|
Please Note! Unless something extra ordinary takes place we will take a break and not send out any Prayer Alerts during the month of January!
• Blow the Trumpet in Zion – Sound the Alarm! It is SOS in the spirit!
"The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel. Thus declares the LORD who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, 'Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.'" (Zech 12:1-3)
"Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand." (Joel 2:1)
As 2009 is coming to an end, we want to take a look at the situation here in Israel and the Middle East.
Last summer, we wrote that in our opinion President Obama's Cairo speech might go down in history as a watershed event for western civilization. In his capacity as world leader, his gross misreading of the "Israeli –Palestinian conflict", his exaggerated praise for Islam, as well as his policy of appeasement before the nuclear threat from Iran, has unleashed an extremely dangerous situation, not only for Israel, but also for the entire Middle East and the whole world.
It does not seem to be a coincidence that only one letter differentiates between the US president's last name and the first name of the most sworn enemy of the western free world, Osama bin Laden. God can still turn this situation around, but if we ever needed to stand in the gap and pray for God's intervention and mercy for the world it is now!
Old time Israel supporter for decades, Evangelist Mike Evans from Texas, wrote last week in a very urgent appeal called "Good Old Days,"
"Unless something changes, Israel will be at war within twelve months. She will be forced to attack Iran to stop their nuclear weapons program in self-defense, and there is no doubt: the world will condemn Israel. Thousands of missiles provided by Iran will reign down on innocent Jewish men, women and children. Thousands of suicide bombers will come—not with backpacks filled with nails and screws, but with dirty bombs that will kill hundreds of thousands.
"…Israel can be spared the horror of death and destruction. God can intervene and change the future…but to change the course of events—will require PRAYER! …I sounded the warning throughout the 1980s and 1990s. I raised my voice to cry out that the terrorists would come to America. On 9/11 we all watched in horror as those unheeded warnings came true. I’m telling you today that unless we act it will happen again…and when it does, the unspeakable horror will make 9/11 look like the good old days."
We agree with Mike Evans' assessment that the situation is extremely dangerous. Prime Minister Netanyahu asked this week that the leading opposition party join his government, comparing the danger facing Israel today to the situation in 1967 before the Six Day War. The government has also called its diplomats around the world to come home to Israel for consultations. It is obvious that something major is in the works and we need to pray. It is SOS in the spirit right now, requiring us to take responsibility in prayer as never before.
A Palestinian State with Jerusalem as Capitol
In August, the ruling Palestinian political party Fatah, held its first congress in twenty years. According to Jerusalem Post Palestinian Reporter Khalid Abu Toameh, the resolutions that were past were basically identical to the ones that were past twenty years ago, when Fatah was a recognized terrorist organization under the leadership of the godfather of modern day terrorism Yasser Arafat. There was no resolution recognizing Israel. None of the old articles calling for the destruction of Israel were changed, and once again it was declared that the armed struggle is the only way to achieve the goal to liberate all of Palestine and destroy the Jewish state.
Yet nothing of this was reported in the media. As usual two different documents were approved, one for international consumption in English, speaking about peace and negotiations and another for internal use in Arabic, talking about the right and duty of terror and armed struggle. One of the most well known terrorist organizations in the world responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Israelis, the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, was recognized as the official armed wing of the Fatah party. This is the condition of Israel's "partner" for peace, with its headquarters about ten miles from Jerusalem!
The Fatah congress moreover adopted a resolution that Jerusalem is the eternal, undivided capitol of the Palestinian people, and that there will never be peace until "every settler" is gone. This means that according to the Palestinians there will never be peace in the Middle East until Jerusalem has become a city void of Jews!
Encouraged by US support, the "moderate" Palestinian leadership has declared that there will not be any more peace negotiations with Israel until Israel first has accepted all their demands. After the Fatah congress, they have instead been working relentlessly to gather support for a UN Security Council decision recognizing a Palestinian state with the 1967 borders and Jerusalem as the capitol, without any negotiations with Israel. Whereas the UN General Assembly only can voice recommendations, a UN Security Council decision is binding on all the nations of the world enforced by the use of military power if necessary.
“Since King David, Jerusalem has never been the capitol of any other nation than Israel.”
Of the Western nations in the Security Council, the Palestinians have already secured support for their policy from France and Britain. The only nation that could possibly stop a decision in the UN Security Council to declare a Palestinian state over the head of Israel is the United States with its veto power. The Palestinians are however banking hard on President Obama's firm commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as their capitol, hoping that the United States will abstain from using their veto power even if they do not support it.
Meanwhile, President Obama is pressuring the Israeli government as hard as he can to dismantle Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria. The United States is also working hard under General Keith Dayton to transform the Palestinian police force, mostly made up of former terrorists, into a full fledged military army. Dayton has already declared that if the Palestinians do not have a state within two years, he is expecting that the Palestinian army he is training will go to war against Israel.
Jerusalem DC – Jerusalem David's Capitol
The Israeli government under Prime Minister Netanyahu is at this time doing as much as possible to give in to US demands, except so far on one point: the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the heart and soul of the Jewish people. For two thousand years the Jewish people have prayed five times a day for their return to Jerusalem. Every traditional wedding ceremony is ending with the Jewish bridegroom breaking a wine glass under his foot as a reminder even at the happiest occasion in life of the desolation of Jerusalem according to Psalm 137:5-6,
"If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget [its skill]. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy."
Jerusalem has been and is the key to the Jewish people's existence. Yet, in the end we know that all the nations of the world will come against Jerusalem. We are now living in those days! The Palestinian leadership is telling their people that Jews have never lived in Jerusalem, that Jerusalem has always been an Arabic, Muslim city from time immemorial and that there has never ever been any Jewish Temple there. What is even worse is, that twenty years of Palestinian propaganda seem to have erased three thousand years of Jewish history also in the minds of most world leaders, including President Obama.
Whose capitol is Jerusalem? Jerusalem is first and foremost Jerusalem DC – Jerusalem David's Capitol! It was King David that established Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel more than 3000 years ago.
"David and all the Israelites marched to Jerusalem (that is, Jebus). The Jebusites who lived there said to David, 'You will not get in here.' Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion, the City of David. …David then took up residence in the fortress, and so it was called the City of David. He built up the city around it, from the supporting terraces to the surrounding wall, while Joab restored the rest of the city. And David became more and more powerful, because the LORD Almighty was with him." (1 Chr 11:4-9)
“Yeshua of Nazareth is waiting in heaven for the moment of return to Zion to rule as king from Jerusalem on the throne of his father David.”
Since King David, Jerusalem has never been the capitol of any other nation than Israel. Christian theologians sometimes say that the New Testament gives no support for any Jewish claim to a state of their own. They are dead wrong. Romans 15:8 states emphatically that the Messiah "has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God's truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs," not take the promises away from them! Moreover, Yeshua himself said that when Jerusalem is ruled by Gentiles it is an occupied, downtrodden city. "Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." (Lk 21:24) When Gentile occupation of Jerusalem ends and the city is in Jewish hands it is, according to our Master, a liberated city! Glory to God!
In the second Psalm, the Creator of the universe solemnly declares to all nations and their leaders regarding Jerusalem:
"I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill. …Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him." (Ps 2:10-6)
Yeshua of Nazareth is waiting in heaven for the moment of return to Zion to rule as king from Jerusalem on the throne of his father David. This is what the angel Gabriel told Miriam (Mary),
"Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son, and will call his name 'Yeshua.' He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom." (Lk 1:31-33)
“No doctrine has led to more bloodshed than replacement theology.”
Yeshua of Nazareth was born king of the Jews (Mt 2:2), confessed to be the king of the Jews (Mk 15:2), died as king of the Jews (Mt 27:37) and will return as king of the Jews. The Apostle Paul declared,
"The fact that God raised him from the dead, never to decay, is stated in these words: 'I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.'" (Acts 13:34)
The entire Bible, from beginning to end, tells us that Jerusalem belongs by eternal, divine decree to the Jewish people and their Messiah, the Son of David, Yeshua of Nazareth, the soon coming King of kings and Lord of lords!
The nations of the world, including the UN, EU, USA, have now determined to make Biblical Jerusalem the capitol of a Palestinian, Muslim, terrorist state. And what is even worse, just like the Churches in Germany supported Hitler before the Holocaust, so now once again, the Churches in the Middle East, have lined up behind terrorists and murderers of God's own people. In Germany the reason was raw anti Semitism, believing that the Jewish people are cursed by God. Today the excuse is called anti Zionism, the intellectually warped idea that every nation in the world has a right to its own land except the Jewish people.
Here is a recently released statement by Palestinian church leaders condoning Palestinian terror and murder,
"Israel justifies its actions as self-defense... In our opinion, this vision is a reversal of reality. Yes, there is Palestinian resistance to the occupation. However, if there were no occupation, there would be no resistance, no fear and no insecurity."1
These racist and confused church leaders have turned everything completely upside down. The Holy Land is only called the Holy Land because it is God's own land and it is occupied when it is in Palestinian hands, not when it is in Jewish hands! The Arabs already have 21 states and one of them an Arab Palestinian state. Its name is Jordan. The most repeated promise in the whole Bible is that God has given the Holy Land to the Jewish people, the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Is it a coincidence that the very people Hitler tried to extinguish and that Islam as well wants to obliterate, happens to be the only people that God says is his chosen and will remain his chosen as long as the sun shines by day and the moon shines by night? And is it a coincidence that this is the only nation that has been given a specific peace of land by God that the nations refuse to accept? No! It only proves how lost in sin mankind is, including a whole lot of theologians and church leaders.
No doctrine has led to more bloodshed than replacement theology. During the Holocaust it led to the murder of six million people, and if God does not intervene it will now cost even more blood as neither Hamas nor Fatah has ever accepted Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. To both of them Tel Aviv is just as much part of their Palestine as Jericho. No wonder that God says that he will one day judge all nations because of two sins: for scattering the Jewish people among the nations and for dividing up his land. (Joel 3:2)
Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem
The meaning of the name Jerusalem is "God shall provide from above fullness of peace." It is through Jerusalem that complete and perfect peace, well being and prosperity in abundance shall come at last to all nations as prophesied through Isaiah,
"This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.' The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore." (Isa 2:1-4)
This abundant peace and happiness will only come through the coming of the Prince of Peace Yeshua of Nazareth. Almighty God has chosen his one and only beloved Son to inherit the ends of the earth from Jerusalem.
"'I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.' I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, 'You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession." (Ps 2:6-8)
It is this fulfillment of the kingdom of God in the earth, the kingdom restored to Israel through the Messiah, Yeshua of Nazareth that the devil is doing all in his power to undo.
As dangerous as the Palestinian issue is, the greatest peril for Israel right now is still without any comparison the nuclear threat from Iran. Based on the extremely serious situation, we now call on all true Bible believing followers of Yeshua from Nazareth around the world to unite in daily prayer for the peace of Jerusalem. Heaven needs committed intercessors right now, such as Daniel who prayed three times a day for God's holy hill, even when he was threatened to be thrown to the lions. "Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before." (Dan 6:10)
We have put together a simple prayer to use as a pattern that you can expound on as led by the Holy Spirit. The prayer is based on the biblical prayer that the Jewish people have prayed for millennia after every meal according to Deuteronomy 8:10, "When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you."
We have added to the traditional prayer a section of prayers from Zechariah 12 and Matthew 6.
Have compassion, LORD our God, upon Israel your people, upon Jerusalem, your city, upon Zion the resting place of you glory and upon the kingdom of David your anointed, soon in our day. [Here you can add prayers for the land of Israel and the political leaders and defense forces as the Spirit leads you.] Blessed are you, LORD, who in your mercy rebuilds Jerusalem. Amen.
Crush all the nations that come against Jerusalem2 and pour out your spirit of grace and supplication upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem that they will look up to you and see the one that was pierced3, by whose wounds we are healed4. May all of Jerusalem begin to mourn for Yeshua of Nazareth and welcomed him5, the Messiah and Prince of Peace6! May your kingdom come speedily and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven7!
Write down the prayer. Put it on your refrigerator. Bring a copy with where you go. Soon you know it by heart. It is a prayer that everyone can pray! Pray with all your heart and add to it as the Holy Spirit leads you.
Join us in "Operation Jerusalem DC – Jerusalem David's Capitol," in daily intercession for the peace of Jerusalem! Spread the vision to others. Let's man our posts on the walls of Jerusalem. God is calling us to stand in the gap!
• Pray for the peace of Jerusalem through the Prince of Peace!
"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: 'May those who love you be secure.'" (Ps 122:6)
• Pray for wisdom for the leaders of Israel!
"…sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do." (1 Chr 12:32)
• Pray that no weapon formed against Israel will prosper!
"'no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me,' declares the LORD." (Isa 54:17)
• Pray for angelic protection over the nation!
"No one supports me against them except Michael, your prince. And in the first year of Darius the Mede, I took my stand to support and protect him." (Dan 10:21-11:1)
• Pray for success to stop Iran's nuclear program!
"And this he said about Judah: 'Hear, O LORD, the cry of Judah; bring him to his people. With his own hands he defends his cause. Oh, be his help against his foes! …There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty. The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you, saying, 'Destroy him!' So Israel will live in safety alone; Jacob's spring is secure in a land of grain and new wine, where the heavens drop dew. Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will trample down their high places.' (Deut 33:7,26-29)
God bless you as watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem!
Lars and Harriet Enarson
Make a donation to support our ministry by clicking here!
|