Rabbi Schneider - Does God Feel Far Away?

The Prayer Life of Jesus. What an awesome window into eternity when we examine the prayer life of Jesus. I don't even like that word examine because we're not looking at it through a test tube like, or examining some type of scientific phenomenon. But it is the essence of, of, of eternal life because eternal life, Jesus said, is knowing God and Jesus whom now is sent. So when we look into the prayer life of Jesus, we see what eternal life looks like because the, the relationship that is superseding all relationships in the universes of all creations is the relationship between the Father and the Son. I mean, I just almost get chills just thinking about this. The relationship between the Father and the Son is preeminent above all other realities.

And we often think about eternal life and eternal life is, is knowing God. In other words a lot of times people think of eternal life, we're gonna see this in a moment because Jesus actually refers to it in John, 17, in what we call the high priestly prayer; many times when people think of eternal life they think of eternity as a measure of time meaning that eternity is a dimension that is beyond time. But not only is eternity a dimension that is beyond the confines of time, but eternity is a quality. And the primary quality of eternity or eternal life, beloved, is relationship. And it is the relationship between the Father and the Son. We're gonna look at that in the coming weeks as we look at John, 17, as we're looking together into the prayer life of Jesus. But before we get there, I'm going today, beloved one, into the Book of John, chapter 11, verse number 41-42. This has always been, my friends, one of my favorite Scriptures in the entire Word of God.

I remember all the way going back to Bible school, back in the early 1980's, this was one of my favorite Scriptures. Let's hear the Word of Jesus, John, chapter 11, verse 41-42. Hear the Word of God: So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised his eyes and said, get it now, Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me, but because of the people standing around, it said it, that they might believe that You sent Me. Let's listen to this again. I want you to get this. Jesus is about to raise Lazarus from the dead. He lifts his eyes to heaven and he opens his mouth, and out loud he speaks. He prays so everybody around him can hear it and witness this great miracle. And here's what he says. He says: Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. He says it real loud so everyone can hear it. And then he says, I knew that You always hear Me, but because of the people standing around I said it, that they might believe that You sent Me.

In other words, Jesus is saying, Father God, I'm praying out loud, Jesus said, so that all the people around me know that you hear me. Father, he said, I thank you that you hear me. And then he said, I know you always hear me but I'm just saying this, Father, so that they know you hear me. You see, there's something about praying out loud. It's a, we should pray out loud. There's something about speaking God's Word out of our mouth out loud. This is a dynamic, vital spiritual principle that I am going to be teaching on on a separate topic. In other words, the principle of believing in our heart and then speaking it out loud; this is a dynamic, powerful, foundational concept when it comes to walking with God. But I'm talking about the other side of that today.

Today I'm talking about, get it beloved, knowing that God hears the subtlest whisper of your heart, and having the assurance to know that he hears you. You see, what Jesus is whispering here, he's speaking out loud, I'm only saying whispering because this is what Jesus is revealing, is that God knows and hears the smallest whisper of his heart. Jesus says, Father, I'm praying out loud so the people around would know you hear me. Father God, I know you always hear me. I didn't have to pray it out loud because I already know you hear me. I know you hear me, Father God, in every thought of my mind; that you hear me. I know, Father, that you hear every inspiration in my heart. Father, I know that you hear me if I speak to you from my heart or my mind; that you hear me when I don't say it out loud. But I'm saying it out loud, Father, so that these around would know that you do hear me.

I want you to understand that God is closer to you than your own breath; that he hears you always; that you don't have to scream for him to hear you; that you don't have to shout to get his attention; that God hears the subtlest movement of your heart; that God hears, beloved one, the faintest heartbeat of your heart; that he hears every thought in your mind; that he's closer to you than you are to yourself. God wants us to gain this assurance that he's not a God that is far away, you know, that we can only reach by shouting to him. But he's closer to us than our own breath. You see, Paul tells us that the word of faith is near. It's in our heart and it's in our mouth; that the word of faith, Paul says, is not so far away that it's in heaven that we can't reach it. Neither Paul says is God so far away that he's at the bottom of the sea that we can't find him. But Paul said, know the Word of God is in your heart and it's in your mouth. God wants us to know how intimately acquainted with us he is; that he is in every breath that we take. He's in every heartbeat that our heart ticks. God wants us to realize that he's inside us, beloved, that he's in us; that we're in God and that God's in us, those of us that belong to him. The Bible says in him we live and move and have our being.

Father God, right now I just speak Shalom over your people; Father, that you would cause us to become so calm, and so confident, and so rest assured by your presence, knowing Father, that your hand is both on us and in us. Father God, help us to become so secure in your nearness to us. Father, help us to understand that wherever we go, there you are.

Beloved, I want to just say this to you, many times when we think about the future and we have fear, it's because the thought of the future that we're imagining is a future without God in it. In other words, you imagine a circumstance going forward that produces anxiety, but if you think about it, that paradigm, that thought that you're having about the future that's causing you anxiety, as you think about it, God's not in that future. But I want you to know, wherever you go, God will be there; that God will always be in your future. When you experience fear because of a thought projection about the future, it's because you don't have God with you in that thought projection. But you need to hear, beloved, when I say to you that God will be with you where you go in the future. Wherever you go, there he will be; that Jesus knew that God was closer to him and there's not even words to adequately express this because Jesus said I'm in the Father, the Father's in me.

And Father God, we're praying right now that that same revelation would be in us. Jesus, help us to understand how near to us, how close to us you are. It's beyond words. It's beyond description, Jesus, that you're closer to us than our own heartbeat; that nothing separates us from your love nor can anything separate us from your love; that you told us neither height, nor depth, things past, things present or things to come can ever separate us from the love of God. So Jesus, I right now speak a washing and a wave of your love over us all right now, over your people and over myself, that we would recognize, Jesus, how secure we are in you; that we're in you, that you're in us; that you said, Jesus, I am always with you even to the end.

So Jesus, right now, I just ask you to put your hand by your Spirit on our hearts and breathe, speak Lord Jesus, security into your people, into us all, Jesus, that we would recognize how present you are; that Jesus, we would be like you when you prayed, Father, I'm praying out loud for the people around me so that they'll know that you hear me. But Father, you said, Jesus, I know you always hear me. Jesus, help us to know how much you love us, how much you care, how much you respond to us, that you hear of the faintest whisper of our heart and that when you hear it, you hear it through ears of love and a heart of love, and that you're responding to us in your love all the days of our life. Jesus, I pray that you would project within to us now the revelation of understanding that you have about the nearness of Father God and how close we are, his children, to his heart today and to your heart as well, Lord Jesus. We thank you, our King, Amen, and Amen, and Amen, and Amen. Praise the name of the Lord.

Well let's continue on as I look at the next prayer of Jesus as we're examining the prayer life of Jesus, because Jesus said once again, if my words dwell in you, Jesus said, you'll ask what you will in prayer and it will be done for you. So as we receive, beloved, the revelation that comes to us through the words contained in Jesus's prayer life, it brings us into greater intimacy and into greater experience with God, and we're gonna find ourself living a more supernatural and dynamic life in him; Amen, in Jesus's name. Nearness with God is what we're after. John, chapter 12, verse number 27-28, Jesus is speaking of his fore coming death, and Jesus says in verse number 27 there, he says: Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, Jesus said, Father, save Me from this hour? But for this purpose I came into the world, for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Thy name. Then a voice out of heaven came saying: I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.

Well first of all I love the dynamic response that we see here, that when Jesus prays the Father answers. Jesus speaks to the Father, listen, about how he feels. He bares his soul to the Father. Then Jesus recommits his purpose and identity, and walk, and obedience to the Father. And then the Father responds back to him and says, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. I love this dynamic here. Jesus speaks to the Father, get it now Church, and the Father speaks back to him. I want to read it again. I want you just to catch the spiritual dynamo in this. Jesus says: Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, Father, save Me from this hour? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name. Get it now Church: Then a voice came out of heaven. I heard the Father say, get it now, kid. The Father's calling you his kid. Then a voice came out of heaven: I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. Jesus speaks and the Father answers. Father, Jesus says, and the Father answers, I have both glorified it, my Son, and will glorify it again.

Did you know that when you open your heart to the Father, the Father is speaking back to you? Now we don't always have ears to hear and we can't always perceive because his ways are higher than our ways, even as the heavens are higher than the earth. And God's perspective of time is so much different than ours. And so sometimes because we're so used to a fixed response from people, you know, in our circumstances, if we don't hear anything immediately or if we don't see God move immediately, we, we think that he's not responding or he doesn't hear. But I want you to understand that when you and I are crying out to God, he's responding to us. Jesus once again said, what shall I say, Father God, for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came out of heaven: I have glorified it, and will glorify it again. Did you know that when you pray to God in earnestness, in faith, in a way that's pleasing to him that he speaks back to you? He's gonna respond to you. He is gonna speak back to you. Prayer is not one dimensional where we just talk to God as some type of therapy to get our feelings out and to get it off our chest. No, prayer is living and it's dynamic, and the Father is responding to his kids.

Now let's look at a couple things I want you to see. Notice in verse number 27, Jesus said, Now My soul has become troubled. You know what I see here, beloved ones? I see that Jesus talks to the Father about his feelings. Jesus is sharing his life with the Father. You may say, you know what, the Lord knows everything about you, so why should I have to tell him about myself. In other words, if the Lord knows that Jesus's heart is troubled, why does Jesus tell him that his heart's troubled? Well you know what, beloved? God wants you to share your life with him. Father wants you to talk to him. Whether he knows objectively or not, he wants you to experience him subjectively. And we experience him subjectively when we talk to him and we tell him about our life even though he already knows.

There is a difference between the Father knowing objectively versus inviting him in to experience our life with us. You see, we know that the Father already knows everything about us. But there's a difference between him knowing everything about us and on the other hand inviting him into our life by talking to him as a friend about what's going on in our life so that he can participate in our life with us. You see, Jesus wants to dwell inside us. Jesus said, I stand at the door and knock. If any man will open and invite me in, I'm gonna dine with him and he with me. And this happens, beloved, get this now Church, primarily, hear me now, by talking to God. And what we see here is Jesus talking to God. It says, Father, now my soul has become troubled. Listen God wants him to talk to him about... He wants us to talk to him about our day. He wants us to tell him what we're thankful for. He wants us to talk to him about what frustrates us. He wants us to talk to him about our plans. He wants us to ask him for wisdom and counsel. God wants us to tell him everything.

You may have a best friend that you tell them everything. You know what? God wants you to tell him first. He wants you to talk to him more than you talk to your best friend. God wants you to share your life with him. And that's what we see going on here, beloved. We see an example of how Jesus shared his life with God. Father, now My soul, he said, has become troubled. Talk to God. Kids, talk to God. Share your life with God. I want to encourage you. I just hear the Father calling you his kids and I hear the Father saying, talk to me kids. Talk to me, my kids. And he's speaking to you as individual children of his. He wants you to talk to him as a daddy. He wants you to know he's your poppa. He's your daddy. I see him right now. You're on his knee. You're on his knee. He wants you to talk to him. He wants you to know that your life is an open book before him. He loves you. And he wants you to talk to him about all your needs, but also about all the things that you experience, beloved, even on a daily basis, and again, as I said, your plans, your frustrations.

You don't have to be afraid to tell God anything. Tell him your frustrations. Tell him your angers. Tell him all about yourself. He knows already. And what's gonna happen is you're gonna build intimacy with him, and he's gonna be pleased, beloved, that you open your heart to him. And if there's something wrong about an attitude that you have, the way to get cleansed of it and healed of it is to talk to him about it. And as you do, he's gonna come deeper into your heart. He's gonna gain greater possession of you, and your life's gonna continue to be transformed. And notice here once again, beloved one, that, that we see the Father responding to Jesus instantly here. Jesus said, Father God, the glory, he said glorify, you glorify my name before. The Father says, I'm gonna glorify it again. Instantly the Father calls him his beloved and speaks back to him. I want you to know, the Father is answering you. The Father is speaking to you. It may not seem like it because it doesn't always happen in an instant, but remember, a thousand days with us is only like a, a thousand years with us, beloved ones, is only like a day to the Lord.

And so I remember I heard an example one time. I think it might have been by a man by the name of Chuck Missles. He talked about an example of somebody being way up high in an air balloon watching a parade take place in a county. And all the parade is going by on the street. First the trumpet blowers, and then the float for this business, and then the mayor comes by, and then the kids' floats come by, and then there's another thing that happens. And many of the people that are watching the parade are sitting in a long chair along the street corner there and they're watching each part of the processional. And it takes maybe 20 minutes for the whole processional to go by. And they're experiencing it all just one bit at a time. But on the other hand, the person on an air balloon that's watching it from way up in the sky in outer space, this man doesn't, or woman, doesn't see the parade each individual phase of it.

But as they look down on it from way up in the sky from the balloon, the hot air balloon, they see the whole parade at once. And the point that I'm making is God's perspective of time is different than our perspective of time. Again, the person at the edge of the street, they're seeing it one by one by one. But the person on the balloon sees the whole thing at once. And so I want to say to you, God is answering your heart. God hears your heart, beloved ones, and he's responding to you. Talk to him. Have faith that he loves you. I want you to be encouraged today. I hear the Father saying to you, child, my son, my daughter, be encouraged. I love you. Keep talking to me. Keep praying to me. Keep opening your heart to me. I want you to know, I love you and I'm moving on your behalf. And it means so much to me when you share your life with me and open up your heart to me.