1. The Torah portion for this Shabbat includes God's instructions for the first Passover which the children of Israel experienced while still under Egyptian bondage.

    • And thus shall you eat it [the lamb]; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You shall eat it in haste: it [the lamb] is YHWH's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt…and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am YHWH. And the blood shall be to you for a sign upon your houses, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

      Exodus 12:11-13

    • Lord God, we thank You for revealing to us that the first Passover was the Lamb (Exodus 12:21, 27).

    • We bless You for Yeshua our Messiah – the Lamb of God today (John 1:29; Revelation 15:3).

    • Yeshua, thank You for shedding Your blood to redeem us back to Your Father (1 Corinthians 1:30).

    • Abba, we thank You that under Messiah's blood we are protected from Your righteous wrath against our sins (Exodus 12:13; Romans 5:9).

    • We praise You for being a God who hears and answers our prayers (Psalm 50:15; 1 John 5:14-15).

    • Thank You for building Jerusalem and gathering together Zion's outcasts today (Psalm 147:2).

  2. Israel has been receiving water from heaven – an answer to our prayers.

    • Lord God, we thank You for being gracious to this land and sending the rain (Deuteronomy 11:12).

    • God, You sent an abundant rain, and confirmed Your inheritance, when it was weary.

      Psalms 68:9

    • We bless You for the storm that is over this nation this very day and for the reports of much snow that has fallen on Mount Hermon.

    • Yet You know the land needs much more and we are asking and trusting You to miraculously fill up the Sea of Galilee before this rainy season is over (Job 12:15).

    • Lord, also fill up all the aquifers and even create new sources of water as You said in Isaiah 41:18-20.

    • Abba, as a nation, Israel does not deserve this blessing – yet we remind You that Your Son said You send rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:45) So based on who You are – we ask for more.

  3. Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, his wife Sara, and a large Israeli delegation, spent this past week in India, with the Bibi and Sara receiving a royal welcome. Imagine one of the largest nations population-wise in the world, treating one of the smallest nations with such genuine love and respect. What has God done! (Numbers 23:23b)

    • Lord God, we bless You for the favor this Jewish leader has found in this Hindu nation.

    • You said You will bless those who bless Israel, so we ask for Your greatest blessing to come upon India's people – salvation through Israel's King, Yeshua our Messiah (Acts 4:12).

    • Protect Netanyahu from all the ungodly spirits he had to walk through this past week (Psalm 84:9; 91:4).

    • Continue to cause the genuine friendship between him and India's PM Modhi to grow (1 Kings 5:1).

    • Use Bibi to influence Modhi in the true things of God and not the other way around (Zechariah 8:13).

    • Bless and protect the growing Church in India which is under Hindu persecution (2 Timothy 3:12).

    • As many business ventures were talked about and negotiated, may only those that are absolutely from You remain – while You thwart all that is not from You (Proverbs 19:21).

  4. Is the Oslo "land-for-peace" process finally dead? Hearing Palestinian President Abbas this past week, we would say if it is not, it is only clinging to life because arrogant leaders in Western nations refuse to believe Abbas' words. He declared it dead and told outrageous lies against Israel's ties to this land. Then in Cairo, he challenged US President Trump, saying that Jerusalem is the key to war or peace and unless Trump undid his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital – he would get war!

    • Lord, thank You for allowing the true heart intent of this enemy of Israel to be displayed for the entire world to see (Matthew 12:34).

    • Wake up the believers in those nations who are still trying to see Your land divided, as now their leaders are without excuse if they continue to press Israel to deal with this Holocaust denying Palestinian terrorist dictator (Ezekiel 22:30-31; Joel 3:1-2).

    • Please God, show Israel's leaders how to respond to this attack and also how to be prepared in case, as in the past, words of incitement have led to deadly actions (Proverbs 10:12a; James 3:5-6).

    • Also show President Trump and his administration how to respond to this threat (Proverbs 11:14).

    • Lord, let these speeches by Abbas allow Israel to claim even more of its inheritance. But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and…holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau [a root of Islam] for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau – for YHWH has spoken it. (Obadiah 1:17-18)

    • We ask for a peace based on the truth of Your revealed will – and not a false peace (Jeremiah 6:14).

  5. Since December 6th when Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the spiritual warfare surrounding this city has increased exponentially. We sense Zechariah 12:2-3 being fulfilled before our eyes at this time – first in the political realm and eventually, probably sooner than most of us are ready for, in the military realm.

    • Behold, I [God the Creator; see verse 1] will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, even if all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

      Zechariah 12:2-3

    • God of Israel, You are testing nations with this, Your city, today! Show us how to pray (Amos 3:7).

    • Abba, we declare this is Your city, the city of the Great King (Psalm 48:1-2, 8; Matthew 5:35).

    • We thank You for reuniting Jerusalem over 50 years ago (Psalm 122:3), and ask You to prevent it from being divided again – until, apparently, that short span right before Yeshua's return (Zechariah 14:2).

    • Lord, encourage and protect Israel's current government as they continue to build up both this city and the surrounding communities.

    • Thus says YHWH, Your Redeemer… [who] says to Jerusalem, You shall be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, You shall be built; I will raise up the decayed places thereof…Who says of Cyrus, He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, You shall be built; and to the temple, your foundation shall be laid.

      Isaiah 44:24, 26-28

    • Thank You Lord for showing us that it is Your pleasure to see Jerusalem being built (Psalm 51:18)!

    • Remove all obstacles – whether internally or externally – that hinder the complete restoration of Zion.

    • Give all who are responsible, including us whom You have called to support this in prayer, that same boldness which Nehemiah had when facing those neighbors of the Jews who mocked and threatened the rebuilding of Jerusalem: The God of heaven, He will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build: but you have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem. (Nehemiah 2:20)

  6. Security along Israel's Lebanese-Syrian and Gaza-Sinai borders is always a burden for prayer.

    • Lord, thank You for answered prayer as Israel now has developed effective terror-tunnel detection devices (1 John 5:14-15).

    • We also bless You for Israel having destroyed at least three major tunnels coming from Gaza over the past three months. Help the IDF to find and destroy all the rest in a very short time (Job 12:22).

    • If what the IDF has developed is not effective on Israel's northern border with its rocky terrain, then aid the developers to tweak it so that it can uncover tunnels regardless of the make-up of the ground.

    • May all of Israel's preparations for war come from Your throne in heaven (Proverbs 21:31).

    • Unite all the various persons responsible for Israel's security – especially PM Netanyahu, Defense Minister Liberman and the IDF's Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot (Judges 20:11).

    • Protect all of Israel's spies and collaborators, and may the fear of Israel's God fall on many others in the enemy camps. [Rahab told the Israeli spies,] I know YHWH has given you the land, and your terror is fallen upon us, as all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how YHWH dried up the water of the Red Sea for you…and what you did unto the two kings of the Amorites on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for YHWH your God, He is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. (Joshua 2:9-11)

    • For Your holy name's sake, use the IDF to instill the fear of the One True God upon many who are trapped under the Islamic spirit (2 Chronicles 17:10; Psalm 115:1-3)

    • Abba, Iran is still trying to build a Shi'ite Crescent land bridge from Tehran to the Mediterranean. Yet You promised to break the bow of Elam [ancient Iran]. (Jeremiah 49:35) Please do that quickly.

    • I will set My throne in Elam, and will destroy from there the king and the princes,

      Jeremiah 49:38

    • Gracious Lord, please do this by setting Your King Yeshua on His throne in the hearts of many Iranians.

    • We thank You for reports that the Iranian Church is growing numerically. Aid them to grow spiritually as well, and to have a deep understanding and love for Your nation and Your people (Romans 11:11-15).

    • As for the other part of verse 38, we ask You to remove the specter of authority from Iran's current king and it princes and replace that wicked leadership with one that will honor You (2 Chronicles 36:22-23).

  7. This coming Sunday, US Vice-President Mike Pence will be arriving in Israel. He is a brother in the Lord and has been a very strong Christian Zionist for quite a while. He will be visiting Israel, Egypt and Jordan. The Palestinians refuse to meet him because of the issue of Trump's recognition of Jerusalem.

    • Please protection him from all attempts to assassinate him (Psalm 3:3).

    • Impart to Pence and even deeper revelation of the centrality of Israel in Your plans (Zechariah 2:8).

    • Draw him into a closer relationship with Israel's government ministers and Netanyahu himself.

    • Meet with our brother in a very special way while he is in Your land (Mark 14:28).

  8. The IFI Prayer conference starts this coming Monday evening. We appreciate any and all prayer covering as this time together in intercession in Jerusalem and then traveling to the Golan and the Tel Aviv area is a time to hearing and praying for His kingdom purposes to be done on earth and in heaven.

    • Lord, we ask for traveling mercies to all who are arriving and also for the conference travels in this land.

    • Enable us to guard the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace – and not any false unity (Ephesians 4:3)

    • Burden us with Your burdens, and give us the Spirit's enabling to pray them (Amos 3:7; Acts 15:28).

    • Impart Your Word for those who will be ministering the Word. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it with the ability God gives, that God in all things may be glorified through Yeshua the Messiah, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:11)

    • Our next Friday Prayer Alert will be February 9th. We hope many of you will join us as we post – Lord willing – short video updates daily during the first week of the conference. Since you receive this alert, at least those reading this in English, you should be notified as to when the videos are posted. Alternatively, you can check our website around 3 pm Israeli time.

Blessings from Zion
The IFI team

In that day shall YHWH of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty,
unto the remnant of His people, and for a spirit of judgment to him that sits in judgment,
and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.

Isaiah 28:5-6

Amen!