Rabbi Schneider - El Shaddai, God Almighty
Genesis 17.Hear the word of God. "Now when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am God Almighty'..." Now who's God Almighty? El Shaddai. God, El Shaddai. Almighty. Very well-known title of our Lord. I am God Almighty. Now I want you to consider with me before we continue in the text, why specifically here did God reveal Himself to Abram as El Shaddai? Why here? Because Abram had a need that he was unable to meet in the natural. He had this huge promise that his descendants were going to be as many as the stars in the sky. He had tried and tried and tried to give birth to a son through his wife Sarai, but she wasn't able to conceive. So now they were advanced in age, and that we're unable technically in the natural to bring forth the human child anymore. So God has to step in and say, "I am God Almighty. And what you can't do in the natural realm, I can do for you supernaturally".
Now remember all scripture is given to us by God for our benefit. And so the God that revealed Himself to Abram as El Shaddai is also your El Shaddai and my El Shaddai. There are problems sometimes that we face in life that we don't have a solution for. There are things that we need to get breakthrough through that we don't know how it's going to happen. But when we've come to the end of the road and there's nothing else that we can do, when we feel we've got a promise from God that we have no idea how it's going to be fulfilled, remember the title of your God, El Shaddai, the God of the supernatural that's able to do exceedingly above all that you ask or think.
So let's go back to the text again. Abram's got this promise. His descendants are going to be more than the stars of heaven, yet he's all of a sudden at a place where he's run out of steam, it can't happen anymore in the natural world. We're picking up now. "Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am El Shaddai (God Almighty); walk beside Me and be blameless. I will establish my covenant between Me and you and I will multiply you exceedingly". This is a promise... a re-promise of the same promise he had made. "Abram fell on his face and God talked with him".
I want you to think about this. Is this true? Did this happen? Did God really talk to Abram? I believe he did. You know what that means? That we have a speaking God that speaks to humanity, and because you've entered into a covenant with Him through your relationship with the Lord Jesus, with Yeshua HaMashiach, God speaks to you today. Listen again. "Abram fell on his face and God talked with him". You know, there's large segments of the Christian community that has been taught that God isn't talking to people anymore, that the only way He talks is through the Bible. But God talks to us in multiplicity of ways. The question is, are we listening? Yeshua said, "He that has an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches".
The Holy Spirit, my beloved friends, was given to the church in Acts chapter 2 in the manifestation of what? A tongue, a tongue of fire. They were gathered in the upper room. The Holy Spirit fell and rested on each one there, all 120, as a tongue of fire. Why did the Lord choose to reveal Himself in the Spirit as a tongue? Because God's a speaking God. And even as He talked with Abram, He's speaking with you. And we just have to be sensitive. It's not always in an audible voice. It can be. But oftentimes, it's just through intuition. It's through your divine knower. You sense the leading of the Holy Spirit. And He teaches you and trains you as you give Him your attention and submit to Him and make him Lord and follow Him.
So Abram fell on his face and God talked with him saying, "As for me, my covenant is with you". God still is with you. He hasn't given up on you. He hasn't given up on you. Abram might have felt like God gave up on him because God gave him this promise, it didn't happen. Abraham might have wondered, where is God? Abraham could have thought, maybe this whole thing isn't real. But God reaffirmed him and said to him, "As for me, my covenant is with you". And my beloved friend, God is still with you. Those of you that have put your faith in the Lord Yeshua, God's covenant is still with you. He hasn't forsaken you. You might not feel Him right now.
Even as Abraham didn't probably feel Him when he was looking up into the sky at all those stars waiting for his offspring to become like those stars, and he didn't have one child through his own wife, he probably felt like completely forsaken sometimes. But God said, "As for me, Abram, my covenant is still with you". And my beloved friend, my brother and sister in the Lord, regardless of what you may or may not be feeling right now, God is with you even to the end. "As for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you will be a father..." There's a reinstitution of the promise. "You will be a father of a multitude of nations". Whatever it is that God has spoken to you that he's gonna do, provided you're cooperating with Him, He's gonna do it. Okay, so let's continue on. "No longer..."
Now, the Lord changes Abram's name here. the Lord changes Abram's name here to Abraham. "No longer should your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham (or Avraham); for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations". Even though Abram might have lost faith, God didn't lose faith. Even if Abram lost sight, the one that made the covenant with him didn't lose sight. And God has promised you and I that He is going to complete the good work He started in you and I, to conform us to the image of His Son. And once we are conformed to the image of His Son, we are going to be experiencing such joy, such fellowship. I mean, there's no words to describe what you and I are going to be experiencing when the work of God is finished in our life.
And the more that we are conformed to the image of His Son, which is the covenant that God made with us... Because the scripture says those whom he chose, he also called. And whom he called, Romans 8, he predestined. And whom he predestined, he conformed to the image of his Son. So that's what the call is. That's what the promise is. That you and I will be conformed to the image of God's Son. That's what our destiny is. A lot of people are looking for their destiny. I've heard people teach on television, you're not going to be fulfilled until you know what your assignment is, until you know what your destiny is.
And people think their destiny is somehow to have some type of position or some type of promotion in the world. No, the destiny, beloved, for God's children is to be conformed to the image of God's Son, Yeshua. And the more we become like Him, the more we're going to know Him. We'll see Him as he is. And in His presence is fullness of joy. So hang on, my friends, and don't be sidetracked. God's got a covenant with you, and He's going to fulfill the promise that He made to conform you to the image of the Son. And what better place could you be? What more could you ask for to have perfect fellowship with the God of heaven and earth that loves you so much that He chose you before the foundation of the world to be with Him forever in a way that you're blameless before Him being conformed to the image of Jesus.
I mean, you have to understand me when I'm saying this. These are not just words. I'm talking about seeing the beauty of God. I'm talking about experiencing the glory of God. I'm talking about being so saturated with His presence you will have no need. Like Yeshua said, you will hunger no more. You will thirst no more. That eye has not seen and ear has not heard the things that God has prepared for those that love Him. So be encouraged and keep your eyes straight. You have a promise. God has made a covenant with you to complete the work He started in you and perfect you in His Son. So let's continue on with the text here.
The Lord reaffirms the covenant. And the Lord says, "I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you and kings shall come forth from you. I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant," now here it is, get this, "to be God to you and to your descendants..." Get what I just said. A lot of preachers out there are like hanging in these carrots, like, if you follow me, you're going to get rich. But Abraham's exceedingly great reward was God Himself. God said to Abraham, "I am your exceedingly great reward".
And that's the same thing for you and I. He's our reward. In His presence is fullness of joy. So listen to what God says. "I will establish the covenant that I made with you," and here he goes to repeat it, "to be God to you". I love it. The covenant is, God says, "I'm going to be God to you". A lot of people are following God for something. They want it to be like a magic genie, right? They rub a bottle, a magic bottle, and boom! They get a new car, whatever it is they're looking for. No, that isn't the reward. God's your reward. He is happiness. He is joy. He is peace. He is fulfillment. He is rest. He is beauty. He is color. He is music. He is divine energy. God has promised to be God to you and I that belong to Him. That's enough.
"I will be God to you and your descendants, and I will give to you and your descendants after," get this now, "the land of your sojournings". All that's going on right now with Israel and all that surrounds that region of the world, God made a promise to Abraham, to Abram, that the land in which they sojourned, the land of Canaan, the land of Israel, that land was given to Abram and his physical descendants, the Israelites, and the Jewish people. Now, the Lord also said that when you obey Me, You're going to be able to live in the land and possess the land. But if you disobey Me, I'm going to drive you from the land and you'll be scattered to the nations. Yet the Lord said, "I will still have mercy on you and I will bring you back".
So even though it was conditional for Israel to live at peace in the land based on their obedience to Yahweh, the God of the covenant, the land was given to them permanently. They'd be able to enjoy it and live in it and be at rest there when they were living in obedience to Yahweh. If they were living in disobedience, they'd be driven out of it, but the land would never be taken away. I just want you to get that. This is why Jewish people cling so tightly to their land. They know that a promise was given to them. And so the Lord said, I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.
Now, on the next episode, the next time you're able to hear me teach on this subject, we're going to continue by looking at God Almighty's display of His glory and how He has to bring Abram's wife Sarai, whose name is now changed to Sarah, He has to bring her to a face-to-face encounter with Him. Because when He tells Sarah that He is going to fulfill this promise that He made to her husband, she laughs in God's face and said, "How are you going to do that when I am an old woman long since capable of bearing children"? And the Lord's going to respond back to her. I'm going to cover this again and again. That's one of my favorite scriptures. The Lord responds back to her: "Is anything impossible for God"? You know, God can do in one second what you could try your whole life to do and could never accomplish it. Beloved, God's got a plan for you. Seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will be added unto you. God has so much more for you, the God of the impossible, El Shaddai, the supernatural God, He has more for you and I than we could ever imagine.