We began by looking at Zechariah 4:6-7:
This is the Word of YHWH to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says YHWH of Hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain; and he shall bring forth the top stone with shoutings, Grace! Grace to it!
Zechariah 4:6-7Thank You for Your Spirit that reveals the deeper things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10).
However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth…And He will tell you things to come.
John 16:13We are so grateful for Your amazing grace that permeates our walk and life (Acts 13:43; 20:32).
We are confident that You are watching over Your Word to do it (Jeremiah 1:12) as well as watching over this nation to protect it (Psalm 121:4).
O Lord YHWH! You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and stretched out arm. Nothing is too difficult for You…
Jeremiah 32:17Behold, I am YHWH, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too difficult for Me?
Jeremiah 32:27Thank You for revealing to us that while You live outside of time, knowing the end from the beginning, (Isaiah 46:10), You still wait for us to pray before You accomplish that which is Your will on earth (Amos 3:7; Matthew 6:9-10; 1 Corinthians 3:9)!
Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals of it. And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and the elders, a Lamb stood, as if it had been slain… Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.
Revelation 5:5-6, 12
This past week, Israeli President Rivlin and Palestinian Authority [PA] President Abbas both spoke to the EU Parliament. Rivlin supported Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's stance that only through direct negotiations can there be progress towards peace, therefore, the French initiative, approved by EU foreign ministers earlier this week, cannot succeed. Abbas, to the applause of many EU parliamentarians, spouted lies, saying Israel poisons Arab wells, executes their children, and when a "Palestine" is created, worldwide terrorism will end! Bibi goes to Italy Sunday to speak with US Secretary of State Kerry, and other EU leaders, both about this and a soon to be released Middle East Quartet Report on the lack of progress in the "peace" process. Much blame will be [mis-]placed on Israeli settlements. Also, next week, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will be in Jerusalem. Netanyahu needs our prayer support.
Let Your hand be on the Man of Your right hand, on the Son of man whom You have made strong for Yourself.
Psalms 80:17Thank You that Bibi has already openly and strongly denounced Abbas' lies (Psalm 5:4-6).
YHWH gives wisdom. Out of His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly.
Proverbs 2:6-7Use these blatant lies to remove the anti-Israel scales from many people's eyes.
Like Your Spirit did with Gideon, may He dress Himself with Netanyahu this next week (Judges 6:34).
Put divine horse-blinders on Bibi so that he is not distracted from Your goal for him this week.
Protect him in every way – spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically (Psalm 3:3-6; 140:7).
Protect Bibi and all other Israeli representatives from manipulation and deception (Numbers 23:23).
Surround Netanyahu with Your hand-picked counselors for this time in Israel's history (Psalm 1:1).
The passing of Brexit – for the UK to pull out of the EU – was confirmed as we were in prayer. So the EU decides to divide God's land, approving the French plan, with all 28 foreign ministers voting in favor, and a few days later, the EU is divided! Coincidence? Someone has said that the more one prays, the more "coincidences" one sees! Our main prayer burden was for Israel to know how to respond.
[We prayed in our various different languages, as one of the EU's symbols is the Tower of Babel. They want to return to that one voice of mankind – when in fact, God divided mankind's tongues because man-made unity is satanically inspired (Matthew 16:23). We specifically prayed against EU manipulation on Israel to divide its/God's land (Leviticus 25:23).]
Lord, use this division and shaking to destroy the boycott movement in the EU against Israel.
Give Israel wisdom to know what to do and say as its diplomats see the EU starting to fall apart.
Put a divine guard over the mouth of all Israeli politicians so that they do not become snared by their own words (Proverbs 6:2).
Raise up men of Issachar who know the signs of the times and what Israel must do (1 Chronicles 12:32).
Unify the current Israeli coalition to stand as one in the face of this shaking.
Impart wisdom to us and the Church in both the UK and the EU on what You are doing and how we are to pray in line with Your will (1 John 5:14-15).
Shake up the Jews in the UK and the EU to see that they need to come home sooner rather than later.
Israel and Turkey are finalizing a deal to normalize relations that were broken years ago due to a fiasco on a flotilla trying to break Israel's internationally legal Gaza sea blockade. Regardless of the details, we do not trust Turkey's current "dictator" Erdogan.
Lord, we ask You to show Israel's leaders to not trust Erdogan either.
Hedge in Erdogan. Expose all his wicked devices (Psalm 35:19-21).
Again, Lord, if this is not 101% Your will, then block it – even at this final stage (Psalm 33:10-11).
If this is a trap, we remind You of David's praise:
Blessed is YHWH, who has not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul has escaped like a bird out of the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of YHWH, who made the heavens and earth.
(Psalms 124:6-8)Abba, protect the hearts of Israel's soldiers and sailors who put their lives in the line to save the innocent in this nation and then see that, at times, their actions are apologized for.
Forbid that any spirit of abandonment should to rest upon our soldiers.
Instead, make them as Your mighty men in war (Zechariah 9:13-10:7).
Lord, this whole reconciliation process was started by Obama pressuring Bibi. Protect Israel from all of Obama's machinations (Psalm 36:1-4).
We prayed for the Church to be able to see what is really happening in the world today. We have often prayed for God to expose this or that evil deed or intent – and He has – but it seems to have very little effect on the Church. For whatever reason, many born-again believers seem to walk around blind to what is occurring today in the fulfillment of prophecy. From Zion, we clearly see "the darkness" covering "the earth, and gross darkness the peoples," and so we prayed for His God's glory and insight to shine on His people to protect them from these dangerous days. (Isaiah 60:2)
Lord Yeshua, open up the eyes of the Church to the truth about Israel (Isaiah 43:5-7, 21; Malachi 1:5).
Abba, open up the ears of the Church to recognize the onslaught of lies from the enemy permeating the world today (1 John 5:19).
God of Israel, open up the hearts of Your born-from-above children to love what You love and support that which You are doing (Jeremiah 31:3; 32:41).
Lord Yeshua, deal with all elders who need to publically apologize for preaching falsehood and lies.
Lord Yeshua, deal with all elders who need to publically apologize for withholding the truth about Israel.
Abba, as we see the end-time apostasy growing, speak to Your children to flee Babylon (Jeremiah 50:28; 51:6; Zechariah 2:7; Revelation 18:4).
Open the ears of many Western believers to hear and heed to what ex-Muslim believers are saying.
Lord Yeshua, cleanse Your Body from all anti-Semitic and anti-Zionistic spirits (Colossians 1:21-22).
Lord, protect the Body that You are building here in Israel.
May we receive all those from outside of Israel whom You send to us – and may we reject all those who try to enter – but who are not coming in Your name (Matthew 24:2-5)!
This is the third Friday of Ramadan, and so far God has been gracious in protecting this nation and many other nations from major Islamic terror attacks. While the attacks in Tel Aviv and Orlando have been horrifically successful, we do not really know how many other attacks God has prevented – simply because we, and others, have prayed. So let us continue to watch and pray.
Lord, we thank You for the protection to this nation up to this point (Jeremiah 31:10).
Please continue that over the rest of Ramadan and even beyond.
Abba, forbid any successful attacks or kidnappings.
Yeshua Lord, continue to reveal Yourself to many Muslims during this Ramadan season.
Pour out upon many of them a "holy dissatisfaction' with their false god.
Lord, You used to walk on Jerusalem's Temple Mount (Mark 11:15-19; John 10:23). Do it again today, showing Yourself alive to many of these lost worshippers of this demonic false deity.
Increase the size of the true Church in Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, and all other Muslim majority nations.
Reveal this to many Muslims over the rest of Ramadan:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.
(John 3:16-17)Enable Israel's security forces to be super-alert – despite the intense heat over this nation at this time.
Help them to pick out the terrorists from the innocent and deal justly with each one.
Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the bad. Do you desire to not be afraid of the authority? Do good, and you shall have praise from it. For it is a servant of God to you for good. For if you practice evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword in vain; for it is a servant of God, a revenger for wrath on him who does evil.
Romans 13:3-4Many in the IDF are just teenagers who are placed in positions that in other nations would be dealt with by trained, mature police. Therefore, Lord, they need You - Your support and protection and peace. For Your holy name's sake, do this for Israel's children (Zechariah 9:13).
We ended by praying for an increase in aliyah – the return of the Jews from exile to Israel.
Abba, use the results of Brexit to increase the aliyah from the UK.
Abba, whatever the results of the US Presidential elections will be – use that as well to loosen the five plus million Jews who remain in America to come home.
Father, increase the numbers of Jews returning from France and Germany this year.
Abba, there are hundreds of thousands of Spanish and Portuguese speaking Jews in the world. It is time for them to set their sights on returning to Zion (Jeremiah 50:4-5; Obadiah 1:20).
If you are driven out into the outermost parts of the heavens, YHWH your God will gather you from there, and He will bring you from there. YHWH your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. And He will do you good, and multiply you above your fathers.
Deuteronomy 30:4-5May the families of lone soldiers join them here in Israel (Jeremiah 3:14-15).
Lord, remove all the hindrances that various Israeli ministries put in place that make aliyah that much harder than it needs to be (Isaiah 62:10).
Remove all gatekeepers in various Israeli ministries who are not in favor of seeing Jews come home.
We are specifically asking for a miracle: Lord Yeshua, make Israeli bureaucracy "aliyah-friendly"!
Enable more finances to come into Israel's coffers to be used to lower housing costs and opening up more decent paying jobs (Isaiah 60:5-7; Romans 15:27).
Yeshua, the government is upon Your shoulders. Please take Your rightful place and open up all the gates of this nation to welcome home Your scattered people (Isaiah 9:6-7; 22:22).
Encourage those who have made aliyah recently. May no discouraging reports be sent forth from Zion.
Shabbat shalom and blessings from Jerusalem,
The IFI team