Rabbi Schneider — Don't Waste Your Wilderness
God bless you and Shalom, beloved one. My name's Rabbi K.A. Schneider. Welcome today to today's episode of Discovering the Jewish Jesus. We're beginning calling Don't Waste Your Wilderness.
Father God, we just ask you to come today, minister to us through your Word. Father, your Word is our path. Father, we receive your Word today in Jesus's name, Amen and Amen.
You know, the history of Israel as Father God birthed them as a nation, he led them, beloved, out of Egypt, but listen to this, through the wilderness for 40 years. Now remembering that, I want you to think about this. Jesus, Yeshua HaMashiach, who is Israel's divine head, when he began his ministry coming out of the Jordan River right after Jesus heard the Father's voice saying to him, you are my beloved Son, and in you I am well pleased.
Immediately after that, the Spirit of God wilderness, listen now, where he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, and did combat with the devil. And so we see both Israel and Yeshua Jesus who is Israel's divine head, beginning their fullness by first going through, listen to this now, a wilderness experience.
I want to say to you today, beloved one, that the pattern is no different today. Before Father God brings us in to our fullness, go through our own personal wilderness experiences. Many of you are going through a life right now. Wildernesses can take many different forms.
It can be the loss of a job. It can be the loss of a loved one. It can be so many different things that causes one to find themselves in what they are experiencing as a time of wilderness. But what I beloved one, don't waste your wilderness because there's things that Father God can do for you that he can do no except when you're in the wilderness.
We receive things from Father God when we're in the wilderness that we can't receive from him when In other words, beloved, the deepest things that we'll receive from him will be when we're in the wilderness. I'm gonna talk about this a little later, but I want you to when Israel was in the wilderness for 40 years that they saw every single day the Spirit of the Lord manifest in glory cloud by day and as a pillar of fire by night.
For 40 years they only saw God's they were in the wilderness. And it's no different for you and I. Father God feeds us with revelation knowledge and with deep spiritual impartation as we call out to him, and depend on him, and walk with him hand in hand through our own wilderness experiences. Beloved one, I want to talk to you today about principles that apply to how we can make our wilderness experience most fruitful.
Number 1, beloved one, I want when they were in the wilderness, they were there for 40 years. It wasn't just a short thing. It didn't happen in an hour. They had, listen, 40,000 meals in the wilderness. They slept in the wilderness 14,000 nights.
In other words, it took a while for God to accomplish in his people what he was accomplishing in their lives in the wilderness. I want to go with you now to the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter number 8.
Let's read about what Father God said he was doing as he brought Israel through the Israel is a prophetic shadow of the Church today. In other words, Paul said that the things Israel went through, they went through not just for their own sake, but God also brought them through the wilderness and recorded it for us, listen to this, for us, Paul said, the Church today upon whom the end of the ages has come.
In other words, was for their benefit, but Paul says it's also applicable to the Church today. And that's why it's recorded is addition to the fact that God recorded it for his first covenant people who are the Jewish people, Israel.
Let's read Deuteronomy, 8, now. I'm beginning in verse 1: All the commandments that I'm commanding you today you shall be careful to do, listen, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God swore to give to your forefathers. You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing, you, to know what was in your heart.
I'm just gonna walk beloved one, verse by verse making application for your life as I do. First of all, I want you to get a glimpse of God's ways, who he is, how he acts, and what his plan is for you and I today. Look at verse Israel? Listen what he said, verse 1: that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land.
Let's just look at this. This is so powerful and so beautiful. Some people think God is angry. They think God is stingy. They think God is sad. They think God is bitter. I mean, when they think of God they think of him mostly as sad and angry. But this is not who God is. God is full of happiness and love. Jesus, his Son, is anointed with the oil of gladness. No, God is a big, great God who loves us, listen, and wants the best for you and for I.
So listen again as we read the Word. First the Lord says that you may live. Jesus said, I have come to abundantly. Listen, Father God delights in his children, listen, being alive, being goes on to say that you may live and multiply. He wants lives that are increasing; in other words, that our spirit man is increasing in the space.
In other words, that our peace is becoming greater; that our joy is becoming fuller; that our knowing him is becoming deeper; that our sense of satisfaction is that believes in me, he said, rivers of living water shall flow from his innermost being. And he said, and you will that's within you, Jesus said, and you will, listen to this, thirst no more. So we see this same thing here.
God wants his people to live, to increase, to multiply. Listen to this, and he wants them to go in, he continues on, and possess. I'm gonna read it again: be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers. He wants you and I to take more and more of God said to Abraham, I am your exceedingly great reward.
In other words, he wants us to be blessed. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. I want you to know, child of God, you're a in store for you. God's purpose and identity is that you are a victorious one and he's gonna get you as you continue to depend on him to the top of the mountain.
You're gonna possess life and you're gonna possess it the way Jesus said you would. You're gonna possess it more abundantly but notice that before Israel could take possession of this full life that Father had for them, they first had to, listen, go through their own personal wilderness. In other words, beloved ones, we're gonna see that God was humbling them and he was testing them.
Let me read that for you. Put it all together. God has a great plan for your life, and he's got a great plan for my life. He's got a great plan for all our lives, but before he can bring us in to the fullness of our inheritance in him, he first has to strip us, and humble us, and get us totally dependent on him. He has to wean us off of relying on all other things. He has to bring us to the place where we put him first in our life. And then when he gets our heart, and our soul, and our thoughts in order, he can bring us in, beloved ones, to the abundance.