Month: December 2016

So what do our wounds have to do with Israel?

One of the main words in Hebrew translated as “wound” is derived from the root PGA (פגע). Another Hebrew word derived from this root is intercession (הפגעה). I know there is no semantic connection in English, but the Hebrew makes it clear and inspiring!

I intercede best for people who are wounded in a similar manner to my past wounds, under one condition: that I allow God to touch that wound and heal it. If I don’t, if my wound keeps bleeding and I choose to sulk in it or wait passively for someone else to do something, I only end up wounding others. Only when I allow His blood to soothe my bleeding (mostly through repentance and forgiveness), I can efficiently stand between Him and a wounded person, a wounded group, even a wounded nation.

Do you see your wounds as a calling for intercession? 

Are you allowing God to touch your wounds with His blood? Or do you continue to bleed and thus wound others? Do you realize your wounds and suffering are God’s way to train you, so that you can stand in the gap between Him and others who suffer but do not approach Him?

If Israel is on your heart, if you committed much of your walk with God to stand with her, it is crucial that you understand how your wounds should be woven into your intercession on our behalf. Without it, you won’t be able to be a real Ruth in any area of your life that still bleeds.

You may be hurting for a lost child. If so, every time you pray for this beloved child, please remember the lost children of Israel. Tap into God’s pain in that area, fellowship with Him by getting to know His heart concerning this wound, look for specific promises in His Word that claim the restoration of this kind of wound, and start shooting these promises as arrows towards the target. You see, in Hebrew, shooting darts towards the target is also derived from the same root – PGA.

The Lord may have written your life story with plenty of arrows in your quiver. You may feel handicapped and unable to stand in the gap, while the truth is that you are called to shoot God’s Word towards the target so that you can get healed, not after.

And maybe your wound is a chronic depression or a broken marriage, or a long battle with addiction. Do you focus on your suffering, or can you allow God to show you how He suffers in a similar way because of what is happening to His nation?

Is your wound a result of injustice inflicted upon you? Than use it as a point of reference in your prayers for the corruption and oppression taking place in Israel, and the injustice inflicted upon us by the UN and the nations. Take God’s promises to establish righteousness in the Land, and shoot it as arrows on your behalf and on ours. This is how your wound – PGiAh, will become an arrow that hits (PoGeA) the target and intercedes (maPhGiA) for Israel.

Those Who Bless the Seed of Abraham Will Be Blessed

Yes, true. But blessed how? Does it mean constant abundance? Zero struggles? And what if the kind of blessing God chose for you is to fellowship with that part in His heart that aches for Israel? That invests in her and pours love on her, just to be ignored and rejected? Will you still consider it a blessing?

Orpah and Ruth started the same journey with Naomi, assisting her on her road back home and to her God. But somewhere down the road Orpah (means “neck”) goes back to her comfort zone and out of the story. Ruth (meaning “friendship”) chooses to stay. Her amazing statement of faithfulness (Ruth 1:16-17) says among other things: “I am behind you and alongside you, to let you determine the pace and direction”.

What touches me most is Ruth’s request: “Entreat me not to leave you…” An inaccurate translation, I must say. The Hebrew is so rich here, as Ruth actually begs Naomi: “Do not wound (tiPhGAee) me to leave you…”

Has one of your wounds been caused by Israel. If so, will you please share it with me, as I would like to hear it and ask you to forgive us for being so ignorant. Many Gentiles love us, and are even willing to die for us, but our nation rejects them or ignores their investment in us or misuses it. If this is your case, may I ask you: how did you deal with this wound? Are you able to repeat Ruth’s words and stay with us even though we wound you to the point we make you want to leave?

Please realize that in many ways we treat God the same way we treat those who love us. We may be aware of the fact that He is in the story, just like Naomi knew Boaz, the one who can redeem her, is in town. But like her – we may not want any direct relationship with Him since He had inflicted so much suffering upon us.

Many lovers of Israel have experienced that kind of rejection. They wanted us to enjoy the programs that work for them, to move forward in their pace, to adopt their terminology, but in the long run – it did not work, and down the road it gave birth to much disappointment on both sides.

If This is Your Case, Let Me Ask You…

Is it Israel that you love, or the God of Israel? Sounds the same, but it’s not. If your eyes are fixed on Israel, if you are fascinated with our wits, brains, victories, culture – we will disappoint you somewhere down the road. And you may even get tired of us. However, if it is the God of Israel you set your eyes upon, than our slow pace and low numbers in salvation and miracles taking place, as well as the fact that all the programs you may have tried to bring here don’t really work as they do in your culture – will not break your heart neither cause you to distance from us. To the contrary, it will urge you to get faster into God’s bosom, in order to figure out how He sees it and how He wants you to fellowship with Him in that wound.

Will You?

Will you allow God to enrich your prayers for Israel by looking at your bleeding spots as a calling for intercession?

 

Does God suffer? I was thinking a lot about it during my recent tour in the US. The answer did not come immediately. But eventually I knew: yes, He does.

The sinfulness of the human race surely inflicts suffering upon Him and doesn’t make Him happy. And the way evil people treat the righteous and persecute His faithful ones also arouses His wrath.

But what about us, His children? Do we cause Him to suffer?

I can easily make a list of that which inflicts suffering upon me. When people speak against me behind my back, I am not happy about it. When someone rejects my friendship or offer of help, I feel sad. When a person I invested much counselling and prayer into their lives, chooses a superficial path and does not allow God to touch him or her in a real way, that truly quenches my soul.

When I minister to a non-believer, or even to a new believer, I have zero expectations where their morality and maturity are concerned. I almost expect the worse and get excited over every little insight they acquire. But when I pour my time and resources into someone else’s life, walk with them as they taste of the divine and live in it, but then see how they choose to chase an unnecessary rabbit trail and gradually become satisfied with complacency in the matters of God – that does not bring happiness into my soul.

Does it break God′s heart? Well, He speaks strongly to Israel about giving up the riches He offered her for the colorful and sensual shallowness that the gods of the land offered. It broke His heart, ignited His wrath and eventually caused Him to hand some of His authority over to torturers. And boy, were we tortured throughout centuries.

Where are you when it comes to the best God has revealed to you? Did it become a part of your lifestyle and routine, or only a story you share? What hurts and inflicts suffering upon you? And what do you do when you face a hardship? Have your struggles and unanswered prayers hardened your heart towards God? Do you stuff yourself with chocolate (my favorite “solution”), indulge in other forms of addiction to numb the pain, run to someone to gossip or maybe shut in and detach yourself from others?

Where is God when you hurt? And why do you think He even allows it? Why doesn’t He put an end to our pain? Come to think of it: why doesn’t He put an end to His own pain and suffering? After all, unlike us, He can be done with it in no time, yet He chooses to continue to suffer, and it does not harden His heart or change His love towards us.

I think there is an aspect to suffering that we can’t fully grasp from this side of heaven. Most of us look at it as something that needs to be dealt with, a punishment or a proof that God is hiding Himself from us because of some misbehavior. Is it? Does suffering look the same from His angle as it does from ours?

No, it Doesn’t

Suffering apparently achieves something that can not be accomplished without it. Among other things, it teaches us to obey. After all, there was some form of obedience that even Yeshua Himself could learn only through suffering (Heb. 5:8). This verse is so powerful and strange. Why did He have to learn to obey? Was He disobedient prior to it? Obviously not.

Hebrews 2:10 adds to that: “For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.”

Here it is again: suffering leads to perfection. It is a tool that we underestimate, do not fully understand, and thus – neglect to treat in the proper manner.

Back to Our Wounds

Which wound or hardship brings much discomfort into your life? Can you see God’s hand behind it, pulling the strings, or are you praying that He will remove this from your life?

The discomfort or hardship you are going through right now might be His way to deliver a message that you did not heed while He tried to get your attention in a more tender manner. Because of His unfathomable love, He never gives up on perfecting us. When we turn a deaf ear and focus on removing suffering from our lives versus allowing it to mold us, raises up the volume of His knocks (Rev. 3:19-20).

Will you open? Or will you inflict more suffering upon the lover of your soul and prolong yours?

What does all that have to do with Israel? Mmm… wait for part two of this post.

 

5 days;

2,500 fire fighters;

1,773 fires throughout the country, 39 of which required more than 10 separate teams working in unison to fight the flames;

It is suspected that 25 out of 39 severe fires were started by arsonists, so dozens of suspects are now under investigation;

Hundreds of houses burnt to the ground;

Tens of thousands of people evacuated from their homes;

About 180 people hurt and hospitalized, two of which were in serious condition and one in moderate;

The city of Haifa (up north) has sustained the most significant damage: 527 homes completely burnt to ashes in this city alone;

The cost to private citizens and the government will probably exceed $1 billion;

Over 5,000 acres of land burned;

Full restoration can take nearly 30 years –

But above all – One God, who was not caught by surprise, and who has a specific plan for this nation, that will eventually reveal how even this new form of terror will serve His higher good.

Some Additional Details

Some of the fires burnt in extremely densely populated areas such as Haifa, where there is a vast array of dangerous material industries. Thank God, there were no leaks or damages to those plants, but the air there was extremely polluted, in part also due to the fire retardant materials that have showered the city from above for two consecutive days.

But the diligence and professionalism of the firefighters, combined with the extraordinary cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian authority, vast searches to find the arsonists and a clear declaration by Prime Minister Netanyahu that whoever is found guilty will be dealt with harshly, have all led to a lull.

As of now, we are having a rainy weekend, a blessed shower of water all over the country. It clears the air, fills up the water reserves and helps us all breathe better and stop scratching our skin. With nearly 10% humidity in the air for long days, most Israelis were walking around with dry lips and irritated skin.

Please keep your prayers coming. As people are going back to their homes and discover the vastness of the loss, the trauma they face can become a crossroad: will they look to the mountains and wonder where their help will come from, or lift their eyes up higher, to God, the maker of heaven and earth, who will not allow their footing to slip or be moved?

Our nation has seen God march before us in a pillar of smoke and fire, using that same pillar to separate us from those who seek to destroy us. We can pray that the pillars of smoke and fire, and the ashes and the destruction they left behind will soften hearts and cause us to recognize His mighty and outstretched Arm.

(Images taken from ynet.co.il)

In my recent visit to the US, I shared a new insight God has given me in regards to suffering – the meaning of the word PGA – translated in English into hurt, suffering, hitting the mark and also intercession.

So many of you commented about understanding what we are going through in light of the fires raging in various parts of America as well. This is a perfect example of being able to stand in the gap based on personal knowledge and experience. I will share more about this in my next post.

In the meantime, here is a link to my youtube teaching about the subject of the connection between wounds and intercession.