Join Rabbi Schneider in this enlightening episode as he delves into the profound spiritual practice of fasting and its significance in developing a closer relationship with God. Exploring the teachings of Jesus and historical figures like Moses, we discover how fasting can lead to deeper spiritual awareness and greater manifestation of divine presence in our lives.
00:00:01 Understanding Fasting and its Spiritual Rewards
00:11:41 Significance of Preparing Through Fasting
00:14:20 Transformation Through Spiritual Connection
Jesus said, but the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away and then they will fast. Why would his followers fast when he was taken away? Father God, we worship you and we love you and we welcome the power of your presence, Father, into the midst. We ask that you would saturate our soul with an awareness of your presence, Abba, of your love, of your tender mercy, and that, Father, you would penetrate us by the living and active Word of God that’s a sword. Father, we worship you today in Yeshua’s name. Amen. Today, I am continuing in a very special and anointed series entitled, Fasting for the Kingdom of God. Now, if you didn’t hear the last message in this series, I really want to encourage you to get it because I really laid the foundation, beloved one, for this series by talking about an experience I had in my own life I had been unable to fast. I had tried several times, but didn’t last long at all. But the Lord supernaturally came to me in a vision of the night. And through that encounter, I was able to successfully go on a long fast after that. Now listen, I don’t want to scare anybody off today because different people are at different places in their life, and God is calling each one of us to do something different. The Hebrew word for fast is tzitzum, and it means to abstain. Generally speaking, it means to abstain from food. Now when we read of the different types of fast in Scripture, there are many different types of fast. Most fasts, beloved, do involve water but not food. There are exceptions to this. For example, Moses, when he was on Mount Sinai, went without water and food. But most fasts that we’re dealing with in terms of relating the principle of fasting to food, to our diet, include the drinking of water but prohibiting eating of food. There are different lengths of time. And God, the Spirit of the Lord, will speak to each one of us differently as to how He’s leading us at this point in our life to apply the principle. But here’s what I need you to understand. There is a reward for those that fast. In fact, one of the greatest rewards of all is that fasting for the kingdom, fasting because we want to be drawn closer in our relationship with the Lord, fasting produces spiritual results that causes us to become more supernaturally aware of the Lord’s presence in our life. For example, we read in the book of Mark, chapter 2, verse 18 through 20, these words. Hear the word of God. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord abides forever. Hear the word. John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and said to him, why did John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples did not fast? And Yeshua said to them, While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. What’s happening here? This is very foundational. This is pivotal to our understanding of this principle of fasting. And it’s also extremely important so that we can find the motivation to fast. Here’s what Jesus was saying. Listen, my disciples are not fasting right now, Jesus was saying, because I’m with them. The attendants of the bridegroom don’t fast when the bridegroom is with them, do they? But Jesus said, but the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away and then they will fast in other words jesus was saying this there’s no reason for my people to be fasting when i’m standing in their midst but jesus said what i’m taking away from them then they’ll fast why would his followers fast when he was taken away they would fast beloved because they were hungry for a greater sense of his presence of having intimacy in their lives with them In other words, when Jesus was right there, they could put their arm around Him, touch Him, feel Him, see Him. There was no reason for them to fast. But once Jesus ascended to heaven and we were totally dependent upon the Spirit to experience God’s intimacy, Jesus said, then we will fast. Jesus expected His followers to fast. The point is, is that when we fast the natural, for the sake of receiving more of the supernatural, we’re brought into a greater sense of closeness to God. And that alone is a reward that should be enough. Fasting strengthens the spirit man. It strengthens us in the realm of walking in the fullness of the Spirit so we can experience the supernatural presence of King Jesus in our lives in a greater way. There’s a benefit to fasting. Father promised a reward to those that fast. And the greatest reward of all is the reward of Jesus himself. When we abstain, from food or other areas in our life that the Lord may lead us to abstain from. Maybe for you, it’s the internet. Maybe it’s television. Maybe it’s music. Whatever it is, when you abstain from something in the natural for the purpose of coming closer to God, there’s a reward for you. And the greatest reward of all is the reward of a greater manifestation of the presence of the Lord’s love in your life. I want you to also hear this. When we strengthen our spirit man by resisting the impulses of the natural, in other words, we say no to the natural, whether it’s food, whether it’s the internet, whether it’s Facebook, whether it’s sweets, If we abstain from something in the natural world solely for the purpose of saying to God, Father, I love you and I’m abstaining from this thing. I’m fasting from this thing because I want to feel closer to you. What happens as a result of that, beloved one, is that your spirit man gets more engaged in the Holy Spirit and you become strengthened. The scripture says that right after Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, as he came out of the river, heard the father speaking to him, saying, you’re my beloved son and in you I’m well pleased. Immediately after that incident, the Bible says that the spirit of the Lord led Jesus into the wilderness where he fasted for 40 days. I want you to think about this. You have to understand, this was not by accident. I really want you to get this. This was part of God’s divine design, the Father’s architecture for Jesus’ life. There was a reason for it, a very important reason for it. Do you think it was haphazard that the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to fast for 40 days before He did His first miracle? No. Him being led into the wilderness by the Spirit right after his baptism was because it was in the wilderness as he was fasting that he was being prepared for his ministry. The scripture says he was led into the wilderness where he fasted for 40 days by the Spirit. But after he had fasted for those 40 days, listen now, he came out of the wilderness, the Bible says, in the power of the Ruach HaChadash, in the power of the Spirit, through resisting the devil and through resisting the natural in the wilderness, like when the devil said, turn the stones into bread. And Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Through resisting the devil and the natural, the bread, The Spirit of Jesus was so built up in the Holy Spirit that by the time He came out of that experience, He was able to operate in signs and wonders and miracles and proclaim the gospel so that the entire world has now heard it. I want you to hear me, beloved. When Jesus entered the world, He walked through this earth, listen now, not as God in all his rights, but rather he walked through the world as a man that depended on the Holy Spirit. Let me say that again. I want you to be very clear about what I’m saying. Jesus is God in the flesh. But when Jesus walked on the earth 2,000 years ago, he emptied himself of all his divine rights. And what he did on earth in terms of the miracles, he did not as God, but he did it, beloved, as a man that was depending on the Holy Spirit. Don’t misunderstand. He was more than just a man, but he operated in miracles through depending on the Spirit. The Bible says in the book of Philippians that although Jesus existed in the form of God, He counted equality with God not a thing to be grasped, but instead, the Bible says, he emptied out himself to become a bondservant. So in other words, as Jesus walked on the earth, he did it totally in dependency on the Ruach HaKadosh, on the Holy Spirit. That is the reason he was led into the wilderness. so he could be completely broken and become totally dependent on the Holy Spirit. And following this incident, beloved, of the fasting 40 days, incredible signs, wonders, miracles, and the proclamation of the gospel took place through the God-man, Christ Jesus. I want to read the account to you now from the book of Matthew, chapter 4, verse 1 and 2. Then Jesus was led by the spirit unto the wilderness or into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And listen, verse two, and after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he became hungry. It’s interesting here that we don’t see anything about Jesus fasting water here. We see that he only fasted from food. And so it’s interesting that Jesus in this account, it appears, drank water, but he ate no food.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’re listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus and Rabbi will be right back. If you’re looking to better equip yourself in your study, pursuit, and growth in Jesus the Messiah, be sure to go online and explore our treasury of Messianic content. You’ll find Messianic teaching tools and videos, information about God’s seven annual feasts, the Hebrew names, titles of God, and so much more. This content is ready and available for you today online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Just as this program has been a blessing to you, you can multiply the blessing with others. It’s simple when you become a monthly partner. Give a financial gift of any amount today or set up your monthly automated gift by calling this number 800-777-7835. That’s 800-777-7835. Or you can visit discoveringthejewishjesus.com when you give your equipping others for Jesus’ return. And now, here is Rabbi Schneider.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, I’m going to go backward just for a second because I just don’t want anybody to misunderstand me. When I say that Jesus didn’t do the miracles as God, I’m not saying that Jesus isn’t the Son of God. I’m just saying He operated in the world, not through depending on His rights as God, but that he operated in the world as one that was totally dependent on the Holy Spirit. And fasting is what prepared him for this. And fasting brought him to another level of depending on the Holy Spirit so that the power of God could be so fully manifest from his life. You know, it’s a really beautiful illustration of these same truths of how fasting opens up the windows of heaven for us in the Spirit. Is the example from the Tanakh the example from the Torah of Moses? Do you know, beloved ones, that when Moses received the revelation that now composes what we call in Judaism the Torah, or the first five books of the Old Testament, Do you know that Moses received that revelation when he was fasting on top of Mount Sinai? I’m going to read that incident for you now in the book of Exodus, chapter number 34, verse 28 and 29. I want you to notice here that it was while Moses was on top of Mount Sinai, where he was fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, that the spirit of the Lord opened up to him the revelation that became for us the Old Testament or the Torah. Hear the word of God. beginning in verse number 28. So he was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights. He did not eat bread or drink water. In this instance, we see that Moses didn’t eat or drink. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the 10 commandments. It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain, that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his, meaning God’s, speaking with him. In other words, Moses was so saturated in the glory of God as he was fasting there for 40 days and 40 nights that literally his skin was glowing. I don’t know about you, but I’ve actually seen this on people before. You have too, probably. In other words, how many times you look at somebody and when they’re full of God’s presence, when they’re full of joy, when they’re full of divine energy and divine light, they’re glowing. I mean, there’s like a supernatural beauty on them, a supernatural color. Yet that same person, if they’re thinking thoughts of fear or worry or hopelessness, they look totally different. You know what I’m talking about? The energy within a person totally changes the way they look. Moses was so full of the power of God’s Spirit, he was literally glowing, his face was shining. I’ve noticed even myself watching myself on television, I remember several years ago, The studio here was filming me sharing my testimony. And as I was sitting down on the couch, beginning to tell my life story, I began by talking about my life, going back to my young days before I knew the Lord, about when I was in high school and so on and so forth, the time that I didn’t know Jesus. I really looked old. You could see bags under my eyes. There was no life in me, nothing glowing. I just looked kind of haggard. But what happened was, as I kept on telling my testimony, finally I got to the point about Jesus. And when I talked about how Jesus came to me supernaturally in a vision in 1978 and revealed himself to me supernaturally in the middle of the night, I got excited. Suddenly my face, which had just a few moments ago looked drawn out and tired and aged and haggard, suddenly it was like my face came to life. All of a sudden my skin looked younger. There was a new color in my eyes. There was a power on me and a glory on me. It looked like I was 10 years younger. Why? Because the power of God’s spirit was now showing and glowing and emanating through my life. And so we are dependent on the Holy Spirit for life. Jesus said in him was life and his life and his light is the light of men. Fasting helps us receive more of the life of Jesus. That’s why Jesus said, when the bridegroom is taken away, then my disciples will fast, because now we’re dependent on the Spirit. When Jesus’ disciples were with him 2,000 years ago, they were partially depending just on the physical proximity of Jesus. They could touch him. Remember John at the Lord’s Supper, at the Last Supper, he said he leaned his head on Jesus’ bosom. That’s how close they felt. But now that Jesus isn’t here physically, the only way we can feel connected to him is in the spirit. And when we fast from the natural, In order to become closer to the Lord in the supernatural, through the Spirit, what happens is increase is imparted, strength is imparted, fullness is imparted into our soul through the Ruach HaKadosh, through God’s Spirit. You see, the Lord promises you a reward if you’ll fast. I want to read this for you now from the book of Matthew, chapter 6, verse 16 through 18. Hear the word of God, beloved one. Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they’ll be noticed by men when they are fasting. I first want to point out the few words that we began with here in verse number 16. Listen to what Jesus says. Whenever you fast… He didn’t say if you fast. He didn’t say for those that will fast. He didn’t say for the few that fast. It seems to be an assumption here that fasting would be part of the culture of the kingdom. And so he’s saying to his disciples here, whenever you fast, I believe that we can receive that as being fasting is for you and I. Now, I’m going to share with you on next broadcast how to fast so you’re not going to want to miss it. I’m going to give it to you in a way that you can digest. You don’t have to be afraid of going on a 40-day fast. I’m going to give you nuggets so that you can immediately begin to apply this principle to your life. Gia said, whenever you fast, Do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance, so they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will know. reward you. You see, my friend, there’s a reward to those who will fast. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and everything else will be added unto you. We must believe that God is and that He’s a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. I’m here to tell you today, beloved, that if you will deny the flesh, to receive more of the Spirit, God will not only cause His presence to be more keenly felt in your life, but you will be rewarded by the presence of Jesus Himself. I love you today. I want to close this broadcast just by praying for you. Father God, in Yeshua’s name, I ask that you would impart to each one under the sound of my voice, Father God, to be able to receive right now the faith and the inspiration and the motivation to go on a fast at whatever level, Father God, you’re calling them to, at whatever level they’re ready. Father, I thank you that there’s something that we can do that will bring us closer to you. For you have said, draw near to me and I will draw near to you. So, Father, I bless each one now that’s hearing. I bless each one and ask you, Father God, to draw them to yourself with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm in Jesus name. God bless you, beloved one. You know what? I never decided that I was gonna be a pastor or a messianic rabbi. My ministry is simply an overflow of my own walk with God. In fact, when I did decide to pursue biblical education, the biggest thing that I was desiring was to get ahold of God for myself. And what happened is the Lord raised me up because my overflow has become the ministry to you. In other words, my ministry is an overflow of my own walk with God. But now that the Lord has raised me up to preach the gospel all over the world, I need your financial help because without you, beloved ones, I can’t do it. I want you to know when you sow into this ministry, become a partner with us, you’re going to have a reward for all the souls that are being changed through this ministry. So if the Holy Spirit’s leading you, I just encourage you, be obedient immediately and you’re going to be blessed for it when Jesus returns. Thank you and shalom.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. And thank you, Rabbi. And friends, I want to encourage you to keep listening because Rabbi is going to be right back shortly with a sacred blessing. But first, if the Lord is leading you to financially support discovering the Jewish Jesus with the gift of any amount, then would you please reach out to us today? You can call 800-777-7835. And if it’s easier for you, just go online to our website. It’s discoveringthejewishjesus.com. And as a token of our gratitude, we want to make sure that you receive our latest newsletter. It’s packed with exciting ministry updates, a list of all of our radio stations and schedule, and exclusive additional content straight from Rabbi. And with this extra teaching material, you can discover even more insights into God’s word through Rabbi’s unique Jewish perspective. And I believe that you’ll fully engage with this exclusive resource. It’ll help you grow in your spiritual walk each and every day. And also, I want to let you know about a free resource package. It explores the priestly blessing of the Aaronic blessing. It’s a free gift, and it includes Rabbi’s detailed PDF guide, and it’ll examine each element of this sacred blessing so you can truly understand it. And it also includes a complimentary audio guide to go along with it. This free offer is available at myfreegift.com forward slash peace. That’s myfreegift.com forward slash peace. And now here’s Rabbi with the Aaronic Blessing.
SPEAKER 03 :
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. Join us again next time when Rabbi Schneider talks about the rewards of fasting. That’s coming up Tuesday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
