May 15th, 2015

  1. Blessed be the Lord, Because He has heard the voice of my supplications! The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him. The Lord is their strength, and He is the saving refuge of His anointed. Save Your people, and bless Your inheritance; shepherd them also, and bear them up forever.

    Psalm 28:6-9

    • Thank You that You are a very present help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1)
    • You are our shepherd and You take care of Your sheep. (Ezekiel 34:12)
    • You are our healer and our savior. (Psalm 103:3 and Psalm 20:6)
    • You are the God who was and who is and who is to come. (Revelation 4:8)
    • Thank You that You hear our prayers and answer us. (Psalm 143:1)
    • Thank You that we can know You today and Your grace is sufficient for us. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
    • You are the author and finisher of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2)

  2. Lance Lambert

    This week we lost a dear brother and friend in Lance Lambert. He was a great man of faith, a teacher, a pioneer, a mentor for many, he loved God and lived His word. We give thanks for his life as we join in praying for comfort for those he leaves behind.

    • Thank You, Lord, for Lance, for his trust in You and in Your word.
    • Thank You that he always pointed to Yeshua.
    • Thank You for blessing multitudes through his life, his teaching, his fellowship.
    • Thank You for his lasting impact on the Church’s understanding about Israel.
    • Thank You for setting Lance free from earthly struggle into the joy of Your presence.

    • Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

      Jude 1:24

    • Bring Your comfort to his family and fill their emptiness.

  3. Israeli Government

    A new government of 61 members (the bare minimum) has been sworn in and ministerial jobs have been allocated at the end of a long and rancorous process. Opposition leaders have vowed to bring this government down as quickly as possible. Even members of the government are angry and disappointed at not receiving the jobs they feel they should have received.

    • We pray because of Paul’s words, Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:1-4)
    • We have been praying for many months that You would give us a government through which You will be glorified. We know You have heard us and believe that You have answered.
    • We look to You. May this government look to You. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, And He saved them out of their distresses.(Psalm 107:13)
    • Reveal Your strength even through the smallness and (humanly speaking) weakness of this new government, as You did at the time of Gideon. (Judges 7)
    • Thank You for raising up Binyamin Netanyahu to lead the way at this time. Thank You that he reads Your word. May he continue to do so and to seek vision from Your word and from You. May he find strength in the face of much manipulation all around him.
    • Protect Prime Minister Netanyahu and his family from all physical, mental and spiritual attack.
    • Guard this new government from the destructive spirit which just seeks to bring it down.
    • Stitch the government together like a quilt with a God-given unity in contrast with the rancor out of which it has been forged!
    • Overwhelm them with Your vision and purpose for the nation in place of being ruled by their narrow group interests or personal ambitions.
    • Lord, the political system has been dominated with itself for some 5 months since the election was called. Enough! Give them a clear focus on the needs of the nation!
    • If Israel needs a major restructuring of the electoral system, show us how to pray for this!

    • Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

      Proverbs 3:5-6

  4. Security tensions

    According to the Gregorian Calendar 15th May was the date of formation of the State of Israel, and the Palestinians treat it as “Nakba Day” a day of catastrophe, often marking it with protests and violence. Similarly this Sunday, 28th of Iyar according to the Hebrew Calendar is marked as Jerusalem Day in Israel, celebrating the reunification of the city following the Six Day War of 1967. This too can be a day of tension with over-zealous Jews bragging the possession of the city in the face of Arab residents. Pray:

    • Please Lord, defuse the lawlessness which would seek to provoke violence and anger during these days.
    • Pour cold water on hot tempers. (There has been unseasonal rain recently – maybe the Lord would send more in answer to this prayer)
    • Give wisdom and vigilance to Israel’s security forces – the Police, the IDF and to all her citizens.
    • A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.(Proverbs 15:1) Lord, use gentle answers and soft words to turn away anger in these days!
    • Thank You for uniting the city of Jerusalem. Pour out Your shalom upon Jerusalem this weekend! (Psalm 122:6)

  5. Threats against our borders

    enemy nations round about Israel have typically used significant dates in the calendar to come against us. We need to continue to seek the Lord’s protection and His help during these times:

    • Please guard and grant peace to our borders! (Psalm 147:14)
    • Keep our security forces watchful and give wisdom to our leaders in their decisions where to deploy our troops.
    • Keep Israel’s spies hidden and able to get accurate information out about what our enemies are planning.
    • Give Israel’s leaders wisdom when to act and when not to act.

  6. Salvation of Moslems

    ultimately the best thing for Israel will be when Moslems come to salvation in Yeshua.

    • Lord, reveal Yourself to the Moslems in dreams and visions so they will understand who You are!
    • Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. (Luke 11:17) – As Moslems see Moslems killing Moslems around the world, let them seek truth in place of the lie they have been fed.

    • And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.

      John 12:32

  7. Salvation of Israel

    • For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

      Ezekiel 36:24-28

    • Reveal Yourself to all the remaining Holocaust survivors. Heal the indescribable hurts and bring them to a place of reconciliation with You.
    • Open the eyes of all those whom You are bringing home to Israel.
    • Lift the veil from the eyes of all those religious Jews who are so devoted to You, yet don’t know their Messiah Yeshua! (2 Corinthians 3:13-18)
    • Thank You, Lord, that You have the ability to graft the natural branches back into their olive tree. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? (Romans 11:24)
    • Give grace to the Ethiopian Messianic leaders to show their community a better way than expressing their frustration in violence (see last week’s prayer points).
    • Next weekend Israel will celebrate Shavuot (Pentecost). Lord, pour out Your Holy Spirit upon Your people.

  8. The Messianic Body in Israel

    We can thank the Lord that there is a growing, maturing body of believers in Israel. Those of us who are Jewish believers are blessed by our gentile brothers and sisters who live among us and those who come to visit for a season. Many come to Israel, Jerusalem in particular, for conferences and other gatherings. Much is good, but there is also a grave danger that the body here will be lured away from the truth by deceptive teachings and error.

    • Keep Your people faithful to You and to Your word.
    • Give us discernment of what is good and what is not.
    • Protect us from deception, Lord!
    • Keep our motivation pure and not lured away by the financial and other support which can come with visiting groups and conferences.

    • But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies…

      2 Peter 2:1

    • Thank You, Lord for joining us all together as one body in Your Church.
    • Please reveal Yourself to Your people gathering together to meet with You across the land this weekend!
    • Give the anointing of Your Spirit to Eliyahu and Ofer Amitai and the leaders of the IFI-Deutschland conference in Germany this weekend. Strengthen Chuck for the final leg of his overseas ministry tour in Scotland. Bring them all back to Israel next week in shalom!

Shabbat Shalom from the IFI team