5780-5789 | A Decade for Declaration

A Word of Encouragement

from Norma Sarvis in Jerusalem

5780-5789

A Decade for Declaration

As we are approaching Rosh Hashanah at the end of September, I began to think about the new decade.  During the past ten years (5770-5779  in the Hebrew calendar), the number for each of the years ended in the 70’s.  In the Hebrew letter-number system, “70” is represented by the letter ע.  This letter is called ayin, and it is one of several letters in the Hebrew alphabet whose spelling and pronunciation happen also to correspond to a Hebrew word.  Besides spelling the 17^th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Ayin also spells the Hebrew word for ‘eye.’  And so, throughout the past ten years our minds have been repeatedly reminded, continually drawn to the importance, the necessity, of seeing—of looking with heavenly vision. “In Your Light, we see light”   (Psalm 36:9).

Now, remarkably, we find ourselves on the brink of a new decade whose number also happens to spell a word!  On the last day of September we will shift into the Hebrew year 5780, beginning a “decade of 80’s.”  The Hebrew letter for “80” is פ – pronounced peh.  Besides spelling the 18^th letter of the alphabet, peh is also the Hebrew word for mouth!  And so, in just over a month, we will move from a decade which drew attention to the eye, into ten years of awakening an awareness of the mouth!

I felt the Lord saying that this will be a decade of ‘declaration’:  Declaration over ourselves, over our families, our churches, our nations, our neighbors. What we declare with our mouths, what we speak, what we say, will be key for victory and for advancing the Kingdom.

Here are some ways that these declarations may work:

YOUR MOUTH, YOUR DECLARATIONS HELP YOU RECEIVE YOUR INHERITANCE FROM THE LORD

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8).

The Hebrew word used here for “meditate” is hagah, which means literally, “to utter— to murmur, mutter, to make a sound (it can even mean “to moan” or “to growl”!).  Joshua was instructed to implement non-stop speaking (declaring) of truth as he prepared to possess what God had already given through promise. God told Joshua that the Word should not depart from his mouth—not only his heart, his peh—his mouth!  Joshua’s mouth must continually be speaking or murmuring the word of the Torah—divine instruction!  For then would his way be prosperous, and then he would have success! 

Psalm 1:2 uses this word in the same way regarding the man who walks in God’s blessing:  “But his delight is in the law (Hebrew: torah—“instruction”) of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.  He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season…whatever he does, he prospers.”   The righteous man or woman speaks God’s law night and day. He does not just read it or study it.  He speaks it aloud! There is power in this!  Our declarations help secure our inheritance.  *

DECLARATION CAN SHIFT OUR EMOTIONS

Whether we are aware of it or not, we do self-talk in our heads almost continually.  Even secular psychology notes that self-talk impacts our emotions.  As Elizabeth Scott, a wellness coach, recently wrote, “Negative self-talk can affect us in some pretty damaging ways. Studies have linked negative self-talk with higher levels of stress and lower levels of self-esteem. This can lead to decreased motivation as well as greater feelings of helplessness. This type of critical inner dialogue has even been linked to depression, so it's definitely something to fix.”  (verywellmind.com , June 23, 2019) 

Have you ever woken up and said to yourself: “Oh I am so tired, I am not sure I can make it today.”   Or, “Oh, I do not want to go to work today!”;  or perhaps, “I have so much to do. I don’t know what to focus on!”  The Word of God says this:  “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad. (Proverbs 12:25)   And Philippians 4:6-7,   “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”   Our spoken prayers, salted with thanksgiving guard, not only our hearts, but our minds.  We need to discipline ourselves so that our self-talk is filled with the Word of God.  In this season of peh,  pay attention to all that you are speaking over yourself. Declare His love and goodness and hope over your life as you walk through each day!

DECLARATION CAN LITERALLY HAVE POWER FOR LIFE OR DEATH.

“From the fruit of the mouth one’s stomach is satisfied; the yield of the lips brings satisfaction.  Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.”  (Proverbs 18:20-21 NRSV). 

Our tongue has power to release God’s life wherever we are.  Whether conscious declaration of His Word of truth, or through words  issuing forth as expressions of your hearts, as God’s children, we have the capacity to “speak” life!  Even our actions have the power to combine with our words in speaking His life!

A number of years ago, Martin and I took in a troubled Israeli youth.   God led us in walking with him through a difficult, sometimes very dangerous season in his life, one which on occasion involved accompanying him to court.   He is now walking in the light and victory of Yeshua!  After my first Bat Tzion women’s conference in 2017,  I received an email from the woman who had been his lawyer during those difficult years.  She also happened to be a Messianic Believer.  She wrote that for years, because of wounds and hurt, she had distanced herself from the Body of Messiah in the Land.  But when she had read the flyer advertising the conference, and saw that I was the organizer, she felt to go—because she had watched me and listened through the years with this young man, whenever we went to court,  and when we interacted about his life. I had never spoken to her specifically about faith or Yeshua.  We had only conversed with and about him in practical and legal ways.  Yet my actions with my mouth had ‘spoken’ to her very loudly, and she came to the conference and her heart shifted!

I love Psalm 40:3:   “He has put a new song in my mouth; praise to our God, many will see it and fear and trust the Lord.”

Many will SEE our praise and fear and trust the Lord.  Our mouth reflects our heart.  Therefore, our mouth brings life to those around us!

In this decade of peh, let us pay attention to our mouths and receive our inheritance, shift our emotions and bring life to those around us!

“Also my tongue shall utter your righteousness all day long…”

Psalm 71:24

*It is worth noticing that the same word hagah  is used a few verses later in Psalm 2:1, which addresses nations being in an uproar, and
“the peoples imagine (KJV); plot (ESV, NIV, NRSV); devise (NASB); a vain thing.”   Our enemy is also meditating on, murmuring, speaking forth his plans for evil.  But they are ultimately based on emptiness.  The words of the Lord are substance!

Note:  Perhaps the two Biblical books which have most to say about guarding our Mouth are Proverbs and the New Covenant letter of James.  It is interesting that while, as mentioned above, the verb form of the Hebrew root hagah mentioned above means “to meditate”, “to audibly murmer”, etc., the noun form of this word may refer to the rudder of a ship.  In James 3:4-5, the tongue also is likened to the rudder on a ship!

Pt 2 Intersection of Israel-support & Terrorism:Myth-busting with Fact Checking

Conflict: At the Intersection of Israel-support & Terrorism

Part 2: Myth-busting with Fact Checking 

by Donna Diorio

It is frustrating to me that so many, including Messianic Jews, have been persuaded with the false argument that it is the political "alt-right," not the Islamist-supporting Left that are the real threat in the US. Britain has its own version of this as do other Western nations.

I will speak to the US situation because that is what I have followed. I believe that God wanted me to see the connection between terrorism in Israel and terrorism in the USA. I believe God wants us to stand against terrorism against Israel and also terrorism against our own nations. We have to be able to see through all the lies and deception that surround both.

For instance, it is just not true that there are more right wing fanatic terrorists who threaten the Jewish people than there are Islamist terrorists. This is an illusion. It only works if you don't think there would be a problem for Jews in America if only right wing haters didn't attack synagogues and Jewish centers. 

The USA is a target rich environment for Islamist terrorism, "little satan and big satan". Islamists hate Jews and ultimately will target Jews, not just random Americans. Meanwhile, radical hatred of Jews is being spread through the "intersectionality" of the Leftist political activist ranks. Because of the alignment of Islamists with Leftist activists, the alliance is creating anti-Semitic attacks. An example is the recent explosion of black-on-religious-Jews violent attacks in Brooklyn. 

Yes, there is anti-Semitism in the fringe of the political right but it is a drop in the bucket to what is developing on the Left —and what already exists but you just aren't hearing about on the news. Suppression of Islamist terror attempts is unbelievable.

One other thing I want to point out and that is it is WRONG to isolate Jewish-targeted attacks from the totality of all terror attacks. Not only because ALL lives matter, but because it is important to view this from the big picture, not just the Jewish concern picture. 

It is a big mistake to try to isolate specifically Jewish-targeted attacks in the US from Islamist terror attacks against the rest of us in general. When you see the true and factual totality of the Islamist terror threat here, alt-right is just a minor fringe compared to the major, growing Islamist threat that being suppressed by the media and falsified in statistics. 

It is greatly disturbing to me that many Messianic Jews take manipulated statistics of terrorist events in the US and buy into a political deception that the political Right is responsible for more than the political Left.

This reminds me that in the 1990's when there was an accounting according to Israel as to how many terrorist attacks had taken place, and another lesser number accounting by internationals. It was because the internationals discounted many terror attacks like car ramming into crowds or knife attacks. The internationals chalked many terror attacks it up to being merely criminal acts because it was outside the conventional concept of what constitutes terrorism, like bombs. In fact, they wanted to downplay the actual number of terror attacks Israel was enduring, to force Israel into peace agreement with an enemy sworn to Israel's demise.

This has a parallel in the US terrorism statistics, especially during the Obama presidency. Europe and the UK have been downplaying terror attacks for years and even have come to the talking point that Islamist terrorism is just what they have to "learn to live with" in order to be humane, diverse and inclusive. Downplaying the true threat of Islamist terrorism is the name of the game.

There is a saying, "There are lies, damn lies and statistics." You can make statistics back up literally anything you want with a little subtle manipulation. Add that in with a media that wants to suppress every Islamist terror attack and you have the perfect storm for selling a believable lie to the American (and Israeli) public about where the major terrorism threat lies. 

Sadly the terrorist attack statistics have been manipulated even at the federal government level to make it appear that it is Right wing terrorism that is the real threat to America, not Islam. Counter-terrorism expert Patrick Poole, who I have followed for years, has done extensive work on this even showing the manipulations that were done in the Obama years event by event. For example, leaving out Islamist attacks like Fort Hood off of terrorist statistics and instead mislabeling that attack as "workplace violence". The statistics are also manipulated by including merely criminal murders falsely as right-wing terror attacks.

Poole writes, "Fake statistics die as hard as fake news. This is especially true when statistics are used to reinforce entrenched positions during highly charged political debates. One particular false statistic -- even under the most charitable reading of the data, it's highly misleading -- is trotted out after virtually every major terrorist attack in order to claim that Islamic terrorism is a big nothingburger. I've had to deal with various incarnations of this here before. These statistical games all intended to obscure Islamic terrorism and promote so-called "right wing" terrorism even found their way into a recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report, where the jailhouse killing of pedophiles and sex offenders by white supremacists were deemed "terrorism". See more FACT CHECK: Islamic Terrorists Have Killed More in Domestic Attacks Since 9/11 Than the 'Right Wing'  

Why have I spent so much time on such an un-spiritual topic as terrorism? Because Islamist terrorism is a Book of Revelation-level "Beast" enemy. It is part of the end times war we are in, at least that is my firm belief, and we better be able to tell the difference between the facts and the deceptions that are being presented to the public. It is important to be aware how much deception is involved in terrorism tactics so we can fight the good fight of faith against it.

Conflict: At the Intersection of Israel-support & Terrorism Pt 1

Part 1 Conflict:
At the Intersection of Israel-support & Terrorism

by Donna Diorio

I have followed and studied Islamist fundamentalist terrorism since the 1980's because I support Israel and Islamist terrorism is the number one enemy Israel has faced. I watched how Yassar Arafat played at political jihad, acting as if his stripes had changed from being a PLO terrorist to being an international diplomat and political leader of the Palestinian people.

His was always a carrot and stick approach: the carrot was not real but merely a political front. Why? To give the nations a reason to tell Israel they had to give more and more concessions because Arafat was the only "peace partner" they had. The stick, of course, was Arafat giving "the green light" to release the jackals of his terrorist troops against Israel whenever he decided Israelis needed to be terrified to soften up the Israeli leadership into giving into him.

Then in the early 1990's I was also watching when several organizations popped up on the scene that translated what the Palestinians were saying to their people versus what they were telling the Western world. Really dramatic documentary evidence of how they just told the West what everyone wanted to hear from them, but to their own people it was just the opposite: continual incitement to hatred and bloody murder against Jews.

Political Islam is the art of war using deception; that's not me saying it, that was FBI caught them saying in wiretaps that were entered into evidence in the Holy Land Foundation trials. Political Islam is just about getting as many concessions as possible while hoodwinking everyone that the end goal is not really total fundamentalist Islamic domination. It is about convincing everyone that Islamists are the "victims," the underdogs, and not the aggressors that they in fact are. Political Islam is the literal wolf in sheep's clothing.

Now what used to only plague Israel has spilled out across the Western world. It had to come to that according to the principle of sowing and reaping. International leaders were willing to play dumb about the true jihad intentions of 'political Islam' against Israel. The leaders knew better but shared the pretense that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was just a spat between two rivals instead of what it was: a jihad terrorist commitment to wipe Israel off the map.

Even when terrorism began taking place in Europe, against non-Jewish targets, international leaders were so married to their idea of closing a blind eye to terrorism against Israel in order to protect themselves, they continued to say terrorism against Israel was "different" than terrorism against their people and nations! Slow learners or just completely deceived? 

Just in the past week it has come out that French Secret Service agreed after Paris massacre in which six people were murdered and 22 injured at a kosher restaurant in 1982, not to target the Palestinian terrorists in exchange for a halt from carrying out further attacks on French soil.  It would not surprise me if other nations cut the same deal, because the Western nations have never done the right thing by Israel. They instead have allowed lies about Israel to be foisted on the world. The hope of protecting themselves is now beginning to evaporate into thin air, but it has not caused them to repent of their false dealing with Israel.

Of course weakness does not work with bloodthirsty Islamists, so here we are in 2019 with most of the European nations overwhelmed with the Islamist takeover in their nations. The USA also sees (not quite yet fully sees) how we are up to our necks in the takeover too. For brazen Islamists like Tlaib and Omar to be sitting in American Congress driving their anti-Israel, anti-Jew propaganda across the United States is a sign of just how far gone we actually are.

Let's not forget Linda Sarsour, face of American Feminism, of all things! That has got to be the ultimate deception. What is more oppressive of women than fundamentalist Islam?  But that is how Islamists have created "intersectionality" with godless Leftist political activist groups. Not that American Jews or many Israeli Jews can see it, but President Trump has been a containment factor sent from Heaven over all these enemies of God and His people. 

If America does not wake up to the predicament we are sitting in, then our future is going to look more and more like what has engulfed the UK and Europe. No-Go Zones that were vehemently denied by nations and news media only a few years ago are now acknowledged, at least by the nations who are desperate to turn the hostile takeover around. The USA has our own regional (almost) No-Go Zones. These are the districts that elected Tlaib & Omar. Areas where the police will arrest Christian street evangelists because Islam does not allow freedom of speech in their districts. In some New York City boroughs there are already city-funded 'Sharia patrols'. 

Some might accuse me of being an "Islamophobe," but I'm not; and this is not about your good Muslim friend. There are MANY good Muslims out there, they came to America to live free of the oppression of Islamists in their homelands. But the fundamentalist Muslims also dominate the good Muslims in the same way they dominate everyone else, through deception, lies, coercion and threat.

The news media do not give much platform to the spokespeople of good Islam, but rather they give it to the political jihadists like CAIR and anti-American, anti-Jew and anti-Israel congress people like Tlaib and Omar. Meanwhile, from the American campuses into our political mainstream, radical Islamist representatives like Rashida Tlaib have learned the lessons of forming alliances with other protest activist groups in the United States and the tactics these groups use have become interchangeable — just like how they share each other's enemies. Islamists hate Jews, so Black Lives Matter back them up, Feminists back them up, Antifa backs them up.

It's been the Islamist strategy for gaining support in the American public. For example, this was discussed in the strategy sessions of Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood affiliates who met in 1993 to lay out a road map to overthrow the Oslo Peace agreement with Israel. These strategy sessions covered a lot of ground on the future operations of Islamists in North America including how to misrepresent Hamas to the American people ("War is deception"), and generally how to win Americans to their side of the conflict with Israel. How to present a deceptive case to the Americans. In that meeting the leaders actually discussed campus alignment with grievance-activist groups even mentioning the "no justice, no peace" slogan! This is documented in the trial evidence of the Holy Land Foundation 5.

We didn't elect Tlaib and Omar but their districts did; Omar's little Somalia and Tlaib's Detroit district that includes Dearborn. There were many warnings going out over a decade ago about not allowing Muslim nations to import radical Islamist doctrine in the US by building the mega-mosques in areas that did not have the Muslim populations to support a massive mosque. The mosque is a hub, a magnet to draw certain sects of Islam to an area. How do you think No-Go-Zones are created? It is always around a hub-mosque teaching radical Islam.

This is why US officials were foolish to allow foreign interests to build mega mosques in areas with no Muslim population to support it, because these mosques are intended to create hub-cities where clusters of radical Islamists are drawn to live. This was the beginning stages of US "no go zones" and still today, most of America has no idea how we got here much less how do we get out of this tightening python stranglehold.

Why have I spent so much time on such an un-spiritual topic as terrorism? Because Islamist terrorism is a Book of Revelation-level "Beast" enemy. It is part of the end times war we are in, at least that is my firm belief, and we better be able to tell the difference between the facts and the deceptions that are being presented to the public. It is important to be aware how much deception is involved in terrorism tactics so we can fight the good fight of faith against it.

NEXT: Myth-busting with Fact Checking  

Part 2 Conflict at the Intersection of Israel-support & Terrorism

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.