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That They May Know That I Am the LORD - Prayer and Intercession February 14, 2020

2/14/2020

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

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That they may know that I am the LORD

We prayed along three lines: Israel and God, Israel and the nations, God and the nations.In all cases, the outcome of what God does is the same: They shall know that I am the LORD!

Israel will know that He is the Lord through salvation, the nations will know that He is the Lord when they see His great works in Israel, and the nations who resist God will know that He is the Lord through judgment.

Israel and God - You shall know that I am the Lord
Ezek. 20:42 Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I raised My hand in an oath to give to your fathers.
Ezek. 20:43 And there you shall remember your ways and all your doings with which you were defiled; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight because of all the evils that you have committed.
Ezek. 20:44 Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have dealt with you for My name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways nor according to your corrupt doings, O house of Israel,” says the Lord GOD.’ ”

Israel shall know that He is the LORD; how? By the mercies He does; He will return them to the land, will grant them repentance, will sanctify them, (Ezekiel 36:23) Each of these are all the work of the pure mercies of God

Read the whole chapter, and you will find those mercies shining like jewels on the background of the dark and evil condition of our people. We rebelled (repeated three times), we despised, profaned, provoked. Yet he spared us, withdrew His hand of punishment, and pleaded with us. Oh, how gracious, lowly, and merciful is this God. How patient and kind.

But to fully gain sight of this, we must take in that it is in Yeshua crucified that these mercies become ours.

2Cor. 5:20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

The word ‘pleading’ in the verse quoted means: to summon to one’s side in order to admonish and console. Can you believe it? God is consoling us, who have rejected Him?! Yes, pleading with our nation to come to Him by faith and receive salvation by Grace! O’ what a God is this?! How gracious and merciful and kind is His holy love!

Israel needs to be reconciled to God through the Messiah, and it is coming. Soon the Day will dawn of His appearing. Soon the Day will dawn of the Revelation of the Son of God, our King, and Messiah

Nevertheless, as it is now, Israel stands on the wrong side of the cross. And for this, we cried to the Lord on her behalf.

We thanked God for His utter and unfathomable lowliness in which He is pleading with Israel and beseeching her to be reconciled to Himself.
We cried out to God that in His lowliness, He would pour out The Spirit of brokenness and repentance upon us. (Zechariah 12:10)
We prayed that His promise to come to us would be fulfilled - It is Him we need, it is Him we want
We prayed that His promise to give us a new heart and a new spirit would be fulfilled
We acknowledged that although we have been resurrected physically as a nation, we are dead spiritually.
We cried for the spiritual resurrection of our people. See Ezekiel 37:8-9
We prayed for the religious in the land, who are so bound by fear and works that they might see Yeshua crucified for them
We prayed for the secular who are bound by the fear of being restricted. They see anything that has to do with God as limiting rather than freeing! O’ that they too might see the crucified one and know what true love is!
We prayed for the children of the land - growing wild and free of all sense of God. We cried to the great shepherd, our good shepherd to come to the children of the land, to gather them, to save them in His great compassion
We asked the Lord to send laborers, ambassadors as it were, who would plead with the people for God
Help us, O God of our salvation, For the glory of Your name; And deliver us, and provide atonement for our sins, For Your name’s sake! Psa. 79:9

Israel and the nations - They shall know that I am the Lord
Is. 62:1 For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, And her salvation as a lamp that burns.
Is. 62:2 The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, And all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD will name.

A great light will shine in the earth when God saves this nation. A light that will shine and pierce the deep darkness this world is steeped in.

What Light is this? The Light of the Glory of God in the face of Yeshua the Messiah. It is the Light of salvation and of the pure mercies of God, the Light of justification by faith and salvation by grace through faith!

What will be Israel’s righteousness? (She has none of her own.) It will be His imputed righteousness in Messiah. It will be that in Israel, God will demonstrate the unimaginable power of Grace and Love. The power of His cleansing blood.

Israel’s salvation will fill the world with Light! God will be seen as He is in Himself. God will be seen in what He does in the Land. Perhaps it will be the greatest act of evangelism the world has ever known. The nations will know that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah is the LORD

Ezek. 36:23 And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD,” says the Lord GOD, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes

Why this demonstration? Because God loves the world. It's not that He loves Israel more than the other nations, its that Israel is His special, chosen vessel to reveal God’s nature, character, and power on the earth!

We prayed for Israel’s restoration in this Light of her calling to be a light in the earth
We pleaded with God for the sake of the peoples of the earth to not delay any longer
We asked Him to turn the Light of salvation on!
We asked Him to glorify Himself in Israel that the peoples of the earth might turn to Him
We thanked God for His plan of mercy for the nations
We asked God to turn many in the nations to Him
We remembered that the queen of Sheba was drawn the land to see for herself the works of God through Solomon. Yet, there is a One who is greater than Solomon.
O’ may even our enemies see the Grace of God in action and be astounded and confounded
May many in the nations, especially Iran, see such a great light that they are freed from the darkness they are in and turn to the Living God.
May, the Church in the Arab nations around us, believe the Word and pray these things so as to be a light even now in their nations
May many in the nations come asking: Who is this God who shines this way? What is this, Mercy? What is this, Grace? Who is this Messiah, the Son of God?

God and the nations — they shall know that I am the LORD
Ezek. 28:22 and say, “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Sidon; I will be glorified in your midst; and they shall know that I am the LORD, When I execute judgments in her and am hallowed in her.
Ezek. 38:16 You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes.”
Ezek. 38:23 Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.”

God is made known, not only in His grace and mercy but also in judgment.
Those nations who respond with hatred and rebellion to the display of God’s goodness to Israel (as a testimony to His gracious offer - see Psalm 2:10-12) will have to find out that God is the LORD by another means - Judgment.

We already see this hatred and evil against Israel’s physical restoration, what will the reaction be to her spiritual restoration? Just read the latest expression, for instance, of this hatred, coming from Iran: “Top Iranian official: We’re looking for a pretext to raze Tel Aviv to the ground” read here

But even judgment can bring life if that nation relents.

Psa. 83:16 Fill their faces with shame, That they may seek Your name, O LORD.
Psa. 83:17 Let them be confounded and dismayed forever; Yes, let them be put to shame and perish,
Psa. 83:18 That they may know that You, whose name alone is the LORD, Are the Most High over all the earth.

We prayed in this Light for the nations of the earth, especially where there is such a rise of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel hatred
We prayed for the Lord’s defense for Israel against those immediate neighboring countries who are animated by a Great Hatred for God and Israel.
We prayed into the situation in Syria — the situation on the Golan is tense
We prayed for God’s defense against the growing tide of anti-Israel and anti-Semitism (same really) in the nations.
We thanked God for Israel’s military but pleaded for God to defend her

Thank you for praying and standing with us for the whole counsel of God to come to pass.

O’ that each of one us will pursue the LORD and cry to Him: “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” (Phil. 3:10) So that we may be conformed to His image. (Romans 8:29)

Blessings from Jerusalem,

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Troubled Times: Prayer and Intercession February 6, 2020

2/6/2020

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Who can truly estimate the mighty power of Intercessory prayer?!

When D.L. Moody went to London to “learn from the Bible scholars”, he was invited to preach in a London church. “Everything about the service dragged”, and Mr. Moody wished he had “never consented to preach.”

“There was a woman in the city who had heard of Mr. Moody’s work in America and had been asking God to send him to London. This woman was an invalid. Her sister was present at the church that Sunday morning. When the hearer reached home, she asked her sister to guess who had spoken for them that morning. She guessed one after another of those with whom her pastor was in the habit of exchanging, never guessing aright. Her sister said, ‘No, Mr. Moody from Chicago.’

“The sick woman turned pale and said, ‘This is an answer to my prayer. If I had known that he was to be at our church, I should have eaten nothing this morning but waited on God in prayer. Leave me alone this afternoon: do not let anyone come to see me; do not send me any thing to eat.’ All that afternoon, that woman gave herself to prayer. As Mr. Moody preached that night, he soon became conscious that there was a different atmosphere in the church. ‘The powers of an unseen world seemed to fall’ upon him and his hearers. As he drew to a close, he felt impressed to give out an invitation. He asked for all who would accept Christ to rise. Four or five hundred people rose. He thought that they misunderstood him, and so he put the question several ways that there might be no mistake. But no, they had understood. He then asked them to go to an adjoining room. As they passed out, he asked the pastor of the church who these people were. He replied, ‘I do not know.’ ‘Are they your people?’ ‘Some of them.’ ‘Are they Christians?’ ‘I do not think so.’

“In that adjoining room, he put the question very strongly, but still there were just as many who rose. He told them to meet their pastor the next night. Next day he left for Dublin, but no sooner had he reached there than he received a telegram from the pastor saying that he must return and help him, for a great revival had commenced, and there were more out the second night than the first. Hundreds were added to the church at the time.”

“That was the beginning of Mr. Moody’s work as an international evangelist. Out of that work came the religious quickening of Great Britain and Ireland, and the salvation of thousands upon thousands of souls throughout the world. Well was it for England and all Europe that the invalid woman did not cease to pray for the ministry of God’s world.”

(Quoted from: "A Mighty Means of Usefulness - A Plea for Intercessory Prayer", James McClure. The book was written before 1923 as far as I can tell….)

So central is the place of prayer in the economy of God that Samuel saw it as a sin against the Lord not to pray for Israel, in a time of great failure and need.
1Sam. 12:23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and the right way..

The Christians in Wuhan are awaking to their need to turn to God in prayer
Just two days ago, I received a message from a dear sister in Hong Kong, in which she wrote about someone who had been in touch with a Christian in Wuhan. Among other things, the person in Wuhan said this: “The lukewarm believers who never pray are now crying out to the Lord. And the nonbelievers are coming to seek salvation.”

Far from being cheered by this, I was saddened that it would take a threat and a danger to awaken Christians to their need of God. Lukewarmness is not normal! It should not be normal. And who is to say that the believers won’t sink into their material life and forget God again?

So it was after 9/11 in the US. For a while the churches were full of inquirers, shaken by events, but then, it all subsided to ‘normal’.

O’ dear ones, Yeshua still asks: “Could you not watch one hour?” (Mark 14:37)

And again, Luke 18:7-8 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

Israel
As might have been expected, the Peace Plan so called is brewing much opposition and trouble from many sides. It is possible that we may see a significant spike in terror attacks. It may be that this year becomes a year of great trouble, not of peace.

But we will continue to do as Abraham who “stood yet before the LORD.” (Genesis 18:22)

These times of trouble and of judgments are yet also times of fulfillment.
God is committed covenantally to the physical seed of Abraham to make yet them a blessing in the earth. Read Romans 11 if you desire more light on this. It was clear to the apostles that the fulfillment of all of what the prophets said, was coming!

Acts 3:24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
Acts 3:25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.

(Read Acts 3 if you wish to gain a better understanding of the background)

We prayed for Israel’s redemption and fulfillment

We Acknowledged before God that He is the God of the covenant who will fulfill His promises now and in the future.
We acknowledged before the Lord that although we are, as a nation, far from God, yet we are inscribed on His hand! (Isaiah 49:16)
We prayed for the physical seed of Abraham that they might also become the spiritual seed of Abraham.
We Prayed from Ezekiel 37:11 that God and only He can, will bring us out of our graves and breath life into us
We reminded God that these are His covenant people
We asked God to come to those who feel furthest from hope, from the faith, from seeing God and who think He has forsaken us
We asked God to send His Holy Spirit and breathe on His people. In Joel 2:28, He gives vision, in Ezekiel 37, life, in Zechariah 12:10 His Spirit opens the eyes of Israel to "see". And He gives repentance and brokenness that cries out for Mercy.
We asked that He would make Israel’s offspring a blessing on the earth, to the world, and to the Church.
“Your people are desperate, Lord, they are Lost! Lost! Hell-bound without you! Intervene O’ God and save your people.”
We cried from Mark 10:46-52 "Have Mercy on me" (our nation), open my eyes that I might see YOU, dear Lord….
We cried out to God for the diaspora Jews - the He might draw their hearts and do for them all that we are asking Him to do for our nation.
“Lord, let those who live in the diaspora flee to you for refuge…. Let them also come to Israel as the only refuge left for the Jewish people.”
Lord call on your lost sheep, and let them hear your voice once again!”
“Thank you, Lord, that your Word through the prophets is 100% true and sure.

We prayed for Israel’s security at what seems to be the beginning of troubles
We reflected on the astounding fact that all it took to stop a nation as great as China in its tracks, is one small virus. History is full of examples such as this: the mosquito has changed the course of history. And the hornet was used by the Lord to drive out the Canaanites in some places. (see Deuteronomy 7:20, Joshua 24:12) In other words, it doesn't have to be some big-deal drama or weapon or any such thing.

Lord, do whatever is needed to stop the mad hatred of Iran against Israel
Lord, do the same with Hezbollah, and Hamas and all those who are driven by the madness of this hatred
We prayed the Lord would use whatever means he deems fit, natural, supernatural, or human, such as diplomacy and politics (He did that with Truman, for instance.)
“Lord preserve, protect Israel beyond its natural ability.”
“Defend Israel from this demonic passion for destroying and obliterating the Jewish people, you preserved the nations for centuries, and you have not brought us back to be destroyed.”
We prayed that Israel will not agree to anything that is not of God in His plan for her.”
We asked the Lord to give guidance to our leaders, even at this uncertain time before the elections
We cried in desperation that the Lord would overrule in the affairs of state in Israel and give her a government that is of His own will and for His own purpose.
We lamented the fact that Israel is lacking in good leadership at this moment, but acknowledged our faith and trust in Him to lead us unto the fulness of His Will

We prayed for the Body

We prayed for the Body in Wuhan that there will be a true revival and renewing of passion and love for God and not just a passing turning because of fear
We prayed for the Christians in Wuhan that the Lord would preserve them and make them a light to their neighbors, and that many would turn to the Lord and be truly saved
We prayed for the Body here in the Land for revival
We prayed that the Holy Spirit will pass by on the “streets” and be as the town crier who cries: “Awake, Awake.”
We prayed for every believer to awaken from the sleep of the love of the world.
We prayed that in every believing home, people would respond to the Crier to awaken.
“Save the Body from lukewarmness, dear God.”
“Draw us deeper into you, O’ Lord.”
“Have Mercy upon us, Lord, save us from ourselves!”
“Ignite in our hearts a passion for your Word.”
Lord, make us true, real, steadfast believers, transformed, and obedient to you.”
“Lord, help us to live out your word.”
“Lord help to live in the reality of your presence.”
“Quicken your Body Lord, we want to live and know and experience Your Life!”

Thank you for standing with us in there challenging times. May you too be stirred to call upon the Lord and find Him more than enough for every need, and for every challenge.

Blessings from Jerusalem,

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That They May Know That I Am the LORD - Prayer and Intercession February 14, 2020

Troubled Times: Prayer and Intercession February 6, 2020

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