Every Wednesday evening we gather for intercession for the restoration of Israel.
The following is shared with you to help you in your own praying and interceding.
These are prayer directions rather than prayer points.
We want to leave room for the Holy Spirit to lead you and your group to pray as you are led.
You can also read these prayer notes at:
http://www.israelprayercenter.org/weekly-prayer-intercession
If you would like to receive these Prayer Directions regularly, or
If at any time you want to be removed from the list, please write us at:
ofer@israelprayercenter.org
The following is shared with you to help you in your own praying and interceding.
These are prayer directions rather than prayer points.
We want to leave room for the Holy Spirit to lead you and your group to pray as you are led.
You can also read these prayer notes at:
http://www.israelprayercenter.org/weekly-prayer-intercession
If you would like to receive these Prayer Directions regularly, or
If at any time you want to be removed from the list, please write us at:
ofer@israelprayercenter.org
The whole creation groans
Romans 8:20-22 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
The verses above describe, in a nutshell, the horror that is the fall of mankind, and of creation together with it. They also point to its only hope —deliverance by the intervention of the Living God in the history of mankind. “Creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” Mankind’s only hope is God’s move to complete His plan and agenda.
“The whole creation groans.” While still here in South Africa*, I have been awakened, again, to the horrific state the earth is in. Perhaps it is because of what the game warden told us regarding the rhinos in the park. They have to be guarded carefully as poachers do their utmost to cut their horns and sell them as an aphrodisiac in the Far East! A kilo fetches something like 65,000 dollars! The rhino bleeds to death as a result of this, of course, and as a whole, is threatened with extinction within ten short years.
Or maybe it is reading the history of South Africa and all the struggles and suffering that have gone on here, especially after gold and diamonds were found in the late 19th century. Or perhaps it is because of reading a history of the two world wars. Mankind is stark raving mad, fallen, yet still under the delusion that he can fix itself and the earth!
Of all people in the world, God’s children in Messiah know this best. It is therefore astounding that we as God’s Body on the earth, are not calling upon His name, interceding and pleading for His Kingdom to come. How is it that we, as the Church, are not consumed with both the need of the earth and a desire for Him? How is it that we are so taken up with praying for ourselves, our needs, our wellbeing, our own personal fulfillment? How can it be thus?
Calling on the Name of the Lord
Gen. 12:7-8 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.
While at first reading it might seem that Abraham was simply just ‘having his quiet time’, it is more likely that living in a sea of idolatry and evil, Abraham is calling upon the name of the Lord to do His will on the earth, unfold His plan and fulfill His promises. No doubt Abraham understood from the God’s word, spoken to him in Gen 12:1-3 that through him, God would begin the restoration process in which he would restore mankind to Himself.
In His book, ‘Calling on the Name of the Lord’, Gary Millar argues that calling on the name of the Lord is a specific activity. It is “prayer that asks God to deliver on his covenantal promises.”1 Elsewhere in the book, Millar argues that this term is not a vague description of all kinds of praying but is a specific cry for God to “rescue his people and to act in judgment and salvation.”2
Although the Bible records many types of prayer, indeed the main activity of prayer is to stand before the Lord and call on Him to fulfill His covenant promises. Is not this the main point of the only prayer Yeshua taught? “So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.” Luke 11:2
In other words, prayer is meant to mainly serve God’s purposes on earth rather than be a tool to get what we want. “Seek the kingdom of God first,” would certainly fit into this understanding.
We are not saying that God doesn’t delight in hearing and answering our cries to Him, after all, He is our Father who knows our need even before we become aware of it and cry to him regarding it. Nevertheless, God’s people are meant to be seized by God’s desires and passion and plan; we are not meant to wait for His coming passively but to greatly desire it, live for it, and pray for it. “Thy Kingdom come!”
Praying for Israel
It is clear from Romans 9-11 that Israel’s fall, and then restoration, are all part of that Great Plan of God. “…..through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles,…Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?…..if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:11-12, 15)
Verse 15 is the point of it all. Israel’s restoration is right in the main line of God’s work on the earth to fulfill what He already promised to do - from Genesis 3:15 to the last chapter of Revelation — when at last mankind (those who turn to God through Yeshua) will be united with Him forever.
Paul means in this epistle to give the Church the wisdom, vision, passion, and humility it needs (see Romans 11:25) so that it might call on the name of the Lord to fulfill His covenantal promises to Israel, to the Church and on the earth! Praying for Israel’s restoration is not a matter politics, nor of personal like or dislike but rather is imperative to the unfolding of God’s kingdom purposes.
Lastly - Praying for Israel in light of the imminent threat of war
Several top military officials in Israel have boldly and persistently been declaring that war this year is imminent. In light of the just revealed fact that Iran is producing chemical warheads for their rockets, and transferring them to Hezbollah, it is urgent and vital that we call on the name of the Lord, not only for Israel’s restoration but her protection as well.
We give her Jehoshaphat’s prayer in full. Although the phrase ‘called upon the name of the Lord” does not appear in it, the prayer is a wonderful example of what it means to do so. Jehoshaphat knew His God, knows Israel’s history (what God has done), and he knows what God had promised to do covenantally. That’s all he needed in order to pray successfully, and Israel was delivered.
May you be inspired to call upon the name of the Lord. May you be awakened to your high calling to stand in the earth and intercede. May you be as Anna and Simeon who lived to see the one they prayed for — the Savior!
2Chr. 20:5 Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court,
2Chr. 20:6 and said: “O LORD God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You?
2Chr. 20:7 Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever?
2Chr. 20:8 And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying,
2Chr. 20:9 “If disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.’
2Chr. 20:10 And now, here are the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir—whom You would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and did not destroy them--
2Chr. 20:11 here they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit.
2Chr. 20:12 O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”
Abundant blessings in Yeshua,
Thanks for standing with us for all the will of God to be done in these last days. All for His Glory alone!
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1. Millar, Gary. Calling on the Name of the Lord (New Studies in Biblical Theology) (p. 18). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
2. Millar, Gary. Calling on the Name of the Lord (New Studies in Biblical Theology) (p. 23). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
* Article of Interest: As you know Cape Town is about to run out of water. Israel has solutions but because of BDS and anti-Israel feelings, South Africa has shunned any connection with Israel. Now in desperation there is a reversal of feelings. Very interesting to us while we are still here. We do hope there will be a breakthrough and South Africa will let Israel help. May it be a real turn around of relationships between the two nations.
As ‘Day Zero’ looms, South Africa open to Israeli water tech, researcher says
https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-day-zero-looms-south-africa-open-to-israeli-tech-researcher-says/