1. This Shabbat's prophetic portion is Isaiah 60.

    • Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of YHWH has risen on you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but YHWH shall rise on you, and His glory shall be seen on you.

      Isaiah 60:1-2

    • Great is Your faithfulness, O God our Father.

    • We bless You Lord, for You are ultimately in control regardless of what we see or hear or feel.

    • Thank You for allowing us to come before You and lay these burdens before Your throne (Revelation 8:3).

    • And bless You for only answering the prayers that are in line with Your will (1 John 5:14-15).

  2. We started our intercession according to Paul's instruction to pray for those in authority first.

    • First of all, then, I exhort that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,

      1 Timothy 2:1-3

    • Abba, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under tremendous pressure from virtually every side. We hold up his arms and ask for You to have mercy on him.

    • If he does not know Yeshua as his Messiah and Lord, please reveal Your Son to him (John 6:37).

    • Give to the Netanyahu household Your shalom.

    • Anoint him to be everything You have raised him up to be for this specific time in Israel's history.

    • Let Your hand be on the man of Your right hand, on the son of man whom You have made strong for Yourself.

      Psalms 80:17

    • Make him and all his counselors like the sons of Issachar, who knew the signs of the times and what Israel needed to do (1 Chronicles 12:32).

    • In Proverbs 19:21, You say that regardless of man's thoughts, Your counsel will stand. Therefore we ask You to enable Netanyahu to recognize counsel that is from You and to reject all counsel that is not.

    • As the heart of the king is in Your hands to turn in whatever direction You choose (Proverbs 21:1), turn his heart to Yourself and to give him ears to hear Your direction.

    • Protect all of Israel's governmental and military leaders from any witchcraft or other seductive manipulations, especially from other world leaders (Numbers 23:23).

    • Messiah Yeshua, take what is rightfully Yours and rule in Israel today. For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be on His shoulder…Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end; on David's throne, and on His kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from now on, even forever. The zeal of YHWH of Hosts will do this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)

  3. The Iranian threat just does not go away. This is a long term prayer burden and the Lord wants us to watch and pray with Him for the resolution that will bring Him the most glory.

    • Lord, please protect all of Israel's spies and collaborators in Iran.

    • Enable them to obtain accurate and precise intelligence so that Israel will know exactly what the real situation inside Iran is today.

    • Give Israel's leaders wisdom and courage to analysis the intelligence information correctly and to accept the results responsibly.

    • Abba, we again ask for You to arise and deal with the Iranian threats against Your people supernaturally.

    • Shake Iran physically and swallow up all of its nuclear facilities. The nations raged, the kingdoms were shaken; He uttered His voice, the earth melted. (Psalms 46:6)

    • Set Your throne in Iran by continuing to save multitudes of Iranians (Jeremiah 49:38a).

    • Remove the scepter of authority from the mullahs who rule there and bring to shame that arrogant, boastful man, Iranian President Ahmadinejad (Jeremiah 49:38b; Proverbs 16:18).

    • They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down; they have dug a pit before me, they have fallen into it. Selah.

      Psalms 57:6

      Amen.

    • Let the Iranian leaders who constantly threaten to annihilate Israel fall into the trap that they are preparing for Your nation. They hanged Haman on the wooden gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. (Esther 7:10a)

    • Lord, make one of the results of the civil war in Syria be to hinder Iran's influence in the Arab Middle East. [Note: Iranians are Persians - not Arabs.]

  4. Despite the above prayers, if God wants to use Israel as His weapon of war, then it needs to be prepared and equipped to do the job. So that is the next item we lifted up in prayer.

    • Captain of heaven's armies, impart to Israel's military planners the best way to deal with the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon that will result in the most amount of damage to their program and the least amount of collateral damage to innocent Iranians.

    • Enable Israel's military to think out of the box and to have plans that totally amaze and dismay her enemies.

    • Prepare the IDF and all the other security and intelligence gathering organizations in Israel to be as ready as they need to be to accomplish this task.

    • We ask for courage, strength, alertness, wisdom, creativity, and encouragement to all of the IDF.

    • And the fear of YHWH fell on all the kingdoms of the lands around Judah, so that they did not make war against Jehoshaphat.

      2 Chronicles 17:10

      Amen. Do it again Lord!

    • Open the ears of Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz to hear the sound of You going forth and to know that then, it is time for war (1 Chronicles 14:15; Ecclesiastes 3:8b).

    • As nothing is too hard for You (Jeremiah 32:17b, 27), we trust You to enable Israel's army to totally destroy Iran's ability to attack Israel or to build a nuclear weapon.

    • Unless this is absolutely Your will, do not allow any Israel attack to turn into a full scale war.

  5. PM Netanyahu will be going to speak at the annual UN General Assembly meeting held later this month in New York City. We prayed that God would use this event to wake up at least some nations to really understand that an Iranian nuclear weapon is a danger to the whole world.

    • As You have already done in times past, anoint Netanyahu to speak truth at the UN and not be afraid of man.

    • Bring this scripture to his attention before he goes: The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever puts his trust in the LORD shall be safe. (Proverbs 29:25)

    • Give to many at the UN meeting, ears to hear what Bibi is saying and what You are saying through him.

    • Allow the truth of Isaiah 60:12 to pierce many hearts: For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you will perish. Yes, those nations will be completely wasted. (Isaiah 60:12)

    • Protect Netanyahu physically. Hinder all assassination attempts.

    • If Netanyahu meets with US President Obama, give to Bibi the gift of discernment to know truth from lies.

    • A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good. And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45) Based on this verse, may the true heart of Obama be revealed through his words as he speaks with Netanyahu.

    • We proclaim Numbers 23:23 over Netanyahu's time both in the UN and meeting with Obama. Surely, there is no enchantment against Jacob, nor any divination against Israel. According to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What God has worked! (Numbers 23:23)

  6. We are still in the Hebrew month of Ellul, 'the month of repentance'. Shofars are blown each morning in synagogues and many Jews pray and ask for forgiveness. We prayed for a true revelation of Messiah Yeshua.

    • Abba, reveal Your Son to Your people. No one can come to Me unless the Father who has sent Me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)

    • Yeshua, send that spirit of grace and supplication that You promised in Zechariah 12:10, and allow multitudes of Jews to look upon the One who was pierced for their sins.

    • As many cry out to You in the morning hours, meet with them and save them. Hear, O LORD, when I cry…have mercy on me, and answer me. You say, Seek My face; Your face, O LORD, will I seek; Hide not Your face from me. Turn not Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. (Psalms 27:7-9)

    • Use messianic Jews in the IDF as salt and light, to draw many to Messiah Yeshua. (Matthew 5:13-16).

    • Save many who are suffering - whether Holocaust survivors, or terror victims or war veterans, or… This nation needs to have the Comforter revealed to them in all His glory (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

    • Give dreams and visions to young children and to the elderly.

    • May this be the season when unsaved loved ones of Messianic Jews come into the Kingdom of Your Son. Believe on the Lord Yeshua the Messiah, and you shall be saved, and your household. (Acts 16:31)

    • Lord, reveal Yourself more fully to those of us in Israeli Body during this season as well.

    • Draw [us], we will run after You. The King has brought [us] into his chambers; we will be glad and rejoice in You, we will remember Your love more than wine; the upright love You.

      Song of Solomon 1:4

    • Lord, again, we ask for a doubling of the size of the Body of Messiah in Israel by the end of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, in mid-October.

  7. As per this week's prophetic portion, the Church has a responsibility and privilege to co-labor with God in this end-time restoration of His people Israel to His land.

    • Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawning. Lift up your eyes all around, and see. All of them gather themselves; they come to you. Your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall fear and become bright, and your heart shall throb and swell for joy; because the abundance of the sea shall turn to you, the wealth of the nations will come to you…they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall proclaim the praises of YHWH.

      Isaiah 60:3-6

    • We bless You for all of the Christian Zionists whom You have raised up for just this time.

    • Abundantly bless those that bless Your people Israel (Genesis 12:3).

    • Encourage Christian Zionists to have healthy relationships with their Messianic brothers and sisters (Galatians 6:10; 1 Timothy 5:8).

    • Lord Yeshua, in Your Body there are many who oppose what You are doing in Israel with all of Your heart and soul (Jeremiah 32:41). Wake them up to see that they are actually opposing You!

    • Protect Your sheep from all false doctrines - especially replacement and fulfillment theory.

    • Encourage Messianic leaders in exile to prepare and encourage their people to make aliyah (Isaiah 51:11).

We ended by praying briefly into the US elections - the results of which have global implications, as well as having a huge impact on Israel. [See IFI Chairman Eliyahu Ben Haim's latest Sound of the Shofar for a deeper analysis of that situation. http://www.ifi.org.il/sos/]

Blessings from the Great King's city and Shabbat shalom,

The IFI team