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.
More than six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. Anti-Semitism continues to strongly rear its ugly head today. (Wikimedia Commons )
Despite Mass Persecution, Jews Cling to the Hope of Jeremiah 29:11
What makes the history of the Jews surprising is that the Jews have survived and thrived, despite many attempts to destroy them. The ancient pharaoh tried to destroy the Israelites by killing all the male infants. The twelve tribes of Israel were carried into captivity by the Assyrians and later the Babylonians. Jerusalem was again destroyed by the Romans in the first century and the Jews forced into the Diaspora. The Crusaders, marching through Europe on their quest for the Holy Land during the early centuries of the Middle Ages, slaughtered entire Jewish communities.
During the Spanish Inquisition at the end of the fifteenth and into the sixteenth century, Jews were forced to convert to Christianity and then banished from Spain and Portugal. Countless thousands of Jews were eventually put to death. Less than a century ago, the Nazis exterminated over six million Jews along with millions of other "undesirables" such as gypsies, the elderly and the infirm, in their attempt to wipe the Jews off the face of the earth.
It would take pages to list all of the other attempts that have been made to eradicate the Jews. In my book A Rabbi Looks at the Last Days, I wrote about some of the more recent ones:
The Suez War of 1956: In the early 1950s, Egypt closed the Suez Canal to Israeli ships. The United Nations ordered the canal open, but Egypt refused. Then, Egypt's President Nasser sent scores of terrorists into Israel, saying, "Egypt has decided to dispatch her heroes, the disciples of Pharaoh and the sons of Islam and they will cleanse the land of Palestine ... There will be no peace on Israel's border because we demand vengeance, and vengeance is Israel's death."
His foreign minister, Muhammad Salah al-Din, added, "We shall not be satisfied except by the final obliteration of Israel from the map of the Middle East."
After hundreds of Israelis were killed, Israel had no choice but to retaliate. The Egyptian army was quickly and easily defeated, and Israeli troops pushed deep into Egyptian territory before a cease-fire was declared. President Eisenhower pressured the Israeli government to return the land that had been conquered in battle, and Israel complied and returned the Sinai Peninsula
The Six-Day War of 1967: On May 20, 1967, Syria's Defense Minister Hafez al-Assad announced, "Our forces are now entirely ready to ... explode the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland. The Syrian army, with its finger on the trigger, is united ... I, as a military man, believe that the time has come to enter into a battle of annihilation."
Ten days later, Israel's old enemy, President Nasser of Egypt, said, "The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are poised on the borders of Israel ... while standing behind us are the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation. This act will astound the world. Today they will know that the Arabs are arranged for battle, the critical hour has arrived. We have reached the stage of serious action and not declarations."
The world was astounded, all right. After six days of war, the Arab coalition was utterly defeated.
The Yom Kippur War of 1973: The next war began on October 6, 1973. It was Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Israel did not expect and was not prepared for the coordinated surprise attack undertaken by Egypt and Syria. On the Golan Heights, fewer than 200 Israeli tanks faced an invasion of 1,400 tanks from Syria. Along the Suez Canal, some 436 Israeli soldiers tried to hold off an estimated 80,000 Egyptian troops.
At least nine Arab countries were actively engaged in the assault on Israel, contributing troops, weapons and/or money. Libya's Muammar Gaddafi sent $1 billion in military aid to Egypt.
This has been life for the people of Israel. They are either at war, or being threatened by war.
Again, there is no way, other than God's intervention, that the Israeli people could have withstood the constant attacks against them.
Today Jews in many parts of the world continue to face ongoing persecution and violence. And yet the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob continue to grow in economic strength and in numbers. Why? There's only one reasonable explanation, and it is a supernatural one. God has protected and guarded the Jewish people. He promised to watch over them and give them a future, and He has done so.
In Jeremiah 29:11, He promised in the midst of their exile to give them a future ... and by application, the same promise applies to us, those who "love God and are called according to His purpose" This promise is for you, today."
Excerpted from A Hope and a Future by Jonathan Bernis (Charisma House, 2016).
A Jewish Believer in Yeshua (Jesus), Jonathan Bernis is president & CEO of Jewish Voice Ministries International (JVMI). He has worked on the forefront of world evangelism since 1984, taking the Good News of Israel's Messiah to the far reaches of the earth, to the Jewish people, and also to the Nations.
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“And
many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His
ways and that we may walk in His paths. For the law will go forth from Zion and
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”
(Isaiah
2:3 NASU)
The
Word of the Lord shall again come forth from Jerusalem. The very place where
the Lord God of Israel chose, of all the places on earth He could have chosen, is
the land of Israel, Eretz Yisrael. His Word will again go forth in power and
truth from that very location. In our day.
I
like how The Message also states the verse above, as I have included more
verses in order to get a fuller picture of what the prophet Isaiah proclaimed
centuries ago. This very Word of the Lord is coming forth in our time, directly
from the land of Israel.
“The
message Isaiah got regarding Judah and Jerusalem: “There's a day coming when
the mountain of God's House will be The Mountain — solid, towering over all
mountains. All nations will river toward it, people from all over set out for
it. They'll say, "Come, let's climb God's Mountain, go to the House of the
God of Jacob. He'll show us the way he works so we can live the way we're
made."
Zion's
the source of the revelation. God's Message comes from Jerusalem. He'll settle
things fairly between nations. He'll make things right between many peoples. They'll
turn their swords into shovels, their spears into hoes. No more will nation
fight nation; they won't play war anymore. Come, family of Jacob, let's live in
the light of God.” (Isaiah 2:1-5, THE MESSAGE)
I have become more
attuned in recent years to those Jews whom the Lord has chosen, saved and now
set in place, as teachers in the Body of Christ, the Body of Messiah. These are
ones who even more so are prophetically and accurately speaking to the nations.
From their lineage, history, culture and with a deeper, fuller understanding of
the Scriptures, these ones get it, and are giving it. And now they are the ones
chosen by the Lord to proclaim it to all the nations.
They are the Messianic
Jews, or “believers” as some of them prefer to be simply called.
As I look back at the
great Bible teachers in my lifetime, men such as Derek Prince, Bob Mumford,
Charles Simpson and several others, I have realized that these were (still) all
Gentiles. The Holy Spirit had anointed them with the gift of teaching, and they
did an excellent job, equipped with the understanding and knowledge having been
given to them. They had brought us thus far.
But now, as the days of
the Gentiles are waning, the years of the Jewish believers are coming on
strong. It is as it has been prophesied.
As Yeshua (Jesus) Himself
proclaimed and prophesied, “And they (the Jews) will fall by the edge of
the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be
trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” (Luke
21:24 NKJV)
The time of that time is
now.
In 1967 the nation of
Israel, the Jews, once again took rightful control and ownership of all of
Jerusalem, as they were the victors during the Six Day War over the millions of
Arabs who had surrounded them. Not since 70 A.D, when the Roman General Titus
destroyed Jerusalem, and in particular the Jewish Second Temple (which was
standing on what is today the Temple Mount), did the Jews possess this sacred parcel
of land - the very land which the Lord Himself had said He had put His name on
it. Forever. For all eternity.
Scripture says, “…in the
house of which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this
house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I
will put My name forever; and I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore
from the land which I gave their fathers — only if they are careful to do
according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that
My servant Moses commanded them." (2 Kings 21:7-8 NKJV)
The Jews were scattered
throughout the earth as it been so prophesied. During the days of King David
and King Solomon (Jewish kings), the Jewish prophets were speaking of return. And
then, since the days of the Roman (Gentile) rule over this land, when the
Romans drove them out, scattering the rightful inhabitants of the land, the Jews,
to the wind, Gentile kingdoms ruled over the land. For these past 2000 years,
Gentiles had “trampled” the land.
But that has now come to an end. Again, as historically
written, and proclaimed in Luke 21:24 by the Messiah Himself, Yeshua, Jesus
Christ, these times of the Gentiles were coming to an end at some point in
time. That time has now been fulfilled, since that historical triumph at the
Kotel, the Western Wall, in 1967. It ended the Gentile rule.
It is now the appointed,
prophesied time for the Jewish believers to take the lead, to be the ones taking
charge. They shall be doing the proclaiming and teaching.
As I understand it prophetically now, Yeshua-believing Jews
are now the primary ones we should be looking to, as they are being raised up
to bring forth the Word of the Lord from His Land. Those Jewish teachers and
prophets from the group of Messianics, the Jewish believers in Yeshua
HaMashiach. They will have the most current word for the nations. They do even now.
I have found myself
listening and learning more and more from Messianic Jewish Bible teachers and
prophets in these past years, than from any other teachers of the Word. Men
like Jonathan Cahn, Barry Segal, Joel Rosenberg, Peter Wyns, Michael Brown, Warren
Marcus, Sid Roth, Ron Cantor, Sam Nadler, Chuck Cohen, Scott Volk, Jonathan Bernis,
Aviel Schneider, Richard and Carolyn Hyde and many more.
Though not all of these fore
mentioned men of the Lord are currently living in Israel (not yet), they are
Jews, believers in Yeshua, who are expounding on the full Word of the Lord,
from Genesis to Revelation. Their understanding of the Jewish prophets, from
Moses through Micah, is beyond any of that which Gentile teachers have
understood thus far. They have been given the fuller package.
Ruach HaKodesh (Hebrew),
the Holy Spirit, has once again chosen the Jews to bring forth the Lord’s word
from Zion, and specifically from the Jewish city of Jerusalem.
I encourage you to watch them on TV, get their emails, read
their websites, and subscribe to their YouTube messages. You will be blessed if
you also pray for them, and give financial support (out of your wallet,
checkbook or credit card!) for their ministries. My good wife Laurie and I
certainly do, and have been for over a decade.
Since the first days of
the church, beginning in Acts with Peter, James, John, Paul - or should we call
them by their Hebrew/Jewish names (Peter was Shimon, James was Yakov, John was
Yocahanan, Bartholomew was Bar-Talmai, and Paul was Saul) – Jewish believers
have once again been gifted with His word, to be proclaimed in the nations now.
The Jewish prophets
proclaimed this would happen. Our Savior Yeshua affirmed it. We are living in
the times of the end when it is happening now. What a blessed people we are –
the One New Man of Jews and Gentile believers!
I encourage you to listen
and learn from them. I believe they have been given the NOW word, for these
days and times the world has entered. The marathon baton has been given back to our Messianic Jewish brothers, for this final sprint, to take the lead in telling the world of the good news of Messiah Yeshua, Jesus Christ.
Now
think on this,
Steve Martin
Love For His People, Inc.
P.S.I would be
most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and
friends. They might need it. You can easily use the social media icons below.
Thanks! Steve
A gift from Derek & Ruth Prince - 1987 - as a Derek Prince Ministries staff member in Fort Lauderdale, FL. It hangs in our living room.
We sure could use your help to bless the families we do
in Israel, India, Pakistan, Vietnam and the hurting ones here in the USA.
Please give out of the abundance you have been given.
In May, 2016, my wife Laurie and I will be traveling to
Israel to spend time with our friends. We support them in word and deed. We
have our plane tickets in hand. We love Israel.
Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA humanitarian
organization started in 2010 to share the love of the Father in the nations.
If these messages minister to you, please consider
sending a charitable gift of $5-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us
bless families we know in Israel, whom we consistently help through our
humanitarian ministry. Your tax deductible contributions receive a receipt
for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.
Now Think On This - In the year of our Lord 12.19.15 - #221
–“Word of the Lord From Jerusalem” – Saturday at 7:30 am
All previous editions of Now Think On This can
be found on this Blog, and on the website: Now Think On This
Again, I would be most grateful if you'd share this
encouraging word with your family and friends. You can easily use the social
media icons below. Thanks! Steve
It reads like a modern-day suspense movie screenplay.
A mysterious tribe in a remote corner of the world makes an astonishing claim about its members' historic identity. Ostracized by their neighbors, these lowly outcasts stubbornly insist they're descended from the world's most storied race of people—the Israelites.
Skeptical investigators discover an ancient heritage of names, words and idioms foreign to any local tongue but do indeed bear a striking resemblance to Hebraic ones. They also observe rituals and traditions seemingly right out of the first five books of the Old Testament.
Even so, these astonishing assertions are dismissed by most as too fantastic to be true—until cutting-edge breakthroughs in genetic analysis suddenly added scientific credence to their claims.
This isn't fiction. Indeed, in recent years this very scenario has been playing out in numerous unlikely spots in far-flung corners of the world—from Africa, to India and even China. These extraordinary developments represent an emerging solution to one of antiquity's deepest and long-standing mysteries.
Namely, "What happened to 'the Lost Tribes of Israel?'"
What is more, these discoveries seem to represent a stunning fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
How 10 Tribes Got Lost
To understand the origin of the Lost Tribes mystery, one must have a grasp of two historical facts.
The first is that the original 12-tribe kingdom of Israel—founded under King Saul and expanded under the rule of David and his son Solomon—was ultimately split into two nations after Solomon's death. Ten tribes formed the northern kingdom (varyingly referred to by the Old Testament prophets as "Israel" or "Ephraim"), while the remaining tribes of Judah and Benjamin became the southern kingdom (which the prophets simply called "Judah"), with Jerusalem as its capital.
Secondly, it's important to know that the northern kingdom was ultimately invaded and completely conquered by the Assyrian Empire in 722 B.C.
Whenever the Assyrians conquered a nation, it was their practice to forcibly relocate most of the conquered people to other portions of their vast empire—and to settle that area with other conquered people. This served to make a future rebellion against Assyrian authority far less likely. The assumption was the vanquished people would ultimately be assimilated—racially, culturally and religiously—into the nations to which they were scattered. And in most cases, that is precisely what happened.
But the Israelites are not just any ethnic or cultural group in history. They were—and are—a people hand-selected and engineered by God Himself to be stubbornly resistant to assimilation. And as we're about to discover, that resistance is astonishingly strong and persistent.
Roughly 135 years after the fall of the northern kingdom, Judah was also conquered. The Babylonians, which had by that time replaced the Assyrians as the dominant world empire, carried all the best and brightest of the Judean kingdom into captivity. After 70 years, what the Bible calls a "remnant" of those captives returned to Judah to rebuild and restore the devastated nation—including the rebuilding of the temple. But there is no record in the Bible of the Northern Tribes ever returning.
So, if only a remnant of the Judean captives returned to Judah, what happened to the other members of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin—the ones who stayed behind and made the vast Babylonian Empire their permanent home?
And what of the Jews who remained in Israel following the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70 and the final revolt against the Romans in A.D. 136? They too were banished from their land and scattered to the nations of the world and became known as the diaspora, or dispersion.
The Wanderers
Prior to all of these events, God had explicitly warned Israel that if they were not faithful to obey His laws and commandments, He would banish them from their land to wander the nations: "The Lord will scatter you among all the peoples, from the one end of the earth to the other" (Deut. 28:64).
This indeed came to pass. The descendants of Jacob have been scattered to almost every nation on earth. But in His mercy and faithfulness, God also promised the day would come when He would bring them back: "When all these things happen to you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you remember them among all the nations, where the Lord your God has driven you, then you must return to the Lord your God and obey His voice according to all that I am commanding you today, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul. Then the Lord your God will overturn your captivity and have compassion on you and will return and gather you from all the nations, where the Lord your God has scattered you" (Deut. 30:1-3).
I believe we are living in those days of restoration. The fact is, while the remnants of these tribes have been lost to the world for centuries, God has known all along where they are. As I mentioned above, He designed them to be very resistant to assimilation. Indeed, many of these ancient Jewish communities are now coming to light and being recognized by Israel.
Each of these in many respects fit the narrative described in my opening paragraphs. They and their ancestors have been following distinctly Jewish traditions for centuries, and some have been genetically linked to the Jewish people. Here are just a few exciting examples:
The Bnei Menashe of India
Near the border between eastern India and Myanmar are the two Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram. Within these states lives an ancient community called the Bnei Menashe, believed to be descended from the lost tribe of Manasseh. The oral history of the tribe holds that they were captured by Assyria along with the rest of the Northern Tribes of Israel and eventually landed in China. Then, in the second century, they migrated to India in the wake of Chinese persecution. Many converted to Christianity in the 19th century through the work of Welsh Presbyterian missionaries.
In 2011, the Israeli government decided to allow 7,300 members of the Bnei Menashe to come to Israel. Several hundred more have also recently made aliyah, the immigration of Jews to Israel, but thousands still remain and live in a state of deep poverty.
The Lemba of Zimbabwe
God made good on His promise to scatter the children of Israel to the uttermost parts of the world. Perhaps nowhere is that more evidenced than in the remote bush of Zimbabwe, where we've often had to wait to land our seven-seater prop plane until zebras exited the clearing we use as a makeshift runway.
Here we've found the Lemba, a tribe numbering more than 70,000 and spread throughout Zimbabwe and parts of South Africa.
In a recent DNA study, 70 percent of the Lemba sampled possessed the Cohanim gene, a higher percentage than both Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews sampled. This finding has generated significant interest among the Jewish community and strongly supports their 800-year claim to be descendants of the high priest Aaron.
The Jews of Ethiopia
The nation referred to as "Cush" in the Scriptures is almost certainly modern-day Ethiopia. Isaiah prophetically named the nations from which God will regather His scattered people in the last days: "In that day the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, who shall be left, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea" (Is. 11:11).
According to local ancient traditions, Ethiopia's Jewish connection goes back to the time of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. A 14th-century document known as the Kebra Nagast (The Glory of the Kings) records that Solomon and Sheba had a son named Menelik I, who later returned to Ethiopia with his family and the ark of the covenant.
Others believe that Jews from the exodus made their way down the Nile and eventually settled in Ethiopia. Most historians, however, believe their presence in Ethiopia is post-exilic and traces back to the Roman dispersion of Jews migrating from Yemen to the horn of Africa.
While the if, when and how of the Jews' and Judaism's arrival in Ethiopia are shrouded in mystery, it is nevertheless clear that it happened at some point. For one thing, we have the account of the Ethiopian eunuch encountered by Phillip (Acts 8:26-39), who was led to faith in Yeshua, not as a pagan but as a devout Jew.
We also know that for centuries visitors to Ethiopia have taken note of certain tribes who practice ancient religious rites very similar to those of Old Testament Israel and who explicitly claim descent from the tribes of Israel. And modern genetic testing has validated those claims.
For example, an Ethiopian group known as the Beta Israel (House of Israel) was officially recognized by the Israeli government in 1973.
Another tribe of Ethiopian Jews, the Beta Avraham, was originally part of the Beta Israel community. But in the 17th century, a false messiah rose up in their midst, who ultimately led them to join the Orthodox Church. They broke away, became their own tribe and eventually settled in the Ethiopian district of Kechene near the capital city of Addis Ababa.
The Gefat—a third offshoot of Ethiopian Jews—live farther south in the Ethiopian countryside of Woliso and Hosanna. A remote community, this tribe (estimated at 20,000-30,000 individuals) have faithfully observed Jewish customs for hundreds of years, including circumcising their male children on the eighth day, applying the blood of a lamb on their doorposts at Passover, and keeping biblical dietary laws. In fact, their name, Gefat, means "the blowers." According to their oral history, they were chosen by the kings of Ethiopia centuries ago to blow the shofar ahead of the ark of the covenant in official processionals.
The existence of this remarkable group and others in Somaliland, Somalia; Afghanistan; and Nigeria pose two questions for those of us who follow Yeshua and strive to obey His Word.
The first is: Does their discovery in our day represent some sort of prophetic sign and signal concerning the end times? And secondly: What is our responsibility to minister to these poor and oppressed sons and daughters of Abraham?
Fulfilled Prophecy
While many rightly view the rebirth of the state of Israel and the re-unification of Jerusalem as key fulfillments of end-time prophecy, too few Christians have taken note of another astonishing prophetic fulfillment unfolding before our eyes. I'm referring to the identification of these various fragments of lost Israelite tribes and the re-gathering of some back to Israel. Isaiah 11:11 reveals that in the last days, God will "reclaim the surviving remnant of His people" from a list of African nations, including Ethiopia—home to many of the Beta Israel.
In my opinion, these are some of the most significant signs of the Messiah's imminent return. I am also convinced that reaching the poorest of these scattered children of Israel with both humanitarian aid and the gospel is a clear and powerful expression of God's heart and will today.
This is why the organization I lead—Jewish Voice Ministries International—has been actively working on both sides of that equation for decades now. We operate with a mandate from Romans 1:16, which says the gospel is "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." It has been our honor to introduce thousands of these individuals to their long-awaited Messiah while planting, equipping and nurturing numerous new Messianic congregations in these communities.
At the same time we're doing everything we can to address the physical and medical needs of these very poor and frequently persecuted people.
We mounted our first major medical and spiritual outreach back in 1999—blessing the people of the Beta Israel tribe in Gondar, Ethiopia. In the years since, hundreds of dedicated volunteers from congregations around the world have joined us in more than 25 medical outreaches to help impoverished, scattered Israelite remnant communities. By God's grace, we've provided free medical care and medication to more than 275,000 patients. We've distributed 40,000 pairs of eyeglasses, performed nearly 700 eye surgeries, and provided dental treatment to 15,000 patients.
Although we've never made our gospel message a requirement for care, we've always erected a prayer tent—making prayer and ministry available to every person we treat. As a result, God has blessed us with thousands of accepted invitations to receive Yeshua as Messiah and Savior. Obviously, participating in this level of ministry, and to such a remarkable group of people, is more gratifying than I can express. Ministering to these living, miraculous examples of fulfilled prophecy is an extraordinary honor. And it is a blessing I will get to share with scores of new volunteers who will join us on one of our upcoming outreaches. Perhaps you should be among them.
Rabbi Jonathan Bernisis president and CEO of Jewish Voice Ministries International, host of the TV show Jewish Voice with Jonathan Bernis and author of A Rabbi Looks at Jesus of Nazareth. For more information, go to losttribesofisrael.org.
Discover more about the Menashe tribe, who claim to be a lost tribe of Israel, atmenashe.charismamag.com.
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Sid Roth says by praying in tongues, we can lead Jewish people to Jesus. (Lightstock )
Jewish Evangelism: Speaking in Tongues Is a Key
I believe God has given me an effective ministry in Jewish evangelism because of my faithfulness in praying in tongues.
If you had X-ray vision and looked inside yourself, would you see a gigantic spirit?
Paul understood how to develop his spirit. He said in 1 Corinthians 14:18, "I thank my God that I speak in tongues more than you all."
The man God used to write most of the New Testament spoke in tongues more than any other believer. Why? He wanted to be led by the Spirit, not the flesh.
"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God" (Rom. 8:14). Paul also realized that speaking in tongues edified his spirit man. "He who speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself" (1 Cor. 14:4). The word "edify" in the dictionary means to build or increase. And the meaning in Greek is best understood as charging up a dead car battery!
I was saved in the 1970s during the charismatic renewal movement. Jonathan Bernis, now head of Jewish Voice Ministries International, and I would pray together in tongues for hours. I do not believe he or I would have such large Jewish ministries today if we had not prayed in the Spirit!
We literally prophesied our future. 1 Corinthians 14:2 says, "For he who speaks in an unknown tongue does not speak to men, but to God. For no one understands him, although in the spirit, he speaks mysteries." By praying in unknown tongues, we prayed the mysteries of our future with 100 percent faith. These prayers were perfect because they came from God. And since it was "unknown" tongues, the devil did not know how to try to abort God's plan!
Your very life could be dependent on praying in the Spirit. When I pray in tongues, I release angels to thwart the schemes of the devil. My mind may not know what the devil has planned, but the Spirit of God in me does! I am convinced I was able to lead my Orthodox Jewish father into the kingdom on his deathbed because of praying in tongues.
A voice from heaven is shouting, "I desire that you all speak in tongues" (1 Cor. 14:5). You are meshuga (Hebrew for "crazy") if you do not pray in tongues at least one hour a day! Don't be meshuga!— Sid Roth
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At a Washington conference on extremism last week, President Barack Obama claimed the world's terror threats were not rooted in Islam. He sees the issue as a law enforcement problem -- a battle with difficult rogues of all faiths, not a civilizational war.
The president told the conference hosted by the State Department, "The notion that the West is at war with Islam is an ugly lie, and all of us, regardless of our faith, have a responsibility to reject it."
But his remarks come as much of the globe is engulfed in a growing flood of hatred of Jews and persecution of Christians, a large portion of it coming from the Muslim world.
That includes terror groups such as ISIS, the founders of an Islamic empire, and Iran, whose leaders have preached the extermination of Israel for decades.
In addition, French President Francois Hollande visited a cemetery where Jewish graves, some hundreds of years old, had been defaced. He warned that acts of anti-Semitism there doubled in the past two years, with the number skyrocketing in 2015.
The most tragic were the murders in a kosher deli near Paris following the mass slayings at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper.
The murder of a Jewish man in Copenhagen; the January assassination in Argentina of prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was investigating Iranian connections to a bombing at a Jewish community center in 1994 that killed 85 people; and the killings of 21 Egyptian Christian Copts in Libya -- these are just a partial list of atrocities committed in 2015 against Jews and Christians by Muslim radicals.
Now, a new survey shows anti-Semitism is rampant on U.S. college campuses. Fifty-four percent of Jewish students say they saw acts of anti-Semitism at their colleges across the nation during the first six months of the 2013-2014 academic year. That's according to a study released by Trinity College and Brandeis University.
At another conference in Colorado, Christians and Jews heard a very different message from the one outlined by the president: to stand firm in the face of the growing persecution.
Wayne Hilsden, senior pastor at King of Kings Community in Jerusalem, spoke at a "Stand Firm for Israel Summit" hosted by Resurrection Fellowship in Loveland earlier this month.
He exhorted believers in Jesus to speak up on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people and to brace for fierce opposition.
Hilsden asked participants from more than a dozen nations and nearly two dozen states, "How many of you know that the more hatred comes against the Jewish people, those who stand with them in their time of trouble will also be hated?"
"We will also be slandered. We will also be lied against and falsely accused. It goes with the package," he said.
At the summit, Hilsden announced the launching of a new group called FIRM: the Fellowship of Israel-Related Ministries. The goal is for believers to learn from the book of Daniel -- to learn from the times we're in and to take a stand, regardless of what it costs -- and to do it in love.
"This is one of the most intimidating times in history, when the attacks of the enemy can spread like wildfire around the world, never eradicated," he cautioned. "And when we are attacked, we will be tempted to attack our accusers in return. But when we stand firm, let us be like Daniel and not return evil for evil; let us love our enemies."
Messianic Jewish leader Jonathan Bernis is president of Jewish Voice and a FIRM board member. He said fundamental Islam is the "carrier of the new anti-Semitism" and that Christians won't be spared in the spirtual battle that is upon us.
"I think the answer for the Muslim world is the same as the answer for the Jewish world, and His name is Yeshua -- Jesus," he told CBN News.
The leaders at the Colorado summit believe there is a special calling for young people, who respond better to calls of support for Israel and the Jewish people when they understand that the character of God's name is at stake.
"Because God's covenant is, endures forever. Because God's covenant is everlasting; because He's a faithful God. Because the calling and the gifts of God are irrevocable, that's why we stand with Israel," explained 22-year-old Michael Mistretta, one of the summit's Jerusalem-based organizers.
Isaiah 11:11 says, "In that day the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, who shall be left, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea."
What's referred to as Cush in the ancient Scriptures is likely modern-day Ethiopia. According to ancient tradition, Ethiopia's Jewish connection goes back to the time of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. A 14th-century document known as the Kebra Nagast ("The Glory of the Kings") records that Solomon and Sheba had a son named Menelik I, who later returned to Ethiopia with his family and the Ark of the Covenant.
Others believe that Jews from the exodus made their way up the Nile and eventually settled in Ethiopia. Most historians, however, believe their presence in Ethiopia is post-exilic and traces back to the Roman dispersion of Jews migrating from Yemen to the horn of Africa. Whatever history is correct, we do have the account of Phillip's encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-39), who was led to faith not from paganism but from Judaism.
Known as the Beta Israel (House of Israel), the Ethiopian Jews were officially recognized by the State of Israel in 1973. In fact, the Israeli government conducted two dangerous operations to bring them to Israel: Operation Moses, which took place over a period of seven weeks in 1984-85, during which 8,000 Ethiopian Jews were brought to Israel. Operation Solomon, a covert airlift, was conducted in 1991 and brought 14,500 Ethiopian Jews to Israel over a 24-hour period. Sadly, thousands of the Beta Israel identified as Falasha Mura (converts to Christianity) were left behind.
Another tribe of Ethiopian Jews, the Beta Avraham, was originally part of the Beta Israel community. But in the 17th century, a false messiah rose up among these people and ultimately led them to join the Orthodox Church. They broke away, becoming their own tribe and eventually settled in the Ethiopian district of Kechene, near the capital city of Addis Ababa. Jewish Voice brings a team of medical doctors and volunteers to help this community every year and operates a full-time medical clinic known as Bete Hibret.
A third offshoot of Ethiopian Jews, the Gefat, lives farther south in the Ethiopian rural countryside of Woliso and Hosanna. A remote community made up of 20,000 to 30,000 people, this tribe has faithfully observed Jewish customs for hundreds of years, including circumcising their male children on the eighth day, applying the blood of a lamb over their doorposts at Passover and keeping biblical dietary laws. In fact, their name, Gefat, means "the blowers"—according to their oral history, they were chosen by the kings of Ethiopia centuries ago to blow the shofar ahead of the Ark of the Covenant in official processionals.
I became aware of this community in 2010 when their elders contacted me during one of our medical clinic outreaches in Addis Ababa and asked for our help. The following year we held our first medical outreach in Woliso. Thousands came for treatment, and we've returned regularly ever since.
To date, Jewish Voice has planted and supports a flourishing network of eight Messianic Jewish congregations in Ethiopia, all of which are experiencing rapid growth.
The Bnei Menashe of India
Near the border between eastern India and Myanmar are the two Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram. Within these lives an ancient community called the Bnei Menashe, believed to be descended from the lost tribe of Manasseh. Oral history holds that they were captured by Assyria along with the rest of the northern tribes of Israel and eventually landed in China. Then, in the second century, they migrated to India in the wake of Chinese persecution. Many converted to Christianity in the 19th century through the work of Welsh Presbyterian missionaries.
In 2008, a rat infestation completely overtook the rice crops in Mizoram, threatening starvation. This famine drew global media attention to the Bnei Menashe. When I heard of their plight, I felt the Lord strongly prompting me to do something to help. After an advance trip to assess the needs, we provided hundreds of tons of rice and brought a large team of doctors and dentists to provide free medical, dental and eye care to the Bnei Menashe. We've been back every year since. More than 900 members of the Bnei Menashe have prayed with our prayer teams to receive Jesus as their Messiah.
In 2011, the Israeli government decided to allow 7,300 members of the Bnei Menashe to come to Israel. Several hundred more have also recently made aliyah (going up to the Holy Land), but thousands still remain and live in a state of deep poverty.
The Lemba of Zimbabwe
God made good on His promise to scatter the children of Israel to the uttermost parts of the world. Perhaps nowhere is that more evidenced than in the remote bush of Zimbabwe, where we've often had to wait to land our six-seater prop plane until zebras exited the clearing we use as a makeshift runway. Here we've found the Lemba, a tribe numbering over 70,000 and spread throughout Zimbabwe and parts of South Africa.
In a recent DNA study, 70 percent of the Lemba sampled possessed the Cohanim gene (from an ancient Jewish priestly line)—a higher percentage than both Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews sampled. This finding has generated significant interest among the Jewish community and strongly supports their 800-year claim to be descendants of Aaron the high priest.
After a whirlwind trip—spent mostly on planes—to meet with the Lemba's elders, we organized our first medical outreach to their community in 2012. Without electricity, hotels or restaurants, we had to truck in the entire clinic on washed-out dirt roads—including tents and the generators needed to power our medical equipment. Since this first outreach two years ago, we now have 30 Messianic Jewish congregations among the Lemba with a weekly attendance of over 3,000. The Lemba are currently the fastest-growing Messianic Jewish community in the world.
The Yibir of Somaliland
Through a dear friend, Gerald Gotzen, I heard about a mystical tribe of people in Somaliland called the Yibir. The Yibir—whose name, some believe, derives from the word Hebrew—were forced to convert to Islam many years ago yet have secretly retained their Jewish identity. In 2012, I sent an advance team to Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland to meet with tribal leaders. They quietly shared about their Jewish ancestry and their desire to further connect with their Jewish identity and the State of Israel. We've continued to develop our relationship and are seeking ways to help them in this pursuit.
The Pashtun of Afghanistan
Within the borders of Afghanistan, one of the most uniformly Muslim countries in the world, lives an ethnic group called the Pashtun who some believe to be descendants of one of the 10 lost tribes. The Pashtun are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. Though DNA testing has been inconclusive and scholars have disagreed for centuries as to their true origins, it's indisputable that the Pashtun do observe certain ancient Jewish customs and traditions. Many historic markers in the region are written in Aramaic (the language of first-century Judaism) instead of the traditional Sanskrit usually found in this area.
Many of the family names among the Pashtun are Jewish as well, including Levani (similar to Levi), Daftani (similar to Naphtali) and Jaji (similar to Gad). Some historians, as far back as the 1800s, even referred to the Pashtuns as "Yusefzai," meaning sons of Joseph.
The Igbo of Nigeria
In the central-western African country of Nigeria lives a tribe of the Igbo people who call themselves the Bnei Yisrael. They believe themselves to be descended from the lost tribes of Gad, Zebulun, Manasseh, Dan, Asher and Naphtali. Numbering some 30,000, the Bnei Yisrael observe many biblical feasts and maintain the dietary laws and other commandments of the Torah.
We just completed a scouting trip to meet with the leaders of the Bnei Yisrael and plans are under way to conduct our first outreach in Nigeria next year.
