Rabbi Schneider - Living a Life From the Inside Out
One of my favorite verses is this: A wise man's eyes are in his own head. Listen to that again. I'd like it to sink in. A wise man's eyes are in his own head. What does that mean? Somebody whose eyes are outward focused, running there, thinking that this is the answer over there, thinking, if I go over there I'll be happy; thinking, if I get that person to be my husband or wife I'll become happy; thinking if I could buy that new thing I'll be happy. In other words, those are eyes that are not in one's own head but those are our eyes that are lusting after the things of the world. But let me tell you a secret. Everything in the world is a vapor. Think about even people that you think are attractive.
What are they going to look like 30 years from now? They're going to look completely different. You see the grass withers and the flowers fade, only God abides forever. So if we're going to break free from the illusion of thinking that somehow things on the outside can satisfy us, if we're going to stop trying to consume things that don't satisfy us thinking that they will, we're going to have to get a hold of our thoughts and realize when our eyes are not in our own head and bring ourselves back. How do we do this? First of all, we do it by truly believing that there is a well of life inside us. Those of us that have received the Spirit of God, we have to believe that there is living water inside us. The Scripture says, "He that hath the Son hath the life".
When Yeshua spoke about being born again, what He was referring to is that those that receive Him, receive within them the Spirit of Elohim, uncreated life, the Spirit of the Living God. That inside you and I, inside the believer, there is a spirit of living water, there is life that is continuously bubbling up newness of life, always new. New joy, new revelation, new manifestation, new riches. It's always new. So if you're going to break free from being connected to the outside to get in touch with what's inside you, the first requirement is you have to believe, beloved, that there's life inside you, and that the answer to your satisfaction lies not from consuming the things that are outside of you. It's not outside of you. But the answer is getting in touch with what is inside you and learning then when you pull yourself back to be able to drink from that water.
Let me read a marvelous section of scripture here. This is Yeshua talking in the Gospel of John 4 beginning in verse 9. He's dialoguing with a Samaritan woman. "Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, 'How is that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I'm a Samaritan woman?'" Jesus had asked this woman at the well to give Him a glass of water.
Verse 10, "Jesus answered and said to her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.' She said to Him, 'Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is so deep; where then do You get that living water? You are not greater than our father, Jacob, are You, who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?' Jesus answered and said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks to the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life".
In order for you and I to stop lusting after the things that are on the outside of us thinking that they're going to satisfy, and instead, pull ourselves back to dwell within, the first requirement is we have to believe there's something in us that can satisfy. Jesus said that there is living water within His children. So I discipline myself to not watch things on television simply to entertain myself. Not that I never watch anything on television, but I'm very disciplined. To not run here and run there thinking I would be satisfied by calling this person on the phone, calling this person on the phone, constantly checking my smartphone, going to buy this, going to buy... I'm very aware that all those things involve looking for life on the outside. Because going after the things of the world is pure deception because the things that are outside ourselves can never satisfy us. Life is on the inside.
Jesus said, "I'm going to become within the believer, a well of living water springing up to eternal life, so that the believer that learns to drink of the well within Him, which is the Spirit of Elohim, will come to a place in their life where they will truly find rest, and peace and satisfaction". One of my favorite scriptures is from the book of Luke 17:21. It involves this same concept. I'm reading now from the King James Version. Jesus said this, "Neither shall they say," regarding looking for God looking for Messiah, "neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there"! In other words, going after some God experience. It's over here. It's over there. Jesus said, "'Neither shall they say, Lo here or, lo there. For behold,' He said, 'the Kingdom of God is within you.'"
The kingdom of God is within you. We're talking about leading life from the inside out rather than the outside in. The first requirement to enter in, beloved ones, to this reality is to believe that there really is life inside us. The kingdom of God is in us. This is a hard road. This is not something that we enter into in a night or in a month or even in a year. It's a lifetime venture where we learn how to pull ourselves back out of the world into our own soul where Hashem lives, where God lives. You see, ever since Adam and Eve fell in the garden, they became flesh conscious rather than God-conscious. Remember what happened immediately after Adam and Eve sinned? Immediately they became aware of their own flesh.
Before they sinned, before they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were only conscious of God. But when they sinned, all of a sudden, they became self-conscious, they realized they were naked, and they began to run. So two things happened at that point. Number one, they lost contact with the Creator, they became self-conscious rather than God conscious, and they tried to escape the feeling of insecurity and shame that they were feeling, the self-consciousness and anxiety they were experiencing, they tried to escape it by running. They ran from God because they were afraid. We have to stop running from anxiety, we have to stop running from trying to escape ourselves by going into the world thinking that things in the world can satisfy us and take away the anxiety and the pain. We have to cut that off and believe, instead, God is inside me.
The Spirit of the Lord lives inside me, I'm not going to run here or run there to try to escape or to find it. Because Jesus said, The kingdom of heaven is within you. So I personally spend time every day just sitting before the Lord, not distracting myself with anything. I just sit before the Lord. And it feels oftentimes that nothing is happening. I'm not having any mystical moments. I'm not having any ecstatic feelings. I'm just sitting before the Lord. It's pure discipline because I'm committed to realizing that life is inside me. And as I do this, and I've been doing this for many, many, many years, my life changed so much when I started doing this 12 or 20 years ago.
When I just spend time sitting before the Lord, not being distracted with anything, just believing that "Be still and know that I am God" is what I need, slowly what happens is the Lord trains me to not look outside of Him for my answer, but to look to Him within me for the answer. I'm not looking for myself; I'm looking for Him in my own soul as my answer. And as I've practiced that over the years, I've entered into more and more peace, more and more soundness of mind, more and more security. It's not a quick fix.
Again, this is a hard road. The easy way is to distract ourselves. The easy way is to go out and do something. The easy way is to pick up your phone and start playing with your phone, some kind of video game. The easy way is to go to a friend's house. That's just an escape. At the end of the day, when you're done with your phone, with your video, with the computer, with your friend, with whatever it is, at the end, you'll be right back where you were-you'll have that same sense that something's quite not right. The only way to find peace and security is to return to our Maker. Listen what the Lord told Isaiah in the book of Isaiah. This is such a key chapter in getting a hold of what I'm teaching here. "For thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, 'In repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength.' But you are not willing".
I'm reading once again from the book of Isaiah 30:15. I want you to listen again. "For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, 'In repentance and rest...'" What does repentance mean? It means to turn to Him. Not going after the world, not going after something outside ourselves, it's turning back to Him. And where is He? Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is not here or there," Luke 17, "the kingdom of heaven is within you". So when repentance and rest... not striving, not running. "In repentance and rescue will be saved, in quietness..." Being still before the Lord. Don't expect to feel anything all at once. Just believe that He's in you. And you've got to come back and return to Him, getting in touch with your center to find it. "In rescue you'll be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength. But sadly, you were unwilling".
You see, when Jesus said straight and narrow is the way that leads to life. A lot of times we think that that means only that Jesus is the only way, which Baruch Hashem, He is the only way. But when we speak about narrow is the way, straight and narrow, Yeshua said, is the way it leads to life and few that will find it. The narrow way in the original language also implies that it's swimming upstream. It's going against the current. It's a lot harder to swim upstream. It's a lot harder to move forward against the current. There's resistance. So it takes work. That's why Yeshua said, Strive to enter in through the narrow gate for many will seek to enter and will not be able. We have to diligently focus on just sitting before the Lord every day, beloved.
Start out 15 minutes a day, 20 minutes a day, however much you feel before the Lord should be your covenant with Him. And just say, "Lord, I'm just going to sit here and do nothing". I only asked you to do one thing for me, Baruch Hashem, bless the name of Lord. Father, I only ask you to do one thing for me as I sit before you these 15 minutes or however long it is. Father just help me to become aware of Jesus inside me. You see, Paul told us that the mystery of the gospel is Christ in you, Paul said, the hope of glory. So Father, help me as I sit before You just to pull myself back and get in touch with the fact that You're inside me. To live from the inside out rather than from the outside in, to be saved in God's rest and peace, we need to get in touch with the fact that He really is in you.
He really is in us. And that won't happen until you stop running. You see, we're dealing with the same thing today that Adam and Eve dealt with in the garden. What did Satan do in the garden with Eve? He caused her to get tempted to take something that was forbidden that was outside herself. She looked at the tree, she looked at the fruit of the tree, she saw it was pleasant to the eyes, the lust of the eyes, she said it would taste good-the lust of the flesh-and that it would make her wise-the ambition, the boastful pride of life. And she went for that which was on the outside, and she lost God.
You see, John tells us in the Book of 1 John that all that is in the world, beloved one, everything John says is from the world. The lust of the eyes, just like with Eve in the garden, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. What's the lust of the eyes? Thinking that something that we see with our eyes will satisfy us. The lust of the flesh, whether it's food, sex, whatever. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, or the boastful pride of life, John said, is not from the Father, but it's from the world.
Once again, listen to what John said. All that's in the world, the lust of the eyes, we want something in the outside, the lust of the flesh, the natural desires of the body, but they're just flesh and the boastful pride of life, fame, power, ambition, all that John said, all those things are not from the Father but from the world. The answer for you and I it's not in the world. It is inside us once we receive Jesus, Baruch Hashem. When we receive Yeshua, we receive life. And we need to learn how to drink from the life, beloved one, that is inside us. I love what Jeremiah said. Jeremiah 2:13. Hear the Word of God, the Lord is speaking. He said, "For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water".
You see, I came to a point in my life years ago where I was just burned out. I mean, I had tried everything. Every time I heard a new sermon that told me I needed to do this, I would do it. I was running all over the earth seeking to find God somewhere, seeking for an encounter with God. Now, this is while I was a believer in Jesus, thinking the answer was somehow outside myself. I'd hear a new teaching, I'd say that's what I need to do. And I'd go at it full force for a month, two months, three months, only to get to the end, and find myself right back where I started. I couldn't find the answer. I knew that God was alive. I knew that I could find Him, but nothing I was doing was bringing me into the experience I was looking for.
Finally, when I got to the end of the rope, the Holy Spirit just gently whispered to me-I didn't hear it audibly, but I had an intuitive knowing. And the Holy Spirit said to me, "You're looking for me on the outside. You're looking for me from the world and you're looking for me in your works. The Lord said to me, stop looking for me on the outside, I'm already in you". And the Lord actually said to me, I want you to stop praying for everything right now but for one thing.
I just want you to sit before me every day and asked me just for this one thing: to bring you in to the knowledge of the reality that I'm inside you. And I can tell you, Baruch Hashem, from that day forward power came into my life. And the same will happen for you. Don't try it for a day and say it doesn't work. You make it a practice. Every day spend time just sitting before the Lord and just say, Father help me to get in touch with the fact that you're in me, train me, and teach me how to lead life from the inside out and come out of the world leading a life that's from the outside in.