June 14, 2007

28 Sivan, 5767

Dear Praying Friends,

In this letter you will find:

- News and thoughts from the front line

- Where God was when our car was stolen

- German youth at the Center

- Taking Him to the streets of Jerusalem

A view from the Front

The word on the street is war.  Everyone we speak with is expecting it.  The IDF is preparing to fight on two fronts.  Hamas is said to have a present strength comparable to where Hezbollah was in the recent Lebanese conflict.  Syria has increased its forces on the border claiming it to be a defensive maneuver.  Within days it could easily turn offensive.  This is similar to what they did prior to the Yom Kippur war in 1973.  Though Assad has made verbal overtures for negotiations, he is moving troops on the ground.  Once that game begins it can easily reach the point of no return. Each side is trying to figure out what the other has in mind.  Is it really defensive?  Do they think that we are thinking to attack? 

More and more in the world today, especially concerning the Middle East, one cannot even think to plot the course of events according to logical principle.  I (Arni) have heard the very voice of the Lord saying that the war is coming.  What I heard and saw in a dream was not anything like what just happened in Lebanon.  It was destruction and devastation in the streets…even in Tel Aviv.  There was no indication of who the war was with.  Inasmuch as the word from the Lord came to me as an immutable declaration, I cannot pray that there will be no war.  But as we wrote last week, we can and even must pray that it will happen in God’s time and that it be as limited as it can possibly be and still accomplish the purpose of the Lord. 

Many have said that there is no solution to the conflict with our “cousins” outside of Divine intervention and their salvation.  In the ultimate sense we believe likewise.  However, something occurred to me (arni) that I would like to pass along. If the military and financial assistance were removed from the PA, they would be virtually incapable of maintaining their armed struggle against Israel.  Syria and Iran with the help of Russia are their main channels of supply. Could it be that God has placed a hook in the jaws of Syria and Iran to draw them down into battle, so as to  remove them from the picture?  We would not attempt to chart out such a scenario but feel to pass the thought along for you to add it into the equation as you seek the Lord on how to pray.  One wonders how long the Lord will allow the enemy to rain rockets down on our cities.  But we cannot forget that in the midst of it all, God is at work to bring our people to our knees before Him.

Another point for prayer is for discernment concerning the Iran’s true intentions and how we are to respond to them.  An Iranian believer living in the US recently shared that the present Iranian government is very unpopular among most of the Iranian people.  He could not imagine Iran actually attacking Israel.  He was of the opinion that the Iranian President is trying to provoke Israel to attack Iran in order to solidify his position within the country.  To know the truth here is a matter for serious prayer.  Needless to say, much is at stake.

Last week our Prime Minister said that he would be willing to give Syria the Golan Heights if they would distance themselves from Iran.  Can you get your mind around that?  We cannot.  It is so absurd that it is hard to even address the statement.  How long does one need to hold a sign in front of a blind person before he will be able to read it?  Imagine…for all of his life your neighbor declares his desire to drive you from your house and/or to kill you.  So in the name of peace you decide that if he says hello to you and smiles as you pass in the street, you’ll let him have a set of keys to your house. This situation cannot be understood with natural reason, related to based upon normal preferences and goals, or responded to out of human compassion.  We need God’s mind on this!

Our Car was stolen and God…

We are so very grateful for all the encouragement we received after the theft of our car.  The biggest one of all came from God himself.  The day after the theft, friends sent out an e-mail notice that they were selling their car.  Without even a second’s delay, I called and made an appointment to see it the next day and have it checked out.  It was two years newer than our former one, had less than half the mileage, and cost a bit less than what we will get from the insurance.  It was an effortless upgrade!  But there is more to the story.  Our friend had intended to send out the ad on Sunday, three days before.  With his finger about to hit the button, the Lord said, “Wait…don’t send it yet.  You won’t understand why now, but you will later.”  So when the notice finally went out the day after our car was stole, I (arni) was the first to call in response!  Everything checked out perfectly and we’ll do the transfer next week.  Before it happened, God had already provided the answer.   Praise God!

Please continue to pray with us for the full restoration of everything that has been stolen…in particular for a van.  So far, since the theft last November we have managed okay without one.  But as groups are now coming to the Center again, this lack and need is more and more apparent and pressing.

German Youth at Nes Harim

Last week, for six days, we hosted a group of seventeen (mostly youth) from several different congregations in Germany. There were times of corporate worship, teaching, personal sharing around a campfire, individual time with the Lord, cooking, eating and just being together.  Most found the experience to be deep, moving, and challenging. They just loved being out here in the mountains.  It seems that everyone finds it easier to connect with the Lord outside the intensity of city life. Every person had some level of life-changing encounter with the Lord.  The young German couple that led the group, Philip and Amy Wilson, did a wonderful job of making room for the Holy Spirit while paying close attention to everyone’s individual needs.  Please hold them up in prayer.   We (and they) believe that they are called of the Lord to lead young Germans into relationship with Israel.  Together we sensed that this was just the first of many such gatherings to come in the near future.  It is a special moment when a long-time dream or vision begins to materialize!  Click here to see pictures from the gathering at the Center, and here to access the teachings.

Beloved, God has His ways, plans, and strategies.  Until three years ago, we had no particular calling or vision for connection with Germany.  Obviously, in light of the past, there is common ground for relationship.  Knowing that there were already a good number of Jewish believers interacting with the body in Germany for many years, we had no sense that there was any need to enter into that field of ministry.  However, concerning the connection between the youth before a few years ago when the Lord spoke to us about this, there were virtually no Israeli ministries so engaged.  We imagine that many of our non-German friends and supporters might have a hard time relating to our involvement with Germany.  The Spirit challenges us at times to come up out of what we ourselves may be personally involved with to behold the larger picture of His working with nations and across the ages to get behind what God is doing in the moment. According to Shaul’s (Paul’s) writing in Romans 11,  the nations were entrusted with the gospel in order to make Israel envious and so lead them to Yeshua.  As we have seen again and again, Germans have a special entrance to the hearts of Israelis; and, as we know and have experienced, the enemy fiercely opposes this work and relationship between Germany and Israel.  Your prayers and support of us in this arena can make a real difference.

To the Street We Go

In 1974, the year after we were born again, the Holy Spirit spoke to me about taking my guitar into the streets with a message for the spiritually hungry.  In sending us to Israel, our former pastor David Wilkerson prophesied that we were being sent to reach the youth in the streets with music and drama.  Some of you know that soon after we moved to Israel in 1992, along with our friends Ari and Shira Sorko-Ram and Richard Ayal Friedan, we produced a fairly involved music and drama presentation that we took to the streets in Tel Aviv and the beach in Haifa. At that time it was a ground-breaking endeavor that succeeded in reaching people’s hearts.  Shortly afterward, much to our surprise, the Lord called us aside to focus on ministering to Him to prepare the way to go out at a later time. 

Now I want to share a bit of where I (arni) have come from.  Even in light of my call to the streets with my guitar, I have not had the confidence to go out without a company of people alongside.  The Spirit once told me some twelve years ago that all I needed was my guitar and Him.  Yes, I heard it and declared it but just couldn’t imagine it.  I have prayed for a fire like what hit the upper room on Shavuot that made it impossible for them not to go out.  The forces of opposition are so great here.  Only such a supernatural propelling would be enough to give my soul the faith that the moment and sending was truly of God’s choosing.  For thirteen years we have been waiting and being prepared.

We have felt the water rising now for the last six months or so.  Then this week, during one of our regular morning worship/prayer times, we felt the heavy leading of the Lord.  It was a simple moment.  Michael was playing guitar, and the Lord, as he so often likes to do when Michael releases his prophetic minstrel gift, decided to make His Presence known to us.  Our spirits rose up with verses, prayers, proclamations, shouts, cries, and groans.   As we ministered to Him, allowing Him to move us, He remained there in our midst.  And then we saw it…going to the street to make such a place for the Lord to come. He didn’t so much want that we would have an outreach or do evangelism, present a program, give out books or preach a message.  We saw ourselves sitting in a corner somewhere along the way where people were passing by, on a reed mat with pillows, candles, guitars, flute, drum, and Bible, and being there just as we were in the worship room that morning.  It’s like He is waiting for us to prepare the way for Him and to let Him be Himself.  We could feel the longing in His heart to be in the streets with His people…with the lost and seeking youth of Israel.

I (arni) can’t tell you how my heart is jumping inside!  The vision is clear, beautiful, simple, humble, and small.  He wants us to be vulnerable with nothing to prop us up, that He might be all.  I see Him dancing in Zion Square in the heart of Jerusalem.  This Saturday night, Yonit and I along with two young leaders of the national believing students association are going to the center of Jerusalem to pray and prepare the ground. 

Please pray.

May God bless you from Zion!

Your servants…

For the Glory of His Name, 

   Arni and Yonit

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