Confronting Your Situation | The Light of Thinking Supernaturally Season 1

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: In order for you and I to get a hold of our thoughts, there are certain things that we must believe. In order to subject thoughts of darkness to the light of Hashem, we must have revelation of the truth. I want to continue today on the light of thinking supernaturally. The thing that makes your world different from my world and my world different from your world, the thing that makes our worlds all different is what we think about. The Bible tells us, as a man thinketh, so he is. You could be standing in a space 10 by 10 with seven other people, and yet each one of those people are living in a different world than you. They're in a different place. Their mind is focused on different things. They're perceiving and experiencing life differently than you are, even though you're standing in the same spot and are experiencing externally the same thing. You may all be, for example, at a sporting event, a play, at a restaurant, and yet each person that's gathered in a small space is experiencing the external environment even differently. Why? Because each one is perceiving it in a different way, and it's all in the realm of thought. This is why it's so important for us to get a hold of our thoughts. In order for you and I to get a hold of our thoughts, as the Scripture says, bringing every thought captive to Christ, in order for you and I to get a hold of our thoughts, there are certain things that we must believe. In order for us to subject our thoughts to the lordship of Messiah, in order to subject thoughts of darkness to the light of Hashem, we must have revelation of the truth. The first thing that we need to be absolutely convinced of, what we need to be sure of if we're going to think supernaturally, is that God is good. We have to know that God is good. And if we don't have revelation about this, if we don't know this in our kishkas, in our guts, in our inner man, we're going to be overwhelmed by all the darkness that's outside of us because we live in an atmosphere of darkness. John told us the whole world lieth in the power of the evil one. Jesus said in the book of Revelation, he said to the church, "I know where you dwell. It's where Satan's throne is." As I said last time, all around us we see horrendous things happening. Children dying at a young age, people in other parts of the world starving to death, people being assaulted, killed, raped. There's terrible things happening all around us. So how can you and I believe that God is good when all these bad things are happening all around us before our very eyes? We can only perceive God's goodness through revelation and through faith in the truth of His word. God is good. But it's not just enough to know that God is good. We also have to know that God is sovereign. God is the Lord over our lives. And we need to be convinced that even as nothing was able to touch Job except by God's permission, you and I, if we're going to subject the enemy's thoughts under our feet, need to know that we are protected in the love of Hashem. Nothing can touch us without God's permission. And because God is good, anything that touches us is for a good purpose. This is why Paul said, "All things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to His purpose." And then Paul went on to say what everything was working for, what makes everything good. He says because everything that we go through is being used of the Father to conform us to the image of His Son. And so we need to face life every day believing that God is good. We need to face the day with courage and confidence knowing nothing's going to touch us outside of God's good will. And that whatever challenge we encounter every day, whatever wave hits us, we need to rejoice. This is why James said, "Rejoice in your trial because the testing of your faith produces gold inside you." You're going to be refined by the fire, and as a result of going through the trials in faith, you're going to be made complete. You're going to be made strong. And when you get strong, you'll be happy. And when you're happy, you'll have breakthrough. And so we need to face every day with joy and confidence knowing that God is good. Now, thinking supernaturally also involves getting the mind of Christ. We need to be praying that the Lord would help us to transform our minds so that we would think like Jesus thinks, so that we would see things the way that He sees things. We need to be in a constant prayer dialogue with the Father and the Son through the Spirit every day that we will be perceiving our reality the way that the Lord perceives our reality. And this is a challenge. This is not something that happens in an instant. It's not something that happens all at once. But every day we find ourselves in a multitude of circumstances, dealing with a multitude of stimuli that come into our mind, thoughts. And in the midst of these thoughts, in the midst of the battle, in the midst of trying to get our bearings about life, about what to think, how to feel, to be in alignment with the Lord, in the midst of this, we need to be praying in the Spirit. Father God, help me to know what it is that You're wanting to do in my life right now through this. Help me to know what You want me to receive from You right here and right now in this situation. No matter where you're at, you're in an uncomfortable conversation with somebody, what you should be doing is praying internally to the Father, in the Son, by the Spirit. Father, help me to know Your mind for me in this situation. Father, help me to know how to position myself in this conversation that I'm having right now so that I can feel Your peace and have Your thoughts. Help me, Father, to receive in this trial right now exactly what it is that You're wanting to deposit in me. We always are moving forward. We're not running. We're moving forward through the challenges, through the darkness, to receive from the Lord what can only be received in that particular trial. And so it's important for you and I to recognize that too often we get deceived by the enemy. Rather than looking for God in the trial, looking for us to receive what the Lord wants us to receive in the midst of the battle, instead of just being grounded, instead what we do is we try to run from the trial. Even if it's just a trial in our thought life. In other words, a bunch of thoughts come at us that would produce worry or fear or depression or unbelief. And without even recognizing it, sometimes what we do when we're hit with a barrage of thoughts, so I'm talking about difficulties, it could be either a difficulty that's taking place in the visible world, or it could be a difficulty that's taking place just in our mind or imagination. Too often what we do is rather than staying grounded in the Lord in the midst of the difficulty, looking to Him, praying to Him, asking to receive from Him what it is that we can receive from Him here, asking Him what He wants to do in us in the midst of this trial, instead what we do too often is we try to run from it. The enemy tries to take us out of abiding in the Lord in the here and the now. And he tries to seduce us to run with temptations of pleasure. And so all of a sudden I noticed in my own life, I started recognizing this years ago when I'd be sitting before the Lord. I have a special couch that I would sit on as I was sitting before the Lord. And I would just be sitting there, I'd be at peace, I might be there a half hour, and all of a sudden a thought came to me that caused some type of anxiety, caused some type of fear, some type of worry. I started noticing as soon as the thought of worry or anxiety came to my mind, all of a sudden I would go get a drink of water, or to go to the refrigerator, or to go watch TV or whatever. And I started noticing whenever a thought of fear or pain came, I stood up to do something else. Why? Because I was running from the anxiety, the fear, and the pain. Rather than staying grounded in God sitting in the couch and dealing with the thought, saying, "Lord, how do I stop these thoughts? Lord, why did this thought just enter my mind? Father, help me to overcome this thought. Help me to take these thoughts captive." Rather than doing that and breaking them and moving through this, instead what happened is the enemy seduced me by putting a thought in my mind for pleasure. "Go get something to drink. Go to the freezer, have an ice cream bar." Whatever it is, he put a thought in my mind of something that would take off the heat of the anxiety or the worry. Go do something. Go get busy. That's why workaholics sometimes work so much. They're running from their anxiety and their pain. But I realized what I was doing. Fortunately, I was grounded enough through the grace of God that I had insight into recognizing, "Hey, this habit you have of getting up off the couch as soon as a thought comes that produces anxiety, what's happening is you're running from this." I didn't realize it before. If I wasn't conscious, I wouldn't have even recognized what I was doing, running from the thought by going to do something that would give me pleasure.
Justin Roberts: 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 is 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. This tool also gives you the opportunity to make a lasting impact. 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.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Years ago, I'd been praying for peace. I'd been asking the Father for His peace. Literally, it had been my focal point in my prayer life for a full year. I was focused on asking Father for peace. And after praying for approximately a year, I had a visitation one night from the Holy Spirit. And in this visitation, I was in this lush forest, this hugely green—when I say hugely, I don't mean it was so big, but I mean it was so rich. It was so full of life. And all around this almost secret secluded forest, just full of green lush life, all around it were rock formations, big huge rocks going up about 12 feet up from the ground upwards. And on the rock formations, there was ivy growing. So what I'm trying to paint for you is a picture of how beautiful and lush this secret forest was. It just reeked of God's life. I'm in this secret place. And as I'm in this forest, this secluded forest, the waves of God's peace just were billowing over me. I mean, I never have had an experience like this before or since, where I was so emotionally captured by the peace of the Holy Spirit. Literally feeling billows and waves of the immense powerful Spirit of the Lord rolling over me. I'd been praying for it for a year, and now I was in it. It was happening, supernatural billows of peace rolling over my soul. And all of a sudden in this experience, I feel the Spirit of the Lord, and I see in this encounter the Spirit of the Lord leading me deeper into the center of the forest where there was a simple wooden picnic table set up. Nothing on it. But I knew that the picnic table represented the center of the forest, and the Spirit of the Lord was drawing me towards it. And I knew that the picnic table represented the bounty of God's peace. The Spirit of the Lord was leading me to the picnic table in the center where I would even feel more extreme peace. And all of a sudden, as the Ruach HaKodesh was leading me towards that picnic table where I was going to experience even more and more, all of a sudden as He began to draw me deeper into this lush forest, a piece of pizza appeared in the vision of the night. So I'm being drawn deeper into God's peace, and as I'm being drawn deeper into His peace, a piece of pizza emerges. And it was the best-smelling pizza I ever have smelled in my entire life. And as soon as that happened, as soon as that pizza appeared and I smelled it, my mind became divided. On the one hand, I wanted to yield to the Spirit of the Lord and be drawn to the center of the forest where I would experience even more of His peace. Yet on the other hand, my flesh was enticed and stimulated when I smelled the pizza and my flesh was crying out to have a piece of that pizza. And I was divided. And I said, "Lord, Lord." And I said, "Can I have a piece of pizza and then move deeper into the forest with You?" And as soon as I yielded to that thought in my mind in this vision of the night, bam, the experience ended. It was over. I mean, I knew it was over. I was conscious it was over. And immediately I got out of my bed, I got down on my knees, I begged Father, I begged Hashem, "Oh, Father, forgive me. I traded in Your peace that I've been praying for for a year for a lousy piece of pizza." I was so grieved. I said, "Lord, I'm going to go back to bed. When I fall asleep, will You come to me again and let me have another chance?" But you know what? I went back to sleep, but it didn't happen again. He didn't come again. The next morning I woke up, and I was still so grieved. I sat down on my couch, I began to pray, I said, "Lord, what happened? Was that Satan trying to rob me?" But then I thought, "Lord, even if it was Satan, I still believe God that You're sovereign and You're the architect of my dreams, that there's a purpose in everything. What happened? Why did that happen?" And I felt the Lord was saying to me, "If you deny yourself the natural, you'll have more of the supernatural." And so I say that to you as we're talking about having a supernatural mindset, thinking supernaturally. I'm sharing that experience with you to show you how the devil can try to entice us with thoughts of pleasure to take us out of the place of experiencing and being grounded in what the Lord is doing in our soul. So be on guard. Be on guard that you don't allow yourself to run from pain to pleasure because if you do that, instead of going through the pain, the enemy's going to rob you of what God wants to give you in the midst of the challenge that you're in. And God wants you to face the challenge with confidence, with courage and joy. He's hardening you as a warrior so you can be strong, and when you get strong you'll be happy. As soon as Yeshua was baptized, immersed at the Jordan River, the Bible says the Spirit of the Lord led Him into the wilderness where He was tempted by the devil for 40 days. Yeshua was warring, He was resisting. He was so weak afterwards the angels had to minister to Him. But He came out of that temptation experience in the power of the Spirit. So don't run from your trial. Don't run from worry, don't run from fear, don't run from your circumstance. Stay grounded. Believe that God is good. Believe that He's doing something good in your life right where you're at, right now. And say, "Lord, what is it that You're wanting me to receive from You right now? What are You wanting to show me now? Help me to find my place in You right now." Help my roots to grow deep in You right now. Help me to face the headwinds head-on. Not to be deceived by trying to run from what I'm experiencing into some type of false pleasure. And Lord, deliver me from running from my pain. God wants to gird you, ground you, and root you right where you're at. He's making you strong. He wants you to know that greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world. And that He's causing all things to work together for good in your life right here and right now. The light of thinking supernaturally involves the renewing of our mind. We have to think different than the mindset of the world. See, the world would have us believe, the culture of the age would have us think that when we give something, we end up losing something in the process. But the mind of the kingdom states different. The mindset of the kingdom of God is that it's in giving that we receive. I want to encourage you to stretch yourself as the Holy Spirit is leading you. And this applies even to our finances as it relates to sowing into the kingdom. Jesus taught that when we give towards the kingdom, it comes back to us pressed down, good measure, and running over into our lap. Elijah told the widow to take the little bit of flour and oil that she had and serve it up as an offering to the Lord in feeding him first. When she did that, her resources were multiplied, as were the five loaves and the two fish. We all know the story. If this ministry's blessing you, I encourage you to give unto the Lord through it.
Justin Roberts: Amen. And to give a gift of any amount, give us a call today. You can reach us at 800-777-7835. That's 800-777-7835. Or give online, just visit DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com. You can also send a check in the mail. Send it to Discovering The Jewish Jesus, PO Box 777, Blissfield, Michigan, 49228. That's PO Box 777, Blissfield, Michigan, 49228. And as you consider giving today, I also want to mention another meaningful way that you can care for what God has entrusted to you. It's "Make a Will" Month. And thinking about creating a will, it can feel uncomfortable. And that's completely understandable because most of us would rather not think about the end of life, family decisions, or what happens when we're gone. But creating a will is really an act of love. It can bring peace to your loved ones, and it also helps protect the people and things that matter to you. And it gives you a clear way to make your wishes known. We have a free tool on our website called FreeWill where you can begin the process of creating a will in a simple step-by-step way. No pressure, no confusion. You don't have to be wealthy or have everything figured out to make a thoughtful plan. This walks you through it step-by-step. So just visit DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com/freewill to learn more and take this important step with peace. And now here's Rabbi to share God's special and sacred blessing with us. I pray that these words of this special benediction bring you a sense of peace and comfort today. Rabbi?
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: 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. And now in Hebrew. Yevarekhekha Adonai veyishmerekha. Ya'er Adonai panav eleykha vikhuneka. Yissa Adonai panav eleykha veyasem lekha shalom. God bless you and shalom.
Justin Roberts: This program is produced and sponsored by Discovering The Jewish Jesus, and I'm your host, Justin Roberts. Come back next week when Rabbi Schneider continues our discussion on the light of thinking supernaturally. That's Monday on Discovering The Jewish Jesus.