1. Praise: Prayer focused on Israel is prayer focused on God's glory and His outreach to the gentiles. This verse from Shabbat's prophetic portion plainly reveals that.

    • For Zion's sake will I not hold My peace; for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until its righteousness goes forth as brightness, and its salvation as a burning lamp. Gentiles shall see your righteousness; all kings your glory: and you shall be called by a new name, which…YHWH shall name.Isa. 62:1-2

    • We bless You Lord for electing Israel – for Your holy name's sake (Ezek. 36:22) – and to be a light to the gentiles (Isa. 60:3).

    • Yeshua, we declare You King of the Jews and Savior of the world (Isa. 49:6; Luke 2:32).

    • Thank You that Your Word does not return to You empty (Isa. 55:11), and that You are – even today – watching over Your Word to do it (Num. 23:19; Jer. 1:12).

    • We praise You that Your mercy is so much greater than we can ever imagine (Psa. 89:2; 108:4).

    • Hallelujah! We serve a God who is faithful – always (Num. 23:19; 2 Tim. 2:13; Tit. 1:2).

    • Even in 2020, You are our solid Rock because You never change (Mal. 3:6; Jam. 1:17).

    • We praise You that while we might not see what You are doing now, ultimately we will (John 13:7).

  2. Intercessors and discouragement: One of the battles we face today is against discouragement. This applies especially to those who pray in line with God's Word for Israel and then see results that do not seem to line up with those prayers – such as Israel's current government. Yet we recall that it is He who has appointed us to this work and He who will give us the grace to complete it (Eph. 2:10).

    • From Shabbat's prophetic portion: I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem, who will never hold their peace day or night. You who remind YHWH [of His Word], keep not silence, and give Him no rest, until He establishes, and makes Jerusalem a praise [to Himself] in the earth. (Isa. 62:6-7)

    • Lord, You called us as watchmen. Please give us what we need to complete the task (Psa. 127:1).

    • Almighty God, just like King David did – we encourage ourselves in You (1 Sam. 30:6).

    • We remember Your past mercies and victories and trust You are forever the same (Isa. 63:7-9).

    • Continue to lead and guide and instruct us as we pray (Psa. 23:3; 32:8).

    • Help our expectations of how You will answer our prayers to line up with Your actual answers and not with how we think they should be answered (John 13:7).

    • By Your grace, enable us to stand in this battle by trusting in Your Word and not by being diverted or deceived by what we see and read in the media (2 Cor. 5:7).

    • Show us how to fight the end time war against the saints which aims to wear us out (Dan. 7:21-25).

    • Lord Yeshua, in Your grace, help us to endure to the end (Matt. 24:13; 2 Tim. 2:3; Rev. 22:21).

    • May all intercessors in Your Body acknowledge that Our God reigns (Ex. 8:22; Psa. 22:28)!

  3. Covid-19 & society: Israel appears to be losing this war. Last night, the Corona committee approved another lockdown for at least a month – including during all of the fall feasts. Yet we read reports that the statistics are being misread, not necessarily intentionally, and that some doctors say this while others say that. Also, the mental and emotional toll could end up being as dangerous, if not more so, than the danger of Covid-19 itself. All we can do is look to God and pray.

    • Behold, I will gather them out of all countries where I have driven them in My anger…and great wrath; and I will bring them again to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely:Jer. 32:37

    • Abba, we have asked for a breakthrough – a plan that will actually work to stop the spread of this virus and heal those who are very sick. May this new plan be the answer (Prov. 20:21; Jer.10:23).

    • You who turn kings' hearts, turn the hearts of Israel's rulers to Your anti-covid-19 plans (Prov. 21:1).

    • Stop all the political threats and manipulations which hinder Israel's leaders from making the hard decisions that need to be made (Num. 23:23).

    • Straighten out all the confusion and strife between government and health officials (Amos 3:3).

    • Straighten out all the confusion and strife between the health and economic ministries.

    • Protect Prof. Gamzu, Israel's corona-czar, with Your divine shield to ward off all discouragement, confusion and frustration (Psa. 35:2; 115:9-11).

    • Let Your divinely-given guidelines be communicated to the people of Israel clearly (1 Cor. 14:33).

    • As the IDF will help to enforce the guidelines, make their orders explicitly clear (1 Cor. 14:8).

    • Lord, show the Haredi [ultra-Orthodox] that they are part of this nation and should act like it.

    • Raise a new generation of Haredi leaders today with this as a burden on their hearts (Deut.3:28).

    • Place in this new leadership, those few brave Haredi who have served in the IDF (Zech. 10:5).

    • Lord, refresh all those working in the medical profession today (Psa. 42:8).

    • Protect all medical personnel from the virus and encourage and strengthen them (Psa. 23:1-3).

    • Supply all the needs for the hospitals and doctors to do their jobs (Jer. 33:6).

    • In mercy, carry all the parents and students as they struggle through this school year (Deut. 1:31).

    • Miraculously prevent this year from hindering the godly development of any student (Rom. 8:28).

    • Prevent severe mental, emotional and domestic strife from destroying any Israeli (Isa. 26:3).

    • When all is said and done, we want You alone to receive the glory for healing Israel (Psa. 115:1-3).

  4. Security – internal: Another cease-fire has been set with the Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Yet their leaders just met with Turkey's evil anti-Israel leader Erdogan, with the leaders of Hizbullah, and have joined hands with the Palestinian Authority [PA] to work together to wipe Israel off the map.

    • Lord, use this news to open eyes to the truth that Israel has no peace partner today (Psa. 120:7).

    • Where is a cry against these anti-Semitic threats from the duplicitous EU, or UN (Obad. 1:11-14)?

    • Deal with Hamas and the PLO/PA joining hands with the goal to destroy Israel (Prov. 11:21; 16:5).

    • Confound Hamas, Islamic Palestinian Jihad, the PLO, Turkey, Hizbullah and Iran (Psa. 129:5).

    • Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek Your name, YHWH. Let them be confounded and troubled forever; let them be put to shame, and perish, so that men may know that You, whose name alone is YHWH, are the most high over all the earth.Psa. 83:16-18

    • Thank You Lord that the Arab League shamed the PA by rejecting its request to condemn the Israel-UAE agreement (Psa. 35:4, 26).

    • Lord, salvation is the only real hope for the Palestinians (Jer. 12:14-17). Please anoint the church among them to preach the good news of Messiah Yeshua with signs following (Mark 16:20).

    • Prepare Israel for the chaos and violence that will follow PA President Abbas' death (Judg. 17:6).

    • Prepare the IDF for whatever the near future will bring in Judea and Samaria (Psa. 3:8; Prov. 21:31).

    • May the government and the IDF back the soldiers who are protecting this nation.

    • Provide Israel will accurate actionable intelligence on all Palestinian plots against it (Job 12:22).

    • Overwrite all IDF plans that are not from You and/or are defective (Psa. 33:10-11).

    • Forbid that any peace agreements between Israel and other nations would hinder Israel's ability to possess it possessions – Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley (Obad. 1:17).

  5. Security – Iran & its proxies: At some point soon, Isaiah 63:4 from this Shabbat's prophetic portion will be fulfilled. Whether God does that sovereignly or through the IDF, still it is He who will be ultimately responsible to do exactly what He has said (Num. 23:19).

    • For the day of vengeance is in My heart, the year of My redeemed is come.Isa. 63:4

    • Iran now has ten times the amount of nuclear material it is allowed according to the wickedly stupid Obama nuclear deal – enough to make at least one nuclear weapon. Arise, O God, and deal with Your enemies (Psa. 68:1, 30b; 83:1-4).

    • Cut off all of Iran's exports and relationships that has anything to do with terrorism (Psa. 9:5-6).

    • Continue to dry up all their funds which they direct towards Israel's destruction (Ezek. 35:3-6).

    • Anoint the Church in Iran to know what and how to intercede for their government (Luke 11:1).

    • Lord Yeshua, protect the Iranian Church from all false doctrines, and false prophets and especially guard over it so that replacement theory has no place in it at all (Luke 21:8; 2 Tim. 3:13).

  6. Peace: This past week, Trump announced that Serbia and Kosovo were normalizing relations with each other and with Israel and Serbia is moving its embassy to Jerusalem. There are some roadblocks in the way as Serbia and Kosovo are not really friends yet. But several other nations also want open relations with Israel. Meanwhile, the unelected bureaucrats who run the EU, have taken the side of Palestinian terrorists, and threatened to reject Serbia and Kosovo's membership bid if either recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

    • Lord, thank You for this time of many nations wanting relations with Israel (Deut. 4:6; Zech. 10:23).

    • Yet show us how to pray and not be deceived by words of "peace, peace," if there really is no peace in the hearts of some of these nations (Jer. 6:14; 8:11).

    • Show the Church in the EU how insidious that union has become, and how to pray about the curses Brussels brings to all member nations because of their continually cursing of Israel (Num. 24:9b).

    • Abba, You know which nations You want to have standing with Israel in these days. We ask that only those nations will develop genuine, open and warm ties with Israel (Psa. 67:1-7; Isa. 19:23)

  7. US Elections: The results will greatly impact Israel and the rest of the world. We prayed into these elections in relation to God's overall plans for Israel, and for His coming kingdom.

    • Lead us in prayer for the elections so that Your will to be done – for Your glory (Dan. 4:34-37).

    • Wake up US believers to see how important this election is and also to see that according to Your word, their nation's relationship to Israel is of vital importance for America's well-being (Zech. 2:7-8).

    • Lord Yeshua, forbid that any child of Yours be deceived by political correctness, or social justice when those terms are used in anti-biblical ways (Psa. 119:9, 105, 130).

    • Remind us all that "justice" is how You define it and not how humanity sees it (Job 8:3; Psa. 89:14).

    • Thank You for Donald Trump who has been, in many ways, a true friend of Israel.

    • If he is re-elected, turn him and Jared Kushner away from their push to create a "Palestine" on Your land, as that, which is in line with all previous presidents since George Bush Sr., is the major biblical reason why the US is being judged and divided today (Jer. 8:7; Joel 3:1-2).

    • During the holydays, confront Kushner, an orthodox Jew, about his very anti-biblical views on the land of Israel (Lev. 25:23; Prov. 22:28).

    • Let his Christian advisory council speak only truth to him and not get political (Acts 26:25).

    • Joe Biden wants to have America rejoin that evil Iranian nuclear deal. Lord, forbid it (Num. 10:35).

  8. Aliyah: Time is short; all Jews need to flee global "Babylon" and return to Zion.

    • You shall be no longer termed Forsaken; neither shall your land be any longer termed Desolate, but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah: for YHWH delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you: and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.Isa. 62:4-5

    • Lord, speak deeply to all those hundreds of thousands of young Jews who have toured Israel that now is the time to come home (Jer. 51:6-10).

    • Remind them that they are in exile and make them homesick during the fall feasts (Psa. 137:1-6).

    • Send this thought into the hearts of Your people in exile, especially at this time: It is better to be stuck – and even die – in Israel than it is to be stuck and die in exile (Gen. 49:29-32; 50:24-26).

    • Let all those Jews who have lost homes and businesses to fires, floods, riots, or whatever, decide to start anew in Zion (Jer. 50:4-5).

    • Use the explosion of anti-Semitism to chase more European Jews home (Isa. 43:5-7; Jer. 16:16).

    • Awaken many more European Christians to want to help Jews to return (Isa. 60:10; Rom. 15:27).

    • Provide more help and financial support for all those organizations – here in Israel and in exile; both Jewish and Christian – who are helping Your people to make aliyah (Isa. 49:22; 60:8-10).

    • From Shabbat's prophetic portion: Go through, go through the gates; prepare the way of the people. Cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. (Isa 62:10)

  9. Salvation: God's feasts of Rosh Hashanah [New Year; biblically Yom Teruah – Day of the Blowing (of the Shofar)], Yom Kippur [Day of Atonements] and Succoth [Tabernacles, Booths], starts next Friday evening. This timeframe – along with the world's current chaotic and frightening situation – is an excellent time to plead with God for the salvation of all Israel.

    • From Shabbat's prophetic portion: I will greatly rejoice in YHWH; my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness… (Isa. 61:10a); Behold, YHWH has proclaimed to the end of the world, 'Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. (Isa. 62:11-12)

    • As Israelis read these verses, let the connection between Yeshua's name and the word for salvation in Hebrew [yeshu'ah] become a startling new revelation to them (Matt. 1:21; Luke 2:21).

    • Lord, please reap a harvest from all the seeds planted and watered this past year (1 Cor. 3:6).

    • Use Covid-19 to show unsaved Jews that they simply cannot trust in man but need You (Psa. 62:8).

    • May Your Word that is in High Holiday prayers and services not return to You empty (Isa. 55:11).

  10. Water – Good news: The Sea of Galilee is at the highest level it has been at this time of the year for the last 27 years. And that encourages us as we approach another rainy season here in Israel to ask Him to maintain, and increase that water level and pour out His wet blessings from heaven.

    • Thank You for the very miracle that rain is (Job 37:5-6; 38:24-28).

    • Lord, use our prayers to seed the clouds over Israel for another wet rainy season (Job 36:26-28).

    • Send the soaking rains and not floods of destruction (Psa. 68:9).

    • May more Israelis give You the glory for this good news about the Sea of Galilee (Isa. 41:17-20).

Shabbat shalom and blessings from Zion

For the IFI team