1. From this Shabbat's prophetic portion, we read Hosea 13:14.

    • I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, where are your plagues; O Grave, where is your ruin! Repentance shall be hidden from My eyes.

    • Hallelujah! We serve a Risen Savior – Messiah Yeshua our Lord (Matthew 28:6).

    • Thank You Lord for defeating death and giving us eternal life – in You (1 Corinthians 15:54-57).

    • You are worthy to be praised (Revelation 4:11; 5:12-13).

    • You are our Rock, our Salvation and our Hiding Place (Psalm 32:7).

    • We give You thanks for all that You are and all that You do (Psalm 118:1).

    • You are our strong tower into whom we run in these chaotic and savage days (Proverbs 18:10).

  2. The situation with the Samarian settlement of Amona is still simmering. The recent passing of the first reading of a Knesset bill to legalize Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria – for which the world has lambasted Israel– will not affect Amona. Also the final passage of that bill has, wisely, been put off until after US President-elect Trump enters office. If Amona and its 200 plus Israelis are uprooted, it will be a huge wound to this nation. We need God to intervene.

    • Abba, we confess that Your perfect will is for Your people to not be uprooted from Your land promised to them (Jeremiah 31:3-5; 32:41; Amos 9:15).

    • Therefore, we ask in complete faith for You to impart to the government wisdom over this situation.

    • Lord, have mercy and do all the good that You promised to do to Your people when they are returned to Your land (Jeremiah 32:42).

    • Move upon the Israeli Supreme Court to make decisions that are in line with Your will (Isaiah 1:26).

    • Move upon the Israeli Supreme Court to make decisions that are merciful (James 2:13).

    • Give Israel leaders who will cry out to You for wisdom. "Let my cry come near to You, O YHWH; give me wisdom according to Your Word. (Psalms 119:169)

    • May the leaders of Amona have the same spirit that Menachem Begin had in the birthing of the nation when he refused to have his Irgun organization raise a hand against other Jews opposing them.

    • Lord, we really need a miraculous solution – a before-December 25th surprise to halt Amona's demise.

  3. We again prayed for the Levy Commission Report to be approved by the government. This report by a former Israeli Supreme Court judge and numerous international law experts lays out the legality of Israel's settlement movement in all of the land west of the Jordan River. Although commissioned by the government, it has until now not been officially accepted.

    • Lord, how long will the international community lie about what is legal and what is not when it comes to the land You covenanted with Abraham and his family to give to them (Genesis 12:7; 17:7-8; 26:2-3)?

    • Remove the fear of man among Israel's leaders and replace it with the fear of God (Proverbs 29:25).

    • Give to Israel's current government the courage needed to accept and use this report for You glory.

    • Give to Israel's current government the courage needed to accept and use the Bible for You glory.

    • Abba, there are territories that are occupied – under the surrounding Arab nations. Set them free from the Islamic overlords and restore them to Your people Israel (Genesis 15:18-21).

    • [We read out loud various scriptural declarations that God has made concerning the promise of His land to His people, such as: Genesis 13:14-17; 50:24-25; Jeremiah 32:41-44; 33:12-14; Ezekiel 36:8-12; Amos 9:11-15; Malachi 1:5; Romans 15:8; 2 Corinthians 1:20.]

  4. Israeli Defense Minister A. Liberman openly state this week that Israel has struck various targets in Syria in order to prevent Hizbullah from obtaining game-changing weapons or weapons of mass destruction. This was the first time in a long time that Israel has taken credit for any strikes in Syria.

    • We thank You for the courage Israel has shown in backing up its declared red lines.

    • We also thank You for the sound we are hearing from Russia – silence!

    • Aid Israel and Russia's military in Syria to be in open, clear contact to avoid all mishaps between them.

    • Lord, if Israel does not already have technology to blind Russia's radar systems, please help them to quickly create it.

    • Thank You for all of Israel's spies and collaborators in Syria and Lebanon.

    • Protect them and continue to feed them with accurate actionable intelligence so that Israel has a real understanding of what is happening in the ground in those nations.

    • Help Israel to develop a clear battle strategy and not just end up putting out one fire after the other (Proverbs 20:18; 24:6).

    • God of Israel, protect all of Israel's civilians and soldiers up north (Psalms 121:4).

    • Please forbid any successful kidnapping attempts.

    • Do not fear; for I am with you. Be not dismayed; for I am your God. I will make you strong; yes, I will help you; I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness. Behold, all those who were angered against you shall be ashamed and confounded; they shall be as nothing. And those who fight with you shall perish. You shall seek them, yet not find them. The men warring against you shall be as nothing… For I, YHWH your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you, says YHWH, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I make you a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shall make the hills like chaff. You shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and a tempest shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in YHWH and shall glory in the Holy One of Israel.

      Isaiah 41:10-16

  5. We continue to ask God to hedge in US President Obama during these last five plus weeks of his reign. While reports say he will not attempt to interfere with the "peace" process between Israel and the Palestinians, we just do not trust him or his Secretary of State Kerry. And there is also the possibility of a French UN Security Council Resolution on this issue that Obama may just not veto.

    • Father, we know that all lives are in Your hands. So we ask You to hedge in this man and prevent him from doing Your nation and its people any further harm (Proverbs 21:1).

    • Over Obama and Kerry, we declare, There are many purposes in a man's heart, but the counsel of YHWH shall stand. (Proverbs 19:21)

    • If needed, may US President-elect Trump's transition team continually warn the Obama administration away from touching the Israeli-Palestinian situation.

    • Give Israel's leaders wisdom regardless of what happens. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. (Daniel 2:21)

    • Lord, concerning any further attempts by the UN, the EU, the ICC, etc. to try and stop that which You are doing in this land for Your glory, we remind You of what You have clearly stated in Psalm 33;10-11: YHWH brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He breaks the plans of the people. The counsel of YHWH stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.

    • Overrule over all anti-God plans against this nation – for Your holy name's sake (Ezekiel 36:32-36).

  6. Israel is in desperate need of water – not for daily use as its desalinization plants provide all of that – but for its agriculture and for the very land itself. Note that we did not write "rain", for although rain is the most likely way for God to provide that much needed water – it is not the only way.

    • You, O God, sent a plentiful rain, by which You upheld Your inheritance when it was weary. (Psalms 68:9) Lord, Your land is weary. Please open up the heavens this rainy season and quench its thirst.

    • Have you entered into the storehouses of the snow? Or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have kept for the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war? (Job 38:22-23) Abba, we will take all the snow and hail we can get – only please let it fall in the most advantageous places.

    • Yeshua Lord, we ask for a miraculous rising of the water level of the Sea of Galilee. You who quieted the waves and walked on its water, now please say to it, "Water - arise!"

    • We thank You that Israelis are conserving water much more today than in the previous decades.

    • We also bless You that Israel recycles its waste water at an 80% rate – five times the rate of the next closest nation – the Netherlands at less than 20%.

    • Yet create new water sources for this people – so that You can receive all the glory (Isaiah 41:17-20).

  7. From the last eight years of the Obama administration, we have all seen how vital the choice of a secretary of state is. Hillary Clinton and John Kerry have made the whole world a much more dangerous and confusing place. As Trump is still deciding on this person, we asked for God's person to be appointed.

    • Lord, please allow Your choice to come into office. … the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He will. (Daniel 4:25)

    • Make this person be a blessing to Israel and thus to America and the rest of the world (Genesis 12:3).

    • If possible, even allow a believer to be raised up who can relate to Israel through biblical eyes.

    • If this person is not someone already on Trump's list, then somehow write them in.

  8. We next prayed for Israel's leaders to know how to relate to the next US President.

    • Abba, Israel's leaders need wisdom from on high. Please pour it out on them (Exodus 31:3).

    • They also need to have all pride and arrogance removed. Please do that work as well (Proverbs 16:19).

    • Lord, watch over the relationship between PM Netanyahu and Trump.

    • Do not allow Netanyahu to be so relieved that he survived Obama that he drops his guard with Trump.

    • May much that goes on between these men and their cabinets be done in quiet, away from the mass media circus that hates them both.

    • Use Trump's advisors and family to impart to him a biblical perspective in his view of Israel. For thus says YHWH of Hosts: He has sent Me after glory, to the nations who stripped you; for he who touches you [Israel/Jerusalem] touches the pupil of His eye. (Zechariah 2:8)

    • Open up the eyes of the generals whom Trump has appointed to see Israel as a benefit and a blessing to America and not as a hindrance to America's relations with the other Middle East nations.

    • Lord, bless our brother-in-Messiah Mike Pence and use him in an greater way to influence the president than what is normal for most Vice-Presidents.

    • Make him as influential with Trump as Daniel was with Nebuchadnezzar: The king answered Daniel, It is true that your God is a God of gods, a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret. Then the king made Daniel great, gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over all the province of Babylon, and chief of the prefects over all the wise men of Babylon. (Daniel 2:47-48)

  9. We ended by praying for the Israeli Body of Messiah.

    • Abba, we bless and thank You for there being in Israel in 2016 a living, growing Body of Messiah.

    • Lord Yeshua, we know Satan has a great hatred against us. We thank You for praying for us. The Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not. And when you are turned back, strengthen your brothers. (Luke 22:31-32)

    • Therefore He [the Lord Yeshua] is able also to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them.

      Hebrews 7:25

    • Lord, make Your ministers see that You want them to help the rest of the Body mature, so that the rest of the Body can do the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-16).

    • Abba, protect us from the various winds of doctrine that fly through Israel's spiritual atmosphere.

    • Give to the members of the Body a deeper hunger for Your Word – which is the truth that can protect and sanctify us (John 17:17). Your Words were found, and I ate them; and Your Word was to me the joy and gladness of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O YHWH, God of Hosts. (Jeremiah 15:16)

    • Make the goal being an overcomer be the goal of the Israeli Messianic Body (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 21).

    • He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the congregations.

      Revelation 3:22

Shabbat shalom and thank you for your work in intercession.

The IFI team