In this enlightening episode, Rabbi Schneider lays a biblical foundation, drawing from Acts chapter 2 to demonstrate that God is a communicative, living being. As Rabbi expounds on the significance of God’s revelatory presence, listeners are encouraged to remain attuned to divine whispers that may manifest through tongues of fire, dreams, and visions. Through a personal experience, Rabbi shares how seemingly ordinary circumstances may carry profound spiritual messages, thus urging us to stay vigilant and receptive to God’s voice in our daily routines. Every section of teachings shared in this episode is designed to clarify the dynamic ways God
I just wanted to lay a biblical foundation for all of us in hopes that we’ll get more and more in tune with the fact that our God is a living, speaking God. Shalom uvracha, beloved ones. Peace and blessings to you. Baruch Hashem. Bless the name of the Lord. I wanted to share with you an experience that I recently had just to illustrate that we always need to be paying attention to what the Lord may be saying to us. Before I actually share my personal experience, I just wanted to lay a biblical foundation for all of us in hopes that we’ll get more and more in tune with the fact that our God is a living, speaking God. Now let’s consider The book of Acts, chapter number two, where we find the episode of the Spirit of the Lord first given to the church. Many of us know the story. 120 first believers in Yeshua were gathered together celebrating the day of Shavuot or Pentecost. They were recalling how about 1500 years earlier, the Lord had revealed himself to them on top of Mount Sinai by appearing in fire on top of the mountain and then writing his law on the tablets of stone. And as they were thinking about this, and the reason they were thinking about it is because they were celebrating Shavuot, which is the Hebrew way of saying Pentecost. And according to the tradition of the ancient sages, it was on this day of Shavuot or Pentecost that the Lord appeared on top of Mount Sinai in fire. during the Mosaic covenant and he wrote his law for the children of Israel on the tablets of stone and Moses was on top of the mountain for 40 days receiving all the laws and commandments that Yahweh, the God of Israel, was bringing his covenant people into a relationship with him through. And so, as they were sitting in the upper room in Acts 2, celebrating Shavuot or Pentecost, they were recalling once again how Yahweh, the God of Israel, had appeared to them on top of Mount Sinai in fire, how it thundered on top of the mountain, representing his voice and his power, and how he communicated to them by writing his law on the tablets of stone. As they were recalling that, sitting there in the upper room, because again, it was Shavuot, and that’s what they would have thought of on Shavuot. Suddenly, as they’re sitting there recalling what God had done in their history in the ancient past, now, the same father that they had been contemplating about in terms of his working through Israel’s history in the ancient times, suddenly the living Yahweh, the living God, now appears to them afresh, anew, and again, right there in the upper room, except this time… He appears as a tongue of fire. And not just one tongue of fire, but the scripture says that over each one, over every one of the 120 individuals that were sitting there, an individual tongue of fire appeared above their heads. And then this living tongue filled with ash, filled with fire, came through them and filled each one of the individuals they had received the Ruach HaKadosh. And when they had received the Spirit, they began to prophesy the good news of Jesus in languages that they had never heard because there were people that were gathered there for Pentecost, witnessing what was going on, that spoke many, many different languages. And in order that the gospel could be proclaimed in such a way that everybody could understand, in their native tongue, a supernatural unction, a supernatural utterance was given to each one of those 120 that had received the tongue of fire to be able to supernaturally proclaim the good news of Messiah Yeshua in the languages of all the people that were gathered there so everybody could hear it. In other words, to give you an example, if I did not speak Chinese, God would give me a supernatural ability to speak Chinese just for a moment when I was witnessing to a Chinese person so that the Chinese person would be able to hear the gospel. That conceptually is what happened. But that’s not the main point I’m wanting to make with you. I’m just describing historically what happened. What I’m really driving for is for us to consider in a more profound and in a deeper way the fact that the Holy Spirit appeared to the church in Acts 2 when he was given to us as, listen, a living tongue. Now, many of us know this, we’ve heard this, but I don’t know if we’ve given it enough consideration in the sense that have we ever really pondered why the Spirit chose to manifest Himself to the church as a tongue? I mean, he had appeared over Yeshua when Jesus came out of the Jordan River. He appeared as what? As a dove. He appeared in other times as a rainbow. For example, Ezekiel saw the Son of Man in his vision surrounded by a rainbow of light. The Spirit of the Lord had appeared in different forms throughout history. But now when he was given to the church, he chose to manifest himself, listen, as a tongue. What is a tongue? A tongue is a speaking oracle. If someone does not have a tongue, they cannot speak. The ability that we have to speak in terms of that which is able to create the noise comes through our tongue. And so what was being communicated, beloved ones, to us when God gave us his spirit in Acts chapter two, what he was communicating to us, listen, is that he will speak to us. that he will speak to us. He is a speaking God. By nature, God is a communicator and he speaks. So knowing that God is a speaking God, and in fact, when he gave us his spirit, the first thing that we realize is that he has come as a tongue that we are going to hear him speak. Knowing this, should cause our senses to be very attuned and very aware that God is speaking so that we’re always in our life looking around and wondering, what may he be saying to me? Because God is always communicating. In fact, in this same episode in Acts chapter two, when these first believers were filled with this living tongue of fire, and it was so powerful it appeared they couldn’t keep their balance because it was so overwhelming for them, even physically, the power of it, And Peter stood up, many of us know the story, and he said, these men are not drunk. He said, what you are witnessing is what was prophesied by the ancient Hebrew prophet Joel in Joel chapter two, when Joel declared, behold, in the last day, saith the Lord, I will pour forth my spirit on all flesh. And your sons and daughters shall prophesy. In order to prophesy, you have to speak, right? There’s that tongue, that living tongue of fire in Acts chapter two. Peter said, what you’re seeing is what was prophesied in Joel, that when the spirits poured out, you’ll be able to speak. Why will they be able to speak? Because they’re speaking by the living spirit of God that is speaking through them. Your sons and daughters will prophesy so that you and I today can speak by inspiration of the Holy Spirit because the living God within us is speaking inside us. Number two, Peter said, your old men will dream dreams. This speaks of God once again speaking to us while we’re asleep at night. We have a dream. God speaks to us in that sleeping state when we’re between two worlds, between the physical and the spiritual world as we sleep. God oftentimes will choose to speak to us in a dream in that state because we’re more receptive to the Spirit. And then thirdly, Peter said what was happening in Acts 2 is that as a result of these first 120 believers receiving the Spirit, which had now been poured out upon the whole church, he said we would see visions. To see a vision also involves God speaking to us and us intuiting what he, listen now, is saying. because He has spoken to us through a vision. We see something in the Spirit. I said all that to simply say this. I recently was really encouraged with the Lord through an experience in which He spoke to me that I wanted to share with you in hopes that it might lift you up to be paying more attention as to how God may be speaking to you in your life. So God speaks to us. We’ve already examined that. That’s why the Spirit was given us a tongue in Acts 2 to communicate God is a speaking God. He is speaking to us now through His Spirit, those of us that has received Him. And he speaks through prophecy, dreams, and visions. We’ve talked about that. He predominantly speaks through the written word of God. He also speaks, beloved ones, through circumstances. We need to be paying attention to our circumstances because Father will oftentimes reveal himself to us through circumstances, somebody we run into, et cetera.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’re listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus with Rabbi Schneider. And he’ll be right back. But first, a quick announcement.
SPEAKER 02 :
The Old Testament is more than a collection of traditions. Rather, it paints a rich and colorful picture of Jesus, proving that He is indeed the Messiah. Drawing from Hebrew tradition, where prophecy is multidimensional, in Messianic Prophecy Revealed, Rabbi Kurt Schneider unpacks Scripture that not only declares the future, but he reveals how the whole of Scripture points to Christ. Call 800-777-7835 or visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com and be absolutely confident that Jesus is the Messiah. Messianic Prophecy Revealed.
SPEAKER 01 :
This book really does build absolute confidence that the Hebrew Bible points to Jesus as Messiah. So make sure to get your copy of Messianic Prophecy Revealed. And now back to Rabbi with the second half of today’s lesson.
SPEAKER 04 :
So what happened was, I have a friend who was sitting in a prayer room, he was reading from the book of Isaiah, and as he was reading, suddenly a scripture popped out at him from the book of Isaiah. The scripture is, those that wait upon the Lord shall rise up like an eagle with wings and they will run like youth and not grow weary. And he said that when he read that scripture, suddenly it was like it popped out to him and he felt like the Lord was saying to him, I want you to call and share that scripture with rabbi. and he wasn’t quite sure whether that was the Lord or not. And then he’s thinking about, should he call me about this or not? And suddenly, while he’s sitting there thinking as to, you know, was this really the Lord telling me to call Rabbi about this scripture? They that wait upon the Lord shall rise up like an eagle with wings. Suddenly, as he’s thinking about whether he should step out in faith and call me, because he’s never done that before, giving me a prophetic word, a woman walks in the prayer room, Her name is Diane Schneider, same last name as mine, and she’s wearing a t-shirt with an eagle on it. So when he saw this woman walking in with an eagle on her t-shirt with my last name, he knew. So he reached out to me and told me about the scripture. So I was encouraged by it and I was thankful for it, but it was kind of general. You know, many of us have heard that scripture before. Some of you may have gotten a card with that scripture on it. Some of you may have even gotten a plaque with that scripture on it or a picture that you’re hanging on the wall. I mean, it’s a pretty well-known scripture. So I was encouraged by it, but it was kind of like general. So it didn’t like put me over the moon, so to speak. But get what happened next. A few days after he calls me and gives me this scripture and I write it down in my journal, you know, so-and-so called me up and they said the Lord had encouraged them to share the scripture with me. And Diane Schneider walked in the prayer room right at that time with an eagle on her shirt. And so I wrote it down. A few days later, I look out my back window at home and lo and behold, the first time I’ve ever seen this in my life, a literal bald eagle was sitting on a tree stump right in my backyard as clear as day. I mean, I saw the eagle’s head. I saw the eagle’s tail, the white head, the white tail. I saw the eagle fly away. I was blown away. And so I just wanted to share that with you today because our God, beloved ones, is a living God. He’s at work in your life as you’re seeking him, and he will continue to work on our lives even into eternity. Let’s be paying attention. So Father God, we ask you to wake us up today. You said, he that has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Father, open our ears to hear we pray. We don’t want to miss a word that you’re saying to us. In Jesus’ name, amen. And amen. Today, beloved ones, as we get back into the word of God, we are continuing our study on messianic prophecy. Last time I was talking about from the book of Malachi, that the Lord told us that before Messiah came, he would send a messenger to prepare the way. When Yeshua came to earth, some came up to him and said, you can’t be the Messiah because the book of Malachi said that before Messiah comes, Elijah, the messenger, would come first. And Yeshua said, you missed it. Elijah did come. Elijah did come in the person of John the Baptist. So Yeshua said, John is Elijah himself. if you can receive it. I’m continuing on today with another huge prophecy that was given to the Hebrew people for the whole world in the Tanakh or in the Old Testament. I’m reading now from the book of Isaiah, chapter number 61, verse number one, speaking of the Messiah and what he would do. Hear the word of God. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of God abides forever. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners. So here we find the actual nuts and bolts of the type of heart and ministry that Messiah would have. Now, what is important about this? And what am I asking you to consider? I’m asking you to first of all consider the fact that many people, when they think about God, they think of him as so omnipotent, all-powerful, omniscient, all-knowing, the beginning and the end, the eternal one, the limitless one. They think of him as so big and so cosmic and so holy and so other than that they lose fact of the point that God is also the most tender, humble, caring, loving person in all of his creation. God cares. Yes, he is all-powerful. He is all-knowing. He does judge sin. He is going to exterminate evil. But beyond that, beloved, he’s loving. And the reason he came into the world in the person of Yeshua was to heal us. So listen to what Isaiah said again. He’s speaking on behalf of the Lord. He’s speaking in the first person, in the first person of Messiah. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners. Where do we see this fulfilled in the Brit Hadashah, in the New Testament? Word for word almost, we see it, beloved, in the book of Luke, chapter four. I’ll begin reading here in verse number 14. And Yeshua, Jesus, returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. And news about him spread throughout the entire district, the surrounding district. And he began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. And he opened the book and found the place where it was written. And now I’m going to quote, beloved, from where I just read Isaiah 61, verse 1. Jesus gets in the synagogue, as was his custom. He opens up the portion of the Haftorah, the Torah reading. And what does he do? He opens it up to Isaiah 61, verse 1, and he ascribes it to himself. He opened the book and found the place where it was written. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. And then he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant, sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him and began to say to him, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. I want you to know, beloved ones, the study of scripture and the readings of scriptures about the Messiah or Yeshua, it’s not just an academic thing. He’s a living person that wants to set you and I free. He came to deliver those that were oppressed. He came to bring recovery to us, supernatural recovery. I speak over you right now, beloved one, supernatural recovery over your soul. Whatever in your heart has been broken, maybe it’s a relationship that broke your soul. Maybe it was being raised by parents that weren’t whole. Maybe something else happened to you along life’s journey that just stole your confidence, and you’re walking around now broken and depressed. I declare over you right now, in the name of Yeshua the Messiah, supernatural recovery and deliverance from oppression. Jesus is here. He’s here for you today. He’s alive now, and beloved, as we open our hearts, we will recover in Him. I wanna read for you the book of Deuteronomy, we call it in Hebrew, Devarim. I’m going to the 14th chapter. I’m gonna be reading from the 22nd and the 23rd verse. Hear the word of God. The Lord is speaking here and he says, you shall surely tithe all the produce from what you sow, which comes out of the field every year. then he continues at the last part of the next verse he says so that you might learn to fear the lord your god always do you know that fearing the lord is related to tithing because when we tithe we’re giving god the respect he deserves by declaring that we believe that everything that we have comes from him and beyond that the lord said The tithe is his. So we’re just really giving back to God what’s already his to begin with. We’re just cooperating with him. Beloved, if you want to put today’s teaching into practice in your life, if you’re not tithing, do so. And God promised he would bless you for it.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. And to take a step of faith right now, go online and give at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. You can also support this ministry by calling us. Our number is 800-777-7835. And you can send a gift of any amount in the mail. Our address is Discovering the Jewish Jesus, P.O. Box 777, Blissfield, Michigan, 49228. And you know, if you’ve been blessed by this study on Messianic prophecy, I want you to know that we have more resources available. Rabbi has written a book and it complements this study and it’s called Messianic Prophecy Revealed. And it’s available on our website right now. And I believe this book can really impact your life. Rabbi takes us through God’s Word, and he shows us how the New Testament writers proved that Jesus was the Messiah going through Messianic prophecies. It’s a great book that’s designed to help us share the truth of who Jesus is with our friends and family. You can purchase a copy of Messianic Prophecy Revealed today. Just give us a call. Our number is 800-777-7835. And if you’d like Visit us online. Our web address is discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Thanks so much for tuning in and listening today. It means so much to know that God is using this ministry to touch your life. Now here’s Rabbi Schneider. He’s going to speak God’s sacred blessing over us as we wrap up our time together.
SPEAKER 04 :
In the Old Testament book of Numbers, we find a blessing God speaks over His children through Moses and Aaron. It carries the idea of favor and expression. Open your heart to the Spirit and the Word today and receive Father’s goodness into your life with confidence.
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.
SPEAKER 01 :
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. Rabbi Schneider is going to share some insight on what it means to be suffering with Christ. That’s Wednesday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
