We prayed along three lines which express His straightforward plan of the restoration of Israel: Those are
a. The repentance of Israel and her return to the Savior.
b. The fulfillment of Israel's destiny among the nations, and
c. The fullness of Israel's purpose in union with God

The verses we based our prayers on:
a. 
Psa. 80:14  Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts;  Look down from heaven and see,  And visit this vine 
Psa. 80:7 Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved 
Lam. 5:21 Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned;

b. 
Is. 62:1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet,  until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,  and her salvation as a burning torch. Is. 62:2  The nations shall see your righteousness,   and all the kings your glory,  and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give. Is. 62:3  You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD,   and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

c. 
Isa. 62:4  You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married;   for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married.
Is. 62:5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you,   and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

Praying through a

• Lord unless you return to us, unless you turn your face to shine upon us, we cannot return to you. (Psalm 80:14)
• Cause your face to shine upon us, that is - pour out your grace upon Israel and turn us to yourself.
• Lord we have followed the teachings of man and the ways of man and the religion made up by man, and repudiated you, as a nation. Turn us to you, reveal the face of your Son (Zechariah 12:10) and we shall be turned.
• Lord you are the author of the broken heart, the soft heart, the repentant heart, Create in us a clean heart (Psalm 51:10)
• Lord, you promised to give Israel a heart of flesh (as opposed to a heart of stone), Lord our hearts are stone! Give us this heart of flesh, we pray. (Ezekiel 36:26)
• Father, we as a nation repudiated and rejected your Son, and it is only in your Son that the veil will be removed (2Cor. 3:16), bring us there dear God, bring us to the foot of the cross.
• Father as some of your people approach the Day of Atonement with great dread and fear, reveal Yeshua to them, show your atonement in Messiah, open their eyes to see that fountain for cleansing from sin (Zech 13:1)
• Lord, let the grace you have promised, the mercies from above come upon us O Lord, for your glory and for your namesake.

Praying through b

• Lord fulfill Israel's destiny to be a blessing in the earth once again, through her salvation. 
• Lord the nations need to see the Light of Messiah; the nations are under great darkness. The earth has become a land under the shadow of death  (Isa 9:2) -- Let Messiah shine in the earth again in a great display of salvation and grace.
• Lord, make Jerusalem a City set on a Hill - and let your glory shine from her to the nations (Isaiah 62:1-2)
• As Jerusalem has always been a blessing to the nations - for out of her the Word has come, out of her the Gospel has come, in her the Son of God wrought salvation - so let your light shine from this land again.
• You declared the nations will see Israel's salvation, as a great light. You declared, in Ezekiel, that the nations will know that you are the LORD through the restoration of your people to yourself (Ezek. 36:23). Do this very thing, dear Lord, for your name sake.
• Show again, your great power of salvation to the nations of the earth, by what you do here in the land.
• Lord the nations worship power, the power to force, to coerce, to overcome other nations. They do not know your power to save, demonstrate it again dear Lord, so the nations may recognize your greatness. 
• Redeem the remnant among the nations dear Lord.

Praying through c

• Lord, you are the ultimate prize and inheritance. It is you we want above all things.
• You have declared your ultimate purpose -- to dwell amongst your people forever (Ezekiel 37:26-27; Rev. 21:2-3) 
• You have spoken in terms of a bridegroom marrying and rejoicing in His bride, both regarding Israel and the faithful in the Body of Christ. Fulfill these words we pray.
• Lord, let thy Kingdom Come and your will be done in us, in Israel, in the Your Body in the earth. 
• We pray for the fullness of your purpose for your people, Israel and Your Body in the earth. 
• We pray you will come to us in this way and we pray that you will draw us to you in this way. Let us be satisfied with nothing less than your fullness in us. You are our hope of Glory dear Lord it is you we want.
• We cry for the fullness of your heart and purpose to be accomplished in your nation and in your people. 

Finally, we prayed for Israel's safety and protection, especially during our high holidays. Our enemies love nothing less than to hit us when we celebrate the feasts.

• See Psalm 121
• See Psalm 125:2

We also prayed for the political situation in the land.
We may be nearing an election, and the political situation is chaotic and disturbing. Israel needs good leadership with integrity and vision to lead the nation as a whole. There is much bickering, salesmanship to garner votes, etc....

• See Zech. 12:6, 8

Thank you for standing together with us before the Lord for His eternal and wonderful promises and plans. He will not fail.

Blessings from Jerusalem,

Oh for a tender heart!
There is nothing in all the earth that could compare with a tender heart towards the Lord. A tender heart is a soft heart, a broken heart, a lowly heart, a humble heart. It is a heart that responds to God instead of resisting him. It is the kind of heart that God values. Just listen to what He said to Josiah when he humbled himself before the Lord: 

2Chr. 34:27 because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,” says the LORD.

At the same time, God's people were anything but tender towards Him. God sent Jeremiah to call the people back to the Lord (he began to prophecy one year after Josiah started to clean Jerusalem up). But, they treated His Word with scorn and contempt, ".....Behold, the word of the LORD is a reproach to them;  They have no delight in it." (Jer 6:10). They loved, instead, the lying words of the false prophets (Jer. 5:31). 

"Stand in the ways and see,  And ask for the old paths, where the good way is,  And walk in it;  Then you will find rest for your souls," the Lord pleads with them, "But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.'" "Listen at least to the voice of the watchmen who blow the warning trumpet as the enemy approaches," He pleads again, "But they said, ‘We will not listen." (Jer. 6:17) 

This was their heart condition, although outwardly, they were worshiping God as usual. (Jer. 7:20) 

Praying for the salvation of Israel
Praying for Israel's salvation, we who live here, must face the condition of our people. We cannot pray superficially out of a sense of our specialness as a people, nor from a sense of entitlement or any such thing. To pray deeply we must face our spiritual condition sincerely. 
And so we were moved to pray long, before God, to grant our people a broken, contrite, repentant heart. 

• We prayed for the Lord Himself to visit His nation and shine His face upon us again. Psa. 80:3 Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
• Turn us again O Lord to your, shine your face upon us and let thy grace invade our land
• Return to us dear Lord: Psa. 80:14 Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine;
• Lord reveal your righteousness in the cross of Messiah and break up that awful self-righteousness that is so prevalent in this nation, especially in religious circles
• Lord, it is in Messiah that the veil is removed - bring Israel to that place
• Lord, unveil your Son to Israel - there is no escape from sin and death except there
• Lord, we beseech you to bring deep conviction in the land
• Lord tear away the facade of religion and traditions to reveal the only way to life
• Lord, bring a divinely inspired dissatisfaction on the people and show them the emptiness of all else but Messiah
• Father, you have brought us to the Land, but when will you bring us to you?!
• We cry for your intervention in this land. How long will you look at our estate O Lord and not move to save us
• Break our hearts at Calvary dear Lord, Break our hearts at the cross
• Break our hearts and let us tremble at your goodness flowing from Calvary
• Break our hearts O Lord and grant us new hearts dear Lord, hearts alive to you

We prayed for the Body of Messiah for a tender, broken heart before God
Mark 1:15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 

These were the first words of Yeshua in ministry as recorded in the Gospels. God's words are not just an invitation, but enablement. They give us the power and the freedom to turn to Him! 

• Lord, we need you! Lord, we want you! Yes we need miracles, yes we need healings, but above all things, we need a heart after God, a broken and tender heart always turned towards you, ever keeping us in your presence
• Lord come to us and show us what we need to turn from
• Lord, we seek a place of abiding in you
• Restore us to waking with you, trusting in you and nothing else
• Lord give us a heart that loves to obey you, a heart that loves your presence
• Lord give us a fresh hunger for your word
• Draw near to us and draw us to be near you in a real way
• Enable us, dear Lord, to lay down everything at your feet and seek your face
• Lord remove the "other chair" (of self-pleasing) and let us sit on only one - a life of pleasing you
• Lord help us to learn from you daily, walk with you daily
• Lord grant us tender hearts that hear you calling us
• We want to be like you Lord and not like the world
• We thank you for your blood Yeshua - make us alive to its power and the mercy that has been given in its shedding. 
• We thank you for the cross - make us alive to its power and reality
• We thank you for the Word - make us alive to it, and hungry for it 
• We thank you for your Spirit - Make us alive to His reality in our lives and yield to Him

Thank you for standing with us. We pray that as you pray these things, your own heart will experience that softening, and tenderness that come from God.

Blessings from Jerusalem,

​

Dear Intercessors, 
As we have just returned from a short trip and were not at our prayer meeting on Wednesday. I am sending a short devotional instead. It is a devotional look at Jeremiah chapter two; It is my hope and faith that such a look will inspire your prayers. 

* 
It is the scriptures that inspire us to pray. When we see God as He reveals Himself in the Word, we know how to pray. When we hear what He remonstrates with Israel about, we know how to pray for Israel. When we understand His covenantal promises, we know what to pray for. Inspiration and revelation from the Word are vital for prayer; the Word guides our prayers and fuels our faith. Many times when we are at a loss how to pray, just a glimpse of God in His Word is all we need. 

*
Often, Jeremiah sounds like John, the apostle. Through both men, the Lord chose to express His love in ways that are hard to take in, both in their magnitude and beauty. Such are the first three verses of chapter two of Jeremiah.

"I (remember) hold to your account the loving kindness (mercy you showed to me) of thy youth, the love of thy betrothal time, thy following me in the wilderness, in a land unsown. Holy was Israel to the Lord, his first-fruits of the harvest: all who would have devoured him brought guilt upon themselves: evil came upon him, is the saying of Jehovah.” Jeremiah 2:2-3 (translation of verses by K&D, modified slightly to express the Hebrew better, by me -- O.A.) 

How unfathomably lowly is our God, to speak to Israel in this way?! 

Wasn't it just the opposite? Wasn't the mercy shown, God's mercy to Israel and not the other way? Of course, it was. Yet, in this view, God commends Israel for following Him into the unknown, not just to an unknown physical wilderness, but to an unknown spiritual journey. 

And the fact that it is Love speaking makes the heartbreaking rebuke almost unbearable:

“What injustice have your fathers found in Me, That they have gone far from Me,  have followed idols, and have become idolaters?" (Jeremiah. 2:5)

In effect, God is asking (can you believe it?) "Where have I done you wrong?, Where have I been unjust to you, that you turned to idols?" God the Righteous One, The Holy One asking sinners who have turned unjustly in betrayal of Him to idols, to prove Him wrong. Of course, anyone who would even begin to consider such things would immediately come up against their own wretched treatment of Him in such a way. 

The Lord continues in His loving remonstrance: I brought you out of Egypt, led you (and provided for you) through the desert, brought you to a bountiful land to eat its fruits and goodness. (Jer. 2:6-7) And yet, your priests did not seek me, your teachers did not even know me, your prophets prophesied by an evil spirit (Jer. 2:8)

"Be astonished, O heavens, at this...." (Jer. 2:12) God calls on the hosts of heaven as witnesses! As if in a court of justice, calling on the hosts of heaven to note these things. What nation has changed their gods, even though they are mere idols -- nothing, yet my people have changed their Glory (God Himself) for something utterly worthless. (Jer 2:11)

Yet for all this, Israel's response is: "I haven't sinned, I haven't gone after baals?" (Jer. 2:23) 

Sin has a blinding and numbing effect on the heart until it cannot see its own real estate; sin hardens the heart and numbs the conscience. Man is helpless to save himself, man is powerless to turn to God of himself. And as we see in this chapter, it is God who comes after His people to awaken them to their awful condition and to their need for Him. It is God's grace and mercy that supplies us even the power to repent.  

Our hope is in God alone
Jeremiah began to prophesy in the 13th year of Josiah, a year after Josiah started to purge Jerusalem and Judah from idolatry. In effect, Jeremiah was preaching at a time of revival. Such preaching and pleading were designed by the Lord to awaken His people and bring them back to Him. It is His turning to us that enables us to turn to Him -- sheer mercy this is. Such love is expressed here in this chapter, but also light is shed upon their real estate - all to make it possible for them to turn back to Him who has come looking for them. So it has been from the beginning; 'Adam where are you?', asked the Lord in the garden. 

As we read on in the book of Jeremiah we sadly learn that the revival did not last; the people plunged back into idolatry, the kings who followed Josiah did not heed the call of God, and exile and destruction ensued. 

Yet, the book of Jeremiah is full of hope
Jeremiah 3:16  “Then it shall come to pass when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days,” says the LORD, “that they will say no more, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ It shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it, nor shall it be made anymore. Jeremiah  3:17 “At that time Jerusalem shall be called The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. No more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts."

How can God make such promises?  How can God, in the face of such colossal failure and unfaithfulness, make such a declaration? Does He hope in the improvement of man? Does He believe that Israel will do better if given another chance? Absolutely not! All of God's plans and promises rest on Messiah, and of His victory on the cross. The high point of Jeremiah is the New Covenant - Jeremiah 31:31-34. The New Covenant is about what God will do for and in man, not what man will do by himself. 

Israel's hope and future rests on this and only this! Israel's journey and usefulness to God in His plan are not over. Through her, God will complete his plan on the earth. Our prayers should be informed by the Word of God, and rest in the work of Messiah on the cross. No other basis is a firm basis for prayer and intercession. 

The Long journey that God has led Israel through till now, will come to fullness in her restoration in Messiah to God, in the Land. And the betrothal of Israel to the Lord will come to fullness in a union, a marriage if you will, whereby He will dwell with His people (Jews and Gentiles) forever in a recreated universe. Revelation 21:1-3

All of this will be done by God Himself, (see the 'I wills' in the New Covenant - Jeremiah 31:31-34), and it will all be done in Mercy and Grace! He will complete what He has begun, and it will come to a glorious fulfillment. 

We are called to know God, we are called to know and understand His Word -- His promises, His purposes on the earth --, and we are called to recognize Israel's place in it, and the Church's position in it. In every age, God has had servants who knew Him and understood His purposes and their place in it. They stood in times of significant challenge to the work of God on the earth. God had a Daniel, for example, who understood His purposes in the times he lived through. So too, will God have servants in these days who will understand his purposes, and who will give themselves to seek Him and to pray. 

May you be inspired to be this kind of a servant. May you be envisioned to seek the face of God. May you be inspired to devour His Word and pray it to Him. 

May God enlarge your vision, refuel your faith and energize your prayers.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, in earth as it is in Heaven....For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Blessings from Jerusalem,

Isaiah 62 
We read Isaiah 62 together and prayed from it. Please read it for yourself and be inspired by the Word of God to pray into the will of God as revealed there.

Isaiah 62 can be divided into four sections: The Passion of God, the Call of God, the Vow of God and the Command of God.

The Passion of God
What is God's passion expressed here? To bring about Zion's Righteousness and blaze its light on the entire earth. I wonder if we really get what Righteousness is, the kind that can stand in the glory-light of God, the type that can be a sufficient cover of our nakedness before the Presence of the Living God in eternity! It is the Righteousness of God Himself! That righteousness can only be received through the work of Messiah on the cross. It is His righteousness and forever will remain so. What Grace! What Holiness! What purity! And He vows to clothe Zion in it! 

If you take the first verse to be the Messiah speaking (as it is in Isaiah 61), then you realize this chapter is an expression of HIs passion for going to the cross to accomplish this! Nothing else will do. There is not any other way for His people to dwell with Him as a bride (Isaiah 62:4).

The Call of God
We are called to stand on the walls, as it were, and pray for this awesome and grand work of God in this land. What a stretch to faith; yet nevertheless we are to come up in our faith and pray for this amazing work of God.

We prayed for the great work of God in the Land

• We admitted our need to receive a revelation of God's own passion for His goals
• We acknowledged our need to know the heart of God better and deeper
• We prayed to have a clearer understanding of His heart and thoughts regarding Israel's salvation
• We prayed for a revelation in the land of the cross of Messiah
• We prayed for the Glory of the cross to dawn upon this nation
• We prayed for a divine dissatisfaction to come upon all those who seek righteousness in the Law
• We prayed for a revelation of our naked estate without His righteousness
• We prayed for the Lord to pour out those cleansing waters he promised in Ezekiel 36:25 part of this outpouring is a revelation of the need to be cleansed. 
• We prayed for the outpouring the Spirit of Repentance on the nation Ezekiel 36:26  (Which comes after the need is revealed by the Spirit of God)
• Some of our people prayed for faith for their neighbors in these matters

The Body as a Holy Priesthood 1Pe 2:5, 1Pe 2:9
In the tabernacle, the priests would come before God bearing the nation and its people on their heart (the ephod represents this bearing before the Lord of the people.) 

We were moved to bring the Body before the Lord in such a manner. 

• We prayed that the believers in the Land will be seized by a sight of the Holiness of God and His passion for the Righteousness of His Son to be theirs.
• We prayed for the Body in the Land to be single-minded and single-eyed, to see God alone
• We prayed for a deep work in the Body so that the believers will walk with God in all seriousness, not be flippant, not compromise with the world,  not take sin lightly. 
• We prayed that the Lord would expose strongholds, bring honesty, expose the old self and that many will eschew these things and turn to Him with their whole hearts
• We prayed for the Lord's protection of His Body: to expose any wrong teaching, false doctrines, and deception within the Body. 

The Safety and Keeping of Israel Isaiah 62:8-9 
The enemy and his demonic cohorts hate the work of God that is Israel. If there is anything the enemy hates, he hates the Light and Israel represents the soon coming shining forth of the Light of the Glory of God and His Righteousness in the earth; a demonstration of His mighty power to save through the finished work of His Son. (We were not aware that as we were praying, the Hamas was beginning to send rockets -- 80 in all - into Israel).

• Lord, you have vowed that our crops will not be destroyed, yet the enemy is devastating the Gaza region with fire. 
• We prayed for God's word to come to pass in protecting, keeping and prospering Israel according to this verse
• We prayed for protection, mentioning the nations around us by name: Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Russia, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia
• Lord the "chessboard" is yours, the victory is yours, all things will work to reveal Your Son - Psalm 2:6
• Have them in derision Lord Psalm 2:4
• Break them with the Rod of iron His Word and authority Isaiah 2:9
• Lord, your reputation is on the line, You have uttered and committed yourself to exalt your name in the earth by what you do in this nation. You promised to restore it physically and spiritually. How else will the nations know that you alone are God?! 

Thank you for reading this and praying along with us. We highly value your intercessions, and so, we are sure, is the Lord.

Blessings from Jerusalem,

 

We were led to read Psalm 46 and prayed as we were inspired by it. 
Some think that this psalm was written on an occasion of a great and singular deliverance of Israel from its enemies, such as mentioned in Isaiah 37:36. That may be, but in any case, the psalm very much describes the situation in the world today; and what assurance we have in this psalm!  

• Is there turmoil in nature? God's is sovereign . 
• Is his city attacked? God is in the midst of her. 
• Nations rage? He roars out of Zion (Joel 3:15-17) He will make wars to cease
• Are God's people shaking? He is our refuge, He is our help, He is a present help in trouble. There is a river... He will supply all. 

How marvelous is our God! 

• We gave thanks and celebrated in prayer all that God is to us His people and to Israel.
• We thanked God that He is over all natural disasters (there have been dozens of small earthquakes under the Sea of Galilee, and we are being warned of "the big earthquake" that the region is due for.) Other places in the world have experienced natural disasters lately as well.
• We prayed for Israel as God's pulpit (see Isaiah 2:1-4) 
• We prayed for the Word of God to shake our neighboring nations
• We prayed for the Lord to break the bow of Elam, i.e., Iran Psalm 46:9 (see Jeremiah 49:35)
• We prayed that the shakings in the earth will cause many to turn to the Lord

We were inspired and led to pray for whole nations - for the shakings of God. We were surprised by this leading especially as we felt small and insignificant compared with the need, but we took courage from the Word and from history -- the Lord hears the prayers of even one, or just a few. Were Daniel's prayers enough for the restoration of Israel? Were Evan Roberts prayers sufficient for Wales? Were the prayers of two old sisters sufficient for Scotland? Small as we may be, the power comes from Him. Jer. 32:27 “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me? 

• We prayed for the UK especially - for mighty shakings of God, spiritually, for revival and for the Word to be preached again with such power from heaven as to shake the UK. 
• We prayed the same for Ireland which has become a bastion of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel
• We prayed for other nations as well - Spain, Germany, and other European countries. In some of those nations, we know of Christians desperately praying for their country and for the Church in their country to be shaken.

We turned our focus to pray for Israel.
There was a huge gay parade going on in Jerusalem at the time of our praying.

Isaiah 59:19-20 “And they will fear the name of Jehovah from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun: for He will come like a stream dammed up, which a tempest of Jehovah drives away. And a Redeemer comes for Zion, and for those who turn from apostasy in Jacob, saith Jehovah. (This seems to be the right sense of the verse as quoted by Keil and Delitzsch OT Commentary) 

Verse 20 is quoted by Paul in Romans 11:26 regarding Israel's salvation! 

• We prayed for the Lord to "come in" as a mighty rushing pent-up stream suddenly filled with water.
• We prayed for this stream to wash away and sweep away all spiritual opposition to Yeshua and the gospel
• We prayed for the gays in the parade and those who were opposing it from the sidelines - both groups need God! Both are lost. 
• We prayed for God to come vehemently in mighty saving power
• We prayed for God to remove ungodliness from Jacob
• We prayed that this pent-up rushing river will be a great spirit of repentance sweeping all into a great humbling of themselves before God
• We prayed, "blast the nation with your kindness, O Lord."

In the midst of our praying thus, we were moved upon to proclaim spontaneously, "Zion your salvation is coming," "Behold Your King," Every knee shall bow." This led us to worship and praise the Lord with much joy. 

We naturally were moved to pray for this stream to come into the Body of Messiah.

• We  prayed for the Lord to suddenly come to His house in the land (the Body of Messiah) Malachi 3:1
• We prayed for the Lord to sweep away all the "debris" of worldliness and flesh and fill the Body, instead, with His Holy Spirit. 
• We prayed for a mighty revelation of the Glory of God, of His presence in the midst of the congregations. 

Blessings from Jerusalem,