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

********
​

Praying into International affairs and Israel
Iran is bent on Israel’ destruction and annihilation, but Israel shall fulfill its role to be a tool in God’s hand to bless the nations (See Romans 11:15)

Is. 29:7  The multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel,  Even all who fight against her and her fortress,  And distress her,  Shall be as a dream of a night vision.Is. 29:8  It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams,  And look—he eats;  But he awakes, and his soul is still empty;  Or as when a thirsty man dreams,  And look—he drinks;  But he awakes, and indeed he is faint,  And his soul still craves:  So the multitude of all the nations shall be,  Who fight against Mount Zion.”

• We prayed for the Lord’s hand in the affairs of the nations — Thy Kingdom Come, and Thy Will be done - to the Glory of Your Name!
• We prayed for the Lord to fulfill His plan of redemption in the earth
• We prayed for God to continue the unrelenting advance to perform His Word regarding Israel in the midst of the nations
• We prayed about the increasing threat Iran continues to be to Israel. Read here for latest developments: Netanyahu to Putin: Iran wants to take over Syria ; Iran extends reach with fight for land link to Mediterranean
• We again prayed regarding North Korea. The situation continues to be very unstable.
• We prayed into the situation in on our northern borders - as Hezbollah and Hamas, Iran’s proxies, continue to build up in capabilities, towards a confrontation with Israel.

Praying for the work of redemption amongst the nations
Is. 52:10  The LORD has made bare His holy arm  In the eyes of all the nations, And all the ends of the earth shall see  The salvation of our God. Is. 52:13  Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently;  He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Is. 52:14  Just as many were astonished at you,  So His visage was marred more than any man,  And His form more than the sons of men; Is. 52:15  So shall He sprinkle many nations.  Kings shall shut their mouths at Him;  For what had not been told them they shall see,  And what they had not heard they shall consider.

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.

These verses describe two ways in which the Lord works out His redemptive purposes among the nations. One - He will reveal the work of His Son on the cross to the nations and its leaders! Secondly, He also judges the nations who rebel against Him, that they might know that there is no other God and that they might seek Him.

• We prayed for the revelation of the Son of God and the cross for the Muslim nations
• We prayed for the revelation of the cross and of Yeshua in all the nations that have not tasted the gospel in different continents.
• We prayed for the revelation of the crucified Messiah in all the post-Christian nations. (how great has been their fall!)
• We prayed for the Lord to work out his redemptive purposes even through harsh dealings with the nations that will not bow to the King of Kings.
• We prayed for God’s dealings with the nations that they might bow the knee before Yeshua, and confess that He is Lord.
• We prayed for the humbling of the nations that they might seek His face
• We prayed for the gospel to go forth mightily with great conviction and power, especially in the Post Christian world, where much of the gospel has been perverted.

Praying for Israel
Jer. 31:1 At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Jer. 31:2 Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. Jer. 31:3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

Jer. 31:9 They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

• We prayed in the words of Jeremiah 31:7 “O Lord save your people the remnant of Israel.”
• We prayed for God to break the heart of our people with a sight of Himself.
• We begged God for the Spirit of repentance to fall upon our nation
• We pleaded for the Lord to fulfill His Word in Ezekiel 36 and give our people a new heart and a new spirit
• We prayed for the grace and mercy of God to fall upon Israel, instead of bombs and the threat of annihilation.
• We prayed for the Lord to take away the veil cast over our nation.
• We prayed for the Lord to open the eyes of our people to see and look at the crucified one.
• We prayed for the Lord to “turn away ungodliness from Jacob” and take away our sins in Yeshua (see Romans 11:26-27)

Prayer for the Church
We were moved to pray for the Church worldwide along the same lines. Oh’ how the Church needs a broken heart, a contrite heart, a new heart and a new spirit of repentance. How the Church needs to return and face the crucified one again.

• We prayed for this type of true revival to strike the Church in the heart!
• We prayed for the arm of the Lord to be made bare, for a revelation of Yeshua again.
  

We also prayed for the Church to fulfill its role towards the Jewish people
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.

These verses are not speaking of just some handout that the Church needs to give to the Jews, but the display of the life of the crucified Son of God. This is the role of the Church, spiritually. Nothing less. The mercy received by the gentiles speaks of salvation, of the work of the cross. And nothing less than the display of that life of Messiah will fulfill this call of the Church to be a conduit of that mercy received.

• We prayed for a revelation of this issue to the Church
• We prayed for a real move of God within the Church to reconcile her to the Jewish people in that way
• We prayed for a fresh revelation within the Church of her need for the crucified one
• We prayed for a genuine return of the church to the gospel and her calling expressed in these verses.

Prayer for the Nations during these dangerous, unstable times
We are living in what seems to be an increasingly unstable world. The escalation of rhetoric between the US and North Korea can easily get out of hand and bloom into a full-scale nuclear showdown. President Trump has warned that North Korea’s threats to attack Guam, will be “ met ‘with fire and fury like the world has never seen’ (1)

“The U.S. and allied intelligence services now believe North Korea has miniaturized its nuclear warheads to fit onto its intercontinental ballistic missiles and has the potentially up to 60 nuclear weapons.” (2)

Not only that, but it seems that North Korea and Iran “have shared virtually everything when it comes to ballistic missile and nuclear technology. One Iranian opposition group claimed that Iran continued its nuclear program in spite of the nuclear deal by simply outsourcing it to North Korea.” (2)

But the Word of God has something to say about all this. Behind all the turmoil is the enemy stirring the nations to unite against God’s own plan and agenda. But it will be to no avail. God reigns! 

Psa. 46:6  The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. 
Psa. 46:7 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
Psa. 46:8 Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth. 
Psa. 46:9 He makes wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burns the chariot in the fire.

Psa. 2:1  Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
Psa. 2:2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
Psa. 2:3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
Psa. 2:4 He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
Psa. 2:5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
Psa. 2:6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

• We recognized and proclaimed God’s supremacy 
• We recognized God’s sovereignty over the turmoil and shakings in the earth
• We asked God to desolate the enemy’s desolations and destructions “O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.” Hos. 13:14
• We prayed for God to make all the divine adjustments needed to further His Kingdom
• We prayed for His Kingdom to come and will to be done
• We prayed for the subduing of North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un.
• We prayed for the unsettling of Iran’s nuclear ambitions
• We prayed for the Lord to hold back the enemy from going further than what serves the Lord.
• We prayed for God’s redemptive purposes for the nations: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” Rev. 11:15

Praying for Israel in light of present turmoil
In all of God’s dealings with Israel, there is a redemptive purpose for the nations as well. Israel becomes God’s tool (even in its present state) to bring about His purposes for the earth and the nations. 

See for instance Isaiah 2:1-4 Israel’s rising and redemption will set the stage for the Word to issue again in great light and power. The Messiah will rebuke the nations and judge between them; it is then that all the tools of war will be redesigned to become tools for life and sustenance. 

We noted that one of the main outcomes of the first World War was the restoration of the Land to the Jews (Balfour Declaration), The outcome of the Second World War was the birth of the State of Israel and restoration of the Jews to the Land. There remains one more stage - the restoration of the Jews to God and God to the Jews.

We prayed for God’s eternal purposes for and through Israel to be fulfilled
We prayed for Israel’s restoration to be completed
We prayed for God’s Physical protection over the nation, and its people.
We prayed for the Lord to thwart Iran’s plan to reach Israel’s borders through Syria
We prayed for the regathering of the Jews to the Land from the nations

Israel’s spiritual redemption and restoration
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.
Is. 9:3  You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.

• We prayed for the God to shine His Light upon Israel
• We prayed for the Lord to break the deep bondage of religion over the land
• We prayed for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Zech 12:10) that will open our eyes to Messiah.
• We prayed for the veil to be removed (2Cor 3:14)

The Body of Messiah in the Land
We prayed for the Body of Messiah to become a House of Prayer, a nation of priests. By far, the Body in Israel is more characterized by doing rather than known for its God seeking, and intercessions. We have come to the time in which prayer is super-vital, and the Body must take its place as an interceding agent before the Lord. 

“Prayer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work…” “Prayer is the battle”  Oswald Chambers

We prayed for the Congregations and the Body of Messiah to become a House of Prayer
We prayed for the Lord to cleanse the Body and make it fit to be a House of Prayer
We prayed for the Spirit of God to constrain the Body to pray and intercede
We prayed for the urgency of prayer to dawn upon many in the Body
We prayed for the calling of priesthood to be made real to the believers in the land
We prayed for the great call of God to seek His face to be heard in the Body (Psa 27:8)


We prayed briefly for the absolute truth to come out in the present corruption charges against our prime minister. We prayed that either he will be cleared so he can get back to leading the nation, or that things will become clear if there is truth to the allegations. 

Thanks for standing with us for all the will of God to be done in these last days. All for His Glory alone!

____________________________________

1. http://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-north-korea-trade-escalating-threats-of-fire/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=75a48a1c8c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_08_09&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-75a48a1c8c-54468053
2. https://clarionproject.org/10-ways-north-korea-impacts-jihad-threat/

We were led to approach our intercessions from the vantage point of God’s sovereignty; HIs absolute and utter sovereignty over the earth, over the nations, over Israel and the Body of Messiah in the land.


The Nations

Psa. 22:28 For the kingdom is the LORD’S,  And He rules over the nations.
The word ‘rules’ means that he governs, controls the nations. 
Psa. 24:1 The earth is the LORD’S, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.
Comment: God is the owner of heaven and earth.

Psa. 29:10  The LORD sat enthroned at the Flood,  And the LORD sits as King forever.
Comment: There is no calamity, catastrophe, upheaval and unrest that God is not seated enthroned over. Not even the flood.

Psa. 47:2  For the LORD Most High is awesome;  He is a great King over all the earth.

• We thanked God and recognized His complete and utter sovereignty in the earth.
• We thanked God and expressed our faith that He does whatsoever he pleases in the earth. (Psalm 115:3)
• We thanked God for being true and just (Revelation 15:3)
• We asked the Lord to restrain the enemy from going beyond the limits God has set for him.
• We Prayed for the plan of God to unfold in His own wisdom
• We declared: “You have a specific plan - we proclaim your sovereignty over the nations. Nothing shall thwart it.”
• We prayed into the situation with North Korea in light of God’s sovereignty
• We prayed into the situation with Iran in light of God’s sovereignty.
• We prayed for Russia, China and the USA that the Lord would overrule sovereignly where these nations are moving against His will and purposes, especially as they pertain to Israel

Israel
Israel’s restoration is part of God’s inexorable move towards his stated goal, and that is to reign, full of Glory, on Mount Zion.

Is. 24:23  Then the moon will be disgraced  And the sun ashamed;  For the LORD of hosts will reign  On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem  And before His elders, gloriously.
Comment: All the upheaval in the world, both political and even physical is being caused by this mighty move and the resistance to it in the heavenly realms and on the earth.

Read Isa 24:18-22

Isa. 37:16  “O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
Is. 44:6  “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel,  And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:  ‘I am the First and I am the Last;  Besides Me there is no God.
Jer. 32:27 “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?

He is the God of Mercy; He is supreme, God alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, the creator, the first and the last! Is there anything too hard for Him? The answer is no!

• We prayed for Israel’s restoration in light of God’s ultimate goal and the battle over it. (Most people are not used to praying in this way. But just think of Anna and Simeon, who prayed for decades for the coming of Messiah and lived to see Him!) Praying along these lines is not odd, it's biblical.)
• We prayed for Israel regarding its many enemies and the great worldwide resistance to its restoration. We prayed from these verses Psa. 47:3  He will subdue the peoples under us,  And the nations under our feet. Psa. 47:4  He will choose our inheritance for us,  The excellence of Jacob whom He loves. Selah. Read the whole of psalm 47; you will be greatly inspired to pray in this way.
• We prayed for Israel’s salvation - whatever is gripping Israel and keeping it in spiritual bondage has to go! God is sovereign in this matter. God will reign on Mt. Zion!
• We prayed for Israel’s leadership that God will raise great statesmen who would be able to lead her in her time of need, both internally and socially and politically among the nations. (The UK had Churchill, the US had Roosevelt during WWII.)
• We prayed for God’s abundant grace and mercy to flood Israel in all its insoluble and humanly impossible situations.

The Body of Messiah

Eph. 4:13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

• We prayed for leadership in the Body of Messiah in the Land from Ephesians 4:8-13 (in that passage, these men are not only gifted but are themselves God’s gift to His body.)
• We prayed for leaders who are men of God, men of the Word, men of prayer, men of the cross, preachers of the Word of God. Leaders who would serve the Body of Messiah in fear of the Lord, and who would be instrumental in equipping the Body to grow in all thing unto the fullness of the measure of Messiah.
• We prayed for holy fire in the pulpits of Israel.

Thanks for standing with us for all the will of God to be done in these last days. All for His Glory alone!