Learning Curve: 18th Anniversary | Arrows from Zion 8/14/2019

If I ever get around to writing my book on the believers in Israel, I think it is going to have to be titled, Learning Curve. Just looking at the photo file of my first visit to Israel in 2003, two years after starting the Israelprayer mailing list highlighted to me the early stages of that learning curve. It's a learning curve that awaits the international church to transition through. In God's due time, of course which I believe is now.

Coming alongside the believers in Israel is not only a sign of the final maturing of the church, but it will cause even greater maturing of the whole body of the LORD in the earth as it begins to unfold as God has planned in "one new man".

18th Anniversary Issue: Learning Curve
Several years ago I wrote: Israel Prayer ministry was born only month before the Islamist attack on America on 9/11. The Spring and Summer of 2001 I was working with Zola Levitt on a project to urge the Dallas Morning News not to back off of their investigative probing into the Hamas charity, the Holy Land Foundation, because of the intimidation of CAIR and local Islamist groups accusing the newspaper of religious bias.

If it had not been for my long time 'Israel watching' I wouldn't have had a clue how Middle Eastern terror groups used charities to gain support and to boost their street credibility. But I did know how Palestinian terror groups operated, and the discovery of their operation in my backyard - or even in my nation - was nothing that I could ever be silent on again.

When the attacks on America took place that Tuesday in September, Israel was in the middle of the Second Intifada. We came together with a strong sense of God's calling to learn how to pray in faith even under a constant barrage of real bombs and bullets threatening those you know and love.

We came together aware that because America chose to allow several Islamist terror groups to network in the United States, to raise "charity" funds to aid terrorism against Israel, that America would surely have to ultimately deal with terrorism against her own citizens. Appeasement never works. Only rising to the challenge of the fight before us works.

My personal stand is with Israel against the enemy of radical Islam and even though the United States has often made bad choices regarding how it attempts to juggle its own interests against radical Islam and Israel, I'm also fully dedicated to our own struggle in the war on terror.

September 11th will always be about Israel Prayer to me. It is as if history has entwined us together forever. 9/11 will always be about the call of God to war for Israel and America against a devious and treacherous foe - radical Islam.

Learning Curve #1

The Priority is not Primarily Defensive Prayers, but Advancing the Kingdom Prayers  

We spent the first three years or so, from 2001 to 2003 praying defensive prayers for Israel and for the Israeli Ministries, and we did see many miraculous times God protected believers in the Second Intifada. When I went to Israel for the first time in 2003, we made a point of going to the sites of recent suicide bomb attacks, a way of saying we would not be scared off by terrorism. That's why we went to the Sabarro Pizza that was suicide bombed in August 2001 with 15 civilians killed including 7 children and a pregnant woman. 130 were wounded in the attack.

We went to several such terror attack sites including the Café Hillel that had been bombed only a few weeks prior to our trip. 50 were injured in that attack and 7 killed including an ER doctor who had treated many terrorism victims. We met a young man who lived in that German Colony neighborhood who said he was still very shaken up by the terror attack. We told him we were Christians who love Israel. He responded that mostly what he encountered were Christians who loved the Palestinians and not the Israelis, but that he was comforted by our love for Israelis.

I still believe we are to be aware of the battle for ourselves and for Israel regarding the dangerous foe of radical Islam, but this was one of the earliest transitions that the Lord led me in my learning curve of praying for Israel: We are to pray for defense of Israel against enemies, but God's first priority for us is to pray for the believers in Israel who are advancing the kingdom of our LORD one salvation at a time. 

We didn't only visit terror attack sites in my first Israel visit. The major goal was to meet with as many of the Israeli ministries we could. This was the first time I met Eddie and Jackie Santoro, also Howard Bass. We went to the Mizrachi's Dugit Ministries outreach and there we met a Palestinian Christian "by chance" who we had prayed for as he was imprisoned the in last city that Israeli soldiers liberated from jail where prisoners of faith were being held, some killed and many tortured in 2002. The prayer requests for those Christian prisoners in Palestinian jails came from Jewish pastors in Ariel. We visited Eitan Shishkoff at Tents of Mercy in their new building, bigger and better than their facility which was firebombed by religious opposition.

We made the Beit Immanuel hotel in Jaffa our hub entering and departing Israel, getting to attend the services then led by David and Michaella Lazarus.

We made Netanya another hub where we met many of the ministries at a TJC2 meeting in the Beit Asaph congregation led by Evan Thomas. 

Later, in the north we went to the annual fellowship picnic for the Jewish and Christian Arab believers in the Lavi Forest outside Tiberias. I got goosebumps even in the Israeli heat as we walked into that campground. It was like prophetic history to me.

Being able to connect with ministries and meeting so many of the ministry leaders on that first trip moved me to the next level of focus for this prayer list. This is why I so encourage every Christian who goes to Israel not to just sightsee, but go to meet a few of the ministries there. If you can, lend a hand in helping them in what they are doing.

In 1948 there were only 29 documented Jews believers in Yeshua in Israel. Today the estimated number is more like 20,000 and growing day by day. Even in the past eighteen years of Israel prayer, mighty changes are everywhere. We see reports more and more about positive media coverage of Messianics in Israel and new openness among Israelis to learn more about the faith than ever before. That is why this prayer list focuses primarily on communicating the prayer needs of the Israeli ministries who are reaching the Israeli people with the Gospel.

That was a lesson we began to learn about three years into the prayer list, to shift the focus from defensive prayers to advancing the kingdom prayers. For example the following was written at the 3rd anniversary of the weekly summary:

     "We have learned many lessons over the past three years of weekly praying in agreement with the ministries in Israel.  By staying within that container of agreement with those on the front lines of the battle, the Lord has taught us much about how to intercede even for an embattled remnant within the most embattled nation in the world.

     "He imparts dreams and visions to His ministry leaders in Israel, they translate their visions to the congregations and to the intercessors, and together we labor for what God wills to release for His people.  (While we began thinking we would be praying primarily over the politics and the terrorists, we have found that God has a much longer list of priorities to speak to than just those things!)

     "Those on the battlefront have considerably more pertinent input than those with less invested who are viewing the war from faraway places.

     "The important thing is not things, it is people. What makes for a decrease in the ability to share the gospel is not what God asks us to pray for. We pray for the things that make sharing the gospel more possible.

     "Terrorists do not scare God. They scare people, but not God who over the past three years has demonstrated to us ten times over how able He is to answer our prayers for Israel's protection against enemies.  (When you have weekly contact with the Israeli ministries, you have a steady stream of praise reports of answered prayers of protection against terrorists.)"

I think we can apply that last statement to religious persecutors too. We pray from the place of trusting God, just like we prayed from that place during the Second Intifada.

It looks like I really do need to write Learning Curve because there is no way to share in one short article about all we have learned in the past 18 years of reading the week-in, week-out ministry letters from the Israeli ministries.

This is one thing I know: God's will for the international Church is to pray for and materially support the BELIEVERS of Israel who are advancing the Kingdom of our Lord among Israelis until "all Israel is saved." Like all of God's mandates for us, doing it will multiply blessing back to the international church beyond what we imagine. 

— Donna Diorio

Lashon Hara: Slander

Ron Cantor of Messiah's Mandate wrote, "Over the past few days, a video in Hebrew has been circulating about the evils of spiritual manifestations in the life of the believers. The video condemns 24-hour prayer movements, as well as much of what we see and read about in the book of Acts. The creator of this video took some of the more bizarre videos out there and made it seems as if those strange manifestations were the norm in charismatic congregations. Any normal charismatic believer would look at a video of a person barking like a dog and think it abnormal. The sad thing is that it is causing division in our small body of believers here in Israel. Please pray over this situation."

Back Story | Here's My 2¢ 

Lashon Hara: Slander 

Isn't it ironic. The Charismatic church for the most part has little interest in what God is doing among the Israeli believers, yet the Israeli ministries who operate in the gifts of the Spirit are under an unprecedented attack for connection to Christian charismatics. And not only that, but they are being slandered by an extremely small ministry in Israel as being related somehow to some of the flakiest of the charismatic flakes we've seen in recent decades. These men under attack in Israel have nothing to do with all that craziness.

It is a disgrace what one self-righteous man has taken upon himself to stir great opposition to a group of Israeli ministries. I stand by his targets 100%. They are producing fruit unto salvation, Michael N. is producing slander and great division among the brethren in Israel with his articles and videos.

I am watching his video production right now and I am appalled that the leaders in the body in Israel have brought my friends up for examination based on these accusations, yet they see no problem with allowing this type of slander and accusation to go unchecked. No repercussions for slandering brothers in the LORD, but doubts from false accusations are free to spew out against my friends.

I ask all my subscribers and followers to bring this injustice before the LORD. That God would arise and show who is right and who is wrong. That no weapon formed against my friends shall prosper.

If anyone needs to be exposed for bad acts within the Israeli ministries, it is those who slander their fellow brethren in the LORD who are ministers of good standing and reputation among the Body of Christ worldwide. The division being brought to the body in Israel is not one lick different than the attacks of the ultra-Orthodox against the faith. This is a stain on the whole body that such accusations are being allowed to stir trouble for going on three years now.

No, I cannot keep silent. May God grant repentance to those involved in this slandering of some of the finest ministers I know in Israel.

I must add that I do not back any of the extremes of charismatic Christian ministry shown as examples in this video. Also I have never seen my Israeli ministry friends participate in such excessive displays either. I have long distanced myself from charismatic excesses believing them to be fleshly. I have seen powerful operation of the Spirit in the meetings of Eitan, Dan, Asher and Ron - but I've never seen excess, fleshly indulgences at all.

IN FACT, let me go further: I BELIEVE that the Israeli charismatic ministries are to bring greater BIBLICAL balance and accountability to bear among international Christian charismatics. I believe this is what the apostolic-prophetic Israeli ministries are meant by God to bring to the table as the unity of Jew and Gentile believers - One New Man - continues to manifest.

The Israeli ministries who are being slandered for their associations with some Christian charismatic leaders do not practice the excesses shown in that video. If anything will bring more balance into the Christian apostolic and prophetic circles, it will be their association with these Jewish brothers that challenges them to greater accountability and much less shows of flesh when the Spirit of God is truly moving among us. 

It is flat out bogus to claim these ministries have anything to do with the excesses portrayed in this video, nor do any of them believe as falsely accused that "It's not obligatory to believe." All of them know and teach that it is necessary to come to faith in Yeshua, no matter who you are. For the accusation that they enter into covenant relationships with Christian ministry leaders is a "covenant with death" as this video producer claims is a twisted misuse of scripture. 

The brethren who have been accused, whom I have known personally for years, I stand by their integrity, moral character and fidelity to the LORD Yeshua without hesitation. 

What is most appalling to me is for Dan, Asher, Eitan & Ron to be under a microscope of inspection by elders because of such false accusations, but lying brothers are free to slander and defame to their heart's content. It is lashon hara: slander.

"There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community."  Proverbs 6:16-19  

My Israeli ministry friends fit in NONE of those categories.

That's my 2¢ -Donna Diorio

Re-Claiming Young Christians for Israel

Worshiping the Lord together in Israel:
Jews, Arabs & Internationals at an Elav conference

How are we ever going to re-claim the younger generations of Christians support of God's ultimate plans for Israel? Is it even possible seeing the overwhelming deceptions in the world?
by Donna Diorio

Many young adult Christians have rejected their Christian parents support of Israel, instead believing the propaganda of their social just peers that Palestinians are a poor people oppressed by the evil might of Israel. It is a false narrative that the world leaders have indulged for decades but it is an especially alarming thing that young adult Christians have also been snared in the deception.

There must be a concerted effort on our part to break this deception off of Christian young people & adults, one by making it a constant priority prayer to God. There are other things, like continually declaring the truth and countering the false narrative.

Over the past week I have had a thought about how such a vast amount of elder Christians who support Israel throw all of the resources and support behind UNSAVED Israel. They give their donations, time and attention to the unsaved rabbis, government leaders and good works organizations and all they give the believers in Jesus in Israel is the cold shoulder.

I have been pondering how the sins of the Christian Israel supporters who do this are being passed down to their sons and daughters who manifest the same sin by backing Palestinian false narratives rather than Israel.

You know that the sins of the fathers get passed down and not every generation manifests it in the same way, but it is the same basic sin. In this case it is the sin of being deceived by false narratives concerning Israel.

For the elder Christians the false narrative is that God wants them to court unsaved Israel and not worry about what is going on in the remnant of faith in Israel. Nothing could be farther from the truth. God's PERFECT plan is for the Christians who support Israel to stand and support the believers in Israel FIRST & FOREMOST. They are the ones who will win Israelis to faith, not you - or at least not you anywhere compared to how effectively they do.

For the younger adult Christians who value the false narrative of Palestinians as David and Israel as Goliath, their generation sin of being deceived by false narratives is also a rebellion from seeing that their Christian parents have veered off the path of God regarding Israel. Maybe they can't put their finger on it exactly, but they know your obsessions with helping to rebuilt the Temple Mount, of funding and following the un-redeemed Israelis only, that these are ALSO not of God.

If the Christian parents repent, will the curse be broken off the young Christian adults who believe the false narratives about Israel? We must find the answers to breaking this curse of Christians following the paths that resist the very work and plan of God in Israel. Christian young adults must be activated to stand with the body of FAITH in JESUS in Israel.

Who knows what could happen if Christians who support Israel but ignore the soul-winning Israeli Messianic ministries, began to speak of spiritual salvation in Israel rather than talking about the latest effort to build the Third Temple, who knows if the younger generation of Christians might find that way more exciting. Rebuilding a stone temple versus a Living Temple. To me it is a no-brainer. 

For the Israeli believer ministries, there is great focus placed on overcoming the political walls with the spiritual bonds of peace that we have only in Jesus. That means the both adult believers and youth believers participate in conferences and worship events for that purpose of making from two, one in the Messiah. Who knows what would happen if Israel supporting elder Christians focused on those things rather than the Israel-issues that they prioritize now.

Every individual is responsible for their own sins, even the generational sins that are passed down because of the sins of the fathers. Another reason I see for the deception among the social justice Christian generation is their departure from God's Word establishing the standard for ALL social justice. Those who dismiss the Old Testament Hebrew scriptures as done away with and irrelevant, will never that a true north on their moral compass. God's Word establishes the parameters of justice according to our Creator. Unfortunately, the strongest feature I see in social justice circles, Christian or non-Christian, is that they have made their own opinions of justice higher than God's. It is a sure-fire path to injustice.

Pray for deception to cease, and speak the truth in love. Some will see and hear. Many will break from the path that resists God's plan for all the nations in Israel.

My 2¢ | Christian Israel-Supporters Treating Israeli Messianic Ministries Lo-Priority

People have always complained that I express myself too strongly, too adamantly.
So in recognition of the need for humility of opinions & interpretations, here's

My  2¢ 

Christian Israel-Supporters Treating Israeli Messianic Ministries as Low-Priority
Christians whose hearts are stirred by God toward Israel can be so vulnerable to be led astray from Jews of faith in Jesus, to Jewish unbelievers who have set leading Christians AWAY from Jews of faith in Jesus, to a simple fascination with Judaism.

Why would I want to sit at the feet of an unbeliever Israeli Jew, even if he were a rabbi? I wouldn't. That person has nothing to offer me but to dazzle me with Jewish lore. I want only what has been given to an Israeli person of faith, downloaded from God in Heaven into the redeemed spirit of a Jewish disciple of Jesus! But some think they are bridging the gap between Jews and Christians. How can that be when they ignore the Messianic Jews of faith and latch on to the hem of the garment of some Israeli Jew who behind their back spits at the name of Jesus?

I know a lot of Christians ignore Jews of faith because they say, 'We don't need to go to them, they've already been saved. We need to make the ones who haven't been saved "jealous" of our faith by befriending them (and showing them how sweet we are).' Uh-no. That is not working for you because they are not going to be impressed with how you are willing to throw Messianic Jews under the bus in order to be friends with them.

Why should they be jealous of the faith of Christians who treat Jews who believe in Jesus as it they are insignificant and less important than the Christian being able to befriend unsaved Jews?

Others seek out unbeliever Jews for teachings. They like to financially support unbeliever Jewish Israel- projects rather financially supporting the Israeli Messianic believers carrying the Gospel in Israel. Why? Why is it so hard to get Israel-supporting Christians to see that supporting the Gospel to Israel is greater than all the other endeavors together? Why do Christians make Israel the ONLY exception to that understanding in a lost world?

I am not against being friendly to unsaved Jews, quite the opposite. But I am not going to financially support ANY projects in Israel that are led by unbeliever Jews, and I am sure not going to go to them for spiritual enlightenment. Wake up. This is so wrong, how can you honestly be fooled by such situations?

It would be the same thing as Christians flocking to the Sanhedrin in the book of Acts, as the Sanhedrin was actively seeking to persecute, jail and put to death the Apostles and the followers of Yeshua in the first century of faith. Absolutely the same thing, same situation today with Christians falling all over themselves to make Israel jealous of our faith when it is the Israeli Messianics who are winning souls and making disciples. 

If you want to make Israel jealous of our faith, you will support Israeli Messianic ministries ONLY. You will get spiritual understanding from those Israeli Jews who are actually filled with the Spirit of Jesus, not from those who are trying to drive all those believer Jews out of Israel. Again, I say: Wake up! It doesn't mean you can't reach out to unsaved Jews, but if you don't have inclination to the Israeli community of faith high in your priorities, I question if you really get God's plan for Israel. 

That's my 2¢ —Donna Diorio

Photo: Ashdod pastor Israel Pochtar standing in front of anti-Messianic posters targeting him and his ministry staff at Voice of Judah.

Son Flowers in God's Garden

A sunflower field in between Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem

Over the past several years we have marked the passing of a great many of the spiritual giants in Messianic faith and in the leadership of the Israeli body of faith specifically, like David Davis, Marc Chopinsky, Eddie Santoro and now Elihu Ben Haim.

In my near two decades of doing Israel prayer summaries I also remember we have buried faithful servants of the Lord like Katya Morrison, Esther Ridings Moore, Tom Bender, Antony Simon and Brookie Escott. Before I started Israel prayer there was the beloved uniter, Ilan Zamir and soon after I began the prayer letter was a pioneer of the faith in Israel, Albert Nessim. The youngest among them was Shai Kushnir a Messianic IDF soldier who lost his life in the 2014 war with Hamas in Gaza.

From the youngest, Shai, to the eldest Albert, we are always shocked when the lives in our community are cut off. Being in the roughly the same age group as the leaders first mentioned, I think we of that age group also probably consider them as lives that have been cut off prematurely. As Jackie Santoro wrote last week, "We are in a great end time battle and sadly as in any battle, there are casualties. But we have confidence that nothing is in vain and we as the Body of Messiah are going forward in greater strength each and every day."

We are like Son flowers in God's garden. I knew from the moment I laid eyes on the Revive Israel picture of the sunflower field that it would be the cover for Arrows this week. I didn't know how, but suddenly as I am writing this opening on Tuesday I see exactly why. I knew it was because even though we have buried many dearly beloved friends, servants of God, we are not like those in the world who have no hope. We know they are at the Father's side, with Yeshua in heavenly places. We also know that they are not the end of what they and we have set ourselves to do in our service to the King of Glory.

Sunflowers thrive in Texas like they do in Israel and one thing I know about sunflowers is they grow very tall and are profuse. When they die having lived out their life under a scorching sun, they leave such an abundance of seeds that are harvested for eating, and with many others falling into the ground and producing a profusion of new plants in the next growing season.

The Son Flowers of God's Garden are like that too. As I was looking through all the ministry letters that have come in over the past week, I was noticing how many new, young faces are represented today in Israel prayer. These are the seeds that have been produced by the leaders who have passed into eternity, and by all of those who remain - whom we pray live long, long lives for years to come.

Yeshua said in John 12:24, "Except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone: but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit."

Eddie Santoro had faith for healing - not only his own, but he prayed for everyone he could through the whole time he was being treated and monitored for cancer. That he eventually died does not cause me to doubt that healing is the children's bread. It is for us and it is for us now. There is great spiritual resistance to the signs and wonders of the kingdom manifesting in Israel, and bringing in a harvest of souls just like it does everywhere else in the world when the power of God begins to manifest our inheritance in Yeshua.

This week, Jonathan Moore who is one of the young leaders in Ahavat Yeshua in Jerusalem wrote in Facebook, "Here's my prediction: Within 2 years we will be seeing lots of miraculous healings and salvations...in Jerusalem."

I believe Jonathan is right on the spiritual mark of the scripture I was getting all the past week. For like the natural sunflowers, the deaths of two of the Son's flowers in God's garden in Israel this month, two who were sowing mentoring of young leaders, evangelism, healing, teaching the nations of Israel's destiny, and intercession are sure to reproduce multi-fold even in the coming year.                                                                                                                                     — Donna Diorio 

The Jewish Mystique

This article was originally published in Arrows from Zion 5/29/2019

The Jewish Mystique

by Donna Diorio

When I was about twenty-one I read a book called, The Jewish Mystique. I had a job with a success guru who put on seminars for chiropractors six times as year. It was there I first became fascinated by all the Jews I was meeting, most of them from the East Coast.

Recently I remembered this book so I searched it out online. One review referred to "the Jewish Question" several times and I was almost embarrassed that I had read the book. Then I saw that Dennis Prager names it as one of the books that most influenced him, so I guess I am safe in saying it was the foundation of my first attempts to understand the Jews. It would be another ten years before I began to really being to understand the Jews as the Bible became my sole guide for understanding.

It has taken thirty-six years of going through all the learning curves, and finally being strategically focused in observing the Israeli Messianic Jewish ministries for the past eighteen years, but I am no longer fascinated by all things Jewish. Fascination drew me to discovery of the Messianic movement, but fascination matured into an earnest desire to see God's plan for the Jews and all the nations to be fulfilled. Without the increase of the faith of Yeshua in Israel, God's plan is in a holding pattern.

Just as surely as God puts a stirring in our hearts for the Jewish people, a fascination, if you will, it is a phase that Christians drawn to the Messianic movement need to mature out of. Don't be shocked, but we need to move from our of our fascination with "all things Jewish" and let our hearts be captured by God's ultimate plan in drawing us to them. It is for His return to the Jewish people with salvation through Yeshua - the gospel that is preached by the Israeli Jewish ministries in the way that only they can.

There has always been a remnant of Jewish faith in Yeshua, but today God has begun to restore His Jewish people in Israel, and not just physically, but spiritually. Not just the restoration of their homeland Israel, but to the faith that He promised He would one day open their eyes to. It is a restoration of faith that is going on worldwide, but the restoration of Messianic faith in Israel is God's epicenter of what He is doing in our day.

If we remain fascinated by Jewish things more than by God's plan for faith to arise in Israel, that we will easily downplay or dismiss entirely the great mantle of Israel's salvation that is upon the shoulders of the Israeli believers and the ministries who are leading and discipling them. 

Most often I hear the idea that the Christians from the nations have the mantle from God to win the Jews because they are "to make Israel jealous". If we want to make Israel jealous of our faith, we can't do it by disregarding the Israeli Messianic Jews who are of "like precious faith". Will any unsaved Jew have respect or jealousy for our faith if we are so easily convinced to treat Jews who believe in Jesus as "traitors" to the Jewish people, and to be avoided by any Christian who wants to have a relationship with organizations helping Israelis? Lots of Christians need to think this point through!

To make Jews jealous of our faith, Christians must not only have hearts to help Israelis, but we also have to respect, love and support the Israeli believers who are as "living letters" to their countrymen of the faith in Israel's Messiah. As Isaiah 8:18 declared: "Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwells in mount Zion."

We will never make Israel jealous with this support become complete. It is time for Israel-supporting Christians to put off the spiritually childish fascination with Jewish things and grew into the mature focus of God's plan for the salvation of "all Israel". The hour has come. 

The Understanding

The Understanding

by Donna Diorio

In 1998, as Benjamin Netanyahu's first term as Israel's Prime Minister was coming to an unplanned end, there was a strong campaign among the religious parties to legislate against the Israeli believers in Yeshua from sharing their faith.  I have always believed that God removed Netanyahu from power because he allowed the religious parties to increase too powerfully and threatening to the Israeli Messianic Jewish believers ability to fulfill their mandate from God. 

With new elections, the liberal party took control and Israel became less safe in national security because of it, but Messianic believer-citizens became more safe. That seems to be the trade-off politically for Israel. My trust is that God will keep both of those needs balanced. That balancing act may be exactly what we are seeing  unfolding again in the chaotic Israeli political situation. While Netanyahu is strong on protecting Israel from international pressures, he is miserably weak in protecting the religious freedoms of Israeli Messianic Jewish believer-citizens. 

Here is another troubling fact: the Israel-supporting Church generally has the exact same strength and weakness as Netanyahu. When Netanyahu failed to adequately speak up for the Israeli believers in 1998, I believe God sovereignly  removed Netanyahu from office.  He moved to limit the damage that the religious parties were set on doing to the Israeli believers sharing their faith. In God's eyes, the believers are every bit as important as the whole nation of Israel because, in fact God's plan to save Israel from annihilation in the end times is inextricably entwined with His plan to bring "all Israel" to faith in Yeshua through the testimony of Israeli Messianic Jews.  

Fast Forward to 2019. Netanyahu's political problems may be of God because once again Israel may be getting a course-correction so that too much power is not given prematurely to religious parties in opposition to the Gospel.  There are again increasing reports of aggressive religious persecution against the Israeli believers.

 Just this morning the Times of Israel tweeted about a meeting where the Israeli  President gave reassurances: "Rivlin to Christian leaders: Israeli sovereignty will never erode religious freedom".  The problem, of course is that this promise is pointless if it does not extend to Israeli Messianic Jews who profess Yeshua. 

And that brings us to the religious riot at a private Messianic worship event in the Clal Bldg Pavillion in Jerusalem last week. It was reported on Facebook the next day by Shelly Greenberg, a law intern and Messianic believer who witnessed the riot. Because of her experience in Messianic events, she also helped to get arriving guests of the event into the facility, past the rioting Lehava organization. 

Shelly Greenberg wrote that "Kids were crying, mothers and old people were terrified. . . . I must say, I've been dealing with those kind of things for years, but I have never seen them so possessed. They were in craze." Even the police & SWAT teams that arrived failed to control the crowd she said.

Inside the concert proceeded but outside, after two hours the riot area was finally pepper sprayed. As far as we know there were no arrests made and we have not been able to find any coverage of the riot in the Israeli newspapers. See coverage in Messianic news here and here. Some videos also captured a small measure of the riots posted on Facebook here and here.

We need to understand that God has placed a mantle of great purpose on the Jewish believers in Israel, and He will defend them waiting for us to step come alongside them 100% as He intends. They are paying the price for our failures to support them in prayer, in finances and in the political influence we hold. 

The religious persecutions of 2019 are a continuation of the opposition to the Gospel we see in the Acts of the Apostles, and which has shown itself time and again since Israel's modern re-birth in 1948. We must know this and not let it deter us from cooperating in the vision God has for the faith of Yeshua to bloom again in Israel. 

"Those that do not learn the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat it." | In 1998 the Zvili bill sought to stop the gospel from going forth in Israel by Israeli Jewish citizens was stopped due to months of tireless efforts by the Messianic Action Committee. Through their informing Christians about the threat they faced a strong worldwide outcry rose among Israel-supporting Christians. Israeli politicians noticed.  But the political realities were that Netanyahu's promises to Christians not to let the bill pass was too much for Netanyahu to uphold. He was under the same pressures to allow the religious parties too much power in order to maintain a coalition government.

Meanwhile Israel-based Christian organizations came up with their own solution to deal with the religious opposition in proposing what was known as "The Understanding".  What they hoped for was their  agreement would ease the religious political resistance to their own presence in Israel. It certainly did not ease the resistance for the Israeli believer-citizens and was viewed by many as a betrayal of them and of the faith, as well.  

Here is some of the wording of The Understanding: 

"We believe that the covenant which God concluded with the people of Israel was never revoked. We deeply respect the Jewish people in their identity and integrity not engage in activities, which have as their intention to alienate them from their tradition and community. Nor will we exploit, for the benefit of our denominational interests, such economic, social or psychological needs as may emerge. 

"We earnestly call upon the government of Israel to maintain its enlightened policy which allows our Christian communities in this country, both native as well as expatriate, to freely follow our vocation, which includes among others, caring for our members; engaging in many social and charitable projects; welcoming and assisting pilgrims and visitors from abroad; and maintaining schools and institutions for teaching and research - to the end, that the Christian communities in the State of Israel may flourish in harmony with those of other faiths."

I am among those that believe what is expressed in The Understanding falls short of what God wants to see from Christians in terms of supporting His plans for Israel. The reason is because it fails to see Israel is coming to faith in Yeshua now and they are coming by the anointing of God on the Israeli Jewish believers to bring them to faith. 

The Understanding ultimately left the Israeli Jewish believers vulnerable to un-protested persecution by the very Israeli religious organizations that "non-proselytizing" Christians have entered into agreement with. It has encouraged the Israeli believing community to suffer in silence. Why talk about what your family doesn't want to hear about of your hardships? We really have to do better, don't we? 

Increasingly Israel-supporting Christians are learning the truth and coming to cooperate with the plans of God for it. We can love our Israeli brothers and sisters in Messiah, and put them in the forefront of our desires to support Israel with the full knowledge that this is what God wants from us. 

Post Script I have sat for over a decade on the article I wrote originally on The Understanding from which this new article has been drawn. For the sake of the Israeli Ministries, I believe it is time to acknowledge the past so we don't repeat it once again in 2019.  Our alliance is to God's plan for Israel. We can't brush the Israeli Ministries aside as inconsequential to Christian ties to Israel.

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