Arrows from Zion 12 28 2011

Serving the Body of Messiah in Israel since August 2001  

Strategically Aimed for the Lord’s Harvest in IsraelARROWS PRAYER POINTS FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION May be copied for use in Prayer Gatherings
From our family to yours, 

Thank you so much for the outpouring of support & prayer for us.
May our whole family structures – by blood & by His Blood -
be strengthened in 2012 to Heavenly levels of love and unity.

Priority Prayer Focus

"Arise and shine for your Light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.  For behold darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the people, but the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you" (Isaiah 60:1-3)

No matter what darkness may loom over the world on the 2012 horizon each one of us who belong to Yeshua can rest in full trust that we are loved and continuously watched over for good and not for evil by our Abba.   When we are not fearful for our own safety, that is when Yeshua’s light shines out most brightly into the darkness. 

My sense is that 2012 will be the “due season” that many of us will see family members we have stood for a long time drawn to that light of Yeshua in us.  Along with them will come friends, neighbors and strangers who are able to see the light even from afar.  We do not need to be in dread of the darkness that surely will come; we just need plenty of oil for our lamps to burn.

Arrows from Zion Strategically Aimed for the Lord’s Harvest in Israel

Thank God for Israeli ministries who are a reflection of the glory of Yeshua to their people Israel in the midst of dark and troubling times.  God bless those who are “moving forward as a local congregation of Messianic believers here in Israel to lift up the name of our savior in any open doors that He opens before us.”  Pour out grace on each of these in whom the Messiah of Israel abides.

Inside the attached Weekly Summary of Prayer Requests from Israeli Ministries you will find that many of the ministries have given a wrap up of the ministry activities each of them have been involved with over the past year.  Israelprayer encourages you to open and read the Weekly Summary this week and also next week as we shall surely hear from more next week.  

The central idea behind Israelprayer is to give subscribers a more intimate exposure to the diversity of ministries touching lives in Israel in the name of the Lord Yeshua.  Some of you may be familiar with one or two Israeli ministries, and some of only the largest, but Israelprayer seeks to shine a light on just how many Jewish and Arabic ministries are living sacrificial lives in order to reach their people with the gospel.  Take advantage of this season when many are sharing overviews of their ministries inside the Weekly Summary.

There is more exchange between Israeli Messianic Jews and the believers from Muslim nations that most of the Church is aware of.  These contacts go on under the radar of most – but nothing is more encouraging spiritually as when former enemies can meeting together as brothers in the Messiah.  We rejoice with the report from one such contact that as much as 10% of the Iranian population now believes in Jesus.  Thank you, Lord for revealing Yeshua in Muslim nations!

Thank God this same type of exchange goes on within Israel and the Palestinian-controlled areas between Yeshua-believing Jews and Arabs.  It is an amazing testimony we hear from so many different ministries in the Land – the power of Yeshua’s love to break down barriers and release forgiveness.  Pray for each of the indigenous ministries that hold a priority to express “the reconciliation we have through the cross, even though our peoples continue to be in a perpetual state of hostility with each other.”

Pray for those who are negotiating the really tough questions that are posed when believing Arabs and Jews are drawn together.  As one Jewish lady wrote this week, “the Arabs of the Territories (the Palestinian Authority), have largely imbibed (from the Western Church) a replacement theology which leaves no room for the Jews and in some cases hates them! Interestingly enough, it is those who convert from Islam who are most supportive of Israel.  Pray for a revealing from Heaven of God’s position on these highly charged issues.

Meanwhile anarchy in the Jewish settlements is growing at a rate that is raising alarms in Israel that a civil war will divide Jews in Israel as in the days of Kings and Chronicles.  Will the failure of Israeli officials to rein in extremism especially in the religious settler youth, again the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judea?  This is a matter to take up in prayer – and how many misguided Christian Zionists will lend support?

One ministry in the territories writes:  “We seriously need prayer, and ask you to consider praying with us, that these young people will change their ways. However, we know that without a change of heart, their actions will not change. Please pray that they would have a 'Damascus road' experience, that their lives would be changed forever, and that their zeal would be for serving the King of Israel.”

Pray over the Israeli ministries – as well as those operating in Muslim nations – the prayer of Act 4:29-30 “And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto Your servants, that with all boldness they may speak Your word, By stretching forth Your hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of Your holy child Yeshua.”  Let 2012 be a year that Sonship is declared with all boldness and the family of Yeshua be enlarged throughout the Middle East.

Pray for the peacemakers in Israel and in the territories – who stick their necks out to take down the temperature of intense relationship between Arabs and Jews.  Pray for safety – angels of the LORD to encamp about them.

Pray for the heads of households who are following Yeshua as Messiah “to enter back into their place of authority as leaders, given to them by Yeshua and covering of their respective family. Pray for those men who are drifting away from the Lord bringing danger to their wives and children that they will come back to their first love and be set free from the lies of the enemies and temptations of this world.”

Pray for the families of the believing community in Israel and the territories.  So many are struggling, in need of jobs, and suffering the stress overload that comes with not having enough to meet the family needs.  Congregations across Israel are doing humanitarian aid both within their own membership as well as to the outside communities.  Pray for more of the Christian contributions to Israel which numbers in the billions to be channeled instead toward the Body of Messiah in Israel for ministering in the name of Yeshua.

Pray as one ministry leader requested this week, “More important than any other request, please pray for our family, that each one of us would have a vibrant connection with Yeshua. Pray that His presence would be close and that we would grow into the vessels that He wants us to be.”

One rehab ministry reports that it is thankful that it has pulled through a hard economic year while seeing 3 other rehab ministries forced to close their doors.  As the famous unsaved rabbi who collects the Lion’s share of Christian donations for Israel says, “This should not be.”  Those who are following Yeshua and ministering in His Name, these are the 100-fold return investment in Israel.  (Mt 13:23)

Pray for all those mentioned this week by the ministry leaders – some in their own families, some in their congregations – in battle against deadly diseases.  Like Carolyn Hyde over whose life was declared, “You shall live and not die, and declare the works of the LORD,” speak this word over each of them to be raised up fully health restored and a living testimony to Yeshua’s power to save and deliver.

The unsaved sister of a Messianic Jew in the north of Israel died suddenly and the family is swamped with grief.  Pray for the Holy Spirit’s comfort to engulf this Messianic brother and his entire family to taste and see that the LORD is good.

A dear Messianic lady in Nahariya has lost an old friend who she had prayed for many years.  She asks prayer for three other of her “three old ladies” to come at long last to the knowledge of the Son of God. This is also the prayer request of many of the ministries who do outreach among the Holocaust survivors. Time is drawing short - pray the LORD would reveal His Son and draw them into that eternal DOOR.

Pray for the teens who met earlier this week in the annual Katzir Chanukah camp.  Pray for the seeds planted in this time away together to blossom into magnificent fruit in the lives of these young people – abiding fruit that will remain to make them be all the LORD means for them to be.

Several of the Israeli ministries have a eye toward encouraging Messianic Jews and also traditional Jews to ‘make aliyah’ – to return to the Jewish homeland as prophecy indicates will continue to happen to the end.  While we encourage everyone to seek the LORD for their own timing, we believe it is the LORD beckoning Jews back to the Land of Promise – promises yet to be fulfilled to “all Israel”.

This month it was announced that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be hosting a regular Bible study in his residence for “researchers, public officials, and invited guests.”  A few days ago, the Queen of England also surprised many in her annual Christmas address by bringing a strong gospel message to her people and an emphasis on family and the commonwealth.  Israelprayer takes both of these developments as spiritually significant position statements by heads of state of our need to draw together in our families and our faith in the coming year.

On Nov 22 the Knesset officially thanked a Messianic Jew and formally honored evangelical Christians for their support of Holocaust survivors.  “Surely as members of government opened their hearts, doors were opened in the spirit realm, bringing the nation closer to the day when the Name of Yeshua will no longer be a curse word among His own people…. It was amazing to experience the Presence of God in the halls of government.”  These are the days of Elijah….

Israelprayer knows of three Israeli ministries (Eitan, Uzi & Ron) who are currently engaged in writing or final edits of books the LORD has put on their hearts.  Pray for each of these writers to be filled with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to complete the works the LORD has put in their hearts.  Pray for the discipline of writing to be transformed into deeply motivated drive to set down into words all the overflow of their hearts. (Pray also for me as the Lord has given me a book to write!)

Congregations are multiplying in Israel as mother congregations are birthing new works and God is stirring in the hearts of others to begin prayer walking areas He is giving them for the planting of new congregations.  Pray for the Lord’s timing and favor on each of this new works – and provision by the vision-Giver!

Training for leadership is a prayer request we have seen grow over the past several years among all the Israeli ministries.  Thank God for those who are developing leadership conferences within the Israeli Body (Thank you Maoz!) and also for the networks of related congregations who are raising up resources for all facets of ministry, including the prayer and praise ministries.  The LORD be upon these resource providers – with abundant resources to fill the need.

Please continue to pray for open doors for those who are ministering in the name of Yeshua to go through.  While these is much persecution and even much financial lack among these smaller ministries, they are faithful to do what God has called them to do and faithful with what God has put in their hands to work with.  Pray for Zev a street evangelist who gives away Bibles and for Brian who feeds the needy on the streets of Netanya and Tel Aviv.  

Pray for those who minister to “the widow and the fatherless” – the single parents and the battered and abused.  As Psalm 68:7 says, "God restores the lonely into homes."  It is the most deeply wounded that require the most spiritual mothering and fathering to be restored to wholeness.  Pray for these who lay down their own privacy to open family doors those God wants to make strong & vibrant – against all the odds the world would give them to be made new.  Speaking abundant provision to meet the need, in the Name of Yeshua!

Pray for the pro-Life movement in Israel – for all the ministers in all the congregations throughout the land who are making a difference in saving the lives of the unborn….as well as those who are ministering to those who are shattered from taking the lives of their unborn in abortions.  They LORD we serve is a forgiver and calls us to release forgiveness into lives being destroyed by sins the world calls convenience.

Pray for those who have recently expanded with purchasing new congregational buildings, or those in progress of acquiring new congregational locations.  Pray about investing Israeli ministries towards buildings and properties they can own (and not be put out of when anti-missionaries lean on landlords).

As one ministry wrote this week, “There are many still left in darkness - the darkness of poverty and the darkness of despair. We all have much more work to do to fulfill Yeshua's high calling…. Know that with every gift you send to Israel(i ministries), "Light is sown like seed for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart" (Psalm 97:11).”  

Recently there have been exchanges between the believers in Israel and believers in German and in Asian nations.  Both of these are significant connections that will impact the testimony of the Body in Israel in the world.  Pray for the LORD’s will in these exchanges to be fully realized.  

It takes only one good eye to see that war(s) may be bubbling on a slow boil in the Middle East.  Pray for the Israeli believers “for an increased sensitivity to the Holy Spirit to hear what God is saying…as we are quite on the front line.”

Rick Ridings who heads the 24/7 prayer and worship house in Jerusalem, Succat Hallel, has issued a WORD FOR 2012 – A Season Marked by Ripening, Revealing, Reeling, Reigning, and Reaping  You can access that on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/notes/rick-ridings/a-word-for-2012/10150433355340723

Inside the attachment of the

Weekly Summary of Prayer Requests from Israeli Ministries

Arrows from Zion can be shared freely & we’ve included an attachment in a Word document to make it easy to print, but we ask the Weekly Summaries not be forwarded or information republished with consent of the specific ministries. By subscription only, write israelprayerdotcom@gmail.com or donna@d10r10.com

Praying the Headlines

Not a good development  - Rise of the State of Judea

Ryan Jones  Israel Today  December 27, 2011 

“A source in Samaria tells Israel Today that the State of Judea is already a de facto reality.  There is already a Jewish uprising happening in Judea and Samaria that the media and government are doing their best to hide from the public, said the source….The idea of a State of Judea has been around since 1988, when settler rabbis proposed it in response to PLO leader Yasser Arafat’s Declaration of Independence. Prominent rabbis began revisiting the idea in the wake of the Gaza pullout in 2005, and stated that if a large-scale withdrawal were ever ordered for Judea and Samaria, they would put the State of Judea plan in motion.”

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