A SHOFAR BLAST THAT GOES ROUND THE WORLD

Subject: Embrace Israel, Prayer Focus, 11 January 1999
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999
From: "[Rivermail]"

The Embrace Israel prayer focus is prepared regularly by Pastor Reuven Doron, director of Embrace Israel Ministries, and provided free of charge to a select group of intercessors around the world.

On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; And give Him no rest until He establishes And makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. [Isaiah 62:6-7 NAS]

PRAYER FOCUS 11 January 1999 PASTOR REUVEN DORON

JUBILEE FOR THE AFFLICTED OF INDIA

Millions of believers around the world are suffering various forms of persecution. Many of them are deeming this year their year of revival and freedom because it is Israel's fiftieth year as a revived state. Some have expressed their desire that Jewish believers, as their elder brothers in the faith, will proclaim and initiate this revival. One such effort is currently taking place in India where the Christians are under persecution. Church leaders from various nations, representing many thousands of believers, are coming together there to sound the Shofar of Jubilee.

All Indian believers trace the origin of their faith back to the Jewish apostle Thomas, who according to ancient tradition, brought the Gospel to India and was martyred on a mountain in Madras. On January 23, Christians and church leaders from throughout India and the world will be coming to that mountain, Mount St. Thomas, under the leadership of a Messianic Jewish Rabbi, Jonathan Cahn.

More than 3,000 delegates and Christian leaders from all of India's 25 states and from every continent will ascend Mount Saint Thomas in Chennai (Madras), India, where the apostle was martyred. The event will commence a three-day mass gathering led by Dr. P.P. Job who will proclaim the Jewish roots of the Indian faith in Yeshua and it's historic link with Israel and the Jewish people. It is purposely being held during Israel's 50th anniversary, the Jubilee Year, and will feature Jonathan Cahn blowing the Jubilee Trumpet, the ram's horn, before hundreds of thousands in Chennai.

The gathering, which comes at a time when anti-Christian activity in India is at a crisis level, will include delegates from Cuba, North Korea, China, Myanmar, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, and other nations in which Christians are suffering persecution. Hundreds of thousands are expected in Chennai for the three-day event during which Dr. Job will proclaim a new era for believers in India and all persecuted believers around the world. Cahn will then blow the Shofar, the ancient ram's horn used in Biblical times to signal the year of Jubilee and proclaim freedom and restoration.

Dr. Job, director of the International Christian Association, is known for conducting mass gatherings throughout Asia and Africa, and is devoted to assisting the persecuted church of all nations. Jonathan Cahn is rabbi of the Beth Israel Messianic Congregation in Garfield, New Jersey, president of Hope of the World, and is devoted to international charity.

As can be expected, there is heavy opposition. Since the planning of the gatherings, persecution and violence against believers in India has reached its worst level ever. A radical Hindu organization is training followers in fire arms, poison, and violence against believers. In the past week alone, eighteen churches were burned down and congregations have canceled prayer services in fear of provoking attacks.

A SHOFAR BLAST THAT GOES ROUND THE WORLD

Those of us who can't go to India to join the event, were, never the less, asked to join it through our prayers. Let us pray in the coming days for Brother Jonathan and his team in India as they proclaim Jubilee to the nations and the downtrodden. Join them in sounding the Jubilee Shofar as part of this worldwide Shofar Blast on January 23 & the three days following, proclaiming freedom to God's people, liberty to captives, and the time of restoration and revival. It will be a Shofar blast that goes around the world.

Here are the crucial times: From January 10th onward, leading up to the Mountain top event on Saturday, January 23, 4:00 PM - 10: PM India time. For the next three days, Sunday through Tuesday, the Shofar will be blown during mass gathering of hundreds of thousands at 9:30 PM India time. India is ten time zones ahead of U.S. Eastern Standard Time.

There is no doubt in my heart that the Lord will bless the humble, faith filled efforts of all who participate in this global event, and that we will see His hand move upon the oppressed nations as a response to the cry of His people. It is right that a Jewish minister is proclaiming the power of God to save and to deliver at this dark hour.

RUTH PRINCE HAS GONE HOME

For the many who prayed with the friends and family of Derek and Ruth Prince, we are saddened to let you know that Ruth went on to be with her Lord on Tuesday, December the 29th, after many weeks of battling lung infection in a Jerusalem hospital. Derek and their daughter Jessica, along with other close friends were by her side, worshipping the Lord with Ruth's favorite Hebrew choruses. Derek is at peace and very appreciative of all the prayers that have been offered on behalf of him and Ruth, yet I would encourage you to continue praying for Derek, his family, and their ministry staff. The loss is great, as one of God's chosen handmaidens has left this earth.

EARLY ELECTIONS IN ISRAEL

The Knesset, the Israeli parliament, voted recently to dissolve itself in favor of early elections on May 17th, bringing an end to the situation in which PM Binyamin Netanyahu has been presiding over an increasingly unworkable and fractious coalition. All the principle players are desperately jockeying for position. There have been many resignations from the right-wing Likud party, and the formation of new parties continues daily. Netanyahu and his Likud Party voted in favor of the motion, conceding that the government could not continue to operate without a stable majority.

The Likud-led coalition has been loosing momentum since Netanyahu negotiated the deal with the Palestinians at the Wye Plantation in Maryland, which was scoffed at by right-wing critics as a "sell-out" to PA chairman Yasser Arafat. PM Netanyahu has since frozen implementation of the Wye Memorandum, suspending a second troop withdrawal which was scheduled for late December, until the Palestinian Authority honors a range of commitments it has yet to fulfill.

As stated in the Jerusalem Post recently, and edited by me, "if our politicians had been alive during the exodus from Egypt, we would still be Pharaoh's slaves. Some would have been busy vying for a more senior position as a leader of the slaves, being unsatisfied to be a nobody among the ranks of the free. Others would be negotiating with Pharaoh for a territorial compromise. Others yet would wait for the results of a national referendum to choose their position. There would be those who would have been in favor of the exodus - but only as far as the Nile, and others who would have been offended altogether and stayed in the land of Goshen for lack of vision. None would have had anything to do with Moses, the well-known extremist who believed God."

Pray with us for a government that can guide Israel through these critical times; a government that will not be held hostage by the ultra-Orthodox parties, nor pass the Anti Messianic law which aims to produce legalized persecution of the believers. The political state of affairs is so fragmented that there is a real possibility that the elections will force the next Prime Minister to put together a weak patchwork of parties that could be worse than what we have now. Israel is running out of natural options in terms of political leadership or military might, and needs a miracle. I believe that, at the conclusion of this Jubilee year, God is about to transfer authority and leadership from the political/secular arena to the body of His saints in the land. The church in the world in general, and in Israel in specific, will have to learn to guide the world through prayer.

BODY UPDATE

Much is happening in the body throughout Israel during this turbulent season. It seems that while the believers are naturally subject to the general oppression, confusion, and hopelessness in Israel, winds of renewal and revival strengthen our hands at the same time. We witness a consistent increase of maturity and numbers in many of the works, the national leadership of the entire body is coming together on genuine, relational, and prayerful basis as never before, and several breakthroughs in the realm of properties are evident.

For many years, none of the fellowships in Israel owned their own property, but rather were functioning out of insufficient rental facilities while being subject to the whims of secular or anti-Messianic landlords. Consequently, much prayer has been lifted up for breakthrough in both land and building ownership during the year of Jubilee, which is supposed to herald the return of properties to their rightful owners.

In recent weeks, two new facilities were dedicated, one in Tel Aviv and one in the North. Both are great testimonies of how God is moving in unprecedented ways in Israel, preparing the body for the harvest to come. At the same time, just a few weeks ago the Messianic congregation in
Be-er sheva in the South was assaulted by a mob of Orthodox Jews. It required an extended effort by the police to safely get the worshippers out of the besieged congregational meeting hall.

Soon after that, one thousand Orthodox Jewish zealots in Be-er sheva held a meeting to try and figure out how to deal with the Messianic Jewish believers. This is symptomatic of the intensifying relationships between the Rabbinical and Messianic streams in Israel, and typical of the winds of violence and aggression which blow all over the region. Pray with us for protection over the brethren in Israel, for wisdom as to how to conduct themselves facing fierce opposition, and for courage and grace to capture the moment and bring in the harvest. Much publicity has surrounded these events, and the public is curious, open, and very aware of the real contrast between the spirit of religion and the Spirit of the Lord.

A PROPHETIC WORD

Lance Lambert, a respected, beloved, and faithful man of God, released this word recently. I bring it to you for prayer and discernment.

"My anger is stirred up," says the Lord, "against the nations for they are dividing My land and seeking to destroy My heritage. My furious anger is like a boiling cauldron against those powerful states that have produced such strategies and who, by pressure and manipulation, are seeking to implement them. Now I will become their enemy," says the Lord, "and I will judge them with natural disasters, by physical catastrophes, by fire, by flood, by earthquake, and by eruptions."

"I will touch the seas, and the atmosphere, the earth, and all that is within them. Moreover, I will touch them where it will hurt them the most, for I will touch their power and the foundations of their affluence and prosperity. I will smash their prosperous economies," says the Lord. "And I will overturn and overturn that they may know that I am the Lord. They sit like potentates, so safe, so secure, believing in their own cleverness and wisdom and power, but I, the Lord, I will cause them to stumble. I will lead them into confusion and disorder. I will blind them and delude them so that they will make mistakes because they have not regarded Me, nor honored Me, but rather they have devalued Me, deriding My Word and ignoring My Covenants."

"For too long have I been quiet," says the Lord, "but now will I arise in overflowing anger and fury. In dividing My land (Israel) and seeking to demoralize and destroy My people Israel, they have thrown down the gauntlet. I the Lord of Hosts, the Almighty One, I will take them on. Therefore you who know Me, whom I have redeemed and saved at such cost, who seek to serve Me, and to stand before Me in the place of Intercession, learn to abide in Me."

"Do not fear, but trust in Me for I will be your strength. Beware of uncommanded work, that you may not uncover yourselves and become casualties. For all that which I command you to do, there is grace and power and wisdom and you will be fully covered."

"Do not fear," says the Lord, "for I am in charge, and I will fulfill all My purpose. Out of this turmoil, I will bring a saved multitude beyond number from amongst the nations. And I will bring the Wife, the Bride of the Lamb, using the pressures, the afflictions and the turmoil, to purify and to refine her, if only in a faithful remnant."

"And in the midst of all this shaking, in the very eye of the storm, I will save Israel. For I will open her blinded eyes, and her closed mind, and her locked heart, and she will recognize her Messiah, her Lord and her Savior. Tenderly and with unfailing love will I lead Israel. She who is bespattered with blood, persecuted and hated, I the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, will bring out of this turmoil, redeemed and with glory."

"Therefore in love, fear Me," says the Lord, "your Savior and your Deliverer, and learn to wait on Me and wait for Me. To such I will look, to those who have laid down their lives for My sake, who have humbled themselves before Me, to them will I open My heart, and reveal My mind and give understanding. For those that wait for Me shall never be confounded nor ashamed. But the self-centered, the self-serving and the self contained, those who are proud and superior, they will be broken," says the Lord."

"Put your trust in Me alone. Let Me be your all and you will come through this time with treasure, for I will be your Eternal and unfading treasure." End of prophecy.

RAIN IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Israel is by this time at the danger level of the seasonal water supply due to very short rainfall. The lake of Galilee, our national water reservoir, is at an all time low, and both Jewish and Arab residents of the land will soon feel the shortage unless the Lord opens the heavens. Pray with us that God will have mercy and bless His land and His people with the seasonal rains upon which the nation depends for its very life, and that all the peoples will give Him the glory. Pray for God's people in the land to cry out to Him in earnest faith and humble hearts.

Thank you friends, for standing firm in prayer and praise to God on behalf of all His great and precious promises to His people Israel. I pray His faithful and mighty hand to guide and guard you, too, as you continue on the path He destined for your life. May you be blessed beyond measure in the new year, and may His name be glorified in you.

In the Messiah's love, PASTOR REUVEN DORON

Embrace Israel Ministries PO Box 10077 Cedar Rapids, IA 52410-0077 USA Voice: (319) 393-1096 Fax: (319) 393-2912 Prayer Fax-On-Demand: (319) 626-1177 E-Mail: mailbox@embraceisrael.org Internet site: www.embraceisrael.org

SPECIAL PRAYER INITIATIVE We are asking intercessors to join in a special prayer initiative: "One Million Hours of Prayer for Israel." Please contact Liz Rhodes and request your prayer card today. You may contact Liz directly via e-mail at EchadMnsty@aol.com Please include your name, address, and phone number in your request.

GIVING If you would like to have an opportunity to give financially to the work of God through Embrace Israel Ministries, contact our office or send your tax deductible contribution in US funds to our mailing address as indicated above. Please include your name, mailing address and phone number with all correspondence. Thank you!

COPYRIGHT NOTICE Duplication and re-transmission of this writing is permitted provided that complete source and contact information for Embrace Israel Ministries is included.