1. Praise:

   "Look down!" When he was a young believer, a well-known Bible teacher saw this saying on a plaque in a pastor's office. He said to the pastor that he was always taught to "look up!" The man replied that it is all a matter of perspective. In today's world it is very encouraging to shift our view to perceive events from our reserved seats in heavenly places in Messiah Yeshua (Eph. 2:6).

   • We praise You for reminding us that Your ways and Your thoughts are higher than ours (Isa. 55:9).

   • Thank You for Your Word – the eternal and ultimate truth (Psa. 119:89; John 17:17).

   • We rejoice that by Your Word we can see events from Your perspective (Psa. 36:9b; 97:11-12).

   • Abba, we bless You for encouraging us to look to the Lord Yeshua, the Author and Finisher of our faith – the One who completes and perfects Your work in us (Heb. 12:2a; cp. Phil. 1:6; Jude 1:24-25).

   • Lord Yeshua, we praise You for giving us the hope that when You are revealed we shall be like You, and that this hope encourages us to be holy as You are holy [+ pure] (1 John 3:3).

   • We rejoice to read that by trusting in You we already have the victory (Psa. 98:1; 1 John 5:4).

   • Yet we confess to being overwhelmed in these days and thank You for drawing us to Yourself, the Rock of our salvation and the One who is exalted far above all thrones and powers (Psa. 61:1-2; 95:1).

   • We bless You that Your Word often reminds us that regardless of what we see or hear or feel – You, our God, do in reality reign (Psa. 93:1; 95:3; 96:10; 97:1; 99:1; 103:19; Isa. 52:7; Dan. 4:34-37).

   • And because You do reign, hallelujah, nothing can ever take You by surprise (Isa. 42:9).

2. Government:

   The ungodly fear and hatred of a government that strives to lead Israel in a way that is a little closer to the biblical standard is unbelievable. The spirit of humanism – which is the foundation of the anti-Christ spirit – is running rampant in the West and has infiltrated Israel. Yet, thankfully, most Jewish-Israelis voted against it in the last election, so we continue to pray for a government that will move Israel along a path that is nearer to its God-directed destiny.

   • Use the negotiations and the result to clear out more dross from Israel's political scene (Isa. 1:25-26).

   • Guide Bibi Netanyahu to complete the coalition in line with Your will (Prov. 21:1).

   • We pray for him to be strengthened for all present and future challenges he will face (Ex. 17:10-12).

   • Continue the work that You have begun in his life for Your glory's sake (Psa. 92:4-5; Phil. 1:6).

   • Protect him, and Israel, from all political manipulation and ultimatums (Num. 23:23).

   • Subdue egos and pride and bring forth a coalition that will work in unity (Psa. 133:1; Prov. 29:23).

   • Lord, create a stable government that will work together and trust one another (Jer. 32:17, 27).

   • Install every government member in the position You have ordained for them (Psa. 75:6-7).

   • Anoint each one to be effective in those God-decreed positions (Psa. 92:10).

   • Provide godly advisors who have the ear of every minister in the new coalition (Prov. 11:14; 15:12).

   • Use this coalition to push through any and all changes that You desire – and block all plans that are not from You – so that Your name will be glorified in and through Israel (Psa. 79:9; Mal. 1:5).

   • Place Your fear into the minds and hearts of Israel's new coalition partners – and remove from them the fear of man (Psa. 25:12; 118:6; Prov. 29:25).

   • Lead the more radical members in paths of righteousness for Your name's sake (Psa. 23:3b).

   • Show them how to draw more people to their often biblically based ideas and programs through the use of "pleasant words" as opposed to fighting-words (Prov. 12:18; 16:24).

   • Close the mouths of the left-leaning media and politicians in Israel who spew forth hatred and fears about the possible actions of the new coalition into the minds of Israelis and its allies (Ex. 4:11).

   • Thank You for expelling the previous anti-biblical coalition (Jer. 3:13a).

3. Internal security:

   Part of the political goals of the religious Zionist parties in the new coalition is to extend Israel's sovereignty over more of Judea and Samaria. We must persist in prayer for this to actually be accomplished (Luke 18:1).

   • Abba, do not allow fear of negative reactions from the nations to Israel's extension of its sovereignty hinder this – as most nations relentlessly criticize Israel no matter what it does (Isa. 40:21-23).

   • Allow Your Word in Judges 2:1-4 to speak to Israel's leaders and people at this time.

   • Increase influential voices to explain the international rules of warfare, using them to refute all the lies of the biased Palestinian-fed narrative and to show that the death of innocent bystanders in a justified battle between security forces and terrorists – is the fault of the terrorists (Isa. 2:3; 59:14).

   • Pour out huge amounts of division and confusion upon all Palestinian terrorists (Psa. 129:5).

   • Use the jockeying for power among these groups to lead to an increase of infighting (Psa. 35:4, 26).

   • Anoint those Israelis entrusted with the analysis of the intelligence which is gathered, imparting to them an ability to rightly discern truth from error (Ezek. 44:23; Mal. 3:18).

   • Give Israel's security forces divine plans to war against the constant terror attacks against vehicles on the roads – whether stone throwing, shootings, etc. (Psa. 121:8; Isa. 35:8; 49:11; 54:17a).

   • Reveal to the next Defense Minister that the security of a nation is a government's top obligation, along with the wisdom to see that it comes to pass (Rom. 13:1-4).

   • Make him, Netanyahu and the IDF's new Chief of Staff Halevi into a threefold cord (Eccl. 4:12b).

   • Use Messianic believers in the IDF to be like leaven in the whole army, permeating all of it with a love and awe of You – their Lord and God and Israel's King Messiah (Isa. 33:22; Luke 13:21).

   • We ask You to watch over and use Your army which You have raised up out of the graves of the Holocaust (Ezek. 37:10) and to shield and protect them from all evil (Psalm 91:1-13; 121:4).

4. External security:

   What we are seeing in Iran today is an answer to persistent prayer – not just ours but many others, including, we are sure, many Iranian believers.

   • Lord, use our prayers as arrows to strike all targets in Iran You have highlighted (Deut. 32:39-43).

   • Increase the intensity of the demonstrations against the Iranian regime and overthrow it (Prov. 29:2).

   • Yet forbid any vacuum in Iran's leadership which will enable the enemy to take advantage of and end up making things worse (John 10:10).

   • As You did with Cyrus, provide a leader of Your choice for both Iran and Israel's sake (Isa. 45:1-6).

   • Create a solution that does not reform the regime – but totally destroys it and replaces it with leaders who are pro-Israel and who give Iranians the chance to hear and receive the gospel (Jer. 49:38b).

   • Empower Iranian believers to perform healing signs and wonders in the streets (Acts 2:43; 5:12).

   • Let today's Iranian "Hamans" end up in the traps which they have set for the innocent (Est. 7:10).

   • Break Elam's bow, and include the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp in that breaking (Jer. 49:35).

   • Lord, thank You for hearing that Iran has not given any monies to their proxies surrounding Israel in the past number of months. Hallelujah! May this trend continue (1 Tim. 6:9; Jam. 5:1-6)!

   • God, shatter all ties between Iran and Russia and between Iran and China (Prov. 11:21; 16:5).

   • Keep the IDF's Iran Command up-to-date with accurate intelligence of Iran's plans (Jer. 11:18).

   • Thank You for the amazing success that Israel has had and is having in Syria and Iraq in cutting off weapons transfers from Iran through these countries to Hizbullah in Lebanon (Psa. 44:4-5).

   • Let these successes cause a lying spirit of paranoia to possess all of Iran's leaders (2 Chr. 18:21-22).

   • Clarify to Israel whether Hizbullah does in fact have chemical weapons tipped missiles and if they do, encourage Israel to pre-empt this threat as soon as possible (Mic. 4:11-13).

   • Upgrade the IDF's target banks – especially all targets that need to be pre-empted (Prov. 21:31).

5. Foreign Policy:

   The hypocrisy of the western nations in dealing with Israel is a stench before God. Yet God can use this to show Israel it needs to stop trusting in the nations and trust only in Him.

   • Lord, You hear the nations raging against You and Your anointed nation, Israel (Psa. 2:1-3; 105:15), so we pray for You to wake up the churches in these nations to see Your hand of judgment already on them and let them plead for mercy for their nations (Ezek. 22:30-31; Hab. 3:2).

   • In Your timing and in Your way, sever all of Israel's ungodly ties with the UN, the EU and the US (Num. 23:9b; Deut. 33:28).

   • Lord, show Israel's leaders that it is past time for them to stop trying to get the world's approval for Israel's right to exist and to defend itself (Judg. 5:2-5, 9; 11:23).

   • Fill Israel's "mouth" with divine answers to confound its international critics (Prov. 26:4-5).

   • Use the just exposed EU-Qatar fiasco to distract Brussels from its new demands that the new Israeli government commit to a "two-state solution" with the Palestinians (Isa. 34:1-2, 8; Joel 3:1-2).

   • Embolden the new government to cancel all EU agreements which specifically exclude Judea and Samaria from any benefits as by agreeing with this the previous Israeli government in essence divided Your land (Lev. 25:23; Prov. 22:28; 23:10a).

   • Strengthen the new Israeli coalition to resist the "demands" of its "friends" – since most of their "demands" are against Your revealed will (Neh. 2:20; Joel 3:1-2).

   • Guide Israel as it tries to expand the Abraham Accords with Saudi Arabia and others (Prov. 19:21).

   • We ask all this for Your holy name's sake which You linked to Your chosen nation (Psa. 115:1-3).

6. Aliyah:

   What will it take to make millions of Jews flee from the West? Only God knows, yet we pray for it to happen quickly and with as much mercy as possible.

   • Lord, it is Your will for all Your people to return to Israel (Ezek. 39:28), and as we see what had to happen to release tens of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian Jews from their birth-nations, so we ask You to regather the rest with as much mercy as possible (Psa. 98:3; 102:13).

   • Continue to send out the fishers while You are also releasing the hunters (Jer. 16:16).

   • Shake the false comfort that Jews in the West tend to cling to and move them home (Psa. 69:20).

   • Let Jews in exile come face-to-face with the choices that lie before them – either present "comfort" for them or hope and future safety for their children and grandchildren (Jer. 29:11; 31:10, 16-17).

   • Confront Jews with the reality that they must think twice about publically displaying the Chanukiah [Chanukah menorah] in their windows later this month or to hide it out of fear (Jer. 50:4-5, 28).

   • Destroy the lie Jews tell themselves that they can do more for Israel from exile (Psa. 120:2).

   • May all Jews who have future plans to move to Israel – move those plans to today (Psa. 95:7-9).

   • Bring many Jews back to Your land and then save them (Jer. 50:19-20).

   • Use the Chanukah season to focus unsaved Jews on the Light of the World – Messiah Yeshua (Psa. 119:105, 130; John 1:9; 8:12; 12:26).

   • Plant all new immigrants firmly in Israel, and remove all double-mindedness of whether they should stay or leave when they battle the modern "giants" in the land (Amos 9:14-15; Jam. 1:8).

   • God, have the final word in what way – if at all – Israel's law of Return is modified (Prov. 16:9).

   • Continue to work in the hearts of gentile believers about Your expectations – even Your commands to them – to help the Jews return home (Isa. 49:22; 60:3-11, 14; 61:5; etc.).

   • May Your burden concerning Israel's restoration to its God-given land in these days be revealed and received by many more of Your children in Messiah's Body (Jer. 32:41-44).

7. The Body of Messiah:

   We are burdened to ask Messiah Yeshua to use His birth narratives in Matthew and Luke to give revelation to His Body so that they understand that His incarnation and His birth were intimately linked to the fulfillment of God's promises to the nation of Israel.

   • Your Word does not return to You empty (Isa. 55:11), so shine Your light on those relevant passages when they are read, or sung, over the Christmas season (Psa. 36:9; 119:130).

   • Shake up believers' overfamiliarity with this story and open their hearts and minds to the truth that all of the Christmas heroes were Jewish – possibly even including the wise men from the East (Matt. 1:1, 20-23; 2:1-6: Luke 1:5-6, 15-17, 31-33, 54-55, 68-79; 2:4, 11, 21-23).

   • With Christians who celebrate Your birth in order to honor You, reveal to them that the One they worship was, and is, Jewish, Israel's King and Messiah (Gen. 49:9-10; Isa. 11:10; Rev. 5:5; 22:16).

   • Expel from Your Body the worship of a "cosmic Christ" and replace it with the worship of the true Christ/Messiah – the historical Jew Yeshua (2 Cor. 11:4).

   • Impart a holy boldness to all believing ministers who understand Your Word to preach Your Word, regardless of the results (Acts 4:24-31).

8. Water:

   We are asking God to bring the cooler weather and the rain along with it.

   • Thank You Lord for helping Israel to complete its project to transport desalinated water from its desalination plants on its coast directly into the Sea of Galilee (Deut. 11:12).

   • Remember Your prophetic promise and create new water sources in Israel (Isaiah 41:18-20).

   • At this season, please send the rain and snow from Your storehouses (Job 5:9-10; 38:22-23).

9. IFI:

   Thank you for your many words of encouragement that you have recently sent. Please continue to pray for us to have His wisdom and guidance in knowing how to pray for Israel, as well as to have all that we need to continue to do just that – the physical, mental and emotional strength and spiritual stability – as well as for this ministry's financial needs to be met.

Shabbat shalom and blessings from Zion

For the IFI team

Luke 2:25-32