Rabbi Schneider - Engage In God's Plan
I want to begin today by continuing to lay a foundation. I'm going to the Gospel of John. I'll be reading from chapter 1, verse number 5 through 10. Hear the Word of God. John says this: The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. There was the Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
I want to go back to verse number 5. Many translations read that the light shines in the darkness, get this now, but the darkness could not, get it, overpower it, extinguished it or comprehend it; that there's a light that shines in the world, in our world. There's a light here. And the light that's in the world cannot be comprehended by the natural man. It cannot be extinguished by the natural man. And it cannot be put out by demonic powers of darkness. There is a supernatural reality that's here. And John says that he came to announce this reality that was embodied in the man, Christ Jesus.
Now as John continues on this discourse, he finishes this with verse number 10. Listen what he says in verse number 10. He said, he, speaking of Jesus, who was the Light, get this now, He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, get this now, the world was made through Him, and then John says, and the world did not know Him. So Jesus came into the world and the world that he created didn't comprehend him. It didn't know him. It didn't recognize him. The point that I'm making, beloved ones, is that there is reality that's here and it's now and most people don't see it. They don't recognize it. They don't comprehend it. And yet it's real, it's here, it's supernatural, it's for you and it's now.
This reality that I'm proclaiming to, it's a parallel reality. It's parallel because it exists here and now, right above the natural world. It exists apart from and outside your circumstances. It has nothing to do with your economic background. It doesn't matter what family you were born into. It doesn't matter what type of job you're in. It doesn't depend on how beautiful or how not beautiful you are physically. It's an alternative reality, a parallel reality, and you can access it by Jesus. We've been talking over the last several weeks about how you can access this parallel reality, how you can enter into the dimension Jesus described as eternal life.
We talked in the previous broadcasts about number one, the need for desiring it intensely. Unless you intently and intensely desire this other reality, you'll never enter into it because desire will propel you into it. Without desire you'll have no power to enter in. I've been talking about Jacob that took ahold of God and said I'm not gonna let go unless you bless me. His desire is what brought him the blessing. That's why Jesus said the kingdom of God belongs to those that hunger and thirst after it. The psalmist prayed, as the soul longs for water, as the deer pants for water, so my soul pants for you, O God. And then we talked about the necessity of faith because without faith that you can really have what God says you can have, you won't have desire for.
You just think it's a pretty fairy tale. You'll think it's a poetic pleasantry, some type of poetic platitude. But you know what? What I'm declaring to you, it's not some poetry for a greeting card. It's real and it can be yours. It can be mine. Jesus said if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. If you have faith that you can be free, if you have faith that you can achieve the victory that Jesus promised you, the Bible says that we're more than conquerors through him that loved us, that we're overcoming the world, that we have overcome the world, that greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world, that we've been raised with him and are seated with him in the heavenly places.
If you can believe that you can really enter into this realm of victory that Jesus promised, then you're gonna have desire to enter in, and then you're gonna do the things necessary to get into it, to enter into it; because God doesn't just drop it on us, but he calls us to it, and we then warfare to enter into it. That's why the Bible says strive to enter into his rest. Even as God gave Israel the Promised Land, he gave it to him as a blessing, he gave it to them as their inheritance, and yet they had to drive out the Amorites, the Hittites, the Jebusites and all the other "ites" to enter in. So God did it with their cooperation, not when they were just passively waiting for something to happen.
Too many of you are just passively waiting for something to happen in your life. You're just passively waiting for God to show up. You're just passively waiting for a miracle to happen. But I want you to know that you have to be in cooperation with God to fully access what he has for you. It's by faith. You see faith is an action word. We believe in our heart but then we speak it forth the word of faith. You see, we have to cooperate with God. We have to exercise faith. That's what the whole Book of James is about. James said, I will show you by faith, James said, by my works. And so we have to be cooperating with God by faith to enter in.
So I want to just challenge anybody right now that you've just been passive. You're wondering why you're feeling melancholy. You're wondering why nothing's happening. You're wondering why God hasn't shown up. But Jesus said, draw near to God and he'll draw near to you. Ask and you'll receive. Knock and the door will be open. Seek and you shall find. You see, we have to cooperate with God. We have to be engaged with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is an engine within us. We press in to take possession. You see the woman that was healed in the Gospels that had the hemorrhage of blood coming from her, the healing didn't just fall upon her while she was passively sitting on a rock somewhere. But she said, if I can just touch him, I'll be healed.
And that woman, beloved ones, get this now because it's a picture of the faith that we need to have to access the blessing, to access the victory to enter into this parallel reality, this world of faith and victory that I'm declaring today. This woman, beloved, she said if I could just touch him I'll be healed. And get it now, she pressed through the crowd. She pressed through everybody that was in her way. She pressed in. She pressed through. They told her to shut up, but she kept pressing in. She didn't let anything stop her. She said, I'm gonna touch him. Nothing's gonna deny me. And she pressed through the hindrance. She pressed through the resistance. And when she touched him, she was healed.
Jesus turned around. He said, who touched me, Jesus said, and we're gonna look at this in a little bit. Jesus said, who touched me, for I felt the power go out from me. You see, Jesus didn't even know who got healed. He just knew that someone touched her, touched him rather. And you know what Jesus said? He looked at the woman, he said, listen, he said, woman your faith, get this now, he said to her, listen, he said, your faith, he said, your faith has saved you. And so we talked about desire and then we talked about faith. That in order to enter into this parallel world, this world that Jesus called eternal life in the kingdom of God, we have to exercise faith.
We can't just be sitting around waiting for a miracle, just lounging on the couch watching secular television, and then wonder why we don't feel anything, wonder why nothing's happening. No, we need to believe because we believe that it's real and that we can have it, and then we desire. We then press in and things start happening. The kingdom of God starts moving in our life and the Holy Spirit begins to engage us, and he becomes a living, moving being within us. As we are engaged with him, we begin to sense and experience, beloved, the full power of the Holy Spirit moving and operating in our life.
And so we've been talking about these in the weeks past, desire, and then we need faith. Faith comes when we believe we can have what God said we can have, which then fuels desire. And then when faith and desire begin to work together, something comes to the surface. There's a point that arises, a focal point, that we call in Hebrew kavanah. And we become very intentional. Kavanah means being intentional, to have intent. When we believe we can have what God says we can have, and we, as a result, desire it, all of a sudden kavanah intent surfaces and we begin to have intentfulness about what we're doing with our live. We began to talk about how to be intentional last week.
I encourage you again, get the entire series. And to be intentional, we first of all want to focus on, on, on the Word of God. And I shared that. And then we want to focus, beloved, on what the Holy Spirit is intuitively just communicating to us. You know, those that are seeking Jesus, I want you to hear me for a second, if you truly are seeking Jesus, I want you to hear me. God is always speaking to you. If you are truly seeking Jesus, if you are really calling out to him, if you are really passionately pursuing him, I want you to hear me, God is always speaking back to you. It may not be audibly, but there's always an internal intuition, a witness of the Holy Spirit on your heart that is coming to you.
As soon as you begin to sense it slowly, but more and more you begin to sense what God's saying to you. And to enter into the kingdom, into this parallel reality, we need to be very intentional about being obedient, get this now church, we need to be very intentional about being obedient to what the Holy Spirit is communicating to us. And he's constantly communicating to us and he's constantly enforcing, or he's constantly putting upon our heart and our mind new dimensions of truth and of the kingdom's reality. Jesus said, when you pray, pray in this way.
He said, pray, give me this day our daily bread. Our Father that art in heaven, right? Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us, get this church, give us this day our, get it now, daily bread. This is physical and spiritual, meaning that we always need to be being fed by something new in the spirit every day because yesterday's experience with God isn't enough for today, right? We need something fresh with God today. If we're gonna stay excited, if we're gonna stay passionate, if we're gonna remain joyful, we're gonna need to be encountering newness of life in God today.
And so when we're really seeking God, Jesus is continuing to minister us every day. And as he does, he ministers to us about different things in our life that he's wanting us to apply ourselves in as he has, as he's discipling us. Did you know that the word disciple means to discipline? In other words, we're disciples when we discipline ourselves to follow the path of Jesus. And so we're talking about kavanah being intentional. We need to be intentional about what the Holy Spirit is communicating to us, listen now, every day and in every season. And there's different seasons in our life where the Holy Spirit is applying different truth in our life.
In other words, I shared on last week's broadcast that for some of us the Lord has really been enforcing on us that he wants us to bridle our mouth to make sure that nothing unwholesome comes out of our mouth, but only that which blesses. In other words, we don't speak any complaining. We don't speak any whining. We don't speak any judgment. We don't say anything bad about anybody or anything that isn't necessary to discuss. We only speak that, the Bible says, that gives edification to the hearer. And the Bible says if we can control our tongue, we can control the direction of our whole life.
Perhaps God has been speaking to you, some of you, about being very intentional about your mouth. Sometimes the Lord may be speaking to us about applying positive confession. In other words, our faith level will never rise above our confession. See the Bible says in the Book of Amos chapter number 3, verse 3, get this now: How can two walk together unless they be in agreement? And if two can't walk together unless they're in agreement, how can you and I walk with God as Abraham walked with God, as David walked with God, as Enoch walked with God, as Jesus walked with God; how can we walk with God unless we're in agreement with him? How can two walk together, in the Book of Amos, unless they're in agreement?
So in order for us to be in agreement with God, listen, we have to be saying what God is saying. We can't be saying something different than what God's saying if we're going to be walking in agreement with God. If we're not walking in agreement with God, we can't walk with God. And if we're not walking with God, we're not gonna forcefully enter in to this alternate parallel reality of victory that I'm describing to you today. And so how do we talk what God talks? How do we agree with God by saying what God's saying? We agree, beloved ones, with his Word. We don't confess lack and complain about what we don't have. But instead we say, my God shall supply all of my needs in Christ Jesus. We don't confess want. We say, thank you, Jesus, that rivers of living water are flowing from my innermost being. We don't' confess weakness, because the Bible says be strong in the might of the Lord. We don't confess defeat, because the Bible says I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me.
You see, if we're going to walk in agreement with God and enter into this parallel reality that's a reality of strength and victory, we've got to be in agreement with God and be confessing what his Word says, not something different. Because if we say we believe God and then we begin to confess something different, than what his Word says, we cancel our faith. And so maybe the Lord then has been speaking to some of you about this. I know he speaks to me about this and has been speaking to me about this. And so I apply it to my life. Listen, I'm very, get it now, intentional about it.
The third principle that needs to be operating in our life to enter into this parallel reality, into the dominion of King Jesus, is this aspect of kavanah, which is the Hebrew word for being intentional. You see, another area that I want to encourage you to think about being intentional about has to do just with your, it's kind of a mystical thing. But you see, when Jesus was touched by the woman with the hemorrhage, he literally felt the power go out from him.
Let me read for you for a second, illustrate this, Luke, chapter 8, verse 45. It says: And Jesus said, Who is the one who touched Me? And while they were all denying it, Peter said, Master, the people are crowding and pressing in on You. But Jesus said, someone did touch Me, for I was aware that power had gone out from Me. In other words, the disciples were saying, Lord, all kinds of people are touching you. The people are pressing in on you. But Jesus realized there was someone that touched him, that didn't just bump against him as the disciples thought because the crowd was bumping into him because it was so crowded. But Jesus realized that someone, get it, touched him with an intentfulness, that this woman had in her heart, if I just touch him I'll be healed.
And when she touched him, bam, it drew something out of him and he turned around and he said, who touched me for I felt power go out from me. And then the woman identified herself and he said, woman your faith has saved you. Notice how her intention, and Jesus recognized her touch from all the other people around him that were touching him, because her touch was a focused, intentful touch and it drew the kingdom of God, it drew the Father, the Son and the Spirit into her life and it changed everything for her, just like it will for you, and just like it will for me.
But notice that when this woman touched him, get this now beloved one, notice when the woman touched him, he literally felt, get this, he literally felt the Spirit of God moving through his body into her. He said, I felt power leave me. That's what he said there. Who touched me, for I felt power leave me. He literally could feel, get this now, he literally could feel the presence of the Ruach HaKodesh, which is the Hebrew word for the Holy Spirit. He literally felt the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, leave his body and flow into her. Now it was still in his body, but he literally could feel the Spirit in his body.
And I want to suggest to you that some of you are in a place in your life, and it's because of your extreme sensitivity and your purity of your walk with God, some of you can literally sense to a degree the spiritual atmosphere around you. I know that I often can; that I can literally feel the Spirit of God in me and I can feel the darkness outside of me. And the darkness ceases to suppress the Spirit. So there is a focal point that I feel where I feel the Spirit in me, and I feel the focal point where the darkness outside of me is trying to suppress and press down the Spirit in me to keep God's Spirit in me from fully being expressed.
And so what I have to do is I have to warfare to be very intentful to focus on that place where I feel the world, where I feel the darkness pressing in and the Spirit of God wanting to come out. It's a very uncomfortable place. I feel, I feel the pressing and it's very uncomfortable. So what I have to do is I have to force myself to face that place and then as I face it, what I do is I drive out the darkness. I push out the darkness literally by the Spirit of God so that the Spirit of God can more fully be released from me. It's a war and I have to be very intentful and focused because again where the darkness is trying to press in where it's trying to keep the Spirit in me suppressed, the easiest thing to do is to turn from it so that I don't feel it. Because to feel it is so uncomfortable, but I focus myself very intentfully on facing it and in facing it and focusing on it, the darkness is expelled.
I want to encourage you, if you're in a state where you can experience that to take my words to heart, take this advice. Begin to get in touch with yourself. Begin to get in touch with the Holy Spirit in you, and don't run from what you're feeling. Face what you're feeling. Stand in the Spirit and drive out the darkness by facing it in the light. For some of you, I want you to be conscious of me, listen, we're talking about being intentful. Become more conscious of the spirit of peace that's in you.
See beloved one, the peace that's in you isn't even dependent on you mind. Your mind can be in turmoil, and yet even if your mind's in turmoil, you can feel peace in you. Focus on the peace in you. Be intentional about focusing on God's peace that's in you. And as you focus on his peace in you, you become more conscious of the peace and you'll begin to feel more and more peaceful. Don't forget to join me next week as this very important series continues. God bless you my friend. I love you and Shalom.