Rabbi Schneider - Get Mad
I want you to hear me today. There are certain things that when we align ourselves to certain principles in the Spirit, when we're in alignment with them, we're going to get breakthrough in our life. We're looking today into the scriptures, into the Hebrew prophets to discover some of the principles that need to be operative in our life if we're going to get breakthrough in the spirit, which is going to result in emotional breakthrough, psychological breakthrough, and breakthrough that will touch, listen to me, every area of our life. Years ago, as I've been sharing with you, the Lord spoke to me and He said to me, "From this day forward, I'm going to give you eyes to see into the Hebrew Bible and to be able to make modern-day principle application for my people today".
In other words, even though the scriptures may have been written 3,500 years ago, 2,500 years ago, God's saying, "I'm going to give you eyes to see the principles of the Spirit in the scriptures and be able to make a prophetic application for the church today". So that's what's going to be happening. We're going to be looking now into the book of 2 Samuel 5. We're going to be looking at what happened when the Philistines attacked David, how David responded, and how he got breakthrough. Now, I'm not going to have time to go back and review everything that I've covered. I really want to encourage you to get this entire series because it could really make a difference in your life if you're ready to receive it.
Now, quick, quick review. David is anointed king. As soon as he's anointed king, he's attacked by the Philistines. The principle application was: when you're anointed, when you're moving forward in the Spirit, you will face supernatural resistance. It's like the law of gravity. It's just that simple. When you're moving forward in the Spirit, when you're moving forward in the anointing, expect the devil to resist you and try to attack you. We saw that the devil attacked David multidimensionally. The enemy surrounded him.
Again, I want to encourage you, go back and get the series. Let's press on now and see what David did. David, first of all, when he realized he was under attack, he went down into the stronghold, which is in Hebrew metsudah, a place of defense, a castle. And he did something. He responded to the attack. He responded to the enemy. He wasn't passive as I talked about last week. We talked about how when you and I respond actively and aggressively to the enemy, we have the power to dispel him. But if we're passive and just say, "I'm under attack," he'll continue to beat us up. I talked on last week's broadcast and the week before that about some of the things that we can do to get active responding to the enemy and dispelling his powers.
Let's inquire there in verse 19, and see what the Lord did. Verse 19, David is in the stronghold now. He responds to the enemy by digging deep into God. He goes into the stronghold, the Hebrew word metsudah, castle, a place of defense. Then verse 19, "Then David inquired of the LORD, saying, 'Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?'" I talked last time about the fact that David was clinging to God. He didn't just rush in to attack the Philistines, but he had fear of going in himself. In other words, like Moses that said, unless you go with me, I won't go, David had enough wisdom to realize that unless God went before him, unless God was with him, he wouldn't succeed. But too many of you make all kinds of decisions in your life without first consulting God.
You go forward in making financial decisions, decisions about who to marry, decisions about who to date, decisions about what job to take, without, first of all, going into the stronghold, going into a place of sitting before God, opening your heart up to Him, praying, waiting on Him, becoming dependent on Him, and then obeying Him. Instead, what too many are doing is they're just going about life living in the flesh, making decisions on their own without adequately clinging to the Lord. You see, David was successful because he had once again, enough fear of the Lord to realize that if he didn't cling to God, he was going to be defeated. I feel the same way in my life. I guess I've been broken enough to realize that unless God is with me, I don't want to go. So a principle that we see, David clung to God. He said, "Shall I go"?
Now let's see what happens next. God says to him in verse 19, "Go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand". You see, you don't have to wonder whether you'll be victorious in life. If you cling to God, you will be victorious. God said to David, "Yes, go up. I'm going to give the enemy into your hands". The Scripture, beloved one, says the same thing to all of God's children. We're more than conquers. Greater is He that's in us than he that's in the world. Though no matter what we face in life, we'll overwhelmingly win. That even as the grave and death and the forces of darkness couldn't hold Jesus down, but rather he came back to life, ascended up through the grave, ascended through all the powers of darkness and hell, and is now seated at the right hand of God. So that same power that raised Him is at work in your life and my life, and we'll experience that when we cling to God.
You see, Paul said, "When I'm weak then I'm strong". God says, "For my power will be perfected in your weakness". In other words, when we cling to God, we receive from God. And when we receive from Him, we arise and we conquer. David then clings to God, and God empowers Him and says, "Go". Now, this is where it gets really interesting. The Lord says, "Go, I will surely give the enemy into your hand". Now listen. "So David came to Baal-perezim," listen now, "and defeated them there; and he said, 'The Lord has broken through my enemies before me like the breakthrough of waters.' Therefore, he named that place Baal-perazim," which means master of breakthrough. I want you to get this. David now breaks out into victory.
Now I'm going to go to the parallel passage here. Parallel passage. I'm going out to the book of Chronicles 14:11. In the book of 1 Chronicles 14, we have the parallel account in the book of Chronicles of what we're reading about now in the book of Samuel. But we have an additional detail here in 1 Chronicles 14:11. Again, it's the same exact account that's being recorded. Listen what we read in the book of 1 Chronicles 14:11. "So they came up to Baal-perazim," listen now, "and David defeated them there; and David said, 'God has broken through my enemies,' Hear me now, 'by my hand.'" Get this. "David said, 'God has broken through my enemies by my hand,' David said". Speaking of his own hand, "like the breakthrough of waters". What's the point children of God? The point is this. That God didn't just defeat the Philistines without David's involvement. But David said, "God has broken through my enemies and defeated them by my hand".
You see, too many of God's children are just waiting for God to defeat their enemies. But God isn't going to defeat your enemies apart from you. He's going to defeat your enemies largely beloved ones, through you. You see, we have to get aggressive. We have to go on the attack. David attacked the enemy. God said, "Go up and attack them". Then David attacked them, listen, in his flesh. When I mean in his flesh, I'm talking about he was in his body. I'm not talking about the spiritual difference between the flesh and the spirit. I'm talking about clothed in humanity, David physically went up against the enemy, and God gave him victory. And David said, "God has broken through my enemies," listen now, "by my hand". You got to do something. You got to take authority. Listen, you got to get mad in order to get glad. The devil is not going to go away until, you, my friend, make him go away. David defeated his enemies by his own hand. want to tell you a story that hopefully will help you understand where I'm coming from with this.
As I've shared in times past, I was a very committed athlete growing up. I wrestled all through school and got a small scholarship to college, as I've said before. But I learned a lesson in my time of wrestling. Let me tell you what I learned that applies to what we're sharing right now in principle. You see, first of all, I thought God was going to make me state champ because I thought that I worked harder than anybody else. In other words, I always had a very simple faith in God. I didn't believe in Jesus back then. I didn't know Jesus. But I believed in God. It was a very simple faith. Just a true innocent faith. And I said, "God, I'm working harder than anybody else to be state champ". And I thought, since I'm working harder than anybody else, I said, "Lord, I deserve to be the best. I deserve to be state champ because I work harder than anybody else".
That was my logical, naive way of thinking. I was just expecting that God was going to make me state champ because I had worked harder than anybody else. But yet, what I found was that I wasn't winning as much as I should be winning. And then the story continues. Wrestling consists of three two-minute periods. In other words, a wrestling match in high school when I was wrestling was six minutes long. And the six minutes consisted of three, two minute periods. From the time I was a freshman in high school in ninth grade all the way through I was a senior in high school, 12th grade, I can only remember one time being behind at the end of the first round. In other words, every single time I would go out there wrestling for the first two minutes. And at the end of the two minutes, because they always take a break between each period, at the end of that first period, at the end of two minutes, listen, I was always ahead. I could only remember once in four years that I wasn't ahead at the end of the first round.
But looking back on it, let me tell you what happened. I realized that after I got ahead after the first round, rather than wrestling aggressively like we're talking about today, David went in with his own hand against his enemies, once I got ahead after the end of the first round, I started wrestling passively and defensively, psychologically thinking now I'm ahead, I just got to hang on to my lead. So rather than wrestling to win any more aggressively, I was now wrestling defensively just trying to hang on to the lead that I had. And even though I was ahead, every single time with one exception at the end of the first round, I was only winning about 50% of my matches.
So one day I have a wrestling match. Now the kid that I was wrestling I had already wrestled many times before, because this kid, his school used to come up to my school. I graduated from a school in Cleveland, Ohio called Orange High School. So we in Orange High School used to scrimmage other wrestling teams from other schools. And what would happen would be that the bus from the other wrestling team would drive their wrestlers down to our school, Orange High School or we would drive down to their school, and we would just wrestle each other not in a real match where there was a referee, but just to train during the week. So I was wrestling this kid that used to come down to Orange High School to scrimmage with us, to practice with us from a school called University School. And the kid that I would wrestle from University School, his name was Charlie, and he literally was no competition for me at all. I had wrestled him many times.
And I want you to know, when I say this, too, I'm really just being very genuine. He felt to me like a wet noodle. I mean, I could throw him around. I could manhandle him. It was no contest. I mean, I literally just manhandled this kid. He was no contest for me every single time that I practiced with him, that we scrimmaged with him. But then the day came that we had a real match against the school and I had a real match against Charlie with referees, and the crowd, and everything else. So what happens? The match starts. I go out, I take Charlie down. I put him on the ground. I'm destroying him. At the end of the first period, I'm ahead significantly. Then what did I do? I started thinking to myself, "You know what? I'm ahead now. So now just hang on to your lead so you don't lose". What ended up happening? I lost to Charlie. And when that happened, I got so disgusted with my attitude that I was wrestling like this. I thought, "How in the world did you lose to him. You're so much better than him". And I realized what I was doing.
So what happened was the next night I had another wrestling match against a very high caliber wrestler. But this time, I was so mad at myself, and so mad at the thoughts that it stopped me from winning that I went out and I beat this very high caliber wrestler. But here's what happened. That day became a breakthrough for me. When I got mad at the attitude that caused me to lose to Charlie, I realized what I was doing. Finally, I had a revelation. I got mad at that attitude. I broke it off. I said, "I'm never going to do that again. From now on, I'm never going to fear losing. I'm going to go out to win, not just the first period, but the second period and the third period". And from that day on, from the day I got mad and broke off that fear and began to wrestle aggressively for the entire six minutes, from that day on, I got a breakthrough and began to win consistently.
You see, the point is, beloved, that you need to get mad. You need to get mad at these thoughts that are defeating you. You need to get mad at the self-defeating thoughts. You need to get mad at the devil. Because for some of you until you get mad, you're not going to get glad. And when you get strong, then you'll be happy. You see, David said, "I broke through my enemy by my hand". He said the Lord was the one that gave him the victory, but David said, "It was by my hand". You see, David was out there with his sword. David was out there fighting. David was out there fully engaged. And it took that in order for him to get a breakthrough. Some of you are too weak to get mad. God wants to strengthen you so you can get mad. Jesus hates the work of the devil and he hates the works of the devil that are coming against you. And He wants to strengthen you so that you, like David, can break through your enemy by your hand. Again, God's not going to do it apart from you. So often He's going to do it beloved one, listen to me through you.
A principle of breakthrough is to realize that until we get mad at the devil, until we get mad at those thoughts that are keeping us bound, until we get mad at the thoughts that are keeping us trapped in mediocrity, until we reject those thoughts that are causing us to feel far away from God, until we get mad at where we are, we're never going to go forward to where we can be. Until we get mad at the strongholds that are stopping us from breakthrough, we're not going to get the breakthrough. You're going to get breakthrough by your hand as the Lord strengthens you to tear down the enemy. Beloved, there is no other way. There is no other way. Don't be trapped in religion. Don't be trapped in doing the pretty things that the church makes us think we need to do and to be in the way to act. No, the devil keeps Christians weak by trapping them. The devil makes people think that if you get mad you're not a Christian.
Isn't that the lie that the devil uses against God's people? How can you call yourself a Christian when you lost your temper? Let me ask you this question. Do you think Jesus ever lost His temper? Do you think Jesus was mad when He turned over the table of the money changers? Let me tell you. He was mad. And when He comes back from heaven on His white horse with eyes of flame of fire, He is mad at sin. He's mad at the devil. He's mad at the works of darkness. And He's going to destroy them all. They'll all be destroyed in God's wrath. Beloved ones, there's a time to get mad.
The scripture continues on there that David called that place where he defeated the Philistines, where he defeated the enemy, the master of breakthrough. Baal-perezim means the master of breakthrough. It's interesting that after David got the breakthrough, it wasn't the end of the story. Because you know what? It says in verse 22, "Now the Philistines came up once again". You see, even after David defeated them, the Philistines still came again to try to attack David. The point is, beloved, we're going to be in a battle our entire lives. You will have victory. You can get the victory. But don't think you're ever going to be on the beach for the rest of your life. We're going to be fighting our whole life.
Paul got to the very end of his life. And what did he say? He said, "Now I have fought the fight. Now I have run the race". So Paul got to the very end of his life still fighting the fight of faith. You're a winner. You're a victor. You're going to keep getting victory. You're going to keep ascending. You're going to go from one level to the other level. But you got to be engaged. You got to be mad at the powers of Satan that are out to steal and kill and destroy. Beloved, I just want to pray for you right now for impartation. That you would be strengthened to get mad at the demonic thoughts that are keeping you bound. That you'll tear down every stronghold that's blinding you and preventing you from greater entrance into the fullness that God has for you.