Rabbi Schneider - Witness Without Fear
Early this year the Lord spoke to me in a dream. In the first phase of this dream I found myself in a room. The room was shaped like a rectangle. I don't know exactly how big the room was. It wasn't a real big room. In the room there was a couch. The coloring in the room, it wasn't a lot of light in the room, it wasn't like it was real bright, it wasn't like the windows were open and a lot of sun was coming in, but it wasn't totally black either. It was just kind of a darkish, grayish color in the room but you could still see in the room. In the room, then, it's kind of grayish and dark, there's a couch, and I go onto couch and there's a lady sitting on the couch.
Next to the lady on the far end of the couch... so I'm at one end of the couch, the lady's over here, and then on the other end of the couch there's a man sitting. He looked to be about maybe close to fifty years old. The dream opens; my head is kind of leaning on this lady's shoulder. It's was just like there was... kind of like a mother or something like that. It was just kind of a comfort thing. You know, David said in one of his writings he said that he had stilled his soul like a child at rest leaning against his mother. I believe it just meant that I was secure. And then this man is sitting at the other end of the couch and I asked the man, beloved, in this dream, this specific question: "What do you think of Jesus"? That's what this bracelet stands for; it's an acronym for that question that the Holy Spirit strategically gave me, beloved, W-D-Y-T-O-J.
Everyone in our congregation is wearing one for nine months to remind ourselves that we want to be in the world asking people this specific question: What do you think of Jesus? Immediately after this phase of the dream, the dream rolled into a second dream that was connected to it and it was this second phase of the dream that made me absolutely sure, beloved, that I was having a dream from God. In the second part of the dream I find myself in a room almost identical to the room that I was in the first dream, about the same size. Again, there's a couch, again, it's kind of gray in terms of the coloring of the room. There's not a lot of light in there but you can still see. It's not totally dark either. I believe that represents the spiritual climate of the world right now. I mean we can still see but it's dark right now. Morality is dark. Hopelessness is pervading, things are becoming more and more chaotic.
We're living, beloved, in a dark world. Jesus described this world as a place where Satan dwells. And so I'm in this room, the second phase of the dream, I'm on the couch, it's kind of gray in the room, and a young girl is in the room, she's standing in the center of the room, she looked to be about twenty years old, and I asked her in the dream, listen beloved, the same exact question, "What do you think of Jesus"? And when I asked her the question, this is what she said: She said, "Well, I know he said a lot to the church but he never said anything to me, like about being boyfriend, girlfriend". And as soon as she said that the dream was over and I knew that I was having a dream from God because her statement was so unique, and so profound, and it said volumes. This is what she was meaning, beloved, that she had heard maybe some preaching before, maybe she was raised in church or had sat in church at some points in her life, maybe she had been flipping through some Christian channels and heard a preacher preach but she never heard and understood that Jesus loved her.
Remember what she said? She said, "I know he said a lot to the church but he never said anything to me, like about being boyfriend, girlfriend". And I knew through this dream that the Lord was telling me several things. He was, first of all, telling me that my people need to be secure. They need to get out of insecurity and into security. This was communicated to me, Beloved, in the dream when I found myself, as the dream opened, with my head leaning on the lady's shoulder, like David said, "Like a child leaning on his mother". It represented security that you and I need to break off the lie of insecurity because we are secure in Jesus. Insecurity is part of our old life. We need to step out of it, we need to break it, we need to stop yielding to it, we need to confess I am secure in Jesus, my Father is with me, Jesus is with me, his presence is all around me, he's closer to me than a brother, I'm going to heaven, he's going to provide for all my needs.
It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks about me, it only matters what he thinks about me so I will be secure. Part of being secure, beloved, is a decision. So the Lord was communicating that if my people are going to be obedient to me, ensuring their faith, they're going to have step out of insecurity and into security, and beloved, and that is a choice that you need to make because hell is for the fearful and unbelieving. Remember, though, when Jesus gave out the talents, and when he called those that he'd given the talents to return and to show him the investment that they had made on the talents, and how their talents had multiplied, and remember the one said, "Lord, you gave me ten and now here's twenty". And the other one came and said, "Lord, you gave me five talents, now here's ten talents". And then Jesus called the one that he had given one talent to, and the man came to Jesus with his one talent and he said, "Sir, you gave me one talent and here's your one talent back, for I knew you to be a hard man".
He had a wrong concept of God and because of that he was insecure and fearful and Jesus rebuked him. He was displeased. And beloved, you and I need to make a decision that we're going to obey God 'cause God has not given us a spirit of fear or timidity, but of love and a power and of a sound mind. So the first thing that you and I need to know, beloved, is we need to break off insecurity, and fear, and step into security, and boldness, and confidence. That was what the Lord showed me by showing me with my head leaning against that woman's shoulder. Then the next thing was that the man was sitting on the couch and I asked him the question, "What do you think of Jesus"?
And beloved, he was kind of a macho-looking man and I believe the Lord was communicating, "You don't bow down to asking anybody this question, don't fear being intimidated, don't be afraid of what someone's going to think about you, don't be concerned that someone's going to think you're weak because you're talking about my Son". "You obey me and I don't care whether that man is six foot five, with bulging muscles, and Mr. Macho personality that denies me, I want you to ask the world a question, what do you think of Jesus". And then as I indicated, as the dream shifted, I found myself in the room once again, similar room, with the young lady, twenty years old, I asked her the same question, beloved, "What do you think of Jesus"? And she said to me, "I know he said a lot to the church but he didn't say anything to me, like about being boyfriend, girlfriend".
And what the Lord was communicating to me here was that people need to not just be presented with the doctrine of the Bible, they don't just need to hear that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, what we need to be communicating, beloved, to people, as we're witnessing to them, is that God loves them individually, personally, that God knows the number of hairs on their head, that God knows where they work, he knows what their phone number is, he knows what their address is, he knows what color sheets and blankets they have on their bed. God says, "When you share me with people, I want you to communicate to them how much I love and care about them as individual people, that I care about them in their work, that I care about what happens to them in their future, that I care about their relationship with their husband or wife, that I care about if their in school, their environment at school, and how they're doing at school, that I care and I'm concerned with them and I want to be involved in every detail of their life".
And so, God shared with me, beloved, this strategy, and when we're out there witnessing for him, to be asking people the question, beloved, what do you think of Jesus, and I want to encourage you again through our website, or through the 800 number at the end of the broadcast you can get this complete teaching as well as these bracelets. I've been wearing one of these bracelets, beloved, since February. I've got a whole congregation that has got aboard this thing because we know that it's a strategy that's come to us from the Holy Spirit. You see, when you ask somebody that question, what do you think of Jesus, we're not even asking them what do you think about Jesus, 'cause if we asked them what do you think about Jesus, that can get to be kind of a heady question but we asked them what do you think "of" Jesus, that's a hard question and when they respond to us, it tells us where they're at.
We can know when somebody responds where they're at in their walk with God and then hearing their response, we can know how to proceed, Beloved, to present the love of God to them. This is the time, beloved, mark my words, this is the time for the church to get bold like never before. I'm not talking to just a few; I'm talking to all of us and to begin to share our faith, beloved, like never before. I want to encourage you, don't be afraid of somebody getting mad at you. People will get mad at you but, you know, sometimes when someone gets mad at you, that's the first step to them coming to faith. It doesn't matter if they get mad, what matters is that you're being obedient.
Oftentimes, beloved, someone gets really mad but they get mad because they're being faced with something that's really disturbing them and upsetting them and this is the beginning with them wrestling with the issue, and God may use you to do it so the outcome is not based on whether they got mad or not, the outcome may be that they got mad but six weeks later they received Jesus and it had to do with you boldly presenting the Gospel to them, what do think of Jesus, and then using some of the strategies, beloved, that I have shared with you on some of our earlier broadcasts in of our earlier broadcasts in this series, and also when we're sharing with people we want to be humble and one of the best ways to do that is not to place ourselves above them but to share with them what Jesus has done for us, making ourself voluntarily weak.
In other words, saying, "oh if it wouldn't have been for Jesus," and everything that we say, we say, "praise Jesus, it's a good God," people say, "It's a good day," "how you doing today"? "It's a good day, praise God," praise God. You know, everything we do we're giving God glory, we're making ourself voluntarily weak so we're showing them that we need Jesus just like they do so that, that don't think that we're condescending. Also, beloved, I want to encourage you to be prepared, try to... the more prepared you are, and I'm not telling you, you have to know the Bible backwards and forwards, no, I'm not telling you that, but I'm saying be as prepared as you can be and don't wait till you're prepared perfectly to start right now but it's like this: as you learn some of the strategies that I've shared in this broadcast and as you continue to read the Bible on a daily basis, beloved, even if it's just a chapter a day, you're going to get more and more prepared to be able to respond to people, and to be able to bring up scripture because the scripture itself has life and power in it.
See, the Word of God is living, and active, and sharper than a two-edged sword. It's able to pierce between the division of soul and spirit so when you know the Word of God you can bring it to the table. It's kind of like a carpenter. A carpenter can do almost any job. Why? Because he's got the tools and so the more prepared you are, the more tools you'll have but I don't want, I don't want anybody to wait until they're more prepared. Start right now and, beloved, it doesn't matter if you fall on your face; it's better to be obedient and fall on your face than to be in fear and do nothing. Just start. God will train you as you go. Some of you have heard it said before, God can't steer a parked car. Just start and God will teach you and train you along the way.
And again, don't be thrown when people get defensive. Don't let it throw you; just be convinced in your heart, beloved, that the message that you bring is real. You need to be convinced, beloved, listen, that people need Jesus. You need to be convinced that Jesus is who he said he was. You need to be convinced that Jesus is the only way. If you have a mindset that simply says well Jesus is good for me but, you know, this person doesn't believe in Jesus so God bless them, that's fine too, a lot of Christian people, a lot of people that call themselves Christians are like that. It's like they claim that Jesus is the only way, they sing praises to God in church that Jesus is the only way, but when it comes to the way that they relate with other people it's evident by the way relate to other people that they really don't believe that because they've got all these people that they know, that they're in relationship with, whether it be family members, extended family members, whether it be people at work or people in their neighborhood, and they know these people aren't believers in Jesus, and yet they don't tell them about Jesus.
If you and I were really convinced that those people were going to hell, we would be telling them about Jesus. Jesus said, "Unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins". We must be convinced that people need Jesus, that he is who he said he was, that Jesus said, "There's no other name under heaven by which men can be saved but the name of Yeshua HaMashiach". Be convinced, beloved, that people need him. Hallelujah and amen. And don't be afraid, beloved, that someone's going to know more than you know. No, beloved, the Bible tells us that we shouldn't be afraid because the Holy Spirit, the scripture says, will give us what we need in the hour thereof. This is one of the secrets to becoming free, and fluent, and powerful in the abundant life of God. It's trusting him; it's stepping out and trusting him. We have a supernatural God and one of the things that our supernatural God does for us is he anoints us by the Holy Spirit to witness.
So don't worry about having to think everything through, that you're going to know exactly what you need to say in every situation, just step out in faith, beloved, be prepared as you can, but then just step out in faith and trust the Holy Spirit to do the rest. He'll give you the words, Jesus taught us, in the hour thereof. Now a few practical things, try to avoid words that people won't relate to. In other words, when Paul was on Mars Hill in the Book of Acts, these people didn't know the Torah, they didn't know the scriptures, so Paul didn't start out talking to them about the Torah, but rather what Paul did is he started relating to them where they were at in life. He says, "I see you have many statues here where you're worshipping an unknown God".
And so Paul began by meeting them where they were at and then began to move from there teaching them that this unknown God, that his name was the God of Israel and his Son's name was Yeshua. And so we need to have that same mindset when we're speaking to a secular world and we're speaking to people that don't know the Lord. We want to avoid kind Christian jargon that we might know what it means but they're probably not going to know what it means. In other words, you know, we probably want to avoid jargon like, you know, redeemed, and words that mean a great deal to us like washing the blood of the Lamb. That means a great deal to us but to them they might not understand what we're saying and so we need to be trying to communicate with them, beloved, in a language, hallelujah, that they can understand.
Well, I want to review today, as I close out this broadcast, we began, beloved, at the beginning of this broadcast talking about how to approach the atheist and I shared with you early on that the scripture tells us that deep inside everybody that's ever been born into the world knows there's a God. The scripture tells us that it's evident within them and not only is evident within them, not only is their conscience bearing witness with them that there is a God, but when they look at creation and they see the sky that goes on forever, and the beauty and the colors, deep inside they know there's a God. So when we come across an atheist don't be intimidated and don't let the strength of their personality, or their hostility, or their condescending attitude throw you, deep inside, every man knows there's a God.
I talked about three ways to respond to the atheist. I talked about the argument of intelligent design, that in creation, beloved, we have intelligence. In other words, intelligence is built in to creation so that the body, beloved, when it begins to overheat it automatically perspires to bring the temperature back down to normal, when we get sick our body automatically begins to create antibodies to combat the sickness, and we can go on and on. There's intelligence in creation. Beloved, intelligence could not be in creation if there wasn't an intelligent designer behind it. You don't get order out of chaos and you don't get intelligence out of unintelligence so the first argument that we have for the atheist is the argument of intelligent design. The second argument, beloved, for responding to the atheist is the law of absolute morality, that deep down inside, all over the world, mankind, at the most basic level, has a sense of right and wrong.
Now the atheist will say he doesn't believe in moral absolutes, that there's no such thing, he'll say, as absolute right or wrong, but rather, he says, morality is relative, that morality is culturally defined, that morality isn't defined by a God, but they say instead, morality is defined individually and morality is defined culturally but you take that same atheist and somebody steals something from them and what do they want? They want justice. And so, deep inside the atheist, when he's wrong automatically now, they revert back into a position of morality. And then the third response, beloved, to the atheist is the response of first cause. All the other theories, beloved, of the existence of life, all the other theories of evolution have to do with, beloved, something that began, in other words you begin with many evolution theories with what? A big bang.
But the most obvious question, when you begin to talk about a big bang is well where did the big bang come from? What caused the big bang? And the only answer to this dilemma, beloved, is that there had to be a first cause that was without cause. In other words, unless you have a being that has always been, you'll be forever asking the question, but where did that come from, but what caused that? God, by nature of who he is, has always been, he has no first cause, and that is the only possible explanation that one can come up with for the existence of life. There had to be something in the very beginning that was without cause, that has always been, and that is God. That's why God is, beloved, eternity. From there we've moved into, now that we've talked about the existence of God and established his existence, we talk about the exclusive claim of Jesus.
Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man comes to God but through me". So what we do now is we bring a person to the place of having to face a decision, having to face making a decision about Jesus, and here's what we say: If I can show you that Jesus is who he said he was, will you receive him and will you receive his truth? We want to get them in a position that they're getting ready to have to make a decision. If I can show you, Sally, if I can show you, Bob, that Jesus is who he said he was and you become convinced that he is who he said he was, will you make a decision, and receive him, and begin to follow him?
And then what we do, beloved, is we explain the historical accuracy of the Bible that I've covered in my earlier broadcast, why we can trust the Bible as being a historically accurate document, recording accurately the claims of Messiah, and when we realize that the Bible's a historically accurate document, accurately recording the claims of Jesus, then what we do is we say to Bob, Sally, Bob, he can only have been a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. He can only be one of the three. And finally, beloved, I talked about on this broadcast, we need to be asking people the question, what do you think of Jesus? You can order this complete teaching series, beloved, and I urge you to do it at the end of this broadcast. God bless you today. Shalom.
Father God, I pray for these that are watching right now. Father God, we want to be a church, Lord, that's boldly proclaim the Messiahness of Jesus.