Preparing for Hanukkah: Prayers for Israel

Preparing for prayer for Israel:

A personal note:

As I was preparing to invite people to pray with me for Israel, my mind wondered. I was taking a bath, and as the warm waters soothed my nerves, I heard the voice of the LORD speaking to me about the connections between Israel and the Church. Please read on.

This is YHVH’s World. I only understand in part.

A comparison between the Church and Israel, to understand our differing and connecting roles:

Israel is advancing the Kingdom of YHVH physically as the church is advancing Yeshua’s Great Commission. They are both “on assignment.”

The church, Yeshua’s body, is praying, declaring and removing the powers of darkness from the world, undermining her principalities, structures, and provision, while Israel is doing the same thing physically to all who violently oppose her, functioning as God’s appointed ones for the physical destruction of God’s enemies on the earth. Both are trying to accomplish their separate but almost identical tasks with compassion. Although it is impossible to kill people compassionately, it is possible to destroy their weaponry compassionately, and Israel tries.

The church uses the blood of God’s Son, Yeshua, as a protective barrier so that the enemy cannot harm her. Israel uses God’s land as a protective barrier between herself and those who would try to conquer her, so the enemy cannot cross over to harm her people.

The church desperately seeks people trapped in darkness so they can be released from their sins and set free to follow Yeshua. Israel desperately seeks neighbors who will honor her, her role in God’s Kingdom, and who will honor the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. She hopes against hope that her neighbors can be freed from the tyranny of other gods and she tries to reach out to them in friendship. (thus all the compromises)

Israel has learned that she cannot compromise in anything. Since her founding she tried to compromise in almost everything. Her lessons have been steep. Compromise only brought her pain. The ungodly world constantly challenges and condemns her, but she cannot bend. Her face must stay set like flint. (Right now, Netanyahu is considered a war criminal by most countries and cannot safely travel to most nations.) The real church has also reached a point where it knows it cannot compromise, so both are in the same position.

Israel is aware that her compromised spirituality is part of what caused her debacle on October 7. The church is aware that its lack of spiritual commitment is part of what caused all the chaos from 2018-2024.

The church was wonderfully shocked by the level of victory she had in the elections. But she is aware that she has only tapped the surface of what needs to be done to continue victoriously. Israel was wonderfully shocked by some of the military victories she had this year, some without lifting a finger, praise the LORD, but she is aware that if she quits too soon, without occupying all the land God asks of her, both in terms of military prowess and in terms of ideology, she will pay the cost (just like King Jehoash in 2 Kings 13). Both Israel and the Church are feeling the increased necessity and passion for prayer.

Both the church and Israel are full of sin and questioning of God. Both are on the battlefield to bring forth God’s Glory. God is using compromised people to recreate His Kingdom on earth. We are all part of that journey.

In the Old Testament model, whatever or whoever was demonically tainted had to be destroyed. In the New Testament model, the demonic can be rebuked, removed from the people, and cast out. The people can be set free. Without Yeshua’s love and Grace there is no way Israel can separate people from the demonic that’s controlling them. Without that crucial gift all she can do is (1) destroy the people who want to destroy her, or (2) create a barrier between them so they cannot touch her. Israel desperately needs Yeshua’s Grace to fulfill her part in the Great Commission. She needs to be able to remove the demonic from the land and set the captives free.

This last point is the tip of the spear of prayer for Israel. But the entire blade is important, and it includes thanking God for all the ways He has blessed Israel during this past season. We cannot take lightly what He has already given, if we are preparing ourselves in Him for what He will give next.

God is orchestrating these connections, and God will continue to orchestrate these connections until all is fulfilled.

Cultural Actualities of the Moment in Israel:

Israel is returning to faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The soldiers pray and praise the LORD before and after their military battles. They are all singing a song, written by a young Orthodox man, about God’s goodness and the wonderful life He promises them. Soldiers come off the battle field worshiping, astounded by God’s miracles. The secularization of Israel has come to an end. That global agenda has failed in Israel. Israel is being restored to faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Coming Messiah

I believe that in the same manner they are now experiencing the Father‘s protection and provision they will soon experience Yeshua’s redemption. I believe he is going to appear to them soon as the One whom they have pierced and they will mourn and grieve, but they will also rejoice and laugh, and they will choose Him. This will be a greater blessing than anything the world has ever known. Yeshua, is now the time for you to reveal Yourself to Israel and teach her Your ways? Is this the time for her complete transformation so she can carry Your grace out into the world and destroy the works of darkness?

Unity in Israel: A personal confession:

I used to judge the Orthodox, especially the Ultra Orthodox, with their funny hats and strange hair going down the sides of their faces, with their heavy black clothes worn in the middle of summer, keeping themselves separate from the rest of Israel. I thought they were somehow nutty, and I blamed them for their addiction to their cultural past. They didn’t seem to live in the present. And I thought there was no way to connect with them. Then I met an Orthodox woman who befriended me and we discovered how identical our beliefs were. She would start a conversation about who God was and I would answer it with the same realization of who Yeshua was. I’d start something about Yeshua and she would complete it with God. We were almost always saying the same thing. It surprised both of us. This amazing encounter lasted for months. I prayed that Yeshua would reveal Himself to her, just as He revealed Himself to me. Perhaps that has happened …

Unity in Israel: But then the war came and most divisions in Israel fell into common ground.

Military units are singing modern Orthodox songs. The Orthodox are in the army and even cracking jokes about their funny appearance. Many soldiers are chanting and dancing prayers before and after they go into battle. Secular and Orthodox Jews are fighting side by side. Their women are working together to support them on the battlefield, caring for each other’s families. Massive numbers of the religious cleansed the October 7th massacre site with prayer this year during Sukkot. The Orthodox are providing food and supply chains for the soldiers, as are other groups. Their women are preparing food. The soldiers are singing that the Messiah is coming soon, and they are declaring His sovereignty over the land. Do we still have secular Jews in Israel? I wonder…

There are stories that have not yet been told that have been intimated. The soldiers have seen God‘s miracles and are paying attention.

Prayer points from the above:

Thank You, God, that Israel is advancing Your physical Kingdom.
Thank You, God, that Israel is removing the powers of darkness from Your Land.
Thank You, God, that Israel has acquired land she is going to use as a buffer zone between herself and those who would harm her.
We ask You, LORD, that Israel’s neighbors would be cleansed from all the demonic forces that control or manipulate them.
Keep Israel strong and do not let her compromise anything that would diminish Your sovereignty on the earth.
Help Israel to see her part, spiritually, in what happened on October 7th.
Keep Israel’s resolve firm to maintain her position of power until all the battles You say need to be fought on Your land are complete. Don’t let her cave prematurely and need to face these same enemies again.
Protect Israel from sin.
Thank You, YHVH, for uniting Israel in Your Son, Yeshua.
Thank You for destroying all secularizing influences within her.
Thank You that she is worshiping you a lot more now, and recognizing Your Hand in her victories.
May that recognition grow and mature and blossom into faith in Yeshua.
Guide her to see and experience the One whom she has pierced. Set her free.
Yeshua, Israel needs you. Without Your love and Grace there is no way she can fulfill her destiny.

Note that this list does not include many things that people regularly pray for, like the hostages. It doesn’t mean that the hostages are forgotten or are not remembered, but this list concerns, Israel’s destiny and purpose as it is being fulfilled and as it needs to be fulfilled during the present and coming season, approaching the season of Hanukkah, the rededication of God’s temple and the reclamation of his land.

Hanukkah is the Feast of the Rededication of God’s Temple, after the war with Rome was finished. What a perfect time to be praying for the rededication of God’s land and God’s temple within the Jewish people.