He Staggered Not

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief;  
but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;  
Rom. 4:20 

Prayer creates tension and struggle
Prayer creates tension in the life of the one praying; on the one hand are the vast promises of God, on the other is the situation, or reality of things as they are in the world. The more one continues to pray; the more one feels this tension and resistance to the fulfillment of the promise.

Prayer often leads one into an immense spiritual struggle, personal or otherwise. Just read of David’s struggle in prayer for Israel when he went against the prohibition to count the people of Israel. (1Chro. 21), or Jeremiah’s intense agony in prayer over Israel’s condition (Lamentations), or Esther’s struggle in interceding against the annihilation of her people. 

Israel’s existence is greatly contested
There is perhaps no matter so contested— in both the spiritual and physical realm— as the existence and restoration of Israel in these last times. I cannot remember a time, since the establishment of the State of Israel, where her existence was not threatened. There is not a more prevailing and widespread hatred in the world today as the hatred of the Jew and the hatred of the Jewish nation. 

The latest one to express this hatred is the commander of the Basij militia of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Mohammad Reza Naqdi who has declared that “erasing Israel off the map” is “nonnegotiable.”1

Iran is the current greatest threat to Israel’s existence. It is feverishly attempting to build a nuclear bomb with the goal of annihilating Israel, it supports its proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the rebel movements in Syria, Yemen. 

In Islam and especially Iran, the spiritual, physical, and political resistance to the promises and purposes of God on the earth, are all coalesced into one great opposing force.

He staggered not
How, then, shall we stand in prayer without staggering against such opposition? Let us learn from Abraham the secret of prevailing in faith with God. For the battle of prayer, is really a battle of faith. 

“(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickens the dead, and calls those things which be not as though they were.  Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. Rom. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;  And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” Romans 4:17-21

Briefly, let us see what Abraham did and what he didn’t do, and the result of such a choice.

What Abraham looked at

1. Looked at, and to, the God who raises the dead. 
2. Looked at, and to, the God who creates out of nothing.

What Abraham refused to look at

1. His own body - which was good as dead 
2. Sarah’s body - that could no longer produce.

The result of such choice

1. He did not waver — his heart was not divided. 
2. His faith was strengthened unto giving glory to God (we glorify God when we believe Him.)

You understand that this does not mean that Abraham was blind to his body’s  condition. Rather, he did not look to his body to produce and fulfill the promise of God. Only God can fulfill what God promises, and what he saw of God, diminished every other consideration; yea, obliterated it. 

That is the faith that will fuel our prayers unto victory. 

The counsel of God shall stand
“….I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is no other, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, I say, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all that I please.” Isaiah 46:9-10

This declaration, and others like it, greatly encourages my faith. No matter how many enemies rise against His Word, His victory is assured twice over. First, because He is God and there is no other and second, because of Calvary! Yeshua has won the victory, He has risen from the dead and is coming back to reign over His people and over the earth. There is no force on earth or under the earth of in the heavens that can stop it.

Its Passover time
Tomorrow, Israel will be celebrating the Passover, again. We have been doing this for well over 3,000 years now. Every year, we remember our deliverance from Egypt, and with it we celebrate all our many, many deliverances, throughout the ages.

There is a part in the Haggada (the telling of  the Passover story on Passover eve.) where we recount His interventions to save us from our enemies. We recite and sing:“That which stood for our ancestors applies to us as well. For it was not only one individual who stood up against us to destroy us. Rather, in every generation they stand up against us to destroy us. But the Holy One, Blessed Be He, redeems us from their hands.”

By faith we say that we shall continue to sing of these deliverances till He comes. 

A blessed Passover to each one of you.  Keep Praying!

Blessings and love from Israel,

Pastor Ofer Amitai


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1. BERMAN, LAZAR. "Iran Militia Chief: Destroying Israel Is ‘non Negotiable’." The Times of Israel 31 Mar. 2015. Web. <http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-militia-chief-destroying-israel-nonnegotiable/?utm_source=The Times of Israel Daily Edition&utm_campaign=37bcbb641e-2015_03_31&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-37bcbb641e-54468053>.