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The Jerusalem Prayer List - May 28th, 2011
By Joseph Shulam
The Passover is passed and we are now on the 9th day of the counting of the sheaves (The Omer in Hebrew) we have another forty one days until Pentecost. Every day we count and pronounce the day of the Omer (the counting of the sheaves) and wait for the feast of Shavuot that in Greek is called Pentecost. These fifty days between Passover and Shavuot is a significant time for Jews because it is commanded in the Torah of Moses, and because it brings to memory the biblical times when we were an agricultural society that worked the land and the first harvest time right after Passover was very important. Now that we are mostly an urban society all that is left is the memorial of these old times when we harvested the wheat and the barley and brought the first fruit of our fields and flocks and gardens to the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. The celebration of Shavuot was a very big thing and much joy and worship took place when people got dressed with their finest clothing and marched to the temple in Jerusalem with the baskets of their offerings to the Lord. Each was bringing the best cucumbers from his fields, and the best squash and watermelons, to present to the Lord in His house. The Apostle Paul made a vow near Corinth in the city of Cenchrea (See Acts 18:18) to come to Jerusalem for the Feast of Shavuot (Pentecost) and bring his first fruit to be presented in Jerusalem. Paul's first fruit were seven brothers from Gentile background and the money that he collected from the churches in Asia Minor and Greece to give in Jerusalem. Paul felt very strongly about this mission to bring the money and these seven young Gentile men to Jerusalem and present them together with the money that was brought from his work among the Gentiles. There was a song that was sang in the 1960's in the United States in most Evangelical churches, and sister Frida Lidsey used to sing this song in every meeting:
Must I go, and empty handed thus my dear Redeemer meet?
Not one day of service give Him, lay no trophy at His feet?
Refrain
Must I go, and empty handed?
Must I meet my Savior so?
Not one soul with which to greet Him,
Must I empty handed go?
I suppose that in these days of harvest we should ask ourselves the same question, "Must I go, and empty handed? Must I meet my Savior so?" Our world is changing so much every day. Just yesterday the news was that the Hamas (a jihadist radical muslim terrorist organization recognized as such by the United States, and all of the free countries of the world) made a peace agreement with the Fatah Palestinian provisional government of Mahmud Abass. Just three years ago the two Palestinian organizations were killing each other on the streets of Gaza, and now they are making peace with each other. I suppose that to make peace is always good because if they were split that would mean that we could not really make peace with anyone of them because the other would still be against the peace agreement with Israel. At least now when the Palestinians are united we have one body that we can hold responsible for the shooting of rockets and missile on our southern towns in the northern Negev desert. Please pray for the whole Middle East and please pray for God to enable the miracle of peace to come down from heaven on both Jews and Arabs on Israel and on all of our neighbors. I know that our politicians and their politicians can't do it, but I know from the Bible that God can as He has in the past send years of calm and peace upon us all. We should all pray also that we don't come to God empty handed but always have some first fruits to bring to His altar. The best of the flock if you have any sheep or goats, the best of the fields if you have any corn, barley or wheat, the best of the fruit trees if you have any. But, if you don't have any of these agricultural fruit may be you have some other first fruit to bring Him. He will accept any thing you have to give Him if it comes from your heart and from your sincere best of the best of your soul, each as you have prospered in your hearts.
Please keep praying for the Arab countries and for the State of Israel. The changes that are taking place in the Middle East make our world very uncertain from the world's point of view. From the prophetic point of view we all know what is supposed to happen and we say daily “Maran Ata” - Lord come quickly. Even than we need your prayers and your support because at the time and the day approaches we need to have been prepared and cleansed by Yeshua's love and by His grace ready to meet the King and fall down prostrate before Him. As you can see with modern technology things develop very fast and events that we might have thought would take years are speeded up into days and weeks.
The food distribution program of Netivyah is working again after the holidays and people have been calling our office again anxious to receive these gifts of love from Netivyah. It is really such a privilege that we have to be a part of this good work. I am sure that all of you who have contributed to for the poor of Jerusalem must feel the same way, you must feel good that you are doing what the Apostle Paul commanded the churches in Greece, and Asia Minor in Rome to do in the first century. You are truly participating in a New Testament act of the first quality and in a direct obedience to an Apostolic command. Just see what Paul says in Romans 15:26-27.
I am teaching on Kol HaYeshua Radio a new series on the issue of prayer. This teaching is nothing like the standard teaching that you have heard in so many protestant Evangelical churches in the West. I am going through each prayer in the whole Bible and analyzing it from four different parameters, the occasion of the prayer, the purpose of the prayer, the person who is praying because that according to the New Testament has significant meaning since it says that the “prayer of a righteous person is very valuable,” and the results of the prayer. There is a store-house of wealth in this kind of study and the outcome is very surprising. I hope that a new book on prayer will result from this teaching. One thing is already evident to me and that is that so much of what I have been doing in my prayer life has been so shallow to say the least. My new book “Planted in the house of the Lord: God, Israel, and the church,” is being requested every day from our web page (www.netivyah.org) in all the languages, Hebrew, English, and German. It is as we speak also being translated to Portuguese, Korea, and Japanese. I would very much like to see it translated to Russian, Chinese and Bulgarian. For this I ask you to join me in prayer.
We never forget our sick brothers and sisters in Israel and around the world. We continue to pray for those who are chronically ill and need a touch of God's healing hands: Ruby our dear sister, Paulo who is a young man in Curitiba, Brazil, Ishiida San who is an old man and a surviver of the Russian prison camps of world war two, and Tim Tucker who is a dear friend and a wonderfully dedicated brother in Finland, and for Lynn our dear brother in the USA. We also ask you to pray for those in Israel, our older set of prayer warriors, Ahuva, Leah, Ilana, Sarit, Marcia my wife, Mayrav, David S, and the other David. Also we keep praying for Danah my daughter and Noaam my grand-daughter who need special prayers.
I have a very full agenda of teaching this month and in the month of May. Tomorrow I will be teaching a seminar for a group of young brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. The topic of my teaching will be, “The Apostle Paul's Agenda and World View.” This is so important to dispel the wrong understanding of the Apostles views on God's grace and the Torah and the commandments of God. The churches have inherited a kind of third and forth century and fifteenth century view that is based on a Catholic paradigm that is very damaging and detrimental to both the community of believers world wide and to individuals. It is something that needs revision and re-education, and I pray that God will give me the words and the Holy Spirit to communicate with the younger generation of Israeli believers and teach them the Way of the Lord more perfectly. Next Monday I continue to teach in Haifa our Russian speaking brothers on the book of Acts. Than again teaching a seminar in Jerusalem, than in a Restoration Conference in Italy that will be held near the city of Bologna, Italy.
I will stop this prayer list now and bless you all during these days of the counting of the Omer and wish you all to fill your hands with good deeds and have something significant to bring to the Lord during for the Feast of Shavuot.
God be with all of us and bring us His peace in Yeshua's name,
Joseph Shulam
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