Rabbi Schneider - Victory
Every spirit that is opposing you, every person that's being motivated by a demonic spirit, everything that's coming against you from the realm of darkness you're going to defeat. All your enemies will be defeated. Even those that are coming against you in the flesh, if they're being empowered by the powers of darkness, if they're being motivated by Satan and the demonic realm, they're going to be broken, shamed and ashes under your feet. You will defeat every single one. Listen, it's not over 'till it's over. And when it's over you're going to be standing on the rock of Yeshua in victory over every single one of the enemies that you ever faced. Every one of your enemies is going to be shamed and dishonored.
When I speak about your enemies, I'm talking about those that are opposing you, because they're moving against you in the powers of darkness. Listen again, "Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored: those who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish". God's going to defend you. "You will seek those who quarrel with you, but you will not find them. Those who war with you will be as nothing and non-existent. For I am the Lord your God, who upholds your right hand, who says to you, 'Do not fear, I will help you. Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel: I will help you', declares the Lord, "And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel".
What I love about the verse I just read is that when the Lord was speaking of his love promise over Jacob, Israel-Jacob-Abraham they're all part of the same passage of scripture, God is still he's referring to his people, those he's in covenant relationship with, and he's in covenant relationship with you and I, whether you're a Jew or a gentile, through your relationship with Yeshua. This is what Paul is speaking about in Galatians chapter 3, saying, "The blessing of Abraham has come upon us through our faith in Yeshua", or if you're a gentile, that you've been grafted into the commonwealth of Israel in the book of Romans chapter 11.
What I love about this is that these that are in covenant relationship with the Lord, there are a covenant love relationship with him, and because of this HaShem, Father God, the God of Israel is protecting them. What I love about the verse I just read is that the Lord actually calls Jacob a worm. Listen, "'Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel, I will help you', declares the Lord. Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel". What am I getting at, what do I like? God didn't love Jacob because Jacob was so perfect, God called Jacob a worm. You know, some people sing that song, "I wasn't an amazing grace for such a worm as i", you know, it's like God doesn't treat you with favor because you're perfect, his favor doesn't always come upon you because you've done everything right, his favor is on you simply because he loves you. He is going to uphold you, and defend you, and give you victory simply because he's in covenant relationship with you through Yeshua.
I want to encourage you: don't let the enemy work on your mind so that you come into agreement with him, and disqualify yourself. Do you understand what I'm saying? God said to Jacob, "Oh, Jacob, you worm". He's like rebuking Jacob. What's a worm? A worm is spineless, right? A worm is spineless. You think about someone with courage, they have a strong spine. But here the Lord is rebuking Jacob, "Oh, Jacob, you worm. Do not fear, I'm gonna help you. I'm your Redeemer. I'm your God. I'm the holy one of Israel". And so, God's love and favor on Jacob wasn't dependent on Jacob's strength, it was dependent on God's love for Jacob. And the same thing is true for you. God will be faithful to you simply because he loves us. The scripture says, "Even when we are faithless, he is still faithful to us, because he can't deny himself".
God rewards us for living for him. He rewards us for putting him first. He rewards us for seeking him. But when it gets down to the bare bones of his love, and his grace towards us, it will never fail. Because it's not dependent, according to the book of Titus, on the deeds that we do in righteousness, but it's according to his mercy, by the working of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So, I'm trying to help you grasp the fact that God's love for you is always consistent. This should give you security in life. The devil makes us think sometimes that God draws back from us in his love, that his favor is drawn back from us because of our falling or shortcoming. But the truth is: God's love and favor will never fail you.
It's true that he will treat us differently, according to how we respond to him, because he's in the process of conforming us to the image of a Son, and training us how to walk in obedience and righteousness. So, the ways in which he deals with us will change according to how we're responding to him, but his love for you and I, and his grace towards us, and his favor towards us will never fail. So, don't let the enemy cause you to fall into deception, thinking that God has forsaken you because you're not perfect or because you messed up. No, God wants us to be secure in the covenant relationship he has with us. He'll never fail us, he'll never leave us and forsake us.
So, let me read it one more time before I go to the final verse that I want to read today. "Do not fear, you worm Jacob", he's speaking to you and I, "Do not fear, you worm". You might be weak, you might be afraid, but do not fear, "'I will help you', declares the Lord, 'Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel'". We can trust him, that's what our confidence is in. Our confidence is not in ourself, our confidence is not in our own ability to never fall, our confidence is not in our own ability to never stumble, to never mess it up. No, our confidence is in him. "Do not fear, Jacob, you worm, for I will never fail you. I am your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel". God says: be strong in me. "Let him that boast, boast in the Lord".
Now, finally today God is encouraging Jacob, Israel, you and I, to face our enemies. Remember, he just got done saying here, "Do not be afraid of your enemy. All those that are angered at you, they're going to fall. Do not fear all those that came against you". He said, "They're going to become as nothing". Do not be afraid. And now we find the reward of going through these battles where people come against us. Listen, the Lord said in verse 11, "Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored: those who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish. You will seek those who core with you, but you will not find them. Those who war with you will be as nothing and not existed. For I am the Lord your God, who upholds your right hand".
So obviously God is speaking to Israel, he's speaking to you and I in the midst of a battle. This is written when God's people are facing an enemy that wants to snuff them out. God is saying, "No, I'm going to get you through this thing, and I'm going to defeat your enemy". So, you and I are going to go through this battle, this has spoken to Israel as they're going through a battle, and God gets Israel to the other side. The enemies are no more to be seen, they perished, they're non-existent. So, the Lord's going to do the same thing in our life: we're going to face battles, hard times, the Lord says, "Don't fear, I'm going to get you through this hard time, I'm going to get you through this difficulty, you're going to come out the other side, and that difficulty is going to be gone, it's going to be behind you, it's going to be it's going to be forever behind you". But not only will the difficulty be behind you, but God says, "I'm going to add to your life because you went through it".
So verse 15 says this, "Behold", after Israel's through the battle, "Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges: you will thresh the mountains and pulverize them, and make hills like chaff". When you and I go through battles, clinging to HaShem, clinging to Father God, you know what happens? We're transformed by his strength. Paul learned the lesson that God's power is perfected in our weakness. Paul was facing a battle, he called the battle he was facing "A messenger of Satan". Paul began to cry out to the Lord in the middle of this demonic assault that he was experiencing. Three times he says, "I cried out". In other words it was probably three different elongated periods of time that he was thinking about how long he prayed about this battle.
Finally he heard the Holy Spirit speak to him, "Paul, my grace is going to get you through this thing. My grace is sufficient, and my power will be perfected in your weakness. As you go through this battle clinging to me, calling out to me, you're going to be receiving my strength, and you're going to come out of this thing", like the Lord says here in Isaiah, "Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges: you will thresh the mountains and pulverize them, and will make the hills like chaff".
I love this. God is using the battle to transform us. God is using what Satan means for evil, for good in your life. That's why the scripture admonishes us to count it all joy when we go through various difficulties and battles, because we should know that going through these are transforming us into threshing sledges with double edges. Were being made strong, we're learning how to use the Word of God in the battle. And we're coming out the other side of this thing shining in a new level of righteousness and glory. Being trained in the battle how to use the Word of God like a sword against our enemies.
So, I want to encourage you beloved one today: when you face a battle, don't take a victim mentality on. When you face a battle, don't allow yourself to fall in to an attitude of defeat. When you face a fall, don't let your first response be to call a friend. Instead, when you face a battle, when you face a fall, when you face a challenge, when you face pain, let your first response be to thank God. "Thank you, Father God, that this difficulty is being used by you to fortify me, to make me a threshing sledge, to cause the roots of my relationship with you to go deeper. To train me to walk in righteousness. To strengthen me to rise above it, that I'll walk on water in the spirit world, even as Yeshua walked on water. Thank you that you use these battles, that you use my enemies to make me strong, to perfect me, and make me like a double-edged sword that cuts between the soul and the spirit, to make me a messenger of fire on the earth for your glory".
Beloved, I want to speak into your soul right now a victor mentality, a winner mentality. Our praise of the Lord should not be up and down, depending on whether we're experiencing easy times or hard times. Our praise in the Lord should be consistent every day, whether we're facing an easy time, or we're in the midst of a battle, because God is causing it all to work together for good, to conform us to the image of his Son, and to cause us to become overcomers. Jesus said in the Book of Revelation, "He that overcomes, as I have overcome, will be granted the right to sit with me in the paradise of God". To experience all those things that revelation 2 and 3 talk about that all are given to the overcomers.
Battles are part of the process, so I speak over your life right now beloved one power, I speak over your mind right now a renewing, so that you'll be able to interpret what is going on around you through the Word of God. That you're not going to be overwhelmed by the winds and waves of your circumstances, but you'll face them head on, praising Jesus, knowing: as you walk with him through the difficulty, and through the battle, that he is turning you in to a flaming sword of fire, and you're going to keep on rising higher, and higher, ascending each and every day in him. God bless you, and shalom.