Rabbi Schneider - Become Who You're Meant To Be
The Shulamite bride who is a shadow of you and I have the church is calling out to her lover. So I want you to put yourself in this position. You and I as the bride of Messiah are calling out to Jesus and we're saying this: "Awake, O north wind, and come, wind of the south; make my garden breathe out fragrance, let its spices be wafted abroad....may my beloved come into his garden and eat its choice fruits". So what in And so the Shulamite Bride in choosing to love Him, in choosing to love Yeshua is saying, whatever it's going to take, Lord, for the fullness of who you want me to be, for the fullness of all I can be to come forth, whatever it's going to take, let it come, the good times and the bad times.
This is the key that I want you to get before I read the verse again. If life always felt fantastic, if it always felt like you're being blessed, and there were never any hard times, you could not become all that God is calling you to be. This is why the Brit Chadashah (the New Testament) tells us that we should rejoice in our trials. Because going through the trials brings something out of us that will not be brought out of us without going through the trials.
See, in the book of 2 Corinthians Paul said this. He said, "I'd have you know, brethren, that I am burdened excessively beyond strength, so that I despair," Paul said, "even of life". So he was going through a tremendously difficult time that made living the next day hard. It was so hard for him because of all the challenges he was facing. But that he said, "But this happens to me that I would learn to trust in God that raises the dead".
Do you see what I'm saying? Paul was facing what the Shulamite bride here calls the north winds. There's the south winds-those are the winds that God breathes upon us that opens up our heart. For example, when we're in a worship service and the beautiful worship music is playing and our hands are raised, and for some tears flow from their eyes because they're feeling the presence of God, those are the south winds. Like being in Florida when the sun is shining, you just feel bathed in God's goodness. Those are the south winds. But the north winds are frigid and cold. It's like being in Minnesota in the middle of the winter.
I lived in Minnesota for a while. I remember walking out my front door of the trailer that I was living in, Cynthia and I, in the middle of the winter, it was so cold that you literally felt you wanted to cry. It was such an assault on your flesh. So once again, the Shulamite bride says here, "Awake, O north wind, and come, wind of the south; make my garden breathe out fragrance, let its spices be wafted abroad..." In other words, she's saying, I know it's the combination of the north winds, the hard things that God brings me through in life, and the south winds, those times of refreshment that I experienced when I feel God's love and His beauty and the caresses of His Spirit. I know it's the combination of those two things that bring forth unto the Lord the fullness of who I am. "Awake, O north wind, and come, wind of the south; make my garden breathe out fragrance".
So I want to challenge you today to recognize that it's not God's purpose for you or I just to always have an experience as long as we're in this world where we always feel the sunshine. Remember Paul's experience he relayed it to us in the Book of Corinthians? He said there was a messenger of Satan sent to torment him in the flesh.
Notice, Paul said, if you'll read that scripture carefully, it was actually by divine design that this messenger of Satan was sent to Paul to bring torment to him. Paul said, "I'd have you know that there was a messenger of Satan sent to me to torment me, to torment my flesh, to affect me..." Some translations read "in the flesh". And he said that it was so painful. He said it was going through such a time of pain because of this messenger of Satan that had been sent to him. And he said he cried out to the Lord about this: "Lord, I'm hurting, take this pain away. Lord, remove this from me".
Paul said that after praying about this for the third time, the Lord spoke back to him. And he said, "Paul, My grace is going to be sufficient to get you through this time of pain". He said, "My power, however, is going to be perfected in your weakness". And so it was a north wind. But the Lord had a purpose in the north wind. The Lord sent the north wind. And in addition to the Lord sending the north wind to Paul, the Lord said to Paul, "And my power is going to be perfected in you as you cling to Me through this trial". And Paul ended up saying about this time of testing from the devil, Paul said, "I'm gonna therefore boast in my weakness than in my strength, for the Lord's power is being perfected as I claimed to Him in my weakness".
So do you get it You and I had been made for King Jesus. Let me ask. Are you willing to surrender your life to Him, to give Him permission to bring into your life whatever is needed, the easy times? Like Clint Eastwood said, right? The Good, the bad, and the ugly, knowing that God is the architect of it all and He has a purpose in all of it.
Are you willing to trust Him enough? And do you love Him enough to say to him, like the Shulamite bride, let the north winds come and let the south winds come so that I can become all that you're calling me to be so that you could enjoy to the fullest, King Jesus, living inside me, your garden? Are you willing to say yes to that? If so, why don't you just take a second and say, "Jesus, I want to be like the Shulamite bride? I want to love You so much that I'm not shrinking back from pain, I'm not just seeking to feel good. I want whatever is going to allow me to be Your garden in the fullest sense". So say it with me.
So Lord Jesus, Yeshua, my Messiah, I give You permission to do in me as You please. I'm willing to go through whatever is necessary for me to become all that I can be for You, so that You can come and live inside me to the fullest sense of the word and gain all the fruit from me that's possible.