Praying in Agreement with the Israeli Body of Messiah
Strategically Aimed for the Lord’s Harvest in Israel
KEY PRAYER POINTS FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
May be copied for use in Prayer Gatherings
Priority Prayer Focus
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Last week we sent out a request that reflected a pinpointing of the spiritual need behind the desperate natural need for rain in Israel. This was according to several Israeli Messianic leaders and before the outbreak of fire in Carmel.
As David Davis of the Mt Carmel congregation pointed out, according to Jeremiah 14 rain is a blessing and drought is a curse. Further down in the chapter, Davis drew our attention to:
O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, Do it for Your name’s sake; For our backslidings are many, We have sinned against You.
O the Hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble, Why should You be like a stranger in the land, And like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night? Why should You be like a man astonished, Like a mighty one who cannot save?
Yet You, O LORD, are in our midst, And we are called by Your name; Do not leave us!
(Jer. 14:7-9 NKJV)
Arni Klien of Emmaus Way had written before the fire outbreak, “To just ask God to send rain without dealing with the reason it’s been withheld is like asking that He would simply overlook our sin and rebellion.”
Howard Bass in Beer Sheva also wrote before the fire, “All of us want needed rain, not only for ourselves, but also for plants and animals, and for seedtime and harvest. Yet there come times when God withholds His mercies and blessings in order to work repentance in His own people first of all. Please pray for God to grant the Body of Messiah repentance for our sins, which can be readily discerned in the Beatitudes, and in the Lord's own letters to the seven churches in Rev. 2 & 3. Please pray for Israel and for Jewish people everywhere to return to the God who chose them to be His treasured people.
Of course, days later a fire ignited that destroyed over 12,000 acres of the Hai Bar Nature reserve, Carmel Park, homes, businesses and the lives of 42 first responders. It is the worst natural disaster to hit Israel and thankfully it was put out within four days with the aid of over 25 nations. There were offers of assistance even from some very surprising countries. Perhaps it is because water is such a priority concern among all Middle Eastern nations and because the same drought that afflicts Israel also threatens all of Israel’s neighbors.
Whatever else we may draw from all these things, it seems as if the LORD were underscoring the desperate need throughout the Middle East for the latter rain, naturally and spiritually. Surely this is our priority prayer focus for not only this week but the continuing, pressing and urgent priority focus.
“Ask the LORD for rain in the time of the latter rain. The LORD will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, grass in the field for everyone…. And I will strengthen them in the LORD; and they shall walk up and down in His name, says the LORD.” Zechariah 10:1, 12
As I have continued to add excerpts from the prayer letters about the fire, many, many of the statements strike me as strongly prophetic. So at the 11 page mark, I have decided to go back through and emphasize all those statements that have struck me as prophetic. Watch for the royal purple typefaces. We don’t want to over-spiritualize this event, but seeing all the prayer letters together as a whole, it is difficult not to see a strong prophetic thread running through these letters.
[The Weekly Summary of Prayer Requests from Israeli Ministries is available by subscription only and mailed each Tuesday in time for Wednesday night prayer gatherings. If you would like to subscribe write donna@israelprayer.com ]
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Arrows from Zion
Strategically Aimed for the Lord’s Harvest in Israel
KEY PRAYER POINTS FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
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With few exceptions, this week we are limiting the coverage to Carmel fire-related information and requests. We will return to some of the other items that were sent in the prayer letters next week in order to focus on all the issues that surfaced in the midst of this fire disaster.
The raging inferno that destroyed 12 acres+ of the lush Carmel region of northern Israel took place in an area of significant biblical prophetic events. Elijah called the nation of Israel to repentance there at the end of a 3-year drought calling down fire from Heaven on a water-drenched altar to disprove the false prophets of Baal.
In fact, Carmel means “God’s Vineyard” and a drought in the area symbolic of God’s own vineyard, Israel, is indication of God’s disfavor. With a united voice the Israeli ministries have been crying out for the spiritual latter rain on their nation. Conferences set in the last few months have even been themed in the cry for Elijah’s cloud the size of a man’s hand that broke the curse of drought. Let us join their cry for repentance in the Land that results in an outpouring of the latter rain.
Though the fire that raged through the Carmel region was devastating to life and property, there were good things that came out of it, and the Israeli believers have been attuned to those things. One of those things is the opportunity for the Body of Messiah in Israel to be a blessing and minister to their countrymen.
Another is the clear message that God is able to make even your enemies to rise to your help – to be at peace with you – when He moves them to come to your aid. Israel received help from 25 nations, including some like Turkey that diplomatic relations have been rapidly deteriorating.
At the end of WW2 God softened the hearts of nations to recognize the Statehood of Israel. Once again, He softened hearts to come to the aid in saving Israel.
The spiritual message to take away is that for the salvation of Israel spiritually, the international Body must come to the aid of the Israeli Body in Yeshua. “Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord”
Although the inferno broke out in the village of Isifiya where the Carmel Messianic congregation is located, there was no loss of believer’s lives and the winds changed direction when the fast moving fire approached the congregation. In the midst of the inferno, Yeshua’s promise of Rev 3:10 to protect His own held true.
There was a sorrowful loss of life of Israel’s first responders – 37 young police guard cadets en route to rescue inmates – many terrorists – from a prison; the police chief of Haifa; a 16-year old who responded to help put out the fire. Terrible, heartbreaking and real losses that have left many shaken to the core in grief. Pray for the Comforter to walk among them and for the consolers who carry Him in their hearts to be given opportunities many times over to help.
Through the tears that are shed by only those that share a common family or national bond, the believers of Israel are standing for their nation with a fervent concern that cannot be trumped up. They are family interceding for family – but the Christians from nations can aid them just as we witness the nations drawing near to help Israel battle this fire.
In any disaster a toll is taken not only by the disaster itself, but also by those are part of the rescue mission and the governmental machinery. Where there are losses, where there are failures, there is also the opportunity for the Lord to enter in with peace. Pray for the believers to be given inspired ideas to minister to those left with guilt or despair….including the young boy who through negligence started the fire.
A scheduled meeting of Jewish and Arab pastors doing reconciliation work took place on Mt Carmel as planned in the midst of the fire. They united for intercession crying out for natural and spiritual rain on the dry land. Then they left and Arab churches provided breakfast and dinner meals for 600 police and firefighters. The prayers of the saints had both wings and feet!
Among the dead from the bus load of cadets caught in the fire, four were from the city of Beer Sheva. The congregation there took up a benevolence offering for the families. In a city where this congregation is persecuted, there is compassion and love for the residents. This too is a witness of the power of Messiah in the heart of men.
Please join us in lifting a mighty cry before the Lord that in mercy and compassion, he would open the heavens. We desperately need the remaining three months of the rainy season to be as abnormally wet as the first part of the winter has been abnormally dry.
In the days ahead there will be innumerable ways to bless Israel in the wake of the Carmel fire through the Body in Israel. Many are already sharing the plans God has placed in their hearts to meet the needs, begin to rebuild and reforest the area. You will find some of those avenues to get involved by opening the attached Weekly Summary of Prayer Requests from Israeli Ministries. We will continue to bring those opportunities to your attention as we are made aware of them.
Here is a YouTube photo-montage set to Israeli music and featuring the photographs of the bus load of young prison guard cadets who lost their lives as fire overtook their bus at the beginning of the fire. It gives a touching sense of the tragedy. Pray that this tragedy would cause men and women to look to God for help.
Last, but not least, Asher Intrater shares in an article titled Crises in the Book of Revelation springboarding off of several urgent situations Revive Israel has reported in the past few weeks – the Carmel fire; the danger of nuclear weapons in the hands of irrational regimes like North Korea and Iran; warnings by military, archaeological and engineering experts that the walls of the Temple Mount mosques and foundations of the courtyards is in danger of collapse; and the largest cell phone network in Israeli inexplicably shutting down for 24 hours.
There are many great and dangerous fires that may break out in the days ahead of us, but we have been given exceeding great and precious promises from the LORD.
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