Rabbi Schneider - Renew Your Walk with God
And I'm gonna focus today, I'm gonna begin focusing on this concept where Paul speaks about having good works. Now if you have missed the earlier episode, episodes I should say, in this series, I really want to encourage you, you can purchase them through the information at the edge of the webcast, get them online. Really powerful life transforming truth. Hear the Word of God. "For this reason also," Paul prays, "Since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please him in all respects: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God".
Now I left off on last episode with this phrase, "That we would bear fruit," Paul says, "In every good work". I want you to consider this with me, everything that you do, everything that you say and even everything that you think influences the spiritual atmosphere around you. I've had people walk in my home and just simply say, "Wow it feels happy in here". Not that I'm always happy at all. I'm not, that was a general sense that they had in my home, because of all that had been thought there, all that had been said there, and all the deeds that had been done there. I'm trying to help you understand that when the scripture speaks here of us bearing fruit in every good work, it's not just the you know going to the homeless shelter you know to work in the you know the food pantry once a month.
That's an awesome thing to do, but sometimes when we think of good works we're very limited and confining and understanding what good works are. The truth is, is that we're living beings. We're alive. We're spiritual beings in a spiritual universe. We're clothed in humanity. We live in the animal kingdom. In other words, all the creatures on the earth. But we are first of all spirit and spirit has domination over the flesh and over the environment that is in the flesh around it. So when the Lord speaks here of us having spiritual wisdom and understanding, it involves the knowledge that everything that we think and everything that we say is either influencing the environment around us for good or bad. Let me just give you an example that's only this deep. It keeps getting deeper, but let me give you an example that's about this deep.
Years ago when my little daughter was growing up, I realized that any time that I criticized somebody, or anytime that I spoke negatively about a situation it put my daughter in a bad mood. Now understand that I wasn't speaking negatively to my daughter. I wasn't putting down my daughter, but if I was negative in my speech with what I was talking about with Cynthia or whatever it was, just maybe talking about a situation, or being critical about a situation, or seeing the glass half empty rather than half full; Whenever I spoke negative I saw that it influenced my little daughter's attitude and her psyche and her level of happiness.
We have to take responsibility. This is what it means to be filled with all spiritual wisdom and understanding in the knowledge of God's will, which was what Paul prayed for in the proceeding verse, in verse number 9. We have to take responsibility for our lives, recognizing that if we're gonna bear good works in every respect, that means we have to be concentrating on thinking positive thoughts about people, about, about, you know our circumstances, because this comes with the knowledge of God's will when we're really trusting God, when we really believe God is so with us. He's closer to us then our own breath. The fact that you can taste food, that's all from God. The fact that you're breathing, that's all from God. The fact that your cells are alive, is because God is sustaining your cells. The Bible says that God is sustaining the entire universe by His power.
So when you understand that God is real, that His atmosphere surrounds you, that because of Yeshua He lives in you, that He's sustaining your body, that He is aware of your thought before you even think it. When you believe that and then when you trust that He loves you and that He's taking care of you and that He's got the best purpose planned for your life possible, when your really believe that then you're gonna speak positive and your thoughts are gonna be positive. And this is why Paul says, "I pray that you would be filled with all spiritual wisdom and understanding in the knowledge of God's will".
So putting all this together then, if we really believe what I just stated about HaShem, about God; That He's alive, that He loves us, that He's real, that He's closer to us then we think, in fact He's closer to us then our own breath. Okay, when we really believe that and believe that He loves us, that we're safe in Him, that He's taking care of us, that everything that happens to us in our life, even when it's clothed in darkness; HaShem, which is a Hebrew word to say God, is using it to bring about good in us and through us.
When we believe that and then we begin to monitor our thoughts and our attitudes and our words, what we're gonna do beloved, is bring our self more aligned and aligned into the Holy Spirit, into the Ruach Hakodesh and we're gonna walk in a way, listen now, that pleases HaShem, that pleases the God and Father of King Jesus, listen, in all respects. So God bless you today. I know that God is touching some of us and that hearing His words, hearing His words is changing us. The process sometimes, it's a slow process. We have to be patient. Patient is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. When we're subjective to God's Word like this, when we're subjective to teaching like this and we're open, I'm telling you if you're receiving it, you're being changed by it.
Now let's continue. He says, "That you would bear fruit in every good work, increasing," he said, "In the knowledge of God". Let me ask you this question. Have you ever got burned out with where you're at in God? Meaning that you know the things that used to excite you no longer excite you, that where you're at it seems stale. You need something new from God. I know that I've been there. I sometimes get a revelation from God and I work with that revelation, I'm excited about that revelation, I put that revelation into practice, I pray about that revelation and it fuels me for a number of months, a number of years even. But eventually what will happen is, I can no longer live on yesterday's manna. Like the children of Israel in the wilderness, I needed fresh manna for today.
And you know what? God is alive and living and His purpose is to increase in your life. His purpose is not just to leave you with yesterday's manna, but to give you something fresh. Paul says, "That you would be increasing," at the end of verse 10, "In the knowledge of God". I've got good news for you today and I want to pray for you. If you're feeling stale with where you're at in the Lord right now, if everything just kind of seems like been there done that, if everything kind of is getting boring for you, if it's no longer exciting for you, I've got good news for you. HaShem is gonna bless you and give you something new and restore the joy of your salvation.
So Father I pray right now for every soul Father that's under the sound of Your word coming forth through my voice right now, that believes and has faith. Father I ask You right now, Abba God just to deposit something new in their life. I pray Father that You'll begin to put the wheels into place that will bring into their life fresh revelation, a new thing, that the joy of their salvation would be restored to them. Father we believe that we're increasing in the knowledge of God, that we're increasing in knowing who You are. And Father I pray and ask Daddy that You would impart a new thing into every single one of Your beloved children that is under the sound of my voice and listening and receiving into Your word right now. Father deposit that new thing for the Holy Spirit into them that will give them the power and the motivation they need to keep pursuing you, even with all their heart, strength, soul and mind.
Paul says, "That you will be strengthened," in verse 11, "With all power according to his glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience joyously". So as we're thinking now, coming off of this concept of there's always more, it can get more exciting than it is for you. If you're bored right now, I'm going back to where I left off to spring forward again. If you're bored right now I want you to know you don't have to stay bored. If you surrender yourself to God, God is gonna bring you into a new realm of His reality. He's gonna bring you into a new dimension of experiencing His eternal life. But you've got to be willing to let go of where you're at.
If you're so concerned with what people think about you that you won't step out of the crowd, because you don't have the boldness to step out from the crowd to be unique, to be different, to follow God like Abraham did where ever He led; If you don't have the conviction and the boldness to do that you're gonna stay stuck, stay stagnant and stay bored and you won't experience the fresh thing. But if you're willing to follow God and follow the Holy Spirit's leading in your life, which is sometimes subtle. You have to be paying attention. But if you're willing to let go and follow Him even though it may lead you out of where you're at, you need to let go of where you're at and you need to trust Him, because He's gonna bring you in to something fresh, something new and something better.
Let me say it again, Paul said, "I want you to increase in your knowledge of God". And we come to places in our life, I'm just recapping, we often times come to places in our life where we get bored, things get stale, things get dry, they become has been. You know what that's okay, they're seasons and when that happens that means you need something new. But if you're gonna enter in beloved one, to the new thing, it means you've got to let go and come out of the old thing. Israel couldn't have entered the land of, of the Promised Land unless they let go of the old thing. They had to let go of the old thing before they could enter into the new thing. Here's the point, you and I all have to have an experience like Abraham. Remember God came to Abraham and said, "Abraham I want you to leave where you're at and follow me". And Abraham was willing to leave what he was comfortable with. He was willing to leave that which made him secure in the natural, because he trusted HaShem, he trusted God to lead him in beloved, to something that was better.
And so many of you are not experiencing something better, because you won't let go of where you're at, you won't let go of your comforts and you're too concerned with being different. You're too afraid of standing out. You're too afraid of what people will think of you, so God can't do anything for you, because you're holding on to where you are. So if you hold on to where you are how can you come out of that place into a new thing? You've got to trust HaShem, you've got to trust the Lord and let go and then follow Him where He leads you. And even though it's scary, there's a reward on the other side. This is the way beloved, of destiny. This is the way of eternal life. It's an adventure in God. It's a journey in the spirit and each of us must take our own journey.
And in some respects we have to go alone. But if we're willing to trust God, if we're willing to be like David that said, "Even though I walk through the valley of a shadow of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me". If you're willing to trust God in areas that you haven't trusted Him with before it feels fearful, it seems like darkness, you're afraid. But if you'll persist and trust Him, believing He's with you, believing He loves you, believing He's leading you, believing He's gonna bring you into something good; If you'll follow Him and let go and let go of some of the relationships you need to let go of and follow Him into the new thing you're gonna enter more and more beloved ones, into the realm of eternal life and you're gonna get to where God wants you to go. And in order for this to happen you know what? God's gonna strengthen you to do it.
So Paul prays in the 11th verse, "That you would be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might". His Spirit is living, it's active, it's real, and we can truly have divine satisfaction and be strengthened by the Holy Spirit. In fact Paul in this same verse in verse number 11, he uses that word joy. He prays that we would be, "Strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience joyously". How does he tie in this being strengthened by the Spirit to this concept of joyously, which is the last word in this 11th verse. Because beloved when we're strengthened by the Spirit we get break through and when we get break through we have joy.