Does God want us to live in fear? There are real reasons to overcome fear – living in fear robs us from enjoying God’s presence. God wants us to stand up and throw fear off our lives and trust Him. In this episode Rabbi teaches us to break the power of fear so we can enjoy the fullness of everything He has promised.
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Welcome to Discovering the Jewish Jesus. I’m your host, Dustin Roberts, and today Rabbi Schneider shows us how to declare war on our worries. What keeps you up at night? Fear of the future, money trouble, maybe health concerns. Well, today Rabbi Schneider, he’s gonna reveal why courage isn’t just the absence of fear, it’s choosing faith in the face of it. Stop letting your imagination run wild with worst case scenarios and start wielding God’s truth as a weapon against fear. We’re learning how to be strong and courageous right here on Discovering the Jewish Jesus. And you can learn more about this ministry or rabbi at our website, discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Now here’s rabbi with today’s episode, The Fear Factor.
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Fear is one of the greatest enemies that you and I face in our life. Most of us found that when we were young children, we were afraid to die. Do you know that the fear of death is the mother of all fears and that through the fear of death, all other types of fears emerge and that Jesus came to destroy the root of all fear, the fear of death? We read in the book of Hebrews. Many of us, we consider ourselves in some degree leading lives that are set apart for the Lord. We’ve cleaned up our life on the surface, many of us. We’re not doing some of the things that we used to do as unbelievers. Giving to the Lord, we’re sharing our faith, we’re doing the things that we’re supposed to do as believers. And yet, one of the areas, beloved, that some of us have not yet cleaned up in our life is the root attitude that we carry in our hearts of fearing. Do you know that a good view of Scripture, a good review of Scripture shows us that fear is one of the most common sins that the Lord rebukes? A hundred and ten times in the Bible, the Lord commands us, do not be afraid. The reason, beloved, fearing is such a serious matter because it reflects our relationship with God. You see, when we’re fearing, what we’re actually doing is we’re magnifying the devil and we’re putting the devil on the throne rather than God on the throne. You see, God is not the author of fear. The devil is the author of fear. Now, as a slight qualification here, we do know that we’re to fear the Lord. I’m not speaking about fearing the Lord. I’m speaking about fearing what’s going to happen tomorrow. I’m speaking about fearing growing old. I’m speaking about fearing being alone. I’m speaking about fearing being in a car wreck. But right now I’m just talking about, beloved, the attitude. Fearing grieves God. Because when you and I fear, what we’re actually saying is, God, I really don’t trust you. As much as we should want to be delivered and free from fear just so that we can enjoy life more, there’s even a greater reason to overcome fear. And the reason is because it grieves God. When I fear and when you fear, it grieves God. Because God said, I’m going to be with you tomorrow. You should not fear. You should not be afraid. Jesus said, do not be afraid. But when the devil comes and he puts all types of strange and foul imaginations in our mind and we begin to believe him and begin to focus on the imaginations rather than on the truth of what the Lord has revealed in his word, we’re actually magnifying Satan with our mind above the Lord. And so fearing is a grievous sin because what we’re doing is displacing God from being on the throne of our heart and mind, and we’re putting Satan on the throne of our heart and mind. And I hate to think about Satan being able to go before God and pointing at me saying, look at him. He doesn’t really believe in you. He’s bowing down to me. His allegiance is to me because he’s trapped in fear. I want to overcome fear in my life, beloved, because I don’t want to grieve God. I don’t want to see God looking down at me, giving attention to Satan rather than him. It grieves me. It grieves God. And I hope, beloved, that it’s grieving some of you because the desire to please God is a powerful motivator that will energize us, beloved, hallelujah, to overcome fear. The bottom line is, 110 times, God commands us, do not be afraid. In Joshua 1, verse 9, our theme scripture, we’re going to read once again. The Lord says here to Joshua, by the way, Yeshua’s name comes from Joshua. It’s the same name in Hebrew. And so here we go. The Lord says, have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be dismayed. The Lord tells Joshua not to be afraid because God says, I am with you wherever you go. Wherever you are, Joshua, I’m going to put my foot on the situation. And beloved, you and I need to develop confidence in the word of God that the same word that he spoke to Joshua, the same word that he spoke to Abraham, the same word that the God of Israel spoke to Isaac and Jacob, the same word that Yeshua speaks to us, beloved. We need to believe that word is all the same word. Do not be afraid. And we need to learn, beloved, how to master fear. We need to recognize that it’s an enemy. We can’t tolerate it anymore. It’s a foul spirit. We have to declare war on fear. Jesus said in the book of Revelation that hell was for the fearful and the unbelieving. So, Father, I pray right now that many I know, there are thousands and thousands that are watching this broadcast, Lord, that are living in the foul spirit of fear. Father, we know that it grieves you, that basically Satan is laughing because he has your children fearing rather than trusting you. And he’s laughing at you, God, because we’re not trusting you. And so, Father, I repent. And Father, I also repent now on behalf of your children that are guilty of the same thing, living in the foul spirit of fear, living the life out of a strange, foul imagination of forecasting all types of dooms and doubts, rather than being confident in a God of loving kindness who has a covenant with us that will be with us even into our old age. We reject Satan. From this day forward, we reject Satan. We reject fear. Father, by your power and by your grace, we have made up our mind to stand up, encourage God in boldness and in strength, Father, warring against fear. In Yeshua’s name, amen. Now, when the Lord told Joshua to be strong and courageous and to not be afraid, he uses some particular Hebrew words there. They give us insight into what it is that the Lord means when he says, do not fear, but be strong and courageous. A few of the Hebrew words for fear are the word aratz, which means to tremble. to be terrified of. Another Hebrew word for fear is the word yare, and it means to be made afraid. So this is man’s enemy. It came from the very beginning. The root of it is Satan. The root of it is sin. It’s your enemy, and it must be mastered and defeated. The other Hebrew word is yare, to be made afraid. to be put in fear. But the Lord says, I don’t want you to run. I don’t want you to be made afraid. I don’t want you to dread. I don’t want you to have all types of vain imaginations, imagining your future to be some kind of dreaded doom. I want you, the Lord says, instead to be strong. And that word for strong is the word chazak. And it means to fortify. God wants you and I, beloved, to overcome fear. God says to you, I am on your side. I want you to win this thing. And if you’ll put your faith in me and trust in me, you’ll win this thing. I want you to harden your heart against fear. At the same time, the Lord tells us to be strong, chazak. He also tells us to be courageous. And the Hebrew word there in Joshua 1, 9. For courageous is the word amatz. And again, it carries with it the idea of being hardened, to be strengthened, to be obstinate against. God wants you and I to win against this enemy, beloved, called fear. We cannot allow it to stand in our life. It brings shame to Jesus. So, Father God, I ask you to help me today. I ask you to help your people today, Father. We must stand up and throw fear off our life. I don’t know what some of you are afraid of today. I know for me, the thing that I had to do battle against, and I thank God for the victory because he’s given me a real peace. But I used to fear terribly for my children. I would fear when they’d be on the road in the automobile that they were going to get in an accident. It would torment me. I was overwhelmed by it. But hallelujah, I learned, beloved, that I need to break this thing off, that it brings dishonor to God, that it’s a lie. I needed to learn how to trust God and hallelujah, by the grace of God that’s in Yeshua, I did it and so can you. Whatever you’re afraid of today, you can break the power of that thing off your life and trust in God. Let me tell you, Jesus said that fearing doesn’t add anything to your life. All it does is take away. All fearing does, beloved, is rob us of being able to abide in the Lord and to enjoy his presence in the day at hand. Fearing doesn’t add anything, beloved. It just takes away your ability to walk with God in the present. That’s why Jesus said, don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Tomorrow will have enough evil of its own and God’s going to be there too. And you’ll be able to crush tomorrow’s evil under your feet, just like you’re doing today. We must make up our minds, beloved. You may not drink, you may not smoke, but if you’re living in fear, it’s a tremendous sin. I believe it’s worse than drinking, it’s worse than smoking, and all the other superficial things that Christians oftentimes place so much emphasis on. It’s comparable to what Yeshua said to the Pharisees. He said, you tithe dill, mint, and cumin. but you neglect the weightier matters of the law, love, mercy, and peace. He said, these you should have done without neglecting the others. Yeah, we shouldn’t do the things that are wrong in the outer realm of life, but even more weighty, beloved, is this aspect of fearing.
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You’re listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus, and Rabbi will be right back. But first, we have a special book announcement. Let’s check it out.
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Most have accepted the lie that fear is something we have to live with. But a clarion call from Scripture remains. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. In Rabbi K.A. Schneider’s book, Rabbi shares through riveting experience how he struggled with and experienced victory over fear. In Do Not Be Afraid, you’ll learn to resist the devil’s traps, walk in Jesus’ supernatural freedom, and fearlessly step into your destiny. Do not be afraid by Messianic Rabbi K.A. Schneider. Call 800-777-7835 or visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com to order now.
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We are truly so excited for you to get this life-changing book. So pick up a copy today. And now here is Rabbi with the rest of today’s message.
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And so as we continue on today, I want to just help you and I make up our minds that fear cannot be tolerated. You know, Israel… is a prophetic symbol of our life today in the spirit. Israel is a shadow of the church. Now, I want to make very clear, I don’t believe that the church has replaced Israel. But I’m saying that what God did for Israel in the material, natural realm, it’s a shadow of what God is doing for us today in the spiritual realm. And God made a promise to Israel, right, to go into the promised land and take it. The Lord said it was a land of milk and honey. It was a land of abundance. But when the Israelites got to the border of the promised land and they sent the spies in, in Numbers chapter 13 and 14, what happened? The spies let what they saw with their eyes produce fear in their heart. Most of us know the story. The spies came back and they reported the children of Israel. There’s huge people in there. They’re giants. We’re not going to be able to take the land. Joshua and Caleb, we know, were the only ones that had confidence. They said, surely the Lord will give us success and we’ll be able to take the land. But the fear of the rest of the spies spread through the camp, and as a result of that, beloved, the children of Israel ended up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years longer. Fear keeps you and I out of our destiny. Fear keeps you and I out of experiencing the abundant presence of God in our life. Even as fear kept Israel out of their promised land, it’s fear, beloved, that will keep you and I out of entering deeper into Jesus and experiencing his presence and the fruit, beloved, of his spirit in our lives. We must conquer it. We read in the book of Numbers, chapter 14, these words. Joshua and Caleb said, “‘Do not rebel.'” against the Lord. And do not fear, for the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.” Notice how Joshua and Caleb spoke of fear as being in rebellion. And we need to understand this. It is rebellion because we’re choosing to not believe God and to not believe His Word, but rather we’re believing instead the devil’s foul imaginations. We need to not trust what we see with our eyes. Because the world is passing away and all that’s in it. We need to not be deceived by what we hear with our ears. We need to trust, beloved, in the Word of God. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen us that we might seize God’s Word and stop letting anything else in, whether it comes from our eyes, our ears, or any of our other sensory gates. How many of you right now, you’re listening to me today, and you know that this is one of your biggest problems in life, that you are constantly fearing, Some of you are like hypochondriacs. You sit in front of the internet researching your health symptoms all the time. And pretty soon you got this and you got this and you got this. I mean, the list goes on and on. We go from the abnormal fears, fears that make no sense in reality, people that can’t even leave their home because they’re feeling so terrified. God loves you. He wants to deliver you from that. But in reality, there’s not even any reason for most of you not to leave your home. It’s just some inordinate fear. to the fears, beloved, that we have that really seem to represent dangerous situations. Fears, for example, if you live in a really bad neighborhood where there’s a lot of crime, maybe you’re afraid of getting robbed or you’re afraid of getting assaulted. And, you know, if you’re getting older in life and you see many of your friends getting sick, whether it’s a heart attack or cancer or a stroke, I mean, these are real dangers that you could understand in the natural why someone would fear these things. So whether you’re fearing something that doesn’t make any sense in reality or whether you’re fearing things that are realistic, in either case, beloved, fear is not an option. See, when Jesus was in the boat with his disciples and the rains came and the winds blew and it looked like the boat was going to sink, it was filling up with water, that was a realistic problem to be afraid. And yet Yeshua stood up when they awoke him and he rebuked them. And he said, why were you afraid? You have little faith. Yeshua said that the reason for their fearing, even though it was a dangerous situation, was their lack of faith. Jesus didn’t counsel with them. He didn’t have all kinds of empathy. He rebuked them and he said, where’s your faith? Fear is foul and it’s of the devil. So it doesn’t matter if you’re in a situation and you’re saying, yeah, but the economy’s bad. Yeah, but other people that I know are losing their job. Yeah, but my neighbor down the street, he just lost his house because he couldn’t pay his bills. I mean, things that are real dangers. God’s word to you, beloved, is the same. Do not fear. Trust in me. I’m your God. I will be with you. I will provide for you. I’m going to move. Believe and you’ll see the glory of God. We must, beloved, recognize that fear is of the devil itself. And as children of God, we must not let it stand. Let’s look at the patriarch’s life as it speaks, beloved, of how they walk with God free from fear. Again, often as we’re putting emphasis on the superficial, this man gambles. And, you know, we go into all these superficial things. Let me tell you, fearing is a way bigger problem. And it speaks to each one of us. The Lord said to Abraham these words in the book of Genesis. Hear the word of God. The Lord said to Abraham, Genesis 15, 1. Fear not Abraham. Actually, fear not Abram. His name hadn’t been changed yet. Fear not Abram. I am thy shield.” That’s an awesome word, beloved. And the Bible tells us in the book of Galatians that you and I have received the blessing of Abraham. Why was Abraham not to be afraid? First of all, God tells him not to be afraid, and then God gives him the encouragement that’s needed not to be afraid. And what was the encouragement that was needed? God said, I am thy shield. God was in front of Abraham, protecting him. You and I both know what a shield is. It protects us from the darts and the arrows and the bullets of the enemy. And God is saying to you and I, don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid of economic collapse. Don’t be afraid of your country being taken over by a foreign enemy. Don’t be afraid of growing old. Don’t be afraid of getting sick. Don’t be afraid of suffering. Don’t be afraid of evil. Don’t be afraid of witnessing. Don’t be afraid of man. Whatever it is that you’re afraid of, God said, do not be afraid. I am my shield. And we need to take a hold of that and say, yes, oh God, you are my shield. I will not be afraid. We need to get into agreement with the word of God if we want the spirit of God, beloved, to flow through us. Beloved, we must take this whole truth. We must swallow it. We cannot tolerate fear. Fear not, Abram. I am thy shield. The Lord continues with Isaac in Genesis 26, 24. The Lord says to Isaac, do not fear for I am with you. Do not fear, Isaac, for I am with you. with you. And the Lord is with you and I today as well. We want this Word to keep getting into us. I encourage you to get the entire series, but we want to receive your Word, Lord. We want to eat your Word. We want it to roll through us. Jesus said, Yeshua said, if my words abide in you, ask what you will and it will be given to you. Jesus said, if my words abide in you, you’ll bear much fruit. We want this word of courage. Jesus said, my peace I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Beloved, we must conquer fear. The greatest gift, beloved, that you could ever give somebody is to lead them to Yeshua, to Jesus. In the book of Romans, chapter 15, verse 25 through 27, Paul shared how the Macedonian church, which were Gentiles, gave him a love gift to help him reach the saints in Jerusalem. You are doing the same thing today conceptually. You’re allowing me to help people in Jerusalem by broadcasting the gospel, beloved, into all of Israel. I want you to know, Every dollar that you give of your money with the right heart towards the spreading of the gospel, it will be rewarded at Jesus’ return. I believe that as things get more difficult on planet Earth, more Jewish people will receive the Lord. Will you help me reach them?
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Amen. And to join with us in sharing Jesus’s love with Jewish people all over the world, especially in Israel right now, you can donate a gift of any amount by visiting us online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Or you can also support this ministry today by calling us. Our number is 800-777-7835. And just as the Macedonian believers supported the Apostle Paul’s ministry to Jerusalem, your support, it helps us broadcast the gospel through Israel and the Middle East, touching hearts and changing lives. We’re in 99% of every single home that has a television with cable in Israel. We’re also on internet pay TV in Israel. We’re reaching into Israel with the gospel, and it’s because of your support that it’s happening. And I want you to know when you give to support this ministry, you’ll receive our latest newsletter, and it’ll connect you with the powerful testimonies of people all around the world discovering Jesus as their Messiah. So once again, if you’d like to be a part of reaching people for Jesus, especially Jewish people with the gospel, then call us at 800-777-7835 or visit us online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. And I also wanna let you know today, we have a special free resource package available for you that explores the Aaronic blessing. This gift includes Rabbi’s comprehensive PDF guide and also an audio MP3 that reveals how this special blessing connects to God’s covenant promises for Israel and for you, His people today. To get yours, visit myfreegift.com forward slash peace. Now let’s turn things back over to Rabbi Schneider as he closes today’s message titled The Fear Factor with God’s special blessing.
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Rabbi. In the book of Numbers, chapter six, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people. And the Lord said, when you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them. Receive the impartations of the Lord’s blessings.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance. And the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace. God bless you and shalom.
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I’m your host, Dustin Roberts, and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Be sure to join us next time when Rabbi Schneider shows us why fear is a training ground. That’s Wednesday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
