God’s Plan for His Land &
People
By John Stembridge
 God’s
Plan for His Land and People can be capsulated in one word: restoration. It
takes fortitude to be a restorer. When a call of God is upon your life and
you have to take something that is run down, and build it back, it takes
courage and endurance. Such is the case for the land and people of Israel
today. All of the Promised Land is not yet redeemed for the regathering of
all the tribes and the reuniting of the two houses of Judah and Ephraim.
My friend, Ben Cohen, is a restorer. He has
restored many properties in New York, South Florida, New Orleans and
Chicago. Recently he restored the Ramada Plaza in Hollywood, Florida. It is
a downtown property and has hosted many functions in its heyday. Now, he has
remolded it to look like Jerusalem stone. He has put an aerial view of the
Temple Mount and the city of Jerusalem in the lobby. On either side of the
Temple Mount he has two fountains with water flowing from either side. The
inspiration for this he received from the Book of Zechariah, which tells us
of the time when the Messiah’s feet will touch the Mount of Olives, and a
giant earthquake will split the Mount in half. Living water will pour from
the Temple Mount down Eastward to the Dead Sea and cause it’s waters to
become a living sea. The other side will pour down to the Westward Sea.
It was a thrill to see someone like Ben
putting his money where his heart is. I said, “Ben, you’re going to educate
all these nationalities in south Florida to fall in love with Jerusalem and
the Temple Mount.” We have the little United Nations in south Florida!
People from all over the world will walk up that ramp, look and fall in love
with Zion.
Have you have ever been to a Temple or a
synagogue service and were honored with an Aliyah? This means the Rabbi has
invited you to join him up on the bema. Aliyah means ascend. Christian
theology has put another word on it called “rapture.” But any time you go up
to Jerusalem from the nations, that’s Aliyah or rapture. You are ascending,
or going UP to Zion. Psalms 121 – 133 are Psalms of accent – or rapture –
that Jewish men would sing to God as they went up to worship at the Temple
in Jerusalem three times a year. In Isaiah 51:11 it says, “The redeemed
of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion. And everlasting
joy shall be upon our heads and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.”
That’s happening. Already many of the redeemed are coming to Jerusalem every
year out of every color, language, tribe and nation. The ultimate Aliyah or
Rapture will be when God Himself invites you to the top of the Temple
Mount to worship Him in all His Shekinah glory. You will be as Moses
when he basked in His presence 40 days and nights at Sinai. Only yours will
be forever. We need this coming event to really impact us. The Lord Himself
will call us to His “bema” to give us His Law in Jerusalem so we can give it
to the nations.
The Blessing
and the Curse
The theme of this weekend is God’s Plan for
God’s Land. Those in the building trade know that in order to build a
building, whether it’s this community center such as where we are meeting
now, or your home, business or a place of worship, there has to be a plan.
And God has a plan for His land, not only in the past and present, but also
for the future.
Originally when He established the heavens
and the earth in six days, everything was perfect. He said, “It is good.” He
gave just one mitzvah to Adam and Eve – that means one instruction, one
commandment, and they were unable to keep that one. Therefore something
tragic took place; a curse came on the heavens and on the earth. The curse
is: the soul that sins, dies. No scientist to this point has been able to
reverse God’s curse. The man has to work by the sweat of his brow; the woman
goes through the valley of the shadow of death to bring a life into this
world. The serpent crawls on his belly, the lowest of His creatures.
It has affected all creation. It is
upsetting to watch a nature film and see a gentle dear pursued by a predator
– a lion, or a wolf – until it is caught and its flesh, blood and bones are
consumed. Or to watch an eagle or shark do the same. Mankind is also killing
animals every day to eat. That’s all part of the curse that will continue
until our great Holy King Messiah comes and puts an end to all killing and
evil. During the Messianic Age neither man, beast, fowl, or fish will kill
to eat.
Israel’s
Conditional Covenant
For our topic here tonight, God gives
specific instructions. Let’s read from Jeremiah 11: “The word which came
to Jeremiah from the Lord, Listen to the terms of this Covenant and repeat
them to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” This is a
specific message for a specific people in a specific city in the earth.
“Tell them: …If you’ll obey me and do all
that I tell you, you shall become my people and I will become your God.
And I will thus make good the oath that I swore to your forefathers that I
would give them a land flowing with milk and honey . . . Listen to the
terms of this covenant and hear them out. I have protested to your
forefathers since I brought them out of Egypt till this day. I took pains
to warn them, Obey Me, I said. But they did not obey. They paid
no attention to me, but each followed the promptings of his own stubborn and
wicked heart. So I….”
WHO is this talking? It is HaShem. Who is He
talking to? To the people of Israel, to Jerusalem and to all the cities of
Judah. The Almighty who took us
(Note 1) out of Egypt, Who met with Moses at Sinai, Who wrote the commandments on
tablets of stone with His finger. He is saying, “I brought them out of
Egypt. I took pains to ask them to obey Me, but they did not obey. They paid
no attention to me but each followed the promptings of his own stubborn and
wicked heart so I brought on them the penalties laid down in this
covenant by which I had bound them and which terms they did not observe.”
Notice that for Israel to dwell safely in the land was conditioned on her
obedience to God and His commandments.
This plan was never realized.
Marriage Contract
According to Ben’s interpretation, the
greatest real estate transaction in history took place at Sinai when God
gave his wife the choicest land in the whole world — Zion. However, it was a
conditional or premarital contract according to Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus
26. As long as Israel and the Jewish people would hear His voice,
forget not His law, keep His commandments, they would dwell in
this land. They would be healthy. They would be prosperous. They would
be free of fear of any enemy, for no enemy could come against them as long
as their ears were open to Him and obeyed His commandments.
The tribes of Israel are yet scattered among
the nations of the world. They are not yet all regathered to Zion, although
He says nearly a thousand times in the Scriptures that He is going to
regather them from the four corners of the earth to that land (and leave
none of them there, Ezk. 39:28). After He regathers them, then He is going
to sprinkle their hearts with clean water, cleanse them from their
iniquities and give them His Spirit and His Glory (Ezekiel 36 and 37). The
end of Israel is going to be glorious. It’s just tonight, brothers and
sisters, that all Israel and we are experiencing so much death and mourning
called “The time of Jacob’s Trouble”.
The Default & Receivership
The way Ben puts it: breaking the Covenant
is like when you default on a mortgage on your home. The judge turns it over
to a receiver. Because we have not kept our ear close to the heart of God to
know what He loves and hates, we’ve forgotten His Law, broken His
commandments; therefore, we’re in default. Our land and holy places have
been placed in the hands of the Moslems until we cure our default. The cure
for this default, Ben quotes from the Psalms, “Who shall ascend [Who
shall be raptured?] unto my Holy Hill, but He that hath clean hands and a
pure heart” (Psalm 24:3 & 4). No one, Jew or Gentile who is rebelling
against any commandment of God, will receive this invitation.
Ben said our problem is not the Palestinians
or the one billion plus Moslems. We are our problem. When we repent
and we return to God and our home in Zion, we won’t have any problem with
the Palestinians, the Moslems or with praying on that Temple Mount. If you
desire to see an end to this evil, pray for the speedy regathering and
redemption of all the tribes from the Americas and the whole world to Zion.
Ephraim/Judah
There are only 13 to 18 million Jews in the
whole world. That number does not make up all the tribes. These only make up
part of Judah. The name “Jew” is from Judah, which means worshipper and
praiser of God. After David and Solomon, the kingdom split into two
kingdoms: Judah in the south, made up of three tribes, Judah, Benjamin and
Levi; and Israel, or interchangeably called “Ephraim”, were the ten tribes
in the north.
Judah
went into captivity into Babylon during Daniel’s time and came back under
Ezra and Nehemiah. They were not guilty of idol worship after that.
Ephraim (the northern ten tribes) went into captivity into Assyria (then
Western Europe) and never came back. Later they branched out to the British
Isles, America and other parts of the world. These are the ones that lost
their identity and assimilated into all nations. A remnant of the Jews, for
the most part, kept their identity and preserved the Torah law.
God did not divorce Judah when He
scattered her because of her sins, although He did divorce Ephraim/Israel.
We read in Jeremiah 3, that when He scattered Israel to Assyria, He handed
her a bill of divorce and said, “Only repent and return unto me, and I
will yet be your God, and you will yet be my people.”
The whole country on both sides of the Jordan was destined as Jewish
National Home according to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the
Negotiations of the Paris Peace Conference 1919.
The Seed of Torah
What we’re seeing today, we can see in seed
form in the Torah. There wasn’t an Israel until there was a Jacob. Jacob,
like Judah and Ephraim subsequently broke the Commandments. He dishonored
and deceived his father. His name, Jacob, means “supplanter” — trickster.
Because of that he had to flee into the Diaspora. He had to leave his home
for 20 years. When he got ready to make aliyah or return to his homeland,
Esau was waiting to kill him.
The problem is similar today. The fanatic
Islamists just can’t wait to drive Israel into the sea or spill their blood
into that holy soil. Just the same as Esau’s hatred of his brother Jacob.
When you’re facing death, inevitably your
life will pass in front of you. That night, as Jacob wrestled with the Angel
of the Lord, he saw his sin and the evil that he had committed against God
and his earthly father. He repented that night, and was radically changed.
The term ‘born again’ didn’t start with the new Covenant, John the Baptist,
or Yahshua. It started with Abram, Sarai and Jacob. Their names changed when
they repented. Abram became Abraham. Sarai became Sarah. Today they are the
father and mother of nations. After Jacob repented, he too had a heart
transplant! God changed his name to “Israel”, which means “Prince with God.”
He had made peace with God. When we repent today, we too have a
metamorphosis as the fathers and mothers of our faith.
Paganism in Christianity
Much of Christian theology is laden with
paganism that came in through the early popes, chiefly Constantine, who
changed the calendar. He changed the days of the week and the months by
renaming them after Roman gods, etc. He also gave us Christmas and Easter
and Sunday worship. He brought so much paganism into our western calendar
that the average person cannot fully understand the Scriptures because of a
wrong mindset.
Constantine started the year in the middle
of the winter – in January. The Biblical year starts at Pesach (Passover) in
the spring. God started the day at sundown. In the first chapter of Genesis
God said, “The evening and the morning was the first day…The evening and
the morning was the second day.” But Constantine started the day in the
middle of the night.
Although the whole of Palestine, the Promised Land of Israel west and east
of the Jordan belongs to the Jewish People, Great Britain partitioned and
truncated Palestine by the severance of ¾ of the Jewish National Home, thus
creating TransJordan which was to be the home of Palestinian Arabs.
Daniel said that there would be one who
would change the times and the seasons. Generations of Catholics,
Protestants and orthodox Christians have followed blindly this paganism. But
thank God the revelation is coming, and more of us Jews and Christians are
beginning to understand and turn back to God’s Biblical calendar and Holy
Days.
Last February, just before I was scheduled
to leave for Israel to speak at the Judah/Ephraim conference, I picked up
Michael Rood coming in from Israel at the Ft. Lauderdale airport. Some of
you may know him; he’s working with the New Moon Society in Jerusalem, which
is trying to help us get back to the Biblical calendar and get away from our
pagan calendar.
Michael Rood was with us that weekend in a
yeshiva. The previous Sunday he was walking on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem when
the first young Palestinian woman terrorist came out of a shoe store, passed
him and blew herself up. Her head landed at his feet. The legs and right arm
of an Israeli soldier nearby were blown off. His other arm was on fire. He
was dead! The blast went by Michael and blew out the windows of the shoe
store.
Now, why wasn’t Michael Rood blown into
eternity? At that exact mille-second of impact, he was behind a 17-inch
concrete column! He heard a voice, “You are here to HELP”. So he went around
trying to help all he could. This is a true example of tribulation saints
who will survive the Great Tribulation and meet our Holy King in Jerusalem.
Perhaps one reason God spared Michael was because he is working to restore
the Biblical calendar.
Warning signs are showing that, not only is
the earth sick because we’ve polluted the air, the water and the earth, but
worse: the hearts and minds of mankind are also often polluted by hatred,
murder, envy, jealousy, deceit, malignity, whispering and backbiting, strife
and contention. WAR is continually in their hearts and minds, and “as a
man thinks, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).
If Israel has been in default because of
breaking God’s Torah laws, do you think Christianity that says
it worships a Jewish Messiah and yet disregards His commandments — is going
to fare any better than Israel? Are we going to continue on in our pagan
calendar and our pagan holidays? Look up Christmas and Easter in the
encyclopedia. Even a secular encyclopedia will tell you that Constantine put
the celebration of the birth of Christ on December 25th, which
was the pagan holiday of Solstice, the Sun god day.
Instead of celebrating Passover or Pesach,
we celebrate Easter with a rabbit that lays eggs! Ester is the Greek
fertility goddess. We’ve also worshiped on Sunday, the sun god day, and call
it the Lord’s day. Nowhere in the Bible does God tell us to change the
fourth commandment or any of His commandments. They were written
with the finger of God at Sinai and given to the Jewish people who were to
give them to the rest of the nations. It’s true that you can worship any day
— but there is only one special day of the week that God kept for himself,
and it is the Sabbath, THE Lord’s Day. Sabbath means “seventh”. It does not
mean first. (Note 2) The Laodicean church
is already being spewed out of God’s mouth.
Last Rosh Hashanah [Jewish New Year] I
started closing my furniture store in Miami on the Shabbat, and I will
continue to do so until I’m able to lay the business down and be full time
in this work of Aliyah. I need your prayers that God will expedite that to
happen soon.
Fountain of Youth
I’m from the state of Florida, and we have
many beautiful spots, but one of the stories we’re told is that when Ponce
de Leon came to Florida he was looking for the Fountain of Youth.
One day I discovered the Fountain of Youth
in Proverbs 3:1. You want a tip tonight better than any on Wall Street? Here
it is: “My son, forget not my law; keep my commandments. Long life,
health and [shalom] peace shall be added unto
you.” Long life, health and peace IS the Fountain
of Youth that everyone wants to buy. But it’s not for sale. You receive
it by obedience to God’s commandments.
Several years ago I almost sold my store to
Walgreen’s. They’ve got the money to buy choice properties in every city.
Why? Because everybody, instead of wanting to solve their problems with the
Almighty, would rather go to Walgreen’s and pay them a few hundred dollars
for the latest prescription to try to find peace of mind. We all want to try
to find health, long life and peace in a bottle — some invention of a man,
rather than God’s way. Truly Proverbs 3:1 is the Fountain of Youth to all
who understand and obey it.
The passages in Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus
26 are like two sides of a coin. As long as Israel would hear His voice,
forget not His Law, and keep His commandments, all this long list of
blessings would run after them and overtake them! Even on a jet plane
or the space shuttle to the moon, no matter how fast you go, all those
blessings will chase after you and overtake you when you are obedient. You
cannot outrun them; they’ll catch up with you wherever you are. Deuteronomy
28:2: “And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake
thee, if you will hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.”
The proposal excluded Jerusalem, Jaffa, Beersheba, Nahariya. The Jewish
State was split into three narrow parts with two intersections with borders
impossible for Israel to defend. Yet Israel accepted the plan and her Arab
neighbors refused it. The War of Independence was the result.
I like to do intuitive teaching, because the
common man has trouble understanding spiritual things. Man thinks in the
natural realm, and God thinks spiritually because He is Spirit and He is not
limited to time and space as we are. Even this seven-candle menorah ring
that I wear: each candle speaks a message to everyone who views it. They
remind us of the seven Spirits of God in Isaiah 11 and The
Revelation. The seven spirits of the Lord are: wisdom, understanding,
counsel, might, knowledge, fear of the Lord and judgment. When gross
darkness covers the earth in this hour, it’s going to be the light of the
seven Spirits of God, which will take us through this great darkness and
evil coming upon the earth. These lights took Daniel, Joseph and Job through
their hour of darkness. They will us as well.
Picture of The Wall
I have a picture of the Western Wall in my
store. I love to bring people there and show it to them. Most of them have
not been to Jerusalem, but many of them are familiar enough to know what it
is. I let them look at it for a moment and then say, “Did you notice how
small the people are there compared with the height of the Wall?” And they
take a second look and say, “Yes, the people look very small
and the wall is about the height of a five story building.”
Then they see the Mosque and other things on
top of the Temple Mount. I again try to plant some seeds in their hearts,
that the Holy Spirit can water, by saying, “Did you know that if you went
there now, you’d be praying on the floor of the Mount at a wall like these
people and not on top of the Temple Mount where you are supposed to
worship God? Both Solomon’s and Herod’s Temples were on the top of the
Mount, not at the bottom. It was on the top of this Mount that all
Israel would come to obtain atonement for their sins and blessings on their
families and crops. But Jews and Christians cannot pray on top today even
though it is their holiest site where both expect a holy Messiah to soon
rule the earth.
Isaiah 58
Blacks in America had problems when they
were required to ride in the back of the bus. That is, until Rosa Parks and
Martin Luther King, Jr. won the victory. To win, they did not need a civil
war or the death of thousands or millions of people.
The weapons of fasting and prayer used by
Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. found in Isaiah, are more powerful
than all the combined weapons of mass destruction on earth today. They won
the victory and liberty for the blacks to sit at a counter, to ride on the
bus, to sleep in any hotel, to work, to study and to live anywhere they have
the ability to do so.
If we refuse to humble ourselves and turn
from our wicked ways, then God will allow us to be taken out in a global
holocaust like Pharaoh and his super-power army were taken out in the Red
Sea. Isaiah gives us a spiritual tool or weapon in fasting and prayer and is
a key to reclaiming the Temple Mount, Jerusalem, Hebron, Judea, Samaria and
all of Eretz Israel.
That formula is this: when you fast for a
day, two or three, it’s not just to win an argument; it’s not just to look
good. There’s nothing wrong in trying to improve your health, but you don’t
really connect with God by secular means. You connect with Him when you fast
and pray to break every yoke and bondage of evil
off your people. He honors that holy purpose. For example, when you
fast for the purpose of breaking the yoke of hatred, murder and war from our
generation, for the clean- sing of the Land, for the regathering and
redemption of the tribes, etc., He will honor these holy purposes. He did it
also for Mordechai, Esther and all the Jewish people from India to Ethiopia.
The map shows the cease fire lines and were Israel’s boundaries 1949-1967.
Immediately north of Tel-Aviv, the State was only 8 miles wide. A delegate
to our God’s Plan for God’s Land Conference, Tom Vandevenne, of Chariton,
Iowa, asked the question: “If the Arabs had succeeded in pushing the Jews
into the sea, would Israel’s land now be called ‘Palestinian occupied’
territory?”
If believers all over the world would take
that example of Isaiah, and of little Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King,
Jr., we’d see results. I love to tell the black people, “You’ve come through
so much, just like the Jewish people. They, too, were 450 years in slavery
and God delivered them for a purpose. He gave them the wealth of Egypt
because God knew they were going to need it later to build the Tabernacle
and Temple where they would receive atonement and redemption.”
Today God is blessing many black people.
Some are the highest paid entertainers and athletes in the world. More are
holding high government positions than ever before. There is a blessing on
them. Max Wein and I have been in many black churches and most have such a
love for God and the Bible. Some of these do not have yet a lot of this
world’s goods, but the Bible says that the poor of this world are rich in
faith. So I say to these, “Do you know that, as God used Israel after her
liberation, He just may use you now to bring His redemption to Israel
and to all nations?” Wouldn’t that be wonderful for God to
raise up the black people to birth Israel’s and the world’s redemption in
this hour?
David’s Word of Knowledge
You know the story about little David when
he faced the Philistine Army while the giant Goliath was breathing threats
and ridicule against Israel. David said he would go fight him. King Saul
said, ‘You’ve got to take my armor.’ Today’s equivalent would be: “You’d
better take these B-1 bombers; these patriot and tomahawk missiles; these
atom or hydrogen bombs; I’ve got to load you up, David, with all our weapons
of mass destruction.”
David refused. He had already experienced
the empowerment of God to slay the lion and the bear. God now gave him a
word of knowledge to pick up five smooth stones. Goliath was vulnerable in
only one spot. With the lazar beam of God’s Spirit guiding the stone from
David’s sling, Goliath was knocked out. Then taking his sword, David cut his
head off and the heads of his four brothers. God never has needed the
majority, only a yielded obedient servant to bring His deliverance for
Israel and the world.
I’m thankful that America has been standing
with Israel, but if America, or Israel’s own arm, is all Israel has
to defend itself, it’s not enough. Israel must have the Spirit of
God: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord of
hosts” (Zech. 4:6). Israel’s need is for this word of knowledge
as David received from God, our true Commander in Chief, in order to bring
Israel’s deliverance today.
Gideon’s Word of Knowledge
Another example was Gideon. Israel was in
another national emergency. They were outnumbered by the thousands, as it is
by billions today, and Gideon wanted to go load up with the equivalent today
of America’s billions of dollars, army, navy and air force, thinking and
yelling, “Oh, I gotta have it.” But God didn’t need man’s “arms”. God gave
Gideon a word of knowledge, to take pitchers and put oil lamps in
them. At the precise moment, they were to blow trumpets while breaking the
pitchers. When the enemy heard the blast of trumpets and saw lights
surrounding them, they fled and died. Gideon and his people enjoyed their
spoils. The wealth of the wicked is coming to the just during this time of
Jacob’s trouble.
LISTEN: it’s better as David said to be a
doorkeeper in the House of God than to dwell in the tents of evil and
wickedness for a season. People are selling out their souls for a little of
the world, the flesh, and the devil. They sell out so cheap! They have no
values. Especially God’s values.
Unfortunately, even
Israel today also wants to be just like everyone else, like all of the other
nations. God doesn’t want a wife who is unfaithful like all the other
nations. He wants a people who are separated Holy unto Him. In the end, He
will have a Holy people and nation.
After the 6-Day War, Sinai was a security belt for Israel. The Air Force
enjoyed the space for training (imagine the small space available now). The
Sinai now belongs to Egypt who allows weapons for terrorists to be smuggled
through tunnels into Gaza (Arafat territory). The map on page 9 resembles
Israel’s borders now.
Personal Trials
In this area, the Lord is talking to all of
us. I’ve been through many trials and tribulations, as you have, wrestling
many problems. Literally, night and day, day and night. Also my friend, Ben
Cohen, in restoring the hotel, is facing many difficulties to an
overwhelming degree. As he related these
struggles to me one day, we concluded that we can not sit here in America
and go about our way willy nilly, unconcerned while Israel’s mothers,
fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, uncles, aunts, and
cousins are being blown into millions of pieces. What happens to Israel is
going to impact us over here.
I dare say that if any one of you could
speak tonight, you would confess that you, too, feel Israel’s pain. There’s
a shaking and something unsettling going on in your life. That’s because the
apple of God’s eye is under attack, and what are we doing about it? What is
our plan of action to see Israel delivered from a nuclear, chemical or
biological holocaust? Will we choose fasting and prayer as Rosa Parks,
Martin Luther King, Jr., Isaiah, Mordechai and Esther – or a Global
Holocaust?
Are we ready to get involved in a spiritual
battle for the liberation of the Temple Mount, Jerusalem, Hebron, Judea and
Samaria? Our government and other governments and heads of state are getting
ready this night to continue parting and dividing the land. We’ve already
angered HaShem by the sin of dividing Judea and Samaria. We must fast, pray
and bombard heaven until God cleanses the Temple Mount, Jerusalem and all
the land up to Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and to the northern half of Saudi
Arabia. We must continue until all of the tribes are free to return to
their God and to the homeland that He gave them as an inheritance
forever.
Heartland Express
Signs are meaningful because God says He
will confirm His Word with miracles, signs and wonders following. As we were
driving here today from the airport I noticed a tractor-trailer with the
words, “Heartland Express”. How many of us have ever gotten our spiritual
ears so close to the heart of God that we know what He loves and what
He hates, and what He is passionate about? Then after hearing
His heart beat, we become just as passionate about all that He is
passionate about?
When we touch His heart, He will awaken all
of the tribes yet scattered among the nations. Some, probably most of them,
don’t even know they’re Abraham’s seed. Some of you sitting here tonight are
more than likely a natural seed of Abraham, as well as a spiritual seed, yet
you do not understand why you have this special love for the land and God’s
people. You are experiencing the awakening of the dry bones mentioned in
Ezekiel 37. Get ready to receive your special Aliyah (invitation) to join
Him soon on the Temple Mount.
If we in Bethany, Missouri can touch the
heart of God tonight, we will get an answer like express lightening from His
heart and throne room. In The Revelation, He says that our prayers go up as
incense into His throne room; then the angel takes these prayers and mixes
them with fire from the altar. Then He hurls the answer down as lightning
and as thunder. At that time the heavenly “heartland express” comes
to all the tribes all over the world. That’s when the awesome
Resurrection, Regathering and Redemption of all the tribes from the nations
shake the heavens and the earth. (Ezekiel 37)
The Biblical Bethany is where Lazarus came
out of the tomb! Wouldn’t it be awesome if every one of us individually and
collectively this weekend could touch the heart of HaShem to the point that
the dry bones of Ezekiel 37 would begin to come out of the tombs of the
nations and return to their home with God in Zion? It can happen. Expect it
every day. (While this was being edited to print, 400 American Jews made
Aliyah to Israel July 7, the largest single group in American history.
Baruch HaShem for such a speedy answer! Many more immigrants are still
needed.)
Resurrection! Restoration! This is God’s
plan for His Land and People! It can happen now in the nations and Israel.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is faithful every Shabbat to keep his
appointment with you as you come to worship Him. All He needs is a minority
of us and He will overthrow the majority.
Closing Prayer
So, Lord, come down on this assembly here in Bethany. Let a spiritual
explosion begin here this weekend that reverberates around the world,
bringing healing, restoration, and redemption to all the tribes of Israel;
the reunification of two houses of Judah and Ephraim, and the redemption of
all the sheep nations aligned with You and Israel and the elimination of all
the goat nations aligned against You and Israel. Lord, accomplish your plans
and purposes in all of our lives, in your holy Name. Amen.
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