Israel Prayer Update: February 17,
2010
This week in Israel:
1. ITALY AS FRIEND-THE BLESSINGS AND THE
CURSES.
Two weeks ago Italy's Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi visited Israel for three days. During that time he spoke
from the podium during a special session of the Knesset, voicing
words of respect and support for Israel unusual for visiting
dignitaries. The Prime Minister strongly criticized the "Goldstone
Report" (which implied that Israel was guilty of war crimes during
its war with Hamas in Gaza last year)-accusing it of attempting to
"incriminate Israel for its legitimate response" to rocket attacks
from Palestinian terrorists. At one point during his speech, he
said, "We, the free and liberal people across the world, thank you
(Israel) for your very existence." Regarding Iran (whose leaders, in
contrast to Berlusconi, are more often wont to curse and threaten
that "existence"), he repeatedly had strong words, "We cannot accept
the nuclearization of a country whose leaders have explicitly
expressed their desire to destroy Israel, have denied the Holocaust
and delegitimized the Jewish state." In fact, the Italian premier
took this time to announce that Italy, until now long Iran's biggest
EU trading partner, would be scaling back its economic dealings with
Teheran; and he issued a call on other countries to impose similar
sanctions.
It has been said that for those nations which take a
public stand for Israel two things are certain, the Blessings of
Israel's God-and the curses and attacks of Israel's enemies. These
latter were not long in coming. A week later, Iranian protestors,
furious not only at the impositions of Italian sanctions, but that
they were announced from Israeli soil, rallied in front of the
Italian embassy in Teheran, hurling stones and eggs amid shouts of
"Death to Italy! Death to Berlusconi!" The Iranian Foreign Ministry
reportedly summoned the Italian envoy to protest the Prime
Minister's remarks in Israel.
We are reminded of a striking image viewed by
millions around the world in early September of 2001. The infamous
Durban I conference on racism had just degenerated into a "Hate
Israel" fest, when then President George W Bush chose to deliver a
speech on the air flanked by a U.S. and an Israeli flag. Less than a
week later came "9/11". Of course the attack had been planned for
months-but this juxtaposition of images was nevertheless telling:
those who stand with Israel as a friend will also be called to
withstand her enemies.
At the same time, we have ourselves only just
returned from Italy where we received firsthand reports of a strong
warming towards Israel, in particular in the Church. There appears
to be a remarkable upsurge in the evangelical church around the
country on behalf of throwing off a "replacement theology" view of
Israel (i.e. that is, a view that God has finished his special
working with the Jewish people and the Land; that "Israel" is now
"the Church"). In fact, we understand that there are presently
strong inroads being made by believers into the Government itself on
behalf of standing with Israel.
PLEASE PRAY:
*For Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi, that he and his nation will be protected from
backlash of the enemy for the friendly stand they have taken on
behalf of Israel.
*That the relations between these two countries
would continue to grow strong.
*For wisdom and prophetic insight in the Christian
Body in Italy, as how best to pray and move on behalf of God's
redemptive purposes for both nations. One pastor told of how God had
sent him and a team to Caesarea-the place where 2000 years ago the
Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit were first released into a
Roman centurion (Cornelius; Acts 10) and spread thence to Italy.
They felt God was asking them to return with that anointing as
grateful Italians, bringing it back for a release into Israel in the
place from which it had first leapt forth towards their
land!
2. SUCCAT HALLEL-TEN YEARS OF A TABERNACLE
OF PRAISE IN JERUSALEM
Ten years ago this week Rick and Patti Ridings were
released into fulfillment of a dream the Lord had given them years
before: to raise up a house of 24/7 worship and intercession in
Jerusalem as near as possible to the location where David had placed
the Ark of the Covenant under a tent and stationed worshippers round
it ministering continuously to the LORD (I Chronicles 16). This
beginning was in early 2000, with a little band meeting for several
"worship watches" a week in homes on a hill just south of the Old
City. From the first the endeavor was made up of believers who were
members of different congregations within and outside of Jerusalem;
intercessors, worshipers and worship leaders who were citizens from
several nations including Israel. Now, ten years later, this
ministry is in a facility on the edge of a valley facing Mount
Zion-and for five years there has been continuous 24 hour-a-day
seven-days-a-week ministry to the Lord. Succat Hallel has hosted a
number of major national and international conferences for youth and
young adults, maintained internships, while providing a place where
local staff and visitors from all over the world may join in
worship, praise and intercession in the City of the Great King. At
the same time, God has begun raising up other Houses of Prayer and
Worship in the Jerusalem area, southward near Beer Sheba, westward
on the coast and northward to the Galilee and the Golan Heights. And
there are now connections with similar ministries being birthed in
other Middle Eastern countries.
We believe this sort of work to be a powerful arm of
God released throughout the Church in these days. We have recent
reports of many hundreds of such houses which have sprung up in
Indonesia (the most populous Muslim nation in the world); the local
believers are finding such places of worship essential in "renewing
their strength" and in releasing the powerful light of the King into
dense darkness.
PLEASE PRAY:
*That God nourish and supply
the spirits of those He has called to be involved in "worship
watches" to Him in Israel-filling them with His Holy Spirit to
worship in Spirit and in Truth, to see and pray prophetically, to be
watchful, and bound together in unity of love and holy resolve.
*That personnel be released to fill all of the
watches of the Lord. In Israel there can be great difficulties in
getting visas, finding affordable housing. Israel is so tiny, and
beset by problems of illegal aliens as well as being under constant
threats by enemies, security measures are stringent, and can make it
difficult for those coming in. And of course, the Enemy hates it,
because God "inhabits the praises of Israel!" Pray for God to open
doors and clear a way for all those He calls to this
purpose.
*For finances-the cost of rent and taxes for
maintaining a house of prayer in Jerusalem is truly daunting. Please
pray that property can be provided for and purchased.
*That God would continue to send worshippers from
the nations-and also raise up more from here in Israel to fill His
House of Prayer.
*For clarity of vision regarding how these
ministries may best be administered in days ahead-that those in
leadership will "stand their watch, set themselves on the
rampart, and watch to see what He will say to us.and what we will
answer when we are corrected" (Habakkuk 2:1).
3. TAUNTS FROM THE PRINCE OF
PERSIA
"Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for a
light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light
by night, Who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar (The YHVH of
Armies is His name): If those ordinances depart from before Me, says
the LORD, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a
nation before Me forever!" (Jeremiah 31:35-36).
Last week Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei proclaimed, "Israel is going downhill toward decline and
fall and Allah willing its obliteration is certain" (emphases
ours). He went on to refer to Israel as "a symbol of atrocity,
viciousness, and ugliness." With this supreme "spiritual" leader
making such calls, coupled with those continually issuing from his
President, is there any wonder that Israel is not easily convinced
that the accelerated enrichment of uranium in Iran is only taking
place with peaceful, civil goals in mind? We have entered the Hebrew
month of Adar. A week from this coming Saturday comes the
celebration of Purim, a feast somewhat ironically named after a
"lot" which was cast to activate a Holocaust of the Jews. This was
in Persia (modern-day Iran) during the reign of Esther the
Queen (Esther 3:7)."Haman sought to destroy (or, the
"obliteration" of!) all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, who were
throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus."
Yet we continue to receive cautions that a vast
majority of Iranian citizens despise their leaders and do not share
their hatred of Israel-that the one thing which would turn them back
into such blind fanatical hatred would be an attack from her. And as
we have mentioned before, there are an estimated 25,000 underground
Christian churches in Iran.
PLEASE PRAY:
*Jeremiah 31:35-36
above.
*That God's royal WORD of timing and judgment would
guide and constrain our leaders. "Where the word of a King is,
there is government.He who keeps his command will experience nothing
harmful; and a wise man's heart discerns both time and judgment,
because for every matter there is a time and
judgment"(Ecclesiastes 8:4-6a).
*That the God who had "compassion on Nineveh, the
great city in which there were more than 120,000 persons who did not
know the difference between their right and left hands", would have
mercy on the myriads of souls in Iran. That He who "removes kings
and establishes kings" (Daniel 2:21) would release His purposes on
their leadership-and that at the same time, He will "Redeem Israel
out of all his troubles" (Psalm 25:22).