1. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.

   Psa. 100:4

   • We thank You for the recent rains.

   • We bless You that You are a God who both hears and answers prayer.

   • The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is His delight… The LORD is far from the wicked: but He hears the prayer of the righteous.

     Prov. 15:8, 29

   • Although You are shaking so much in this world, we are so grateful that You, our God, cannot be shaken.

     The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, righteous and sure is He.

     Deut. 32:4

2. We continue to intercede for Israel's Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu as he is faced with incredible pressure to allow the creation of a Palestinian State on God's land. He is also preparing to deliver two very important policy speeches - one to the Knesset, Israel's parliament, and the other to the US Congress. Both of those are scheduled for sometime in May.

   • We bless You for Israel's current leader.

   • Continue to speak to him out of Your Word and incline his ear to hear Your voice.

     My son, attend to My words; incline your ear unto My sayings.

     Prov. 4:20

   • Impart Your wisdom to him.

   • May the fear of God be stronger in Netanyahu than the fear of man.

   • Guard him from distractions and ungodly counselors.

   • We ask for You to watch over this declaration of Yours specifically in Bibi's life as he speaks to both governments and the media in the next days.

     The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD… A man's heart devises his way: but the LORD directs his steps.

     Prov. 16:1, 9

   • Use him as a prophetic voice to both the Knesset and the US Congress.

   • There is little Benjamin, their ruler …Your God has commanded your strength. Strengthen, O God, that which You have done for us.

     Psa. 68:27-28

3. A unity government between the Palestinian Authority's Fatah group and the terrorist group Hamas that rules Gaza, has been agreed upon in Egypt. This is both good news and bad news. The good, is that for those who have eyes to see, this puts an end to the "land-for-peace" process. The bad is that for the blind, that is, much of the world's leaders, this will not make any difference and pressure will remain on Israel to give more land and more compromises, etc.

   • Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness…Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes…that justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! Therefore as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

     Isa. 5:20-24

   • Lord, expose the real heart intent behind the PA's drive for unity with Hamas - who even today declared, "No to peace with Israel! No to negotiations with Israel!"

   • Open the eyes of at least some leaders in the world's community to see that there is no way for Israel to continue to negotiate with PA leader Abbas at this time.

   • Thank You for the US politicians who want to cut off all funding for the PA because now US money would go to support a group that is on the US' terror watch list. Enable this to come to pass.

   • Push US President Obama, and his Secretary of State Clinton, into a corner over this. Help them to see that they have been played the fools by Abbas and his PA.

   • Do the same to many EU leaders - especially the UK's Cameron, France's Sarkozy and Germany's Merkel.

   • Cause UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to see the light and not to be silent.

   • Use this agreement block the Palestinian drive towards a unilateral declaration of statehood at the UN this September.

   • The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the thoughts of the people of none effect. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations.

     Psa. 33:10-11

   • Encourage an uproar and expose in the media - both in Israel and elsewhere - over this.

     Therefore whatsoever you have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; that which you have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.

     Luke 12:3

4. Another positive effect this can have is to wake up more Israelis to the truth that we do not have a peace partner. So why should we press on as if we did?

   • Awake, awake. Put on your strength, Zion. Put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city - for from today there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake yourself from the dust. Arise, and sit down, Jerusalem. Loose yourself from the bands of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.

     Isa. 52:1-2

   • Lord, use this to wake up Israelis to the reality of our situation and to no longer bow down at the false altar of peace.

   • Enable the Israeli media to trumpet this truth and - as You are doing with some - to even write how wrong they were to think otherwise.

   • If this is one of the fruits of this Palestinian unity agreement, then we will give You all the praise and glory because this will be another answer to prayer.

   • Truly, God has heard me. He has paid attention to the voice of my prayer.

     Psa. 66:19

5. The Syrian upheaval continues. Many people have been killed and yet most of the world seems to not care. Yet this can be a game changing situation because the current Syrian regime is allies of both Iran and Hizbullah in Lebanon, as well as hosting top leaders of several Palestinian terror organizations. Obviously, what happens in Syria has important implications for Israel.

   • Lord, overrule all that the enemy wants to do. May Your will prevail in Syria.

   • Protect the small Jewish and Christian communities.

   • Help the Jews escape and come home to Israel.

   • Use the Syrian believers for Your glory.

     Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

     1 Pet. 3:15

   • Thank You for the many Israelis - including in the media - who are now seeing that Syrian President Assad is not a reformer and that the Golan must remain in Israel's hands!

   • Open the eyes of more and more Israelis to understand this essential truth.

   • We bless You for the Golan - ancient Bashan.

     I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and Gilead.

     Jer. 50:19

   • Abba, continue to send confusion into the enemies of Israel.

   • Yet have as much mercy on the Syrian people as possible. Protect the innocent.

   • Severe the connection between Syria and Iran and Syria and Hizbullah.

   • Provide Israel's security forces with accurate intelligence about Syria.

   • May the IDF be ready for any attacks coming from the north.

   • Allow the enemy to overplay his hand and fall into the trap that he has set for Israel.

   • [Damascus is confounded]…for they have heard evil tidings. They are fainthearted… Damascus is waxed feeble, and turns herself to flee. Fear has seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail…Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, says the LORD of hosts. And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus…

     Jer. 49:23-27

   • Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city. It shall be a ruinous heap.

     Isa. 17:1

6. Another answer to prayer is the report of a deep division between Iran's top leaders - Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and Iran's President Ahmadinejad. Also, Iran's nuclear program has been attacked by another computer virus, called the "Star", and there are reports of a number of successful sabotage attempts against Iranian power facilities.

   • Continue to confound those who hate Zion (Psa. 129:5).

   • We bless You for the division between these two Iranian leaders. Let it be like a virus and run throughout the current government and religious leadership (Psa. 55:9).

   • Fill [Ahmadinejad's face] with shame; that [he] may seek Your name, LORD.

     Psa. 83:16

   • Thank You that Iran's nuclear program now has two viruses they need to deal with.

   • Do whatever it takes to prevent Iran from developing - or obtaining - weapons of mass destruction.

   • We also bless You for the thousands of Iranians You are saving.

   • And I will set My throne in Elam [ancient Iran], and will destroy from there the king and the princes, says the LORD.

     Jer. 49:38

   • Lord, prevent the new Egyptian leadership from reinstating good relationships with Iran.

   • Give the IDF wisdom to deal with the results of this Iranian confusion and division.

7. We finished praying for Holocaust survivors. Sunday evening through Monday evening, Israel observes Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. This can be a very hard time for the survivors and their families. We asked for God to comfort them and for Yeshua to reveal Himself to them. We also prayed for the youth of Israel to have a deeper understanding of what happened to their people just 70 years ago. In relation to that, we also asked the Lord to place on the hearts of Holocaust survivors in the nations to make aliyah - to come home to Israel.

Shabbat shalom from Zion.
The IFI Team

I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem,
who shall never hold their peace day nor night.
You that make mention of [remind Him like a secretary does with a boss] the LORD,
keep not silence, and give Him no rest, until He establish,
and until He make Jerusalem a praise [to His glory] in the earth.

Isaiah 62:6-7