Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
Each time we meet with Arab Christian leaders, whether locally here in Israel or in the context of global gathering, there are new levels of revelation about God's destiny for Arabs and Jews.
At the recent gathering in Jerusalem, one of the Arab pastors pointed out there were only four people in the Bible who were given names before their birth: Ishmael, Isaac, John the Baptist and Yeshua.
He saw a parallel between Isaac and Yeshua and therefore, a parallel between Ishmael and John the Baptist. In other words, the destiny of the Arab Christian community was to pave the way for end-times revival, the Messianic remnant in Israel and the Second Coming, in a similar way to which John prepared the way for Yeshua's first coming.
Focusing on the Positive
There were many sins and mistakes in the personal biographies of our forefathers, including Hagar and Ishmael along with Abraham and Sarah. Despite these sins and mistakes, God still has a destiny for the Jewish people and also for the Arabs. We have a great challenge to look past the negative histories of our peoples in order to find God's positive destiny for each.
Even the thought that the Arab peoples have a positive destiny is scandalous to some of us as Jews; perhaps in a similar way that the destiny of the Jewish people is scandalous to some Christians and Arabs. The destiny of Ishmael and the Arab peoples is connected to the Jewish people because of the Messianic covenant that came through Isaac. Messianic Jews and Arab Christians need one another.
Predestined Plan
Ishmael was circumcised into the Abrahamic covenant even before Isaac was born. God promised to bless him and named him before his birth because He had a predestined plan for him. One Egyptian pastor shared with me that Ishmael (and therefore the Arab peoples today) was destined to be Isaac's protective "big brother." Ishmael was strong, warrior-like and prosperous.
Today's Arab Christian leaders are beginning to see a divine calling to help the Messianic Jewish community in Israel and to recognize God's covenant purpose for the nation of Israel. Let us remember that in every nation, God's destiny is not found in the unbelieving majority but in the believing minority. This is true for Europe, for Asia, for America, for Africa, for the Arabs and the Jews.
The Arab peoples have a positive destiny that was foreordained by God. That destiny is not found in Islamic extremism or politics, but in the Christian Arab community, the born-again, Spirit-filled, Bible-believing remnant found in each nation. We are in covenant with them through our mutual faith in Yeshua, and we believe they will stand with us and our nation in the difficult times ahead.
Asher Intrateris the founder and apostolic leader of Revive Israel Ministries and oversees Ahavat Yeshua Congregation in Jerusalem and Tiferet Yeshua Congregation in Tel Aviv. Asher was one of the founders of Tikkun International with Dan Juster and Eitan Shishkoff and serves on the board of the Messianic Alliance of Israel and Aglow International. He and his wife and full-time partner in ministry, Betty, have a passion for personal prayer and devotion, local evangelism and discipleship in Hebrew and unity of the body of believers worldwide.
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More Prophetic Words Connecting the Bible to Secular Israeli Leaders
Last week, I began sharing some prophetic keys I have learned from studying Jewish history, Rabbinic thought and current events here in Israel. Here are the rest:
1. Reading the Prophets. David Ben-Gurion, visionary and leader of Modern Zionism, read the Bible, particularly the prophets. He held Bible studies weekly in his home. He taught the Bible, but he made this mistake: He interpreted the Bible through a Communist viewpoint, as a kind of a socialist work. However, he was right to encourage the reading of the prophets, and to not just read the Bible, but try to live it. I believe that because he took inspiration from the Scriptures about restoring the nation of Israel, God chose him to be the first Prime Minister of Israel.
2. Pre-government Preparation. During the time of the British Mandate, prior to the establishment of the State of Israel, Ben-Gurion also realized that one day we were going to have a government, but we weren't ready yet. We needed to build an organization that could function like a government so that we'd be ready to have a nation when the time came. He set up an organization called the "Histadrut," and it began to function like a government until it later became one.
I believe that is a prophetic word for the church. The Ekklesia is supposed to be two things, not just the people who have been gathered out of the nations to become the body of Christ, but the word Ekklesia also means the governing body or coalition. As believers, we are here not just to run the church but act as our own "Histadrut" or pre-government. We are being prepared now to run Yeshua's government when He returns.
That's why we believe in apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, in elders and deacons, and in the structure of the church, because we are in training. A government isn't run by one person, but by a whole group of people. That's what discipleship is all about; getting ready to run one of the positions of His government.
3. Military Preparation. Ben-Gurion also knew that when we declared the new State of Israel, within 24 hours every nation in the Middle East was going to attack us. We were not ready. We didn't have any weapons or soldiers. We didn't know how to fight. So he turned over all of his other functions, held a training seminar, and formed a military in a year and a half.
I believe this is a prophetic word coming out of the body of Messiah in Israel. We are heading towards the greatest war in the history of mankind. We are moving into a period where all the nations of the world are going to attack Israel, Christians, and do everything they can to stop the second coming of Yeshua. I'm not saying you have to start to learn to shoot, but we do need to learn to pray and to prophesy, to understand the Scriptures and declare the Word of God.
4. Confrontation of the Nations. Binyamin Netanyahu, our Prime Minister, goes to the United Nations and confronts them, unlike any other world leader I've seen. He tells the U.N. they are making decisions against the land and people of Israel, even though we have a mandate from God to be here. He quotes the Bible and he rebukes them for immorality and humanistic thinking, boldly confronting the nations of this world.
There is something about the nation of Israel and its very existence that is in confrontation with the U.N. I believe we are going to begin to confront the nations of the world with the truth of God. This is one aspect of Israel's calling, and now that the body of Messiah is connected to Israel, we have a prophetic message to give to the world.
5. Exposing Radical Islam. More than any other world leader today, Netanyahu understands that radical Islamic terrorism is the worst evil this world has ever seen, and we need to fight it. People are being murdered at an unprecedented rate and nobody is really fighting it other than Israel. There is an alignment coming out of the nation of Israel, and you have the choice either to succumb to radical Islam or to fight against it.
The church doesn't necessarily need to take up weapons. But it needs to be able to speak the truth and call it what it is: a murderous, Antichrist spirit. When you send people all over the world to murder everyone who disagrees with you, you are breaking the Ten Commandments. That cannot be the God of Israel and we need to actively oppose it.
6. Establishment of the Throne of David. In Hebrew, there is no word for prime minister. Instead, he is the head of the government of Israel. Do you remember all the prophecies about Yeshua when He was born? He would sit on the throne of David and rule over the tribes of Jacob. When Yeshua comes back, He will sit on David's throne and rule the world from David's throne forever.
What is a throne? A throne is a chair. The prime minister has a chair that represents the government of Israel, the authority of David being restored in the land of Israel. Right now, Netanyahu as the prime minister of Israel sits in that chair. I'm not saying Netanyahu is the Messiah. I'm not even saying he's born again. But positionally, structurally, authoritatively he sits in the position of the throne of David.
We believe in a literal fulfillment of the prophecies of the kingdom of God coming on Earth. But until there was modern Israel and a government in Israel, how could you believe these prophecies? For 2,000 years much of the church did not really believe in the second coming, but instead in the second appearance. They believed that Yeshua is going to appear, come half way down, rapture away His bride, and then leave again! But the Bible says He comes back once—all the way back to the Mount of Olives! The fact that we have a nation here with a government, and its capital in Jerusalem, Yeshua can now is return and reign over the Earth from Jerusalem.
7. Physically Inheriting the Land. Lastly, one of the things that the head of the Israeli government does is to guarantee that we can live here and settle in the land: that we have the right establish homes, build farms, have an economy and raise our children. It is amazing how much this idea is hated by so many around the world.
Does the Bible say that when Yeshua comes back the saints will inherit the Earth (Matt. 5:5)? The way God promises that His kingdom will come to this Earth is through promising it to the Jewish people, in the land of Israel. If it doesn't happen here, it can't happen on the rest of the earth. However, the fact that Jewish people are living here is a sure sign that Yeshua is coming and we will inherit the Earth.
The majority of Christians have misbelieved for the last 2,000 years that we will live for eternity in heaven, leaving the Earth to the Antichrist, without a physical resurrection. That's all wrong teaching. But if the Jewish people never come back to the land of Israel, then that would probably be true. The covenant rights of the Jewish people to live in Israel guarantee the rights of Christians to inherit their own land and nation.
Asher Intrateris the founder and apostolic leader of Revive Israel Ministries, and oversees Ahavat Yeshua Congregation in Jerusalem, and Tiferet Yeshua Congregation in Tel Aviv. Asher was one of the founders of Tikkun International with Dan Juster and Eitan Shishkoff, and serves on the board of the Messianic Alliance of Israel and Aglow International. Together with his wife and full-time partner in ministry, Betty, they have a passion for personal prayer and devotion, local evangelism and discipleship in Hebrew, and unity of the body of believers worldwide.
3 Reasons Why you should read Life in the Spirit. 1) Get to know the Holy Spirit. 2) Learn to enter God's presence 3) Hear God's voice clearly! Go deeper!
Has God called you to be a leader? Ministry Today magazine is the source that Christian leaders who want to serve with passion and purpose turn to. Subscribe now and receive a free leadership book.
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In the 1980s, there were a series of meetings between Arab Christians and Messianic Jews to express our unity as believers in Yeshua. In the 1990s, after the First Intifada and Gulf War (1991), Arab Christians and Messianic Jews in Israel began to deal with some more difficult issues in the light of political crises.
By 1995 some of the Arab Christians began to express their identity as "Palestinians," including their opposition to Israeli policy. Some of that identification led to more sensitive communication on the part of the Messianic Jews toward the Arab Christians; yet at the same time, it brought some difficult polarization on political and prophetic issues.
Reconciliation Should Lead to Cooperation
In the early 2000s, after many years of reconciliation conferences, some of us began to search for a better approach. We asked the question, "What happens after reconciliation?" After all, we are already reconciled by our faith in Yeshua. We realized that the next stage after reconciliation is cooperation.
After much prayer, we discerned that the first area of cooperation should be Muslim evangelism. We sought to support Arab Christians who were involved in evangelism to Muslims (and were doing so at great risk to their lives). These include many unknown and secret evangelists. They are heroes in our eyes.
In recent years, we have been entering a new depth in our relationships. Jerusalem Pastor Bassam Adranly has become a key leader here in Israel. David Demian, Egyptian-born Canadian leader of the Global Gathering movement, spent much of the last decade traveling throughout Chinese world, gathering a large number of Chinese Christians to pray for reconciliation between the "sons of Isaac" and the "sons of Ishmael."
As David brought many Arab and Chinese Christians, so did Marcel Rebai, who has spent many years in the Messianic community in Israel, help gather both European and Arab leaders. He has uniquely been a link of reconciliation between all three communities. With this emphasis on reconciliation, along with the prophetic praise and worship style of the Global Gathering conferences, I believe that we are entering a new era for relationship, worship, dialogue and cooperation between Arab/Middle Eastern Christians and Messianic Jews.
During one of the meetings in preparation for the 822 Conference in Jerusalem in November 2014, our brother Majdi (Egyptian pastor based in Jerusalem) expressed with tears, humility and courage, his desire as an Arab Christian to be symbolically "married" as a bride to us Messianic Jews as the bridegroom figure.
Majdi's proclamation brought an opening in the Spirit. I came forward as a representative Jewish believer. We embraced and cried together. At that point we Jewish believers began to confess our sins in a deep way, recognizing our pride today, and all the way back to the rejection of Yeshua 2,000 years ago. At that moment, it was as if a spiritual bomb went off in the room. David screamed, fell on the floor, and began to intercede.
There was a spontaneous outburst of tears and intercession from everyone in the room: Arab, Jewish, Asian, European ...
At the main assembly at the 822 Conference and a year later at the Global Gathering in Munich, David called the Arab and Jewish believers to the stage. The group of Messianic leaders knelt down on the stage and expressed a similar measure of confession and repentance. David and Bassam then led the Arab Christians in a response of commitment and covenant toward the Jewish brothers. They publicly made a "Ruth" vow: that "your people would be my people" and "your God will be my God" (Ruth 1:16).
For the Arab Christians to make this commitment not only to Yeshua as the Messiah, but also to the Jewish people, as Ruth did, represents to me a significant shift in the body of Christ. It was a re-alignment of historic proportions, because it was linked to international Christians from Asia, Africa, Europe and America as well. We realized that the "Ruth Paradigm" was not to be a rare and exceptional calling for a minority of Christians, but the primary and normative position for the body of Christ.
We are looking forward to participating in the next Global Gathering here in Jerusalem on November 7-11. Ariel, Marcel, Mike Niebur and myself will be attending another pre-Gathering event in London from Aug. 29 - Sept. 1. We will be joined by about 40 Arab/Middle Eastern leaders, as well as some core representatives from the International Team, especially from Asia. Please keep us in prayer, and we invite you to come and take part in this move of God in our day.
Asher Intrateris the founder and apostolic leader of Revive Israel Ministries, and oversees Ahavat YeshuaCongregation in Jerusalem, andTiferet YeshuaCongregation in Tel Aviv. Asher was one of the founders of Tikkun International with Dan Juster and Eitan Shishkoff, and serves on the board of the Messianic Alliance of Israel and Aglow International.
3 Reasons Why you should read Life in the Spirit. 1) Get to know the Holy Spirit. 2) Learn to enter God's presence 3) Hear God's voice clearly! Go deeper!
Has God called you to be a leader? Ministry Today magazine is the source that Christian leaders who want to serve with passion and purpose turn to. Subscribe now and receive a free leadership book.
Did you enjoy this blog? Click here to receive it by email.
