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But our Eyes Are Upon You -- Prayer and Intercession January 30, 2020

1/31/2020

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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.
​
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

****
“But our eyes are upon you.”
This has been quite a week for the world and for Israel. The recent discovery of the Wuhan virus, the dramatic unveiling of the “Deal of the Century” peace plan, and the indictment of Israel’s prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu. Wow...

No doubt, rivers of digital ink are going to be poured out, with analysis, opinions, and explanations. Not only is Israel’s government and people are divided about the plan,   Christians too will be divided if this is from God or not, and how it fits into the prophetic calendar.

But the only “opinion” that really matters is the Lord’s.

What matters for us as intercessors and pray-ers is the Word of God. We may have many opinions, thoughts, interpretations of the Word, about the times, the season, the hour, whatever we may call it. But God is interested in His own opinions and not ours. As I have shared before, once when I was greatly moved by some terrible event that happened on the Gaza border, the Lord sternly cut my prayers short with this warning, “Ofer, don’t pray your opinions to Me!” I was responding to events in a sourish manner, praying emotionally, rather than standing before the Lord for His Word (will) to be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

And so we want to keep our eyes on the Lord Himself

Dan. 6:10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.

Do you notice that? “as was his custom since early days…”

Daniel had been going along with God’s program, without really being moved by threats, decrees, events.  And guess what? It was his praying over the words of Jeremiah that changed history, not the politicians of the day.

Isaiah 40 - What a view of our God — Our Limitless, Infinite God
The view I need, the view you need is of God as He is in Himself. Being human, we limit God in our own minds and heart, and “man” becomes a great thing, for good or bad. We need a sight of God to correct that. And the only safe, reliable, and true revelation of who God is, as He sees Himself, is found in the Word of God. And if you’re and my God does not fit what He has revealed Himself in the Word to be, either we are worshiping the wrong god, or our God is not God enough, as someone said.

Isaiah 40 gives us a view of God that we need, especially now. We must get a hold of this Word of God, we must regain the sight of our supreme God, infinite in all His attributes, limitless, unbound. Our great God.

“God’s will cannot be thwarted. So invincible is his power that no one, not even the greatest king or nation on earth, can “stay his hand.” No one, absolutely no one, has the right to question him, asking, “What have you done?” He alone is Lord of heaven and earth; he does as he pleases; he answers to no one but himself.” (1)

The wonder of it all is that this infinitely powerful God, is also infinitely good! His intent and purpose in this chapter are to bring salvation to His people and to reveal His Glory in the earth.

I highly recommend that you read this chapter devotionally. Thank God for who He is as He reveals Himself to be in this chapter. I guarantee you that you will be uplifted, your sight will clear up, and the things of earth will regain their proper size (Isaiah 40:22-23)

We prayed from this chapter.

We thanked God for His great greatness:
  • As the creator: Isaiah 40:12, 21-22, 25-26
  • For His infinite Spirit, knowledge, justice: Isaiah 40:13-14
  • For His authority and dominion: Isaiah 40:15-17, 23

We thanked God for His Sovereignty and prayed
  • That He would carry out His own plan for Israel, and not her own vision of herself
  • That He would carry out His own plan in spite of the nations resistance and rebellion
  • That He would carry out His own plan in spite of the Church’s view and plan that is otherwise
  • We prayed that God will disappoint all wrong opinions of Him, and establish His own purpose for, in, and through Israel.
  • We prayed for His Glory to shine forth as He comes to redeem His people
  • We prayed that whatever is not of the Lord in the peace plan, He will obliterate and remove
  • We prayed that whatever is of the Lord in these plans, he will establish…
  • We cried out for the Will of God to be done now on the earth and in Israel.

We thanked God for our Savior-Shepherd-Comforter Isaiah 40:1-2, 10-11
The expressions in these verses are breathtaking. Here God is saying to a stiff-necked, rebellious people who have rejected Him, “It is hard for you, sin has caused you great sorrow. I am coming with saving mercies, which will comfort your heart!” To a wayward people who have gone their own way (see Isaiah 53:6), He says, “I will look for you, I will find you, will gather you in my arms, I will bring you to myself.”
  • We cried out to God to come and comfort His people in great saving mercies
  • We cried out to God to bring the comfort of His presence once again in this land
  • We asked the Lord to send the comforter, who would reveal our savior to us as a nation
  • We cried for the gathering of our people from the diaspora
  • We asked for God to retrieve us from all the ways and byways where they have been aimlessly walking in their lost condition.
  • We prayed for the healing sight of The One who was lifted up on the cross.
  • We prayed for the drawing power of the cross and the sight of the crucified one to draw the hearts of Israel to God (John 12:32)
  • We asked the Lord to open the eyes of the Jewish people, to His great goodness, His great tenderness, Hi great forgiveness in Messiah, and His great glorious Being. O’ that we might, as a nation, know the I AM, the great God of Israel and the Father of our Messiah Yeshua

We prayed for the Body of Messiah to be brought again to a great high view of God
  • We prayed for a revelation of our Great High God as Isiah had in Isaiah 6
  • We prayed for God’s coal from the altar of the cross to be applied to our mouths!
  • We prayed for ministry to flow out of this kind of revelation of Yeshua both crucified and reigning supreme
  • We cried out to God in repentance that we, as a Body, walk in a different spirit than the Holy Spirit.
  • We cried out to God in repentance that we as a Body walk by a different or changed Word, rather than His Word. (Our will or His Will?)
  • We asked the Lord to rise up in great authority in the Body and to bring His Body to be under Himself as the Head
  • We asked for true worship to arise out of a renewed sight of Him as He is.

“Oh O Lord Jesus, how long, how long, Ere we shout the glad song, Christ returneth! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen. Hallelujah! Amen.”

May the reading of Isaiah 40 bring you a new revelation of the greatness of God, of His great love and tenderness as our Shepherd and Savior. May you have a renewed appreciation and joy of your salvation and redemption. May you be revived in your walk after God with renewed passion and desire to give yourself to Him again and entirely. May you give your life to seek His face. May you give yourself to intercede for His Kingdom, for Israel, and for the Church.


Blessings from Jerusalem,






_________________________________________________________________
1. Barrett, Matthew. None Greater (p. 187). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.



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A warning to the nations, a wake-up call to the Jewish people and to the Body of Christ

1/23/2020

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Fifth World Holocaust Forum - The largest diplomatic event in Israel’s history!
The Forum this year will commemorate the 75th liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

It theme is:
 “Remembering the Holocaust, Fighting Antisemitism,”

The peculiar thing about this year’s Forum: 
It was hoped that 10 or 15 world leaders would agree to attend. Instead, it has become the largest diplomatic event in Israel’s history. 

Delegations from 49 countries, including 41 heads of states, are in Israel at this moment. The US vice president, Mr. Pence, Russia’s president, Mr. Putin, Prince Charles of Britain, French president Mr. Macron, and many other kings and heads of states.

Why is this significant - A  warning to the nations
First: We are in a time of growing denial of the Holocaust, and an alarming increase of anti-Semitism in the world. Significantly, the leaders of the nations are acknowledging it.

Second: We are living in the time of Israel’s restoration, and this could be God, calling the nations to warn them before they descend into deeper darkness and further rebellion against God, His people, and His unfolding plan. It will be very destructive, Psalm 2:10-12


Here is why I think this is the case
Last night, on Wednesday, Prominent Holocaust scholar, Professor Yehuda Bauer, delivered the keynote address at a festive dinner held for about 45 heads of states that were present. (Putin and Pence came only this morning on Thursday.) 

He claimed (rightly I believe) that the deadliest military conflict in history, claiming anywhere between 70 to 85 million lives, including 6 million Jews, was caused by hatred for the Jews!

He was given eleven minutes to do this, eleven Minutes! They spent far more time eating than listening to what I believe is, a warning from God.

The most chilling part is Prof. Bauer’s quote of Hitler: “Today I will once more be a prophet: If the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war” – as we all know, World War I was caused by the Jews, right? – “then the result will not be the bolshevization of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe” Die Vernichtung der jüdischen Rasse in Europa. So, the Jewish capitalists rule the West, and what they want is the victory of Bolshevism. The result will be the annihilation of the Jews.“

And here is the warning: “Anti-Semitism is not a Jewish illness, but a non-Jewish one; it is a cancer that kills and destroys your nations and your countries.” And, this, “…..fight anti-Semitism. Not because of the Jews, but to protect your societies from a deadly cancer.” 

The caption for the text in the Times of Israel was: Holocaust scholar’s speech to world leaders: Anti-Semitism destroys your nations

Read more about it here

Will it be heeded? Will the nations respond? Have they read Psalm 2? Will your country  respond!

Personally, I believe that although diplomatic activity regarding these things is important, these efforts will never win the battle against Israel-hatred, and antisemitism. It is a spiritual battle that is leading to the final confrontation between the nations and God. We as believers have an important role to play, we are called to stand before the Lord and call upon His name.


"Israel is God’s Spectacle to all the world, by which HIS MERCY SHALL BE MADE KNOWN - a Visible Demonstration in The Last Days - to “the nations of them that are saved,” Rev. 21:24. Israel - The Mystery Nation - carries through into The Revelation Prophecy. THERE appears those who are SEALED IN THEIR FOREHEADS, and “who follow the Lamb, whithersoever He goeth.” Redeemed? Yes. Washed in The Blood of The Lamb? Yes. Saved by Grace through Faith? Yes. BUT the ONLY NATION mentioned BY NAME among the Ransomed Throngs in The Revelation Vision. For these very reasons, we declare that the anti-semitic spirit - HATE THE JEWS - is one of the most deadly spirits in the world." (Rex Andrews, The Mystery of Israel")


We must pray!

But this is also a warning to Israel and the Jews of the Diaspora 
In March of 1939, weeks before Britain published the ‘white papers’ (May 1939) effectively slamming shut the doors of Palestine to the Jews of Europe, the Jews of Poland, sent a desperate telegram to London, begging the British to keep the doors of Palestine open! 

It went unheeded. You can read about it here.

[I thank God that my grandmother, a dentist in Poland, saw the dangers already in 1933 when Hitler came to power and pushed the family out of Europe. By 1935, her family was already in Palestine. Just four years later, the doors were slammed shut!]

Just as most of the Jews of Europe delayed dealing with leaving Europe for Palestine, so today, millions of Jews are refusing to read the signs of the times and are delaying their decision to come to Israel. 

We must pray!

The Body of Christ must wake up!
Instead of being so taken up with their comfort, welfare, and seeking of blessing as their highest goal in life, Christians should awaken to the dangerous times they are living in. Dangerous to their nation, dangerous to the believers, and dangerous to Israel. 

Christians must learn to seek the face of God, make the Bible their primary book, and learn to pray with understanding!

While some focus on praying for the political side of these things, I prefer to pray the scriptures. There is no indication that Daniel, for instance, ever used his political ‘connections’ to try to influence the king of Babylon to restore the Jews. He prayed from the Word (Jeremiah). Neither did Esther. Her act was not a political one but an intercessory one. They prayed according to the Word of God, and even risked their lives to do so! So should we, (pray I mean.)

Pray for the gathering of the Jews from the nations. There are many other scriptures and promises regarding God’s gathering of the Jews from the lands where they willingly remain in exile. Take some time, find them, pray them, I urge you. See for instance Ezekiel 39:21-29

Pray for your nation. God’s warnings are not idle threats. Remember the devastation of Germany in WWII. Take a look at the condition of the nations around Israel at this time. See how the cancer of the Jew-hatred and Israel-hatred has devastated their lands.

Psalm 2 is an example, See also Zechariah 12, especially Zech 12:10

Pray for the salvation of Israel Ezekiel 39:21-29, Zechariah 12:10-13:1

Pray for the Body of Christ in the nations. You can find many places in the scriptures that speak of the spiritual condition of Israel; there are great parallels to the condition of the Body today. 

Read Malachi. Is the Church offering God worthy sacrifices? Is the Church wholeheartedly serving the Lord in the Word? Is the Church faithful to God’s view of marriage, money? Is the Church faithful to God and serving him wholeheartedly? 

Will you pray for the purifying work of the Lord in your own life? In your fellowship’s life - Malachi 3:1-5. 

Will you trust the Lord to work in this fiery way in your own life. Do not be afraid to yield to His nail-pierced hands as He works to sanctify you and prepare you for the things ahead.


Blessing from Jerusalem,


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Prayer and Intercession January 17, 2020

1/17/2020

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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.
​
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

****
Mercy
Rom. 11:30 For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience,
Rom. 11:31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy.
Rom. 11:32 For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.


God’s Love regarding Israel is expressed in three ways
It was in His sovereign Love that God chose Israel - Deuteronomy 7:7
It was in His Love that God covenanted with Israel - Jeremiah 31:3, 31:31-34
It will be in His Love and mercy (mercy is ‘love acting’) He will restore them - Hosea 14:4, Romans 11:28

Our understanding of God’s Love
Our understanding of Love is so hopelessly entangled by the ideas of the world, that we need revelation from the Word of God as to what it is! Will the anti-Christ seem loving, caring? Will he offer false mercy and grace to the world? Indeed it seems so. (See the beginning verses in 1John 4.)

We must get a profound and real revelation of the Love of God as it is in the cross of Yeshua, His redemptive death. It is there where we see the true light and begin to understand what Love actually is. And it is there that we start to understand Yeshua’s call to follow Him. 

1John 4:9 In this the Love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
1John 4:10 In this is Love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be
 the propitiation for our sins (or as JFB paraphrases it: “Not that we did any act of love at any time to God, but that He did the act of love to us in sending Christ.”)

At no time has Israel ever achieved or deserved God’s love, choice, covenants. We have failed miserably so many times, and yet! God will have His day and say and way. Romans 11:31 says that the same mercy that came to the gentiles through calvary will be the mercy that restores Israel.

God’s Love is unconditional, and His purposes incapable of failing.

In the power of the cross: 
God the Son will reveal Himself to us - Zechariah 12:10
God the Spirit will come upon us to give us repentance - Zechariah 12:10
God the Father will gather us to Himself to be with Him forever - Jeremiah 24:7, Zephaniah 3:14-17, Ezekiel 37:26-28

Israel’s restoration to God through Messiah seems to me to be the most important (not the only important) point of prayer. The longer we pray for her salvation and restoration, the more aware we are of the battle in prayer over this point. The stakes are enormous for the world and the Church: Romans 11:11, 15
  • O’ for the Redeemer to come out of Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob (Romans 11:26)
  • Save now O’ Lord, we pray, Save NOW, send success O’ God and redeem your people (Psalm 118:25)
  • Turn us, and we shall be turned O’ God Lamentations 5:21
  • Purge us with hyssop (sprinkle thy blood upon us), and we shall be clean (Psalm 51:7)
  • Hide your face from our sins, and look upon your own Son at the cross dear Lord (Psalm 51:9
  • Create in us a clean (pure) heart O’ God (Psalm 51:10)
  • Restore to us your presence dear Lord, let our King come and reign
  • Lord send upon Israel a longing for you and for your Word (1Samuel 7:2)
  • Send upon us a hunger for your Word and your Word only )Amos 8:11)
  • How long O’ Lord will you have your people sit in darkness (Isaiah 9:2)
  • Lord make Israel a praise in the earth (Isaiah 62:7 - without salvation, how could Israel be a praise on the earth for God?) 
  • Restore your reputation in the earth by the salvation of Israel dear Lord (Ezekiel 36:22-27) 
  • Open Israel’s eyes to the fountain for cleansing that has been opened since calvary (Zechariah 13:1)
  • Rule over us, our Great King, with an outstretched arm (Yeshua revealed - Ezekiel 20:33-34)
  • Draw us to yourself O’ Lord by the Love of God in our crucified King (Jeremiah 31:3)
  • Lord, we so long for yourself, your presence in this land, we cannot stand it. Return O’ God into our midst as you have promised (Ezekiel 37:27)

Pray for the Body of Messiah
Pray for the Body in the same way. There must be a revelation of the cross, a hunger for the Word, a longing for Yeshua Himself, an overwhelming revelation of our need for Him as believers! See Psalm 42:1-9, see (and pray) Psalm 63:1-9


Pray for the new situation in the ME
It seems quite providential that the US has taken out such an arch-terrorist as Sulimani. Is this God’s way of bringing the US into the fray? Many analysts are saying many things, but we firmly believe the future is in God’s hands, and He is sovereignly leading events. 
If you need inspiration to pray into these matters, pray from Isaiah 40, especially Isaiah 40:4-5, 12-18

There is no doubt: God is sovereignly leading events to His desired ends, although it may seem as if everything is out of control. Yet, this leads us to a greater vigil rather than laxity in prayer (Luke 18:1-8)

It is our sincerest hope that these communications will serve to develop your own prayer life and call to intercession. That these communications will stir up your Love for God and a more deep-seated desire to seek His face over His Word.


Blessings from Jerusalem,








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Prayer and Intercession January 9, 2020

1/9/2020

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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.
​
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

****
For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore, …you…are not consumed. (Mal. 3:6)

This new year has turned out to be not so new after all. The same old hatred, violence, and greed for power and dominance continue as usual. The same old mankind, ever falsely believing, and hoping in its own goodness to make things better, is hopelessly in need of God but does not know it. 

We are grateful that something else has not changed this year, God's sovereignty, God's faithfulness, and God's goodness. Thank God!

He continues as ever to unfold His plan for this earth. He will not leave the earth, or mankind for that matter, forever in the hands of man. He is working providentially to fulfill His purposes on the earth, and that also means Israel. He reigns! 

Thus says the Lord
For our prayers, we considered the ten "thus says the Lord" declarations in Zechariah 8. They unfold the amazing and marvelous power and goodness of God. You will have to read chapter 7 to understand the flow of the mind of God in this chapter, and you might as well read beyond chapter 8 to see where it is going. 

I am jealous for Zion (Zech 8:2-3)
God is "red hot" and determined deeply to return to His chosen abode to dwell amongst His people.


Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city (Zech 8:3) 
When was Jerusalem ever a faithful city? But this is her destiny. It is only possible when Messiah will rule in our midst. 


  • We deeply acknowledged our need of Messiah
  • We owned up to our unfaithfulness to Him, as a nation
  • We acknowledged our rejection of Messiah
  • We cried out to the Lord for the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon Israel, in great conviction, in a tremendous, overwhelming flood of grace to bring about a brokenness of heart that acknowledges our rejection of our King and Savior
  • We recognized this has to be the work of God, and that our nation is unable to produce this turning by ourselves. We cried out to God, to do the impossible. (Zech 8:6)

Old men and old women,,, boys and girls will fill the streets… I will bring them from east and west 
(Zech 8:7)
Looking at Israel today, we may miss the wonder of its restoration. But looking back in history, even 150 or 200 years ago, the land was desolate, and the Jewish people were hopelessly and helplessly at the mercy of the nations, they resided in.
But there is more here. Jerusalem is called the Faithful City, the Holy Mountain. This means not only a people returned, but a people transformed! A holy people, a people, reconciled to their God in Messiah.  

  • We thanked God for the wondrous restoration of Israel to the land, it is all His Work, it is all His faithful fulfillment of His Word and Promise
  • We asked the Lord "turn us, and we shall be turned, restore us, and we shall be restored
  • We cried out to God for this wondrous work of the physical restoration of the Jewish people to their land
  • We prayed for these words to be fulfilled to the fullest, to fill the land with a transformed people who rejoice in their Messiah and King.
  • We asked the Lord to break through the bondage of a religion that relegates Yeshua to being a blasphemer instead of acknowledging His Messiahship
  • We asked the Lord to break through the culture bondage that has kept Yeshua out!
  • We prayed for a greater fulfillment yet, of the ingathering of His people to the land

As I have plotted disaster to you….so again I have plotted good to Jerusalem (Zech 8:14-15)
The word "purposed" (ESV) in those verses is a word that means to plot. Usually that word is used in a negative way, but here it is God who is plotting! And His purpose is to plot good! The sense is that 'with resourcefulness and discretion, God will (is) carry on His plan. It is all there, plain as can be for anyone to see, in scripture, but it is hidden from man who is blinded by his own wickedness and rebellion against the Lord and against His anointed (Psalm 2)

  • We prayed for the Lord's plots to be carried out in great success
  • We prayed for the goodness of God (in Messiah and in His cross) to overwhelm every evil plot of the enemy who is dead set on our destruction
  • We prayed for the providence of the Lord to guide His mercies and grace to their ultimate goal (Hab. 2:14)

We prayed briefly into the new situation regarding Iran in light of those verses. 
We prayed in light of His eternal plan, and in light of the prophecies of Zechariah.
We see God's sovereign hand in the affairs of the world, and in the Middle East in particular. The Lord may be "dragging" the US into the fray to help Israel handle Iran. Everything is too fresh right now to make assessments, and we all need the patience to see how things will develop. Meanwhile, we can continue to pray into the Will of God as it is made plain in the scriptures regarding all of these things, and then, we must wait for wisdom and light, rather than rush to predict or find a verse or two that might fit into the situation. 


We prayed briefly for the (third) coming elections in March.
​


Dear friends, the one most important thing that needs to change is you (and me). And the only real agent of change is the Lord. 

2Cor. 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Perhaps, this year can be a New Year for us after all, if we turn to Him, and if we behold Him, and if we yield to the Holy Spirit as He transforms us from the inside out, till we shine, transformed and conformed to His image.  (Romans 8:29) 

Blessings from Jerusalem,



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