The True Voice of God | Apostolic Prayers

SPEAKER 03 : 0:01

There have been many times that I’ve said to Yeshua, but Jesus, I don’t hear your voice. I have all these thoughts that are coming into my head and I’m not sure which one’s yours. Chavarim, we’re going to continue today. Chavarim is the Hebrew word for friends. And those of you that love the Lord, we are friends. And we’ll always be friends. And God’s Spirit is working within us a deep sense of love and a deep sense of community. And if we’re resisting that, it has to be broken down because God’s anointing falls most heavily, beloved one, where there’s unity. And so I call you friends today in spirit and in truth. I want to encourage you today to stay patient with me as we once again review beginning in verse number nine, because there is such a depth of revelation here. You know, it’s interesting that in Judaism, when we study the Torah, we actually have four levels of meaning for any specific Torah verse. In other words, we see that there’s meaning that is very straightforward. And then there are meanings that keep on going deeper and deeper and deeper. And the truth is, is that the revelation that can come to us through God’s word has no limits on it. So we have to be patient with God’s word, not just skimming over it and think we’ve got it because we’ve memorized it in our head, but that we have to give the Holy Spirit time for Him to drop into our soul and spirit the color of God’s revelation so that we’ll really see in the light that it will transform us. So let’s continue now. Once again, we’ve been here, but we’re going to press on and press through. Verse number 9 of chapter 1, Paul is praying. For this reason, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you. And if you were with me, remember I challenged us to be more concerned about praying for other people and not just ourselves, because Paul said, I haven’t ceased praying for you. So let’s pray for the body of Christ to be formed, for the church to be made complete. Paul goes on. He said, I have not ceased to be praying for you. And here was the purpose of his prayer. He was asking, listen now, that you would be filled, that you and I would be filled, that the church would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. I want to pause. Some of you can identify with this. We’ve read Jesus as Yeshua’s words in the gospel. Yeshua said, “‘My sheep hear my voice.'” and a stranger’s voice, they will not follow. But I can tell you, beloved ones, beloved friends, that there have been many times that I’ve said to Yeshua, but Jesus, I don’t hear your voice. I have all these thoughts that are coming into my head, and I’m not sure which one’s yours. I’m not sure if that thought is yours or if that thought is yours or if that thought is yours. And if you’re honest today, I know that all of you can identify with me if you have the self-awareness to be able to examine your thoughts. So there have been many times that I’ve prayed, Yeshua, your word says that your sheep know your voice and a stranger’s voice they will not follow. But Jesus, oftentimes, I don’t feel like I’m hearing your voice, and I don’t know if these voices are the voices of strangers or if they’re your voice. But praise God, as we continue to mature as we continue to grow up in Christ, as we continue to be formed according to His image, we’re more and more able to discern His will. And the way that we’re trained to discern His will oftentimes comes through being filled, listen now, verse number nine, with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. In other words, when we have the knowledge of God’s will, with spiritual wisdom. And wisdom is not something that you can gain just because you’ve memorized something. Wisdom is a gift of the Spirit. Yeshua is oftentimes, as I’ve mentioned, made known in Scripture as wisdom personified in the book of Proverbs, for example, or when the Scripture says that He has become wisdom to you and I. When we have the spiritual gift of God’s will, mixed with spiritual wisdom and understanding, then we’re able to know whether the voice is Jesus’ voice or whether it’s a stranger’s voice, because we have the knowledge of God’s will with all wisdom and understanding that we can tell the difference. Now, I want you to think about this. If you examine your life and if you examine your heart, you’ll notice that there are times that you did things that were contrary to the will of God in your life, not because you were deliberately sinning. In fact, many of you can recall times you did something that now you know is wrong, but at the time you didn’t even know you were sinning. because you didn’t have spiritual wisdom and understanding to know the difference between light and darkness. See, the Bible says that our spiritual senses get trained as we mature in the Lord so that we can discern the difference between good and evil. Once again, Paul is praying here in verse number nine that we’ll be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Now, I want to try to bring this down and make it even a little bit more practical for you. When we don’t have spiritual wisdom and understanding, we can fall on our face in our pursuit of God. Thank the Lord that Hashem always picks us up. We learn from our mistake. We go on and we grow. But the point is, is that without spiritual wisdom and understanding and a knowledge of God’s will, we may be doing our best to follow Jesus, but we’re oftentimes going to fall on our face without the knowledge of God’s will. As I think about myself as a young believer, I mean, I love God so much as I do now. I was totally going after God. But because I was not raised in a home that trained me in righteousness, according to the scriptures, I did not have a good revelation of God’s will when I came to faith in Jesus. So there were things that I was doing that I thought were perfectly fine, completely OK. And it wasn’t until years later that the holy spirit began to show me some of those things that i was doing were not according to his will and i’ll tell you one of the biggest stumbling blocks for god’s people today and in ages past has been that they have been led by their feelings rather than spiritual understanding and wisdom. And that was one of the primary areas in life that I had to learn. I had to be trained to live by God’s Word through spiritual wisdom and understanding and knowledge of His will. I had to be trained in that to learn how, listen now, to live above my feelings. What about you? How many times have you felt in love with somebody? And if you would have pursued that relationship, it would have absolutely caused destruction in your life and in the lives of other people. You see, feelings, no matter how strong they are, are not necessarily truth. Something can feel so strong. How many of you have ever felt in love with somebody that you don’t even hardly know, and yet you have these tremendous feelings of love. They seem so real. They seem so true. Where do those feelings come from? Are those feelings really God? A lot of times what happens is when people aren’t trained in the knowledge of God’s will, as Paul is speaking of here, with all spiritual wisdom and understanding, they have a feeling The feeling seems so strong. It feels like love. They’re convinced it’s God. And so they go off pursuing the feeling and they end up in a divorce. They end up shipwrecking the lives of their kids and loved ones. And if some of us have made that mistake, some of you made that mistake, there is no condemnation for you that are in Christ Jesus. This is not meant to condemn. God loves us. We learn from everything we go on. I’m just trying to point out how important it is to live in wisdom and understanding and not to be led by our feelings. Feelings are a gift from God, but feelings are made, listen now, church, Feelings are made to be subjected to your mind. We live by our mind. Not I’m talking about the natural mind. I’m talking about the mind of the Lord, the mind that God has given us in Yeshua, in Christ Jesus. So the knowledge of His will, having wisdom and understanding, these are facilities of the mind. You see, if you’re being led by your feeling rather than by the wisdom of the Lord and the knowledge of His will, you will absolutely fall on your face no matter how sincere you are and no matter how much you love God.

SPEAKER 01 : 9:20

You’re listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus with Rabbi Schneider, and he’ll be right back. But first, have you thought about the legacy you’ll leave when you’re no longer on this earth? Planning for the future, it’s an important step in walking with wisdom. So we’ve partnered with Freewill, a free online tool that makes creating a will simple, secure, and accessible to everyone. I’ve used it myself, and it’s really easy and efficient. And this tool, it also gives you the opportunity to make a lasting impact. And if you want to support this ministry, you can include a financial gift to us in your plans to help us share the love of Yeshua with generations to come. You can get started today at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. just click on our resources and need a will tab. It’s completely free, whether you choose to give to this ministry or not. So check it out today. And for those of you who do choose to give, thank you so much. And now back to Rabbi with the second half of today’s lesson. Now let’s continue on.

SPEAKER 03 : 10:25

He says, as a result of having this wisdom and understanding, you’re going to be able to choose what’s right. Listen, you’ll be able to choose what’s right. And in choosing what’s right, you’re going to bring God joy and make him glad. So he says in the 10th verse, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. In other words, he’s saying, I want you to have the knowledge of God’s will with all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you can walk, Paul says, in a manner worthy of the Lord. Now, even this concept of walking in a manner worthy of the Lord is foreign to some of us. What Paul was talking about here, church, my friends, it’s holiness. Holiness means to be set apart. It means to be cut out of. It means to be unique. You see, the purpose of our salvation is that we would lead lives, listen now, that are worthy of the Lord, that please the Lord. Listen. that are holy. Listen again. Paul says, so that you will walk, verse 10, in a manner worthy of the Lord to please Him in all respects. I spent a month in Israel with Cynthia, my wife, just studying the scriptures, studying the Torah, trying to immerse myself in the atmosphere, asking Hashem, asking the Lord to fill me and anoint me with everything I could receive there. And I think the thing that cut deepest at least one of the things that cut deepest if not nothing because there were so many things that the lord did there was just the revelation in the torah of how god is expecting and calling his people to be cut out and to be different That’s why when you look, for example, at Hasidic Jews, they wear the long payas, the long sideburns. You know, they still dress like they did, you know, several hundred years ago. But the whole reason is they’re wanting to be different. In other words, they’re not looking to fit into the culture around them. They’re looking to be unique and different for Hashem. And so Paul is saying here, I want you to be different. I want you to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord so that you can please Him in all respects. God has a call of holiness on you. The Bible says you’re a chosen race. You’re a royal priesthood. God has called you out of the darkness into His marvelous light. Yeshua said, if you were of the world, the world would love you. But because I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Jesus said, woe to you if all men speak well of you, for thus they did to the false prophets of old. In other words, beloved, God wants us to have the strength, the countenance, the strength of mind the inner constitution, that we know the difference between right and wrong, and we obey Him, walking in a manner that’s worthy of the calling. And when we do that, we’re going to be set apart and unique from the world. People are going to know we’re different. people are going to know we belong to hashem i explained in an earlier broadcast hashem is just a hebrew way of saying god’s name we say baruch hashem bless the name in other words god is the infinite one he has no beginning he has no end and so when we say baruch hashem we’re just saying bless the lord he’s above he’s above everything and so I want to just encourage you here right now, if you and I are going to ascend into walking in this type of platform, we’re going to have to be strong enough to be different. Because to be holy means to be different. And we’re not going to be able to please the Lord unless we’re holy. So this all goes together. Paul says here that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects. We’re talking about holiness and holiness by its very definition means that you’re different and set apart from the world. And you have a wisdom and an understanding and a knowledge of his will that makes you different. And you’re walking in it and you’re not afraid of the price that you’ll pay for that. Because Jesus said, blessed are those that suffer and are persecuted for righteousness sake. He goes on now, that you’ll walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing him in all respects. Now, I think self-examination is one of the keys to sanctification. In other words, the Bible tells us if we will judge ourselves, if we’ll examine ourselves, if we’ll review our life every day before the Lord, even on a second-to-second basis, we’re conscious of, are the things that I’m saying pleasing to God? Is the way that I’m walking pleasing? pleasing to the lord in other words we have an inner sensitivity to the holy spirit so that we’re always monitoring ourselves asking ourselves if what we’re thinking if the way that we’re feeling is pleasing to the lord and we’re always making adjustments inner adjustments so that we can be on target and be in alignment with him walking in a manner that’s pleasing to him One of the hallmarks or one of the marks of spiritual sanctification and maturity is this self-awareness and this ability to be able to judge yourself every day, not in terms of condemnation, but in terms of being aware of yourself so that you can always be bringing yourself back into a closer alignment with the Lord, with Hashem. So Paul says that his goal for us is that we would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please Him in all respects. So the ability to please Him in all respects doesn’t just concern what we’re doing externally. You know, it doesn’t just mean that we gave money to a person that was in need. It means, is our attitude right? Are our thoughts right? is the tone of voice that we’re speaking to somebody in right. We have this consciousness of our inner lives and a consciousness of Hashem, of the Lord, and we’re always bringing ourself as best as possible to line up with God. And when we do this, we then please God more and more in all respects. It’s so much better to judge yourself, as the Scripture said, to evaluate yourself and make corrections, than to be judged by the Lord, to be disciplined by Him. See, the Bible says if we judge ourselves, if we monitor ourselves, we won’t have to be judged or disciplined by the Lord because we’ll already have made the self-correction. God’s discipline won’t be necessary. Baruch Hashem. Let’s continue on here. In doing this, we’re going to bear fruit, Paul says, in every good work. So we’re in the world, not just to experience our own relationship with God, but to have influence and to have impact and to have good works that follow us. The Bible says that God has even prepared before us good works that we should walk in. It’s a full circle. It’s a full circle, starting with the Lord, starting with Hashem circling in us, then coming back into the world with good works and back to Him. I want you to know, I have good news for you today. God’s got a plan for you and I, a destiny for you that’s bigger than you and I could have ever imagined. Eye is not seen and ear is not heard. Never has it even entered into the heart of man, the things that he has prepared for those that love him. And beloved, that includes you. I love you today. I bless you in Jesus’ name. And I encourage you to continue to think about these things. Baruch Hashem. not long ago i was studying the torah the first five books of our bible genesis through deuteronomy and i was astonished at how precisely father god spoke into every area of the children of israel’s lives i mean he addressed it all how to dress what to eat how to handle yourself in business every area of life even about safeguarding their property And I know we’re not under the law, but beloved, let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater. God wants to be involved in every area of our lives. And obviously, this includes our finances. If this ministry, beloved, is blessing you, if it’s challenging you, if it’s affecting you, I want to ask you, would you lift up your heart to Father God to see if you feel him nudging you to make a financial contribution to honor him through discovering the Jewish Jesus? Beloved, it’s because of you we’re reaching the world for Jesus. Thank you for your love and for your financial support. God bless you and shalom.

SPEAKER 01 : 19:02

Amen. There’s so many people out there who need to know who Jesus is. And when you take that step of faith right now to support us, you’re not just helping us locally, but you’re helping us reach the world for Jesus, just as Rabbi said. So please give online. Our website is discoveringthejewishjesus.com. And you can also give by calling us. Our number is 800-777-7835. And I also want to remind you today about an exciting offer that we have available to you right now. It’s absolutely free. And so this complimentary resource package, it explores the wisdom and beauty of the Aaronic blessing. Rabbi prays it right here every week, but have you ever wondered exactly what those words mean? Well, this is a free gift and it’s a great way to understand more about God’s blessing, which reflects His personal connection and protection over your life. And I hope that this resource, this MP3 and PDF audio guide encourages you in your walk with the Lord. If you’d like your free gift, visit us online at myfreegift.com forward slash peace. That’s myfreegift.com forward slash peace. Thanks so much for listening today. We really appreciate your support and we hope that you’ve been encouraged and blessed. Now let’s wrap up with the Aaronic blessing. Rabbi.

SPEAKER 03 : 20:31

In the book of Numbers chapter six, we find a personal blessing from God our Father. This blessing should touch our hearts because it’s so personal. Father God wants to intimately bless you, so receive his blessing into your life today with gladness and an open heart.

SPEAKER 02 : 20:49

Yevarechech Yahweh, vayishmarecha. Ya’er Yahweh, panavelecha, vichunecha. Yissa Yahweh penavei lecha ve’asem lecha. Shalom.

SPEAKER 03 : 21:39

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 : 21:59

I’m Dustin Roberts, and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Be sure to join us again when Rabbi Schneider explains how to renew our walk with God no matter the season. That’s Wednesday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.