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The Jerusalem Prayer List – February 23, 2011
by Joseph Shulam – from Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Well after traveling and teaching three weeks in the United States I am ready to go home. Our World is changing and change is not always for the good and especially not always good for God's people. We have seen people using “change” as a slogan, and many assumed that this change will be for good, but now we see that not every change is a good change. The changing of our world is breaking down whole societies and government and cultures in a scale that history has not known since the French Revolution in the 19th century. It was not hard to predict that what happened in Tunisia a month ago will spread to other Arab countries because Tunisia was one of the more tolerant Arab countries in the world and in comparison to other Arab countries it was more liberal. From Tunisia this Islamo/Arab revolution is spreading to Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria, and Libya, and it will probably continue to spread. In Libya, if the centralized government and Gaddafi fall, the country will revert back to the tribal Lords and a kind of feudal form of fiefdoms that we know from the Middle Ages in Europe. This might happen to other Arab countries that will bring down their centralized governments. The sad thing is that with these changes in the Arab world there is also a deterioration of support and respect for the West because in the Arab world the West is seen as having a duplicitous role in what is happening in this Islamo/Arab revolution. Among the changes that this revolution will bring to the world will be a major economic change precipitated by the raise in oil prices. All these events are a very serious cause for the Saints around the world to rally and lift up their voices to God in prayer. We need to pray for the Christians and Jews who are living in Libya, and in other Arab countries that are going through this revolution. We need to actually pray for the people in these countries and ask God to keep the bloodshed down and not allow the sin of the leaders to damage the people. We need to pray for God to raise up sane and moral and concerned leadership in these Arab countries, leadership that will be wise and seek to make people with Israel and to give freedom of the press and speech to their citizens. These prayers are very important because we are commanded by Yeshua to pray for our enemies and when we do so we must pray for God to give them what is good for their people and for all mankind.
From Israel's point of view what is happening in these Arab countries is a kind of mixed bag, because on the one hand all talk of peace and compromise over issues like dividing Jerusalem and stopping the building of settlements are pushed aside for a season. Also from Israel's point of view the disarray in the Arab world is a temporary opportunity to deal with regional problems closer to our home, like to deal with the problems of rockets from Gaza, and insurgency from both Gaza and the West Bank. Israel is not happy with what is happening in the Arab world because of the very big potential that more militant Islamic Jihadist forces will take power in these countries and the whole “peace process” will fall apart. This too needs your prayers for Israel's sake.
I would like for you to start a prayer program that I call, “For Jerusalem's Sake!” This is going to be a program complimentary to the “Road to Jerusalem” movement in the Far East. The idea for this program comes from the prophet Isaiah. The words come from Isaiah 62:1, “For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, And her salvation as a lamp that burns.” Here are the details of this program:
1. Every day pray for the salvation of Jerusalem. Please don’t be quiet keep knocking on God's door and ask for the salvation of Israel and Jerusalem.
2. Every day invest something for Jerusalem’s salvation. This means that you need a box or a jar and every day you put some money or something valuable in this box of jar for Jerusalem. What you put in this box or jar can be money or any valuable thing. Why should you do this? The reason is simple God has wonderful promises for Jerusalem and for Israel's salvation and when that hour or day of Jerusalem's salvation comes around you don't want to be caught with nothing to give.
3. You want to show God that your prayers for Jerusalem are serious enough that you are willing to invest for Jerusalem salvation according to the words of Isaiah the prophet.
I will tell you what some brothers and sisters in South Korea did last year. One very old sister come up front in one of the church services in Seoul, Korea, and after I spoke about the necessity to expand our building in Jerusalem and after I said that we will need 1.5 million dollars, this woman said that if 1500 people would give 1000 dollars each the money needed will be received. She was the first to give 1000 dollars US, and after that more people followed. So, we are going to have the Supreme Court of Israel hearing our case in the end of March. We are asking for a Purim miracle for Netivyah. We don't want more than just our basic civil rights to be considered as equal citizens in Israel and to be given the license to build and remodel our building without religious prejudice and discrimination on the basis of our ideas and views of the Messiah. Right after our day in court on March 28th, 2011, we will need to start building immediately. For this we will need the money. So, please start putting even a little for Jerusalem's sake and don't stop there, keep praying and calling upon God and among God's children to fulfill the words of Isaiah in chapter 62 and keep speaking salvation for Jerusalem. Salvation for Jerusalem does not only mean for the people of Jerusalem to receive Yeshua as the Messiah, but it is also salvation from Jerusalem's enemies, and from the oppression of our whole Middle East problem and have peace.
Please lift in your prayers the new program and system for the Food Distribution program, and especially Kol HaYeshua Radio broadcasts and the publication of the new book and the health of our staff in the office.
Please keep praying for the sick people that you know and also for those in Jerusalem and Finland and Brazil, and the United States. Ruby, Paulo, Liora, Ahuva, Sarit, Marcia, Danah, Lea, Ilana, David S., and David K., Meyrav from Jerusalem, and Tania, Ishiida San, and for H.E. Saunders, and June Saunders – Marcia's father and mother.
Yuda is on his way to Brazil to minister to our brothers and sisters, and Barry my son will be going there next week. They are both very good teachers and they need God's blessings and protection in all things. Please lift these two young men in your prayers and also lift the ministry in Brazil and especially the conference in Belo-Horizonte next week. Lift our brothers Marcelo, Matheus, and their families and also Jair, and Don, and Gilberto, and Gustavo, and Eduardo, and all the other dear brothers in Brazil who are going to minister during this conference because it is now time for a major revival and breakthrough to come to our brothers in Brazil. The Jewish Community in Brazil needs the spirit of God much more than the spirit of the Carnival.
Well, pray for Marcia and I, we are going to fly home this evening and we look forward to worship with our congregation in Jerusalem this next Shabbat.
Blessings to all of you,
Joseph Shulam
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