This Sunday is Shavuot according to the Jewish calendar. On Shavuot, besides other biblical readings, the book of Ruth is read. So this morning we began by reading Ruth 1:16.
And Ruth said, Do not ask me to leave you, to turn from following after you. For where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
We bless You that the book of Ruth was included in the canon of Your Word.
Hallelujah, You are building Your Body, and we see Jews and gentiles in unity proclaim,
You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God
(Matthew 16:16-18).We praise You Yeshua for being seated at the right hand of God our Father (Psalm 110:1).
Thank You for the ultimate triumph of Your word (Isaiah 55:11).
You are so merciful to so many, we ourselves included (Psalm 41:4; 86:3).
We stand amazed that we have entered the 50th year of Jerusalem being set free from gentile rule.
It is Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, which usually brings with it an increase in terrorism –in Israel as well as globally. There was already a horrific (are there any other kinds?) terror attack in Tel Aviv on Wednesday evening. Israel has withdrawn over 80,000 entry permits to Muslims in Judea and Samaria and Gaza because of this. As today is the Muslim day of prayer, we prayed to the One True God for protection of His land and His people.
We bless the physical intercessors – Israel's security forces – that place their bodies between the innocent and the terrorists.
Give them alertness, strength, and all the needed intelligence information to stop all attacks.
Impart wisdom to the border guards to know who to allow in and who to stop.
Lord, most of the IDF soldiers and border guards are teenagers or young adults placed in a very hard situation. Protect and use them. Give them wisdom beyond their years (Isaiah 41:10-16).
No weapon that is formed against you shall be blessed; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment, you shall condemn.
Isaiah 54:17aMay Your hand of restraint be heavy upon the Temple Mount today (Psalm 3:4).
Uncover any terrorists who use disguises to infiltrate Israeli society like they did Wednesday.
Let them be as chaff before the wind; and let the Angel of YHWH drive them away. Let their way be dark and slippery; and let the Angel of YHWH pursue them. For without cause they have spread their net for me in a pit; without cause they have dug for my soul.
Psalms 35:5-7Thank You for the few brave Arabic voices that condemned this past week's terror attack. Yet we are told that most Muslims are "moderate". So why are there so few voices?
Bring healing for the terror victims and comfort to the families whose loved ones died.
Wake up the Church to pray into Ramadan – standing against further acts of violence.
Ramadan is a time when Yeshua often appears to Muslims and reveals Himself. So we prayed for multitudes of Muslims to become ex-Muslim and instead become born-again Christian Zionists.
Wake up the Church to pray into Ramadan – for many Muslims to be saved and for the Lord to send forth His workers.
The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest that He may send forth laborers into His harvest.
(Luke 10:2)When they are saved, set them free from that inbred anti-Semitic spirit received from the Quran.
Use this time of fasting in Islam to cause many to have an increased sensitivity to Your Spirit.
Hinder this time of fasting from increasing their sensitivity to satanic suggestions (Luke 4:1-2).
Rescue many women and young children from this demonic deception.
Save whole families and even whole villages (Acts 16:31).
Lord, walk through the Syrian refugee camps and draw to Yourself many widows and orphans.
Speak to the Church in the West to reach out to their Muslim neighbors and co-workers.
But you shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you. And you shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
Acts 1:8
Israel's new Defense Minister, Avigdor Liberman, needs God's restraining hand and godly wisdom to know what Israel should do in these chaotic and ever-increasing dark days.
Lord, we thank You for raising up Liberman at this time (Daniel 2:20-21).
Surprise us with the pragmatic wisdom that You place inside him (Proverbs 16:9; 19:21).
Hedge him in to walk only in paths of Your choosing (Psalm 23:3b) and to say only that which You have put in his mouth (Psalm 19:14; 119:13).
Surround Liberman with the kind of counsel he needs in his current position (Proverbs 20:18; 24:6).
Lord, we ask specifically that You would bring some believers into his inner circle.
Oversee and sweeten his working relationship with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot (Psalm 133:1).
May all their communications with one another be very clear, with no misunderstandings.
Set a watch, O YHWH, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.
(Psalm 141:3)Give Eisenkot favor with Bibi and Liberman and yet remind him that the government governs the army and not vice-versa (1 Chronicles 11:10).
Draw these three men over Shavuot closer to Your Son (Song of Solomon 1:4).
We next focused our intercessions for Bibi Netanyahu. While Bibi is far from perfect, and we are not sure of his relationship with God or Yeshua, yet as we scan the scene of Western leaders today, we are so very grateful to the Lord for giving Israel this man to lead it at this time.
We bless and thank You for Netanyahu (Ezra 8:18).
Surround Bibi with the gift of wise advisors who hear Your voice (Proverbs 11:14; 15:22).
Lord, we perceive all of the intense hatred of the left-wing media, humanistic liberals and the West against Bibi as a sign that he is doing that which You have raised him up to do (John 15:18-19). [In context, this is said by Yeshua to His disciples, yet the spiritual principle of "if one does things God's way, the world will hate him" definitely applies to Netanyahu.]
Shelter him
from the strife of tongues
(Psalms 31:20b).Place this confession in Bibi's heart in these tense and dangerous days:
You are my hiding-place and my shield; I hope in Your Word.
(Psalms 119:114) Lord, may it be our confession as well!May he experience much peace in his home – with his wife Sara and his two sons.
Expose the truth about the current accusations against Sara – and if she needs to apologize and make amends, may she have the courage to do just that.
Protect the Netanyahu household from any and all curses – past, present and future.
Use all the attacks against him and his family to cause him to cry out to You.
Call on Me in the day of trouble; and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.
(Psalms 50:15)Over Shavuot, reveal Your Son to Netanyahu so that he truly knows Yeshua as Lord of all, Messiah and Israel's King (Acts 2:36).
Saturday sunset until Sunday at sunset, the Jewish world celebrates Shavuot, i.e., Pentecost. Jews see this as the day Moses received the Ten Commandments from God the Son (John 1:18) on Mount Sinai. The Church sees this as the day the Spirit of God was poured out by God the Son (John 15:26; Acts 2:32-33) upon His disciples (Acts 2:1-4). Note that these two people groups who for most of the past two millennia have not liked each other – and we're being gentle in our description – end up having the same birthday! On Shavuot, individual disciples became One Body by the outpouring of God's Spirit and centuries before that, on Shavuot, individual Jews became one nation after they received their constitution – the Ten Commandments. We prayed for the Spirit of Messiah (Romans 8:19; 1 Peter 1:11) to be poured out on many Jews during this time.
Lord, thank You that the Body of Messiah is bigger this year than it was last year at this time – both in Israel and in the rest of the world. More, Lord!
With many Jews spending all Shavuot night studying Your word, Abba reveal to them their King, Messiah Yeshua, the Living Word (1 John 1:1-21).
Abba, please remove Your divinely decreed blindness upon the eyes of the Jews (Romans 11:25-29).
We ask for many dreams and visions over this weekend – as You promised in Joel 2:28-29.
Lord Yeshua, reveal Yourself to Israeli children, to settlers, to Holocaust survivors, to those expelled from Gaza years ago, to terror attack survivors and their families, to government ministers, to those who have come home this past year and to those who have lost a loved one since last Shavuot.
Abba, draw into Your arms Israeli women who have had an abortion. Comfort and carry them to the true freedom there is in Your Son (Isaiah 40:1, 9-11; John 8:36).
Lord of the harvest, we pray for laborers to be sent into Israel's harvest fields (Matthew 9:37-38).
Enable the Body of Messiah to have an answer for the hope that is within us (1 Peter 3:15).
Enable the Body of Messiah – in Israel and the nations – to not be ashamed of the good news, but to declare that it is the power of God for salvation unto all who believe, both Jews and gentiles (Romans 1:16).
We thank You for giving evangelists as gifts to Your Body (Ephesians 4:11). Raise up more.
Help the rest of us live a life that provokes multitudes of Jews to jealousy (Romans 11:11, 14).
We prayed for aliyah – the immigration of God's people back to God's land.
Thank You for the increase in Jews returning home this past year. More, Lord!
Bring those bitter in spirit back to Israel – as You did with Naomi/Mara in Ruth 1:20-21 – because here is where You have promised to meet and heal them (Jeremiah 33:6-8).
Do not allow terror attacks to hinder Jews in exile from returning home as You said that they will be safer here than in exile in these last days (Psalm 121:4; Jeremiah 31:10).
May the resilience of Israeli Jews in the face of terror draw many Jews who live in exile.
Many Jews only come to tour the land. When they come, marry them to it as per Isaiah 62:4-5.
Use the results of Brexit to wake up British Jews to return.
Use the results of the US elections to do the same with American Jews.
Use the Islamic immigration into the EU to stir up EU Jews to come home.
Lord, wherever the Jews are in Asia, help them to return (Isaiah 43:5-7; Zechariah 8:7).
Remove all bureaucratic stumbling blocks in Israel which hinder massive aliyah (Isaiah 62:10).
YHWH your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will do you good, and multiply you above your fathers, and YHWH your God will circumcise your heart [this Tanach expression succinctly describes what happens when one is born again.] and the heart of your seed, to love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. And YHWH your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those that hate you, who persecuted you.
Deuteronomy 30:5-7
We finished by praying into the security situation on Israel's northern border with Lebanon and its northeastern border with Syria. Hizbullah is still the most dangerous immediate threat facing Israel, and as it is an Iranian backed terrorist organization, that means Iran is in the picture as well. Israel is actually terraforming its northern border – building cliffs, moving mountains, building huge walls and in general trying to hinder any attack against its many civilians who live there. Please pray for safety for those doing this massive construction job – both IDF and civilian engineers – and pray for the safety and alertness of all soldiers and civilians living there.
Thank you and bless you for standing with Israel and us at this time.
May we all be refilled by His Spirit – daily (Ephesians 5:18b).
Shabbat shalom and hag Shavuot sameach,
The IFI Team
Blessed is YHWH out of Zion,
Psalms 135:21
who dwells at Jerusalem.
Praise YHWH!