Tag Archives: Prayer

Islamic Terrorists Versus Radical Christians: New Game. New Rules. (Part 2)

indian terrorist 2

(Azam Amir Kasav)

I wrote this series almost six years ago, but because I just watched a video by Rick Joyner, which you can see on Youtube here, I am rerunning this series. All Christians need to watch Joyner’s video. We must prepare ourselves now!

How do you defend a city or a nation against dedicated, radical terrorists like Kasav?

To be honest, there is no way to stop dedicated, radical terrorists from entering America and duplicating a Mumbai incident, especially if they have been trained. America’s strength is that we are an open society. Sadly, this is also our weakness in fighting terrorism. And if you couple our openness with a national “It won’t happen to us” attitude, we’re sitting ducks, just waiting to be plucked.

So, let’s say that you’re staying with your family at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel (where the movie, Pretty Woman, was filmed), just off Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California. Terrorists arrive and begin shooting their AK-47’s and exploding grenades, killing, and maiming everyone they see. Confusion and havoc reigns.

Somehow you’re able to barricade your family and yourself in a first floor cafe. You hear the terrorists walking your direction.  Who can you expect to help you?

Will the president help you? He’ll make a statement on TV, deploring terrorism, and will probably add, “Most Muslims are good people. These are just a few bad eggs!” After all, he needs the Muslim vote in the next election and doesn’t want to offend CAIR.

Will the governor help you? This is California, not Texas; so, the Governor will first take a quick telephone poll to discover what the people think. You know, he’s running for office again and the election will be a close one. He also will appear on TV, deplore terrorism, announce that he is considering all options, even calling out the National Guard, and will take a helicopter to the scene.

Will the mayor and city council members help you? These guys will be relegated to low-level radio interviews. And of course, they will deplore terrorism: yada, yada, yada.

What about the police? They and their SWAT teams will surround the hotel. Phone calls will be made to the governor, mayor, police chief, and whoever else needs to be contacted before taking action. Valuable time will pass before a decision is made.

What about a DMORT team? This is the one positive that will happen almost immediately. A Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team from Region IX will be dispatched as soon as they hear about the attack. They will bring victim identification equipment, body bags, and storage units for the expected dead people.

So, what can we do?

(Continued in Part 3)

Click on to see MyGFA site.

Click on to see MyGFA site.

6 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Church, Gifts of the Spirit, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Tuesday’s Prayers for America (10/14/2014)

Dolly 77

 

“You are called to a ministry of reconciliation,” said the elder as he prayed over me during a small church service.

I probably nodded my head and may have even uttered, “Amen, brother,” but to be honest, I thought it was one of those vanilla-flavored prophecies that fits most Christians and could have been spoken by a McDonalds’ cashier during rush hour on a Saturday night.  There didn’t seem to be much pizazz in the word reconciliation. So I spent almost no time meditating or praying about the man’s prophecy.

This took place over twenty-five years ago and guess what? I have spent the last two or three years praying for reconciliation and renewal centers to be birthed on the West Coast.

Admittedly, I am a little slow sometimes.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:17-19)

The word reconciliation in the Greek means: “restoration to the favor of God to sinners that repent and put their trust in the atonement and death of Christ.”

Today, I prayed:

Father, I pray that You raise up thousands of ambassadors for Christ in America who implore people to be reconciled to God through Christ Your Son. (Based on 2 Corinthians 5:20)

What do you think and did the Lord speak to you today?

Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for America.

Click on to see MyGFA site.

Click on to see MyGFA site.

8 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Church, Fasting, Gifts of the Spirit, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Learning How to Pray Effectively in 59 Seconds or Less (Part 15)

IMG_0011

 

I remember one morning walking to Hy-Vee Grocery Store and seeing a dead pheasant lying next to the road.

“Hey, we might be able to make a stew out of that bird,” said Tony.

“Really?”

“Actually, I’m trying to make up my mind whether I’m that desperate yet.”

Humor helps during bad times, but we were also serious prayer warriors, who believed God could use us to advance His kingdom. We waited on the Lord each morning to discover how He wanted us to pray.

Once, we felt the Holy Spirit wanted us to pray for Northern Ireland and its violent unrest at the time. We began praying in tongues, waiting on the Holy Spirit to show us a clear direction on how to intercede for the war-torn area. I then had a vision in which I saw bodies of young people piled in heaps on the streets of Belfast, thousands of them. All had their lives snuffed out by the continued violence between the Catholics and Protestants.

The vision so disturbed me I could do nothing but weep. Tony and I eventually prayed as best we could to stop this vision from happening in Ireland, but we had no peace about it. I also felt that I had an important prophetic word for Northern Ireland within my spirit, waiting to be given.

I went to my bedroom afterward and prayed, asking the Lord to give the prophecy to some well-known preacher. Who would listen to me?

(The above is an excerpt from my memoir, The Hunt for Larry Who, an Amazon eBook.)

Don’t we all reach this point in our walks with the Lord where we wonder why God would even bother to use us in prayer or whatever? After all, we’re nobodies. Shouldn’t He use somebody who is more well-known by the Body of Christ rather than using nobodies like you and me?

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4)

The lesson I learned that day in my bedroom was the Greater One lived inside me. He was the One that mattered, not me or my name or my reputation.

So, let us never forget that the power of heaven lives inside us and our prayers are backed by Him.

(Continued in Part 16…earlier parts can be read by clicking here or above on the header.)

 

Click on to see MyGFA site.

Click on to see MyGFA site.

2 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Church, Gifts of the Spirit, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Inside Israel

IMG_0568

 

Once again, it’s time to hear from our sister in Jerusalem about what she is witnessing there as a believer in Yeshua. Put your prayer shawls on and pray for Israel and Sister J. Now here she is …

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Blessings to you again and may this letter be to His glory, faithful, and edifying to you.

Twenty years ago, on our first Yom Kippur in the land, I wrote my first letter to bare witness to what I was seeing and hearing.  This morning in my meditation verse of Revelation 1:5, I sat before The One Who sends grace and peace, Yeshua h’Meshiach, “The Faithful Witness.” I asked Him to measure my faithful witness against His and to conform me into His Image. A big, grandiose prayer perhaps, but not too big for Him Who calls us all to be nothing less then faithful witnesses of Him in this upside down world.

That Yom Kippur 20 years ago was a shock to my system.  Although I was blessed to have experienced deep silence in Alaska, in rural California, and in many other places, I (who had been born in NYC) had never experienced the drama of a city turning off its engines and vehicles.  It’s difficult to know how much sound motors make until they suddenly stop.  I experienced the “great blackout” in NYC in the 60s when everything electrical stopped, but the vehicles continued.

That sunset, 20 years ago, I was struck by the SUDDEN, DRAMATIC silence as it was ALL unplugged.  Yom Kippur is not like Shabat, even then, there are many sabbath breakers…but not on YOM KIPPUR.

At that time we lived in the neighborhood of Gilo, just below us was a mosque.  Shortly after the city fell silent, the minaret began full blast and I mean full blast.  I did not need to understand Arabic to realize that there was an angry and incriminatory diatribe being preached intermingled with Koran readings.  As opposed to a normal day, this continued for the entire 25 hours of the fast.  In the morning I got up and took my Scriptures and went out on to the merepeset (balcony) and read out loud facing the minaret.  It was my first glimmer of the ancient battle between God Almighty, The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, God The Father of Yeshua, against the god named Alla (one of the names of His ancient foe.)

There was another spiritual battle that my eyes were opened to on that day, which I had not at all understood before. This was the battle between certain parts of the Church and God’s plan concerning Israel and the Jews.

At the time we were sharing the apartment with a lovely couple from New Zealand or some place near there.  They volunteered to live here for a season. I have often heard that people should have their spiritual house in order before coming here because the spiritual warfare is so tough, particularly for people with hidden sins. They are often overthrown and fall into great confusion when they live in Jerusalem.  I have witnessed that this is true.

The husband began some secret drinking. So as the Yom Kippur fast approached, he announced that there was no way that he was going to take part in a heathen fast because he knew he was saved by The Blood.  We explained that we also knew that truth and were not fasting for our own souls. Instead, we humbled ourselves to pray for the people of the land as they sought Him and also to identify as Paul wrote:

  For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law;…” (1 Corinthians 9:19-20)

This poor man became furious and began to rage that he would not fast (which none of us insisted on him doing), and he didn’t. He also got quite drunk.  I did not understand at the time.  In fact, I wondered what we had done to offend him.  No one had required him to fast and surely no one was being judged by whether he did or did not. I just didn’t understand that other things were at work, such as sifting and exposing of hearts.

But it did not take many years for me to understand that, like it or not, what the Church does with God’s purposes for Israel and the Jews is some sort of plumbline in these latter days.

 

It is now heading toward 4 p.m. and the synagogues are full, people having fasted and prayed. Some stood for the full night and day.  Yesterday from 2:00 onward our airport, Ben Gurion, was closed to all traffic, incoming and outgoing flights were halted until 10 p.m. tonight.  We became a nation cut off from the outside world…a nation closed in to seek God.

My reading today included time in Jeremiah, turning my heart to cry out for our people still in darkness, still veiled, still seeking according to traditions and yet blind.  MERCY is HIM.  My heart trembles before Him.

My reading also took me to Hebrews and I read chapters 8-10. I worshipped Him Who MADE THE WAY INTO THE HOLY OF HOLIES.  What perfect chapters for today!

We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. 

 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— 26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,”[ 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”18 Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. (Hebrews 8-10)

What wonderful chapters, reminding me of the joy that awaits my brethren after the flesh when Romans 9-11 and Zecheriah (just to name some) are fulfilled and they are set free and fully cleansed by The Atoning Blood of Yeshua.  How wonderful that there will be no need for a third temple made by human hands – and even if it were to be built it could not be fulfilled since it was The Lord Himself Who filled the Ark of the Covenant with the 10 commandments, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the pot of manna. They are gone. For we learn in Revelation 11:19 –

“Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.”

BUT THE LORD IS BUILDING HIS TEMPLE HERE AND NOW, HIS BODY. For we are the temple of the Living God. Although HIS TEMPLE was destroyed 2,000 years ago and the people dispersed from the land, we are back.

Isn’t it good that our times are in His Hands??

Blessings to you dear sisters and brothers and BLESSING AND HONOR AND GLORY AND POWER TO GOD WHO SITS ON THE THRONE AND UNTO THE LAMB.

Lovingly from still quiet Jerusalem,

your sis J

Click on to see MyGFA site.

Click on to see MyGFA site.

2 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Church, Israel, Jerusalem, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Friday’s Prayers for Prisoners (10/10/2014)

display-thumbnail-gospel-for_asia-RT09-03703

Each Friday I am praying and fasting for the nations where Christians suffer the worst persecution around the world, as of 2014. This week I pray and fast for:

Saudi Arabia. 29.9 million people with 1.25 million Christians.

The open practice of any religion other than Islam is forbidden in Saudi Arabia, and conversion to another faith is punishable by death. Most Christians are ex-pats from Asia or Africa. During 2013, several Christian migrant fellowships were raided by police, and tens of worshippers detained and deported. Muslim- background believers run the risk of honor killing if their faith is discovered. Yet a small but growing number of Muslims are coming to Christ and sharing their faith on the internet and satellite TV. (Open Doors Watch List.)

Saudi Arabia is the birthplace and homeland for Islam. Most Saudis follow the strict form of Wahhabi Islam, which is known for its contempt of non-Muslims, but there is a very vocal Shiite minority. The country has one of the worst human rights records in the world. Anyone who performs mission work or converts a Muslim faces jail, expulsion, lashing, torture or execution. Non-Muslim worship, even private worship for foreign Christians, is prohibited, and Saudi religious police have been known to raid homes where expatriate workers were worshiping. (Voice of the Martyrs)

Today, I prayed:

Lord, I pray for men like Elijah to be raised up in Saudi Arabia to proclaim to leaders and to the people words such as, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” (Based on 1 Kings 17:1)

Join with me on Fridays to fast and pray for prisoners, according to Hebrews 13:3.

Click on to see MyGFA site.

Click on to see MyGFA site.

2 Comments

Filed under 10/40 Window, Christianity, Church, Fasting, Gifts of the Spirit, Kingdom of God, Prayer, spiritual warfare

Praise the Lord…Pass the Ammo (Part 3)

prophesy1

 

For D.L. Moody, “the church was a voluntary association of the saved.” So staggering was his influence that by 1874 the church was not seen as a grand corporate body but as a gathering of individuals. This emphasis was picked up by every revivalist who followed him. And it eventually entered into the marrow and bones of evangelical Christianity. (Frank Viola, What’s Wrong With Left Behind?)

There are approximately 320,000 churches in America today. They mostly follow Moody’s vision about the church being a “voluntary association of the saved.”

Although these churches have various doctrinal foundations, their number one goal is how to market themselves and increase their memberships. Because of this, the American traditional church system now more nearly resembles a business structure than a living organism as seen in the New Testament.

This is a sad overview of today’s traditional church system in America.

What can we do?

Train like we are going to fight. (U.S. First Army maxim)

We America Christians are at war. Period.

Yes, there are no sounds of explosions and AK-47s  in our neighborhoods as yet, but it will happen soon enough. When we finally hear the sounds of war with our own ears, it will be too late to prepare ourselves. We will then be like children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

We must make up our minds now.

And we must realize our government will not help us. We are on our own.

This will either be the American church’s greatest hour or its worst one.

So, how can we train like we are going to fight?

(Continued in Part 4)

P.S. If you have not seen Rick Joyner’s video which I included in yesterday’s post, I would advise you to watch it. You can see it here.

Click on to see MyGFA site.

Click on to see MyGFA site.

2 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Church, Fasting, Gifts of the Spirit, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Islamic Terrorists vs. Radical Christians: New Game. New Rules. (Part 1)

terrorists

(Azam Amir Kasav)

I wrote this series almost six years ago, but because I just watched a video by Rick Joyner, which you can see on Youtube here, I am rerunning this series. All Christians need to watch Joyner’s video. We must prepare ourselves now!

When you look at the 21-year old terrorist, Azam Amir Kasav’s face, what do you see?  A good-looking youth who should be at a college, preparing himself for a future career. Maybe having a beer or two with buddies on Fridays nights. Maybe dating a soccer cheerleader on Saturday nights. All in all, just being young and doing what youths do, right?

But the facts are that Kasav trained for months, gobbled steroids to buff up his body, and dedicated his life, along with his dead compatriots, in the hope of killing 5,000 innocent people. 5,000 people. They hoped to kill until their last, dying breaths.

Now, most soldiers are trained and committed to being warriors. If  occasions should arise, and combat actions are needed, they will fight. Yet, in the back of their minds, they will desperately want to live. This is a normal reaction by normal men in peril. Thus, most soldiers’ combat actions will be toned down according to a calculated risk/reward ratio on the battle field.

Not so these terrorists. They are committed to killing and dying! No risk is too severe or too challenging for them.

How do we defend our cities or America against dedicated, radical terrorists like Kasav?

Maybe, we don’t really want to think about Mumbai-type terrorist attacks happening in our neighborhoods.  After all, nothing much has happened since 911. Why stir up our fears and anxieties now, right?

(CONTINUED Part 2)

Click on to see MyGFA site.

Click on to see MyGFA site.

3 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Church, Gifts of the Spirit, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Tuesday’s Prayers for America (10/7/2014)

dolly 13

 

The saying, “divide and conquer,” is attributed to Emperor Julius Caesar, but it is even older than that. It goes back to the Garden of Eden when Satan convinced Eve that she would not die if she ate the forbidden fruit and would instead be like God. She was deceived and ate the fruit. Adam sinned and did the same.

Satan’s ploy worked. A division formed between God and man.

Since the Garden of Eden, Satan has used his “divide and conquer” tactics over and over again with us believers. I now believe it is the number one reason we Christians have no prayer power to execute righteousness in our cities and over America.

Today, I prayed:

Lord, I pray for us American believers to walk in humility and gentleness with patience, and that we would bear with one another in love and be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Based on Ephesians 4:2-3)

What do you think and did the Lord speak to you today?

Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for America.

Click on to see MyGFA site.

Click on to see MyGFA site.

 

8 Comments

Filed under America, Christianity, Church, Fasting, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Learning How to Pray Effectively in 59 Seconds or Less (Part 14)

IMG_0011

 

 

How many people in the Bible died from fasting and seeking the Lord? None.

How many people do we personally know who have died from fasting and truly seeking the Lord? I myself have never heard of one person dying that way. Maybe you have, but I doubt it.

Why is that important?

Twenty-five years ago, I watched a video on a TBN program that had been smuggled out of China. The video showed an underground house church meeting in rural China. The house was packed with people. When they praised and worshipped God, they were totally into it, everyone of them. In their praying, it was the same way. They were totally into praying, weeping, travailing, crying out to God, bowing, and prostrating themselves before the Lord. I have never seen or have been a part of a praise and worship service or a prayer meeting like that ever in my life.

Then, the video showed a young evangelist praying for people. He prayed for blind people. The video showed close-ups of cloudiness and cataracts being removed from eyes by the Holy Spirit as we watched. The video showed cancers and tumors falling off people as they were healed. Miracle after miracle after miracle.

The man’s secret: he fasted on the side of a mountain for 80 days. Eighty days!

So, how could he fast for eighty days?

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Whether we fast for one day or eighty days, it requires dependence on God’s grace to overcome our body’s desire to eat. But with the grace comes the power of Christ to make our prayers more effective.

If you want to read about radical Chinese house churches and a man who fasted 100 days, go here.

(Continued in Part 15…earlier parts can be read by clicking here or above on the header.)

Click on to see MyGFA site.

Click on to see MyGFA site.

2 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Church, Fasting, Gifts of the Spirit, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare

Inside Israel

IMG_0568

 

Once again, it’s time to hear from our sister in Jerusalem about what she is witnessing there as a believer in Yeshua. Put your prayer shawls on and pray for Israel and Sister J. Now here she is …

I greet you dear sisters and brothers, with the humbling knowledge that you and I have been freed from sin and forgiven by the kapara (atonement.) The Precious Blood of The Perfect Lamb has set us free from the Law. We are unworthy, and yet ever thankful to be one in Him for His glory. How beyond wonderful is that?

I told you in my last letter that I would try to describe the tashlikh practice, but we are also in the time of the kapara and so much is passing before my eyes and ears that beg to be described.

I told you that it was when I was meditating in Micah 7:18-20 that I realized the source of tashlikh, and that is indeed where it comes from.  l simply copy it here and encourage you to research it further as it is very interesting:

Tashlikh (Hebrew: ‫תשליך‎meaning casting off) is a long-standing Jewish practice usually performed on the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, although it can be said up until Hoshana Rabbah. The previous year’s sins are symbolically cast off by reciting a section from Micah that makes allusions to the symbolic casting off of sins, into a large, natural body of flowing water (such as a river, lake, sea or ocean). The name Tashlikh and the practice itself are derived from the Biblical passage (Micah 7:18-20) recited at the ceremony: “You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”

If you continue searching the word tashlikh in Google or another search engine you will find some beautiful prayers and deeper understanding of how many Jews become aware and burdened by the weight of their sins and truly seek forgiveness in so many ways.  Yes, for many it is ritual and tradition without true soul searching, but for many others these traditions are doors through which they seek God’s provision for cleansing. I trust that He Who is Faithful can use these doors to lead many and finally all to Himself and His provision: Yeshua or Jesus.

Yeshua or Jesus is THE Kapara…THE Atonement…THE One provided by God The Father. It’s not the chicken or the money used in the rather strange kapara ceremony that took place all through the city today.

Kapparot (Hebrew: ‫כפרות‎, Ashkenazi pronunciation, Kapporois, Kappores) is a Jewish ritual practiced by some Jews on the eve of Yom Kippur. The person swings a live chicken or a bundle of coins over one’s head three times, symbolically transferring one’s sins to the chicken or coins. The chicken is then slaughtered and donated to the poor for consumption at the pre-fast meal.

I recall seeing both of these rituals in NYC when I was a child.  My Grandparents were Orthadox and although they died when I was small, I remember going with my father and grandfather to the synagogue. I must have accompanied them also both to the river for tashlikh and to kapara at one time.  Of course, we now live in a modern world and these practices take place amidst more and more controversy every year, even in Jerusalem.

In past years I witnessed tremendous tenderness among the general population – an unusual kindness as they were actively seeking repentance.  This year seemed different.  People seemed edgy and hostile, quick-tempered with one another. I wondered what had changed. Maybe a certain fatigue had settled in with a frazzled hopelessness. It made my heart sad.

Today at the shuk (marketplace) I witnessed a scene that personified the situation.

A young Haradi man and an old religious man were entering the shuk area where the kapara is performed.  A youngish women’s libber sort of lady with a sign on her back and another in her hand that she attempted to post at the entrance, approached them and said that the slaughter of ritual chickens was cruelty to animals, even though they are slaughtered by a butcher and the meat is given to the needy. For a short while they discussed the ritual versus animal rights, but it wasn’t too long before angry shouts replaced discussion.

As I continued along my way, my heart ached and I prayed for my people who were swallowing a camel and straining at a gnat again.  While seeking forgiveness they were engaged in angry debate.

My mind flashed back to the night when they came for Yeshua. It was a similar night and a time of preparing the heart to worship and give thanks for the deliverance from Egypt and from the death angel through the obedience to the sprinkling of the blood of the lamb on Passover.  While sacrificing the lamb and seeking to please God, they took HIM to HIS cross.

How often do I miss HIM while I strain at a gnat?

How often do I slaughter my sister or brother or my husband because I am right?

But I think back to the one ray of hope that I witnessed today.  It was at work in the busy waiting room.  There was an emergency among emergencies, and people who had already been waiting had to wait longer.  Having worked there for 17 years now, there are many people whom I know very well and dearly love.  One lady began to flatter me with much praise for my goodness and patience which I SO know are HIS and NOT mine.

I told her, “No no Na’ama!  EVERYTHING good that I have and do comes from Elohim.”

She smiled as if to say, “Oh…and so you are humble too…”

So I went on and a boldness took over: “You know, I get up very early in the morning and I read the Tenach and the Neve’eem (Old Testament and Prophets). (No, I did not mention the New Testament as it would have been inappropriate just then to what was being said). I read them day after day in my mother tongue so that I can understand.  Do you know that they are easy to understand?  You can read them without a Rabbi.”

At this point several other patients began listening.

“You really can not read them day after day after day without a real fear of The Lord coming into you.  The prophets teach us and warn us and tell us the way that we must walk before Him and when you look at that with your heart every day, and ask HIM to come into your bad heart and change it, He does share Himself with us.”

Suddenly something happened. I didn’t mention forgiveness but the answers shocked me.

Na’ama sighed and looked at both Mali and me. “Ah!  But I find it so hard to forgive!  I KNOW that I HAVE to forgive everybody everything but that is so hard. How can I forgive?”

Mali immediately agreed and said that she also needed to forgive and she KNEW that He required us to forgive. “But how can I forgive?  It is just so hard!” Mali said.

Into my mind flashed that I can forgive others because I know the awful things that I have been forgiven, but these sheep don’t know that.  No!  They DON’T know the forgiveness yet of God, but they know that He requires them to forgive. Wow…they know that instinctively. 

As I did the dishes just now and listened to the last news broadcast, they ended with slichoot (forgiveness) prayers sung.  The announcer said, “And as we close for the last evening broadcast before the closing for Yom Kippur, we will leave you with the Slichoot prayer sung by − get ready…I kid you not − The Gospel Choir.”

I suspect that we are yet to hear the end of that one.

God bless and keep you.  Perhaps you will join in prayer for Israel at this most special time when the people believe that the books of life and death are open and our names are written in one or the other.  The traditional greeting − “G’mar hatima tova” (may you finish the fast with a good signature”) − takes on new meaning for us who know our names are inscribed in The Lamb’s book of Life. We are praying this inscription becomes reality for the still lost sheep of Israel.  May this year ALL OF ISRAEL FINISH WITH A SIGNATURE UNTO LIFE.

Lovingly,

your sis J

Leave a comment

Filed under Christianity, Church, Israel, Jerusalem, Kingdom of God, Prophecy, spiritual warfare