How do we break through the wall of what Christians want to know about Israel into the realm of how God is actually moving by the Spirit of Messiah in Israel?
If you ask the majority of Christians which they would rather hear about, the religious Jews latest step toward building the Third Temple or how the living temple is increasing in Israel, it seems the majority are more captivated by the labor of the flesh rather than the labor of the Spirit.
For decades the major Christian TV networks have made unsaved religious Jews their 'star' guests on programs while shunning the Jewish, even Israeli Jewish ministries of Jesus. That is simply crazy. When I hear that some big ministry that has been quasi (if not outright) rejecting of Israel's importance to the Church making a turnaround to embrace Israel, what a letdown when I find out that they are embracing unsaved religious Jews as their "rabbi". Like moths to the flame...or like jumping from the frying pan to the fire, if you will.
Look, I know that I have nothing that God has not given me, including my recognition of the Israel of faith in Yeshua-Jesus being our real Israel-connection and the passion of God's heart at this time, but there is something else at work here and that is our own love of the truth. If we are not open to hear it, we won’t. If we will not go where the truth leads us, then we will be led down ‘rabbi trails’ instead. We can fall into the ditch on both sides of the narrow path.
There is a partial blindness that is cast over the Church who are going only part way into understanding who we are Blood-related to in Israel. We have a family connection to the Jewish believers in Israel and the salvation of Israel rests upon the witness they are giving right now.
Why is that so hard to understand? So for years the major Christian ministries who support Israel, including almost all of the Christian TV networks, have justified their focus on unsaved religious groups like the Temple Mount Institute or political figures by claiming they are just trying to make Israel jealous of the Gospel.
How's that working out for you? It's not.
Why? Because in their view, how you turn your back on the Israeli Jewish community says a lot more about you than your profession of "love" for Israel. From their point of view, you are only interested in Jesus coming back, the Church being Raptured and the Jews plunged into the worst Tribulation period the Jews have ever seen - and believe me, brother, that is saying a lot! From their expectations of the future, both the religious and the secular political Israeli, whatever motivates you to help them is fine, they can use it because they don’t see your scenario panning out. They have their own scenarios of where all this is leading them for the future.
Look there has never been a more important time to stand with Israel, but if you have no interest and no connection to the Israeli community of faith, you are settling for good when God desires that you enter the fullness of His unfolding plans in Israel. It is really that simple.
God's major priority is not that you stand with Israel, but that you stand with Yeshua's followers in Israel. If you stand with them, you will naturally also stand with Israel in the political-international realm.
So what holds you back? Is it your fear that Israel means more to God than the Church? That has motivated a lot of why the Messianic Jews were cut off from the Church throughout Church History, so why wouldn't it be an unspoken fear within many today? It is as Paul called it in Romans 11, "boasting" against the natural branches and warns Christians not to fall into that trap of arrogance regarding what God will do in restoring Israel through salvation.
If you are blind to all the scripture that is written about God's intentions that "all Israel shall be saved" in the end then you are on extremely precarious ground - regardless of how big your Christian ministry is! If I were you, I would do something about that - like repent of your fears and hardness of heart toward the believing community of Jews in Israel and around the world.
Awaken to what the Holy Spirit is doing toward Israel! Then move to uphold those He is doing it through. It may cost you some of your treasured contacts within the Israeli government or religious figures, but it is better to work with those that God's Spirit is flowing through than 10,000 who make your contact with the Israeli believers a deal-breaker for friendship with you. Selah.
Pictured The Mercy Gate — Prophetic Significance
The Hebrew name of the Golden Gate is Sha'ar HaRachamim, Gate of Mercy. It is the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem and also called the Beautiful Gate (Acts 3:2). It is currently the oldest gate in the Old City, having been constructed in the 6th or 7th century AD. Also, it is the gate that gives the most direct access to the temple mount—if a person could pass through the arches of the Eastern Gate, he would be very close to where the Jewish temple used to stand. When Jesus entered Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives in Matthew 21, He used a gate in the same location as the current Eastern or Golden Gate.
The Eastern Gate was sealed shut in AD 1540–41 by order of Suleiman the Magnificent, a sultan of the Ottoman Empire. It’s believed that the reason for the closing of the Eastern Gate was to prevent the Jewish Messiah from gaining entrance to Jerusalem. The Muslim Suleiman was attempting to thwart the Messiah’s plans with sixteen feet of cement.
According to Jewish tradition, the Shekhinah (שכינה) (Divine Presence) used to appear through the eastern Gate, and will appear again when the Anointed One (Messiah) comes (Ezekiel 44:1–3) and a new gate replaces the present one; that might be why Jews used to pray in medieval times for mercy at the former gate at this location,[1] another possible reason being that in the Crusader period, when this habit was first documented, they were not allowed into the city where the Western Wall is located. Hence the name "Gate of Mercy".
The Eastern Gate has remained sealed for nearly the past 500 years. It’s the sealing of Jerusalem’s Eastern Gate that has caused many students of prophecy to sit up and take notice.
The book of Ezekiel contains several references to a gate that faces east. In Ezekiel 10:18–19, the prophet sees the glory of the Lord leave the temple through “the entrance of the east gate of the Lord’s house”; the glory then moves east of the city to the Mount of Olives (Ezekiel 11:23). Later, Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord return to the temple via “the gate facing east” (Ezekiel 43:1–5).
Sources
for the Mercy Gate material from Wikipedia and Got
Questions.org
