Foundations of Prayer | Authentic Prayer

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: So we want to have confidence that we can be transparent with the Lord. The enemy perverts that true type of thinking by making people afraid to come to God because they feel sinful. A lot of people when they hear that they ought to pray, they think of works. They think of, "How do I pray?" Like it's something that we have to know how to do. In reality, authentic prayer has nothing to do with following a formula. So what we are going to do is we're going to begin to define, at least from my perspective, what authentic prayer is all about. First of all, beloved ones, authentic prayer begins by faith. What do I mean by that? If somebody doesn't have faith that there is a God and that God will respond to them when they cry out, they're not going to be motivated to pray. So the Bible says in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 that those that are going to please God must first of all believe that he exists. I mean, how are we going to please God if we don't believe in him, right? We must believe that he exists, and the author of Hebrews says that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. So that really creates a foundation for authentic prayer. It begins with believing there's a God, that he hears us, and that as we call out to him, he responds. So the author of Hebrews says that he's a rewarder of those that diligently seek him, and the sense of being rewarded for those that seek him would translate into believing that if we call upon him, he's going to answer us. So it's very simple, but to believe that God will hear you creates a momentum for you to enter into communication with God. People that are trapped in darkness, that have lost a vision for the reality of God in the earth, they're not going to be talking to him, they're not going to be praying to him. But if you and I deep in our heart, we know there's a creator and we're desperate for answers, and we're hungry to know him and to experience his reality and his presence in our life, we're going to call out to him and we're going to pray. So, number one, authentic prayer begins with faith. Secondly, authentic prayer is authentic. It sounds redundant, authentic prayer is authentic, but what I mean by that is that true prayer is when we call upon God from our heart in such a way that we're not putting on any type of persona. Sometimes when people pray, it's like they change their language. They begin to speak in these and thous, "Oh, great thou, mighty one, hear thee we pray." That's not the type of language that necessarily gets God's attention. What God responds to is when we're praying to him transparently from our heart. So authentic prayer is when we're being real with God. We would talk to him like we would talk to our trusted best friend and even beyond that. We know that the Lord knows everything about us. He knows the vile attitude that we have sometimes. He knows sometimes the jealousy, the selfishness, even the hatred that we might experience in our heart. He knows all that. But the Bible says that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So if Jesus died for us when we were completely living separated from God, how much more can we trust him to love us and to accept us now that we're putting our attention upon him? The Bible tells us to come boldly before the throne of grace, despite our sin, despite our imperfection, despite the things in our soul that need to be cleansed. We can come boldly to God just as we are because of the blood of Jesus. So we want to have confidence that we can be transparent with the Lord. The enemy perverts that true type of thinking by making people afraid to come to God because they feel sinful. That's what the enemy wants. He wants people to feel trapped in their guilt so that they'll be afraid or intimidated to talk to God. After all, that's what happened to Adam and Eve in the garden, right? The Bible tells us in the book of Bersheet or Genesis that after Adam and Eve sinned, suddenly they realized they were naked. So what does that mean? They used to be God-conscious before they sinned. But when they sinned, the communication with the Lord, the connection was broken, so they no longer were God-conscious. They lost that connection of God-consciousness, and instead their attention just came upon themselves. They became self-conscious. And in that state of self-consciousness, they felt insecure and afraid, so the next thing they did, we read about in the book of Genesis, is they began to run from God. So they sinned, then suddenly they felt naked, and they began to run. Well, mankind, humanity is in the same plight today. They don't realize it. They're denying there is a God. But reality says that they're in the same place today as they were in at the very beginning when Adam and Eve sinned. Mankind is still, beloved ones, trying to cover up their nakedness, trying to cover up that sense inside that something's not right, that sense of anxiousness that comes from not being connected to Hashem, to Father God. And in that state of anxiousness that comes as a result of the broken connection that goes once again all the way back to Adam and Eve, what man tries to do is to cover that sense of anxiety, that sense of guilt, that sense of shame. By putting things over their life, whether it be social media, whether it be illicit relationships, whether it be food, whether it be alcohol. All those things are the same thing that Adam and Eve tried to do when they tried to run from God and hide from him. They tried to cover up their nakedness. And so the key is to not let the enemy make us feel ashamed. We need to come to God just as we are, knowing that despite our sin, we're accepted in the beloved. And knowing that Jesus loves us, you and I, right here and right now, right where we're at, we can open our mouth, beloved ones, and be completely transparent with him. That's the key to talk to God transparently. Authentic prayer is being open and transparent with Hashem. Hashem is just a way to say, the name, the great name of God. In Hebrew, it would be composed of the four Hebrew letters, Yud, Hey, Vav, Hey, which most Semitic scholars believe is pronounced a breathy Yahweh. And so we call upon the Lord. We call upon the Father, and we talk to him and we say, "Father God, I'm feeling really bad inside. I don't know what's wrong. I feel afraid, or I feel lonely, or I feel like my heart is defiled." Whatever it is that you're feeling, you can talk to God about it. You tell him exactly the way that you're feeling, and then you simply call out to him for mercy and ask him for help. Because the only way to get whole, beloved one, the only way to get healed is to let the Lord meet you right where you're at. If you're struggling in sin, you cry out to God in the midst of your sin. You talk to him about it, just like you talk to yourself about it, you talk to him about it. And he enters into that place of need as you connect with him in your place of need. But it will only happen when you're being open and transparent.
Dustin Roberts: You're listening to Discovering The Jewish Jesus with Rabbi Schneider, and he'll be right back. But first, did you know that this program is available in Hebrew, Russian, and Spanish? If you know somebody who speaks one of these languages, now's your chance to share the blessing. To access the language version that's right for them, just go to discoveringthejewishjesus.com and click the watch/listen tab and choose an available alternate language channel right there. Go into the world and preach the Gospel to all creation. We take that command very seriously. Through our online media platforms, TV, radio, and overseas festivals, we're sharing the truth of the Gospel with people of all different nations, tribes, and tongues. And if the Lord has put a burden on your heart to support us, would you please give financially today at discoveringthejewishjesus.com? And now, back to the second half of today's lesson.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: One of the key fundamental laws or truths of the kingdom is this: God's power is perfected in our weakness. In other words, when we depend upon the Lord, when we're in a state of weakness, that's where his grace comes in and strengthens us, and it becomes a platform for future momentum and breakthrough. And so the challenge that you might be facing right now, rather than letting it make you run from God because you're ashamed of it, or because you become so fearful and anxious that the fear and the anxiety shuts you off from communion. Instead, what you do is you connect with God in your challenge, even having faith, which was our first point, authentic prayer begins with faith, even having faith that the challenge that you have can actually be turned into a gift to you from God. Because man's problems are God's opportunities. And Jesus said, "He that overcomes much, loves much." And so rather than looking at your challenge as something that's like a terrible thing, instead embrace it. Thank God for it, because as you connect with the Lord and depend on him in the midst of your challenge, you'll be strengthened because his power will be perfected in your weakness. You will eventually overcome it, and there'll be like a fusion that'll have taken place in your soul as you depended on God as you walk through that trial. That's why Paul tells us in the book of Corinthians that there was a messenger of Satan that was given to him. It was actually appointed from the Lord in his life. So Paul began to say, "Lord, take this problem away." And then the Lord spoke to Paul. Paul cried out a number of times. The scripture says, "Three times Paul said, 'I cried out, Lord, take away this problem, this messenger of Satan, this thing in my life.'" We don't know what it was, but it was causing Paul pain. Finally, after calling upon the Lord three times about this, the Lord spoke back to Paul, and he said, "Paul, I'm not going to take the problem away. My grace is sufficient for you to get through this problem." And beyond that, the Lord said to Paul, "My power will be perfected in your weakness." The problem was making Paul weak, but in Paul's weakness, he was even more desperate for the Lord. And the Lord said, "Through your desperation that you're experiencing now because of this overwhelming problem that you have, I'm going to fuse your soul to mine, and you're going to come out of this thing empowered because you depended on me in your weakness, and we're made strong." God's power is made perfect, beloved, in our weakness. The point: be transparent with God. We're talking about authentic prayer. Real prayer takes place when you simply talk to God, sharing everything with him. You have to open up to him and share your life with him. You can't just talk to God when you're feeling holy. You can't just talk to God when you're in some type of religious church mode. No, Paul said, "Pray ceaselessly." We talk to him about everything: the good, the bad, and the ugly. And once again, making emphasis here as to why you need to talk with God when you're struggling, whether it's sin, whether it's pride, whether it's selfishness, whether it's sexual temptation, whether that you're feeling some type of just foul attitude, whether you're dealing with a demonic spirit, whatever it is, you talk to God about it. He's right with you in it. He wants to fuse himself with you in the valleys. That's where the strength is forged. You know, I think of another scripture that you might want to jot this down. It's in the book of Second Corinthians chapter one, and Paul, the great apostle of the New Testament, wrote this. He said, "I would have you know, brethren, that I am burdened excessively beyond strength so that I despair," Paul said, "even of life." So think about this. Paul was so challenged. He was so heavy with what he was burdened with. He was going through so much. He didn't even want to continue on. It was that heavy. He said, "I would have you know, brethren, that I am burdened excessively." He said, "so that I don't even want to live tomorrow." is basically what he was saying. "So that I despair of life," he said. Don't misunderstand. Paul obviously did not have a suicidal spirit. It just that life was so hard in the natural, he didn't want to go on. But he said this next. He said, "But this happens to me that I would learn to trust in God, in Hashem, Father God, that raises the dead." In other words, Paul was saying, "God put me in such a place of hardship and weakness that there's no natural help for me. The physicians can't help me. My insurance agent can't help me. My governor can't help me. The president can't help me." Nobody can help me. But he said, "This all has come upon me so that I would come to the very end of every earthly resource outside me and in myself, so that there's only one thing left to do, and that's to look up and connect with God that raises the dead." And so this is what I'm talking about. Jesus, Jesus is standing at the door of our hearts, and he's knocking. He wants us to let him in. He wants us to let him in. You see, sometimes people hear that word Jesus speaking in the book of Revelation. Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Whoever opens and invites me in, I will dine with him." Sometimes we have heard that scripture quoted when an evangelist gives an altar call for people to respond for salvation for the first time. And that is a very applicable verse for that. But it means so much more than simply praying a sinner's prayer and asking Jesus to save us the first time. It's a continual, the spirit of the Lord, beloved ones, he's continually knocking at the door of your heart and my heart every single day because he wants to come in deeper than we've let him. He wants us to surrender to his mastership, his mastery, his Lordship over our life more than we have. He wants us to make him our Lord. And so transparent prayer is about letting him in, surrendering to him, trusting him. And then as we do that, we surrender to his Lordship. And as we practice these principles, beloved, we are entering in to the depths of what I am calling in this series, authentic prayer. Notice, beloved ones, children of God, I didn't talk about formulas. I didn't talk about set prayers. Nothing that I said sounded religious, because God's not religious. And we haven't been called to religion, we've been called into a divine relationship. And so Father God in Yeshua's name, in Jesus' name, we thank you today, Daddy, for your love for us. Father, we thank you that right now you're knocking at the door of our hearts, that you love us, that you're waiting for us to open up because you want to come in and fellowship with us. And Father, in Yeshua's name, in King Jesus' name, we say yes to you now. I want to ask you, put your hand over your heart with me now, and say, "Father, help me to open my heart to you. Father, I ask you to draw me to yourself through Jesus. Jesus, I want to let you in. Help me to open my heart wider to you. Help me to trust you. Help me to believe. Let me allow you to serve me." You see, Jesus, beloved one, he's come as a servant. He wants to serve you. But in order for him to be able to serve you, and empower you, and equip you, and bring you into something more, we have to talk with him. We have to be authentic, and we have to let him in. God loves us so much, will you and I break away from looking from man to be our answer and from fearing man, and will we instead turn to the Lord to make him first? God is knocking at the door of your heart right now. He's waiting for you, my beloved friend, to let him in. Let's let him in together. As we do, we will experience more and more shalom.
Dustin Roberts: Todah Rabah, that's Hebrew for thank you very much to everyone that is supporting this ministry so that we can continue to teach and preach the word of God all around the globe. I want you to know, those of you that are sowing into this ministry, we receive testimonies every single week. I mean, hundreds of testimonies from people that are telling us that they felt like they heard the word of the Lord for the first time, people that are coming to salvation, people that were falling that got lifted up by the power and the encouragement that's in God's word, and it's because of you that are sowing financially into this ministry that all those people are being helped. If you're being blessed by this ministry and you believe that can bless other people, I want to ask you to just open your heart, to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, and if he's prompting you to sow an offering to the Lord through this ministry, I just want to encourage you to be obedient, and I want to thank you once again from the bottom of my heart for making it possible for God's kingdom to spread through Discovering The Jewish Jesus. Amen. And if the Lord is calling you to give generously today, visit us online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com or support Discovering The Jewish Jesus by calling us. Our number is 800-777-7835. That's 800-777-7835. And you know, it might seem like everybody gives or that we don't need your help, but the truth is, we do. Every single gift is important. It ensures that we can continue to share the truth of the Gospel with the world. Thanks again, and I want to share something that I think is worth thinking about here during this month of August. You know, many of us give to the Lord during our lifetime, but I want to ask you if you've considered honoring God with your finances when your life has finished, when you've won the race. We can't take our money to heaven, and the Bible says that a good person leaves an inheritance to his children's children. But you know what else? We can leave it to supporting the Gospel after we're gone, to ensuring that generations to come end up in heaven with you. I think it's one of the best investments you can make is to allow your faithfulness to keep reaching the world after you're gone. You know, we have a free tool that helps with this. It's called Free Will. I've used it myself. It's very user-friendly, and I'd personally recommend it if you're needing to make a will. You can learn more at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Just click our resource tab and then "need a will." And now, here's Rabbi Schneider to wrap up today's message with God's sacred and special blessing. As Rabbi speaks this blessing, I hope you'll pause and really receive it. Let these words remind you that God sees you, he's near to you, and his desire is to cover your life with peace. Rabbi?
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: What I love about the Aaronic blessing is that it did not originate with man. The words actually proceeded from the very essence of God himself. The blessing comes from the book of Numbers chapter 6. So listen to these words and receive the blessing of the Lord into your life today. 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. Yevarechecha Adonai v'Yishmerecha. Yaer Adonai panav eilecha v'yichuneka. Yisa Adonai panav eilecha v'yasem l'cha shalom. God bless you and shalom.
Dustin Roberts: I'm your host Dustin Roberts, and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering The Jewish Jesus. What if prayer is less about finding the right words and more about entering into what God has already made available? That's coming up Wednesday on Discovering The Jewish Jesus.