(Joel Rosenberg speaks with CBN News Chris Mitchell on the sidelines of the prayer summit.)
By Chris Mitchell, CBN Middle East Bureau Chief -- July 20, 2018
Author and Middle East expert Joel Rosenberg had a major theme in mind for a prayer conference he recently organized in Jerusalem.
"We're trying to focus on prayer and unity for Israeli Jewish and Arab believers, between the Messianic body of Israel and the Palestinian believers," he told CBN News.
Rosenberg wants to connect believers in the West to the Holy Land by bringing middle America to the Middle East.
"What we could do uniquely was focus people on what does it mean to pray for the peace of Jerusalem?" he said. "We say that, but what does that mean? How can we pray Scripture? And how can we pray with the faces of Jewish and Arab Israeli and Palestinian believers right in front of us, stories we never knew before. That gave a chance to say, now I can go back to Wichita or San Diego or wherever; now I have a sense of who(m) I'm praying for."
Two U.S. evangelical leaders saw those faces and experienced that unity.
"That's the Body of Christ, you know. We're not divided, so there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there's neither male nor female, so we're one in Christ," said Anne Graham Lotz with Angel Ministries. "And so to come together, which they're doing here at this Summit, is just, it's a revelation of what the Body of Christ is and as it was pointed out this morning that's a testimony to who Jesus is. It's a testimony to the world that we can be one."
Ronnie Floyd, director of the National Day of Prayer, said, "It's really enlightening to see the two brought together as one through Jesus Christ. And I think that's the real testimony of being here this week."
Floyd spoke to participants about the power of prayer.
"I talked about the undeniable reality and connectivity between prayer and the Holy Spirit and boldness. And the same thing that is needed here in courage in the Middle East for believers is the very same thing that is needed in America," he said.
Rosenberg hopes the Summit can shine a wider light on the Body of Christ in the Holy Land.
"We forget to ever think about the fact that there are Palestinians who do know the Lord and there are Palestinians who need to know the Lord," Rosenberg said. "And so when we get excited about one side to the exclusion of the other, this is not really God's heart.
"He [the Lord] does love Israel. He does love the Jewish people and He's got a plan for them, but He also loves the Arabs. In Christ and Christ alone God is bringing the very peace that all the rest of the world wants for this region... the people of the region want. It's tough to find outside of Christ," he said.
