthen us, Father God, that we would take ahold in our inner man of your Word and believe it, applying it to our lives, staying in your Word, and abiding in it, and not allowing what we see or what the world tells us to cause us to stumble. Father, we want to be strong and courageous like Joshua. So we ask you to harden our hearts against fear, amen.
God wants you to win against fear. God is on your side. I remember as a young boy I was, we were, I was probably like six years old, and we were living at home, and there was, right in front of our front window at home we had this little flower garden, and there were these girls that they would come by our flower garden and they would pick the flowers, and one day I was standing in front of the window with my dad, and this had been going on, it was like the third or fourth time, and there were these three girls, they went outside, and they picked the flowers, and so may dad said, "Go get them".
So I ran out the window to go get these girls that were picking the flowers. Now this is just a little kid, okay. So I run out the door. I run up inside, I catch the first girls, they're running from me, I catch the first girl, I take a hold of her, I throw her on the ground, then I get up, and I keep running, and I get a hold of the second girl, and grab ahold of her, and I throw her on the ground. Now these girls were bigger and older than me. Then I got to the third girl, I run up to grab the third girl. She turns around and she throws me on the ground but the reason I tell you the story is my dad sent me after them. He wanted me to get them, he wanted me to win, he wanted those girls to stop picking my flowers.
Beloved, God wants you and I to win. He wants us to crush fear. He's on our side. We're his kids and he loves us. He wants us to destroy this demon. It's an enemy. He hates it. He hates what it does to us and he's given us the tools we need. He's equipped us to crush it. He wants you and I to hate fear and to crush it. He doesn't want it in our hearts. He loves us. He's for us, Beloved, and he's on our side. Now some of you, you're afraid of getting sick. Some of you are getting older, and you're seeing some of your friends getting sick, and you're seeing some of your friends ending up in the hospital, in nursing homes, and you know what, Beloved, this is the natural part of getting old, in the natural, but I want you to know God has a word for you.
The Bible tells us that if the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us, he's going to give life to our mortal body. Listen, I've got news for you, it is not God's will for you to be afraid of getting sick. God does not want you living in fear. It's been said that a coward dies a thousand deaths but a brave man only dies once. Do not be afraid of death; do not be afraid of getting sick. Now join me on next week's broadcast where I pick up on the subject of fearing getting sick, fearing getting old, fearing being in a nursing home. It doesn't matter what your fear is; God does not want you to be afraid. Shalom.