Isaiah 62:6-7 6 I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent, And give Him no rest till He establishes And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
Over the weekend, riots broke out throughout Jerusalem as well as rockets fired from Gaza leading into a pivotal week in Israel. On Monday, Israel will observe Jerusalem Day which celebrates the reunification of the city that occurred during the 1967 Six-Day War. This occurs as Muslims throughout the world will be closing their celebration of Ramadan as the feast comes to its conclusion on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Israel is launching its largest-ever military drill simulating war on all fronts over the next 30 days code-named, "Chariots of Fire."
If this wasn't enough, at the end of the week, Palestinians will recall "Nabka Day". This will occur on May 14-15th which is intended to coincide with the Israeli Declaration of Independence of 1948. Nabka literally means the "day of catastrophe" and is held each year remembering the time Israel became a nation.
On May 16th, believers will celebrate the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot, in Hebrew. Most Christians recognize this holiday as the Feast of Pentecost -- the time when the Holy Spirit descended and empowered His saints to accomplish the mission of global witness to Yeshua (Jesus).
Throughout the world, there has been a call to prayer and fasting in anticipation of Shavuot and its prophetic significance for believers in Israel and throughout the world, as we long for a fresh outpouring of God's Spirit.
The "coincidence" of these two "calls", one to prayer, the other to war, seems significant.
We believers in Yeshua (Jesus) are called to stand as watchmen. Interestingly, one of the ancient Hebrew words for 'watchmen' is the word 'notzrim' -- which coincidentally, is the modern Hebrew word for 'Christians'. Watchmen are called to vigilance and attentive awareness of the situation. Our present situation is a boiling pot threatening to overflow. Please keep watch with us; "do not keep silence, and give Him no rest, till He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise throughout the earth." This can not happen if Jerusalem is divided and overrun with those who hate the very existence of Israel. The Lord will use this pressure for His own purposes, to test nations and hearts, and to draw Israel back to Himself. Our heart cry is for another outpouring of His Holy Spirit on all flesh. Whatever peace we can hope for in this age will come from Him, and this Divine outpouring...then, finally, Yeshua will return to establish His Kingdom -- and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God.
But for now, please stand as a watchman with us at this pivotal time..watch and pray fervently for a minimum of conflict....and for a fresh outpouring of the Spirit – the Lord will be faithful to answer our cries to Him.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Have you ever felt uneasy, unsettled or unstable? Or maybe a better question is — who hasn’t? How do we overcome these feelings?
Is that a trend or something? I don’t know what it is but I’ve heard that phrase said quite a bit. We were even walking down the Wal-Mart isle to pick up a few things and my wife showed me a T-shirt with “I have issues” written across the front! I guess the world is coming to the sad reality that we really do have some issues.
It never ceases to amaze me, the way the devil uses our offenses and our “offendedness” to divide and conquer marriages, relationships, churches — even entire nations!
There’s an old adage, “Have the heart of a lion!” Hearing it, we think, “courage”. This recalls a quote I once heard; “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened”. I doubt there’s a single hero story in which the fearless leader fails to inspire the righteous determination of his army or people. The voice of the captain resounds through the ranks evoking the fierce cry of every warrior ready to face death or worse, for the cause. Courage truly is contagious.
The Hebrew word for “face” is “panim”, (the Hebrew letters, peh-nun-yud-mem), literally “faces”, a plural word. Normally, when we think about God, we focus only upon one of His “faces” at a time. God is “love” – or He is “holy”– or He is “just”— or He’s a God of “wrath”. Yet, of course, ALL these “faces” are His at once; and so the word “panim” accurately reflects the truth of God’s multifaceted being. As we get to know Him better we begin to appreciate the complexity of His nature and the fact that our focus on one “face” is a very limited view, since there’s so much more going on in His amazing “Personality”.
Patience is one of those things… so hard to learn it… so hard to practice it faithfully in our daily walk. It’s one of of those things I truly wish we didn’t have to learn — but God requires it of us! As I was reading through this passage again in Exodus, it dawned on me that Moses sat on the mountain for six entire days before the Lord spoke to him. He had to patiently wait for the Lord for six days!
The book of Isaiah, often called the Old Testament Gospel, reveals that a child was to be born and his name called “The Mighty God, and the Everlasting Father”. We know that this Child was Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth, that He is the unique Son of God, the express image of the invisible God. The throne of David was to be given to Him and He now holds its “key”, a symbol of the right and authority of His reign, which will be consummated when He returns to this world and restores the Kingdom to Israel [Acts 1:6-7].