1. Praise:

   The prophetic portion from the prophet Malachi [My angel/messenger] prophesies of the impact that the good news of Messiah Yeshua will have on the gentiles: From the rising of the sun to its going down My name shall be great among the gentiles; and everywhere incense [i.e., prayer] …will be offered to My name for My name shall be great among the gentiles… I am a great King, says YHWH of hosts, and My name is awe-inspiring among the gentiles. (Mal. 1:11, 14b)

   • Abba, we praise You that our prayers ascend before Your throne like pure incense (Psa. 141:2; Rev. 5:8; 8:3-4), and that You have told us that our prayers are Your delight (Prov. 15:8b).

   • You are a great King – over Israel and over the world (Isa. 33:22; Zech. 14:9; Matt. 2:2; Rev. 19:16).

   • What a joy to be alive and see this prophecy concerning the gentiles being fulfilled (Isa. 55:11).

   • Lord Yeshua, we rejoice that in preparation for Your return there are believers from every nation and tongue in Your kingdom today (Rev. 5:9).

   • We trust You for You are not like man who lies, but what You say comes to pass (Num. 23:19).

   • Hallelujah! You are faithful to watch over Your Word to do it (Psa. 89:8; Jer. 1:12; 1 Cor. 1:9).

   • You have been, and will continue to be, a promise-keeping God – to Israel and to us (Matt. 24:35).

   • We rest in the reality that nothing separates us from Your love in Messiah Yeshua (Rom. 8:31-39).

   • We bless You for, as we pray, You help us to see things from our heavenly positions (Eph. 1:3; 2:6).

   • Thank You Messiah Yeshua that You are God's wisdom come alive to us today (1 Cor. 1:30).

2. Government:

   Negotiations are still ongoing and individual pride and the fear of man seems to be the two major blockages in the formation of a right-wing Bible-honoring government. Yet nothing is impossible with God (Jer. 32:17, 27) and as we have prayed, we will continue to persist in praying for exactly this type of God-honoring government.

   • God, as we trust in You, protect us from confusion as we pray into Israel's situation (Psa. 71:1).

   • Lord God, we know that a land of Israel loving and Bible honoring government is in line with Your will, and so we pray with confidence (1 John 5:14-15) knowing that sooner or later – hopefully sooner – You will establish a government through whom You can receive the glory (Psa. 115:1-3).

   • Use the negotiations between the parties to burn out all political dross (Isa. 1:25-26; Mal. 3:3).

   • Strike the pride and stubbornness of Israel's politicians that are delaying the formation of a coalition today – and show them the power of humbling themselves one to another (Prov. 3:34; 13:10).

   • Use the two bus-stop bombings in Jerusalem to quicken the formation of a government (Rom. 8:28).

   • Thank You that as of this morning there seems to be progress in forming a coalition (Eccl. 3:1, 3b).

   • Bring the coalition negotiations to an end in Your time, in Your way and in Your will (Dan. 4:35).

   • Anoint Bibi Netanyahu to know when to stand strong and when to compromise (Prov. 21:1).

   • Whatever Bibi's plans for this government are, Abba we ask You to direct his steps (Prov. 16:9).

   • Place godly counselors around Netanyahu, and open his ears to their counsel while closing his ears to any counsel that is not from You (Prov. 1:5; 15:22).

   • Lord, assign each minister to the ministry You have foreordained for them (Psa. 75:6-7; Jer. 1:5).

   • Promote Your chosen persons to be the next Defense Minister and Foreign Minister (Prov. 8:15-16).

   • Give the new Finance Minister a heart for the people, godly wisdom to deal with the very high cost of living in Israel today and a plan to expand Israeli communities throughout the land.

   • Place Your fear on each minister so that they obey You and not man (Ex. 1:17-21; Eccl. 12:13).

   • Move upon B. Smotrich and I. Ben-Gvir to accept Your callings for them at this time (Prov. 18:16).

   • Raise up those who will lead Israel after Bibi and let him mentor them (1 Kin. 2:1-4; 2 Tim. 2:2).

   • Lord, block the barrage of condemnation and threats that are coming against the type of leadership Israelis elected to lead their nation – especially from its "ally" America (Psa. 9:19-20; Isa. 8:9-10).

   • God, although a coalition that pleases You will displease the nations, yet we ask that Your will be done in Israel at this time in history (Luke 11:2b).

3. Internal security:

   Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, has already warned Netanyahu that the Palestinian Authority [PA] is about to implode. This is an answer to pray but it also means that in Judah and Samaria an increase of violence against other Palestinians and Israelis is what to expect in the near future. And just this Wednesday there were two bombings of areas around bus stops in Jerusalem with one dead and dozens injured.

   • God, war against all who war against Israel and let Your Angel pursue them (Psa. 35:1-8).

   • Prepare Israel with Your divine instructions on dealing with the PA's collapse (Prov. 21:31).

   • As there is a vying for positions among the PA leadership, use their pride to set them against each other and allow Israel to take the spoils after the situation is resolved (2 Chr. 20:22-25).

   • Allow a PA collapse to cause the anti-biblical "two-state solution" to finally die (Psa. 33:10-11).

   • Arrange circumstances so that the new government has to extend Israel's sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria (Jer. 32:41-44; Obad. 1:17; see also in the Torah portion, Gen. 26:3b-4; 28:3-4).

   • Lord, with the PA continually cursing Israel, fulfill Isaac's blessings on Jacob, whom he thought was Esau, yet later perceived that they were Your will: Let people serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord/ruler over your brothers, and let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be all that curse you, and blessed be he that blesses you. (Gen. 27:29; cp. v.33)

   • Abba, fulfill Malachi 1:5 in the prophetic portion, at this time: Your eyes shall see, and you shall say, 'YHWH will be magnified from [+ upon; beyond] Israel's border'.

   • Continue to provide accurate intelligence to Israel's security forces, as well as the wisdom to know how to respond to each relevant piece of intelligence (Job 12:12-13, 16, 22).

   • We give You the praise for the successes that Operation Break the Wave has had in capturing or killing terrorists and in finding weapons caches, and ask for a complete victory (Psa. 44:3-4).

   • Hide Israel's spies and collaborators among the Palestinians and bless them like Rahab (Josh. 6:25).

   • Keep Israel's security forces, and the IDF soldiers and civilians supernaturally alert (Psa. 127:1).

   • Abba, please prevent any successful kidnapping attempts (Psa. 7:9).

   • Let the security services find the bomb-making factory that made the two bombs which went off in Jerusalem, as well as the perpetrators of these cowardly acts aimed indiscriminately at civilians.

   • Make the IDF Chief of Staff Kochavi, and the new chief in mid-January Halevi, as well as all the other commanders in the field, like the generals of Judah prophesied about in Zechariah 12:6.

   • May the transition between Kochavi and Halevi be godly and without complications (1 Cor. 14:33).

   • Give Halevi Your vision for the next phase of the IDF, and aid Israel's army to be one step ahead of whatever it will need to face in the future (2 Chr. 26:5-7; Ezek. 37:10).

   • Open the eyes of Palestinian terrorists, showing them that Allah is constantly losing all battles with You – and then use that sense of shame to save at least some of them (Psa. 83:16).

   • Lord Yeshua, allow signs and wonders to be done in Your name by Palestinian believers, provoking other Palestinians to seek You and to be saved (Acts 2:43; 4:30).

   • Send forth Your laborers into the Palestinian harvest fields today (Matt. 9:37-38).

4. External security:

   Iran is on the brink of either the downfall of the current regime – which although that is our choice and would be an answer to prayer, yet no leader or group has risen to take their place – or an all-out deadly assault on the demonstrators. Another worrying issue with the current Iranian regime is their closer ties with Putin's Russia.

   • Lord, anoint Bibi to know what to do concerning the Iranian threat against Israel (1 Kin. 4:30).

   • Expose to the light any of Iran's plots or its proxies' plans against Israel that are hidden (Job 42:2).

   • Disrupt Iran's finances and dry up all its sources (Deut. 28:16-17, 24).

   • Break the alliances between Iran and Russia and Iran and China (Prov. 16:5; Isa. 8:9-10).

   • Overshadow the IDF's Iran Command and grace them with Your plans – even ones that are out-of-the-box plans – while removing from them all plans which are not of You (Psa. 44:4-5; 90:12).

   • Bless the IDF's Iran Command's leader with accurate intelligence, a godly strategy, and may he be strong and of good courage to do all that You have placed him in this position to do (Josh. 1:6-7, 9).

   • If Israel needs to attack Iran, do not let them run their plans by America first (Isa. 31:1).

   • Protect the Kurds and use the Iranian and Turkish attacks on the different Kurdish factions to force Kurdish leaders to reconcile with each other and present a unified front to its enemies and the world.

   • Raise up a leader who will lead the demonstrators to see Iran free from its Shi'ite overlords and to have a nation that is at peace with all of its neighbors – including with Israel (Psa. 34:14; Eccl. 3:8b).

   • Empower the Iranian Church to impact its nation, including believers in prison (Acts 16:25-32).

   • Guide the next Israeli government in relation to the new Lebanese Maritime deal (Psa. 32:8-9).

   • Prepare all branches of the IDF to be ready to completely destroy Hizbullah (Ezek. 37:10).

   • [Reports of Hizbullah importing from Syria hundreds of missiles with chemical-weapons warheads is extremely disturbing and very dangerous.] Lord God, if this is a true report then show Israel how to pre-empt this threat as soon as possible and give them the courage to do it (Psa. 17:13; 68:1, 30).

   • Lord God, we much prefer for You to intervene and destroy them supernaturally (Psa. 83:1-5, 9-15).

   • May those responsible for gathering of chemical weapons in Lebanon and Syria to be used against innocent civilians be "hung on their own gallows" (Est. 7:10; Psa. 57:6).

   • Grant Netanyahu Your wisdom in dealing with the Russian and Ukrainian presidents (Prov. 16:7).

5. Aliyah:

   With over 60,000 new immigrants [olim] already in 2022, this has become a great year for aliyah. Yet there are millions more who need to come home, so our efforts in prayer for aliyah are far from being over.

   • We praise You for the 60,000 plus new olim so far this year, and say "More, Lord!" (Psa. 107:1-3).

   • Yet again, we tremble to think that if it took a war to drive so many the Jews out of Ukraine and Russia, Lord what will it take to drive the Western Jews home (Jer. 16:16; Hab. 3:2).

   • As Ukrainian Jewish men are released from the army, let them join their families in Israel and not drag their families back to Ukraine (Isa. 49:12; Jer. 16:15).

   • In Your great mercy bring most of those Israelis living outside of Israel back home (Jer. 31:3).

   • Shake the self-imposed slumber of many Jews in exile who still refuse to see reality (Psa. 35:20-23).

   • Show all Jews who have lost properties in the floods and fires and other natural disasters to take their insurance monies and instead of reinvesting in exile, to invest in Israel (Isa. 60:9).

   • Let the random violence that is murdering so many Americans prove to both the Jews and Israelis who are living there that it is safer in Israel where at least the enemy is known (Psa. 121:4; Jer. 31:10).

   • Watch over any change in Israel's Law of Return that some parties in the next coalition want to institute, and allow anything that is of You while forbidding anything that is not (Prov. 19:21).

   • Use this possible change to cause many Jews in exile to panic over their future ability to make aliyah and to decide to return home now (Psa. 137:5-6; Jer. 33:23-26).

   • We ask You, Lord God, to oversee the appointments of the next Interior Minister and Minister of Aliyah and Immigration and anoint these two ministers to be on-fire Zionists (Psa. 69:35; 84:7).

   • Cause the next government to support the settling of new olim in every area of Your land – including Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley, the Galilee, the Negev and the Golan (Jer. 33:10-14).

   • Plant the new olim deeply into Israel – both physically and in Israeli society (Amos 9:14-15).

   • Lord Yeshua, wake up Gentile believers to see Your passion for Israel and aliyah (Jer. 32:41-42).

   • Use Christian-Zionists who have a heart for aliyah to be like leaven in Your Body (Matt. 13:33).

   • Prepare the "ships of Tarshish" – whatever that is today – to bring Your people home (Isa. 60:9).

6. The Body of Messiah:

   We prayed for the Body to rediscover the full counsel of God in these days as God is fulfilling so many of His Tanach [Old Testament] prophetic words.

   • Lord, wake up many believers to the reality that when Paul said to the Ephesians elders that he had declared to them "all the counsel of God" – there was no New Testament (Acts 20:27)!

   • Let them see the same thing as Paul tells Timothy that from his youth he knew the Holy Scriptures [in historical context – the Tanach] which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith in Messiah Yeshua. (2 Tim. 3:15)

   • Pour out into the hearts of believers a deep love for all of Your Word (Psa. 119:97, 140, 163).

   • Lord, please prevent "nationalism" and "patriotism" to become more important than, or confused with Kingdom of God issues (Rom. 11:18; Eph. 2:19; Col. 1:12-13; 1 Thess. 2:12; Heb. 12:28)?

   • Also replace "replacement theory" with the reality of Israel's existence (Jer. 31:35-37; Eph. 5:26-27).

7. Water:

   Please continue to pray for the rain to fall on His land – and that it would be a sign to Israelis of His Father's love and mercy to them (Isa. 41:17-20; Matt. 5:45b). So far, it has been a good beginning to Israel's rainy season. Thank You Lord.

8. IFI:

   In the Torah portion, we read how Isaac prayed for 20 years before God answered him and caused Rebekah to conceive (Gen. 25:20-21, 26). Again we see that in prayer, perseverance is very important (Luke 18:1). After the Israeli elections, we are worn-out and at times discouraged. Please persevere in praying for us so that we will not give in to weariness, but in His time we will reap for His glory (Gal. 6:9). Thank You for your prayers and for all the other ways in which You support and encourage us.

Shabbat shalom and blessings from Jerusalem

For the IFI team

2 Thess. 2:16-17; 3:16