Rabbi Schneider - Find Peace
Jesus, we read in the Gospel of John chapter twenty, verse twenty one and twenty two, He breathed on His disciples and He said, "My peace, my shalom, which means wholeness, healing, completeness, My supernatural shalom I give to you". And then He said, "Receive the Ruach Hakodesh. Receive the Holy Spirit". To me I think we need to just pause and consider the fact that when Jesus breathed on His disciples, imparting to them the Holy Spirit, the word that He connected to that experience was shalom, the Hebrew word shalom.
Notice the word shalom, there's an outward motion to it. So if you for example were in a room with a you know a child that's making too much noise, you might go, "shh". It's the same way the word shalom begins. It's an outward expression. It's a breathy outward, "shh", which makes everything stop and be still. Shalom, it's a supernatural outward breath of God's Spirit that He imparts to those who are His in order to bring wholeness and peace into our lives. I want you to hear me today beloved one, God wants to strengthen us in His shalom. He is strengthening us in His peace and as He is, what is happening is clarity is coming into our thoughts and powers of darkness are being crushed under our feet. This is a real experience, this is a progressive experience and if you are pursuing Jesus it's happening to you today, right now.
Now you might not feel it. You might not be able to tell. You might say, "I don't really feel peace". But if you look back in your life a year ago, two years ago, however many years it's been, if you have been following Jesus you'll notice right now that you're a different person, that you have more wisdom, that you're living a more stable life than you were a year ago, two years ago, or however long it's been. And the reason that you are, is you've been pursuing Jesus, is because God is establishing you in His peace, in His shalom.
Once again, when we say shalom, which is translated in English peace, we're not just talking about a peace that is the absence of conflict from the outer realm, but what we're talking about is an inner shalom, an inner peace. It's a girding of the soul and once again a girding of the mind that comes from a supernatural spirit that lives within us, who is Himself peace. The Hebrew word Shalom, it once again means completeness, wholeness and no lack. And so when Jesus breathes upon us shalom, He's making us, listen now, complete. In fact the scripture says, "In Him you've been made complete". But in order to enter in to this experience of shalom, or completeness, hear me now, we need to practice abiding in His peace. Jesus said, hear me now, "Abide in Me". Even as He abides in us, we need to choose to abide in Him. Jesus said, "He that abides in Me bears much fruit".
Now how do we do this? We do this beloved ones, by being God conscious and by being, hear me now, self aware. So many people they lack God consciousness, they lack self awareness. Now, people when I use that term God consciousness, I just mean that we're focusing on the Lord. People sometimes have no self awareness. They are for example, nervous and because of their nervousness they begin to talk a mile a minute and they have no self consciousness how they're acting. People that are God conscious, they're conscious of the Holy Spirit's presence in their life and because of that they're self aware, they're aware of the fact that when they begin to be driven by anxiety or fear, so they begin to maybe move in their body language nervously, or they begin to talk out of nervousness, or they begin to laugh out of nervousness.
You know what I'm saying? A lot of times when people laugh it's not because they think it's funny, but it's because they're nervous. So what we need to do to abide in peace is we need to be conscious of our self, so that when we begin to act out of anxiety, out of fear, when we're being driven by some spirit that's not God's Spirit, that's not of peace, we need to become aware of that. We need to be aware of it and then pull our energy back to once again abide in Jesus. So for example, if I'm in a conversation and maybe for whatever reason I'm nervous or anxious about this conversation, or about this relationship. I'll then try to make sure that I'm being aware of my energy, so that if I begin to operate in a spirit of fear, or anxiety, or insecurity, or defensiveness or whatever it is I'm aware of that. And what I do then, is consciously pull myself back to abide in Jesus' shalom.
The Bible says that through practicing righteousness, listen, we train our senses, we train our spiritual senses. So part of experiencing God's presence means training our senses so that we can operate in such a manner that when we begin to go out of God's shalom, out of His peace, out of abiding in the indwelling Holy Spirit, we have enough self awareness that we pull our self back to abide in Him. In other words, I check myself. I say, "You know what? I'm not gonna say anything, because if I say something it's not gonna be coming from shalom. It's not gonna be coming from God's Spirit. It's something else that will be driving me".
So peace is so important, because as I said on last week's broadcast beloved ones, peace is the foundation of authority. Peace is the foundation of authority. Nervous energy might be intense, but it has no authority. True authority is rooted in peace and we can grow in being rooted in the spiritual authority when we learn how to abide in Jesus and to abide in Jesus we must develop the discernment that is necessary to abide in His peace.
Father I just pray right now that You would break through people's minds, break through Your beloved ones' hearts that they would be able to pick up some of what I'm trying to communicate Father, some of what You're trying to share. That Father Your people would become more self aware, so that they could abide in Your Holy Spirit, in the Spirit of Jesus that abides, hallelujah, within them.
Something that's closely related to this piece beloved, is the spiritual principle of Shabbat, of the Sabbath. Now I want you to hear me very clearly please. I'm not putting anybody under the law, none of us are under the law. Jesus set us free from the law, but let's not throw out beloved ones, the baby with the bath water. I'm not approaching the law now by the letter. I'm approaching it, listen now, by the Spirit. What's the spiritual application of for example, Shabbat or the Sabbath? Hear me. Did you know that the Sabbath came before the law was given. The Sabbath is actually a creation principle.
Now I'm not focusing on taking you know Friday night at sunset to Saturday night at sunset. I'm not talking about a specific day. I'm talking about the principle of rest, because Shabbat and rest has to do with peace. Shabbat, the Sabbath beloved one, hear me, it's not about the law first. It's a creation principle. You find it all the way in the first couple chapters of the scriptures. God created the world, listen now, in six days and then He, listen now, rested on the seventh and sanctified it. So when we speak about Shabbat, or the law, or the Sabbath, we're not talking about the law. We're talking about a creation principle.
Let me read for you from the book of Bereshit, which is the Hebrew word for Genesis, chapter two, verse one through three. "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their host. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done. And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made". And so we see that God who we know, doesn't need any rest, because He's infinite energy. But yet He chose on the seventh day to stop creating and to disconnect from creating and to rest. Now He created you and I in His own image, right? Mankind is created in His own image. So if God Himself created six days and rested one, don't you think that you and I that have been created in His image should be asking Him what does this mean for me? Is there some type of spiritual application for me?
Listen I'm not talking about putting anybody under the law. I'm looking at the law spiritually. Is there an application? Did you know that Jesus said in the book of Mark chapter two, that the Sabbath, listen now, was made for man? Let me say it again. Mark chapter two, Jesus said, "Man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made", it was a gift, it was a blessing, "it was made for man". God actually gave Shabbat, the Sabbath to man as a gift. And did you know that the first time the word holy is used in the Bible is in relationship to the Sabbath? It's all the way back in Genesis chapter two. "God created the world in six days, but on the seventh day He rested from all His work". And listen now, "Then He blessed the seventh day". And we read in English, "Sanctified it", which comes from the Hebrew word, the root word kadosh, meaning holy.
So there's something really important beloved, about taking times in our life to rest, to disconnect from doing anything, to just simply be, because you're first of all a human being, not first of all a human doing. Even though today everybody's going like this constantly, which is one of the symbols that we're living in the last days. Daniel talked about this, that in the last days people would be moving all over the place, everything would be you know constantly like this. No, we need to get back to taking times in our life, being still, taking the Shabbat, taking a rest, sitting before the Lord, listen now, to receive in order to have something to give. We're talking about experiencing God's supernatural presence and I'm suggesting that one of the practices, one of the disciplines that has to be in our life in order to walk in God's supernatural presence is that we have periods in our life of Shabbat, of rest.
I'm not talking about the law, talking about the principle. For example, one of the ways that I encourage every believer to apply this principle of Shabbat is taking time every morning, the first thing when you wake up spending time to just sit before the Lord; not doing anything, but resting before Him, receiving from Him. Don't go look at your phone. You've heard me teach this before often times in different messages. It's so important. Don't go running to your phone. Don't go turn the TV on. No, you sit before the Lord. You begin the day by taking an hour, a half hour, whatever it is, of Shabbat, of resting before the Lord of receiving from Him. God will strengthen you and make you whole beloved one through this process.
I recommend listening to spiritual music. I love the IHOP out of Kansas City, the International House of Prayer and many other types of worship music that's directly praising God. Read the scriptures. Read a devotional. Spend time every day beginning the day, listen now, by first stopping, so that you can receive, so that when you get up to actually do something you will have received an impartation. I think this is really important. In fact God told us in the book of Isaiah that when we practice this principle He'll cause us to ride on the heights of the earth. Often times you'll accomplish more by doing less. For example, we read that when the Israelites were in the wilderness God put manna on the ground for six days. And God said, "Now don't try to save that manna towards the next day. Don't accumulate a whole lot". He said, "Because if you do, what's gonna happen is it's gonna go foul".
And so if they took manna for example on Monday and they tried to keep it till Tuesday, by Tuesday it would have grown foul. You know kind of like meat that gets bad if it sits in the sun. But the Lord said on the sixth day, He said, "Gather twice as much manna, because there won't be any manna on the ground tomorrow, because tomorrow's the Sabbath and I don't want you out there working". And supernaturally God blessed that manna on the sixth day, so it lasted supernaturally through the seventh day without becoming foul.
Sometimes people think they can't stop and rest in God's peace, because they think there's too much work to do. But what I'm saying to you beloved ones, is that God will put a supernatural blessing on your life. So that if you take time to be with Him just because you love Him and you want to experience more of His presence, He's gonna bless what you've done in order that you'll accomplish more than what if you would have if you'd kept working.
Think about Mary and Martha. Remember Jesus went to their home. Martha was so excited to be able to have Him in her home and host Him. Remember she was preparing the meal. And what an awesome thing. I mean who wouldn't get excited about serving Jesus a meal? But you remember Mary, the sister of Martha, just sat at Jesus' feet listening to Him, doing nothing but just receiving. And Martha became upset, because Mary wasn't helping. And she began to complain to Jesus and Jesus said, "Listen Martha. You're busy doing so many things, but Mary has chosen the most important thing, to just sit and to receive". And Jesus said, "And it will never be taken away from her".
If you want to experience God's supernatural blessing in your life, His supernatural presence, beloved you need to practice the discipline of being still before the Lord, resting in Him and giving Him your attention. Cut off the things of the world to just spend time with God. Now I have found as we create this place in our life, as we create this space in our life, to allow God to strengthen us by sitting before Him, by focusing on Him, by cutting out the world. What I have found is, that the Lord begins to speak to us in a way that our identity becomes strengthened in Him. We look for identity in the world. We look for identity in our jobs. We look for identity in our clothes. We look for identity in our looks. We look for identity in all the material things.
But there's an identity beloved, that God wants to give you and I that's so much higher than any identity that we could receive from the world. It's the identity of knowing that He loves you and that you're his Son or His daughter. I'm gonna continue next week on this theme, but I want to simply leave you with this tidbit right now. Before Jesus actually began His ministry, before He did any miracles, He came out of the Jordan River immediately after being baptized by John the Baptist and the Spirit of God descended upon Jesus. And the Holy Spirit spoke out of heaven and said to Jesus, "You are my beloved Son and in You I am well pleased". Father God wants us to hear that in our own soul. He wants you to know that you're loved by Him and that He's pleased with you.
This is crucial in terms of walking in God's supernatural presence and experiencing His blessing. We have to know who we are in Him. This is why we need to come out of the world to spend time sitting before Him, so He can strengthen us in this identity. Beloved, God has so much more for you and I. He's infinite. He's so glorious. He's so beautiful. He's so precious. I mean He's so valuable and He wants to bring us in to experience His glory and to experience His presence. But we have to place value on Him in order for Him to do it. We have to put Him first. So as I close today I want to ask you this question, will you put God first in your life? If you will beloved He's gonna bless you. He is and He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. This is Rabbi Schneider to say I love you today. God bless you and shalom.