Rabbi Schneider - What Is God Looking For?
Shalom Aleichem, welcome today to Discovering the Jewish Jesus. It's a special episode, part number 2, of a teaching I did at a pastor's conference in Kiev, Ukraine. As pastors, our ministry needs to be an overflow of our own relationship with God. And so I ministered out of the Song of Songs, concerning our love relationship with Yeshua. I felt it was a powerful anointing that was released and I'm believing that today, beloved, you're gonna be blessed too and be brought into a deeper relationship with Hashem.
How many of you went through a time in your life when you first came to know the Lord, that all kinds of miracles were happening in your life? You felt His presence. You were so excited. But then after a while it seemed like the miracles seemed to stop. Did anybody have that experience? When you first got saved God seemed so present to you, many miracles were happening, and then after a couple years or so He didn't feel so close anymore. It seemed like the miracles stopped happening. It seemed like He withdrew His presence. Can anybody relate to that? The same thing happened to her. Remember this is about a journey into divine love. And her journey is a type of our journey. So she was just resting in His presence. She described Him as a beautiful apple tree. She said, "Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. And in his shade I took great delight. "But all of a sudden, all of a sudden it seemed like He was gone.
So listen what happens in verse number 8 of chapter 2. She heard His voice and He said to her, "Listen! My beloved"! And let's go to verse number 10 please, chapter 2. "My beloved responded and said to me, 'Arise, my beloved, and come along". So all of a sudden she's got her head like this under the apple tree and she's resting under the shade of Yeshua. And all of a sudden she sees that He's not there anymore and she sees Him on top of a mountain. And He says to her, "Arise, my darling, and come along". In other words, those first days of your salvation when you didn't have to do anything, when you felt My presence so easily, when it seemed like so many miracles were happening. He said, "Those days are over now. I've nurtured you long enough under the apple tree. I've covered you long enough in my shade. You're strong enough now to arise, to get up, to conquer your fears, to build My kingdom, to take it by force".
And so He said to her in verse number 10, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along. 'For behold, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone". And at the end of verse 13, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along"! But you know what? She didn't want to get up from under the apple tree. She just wanted to keep on listening to the worship music. She just wanted to keep laying down on a pillow and resting in Him. And that was fine for a season, but the season shifted and now it's time to conquer. But you know what? She was a lot like you and I. She didn't want to get up from under the apple tree. She was afraid to go up the mountain. She was afraid to do what He was asking her to do.
Listen to what she said in verse number 17, "Until the cool of the day when the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bether". You know what she was saying there? She was saying, "Yeshua don't bother me with that". She said, "Turn and be like a gazelle. I don't want to hear about that. Go away". You know a lot of times we'll let the Lord speak to us about some things, but we don't want to hear Him speak to us about other things. That's what was happening here. He was calling her to conquer something and she was saying, "Until the cool of the day when I'm feeling better. Until my doubts and fears are gone, when the shadows flee away". She said, "Go away. Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bether".
Bether is the Hebrew word for separation. I wonder man and women of God tonight, if there's something in your life that Yeshua has been speaking to you about, if there's something that He's been calling you to conquer, but you've been like the Shulamite bride and you've said, "I'm not ready to obey You in that". Let me tell you what happens. When the Lord specifically highlights something in our life, calling us to repent in that area, if we deliberately refuse to obey Him it will break our fellowship with Him. That's why she said, "Go like a young stag on the mountains of Bether," which is the Hebrew word for separation. Just one thing in your life the Holy Spirit's been convicting you of. If you refuse to obey it will cause a break in your fellowship with the Creator and you'll lose a sense of His presence.
So look what happened next. Remember this is a journey into divine love. We all go through this. She told Him to go away, She told Him to go away, don't talk to me about that. He's calling her to come along and come up the mountain, but she's saying no. It caused separation to take place. Look what happens next in chapter 3, verse 1. She says, "On my bed night after night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him but did not find him". The manifest presence of the Holy Spirit departed from her. She said, "Night after night I sought him, but could not find him". This went on for a season. It caused her tremendous pain, until eventually Yeshua saw that the pain was great enough, that she had learned her lesson not to say no to Him. And so He represented Himself to her. And when He represented Himself to her, she said, "I'll never let that happen again".
She realized that the pain that was caused by her disobedience was greater than the pain that would be caused by obeying Him. It was painful to do what He asked her to do, but it was more painful to disobey and to lose fellowship. And so when Jesus saw that she had learned her lesson, He represented Himself to her. And she says in verse number 4, "When I found him whom my soul loves; I held on to him and would not let him go". And she said, "And I brought him into my mother's house, and into he room of her who conceived me". So she's saying, "When He came back to me, I took a hold of Him and would not let Him go. And I brought Him into my mother's house, even into the room where I was born". Meaning she brought Him into the most intimate places in her life. She's totally sold out now. And once this happens, Jesus begins to affirm her in His love in an even greater way. He says, "How beautiful you are, my darling," chapter 4, verse 1.
And this continues on and this love relationship just keeps on growing. He keeps on becoming more and more real to her. And He keeps teaching her more and more lessons. In verse number 7, He says to her, "You are altogether beautiful, my darling, and there is no blemish in you". Our goal should be that we become so sanctified that we become like Enoch. You know the Bible says about Enoch, that before the Lord took him, God confirmed about him that he was a man that was totally sold out to God. No division in him, no double mindedness, sanctified spirit, soul, mind, and body. Jesus said to her, "You are altogether beautiful". He didn't just say she was beautiful. He said, "You are altogether beautiful, my darling. And there is no blemish in you".
Now listen to this. Here's what I want you to take away, when we choose to put Him first, when we choose to love Him, it moves His heart. We have to understand what I shared earlier, that God has voluntarily put Himself in a position where He places Himself under us in such a way that He can be moved by us. Think about it. The Creator of the world puts Himself in a posture where either we can grieve Him and make Him weep, or we can fill Him up with exceeding joy by choosing to love Him. We're called His bride. Doesn't scripture say that we're the bride of Yeshua? Doesn't the bride have the ability to move her husband? Can't the bride either wound a husband by betraying him or bring him great pleasure by loving him and honoring him? So who tonight is ready to repent and say, "You know what Yeshua, the truth is that I've made my ministry more important than you. My ministry is my project. The truth is that this motivated me more than loving You. I'm more motivated by my ministry than I am to know You". Jesus said on the last day, "Many will say to Him, 'Lord we did many miracles in Your name. We cast out demons in Your name.' And Yeshua will say, 'I never knew you'".
You may not be a pastor, but let me ask you this. Is there something in your life that you're putting above your desire to know God? Sometimes people get caught up in their work, whatever kind of work it is, they become workaholics. Some people put their family before God. The question is, is there a block? Is there something in your life that's a greater god to you than Yeshua is? He won't be second best. In order for our hearts to be open to receive Him, we have to make Him Lord in our hearts. The Bible says, "Cultivate Christ Jesus in your heart as Lord". I think it's a process of coming deeper and deeper under the authority of King Jesus. Father I just pray that You'll make this work relevant and cutting edge for every single person that's under the sound of my voice right now. Baruch Hashem.