The Body of Messiah in Israel
The Body of Messiah in the land is young relatively. There is something very refreshing about it on the one hand -- we are not bound by many traditions and ways and are free to be led of God in the development of the congregations. But on the other hand, we are also vulnerable spiritually.
This point is evident as we see the bewildering array of spiritual movements, streams, teachings, and whatnot that are buffeting the Body. Sometimes it seems we are living in the spiritual "wild west," or perhaps "wild east." It is actually very alarming. 
The prophets of old thundered God's warnings and callings to the nation of Israel, Paul the apostle did the same for the Body. He minced no words and spared no person or movement in His jealousy for the Body in its beginnings. Thank God these things are in the word of God. Just read the following passages to get a sense of it.

2Tim 4:3-4 Refused to hear sound doctrines - therefore turned to fables
2Thes 2:10-12 Refused to love the truth - therefore God sent them strong delusions (although this is said about unbelievers, in principle this is true of believers too.)
Eph 4:14 Tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men.
Eze. 14:3-4 (This is scary) God will answer people according to the multitude of their idols! 
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• We prayed for the good shepherds God promised who would feed the flock with sound doctrine. (Jer. 23:4)
• We prayed that these shepherds will be moved to preach by the Spirit of God and totally ignore peoples desire for entertainment.  (2tim 4:3-4)
• We prayed that the Church would seek the fullness of the stature of Yeshua the Messiah and to know Him (Eph 4:13) 
• We prayed for the Body to be not carried about with strange doctrines but to be established by grace in the knowledge of God (Heb 13:9)
• We prayed for the Body to have an eye only for Yeshua (2Cor 11:3) 
• We prayed for the Body to reject anything that is a different gospel, a different Yeshua, and a different spirit. (see 2:cor 11:4)

We took the promised of God to Israel and prayed them for the Body:

• For cleansing  Eze 36:25
• For a heart for God Eze 36:26
• For the filling of the Holy Spirit Eze 36:26
• For a revelation of Yeshua crucified Zech 12:10 (not every believer has that revelation)
• For a spirit of repentance Zech 12:10

Praying for Israel
When you pray for Israel's salvation, who are you praying for? The secular, the normal, the mildly religious? Perhaps you only have a vague notion that you are praying for "the Jewish people"?  
We were moved to pray for some of the extremes of Israel's society in the matter of salvation. There are the super-orthodox who oppose just about everything, use political power to coerce the nation to obey its traditions, and who vehemently oppose the believers in Yeshua. We also have the most active and outspoken gay community. These are just two extremes. 

We were challenged by the Lord to include them all, in verse Rom. 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, "There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." 
He will deliver, He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. The secret is in the "HE will!"

We concentrated our prayers for the salvation of those mentioned above for all Israel on two phrases which the Lord made very real to us:

• He will pour upon Israel the Spirit of Grace and Supplication - (Zech 12:10) This grace of the cross will break the hardest of hearts in Israel (may he thus break mine every day)
• They shall SEE ME! (Zec 12:10) I wonder if we get it: they shall SEE ME! Ponder this for a moment and let it sink in.  This is entirely the work of God, coming from heaven in great mercies and revelation to His people. 
• Is. 9:2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. 
• Ezek. 39:25 “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Now  I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and  I will be jealous for my holy name.

War?
Two rockets fell into the sea of Galilee yesterday. They were launched by ISIS in Syria. Israel shot down a Syrian warplane a day before. Hamas continues to send incendiary kites and balloons and shoot rockets into Israel. There is now a very high probability that Israel will go into the Gaza strip.

We stood on the Word of God and the promises of God, which all point to His intervention on behalf of Israel, those were the points we prayed into, as we are sure they include all of what Israel needs: Wisdom, strategy, ability, weaponry.

• Joel 3:16 The LORD roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earthquake. But the LORD is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.​
• Psa. 102:13  You will arise and have pity on Zion; it is the time to favor her; the appointed time has come. Lord favor Israel militarily, favor Israel politically amongst the nations, favor Israel by intervening on her behalf. 
• Zech. 12:3 On that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it.
• Zech. 12:4 On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah, I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.
• Zech. 12:9  And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

Thank you for standing together in the Word for the whole counsel of God to come to fullness.

Blessings from Jerusalem,

About Prayer
Gen. 4:26 And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the LORD.

It is very possible that Eve thought that one of her immediate sons would be that "serpent slayer" that the Lord promised her in the garden (Genesis 3:15). Soon enough it became clear that neither Able nor Cain was this one son she expected to be the deliverer, and soon enough it dawned on man that deliverance is a ways off in the future. As man's condition began to dawn upon him, he began to call on the name of the Lord, for redemption, based on His promise to mankind. Interestingly, Enosh is the word we use in modern Hebrew to designate our humanity, frailty, and mortality. 

I often wonder if we really understand and feel the desperate the condition of mankind is, how the world is going to pieces without God, how desperately we need His intervention. I wonder how earnestly we cry out to God for His Kingdom to come, for His will to be done. How earnestly are we calling on the Lord to come as He promised? 

On the other side of the desperate need are God and His promises. We read Isaiah 52:1-12 His promise to bare His arm (The Son of God in action), unfolds with the most astounding revelation of all -- Yeshua crucified. That is the good news! (Isaiah 52:7). Isaiah 52 leads straight into Isaiah 53! 

By sharing these scriptures and thoughts, we stirred ourselves up to pray earnestly for our people.

Praying for Israel's salvation
Imagine waking up one day in the presence of God Himself, after having spent your whole life earning your righteousness by works of the law, based on traditions and on a great effort to keep certain rules. No one tries harder than the religious in this land. but imagine standing before God with nothing but "ashes" for your effort. What a horror! 

• We prayed for the salvation of our people, especially the orthodox and the religious
• We prayed for God to bring home the need for Yeshua the Messiah
• We prayed for God to bare His arm (Yeshua) in a mighty unveiling of His person and His work on the cross
• We prayed for God to penetrate the veil of religion cast over our people
• We prayed for a might conviction to fall upon our nation (Zech 12:9-13:1)
• We prayed for the proclamation of salvation to be heard with great power in the land
• We prayed for that mighty confrontation between God and His people in the land (as Joseph and his brothers), what a (good) shock it will be

The longer we prayed in this way, the deeper the reality of the condition of our people became, the reality of sin and of separation from God, the reality of the rejection of Messiah and His work on the cross. The reality of the fix we are in! The presence of God stole over us, producing awe in our hearts. Oh the reality of the need, how desperate it is! It is impossible to put this on paper... and we lingered in prayer, our hearts feeling His broken heart for His people. 

We prayed for an awakening in the Body of Messiah in the Land
From that vantage point, we were led to beseech God for a revival of this kind in the Body of Messiah. Oh, how we need to be awakened to Messiah, to be awakened to our constant need for the blood. How we need a broken and contrite heart, a heart turned to God. A heart open to God's finger (Spirit) that would reach the deepest recesses...... How we need hearts that value His salvation, the cross, the Word of God. 

• We prayed for a mighty awakening in the Body of Messiah
• We prayed for the Word to take its central place in the teaching and preaching in the land
• We prayed for Yeshua and Him crucified to be proclaimed from the pulpits of the land
• We prayed for the Spirit of repentance and of prayer to flood the Body of Messiah
• We prayed for confessions and for repentance within the meetings of the congregations
• We prayed for God to move in and to turn the 'money changers' tables
• We prayed for the congregations to become a House of Prayer 

This is how we were led to pray this week. We never got to praying for Israel's security, but we believe that it is included in the salvation of Israel and that when we are led to pray for the heart of His work -- Israel's salvation and deliverance -- He will act to protect and to defend our nation.

May you have your own awakening today as you turn to Yeshua, and find Him afresh, wherever you are and in whatever situation you are in. 

Blessings from Jerusalem,

A special prayer for our congregation
Did you know that most if not all bookshops in Israel carry the Quran, but very few if any carry the New Testament? This is according to Dr. Rubik Rosenthal, who writes a popular blog on the Hebrew Language. (1) If you want a New Testament, he says, you will have to go to a small (Christian/Messianic) bookstore whose principal business is to evangelize. 

I share this because I would like to ask for prayer for our congregation and its legal cover, our non-profit organization.  We got a bizarre letter asking us to clarify the fact that both my wife and I work for the organization (????).  And there is another matter of getting an exemption from property tax as a 'religious organization.' 

I will write more about these things in the future. But for now, can you pray with us for the Lord to clear the way, for us to proceed with our work? Our congregation is deepening its roots in Yeshua, growing slowly to be trees of righteousness, learning to walk before Him as our forefathers did. In short, we are growing in the right way --- down. 

Here are the scriptures we used yesterday to pray for the situation: 
Is. 40:4  Every valley shall be exalted  And every mountain and hill brought low;  The crooked places shall be made straight  And the rough places smooth; Is. 40:5  The glory of the LORD shall be revealed,  And all flesh shall see it together;  For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
Zech. 4:6 So he answered and said to me:  “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel:  ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’  Says the LORD of hosts.
Zech. 4:7  “Who are you, O great mountain?  Before Zerubbabel, you shall become a plain! (in the Hebrew its simply: Become a plane! its a command)  And he shall bring forth the capstone  With shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!” ’ ”

• Please pray with us for the Lord to flatten all opposition to His Glory and to His Grace and that He will go before us, and behind us, as we move forward in the things of God. 

Praying for Israel from Isaiah 51
Is. 51:1 “Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness,  You who seek the LORD:  Look to the rock from which you were hewn,  And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug.
Is. 51:2  Look to Abraham your father,  And to Sarah who bore you;  For I called him alone,  And blessed him and increased him.”
Is. 51:3  For the LORD will comfort Zion,  He will comfort all her waste places;  He will make her wilderness like Eden,  And her desert like the garden of the LORD;  Joy and gladness will be found in it,  Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

To whom is God addressing these verses? To the remnant, To those who are seeking Him and are pursuing His way - righteousness. 
What are they encouraged to do? - To believe! Not to get discouraged
How are they to be encouraged? - By looking at Israel's beginnings when God called an old man and his barren old wife and made a nation out of them.
What are they to believe? - That God will make Zion an Eden! That God will comfort Zion by turning her waste places the Garden of the Lord
Although you can apply this to the physical restoration of Israel, I believe the first application is spiritual, because the Lord is speaking here of the Garden of the Lord! Where He walks with man. 
Can you believe that God will take any 'wilderness and devastation" in your own life and make it a garden? Can you pray this way?
Can you believe for Israel, that although all around us we see a spiritual wilderness, and worse, God has promised to make it a Garden of the Lord? Can you see Israel flourishing spiritually? 

• We cried to God in the words of Isaiah's own intercession: Awake awake O arm of the Lord ( Isaiah 51:9-10) 
• We prayed for the great Arm of God (the Messiah) to be revealed in great saving power
• We prayed for the spiritual 'rains' that this spiritual wilderness so needs
• We prayed for the mighty revelation of the Son of God in the Land to turn Israel to Himself. 
• We prayed for the mighty work of God through the cross to break the blinding of our people to Yeshua
• We prayed for the opening of rivers in desolate heights, fountains in the midst of the valleys (Isaiah 41:18)
• We prayed for God to make Israel a spiritual Eden where His presence will be in the midst of His people

Praying for Israel's restoration as a blessing to the nations
Is. 51:4  “Listen to Me, My people;  And give ear to Me, O My nation:  For the law will proceed from Me,  And I will make My justice rest  As a light of the peoples.
Is. 51:5  My righteousness is near,  My salvation has gone forth,  And My arms will judge the peoples;  The coastlands will wait upon Me,  And on My arm, they will trust.

• We prayed for Zion as God's pulpit to the nations (Isaiah 2:3)
• We prayed for Zion's salvation to be a light to the nations (Isaiah 61:1-2)
• We prayed for Zion to be God's courthouse (Isaiah 2:4) He is the Justice of the Peace
• We Prayed for Zion to be a city set on a hill - the Light of the gospel coming out again to the nations
• We prayed for God's saving arm to be revealed in the earth in the midst of the present madness and instability.

We prayed for the remnant - the Body of Messiah (and the remnant in the Church) See Isaiah 51:1, 7, 12-13

• Lord encourage the remnant and renew Faith and Vision in their hearts
• Lord purify your remnant
• Lord Sanctify your remnant
• Lord infuse your remnant with zeal for you
• Lord help us to be unashamed of the Gospel
• Lord remove the fear we have to live all out for you and with you
• Lord remove all compromise from our hearts
• Lord fill us with a true spirit of repentance (Zech 12:10)
• Lord help us to lose our shame of humbling ourselves before you and each other
• Lord make us fearless to believe, to live the gospel out and to proclaim it

We prayed for God's protection of the land and its people Isaiah 51:22-23

• We prayed for the Lord to arise in and reveal His arm to the nations as Israel's protector
• We prayed into these verses in light of Zech 12:2-3 You will see that it is the actions and decisions of the nations that causes them to take the cup of poison from the hand of the Lord and drink it. The influence on them is ominous they are struck with madness! 
• We prayed into the situation in especially Gaza and Syria in light of the dangerous situation there and God's word. 

This has been a longer blog, but we trust it will serve as an aid to your own development as an intercessor and a follower of our King and Savior - Yeshua

Blessings from Jerusalem,

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1. https://blog.ravmilim.co.il/2018/07/12/דר-רוביק-רוזנטל-מלח-הארץ-ופרי-התאווה/

Reading: Isaiah 24:19-23
It is clear from scriptures such as the one above, that Jerusalem is not only the capital of Israel, but is to be the seat of Messiah from which judge all that opposes Him, and from where He will rule the earth.
Jerusalem, therefore,  symbolizes the entire work of God on the earth. Indeed, in Revelation we read of the New Jerusalem the City of God, coming down from heaven, and is to be the dwelling of God with His people.
Babylon, on the other hand, represents the world city, which encompasses fallen mankind and the fullness of resistance to God's work on the earth. (Read Isaiah 13-14 for instance). Therefore When we pray for Jerusalem, we pray with this in mind; for the entire plan of God and the final victorious outcome.
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We prayed for Jerusalem along three lines: He will defend Jerusalem, He will build Jerusalem, and He will save Jerusalem.

Defend
Is. 31:5 As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it, and passing over he will preserve it.
Zech. 12:8 In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.
For a most remarkable account of a fulfillment of the verse in Isaiah, spoken 2600 years before it took place, read at the end of this Prayer Blog.
We only share it as an example of the utter reliability of the Word of God, and to strengthen our determination to pray the scriptures, even though we do not know precisely how the Lord will fulfill such verses in our own times. Our hearts are not drawn to miracles but to God Himself.

• We prayed that God would defend Jerusalem politically from being divided
• We prayed that God will defend Jerusalem militarily - there is Iran and Hamas and all the Islamic Jihadi elements who have vowed to come to pray in Jerusalem, meaning the destruction of Israel as a nation
• We prayed for the Lord to defend Jerusalem spiritually from all the many confusing, religious forces opposing it (See Isaiah 24:19-23)
• We prayed into the peace plan, about to be unveiled, that the US will not go the way of all the nations which have dealt with Jerusalem before.
• We prayed that the US will recognize the claim of God on this city and His will that it be the capital of Israel

Build
Psa. 102:16 When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.
See context: Psalm 102:13-16  The physical building up of Zion will cause the nations to fear the name of the Lord, it is a precursor to the manifestation of His Glory (is it at His coming?)

• We prayed for the Lord to arise and have compassion on Zion (Ps 102:13)
• We prayed for the grace of God to be poured out on Jerusalem as its being built
• We prayed for favor upon the building up of the city
• We prayed for the building up of the city to be a proof of His Word being fulfilled and thus bring the fear of the Lord upon the nations (especially on the western nations that seem to be post-Christian at present).
  

Save
Psa. 69:35 For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession. Psa. 69:36 The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.

Salvation in these verses is both physical (the cities of Judah have come to life from the ruins), and spiritual - they that love His name will dwell in her. (See also Ezekiel 36:33)

• We prayed for the Lord to physically save and bring back to life the cities and the ruins and all that has been destroyed. (See Ezekiel 36:33-36)
• We prayed for a mighty work of God to cleanse His people and save them.
• We prayed for the day in which Israel will be reconciled to her God, and to her Savior
• We prayed for the day in which the streets will be full of those who praise the Lord, and for the day in which the name Yeshua will be esteemed and not used as a curse.
• We prayed for the Spirit of Repentance, the Spirit of Grace and Supplication to come upon His city and His land.
  

Praying for the Body: Rev. 18:1-4
We are adjured by the Lord to flee Babylon and come out of her. How should we flee Babylon seeing as the city represents the whole work of the enemy and fallen mankind? The answer must be: To take Babylon out of us and to come more fully into the Lord Himself. The process is the application of the cross and the finished work of God, to our hearts and lives.

• We prayed for the Lord to remove the world spirit from the Body of Messiah
• We prayed for the Lord to remove the world's methods from the Body of Messiah
• We prayed for the Lord to remove infidelity to Him out of His Body
• We  prayed for the Lord to cleanse His believing people with the blood from dead works -- see Hebrews 9:14
• We prayed for His Body to be built as a habitation for the Spirit - 1Pe 2:5
• We prayed for God's people to find the Book again as Josiah did (2Chro 34:14-15)
• We prayed for the Spirit of repentance to invade the Body of Messiah
• We prayed for all that is Babylon in the Body to be destroyed by the Lord

Thanks for praying with us. Blessings from Jerusalem,

The remarkable deliverance of Jerusalem in fulfillment of Isaiah 31:5 in 1917
"When the British forces had come within striking distance of Jerusalem and were coming under fire from Turkish batteries within the city, Allenby did not want to return fire because he believed that it was unworthy of Christian Britain to fire on the Holy City. He cabled Prime Minister Lloyd George for instructions. George replied that the Cabinet was leaving him free to do whatever he thought best. Not satisfied with such an answer, he cabled the King for guidance. King George V replied simply, “Pray about it.” Gathering his staff together, General Allenby followed the King’s counsel.

"This takes us to the morning of Saturday, December 8, 1917. The British chaplains that morning led the troops in prayer. The first lesson from Morning Prayer on that day was from Isaiah chapter 31. The very prophecy that was to be fulfilled on that day was found in that lesson: “For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof. As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also He will deliver it, and passing over He will preserve it” (Is. 31:4-5). That day, December 8, 1917, was also the Feast of Hanukkah, commemorating an earlier deliverance of Jerusalem by Judah Maccabee two centuries before Christ.
"By this time the Royal Flying Corps had complete air supremacy over Palestine. That morning General Allenby ordered British planes to make reconnaissance flights over Jerusalem and to drop leaflets calling upon the Turkish garrison to surrender but were directed not to strafe or bomb the Holy City. With all of the British air activity, panic broke out among the garrison who had no air support to speak of, and the Turkish officers could not get the situation under control. That night Izzet Bey the governor of Jerusalem smashed all of the equipment in the telegraph office and wrote a letter of surrender. At 2:00 AM, on December 9th, the Turkish garrison began leaving through the Jaffa Gate. By 7:00 AM the last of the Turkish soldiers were passing through St. Stephen’s Gate making their way along the Jericho Road. Bey and a few frightened policemen came out of the city bearing a white flag and surrendered Jerusalem to General O’Shea of the 60th division. The Holy City had been delivered without a shot being fired." 1
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1. We only included part of the account as some of it deals with calculations of times etc, this seems to be superfluous to me. I was only interested in the actual fulfillment of the Word. But I must give the attribution to the writer so I am including the link. Quoting it here is not meant to be an endorsement. The story of what actually happened in December 8-9, 1917 is well known and documented.  

a. https://frnovak.blogspot.com/2012/12/as-birds-flying-miracle-of-december-8th.html
​b. https://archive.org/details/AsBirdsFlyingOrJerusalem1917ByJ.M.Stears