Rabbi Schneider - A Soul That Carries the Blessing
Hear the word of God. Paul is speaking. He says, "...so that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He brought out or carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord". So what Paul is saying here is that you and I now, through the Spirit, are broadcasting into the Spirit universe the exaltation and the victory of Christ Jesus. In other words, you and I are living on a planet of invisible spirit beings everywhere.
When the Lord raised Yeshua from the dead, the Bible says He openly triumphed over the powers of darkness. He openly conquered them all. He dethroned Satan and dethroned every demon that had been reigning in the earth. Yeshua now has all authority in heaven and on earth and He is the head of the church. God's plan now is that through you and I that have become His habitation by the Spirit, His Spirit lives in us, God's purpose is that through you and I that the victory of Jesus, His exaltation, the fact that He's seated at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places, far above all rule and authority, dominion and power, that that victory of Messiah who is the head of the church, would be displayed to the powers of the air in the earth through you and I.
Let's listen again. "...so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church..." The wisdom, the victory of God might be made known through the church. That's you, right? "...to the rulers and authorities". Where? In the heavenly places. Continuing on. "This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord..." When He raised Christ from the dead and put to flight, breaking the back of everything that opposed the Godhead, now God's purpose is that you and I would walk in the victory of Jesus, continuing to show His authority and His victory over the powers of the air in this present age.
Let's pray. We just need to pray for power, and we need to pray that we'll be obedient, that we can manifest the glory of God according to the Word of God in our lives. That when you walk into a room, people would feel the presence of God. That when you pray for people, that they'll feel the victory of Jesus. That you and I would walk in the authority and in the power of the kingdom of God. That we would carry a blessing. That you would be a soul that carries the blessing, and that where you go, you're carrying the blessing. When you meet somebody that serves you at a restaurant, they should feel the blessing. If someone's doing work at your home, they should feel the difference.
I remember I had somebody do some work for me not too long ago. I started witnessing to them, lay my hands, and prayed for them. They started crying. They called me a few days later they said, "I don't know what happened when I came to your property. I just felt something". I get that all the time. That's just not for me. It's for every one of us that really is seeking to know the Lord as the first priority and drive of our life. And then we're walking in obedience to be a blessing, to pray for people, to love people, to announce that this is the favorable year of the Lord, to introduce people to Jesus, to be encouragers and lightbearers. This is what God's talking about here, that Jesus would be made manifest through our lives, that the powers of the air would flee.
Father, I pray for all of us right now. Oh God, God, God, whatever is wrong in our lives, we ask Father God that in Your mercy You would bring correction and divine alignment. That we could walk in the fullness of Your blessing and carry the power. Lord, that we would ultimately displace the powers of darkness wherever we go and bring the blessing of the Lord and the King of glory into whatever atmosphere we walk into.
So let's listen again here. "...this is the manifold wisdom of God that He might now be made known through the church..." God wants to make himself known through the church. Through you. Think about it. God wants to make himself known through you. I know some of us are feeling like, oh my gosh, me? And we feel so unworthy. Some of us feel so disqualified. I mean, I can think of things in my life, times I've lost my temper, said things I shouldn't have said, treated people in ways that I shouldn't have treated them, and I could feel so disqualified. But beloved, we can't let the devil hold us down. The Bible said if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Think about Peter. He denied he knew Jesus. Was with Jesus for approximately three years, saw the miracles. Jesus washed His feet. And yet, when Jesus was arrested, they said to Peter, "Weren't you with Him"? Peter said, "I don't know that man". So you think about being disqualified. Peter was one that in the natural he should have been disqualified. What a betrayal! And he walked with Jesus so closely. He was with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. He saw Jesus transformed with Moses and Elijah appearing in glory. Peter fell on his face, he said, "Lord, shall we build a tabernacle"? He saw all that. He witnessed all the miracles. And yet he betrayed Jesus saying he didn't even know Him, three times.
But you know what? Jesus came and reappeared to Peter one day. Peter was out fishing. Peter had given up. He had disqualified himself from being a witness. Did you know that? After Peter denied he knew the Lord three times, the next thing we know about Peter, he's on the lake fishing again. Remember, Jesus told him to leave the net, to stop fishing for fish, physical fish, that He was going to make him a fisher of men. So Peter left it all to follow Jesus. Then Peter denies Jesus three times. And now what do we do? We find Peter... He's back on the lake fishing for literal fish again. And as he's on that boat fishing for fish, he doesn't feel like somebody that should be out there preaching Jesus anymore, more than likely. He probably felt like an utter failure, felt unqualified, disqualified. He's out fishing for fish, and on the Son There's Jesus on the shore.
Jesus calls out to him. Peter comes in. There's Jesus cooking fish on the shore for Peter and the others. I mean, you think about somebody cooking you a meal. How warm and inviting. A place of fellowship, right? You go over to your friend's house to have fellowship. You have a meal together. There's Jesus. He's not condemning Peter, right? There is therefore no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. Instead, he sits Peter down. He serves him a meal. He loves him. He embraces him. Then he takes Peter on a walk, right? Just he and Peter. He says, "Peter, do you love me"? Peter says, "I love you".
We know the story. Three times Jesus asked him the same question, do you love me? Jesus said, "Feed my sheep, tend my sheep, feed my lambs". Jesus reinstituted him in his calling. Jesus lifted him back up. "No, Peter, you're my apostle. You're my disciple. I chose you. Now follow Me". The same is true for you and I, beloved. There might be things in your life that you've done or said that you think disqualify you. You know what? In Christ Jesus, there is forgiveness and remission of sin. You need to stand up and go about your business following Him. You're His workmanship to do good works, to be His witness. The devil wants to keep us down by reminding us of our failures, but Jesus wants us to confess our sin, repent by not committing them again, and following Him. Okay?
And so we the church, are the vessel to release the power of God into the earth. But if you're held in guilt and condemnation, you're not going to do that. I break guilt and condemnation and the power behind guilt and condemnation off your life right now, and I say in Jesus' name, your sins are forgiven. Now stand up, brush yourself off, go forward and represent Jesus in the world. Be a witness. Be a blessing. Pray for people. Show His goodness. Stay close to Him. "...that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places". That we are God's witnesses in the world before both men and before the principalities and powers that Jesus defeated once and for all when He rose from the dead. Jesus is King. Jesus is the victorious King. Amen.
Let's continue on. Paul is so excited. He continues. He's brought to His knees in prayer. In verse 14, he says, "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth derives its name". I want you to focus on something with me for a second. Notice who Paul gets on his knees to pray to. "For this reason I bow my knees," get it now, "before the Father". Listen how Paul begins his message here in Ephesians 1:2. Ephesians 1:2, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ". Verse 3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ..."
Paul begins every one of his letters by bringing the Father up. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. And now here we are in Ephesians chapter 3:14. Paul says, "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth derives its name". In the book of Romans, Paul said concerning the Father, "From Him, through Him, and to Him are all things".
Why am I bringing this up and driving it? Because many of you all you do is you talk about Jesus. When you pray, you always pray to Jesus. When you sing a song you always sing to Jesus. Fantastic. We should pray to Jesus. But you know what? Jesus said, "When you pray, pray in this way. Say, our Father who art in Heaven". Everything starts with the Father. Jesus is the way to the destination. The Father is the destination. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but through Me".
But some of us need a realignment of our soul and our heart because we don't have a relationship with the Father. Our relationship with the Godhead is only with Jesus. And something with that, beloved, is out of sorts and out of line. It all comes from the Father. God the Father so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son. Jesus came to you because the Father sent Him, because the Father loves you and chose you. And so I just wanted to point that out. If you're finding yourself when you pray always saying Jesus rather than Father, you need to start consciously shifting your heart so you can be brought into a correct alignment and relationship with the Godhead.
It starts with the Father. And then we come to the Father through Jesus. We're saved in Jesus' name. But beloved, don't let the Father out of the center of everything. He is the beginning of it all. "For this reason," Paul said, "I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth derives its name, that He," that the Father, listen to this now, "would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power, P-O-W-E-R, through His Spirit, S-P-I-R-I-T, in the inner man".
So the first thing that's on Paul's heart, the first thing that he's calling out to the Father for is that you and I would be strengthened with power by the Spirit in our inner man. We need power. Jesus said, you'll be baptized not many days from now in the Holy Spirit with power, and you shall be my witnesses. The Holy Spirit is many things. He's our helper. He does so much for us. I can't even go into all that the Holy Spirit does for us. He's our comforter. He's our friend Holy Spirit. You're more to us than I could ever say. But the first emphasis is Jesus said, "You're going to be strengthened with power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you".
Beloved, some of us, all of us need more power. And some of you are desperately weak. So weak. Oh gosh. God has not given us the spirit of timidity or fear, but of love and of power and of a sound mind. God continually said, "Be not afraid, but be courageous and strong in the might of my power". Beloved, we should walk in power. Not our own power, not the power of the flesh, not pushing it with our natural abilities. I'm talking about the power that comes from the Holy Spirit filling us. I'm talking about the power of the Spirit.
There's a beautiful song. The name of the song is simply called Ruach. The Hebrew word Ruach means breath. And the song goes like this. Ruach. Ruach. Ruach. Ruach. Ruach. Ruach. Not by might or power, but by my spirit saith the Lord. Not by might or power, but by my spirit saith the Lord. That comes right out of scripture. How do you get power? You continue to cry out to God in your weakness. Paul said that His power is perfected in our weakness.
That's why we should thank God for every trial that we go through. Because every time we're up against a challenge, every time we're in a hard spot, we can use that as an opportunity to call out to God, to cling to God in desperation. "God, help me. God, ground me. God, establish me. Father, strengthen me". And when you call out to God in utter desperation from your place of need, He will strengthen you, He will fill you with His power. His power is perfected in your weakness. Beloved ones, I want to encourage you today. You're more than you realize you are. You're more powerful than you know you are, and you carry more than you think that you do. Will you put God first in your life? When you do, He's going to reveal all this to you.