Rabbi Schneider - Cling to God, Your Only Lifeline
You see, when you're anointed supernaturally, you will attract the enemy. We have to understand that we're in a war. And when you start moving forward in the things of God, listen, the enemy is going to resist you. The Bible tells us not to be ignorant of the schemes of the devil. We need to understand, like Paul said, that we're in a war, and that our fight is not against flesh and blood but against forces of spiritual wickedness and darkness. The enemy, listen, he resists the move of God. And if you're a part of the move of God, you're going to encounter supernatural resistance. And when you understand this, when you encounter resistance, you'll be able to continue to move through it successfully as opposed to not understanding what's going on and giving up.
You see, Peter tells us, "Don't think it's strange when you encounter trials". This is the natural momentum of God's purposes in your life. As I said last time, even Jesus, as soon as he was announced the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world in the Gospel of John chapter 1, as soon as He was revealed, as the anointed one, what's the next thing that happened in Jesus' life? He was led into the wilderness, listen now to be tempted by the devil for 40 days and 40 nights. Hear me. When David realized that he was under attack because he was anointed, he didn't just sit there waiting for God to stop the attack, but he did something about it. The scripture says there in verse 17, that when David heard of it, when he heard the Philistines were now out to attack him, listen, when he heard of it, he went down to the stronghold.
You see, motion changes things. When David heard of it, listen now, he went down. He did something rather than staying in a passive state. He didn't just say, "Oh, Lord, I'm under attack". No. He got active. He went down to the stronghold, which comes from the Hebrew word "Metsudah," which means place of defense or castle. And then when he went down to the stronghold, he dug down deep in the word of the Lord. He encouraged himself in the Word of God. He prayed. He talked to God. He trusted God. He looked to God for a strategy. He responded to the attack of the enemy by becoming aggressive. Listen, if you're going to get breakthrough in your life, you're going to have to get aggressive. This is going to become even clear as we continue on, beloved ones, with the Word of God today. So once again, motion changes things. David went down. Motion changes emotion. In other words, if you're feeling down, what do you do? Do something.
I talked last time about how we need to always be nurturing ourselves with spiritual literature, the Word of God, and other inspired books, not at the same level as The Bible but other great writings of people that love God that are being led by His Spirit. We need to have a continual steady diet of holy writings into our life because it changes things. We don't just sit there and say, "Oh, I'm being under attack". No, we feed ourselves on the Word of God. We go down to the stronghold. We dig deep down into the word of the Lord, and into His presence in Spirit. Oftentimes, it's as simple as simply getting up going for a walk, going to work, doing something. Because motion changes emotion and it changes a spiritual atmosphere around your life. You see, it's good to know, beloved friends, listen, that we have a choice. We do have a will.
So when we're under attack, we can choose to respond to it. As we engage in responding and become proactive rather than passive, we're going to change the atmosphere. Because greater is He that's in us than he that's in the world. But we need to respond from the inside. Let's continue on. Verse 18. David went down to the stronghold. Then verse 18. "Now the Philistines came and spread themselves out in the valley of Rephaim". This is important to understand. When the Philistines or the enemy came to attack David, listen, now, they didn't just attack him in one way but they spread themselves out. They surrounded him. So the enemy was attacking David in many ways. Let's listen to that verse again. Verse 18. "Now the Philistines came" get it now, "and spread themselves out in the valley of Rephaim".
Sometimes what happens is the enemy attacks us one way and then as soon as we are able to get victory in that way...let's assume, for example, that the enemy attacks by putting a thought in our mind that begins to cause us anxiety. Then we talk to the Lord, maybe we talk to a friend, a trusted friend, or spouse. And as we look to the Lord, get into His work, talk to a friend or spouse, about that thought that Satan put into our minds that was making us anxious, we're able to get victory over it as we begin to think and talk to our friends and get into the word. But what does the devil do now? He tries to come in through another thought that might be totally unrelated. In other words, maybe first, when you're under attack, the enemy begins to put fear in your mind about your health. And then you get into God's word, you get strong, and you're able to break off that fear about your health. But now, as soon as you get victory in that area, 10, 15 minutes later, the enemy puts a thought in your mind trying to cause you to get anxiety and put you in fear about your finances.
And then maybe you get into the Word of God, think that through, pray, and you get victory over that thought, fear of your finances. Maybe then another hour later, the devil starts to put a tormenting thought in your mind about a relationship somewhere that you're disturbed about. The point that I'm making is, is that when you realize that, first, the devil is putting this thought in your mind that's causing you fear, then he puts another thought that's unrelated in your mind that starts causing mental torment, then another day goes by, he puts another thought in your mind, totally different type of thought causing anxiety in that room, realize you're under attack and the devil is doing to you through your mind, which is the primary place that he operates, he's doing to you the same thing that he did to David. He spread himself out and surrounded David.
You see, the point is that when we realize what's happening, we can stop it. If we just sit there and just oh, you know, we're anxious and we're upset and we...if we just sit there in that passive state, we're going to remain victims. But if we realize we're under attack, and then aggressively say, "This is demonic. This is an attack from the devil, I reject you, Satan, get out of my head," and we cut him off at every front, then what's going to happen is we're going to ascend into the victory and learn how to remain in a place that we're clinging to God and walking and remaining in His victory in the Spirit. once again, we're looking at keys to breakthrough. In review, the first thing that we realize is that when you're walking in the anointing, when you're making progress in God, you should expect opposition.
We see it here in the life of David, the same thing happened when Moses was born. What happened when Moses was born? Pharaoh heard that a child had been born that was going to be a deliverer. What did Pharaoh try to do? He tried to kill every firstborn Hebrew child under the age, right, of a certain age, the little ones. What happened when Jesus was born? Same thing. The king tried to eliminate the Hebrew children because he heard the Messiah was born. Same thing, beloved one, is true today. When the devil sees you're anointed, when he realizes that you're empowered in the Spirit, when he sees you moving forward in God, he is going to resist and try to stop the move of God in your life. So get ready, dig yourself in. Then we saw that oftentimes the way that the enemy tries to stop us is not singularly dimensional, but multidimensional, right? What did he do? The Philistines spread themselves out around David, looking to attack him from many different ways.
Even with Jesus, what happened? Jesus is led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for 40 days and 40 nights. First, the devil comes at Him this way, then the devil comes at Him from another angle, then the devil comes at Him from another angle. Finally, when the devil can't defeat Jesus, the Scripture tells us, then the devil left Him to look for a more opportune time. So we realize we have an enemy he's looking for ways in and he tries to get in multi-dimensionally. But I want you to hear me. There's nothing to be afraid of because greater is He that's in you, once again, than he that's in the world. Don't be ignorant of the schemes of the devil. When you understand the nature of the battle and that you're in a battle, you'll be able to walk in victory. Keys to breakthrough. Let's continue on. Verse 19, "Then David inquired of the Lord".
So once again David is anointed. Immediately the Philistines begin to launch an attack against him. When David realizes he's under attack, he goes down to the stronghold, taking from the Hebrew word metsudah, which means castle or place of defense, and he begins to call upon God there he gets in an aggressive posture of prayer and encouraging himself in the Lord clinging to God. So listen again, verse 19, "Then David inquired of the Lord". So David didn't just rush into battle against the Philistines. But instead what he did first was, listen, he grounded himself in God. Jesus said, listen, "If you abide in me, you will bear much fruit". We need to be grounded in the Lord. We need to be grounded in the spirit. We need to be grounded in the Word. We can't just try to fight the battle on our own. David went into the stronghold, listen, then he inquired of the Lord. So I want to encourage you, put Jesus as Lord of your heart. Make him Lord in your thoughts. Rely on Him. Cling to Him. Trust Him. Go to Him first before you go on the counter offense. Put yourself in the stronghold of God, His Word, and His Spirit.
"Then David inquired of the Lord saying, 'Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?'" David here, listen to me, he was clinging to God. David was clinging to God. He went down into the stronghold, listen, and then church, get it now with me, he clung, hear me, he clung to God. He wasn't in the flesh. He was clinging to God. His strength was the Lord's strength in him and through him, which I'm going to show you in a marvelous way in a moment. Years ago, I came to a crisis point in my life in my faith in Jesus. Let me tell you what happened. This is going back over 10 years ago.
In the early days of my walk in God, I was so in love with God, so in love with His Word, and I read all these incredible promises in His Word that motivated me and inspired me and gave me such hope and gave me such vision for my life. For example, some of the promises that really inspired me, beloved one, were these: Jesus said, "If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed". I thought about that total freedom. I thought about the highest moments of my life. I thought about the times in my life where I experienced the most bliss, the high times of ecstasy, the times in my life that were most fulfilling. And then I thought about Jesus, and He said, "If the Son shall make you free, you will be free indeed".
I remember years ago, when I was such a committed athlete in the sport of wrestling. I wrestled all through high school and got a small scholarship to college. And I remember, during those years, I would lay in my bed at night, and imagine myself becoming state champ. I imagined myself with the referee holding up my hand, a state champion victory, and thrills, just chills would go through my body. I mean, just it's such an incredible feeling came over me of achieving that goal, of climbing that mountain, of getting to the top of that mountain. So when Jesus said, "If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed," that's what it reminded me of. That Jesus was going to raise me up to a place of victory in the spirit where I'd have such peace, such bliss in Him.
The scripture says in the book of Ephesians that we've been raised with Christ, and seated with Him in the heavenly places. And then we read in Paul's writings that we're more than conquerors, that we overwhelmingly conquer through all these things, that we're to be lights on a hill, that when people see us, they'll say, "Wow". And they'll look up to Father God, and want to have a relationship with Him. So I saw all these promises in God's Word. These promises really motivated me. But the problem was that when I looked around at the lives of so many people that named the name of Jesus, that call themselves Christian, I didn't see any of the victory that I was looking for in my own life. In other words, they didn't seem free. They didn't seem like they were victorious. But rather, they seemed beaten down. They seemed like they were continually walking in defeat.
Now all of us struggle and we go through challenges. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about people that name the name of Jesus that were Christians but yet, it seemed like every area of their life was in defeat constantly. I got to the place where I said, "Lord, I can't go on anymore because what your Word says should be the reality of our life isn't the reality that I'm seeing in so many people, Father God, that are calling themselves your children, and calling themselves Christians. Your Word says that greater is He that's in us than he that's in the world, that we're more than conquerors". But I said, "Father, when I look around at the lives of those that say they're yours, it doesn't seem like they have any victory in their lives". I said, "Father God, if you haven't done it for them, how can I have confidence that you're going to do it for me"? I said, "I need an answer to this. I can't go on anymore without an answer".
For such a long time I just kind of disconnected myself from the reality that so many of God's people were living in defeat, because I couldn't handle facing it. But finally, I came to the place where I couldn't hide from it any longer. I said, "Lord," I said, "Father, until I have an answer as to why this is, why there's such a discrepancy between what Your Word says we should have, versus what so many Christians are walking in, until I understand why this is, I can't go on because if you're not doing it for them, I can't trust you to do it for me". So I just resolved in my spirit that I was just going to wait on God until I had an answer. It wasn't like I was giving up my faith. I didn't do that at all. But I just said, "Lord, I can't go forward any more in You until I have an answer to this dilemma".
This went on for several days. I was just waiting on God, sad in my heart, but somehow knowing that God was going to answer me. And after waiting on Him for several days, suddenly, I was driving out of a parking lot and the Holy Spirit spoke to me vividly. He said this to me. And when I first say it to you, beloved one, it's going to sound like you've heard it before. But just hear me out because I want to tell you the fullness of what happened. Again, I'm just waiting on God sad in my spirit, but expecting He would answer. So I'm in my car driving out of a parking lot from an appointment and suddenly the Holy Spirit spoke to me. It was as clear as a bell in my inner man. And He said to me, "The reason you're seeing what you're seeing is because my people are not, listen now, trusting me". But when He said the word "trusting me," it was filled with the meaning that was different than I ever considered before when I thought of the word trust.
Again, the Holy Spirit said to me, "The reason that you're seeing what you're seeing, the reason you're seeing so many Christians living in defeat is because they're not trusting me". But when he said the word "trusting me," it was filled with the Spirit of God, with the revelation of what He meant by trusting Him. And what He meant was that God's people, listen now, are not trusting Him, clinging to Him. That God's people are not clinging to Him. He said the word "trust," But when He said the word "trust," it was filled with the meaning of the word "clinging". You see, we need to cling to God. But too many people that call themselves believers, they're not clinging to God. God may be a part of their lives, but they're not clinging to Him. They're going into the world by themselves. They're relying on their own mechanisms. They're trusting in their own security blankets. But God is saying, "If you don't cling to Me, if you don't depend on Me". Like Paul said, "When I am weak," Paul said, "then I am strong".
You see, if we're not clinging to God, we're not going to have power in the world to overcome the devil. You see, David, when he realized he was under attack, he went into the stronghold, and by his behavior, we see that he was clinging to God. He didn't just go up against the enemy. He said, "Shall I go up"? He said, "Will you go with me"? Beloved ones, he was clinging to God. I want you to know, unless you and I cling to God, we're going to fall on our face. We need to stop and cling to God. We need to not just be going by the momentum of our flesh and of our soul. We need to stop, pause, and cling to God.
Again, Jesus said, if you abide in me, you'll bear much fruit. I want to ask you, is the fear of the Lord in your heart? Do you realize that without Him, you'll fail? Beloved, if we want breakthrough in our life, we need to be afraid to go on without Him. Moses said, "Unless you go with me, I will not go". Beloved one, the key for breakthrough that I want to leave with you today is this: we must cling to God.