Rabbi Schneider - Who Is God to Me?

When I'm calling Father Daddy today, do you know the Scripture tells us, in the book of Romans, that we have received the Spirit of God. And through the Spirit of adoption, of sonship that's we've received we call out to God now, Abba Father. And Abba's a Hebrew word, and it means Daddy. And so God has become our Daddy and our Father. John said behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the children of God. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. I want to take a step back for a second. And I want to analyze the state that many of us are in today. I believe that the church has made Jesus the end, rather than the way to the end. Let me explain. First of all, Jesus is God. God exists in three persons. In the persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We call this the Godhead. We honor and worship Jesus, just like we do the Father.

But here's the point that I'm making beloved one. Many of us have made Jesus the end, rather than the way to the end. In other words, if you listen to many of our worship songs, they're all about Jesus and the Father's never mentioned. Many believers, they're always talking about Jesus. But they never mention the Father. But, I want you to understand that Jesus is not the end, but Jesus is the way to the end. Jesus said, in John 14:6 he said, I am the way, the truth and the life. And no one comes to the Father but, Jesus said, through me. Jesus said that he was the way. But that the Father is the end. In other words, Jesus said he was the way to the Father. But many of us have made the way the destination. But, Jesus, who is the way, is not the destination. The destination, beloved, is into Daddy's love.

You see, Jesus came because Father God sent him for you. So at the end of the day, the origin of all this, is Father. So you and I need to not only look to Jesus, but we need to look, beloved ones, beyond Jesus to the destination, who is God, who has become our Father. You see, Jesus revealed, we read in John 17, the name of the Father to us. In other words, before Jesus came, the Jewish people knew God as YHWH. Now, they had not actually been pronouncing the sacred name of God for some time. Because they were so fearful of pagans learning God's sacred name, that they pronounce a breathy Yahweh, that they weren't actually pronouncing his name. They were simply calling him Adoni or Lord. But, you see, they knew God's name. God had revealed his name to the children of Israel through Moses.

So in John Chapter 17, when Jesus six times spoke about the name, that he revealed the name of the Father, he revealed the name of God. Jesus when he said, I revealed your name to them. He said I've manifested your name to them. The name that Jesus was revealing wasn't God's sacred name, YHWH. 'Cause they had already known that name for 1400 years. But the name of God, beloved one, that Jesus was revealing, was the name Father. You see this is why they sought to stone Jesus. This is why they wanted to kill Jesus. Because Jesus was calling God his own Father. But this is the reason beloved one, that Jesus came. To bring you and I into a relationship with God, whereby God, get this now, becomes our Daddy, and our Father. That we've been given the spirit of the Son. And that in Jesus Daddy has become our Father.

So let me back up again, we're going to be taking several weeks, we're going to be reviewing these concepts. I'm gonna keep coming at them through slightly different ways. But let me just take a step back for a second. This is so critical. Because knowing Father is the answer to everything. Knowing that you have a Daddy. And that your Daddy is God. It will solve all your problems. You see when Jesus said, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. I believe the most fundamental truth that we can know, that will set us free, is knowing who God is. Knowing that he's our Father, that he's our Daddy. Knowing how much our Daddy loves us. Knowing that all the promises of God are yes and amen to us, that they will be fulfilled, because Father God loves us. And because he loves us, he'll fulfill the promises. And knowing who we are as his sons and daughters, that we've got his DNA in us. Because when we know who our Father is, we'll know who we are.

So I believe, beloved one, that the answer to knowing who you are, to knowing your identity and your destiny, is to know God as Father. I'm going to keep going over this. I'm going to bring Scriptures in week after week. I'm telling you, this revelation, beloved one, listen to me, it is going to change your life. If you can get this, I'm telling you, it will absolutely change your spiritual DNA. And it will bring you into freedom. - I want to begin by talking about many Christians have made Jesus the destination. But, Jesus is not the destination, Jesus is the way to the destination. In the book of Romans, Chapter 11, verse 36, we read this. From him, speaking of the Father, it all comes from the Father. And so Romans 11:36 says "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen".

So Father God is the destination. Everything proceeds from Father God, and everything is going back to Father God. Now, in the bosom of Father God is the Son. Jesus, who is the incarnation of God's only begotten Son, is forever in the bosom of the Father. He always has been, he always is, and he always will be. And so in the Gospel of John, Chapter One. Verse 18 we read this. "No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God" speaking of the son, "who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him". So, through the Father comes all things. And the Son is in the bosom of the Father. Now the Scripture that every believer knows by heart is John 3:16. That God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son. That whosoever believes in him, should not perish but have everlasting life.

You see, the reason that Jesus died on the cross is because the Father sent him to die on the cross, because the Father loves you. So you see behind Jesus's coming to the cross is the love of your Daddy that sent him. In other words, the reason that Daddy sent Jesus is because he loved you. Daddy, Father God, your Father, wanted to bring you to himself. And so he sent his Son to die for your sin so that he could bring you to himself. And so you see, Jesus is not the destination, Jesus is the way to the destination. This is why Yeshua said in John 14:6 I am the way. Notice that Jesus identified himself as what? The way. Jesus didn't say he was the destination. He said he was the way. So listen again, to this very well-known Scripture. John 14:6, Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life". And then he said, no one comes to, get it now, the Father but through me. So Jesus said he was the way to the destination. That the destination he taught, get it now beloved one, was the Father.

So I want to ask you a question. Have you made your whole Christian focus all about Jesus, without recognizing that at the end of the day, it's first about the Father? Jesus said the Father was greater than him. It's because of the Father's love that Jesus came. It's because of the Father's love that Jesus was sent. And it's because Jesus came that you can now, listen now, Jesus said, come to the Father. I am the way, Jesus said, the truth and the life. No one comes, get it now, to the Father but through me. So let me ask you a question. This will rewire many of you spiritually. It will make all the difference in the world. 'Cause you don't just need a Savior. You don't just need a Lord. Jesus is Savior and Lord. But you don't just need a Savior and a Lord. Get it now, you need a Daddy. You need a Father.

And so I want to ask you a question. Are all the worship songs that you're listening to about Jesus, and yet you're singing and worshiping the Father very little? You've made Jesus the all in all, without recognizing that behind Jesus is the Father. And so I want to ask you a question. When you pray, do you always talk to Jesus but don't talk to the Father? You see, the predominant model of prayer that Jesus showed us was that we pray to the Father. He said, what, when you pray, pray in this way. Our Father who are in heaven. But let me ask you a question. When you pray are you almost always just praying to Jesus? Without recognizing that Jesus taught us that our prayers should predominantly be directed to the Father in his name? You see when you and I get a hold of this revelation, it's going to rewire the way we're walking. We're going to realize that our focus should be on the Father.

Yes, Jesus, don't misunderstand what I'm saying. Jesus is God. He's our Savior. But Jesus showed us the model that it's about, listen now, first the Father in him. That Jesus is the way, listen, for us to the Father. I want everybody to hear what I'm saying. I'm not minimizing Jesus. Jesus is God. I'm not minimizing the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. I believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. But many of us, listen now, are living by what I'm calling a two-pronged faith, rather than a three-pronged faith. It's like the Bible tells us that three together cannot be broken. Okay, that in the ancient model of the temple, we had the outer court. Then we had the holy place and the holy of holies. We see also this three-fold cord of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And we see this three-fold revelation of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

But you see many of us are living a Christian life that is not three-fold, but two-fold. We have a relationship with Jesus. We've invited the Holy Spirit into our life. And our Christian focus has been on Jesus and the Holy Spirit. But for many of us, we've left off the most important element, which is the Father. It's all because of the Father that Jesus came. And it's all because of the Father's love and plan that the Holy Spirit, beloved, has been given. And so, I am encouraging you to reprogram your heart and your mind and the way that you're walking to understand that you need a relationship, beloved one, as do I, with God as our Father and as our Daddy. This is what Jesus came to bring us into. Into a relationship with Father God. That we would know him as Daddy.

Now, even as Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but through me. Teaching us, once again, that no one can come to the Father but through the Son. That no one can come to know God as Daddy but through Jesus. Conversely, get this now, no one can come to Jesus, unless the Father draws them. So let me say it again. No one can come to the Father but through the Son. No one can come to the Father but through Jesus. But conversely, no one can come to the Son, who's the way to the Father, unless the Father draws that one to the Son. So Jesus taught this, in John Chapter Six, as Jesus began to teach deep mystery. That he was the bread of life that came down out of heaven. That unless we would eat his flesh and drink his blood, we'd have no life in ourself. As he began to teach these deep truths and mysteries, the people couldn't hear it. They couldn't receive it. They said, who is this? We know his mom and dad. We know Joseph and Mary. Now he's telling us he came down from heaven? He's telling us we have to eat his flesh and drink his blood? And they were disgusted.

Listen to what Jesus said to them, as they rejected his words. In John Six, verse 44, 45 and 65. Hear the words of Jesus. Jesus said, "No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day". So Jesus is saying here, no one can come to me unless the Father draws them. In other words, Jesus is saying, you know what, you can't receive the word that I'm sharing with you. You don't understand the revelation Jesus was teaching them that I'm giving you. But Jesus said don't grumble among yourselves, and put yourself in a posture where your'e judging me, because the reality as Jesus taught. That no one can come to me, unless the Father draws him. Jesus continued there in verse 45. He said, "Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me".

So, Jesus was saying I'm the way to the Father. But no one will come to me, unless the Father draws him, and Jesus further taught, everyone that hears and learns from the Father, will come to me. Finally, at the end of John Chapter Six, most people had left, only a few remained. And so in the 65th verse, Jesus looks at the few that remained, and he says, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to me unless it's been granted him from the Father". And so reviewing. No one can come to the Father but through the Son. And no one comes to the Son except beloved one, through the Father. Let's take a second here and review how all this works.

I want to go to the book of Ephesians with you. This is a marvelous theological foundation to understand what I'm teaching right now. Ephesians Chapter One, verse number three through seven. Hear the Word of God. Get this deep in your spirit. This is what Paul taught. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ". Now, let's think about this. Paul said, blessed be the God, get it now, hear it church, and Paul said, Father. Notice the emphasis is on the Father first. Every letter that Paul wrote, he began the same way. Grace to you, Paul said, in all his letters. Paul began the same way. He said, grace to you and peace from who? From God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice that Paul's first emphasis was the Father, because it all begins with the Father. But the point that I've been making to you, church, is that many of us have not emphasized in our walk with God the Father first. But we've ended it all with Jesus. That's we've made Jesus the beginning and the end. You know, it's kind of the Jesus only type of thinking. We need to understand that Jesus came to bring us to the Father. Jesus taught us how to walk with the Father, and through Jesus, who is the Son, we can do that, because we receive Jesus into our life. So we can know God as Father, even as Jesus knows God as Father. Because we received Jesus, who's in the bosom of the Father and is the Son. And in Jesus, God becomes our Father, just as he's Jesus's Father. Jesus's whole walk with God was based on his relationship with the Father. And through Jesus's atonement, we're now adopted into him, and now our whole focus is on the Father in Jesus. So let's continue on.

Ephesians One, beginning in verse number three. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ". This is such an important series. I want to encourage you beloved. Make it a point to tune in to this series, Knowing the Father, each and every week. I want to encourage you to listen to these messages. Even get this series. Listen to them again and again and again. Get this word deeply implanted in you. Listen, I promise you, I'd stake my life on this. This revelation, when you know that God is your Daddy. When you begin to relate to God as your Father. And as your Daddy.

When you get a hold, my beloved friend, of how much he loves you, church. When you know, how much Father loves you, and when I know this, it will change everything for us. We will begin to walk in such freedom. In such confidence. We will have such clarity. All our needs will be met. We'll know who we are. Because when we know who our Father is, we know who we are. And you'll begin to trust in his promises. Because you know that your Daddy loves you, and because he loves you, he's gonna fulfill every promise in his word for you. I want you to know my beloved friend, I love you today. I'm excited about bringing this revelatory word to you. And Father, right now, in Jesus name, I just release your blessing over every child of yours that's watching this broadcast right now. In Jesus name.