THE PROMISED AWAKENING
IN ISRAEL IS JUST BEGINNING
It will bring “life from the dead” to the world
(Romans 11)
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Our team member Roger, who is also the young adults’ leader at his local congregation, got a call from Zaim, an on-fire believer in his congregation, “The pre-military program I’m in asked me to organize a lecture from Christians about Christmas, and I thought of inviting you.”
As they talked and prayed, the idea came up for Roger, an Arab Christian, to come together with me, a Messianic Jew, and for us to share together as one new man in Messiah about our faith in Jesus, Yeshua, with these soldiers-in-training.
There are 33 Jewish students and 11 Arab Christian students (all nominal except Zaim) in the course. What an amazing opportunity to reach these young men and women with the Good News!
When the founder of the program heard about it, he was concerned that we would not just share a few cultural things but would actually present the Gospel, and tried to prevent that from happening. But God had a different plan! Miraculously, the event not only still happened – but there was greater openness to the Gospel than we’ve just about ever experienced before!
Roger and I were praying in the Spirit on the way there, and I saw a vision of a leg smashing down a metal door. About five seconds later, though I hadn’t said anything, Roger said, “I sense in the Spirit that we just smashed down a metal door with our legs.” God was confirming that not just because of our prayers but especially because of all your prayers over all these years – God had broken down the opposition and was opening a great door before us!
They received us well, gathered all the soldiers-in-training into a hall, and said, “The floor’s yours!” Roger began by sharing his personal testimony as an Arab Christian who had grown up with bitterness and anger in his heart toward Jewish people. He shared about his supernatural encounter with Yeshua, who healed him in his body and soul, and gave him a new heart and deep love for the Jewish people.
He expressed his heart, “I came to realize, ‘How can people say that they follow Jesus but at the same time hate His own people?’ He came as the Jewish Messiah, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, to fulfill the prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures. He came to save all of us and make us one family. And now my life is dedicated to blessing the people of this land, Yeshua’s people.”
Then I shared my personal testimony, including how Yeshua miraculously healed me from a serious injury, and the full Gospel. Because of the opposition beforehand, we had thought that maybe we’d need to tread carefully, but the Holy Spirit came upon us powerfully, we were filled with great boldness, and didn’t shrink back from sharing in depth about sin, hell, the Messianic prophecies, and the salvation that can be found only in Yeshua.
I declared, “This Yeshua not only took all our sins upon Himself out of great love for us, but He also rose from the dead – 500 people saw Him alive after He had died – so He can grant us everlasting life. And right now, He’s transforming hundreds of millions of lives around the world – of both Jew and Gentile. That’s why so many are celebrating that He was born – because He’s the divine Messiah who came in the flesh to save us, and He’s transformed all history!”
These guys thought they were going to hear a nice little presentation about Santa Claus and Christmas trees, but they were shocked to hear about the King of Glory and all that He did for them. Many of them were visibly moved. Quite a few were taking notes, even though they weren’t required to.
Then came the Q&A time. One Jewish person, who was writing notes almost non-stop the whole time, raised his hand, “I have a bunch of questions!” he announced. I thought he had been formulating strong objections and would throw out a bunch in a row at us. But instead, he said he wanted to understand exactly how to receive forgiveness from God – how do atonement, faith, and repentance all work? What a joy to go into more depth on those topics!
When Eliel and I have shared with different Israeli groups in the past, including with a different pre-military training course a few years ago, they usually interrupt quite often and bring up many intense objections. But here, not only did they listen intently as we shared, but there wasn’t a single negative question or objection. All their questions were out of real interest and wanting to know more about Yeshua!
I had said before the questions started that if we had time, we would love to pray for anyone who wants healing. But they had so many questions that the time was already up. But then, to our astonishment, the manager of the program, who had been taking notes herself, said, “Friends, we have to finish now, but we have 15 minutes before our next event. So anyone who wants can come ask them questions or come and receive prayer.”
Remember, for most of the last 2,000 years, most Jewish people have been so closed to the Gospel (especially because of rabbinic lies and anti-Semitism in the Church) that they usually didn’t want to hear anything about it. But now the manager of a pre-military program is inviting her students to come receive prayer in Yeshua’s name!
Then she herself came up to ask more questions, and the second-in-command came up to ask for prayer! So a huge portion of the students followed their lead!
The first person we prayed for felt the pain in his legs decrease, and then when we prayed again, it was completely gone. Then everyone’s eyes lit up and a bunch of people said, “Oh, pray for me, too!”
What happened next was taken straight out of a scene from the New Testament. Yeshua immediately healed every single person who came forward for prayer, no matter what the problem was or how long they had had it! They even went outside and told other people who were on the grounds to come in and receive healing, so they did!
We were so encouraged to be reliving Mark 16:20, “And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.”
The manager of the program told us, “Wow, this was absolutely fascinating. I was especially touched to hear about Isaiah 53 [part of which we had read]. I’m going to research all this in more depth. Thank you so much for enlightening us!”
Several others said similar things. The one man who had asked about forgiveness also asked, “Do you believe in any oral law or that any other people are the final authority outside of the Scriptures?” When we told him we didn’t, he sighed in relief, “Oh good, I don’t either. I just want what God Himself said. Thank you and I’m definitely going to read more about this.”
They even told us that they were going to recommend us to another pre-military preparation program! Incredible!
The strongholds of opposition that have held our people captive for centuries are coming down! Your prayers and ours are being answered! God is moving in power! Now is the time of Israel’s salvation!
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