PRAYER UPDATE FROM ISRAEL
December 24, 2007

WE BLESS OUR FRIENDS IN THE NATIONS WHO HAVE ENTERED A SEASON OF CELEBRATING THE LORD'S BIRTH. "THE DARKNESS IS PASSING AWAY, AND THE TRUE LIGHT IS ALREADY SHINING." WE THANK AND BLESS YOU FOR STANDING WITH US AS THIS LIGHT WHICH FIRST BROKE FORTH IN BETHLEHEM IS GROWING BRIGHTER UNTIL THE NEW DAY COME! WE JOIN WITH YOU.
'O COME LET US ADORE HIM!'

1.  A HORSE TO BEAR HIS GLORY INTO WAR

On Tuesday December 11th, the evening of which would see the last candle lighting for Hanukkah, an early-morning prayer meeting was taking place in Denton, Texas, led by Chuck Pierce. Chuck is a powerful prophetic voice around the world, who maintains a strong connection with believers in Israel.  This particular morning he was declaring regarding "Glory":  "We don't like it, but when glory makes a shift, people get run into and they get knocked off their horses.  They get knocked out of their places ..'Father, make us carriers of Your glory this year everywhere we go!"

A few hours later in far-away Israel a van filled with sound equipment was traveling down the Jordan Valley, returning from a conference for Messianic youth in the north.  The young Israeli leaders turned west at Jericho and headed into the ascent towards Jerusalem.  Israel is in the process of widening the passage into a four-lane highway, but this portion is still a two-lane winding road.  As the van toiled upwards through this narrow place, a car appeared speeding towards them from around the next bend.  A donkey had wandered into the lane, and the approaching car struck it full force, blowing the beast into the air and the smashed vehicle careening directly into the path of our friends' van.  Later in relating this adventure, they were still amazed at how their driver, with cliffs on either side and no place to veer off to, had somehow been preserved from a collision with the stricken car. They were instead able to come to a stop and go back to render aid.  The donkey lay at the side dead.

The Glory is making a shift, and among His worshippers, God is preparing a royal warhorse

On our way to the conference we'd seen Bedouin young people riding along the way on their donkeys.   However, we believe that the Lord is showing us something prophetically here-that although there have been times when His glory has been borne on a donkey, we are entering a time when that mode of conveyance is quickly coming quickly to an end-hat the donkey is dead, and that the royal warhorse of Zechariah 10:3 is taking its place: "For the LORD of Armies will visit His flock, the house of Judah, and He will make them as a horse which bears His glory into War" (Literal Hebrew; emphases ours).  The word for "glory" here relates to royalty.  "Judah" comes form a Hebrew word for "Praise or thanksgiving by extending the hands".  The house of Judah can refer to the literal descendants of Yehuda, the fourth son of Jacob, although since the time of the Babylonian captivity the title Yehudim (or "Jews") has been applied to all of Hebrew descent. 

At the Youth Conference, the Lord indeed seemed to be visiting his young Jewish "praisers" in a new way.  It was the second evening of the conference.  Usually there will be a worship time followed by a message, and then the teens will be invited to come forward to pray with one of the young adult leaders.  But this evening something new occurred.  A young worship team from a village outside Haifa were opening in praise and worship and the Glory of the Lord began to come into the room.  A sense of the Holy intensified and suddenly, young people were praying for each other, others stood lost in His presence, others were on their knees-all without having been instructed to do anything.  There followed a powerful message on the Fire of the Holy Spirit, how this fire is essential, how, just as a laser can be focused into a tiny beam which burns away a an imperfection on the cornea of the eye, destroying and healing at the same time, so the living loving flame of the Spirit comes in personally exactly corresponding to the needs of our inner selves, surgically removing that which is death, and igniting a flame of love and power to begin living in Truth.  Afterwards the kids broke up again to pray-spread out like watch-fires on a plain, some 25 or 30 separate little groups around the room whose fervency was meeting and mingling with that of heaven.  In the past at these conferences we have been happy to begin at a certain point and progress forward with the youth-this time it was obvious that things were already farther along, that a significant progression had definitely taken place since the last time and the Holy Spirit was meeting them there!

PLEASE PRAY:

• That the fire which was released in the young people will stay lit and intensify-that they will learn to draw from the supernatural source of its fuel.
• That the Body of Messiah will long for the coming of God's glory-and yield to being fashioned by His Spirit into the vessels the King desires to bear that Glory in the war ahead.
• That Believers in Israel and throughout the world will allow the Spirit to release them from old methods or traditions which must die in order to make way for the New.

He will ride forth on this warhorse "for the cause of Truth"

"Behold, a white horse.  And He who sat on him is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war" (Revelation 19:11).

 "In Your majesty ride on victoriously, for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let Your right hand teach You awesome things" (Psalm 45:4). 

One of the virtues which this royal war-horse will bear into battle is "Truth."  We are entering a period where there is much deception being released against believers, especially as regards Israel.  We ourselves living in the Land are sensing that if we are to stay "sharp, tempered and true" we must continually submit our personal views, our eschatologies, our very love and zeal for our Land and people to the Spirit of Truth.  "Guide me in your Truth and teach me, for You are my Salvation-God" wrote David in Psalm 25.  And Daniel 10:21 reveals that Daniel himself required a heavenly messenger to reveal "what is inscribed in the writing of truth."  There will be many who by smooth words will be turned to godlessness regarding the Covenant, but "the people who know their God will display strength and take action. Those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many" (Daniel 11:32, 33).  John speaks also of "those who know their God", that they will be the ones capable of discerning "the spirit of truth and the spirit of error" (I John 4:7). 

The desperate need of this discernment and the danger of drastic error yawning open before the Body we have seen graphically illustrated recently on two fronts. On one hand a respected and highly visible leader and author who has done much on behalf of bringing understanding and support of Israel by Evangelicals in the West, has written a book, the first edition of which reportedly teaches that "the Jews did not reject Jesus as their Messiah because He did not come to be their Messiah, because they already have a covenant with God and do not need a Messiah" (See/Google: MorningStar Ministries : Special Bulletin #11; Emphases ours).  At the other extreme, 80 highly visible and respected evangelical and charismatic leaders recently signed a document calling for a Two-State solution for Israel and Palestine

(See: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/novemberweb-only/148-33.0.html; See also: www.davidstent.org , Archived Newsletter Dec 15).  

The Lord of Hosts has declared, "I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal" (Zechariah 2:14b).  Conversely, the prophet Elijah cried, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God of Hosts" (I Kings 19:10)-yet the Lord was working to show that there were blind spots in his zeal, and that even at that time he was moving in error.

PLEASE PRAY:

That the Church will in humility and meekness seek God's guidance in Truth (Ps 25:5; 26:3) as she is being formed into the horse which bears Him into battle on behalf of Truth, Meekness and Righteousness.

* That as a dividing line of Truth related to Israel is being drawn, believers in error on either side of the line will receive revelation of their position and  in His mercy cry to Him for correction before it is too late.

* That Believers in Israel will receive and embrace a new impartment of the Gift of Discernment of Spirits.  The spiritual battle is intense here-and this gift is not strongly operative in the Body.

His worshiping royal warhorses will span the generations - also including the little ones

Last Shabbat (Saturday) we were leading worship in a Hebrew-speaking congregation in Jerusalem.  At a break in the singing there was an opening for anyone to share who might feel the Spirit giving them a word or a prayer.  A tiny five-year old girl made her way to the microphone.  She stood there praying-pausing between the sentences to listen-"I thank you Abba that  kehilla is kef today [that our gathering is fun today] the angels are dancing with us. Thank you that when we pray to you, You answer us - Your Word is true, we so love You!"  She continued earnestly for about five minutes.  This was obviously not something for which she had been prepared or "coached" by her parents.

Quite the opposite was true on December 3rd when a children's show was aired on Hamas Al-Aqsa TV in which a little Muslim boy says, "If we all unite, the Al-Aqsa Mosque [on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem] will not remain in the hands of the Zionist enemy, despite all their conspiracies against the Palestinian people."  He is answered by a girl, "To Al-Aqsa, to Al-Aqsa-we shall unite our ranks.  We will wipe out the people of Zion, and will not leave a single one of them" (The Middle East Media Research Institute, 3 Dec 2007, Clip No 1625, emphases ours).  This is, of course, the ultimate aim of the adults in this organization which has taken over the Gaza Strip and which daily releases, unprovoked, rockets into sovereign Israeli territory for the purpose of killing Jews.  When Israel responded last week, killing several operatives in these attacks, Hamas issued strong vows of revenge. 

We believe that one of our strongest defenses against this "revenge" is found in Psalm 8:2: "From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have ordained strength because of Your enemies, that you may silence the enemy and the avenger." 

This is not just something metaphorical.  As little children praise the King of Kings in Spirit and in Truth, strength is released into the heavenlies which breaks down the plans of the Lord's enemies and silences the spirit of hell's revenge.  We see that the Lord is releasing a new thing among children-they too will be among the royal horses present in the battle!

PLEASE PRAY:

*Over the work God is doing in children in Israel, that they may learn to worship and war in spirit and in truth.

*For parents and guardians of these little ones-that we will guard them and provide a covering for what God is doing.  That we will have wisdom in this oversight and not doubt when holy things are being worked.

*That we will HEAR what the Spirit is saying to the Congregations-including when it is being spoken through the mouths of infants.

*For infants who are being forced to learn and mouth violence towards God's covenant people, that they will be rescued from darkness.  That revelation will come to them of the Savior of all peoples Who was born in Israel and will reign in Zion.

LASTLY

This past week's Torah Portion spoke of how a royal descendant of Judah would "bind his donkey's colt to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine," of how He would "wash His clothes in the blood of grapes" (Genesis 49:11).  There was a time when Yeshua (Jesus) entered the Holy City with a donkey and its foal-but He is returning on a royal horse   and with a robe dipped in blood (Revelation 19:11,13).  May our Lord grant us more revelation and insight into what he is doing to prepare us to be bearers of the glory of His royalty in days ahead, both in Israel and throughout the nations.