Beyond The Basics

So it’s been a couple weeks since I’ve made a blog post. Podcasting takes up a lot of time. Who knew?

I do want to take a few minutes and promote something I’ll be participating in with other believers locally and around the world in the month of May. Starting on May 7th, people around the world will be joining together to fast and pray for Israel for 21 days straight.

Prayer will be concentrated in hubs around the world where people can gather and pray together although there will be people praying all over the place. If you’re interested in joining in this fast but don’t have a hub near you, don’t worry! You can pray wherever you are, and you can even get other people around you to join you in prayer.

So why should we even pray for Israel in the first place? My assumption, based on experience, is that most western Christians don’t think about Israel much except on the rare occasions we read the Old Testament or the even rarer occasions we hear teaching about the end-times. If you’ve never considered praying for Israel before, here is a list of reasons why we should pray for them that I just came up with off the top of my head right now and is therefore most definitely not comprehensive:

1. Those who bless Israel are blessed (Genesis 12:3). God promised Abraham that those who blessed him and his offspring would be blessed but those who dishonored him would be cursed. We want to make sure that we are blessing Israel, Abraham’s offspring, because God will bless us in return. God blesses those who care about what He cares about.
2. Israel is still God’s chosen people (Psalm 105:8-10). Israel has forsaken God but God has not forsaken Israel. God’s promises to Israel are eternal and cannot be broken. We pray for Israel because we desire for them to return to their God and to Jesus their Messiah so they can once again enter into the everlasting inheritance promised to them.
3. We are participating in God’s prophetic promises to Israel (Isaiah 62:6-7). God promised to raise up intercessors who would keep watch for Israel day and night until Jerusalem becomes a praise in the earth. When we intercede for Israel we get to participate in God’s redemptive story for His people.
4. It is the job of the Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy (Romans 11:11). Jesus is a Jewish man who came to the Jewish people as a Jewish Messiah. When Gentile Christians pray to Israel’s God through the name of Israel’s Messiah it should make them jealous that we are receiving their inheritance.
5. The entire nation of Israel will one day be saved (Romans 11:26). Israel will one day recognize Jesus as their Messiah and the whole nation will repent and turn to Him. We can pray now in order to hasten that day.

If you would like to join in this fast, go to www.isaiah62fast.com and find out more information there. You can find a hub near you as well as watch videos, read articles and even download a couple books. Here in St. Petersburg, the local hub will be at Zion House of Prayer so if you’re in the area, please join us.

In the meantime, please be praying about how the Lord would have you participate. There are many different ways you can fast, and if you are unable to fast like my pregnant wife, please pray about other things that you can remove from your day to create time to pray. The Lord will honor whatever you do!