Rabbi Schneider - Supernatural Consequences
If you and I do not abide in the Light, we find ourselves in the darkness. And when we're in the darkness, destruction can fall upon us and evil spirits can enter our lives. When we willfully sin, we open up a legal door for unclean spirits to come in. We've done ministry with many people over the years that had demons occupying space within them. I don't use the term possession when it comes to a Christian because a Christian cannot be possessed by a demon. Because the word possession implies ownership. And the devil cannot own somebody that's been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. So the word "possession" is not an accurate way to describe a demonic problem that a Christian could have. But what a Christian can have is a demonic entity occupying space within their being.
Some people really balk at that. But you think about it. If you're walking around worrying all the time, you're a Christian, but if you're walking around worrying all the time, isn't there a demon occupying space in your mind? Demons can occupy space in believers. I encourage you to get my book, if you've never read it. It's called Self Deliverance. And I talk about how even as there were money changers in the Holy Temple that Yeshua had a drive out with His whip, so also demonic entities can occupy space within believers. And these demons that can occupy space within us need to be driven out. And they're driven out when we choose, Beloved, to walk in the light. And sometimes we need to forcefully come against evil spirits by speaking to them and saying, Satan, I reject you. Get out of my mind or get out of my way or get out of my life.
"I am the Light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in the darkness". Let me ask you. Is there a danger in the darkness? There's danger in the darkness. The darkness is where evil beings dwell. The darkness is where people get robbed and people get attacked. But Jesus said if we follow Him, we'll not walk in darkness, but get this, but we'll have the Light of life. And so I want to encourage you now to recognize the seriousness of not following Jesus and of not abiding in the light. And I'm not talking about just going to church and a confession of faith. I'm talking about following Jesus on a daily basis during all our hours. It's like all day long we're seeking to follow Jesus. We're seeking to have His mind. We're seeking to make decisions that please Him. We're seeking to live righteously. We're watching the words that come out of our mouth.
If we begin to talk in such a way and somehow we perceive that the motive of our heart in the conversation is not right before Hashem, before the Lord, we pull ourselves back when we stop talking. We really have to develop a sensitive spirit to abide in the Light. And we keep growing in our sensitivity to the spirit and in our ability to abide in God's light as we practice righteousness. We're growing. We're on the journey to perfection. The Bible says that as we seek to obey Jesus that our senses, our spiritual senses get trained to know the difference between good and evil. The mature are able to discern between good and evil.
As we abide in the Light, as we seek to grow in the Light, as we keep on resisting the darkness and making decisions to abide in the Light more and more we're able to perceive the Light and abide in the Light. Sometimes people think they're abiding in the Light is because they're doing some Christian things. But God wants to go so deep within us. And He wants to go to the center of our motives. Like why are we doing what we doing? Why are we saying what we're saying? Why do we desire this thing or that thing? We need to examine ourselves more. It's like if you look at a slide, like remember back when we were in biology class we had a slide. And when we just looked at the slide, it looked like it was completely clear. We could see right through the slide, we could see right through the piece of glass. We didn't see any contamination on it. Didn't see any particles or specks on it. But then we put the slide under a microscope.
And at first maybe when we looked in the microscope, the slide looked clearer. But then when we began to turn that dial on the microscope slowly, as the power increased, as we turned the dial, slowly began to see, Oh, wow, there's some contamination on that slide. There's something on that slide moving around. As the power was turned up, we were able to see things on the slide that we weren't able to see when we didn't look at it with power. That's what happens with our lives, Beloved, as we walk in the light, as we open our heart to the Lord, as we say yes to Him, as we grow in grace, more and more, we're able to perceive at an ever deeper level foulness and sin and unrighteousness that needs to be cleansed out of our life. The wrong motives, the way that we live, the way that we talk, the way that we conduct ourselves. But Jesus said, "He that follows me..." He said, "I'm the light of the world. He that follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the Light of life".
So what this says to me is the more I can follow the Light, the more I can abide in the Light, the more I cut darkness out of my life, the more I'm cleansed of darkness Because being cleansed of darkness is progressive. It's a progressive cleansing, Beloved. The Lord more and more cleanses us and sanctifies us. We're in the process of being cleansed and sanctified. So the more and more cleansed and sanctified we become, the more deeply we're able to abide in the Light, the more joy we're going to have. Because when you think of Light, what do you think of? You think of happiness and joy and goodness. I mean, think about what happens when you're in a dark room all day and then suddenly you open up the shades or you open up the curtains, and you look outside or you go outside, there's a beautiful blue sky, and the sun is shining, and the birds are chirping, and all of a sudden, all, I feel good.
I feel good again. And so you and I, we all want to be happy, right? I mean, human beings were created to be happy. How do I know that? Because God's happy. God is completely happy. And He's created us to be in fellowship with Him. And He's created us to share Himself with us. So as those that are created in His own image, we're created to be happy. But we can only be happy to the degree that we abide in the light.
So I just want to encourage us all again today to make our goal in life, to follow Jesus 24/7 to the best of our ability. We grow. We're not perfect. I'm not talking about you being perfect and beating yourself up if you have a bad thought or do something wrong or fall or say something wrong. Because the Bible says, He that's born of God does not practice sin. No one that's born of God is going to lead a willful lifestyle of sin, because God's Spirit's in them. And because God's Spirits in us, that's the engine in us. So if the engine in us is God's Spirit and God's Light, we're not going to lead a life of habitual sin because we've got a different nature. But the Bible says, No one that's born of God practices sin. But if we sin, we have an advocate, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And if we confess our sin, He's faithful and just to forgive us.
So what I'm saying here, beloved, is that our life goal is to follow Jesus and abide in the Light. This is a 24/7 thing to the best of our ability of rewiring our mind. The Bible says that we should renew our mind by the word of God. We're changing the way we think. We're changing our perspective of life. We're changing our paradigm of reality. The Scripture says, Be not conformed to the world, but be conformed in your mind to the Word of God. We're being renewed and changed. And as we're being renewed and cleansed and sanctified and changed, we enter more and more deeply into the Light. And the more we abide in the Light, that happier and the more joyful, the more power and the more freedom talks about that next. So I hope that this motivates you to live for Jesus. Because all of us want to be happy. And what I'm proclaiming is that the way to become happy is to follow Jesus so you can live in the Light.