June 27, 2007

11 Tammuz, 5767

 

Dear Praying Friends,

 

In this letter you’ll find:

 

- A perspective on the “One Thing” youth conference

- A call to prayer for God’s purpose

- A report on our Worship School

- A call for help from us to you

- Dire Straits

 

 

One Thing … A Perspective

 

This weekend in Jerusalem is the “One Thing Conference” for youth sponsored by Succat Hallel. Around 300 internationals and 300 Israelis have already registered.  As you would imagine, it is about inspiring the youth to live for God with a total devotion to Yeshua. There is also one thing on the heart of the Lord that He desires in this moment.  Real devotion moves from focusing on our personal lives and situations to being concerned for what is on God’s heart.  Generally speaking, we could say that God is concerned for the glory of His Name and the extension of His Kingdom of light, love, and life into and through the hearts of PEOPLE, the crown of His creation.  In times past the Spirit’s call was to take the gospel of Yeshua to the ends of the earth…world evangelism.  Not to say that this season is now behind us, but that in specific it is now time to favor Zion.  It is time to bring her to birth.  For many years already people have been declaring that the birthing is near.  We really do think that we have passed some significant road signs signaling the soon appearance of this long-awaited event.

 

In a former letter we spoke of 1967 as being a significant marking point in the life of modern Israel. Israel won a great military victory with the reacquisition of Jerusalem after 2000 years of exile. In the West, a Jesus movement swept multitudes of youth into the Kingdom of God.  On the negative side, both in Israel and the West, it marked the beginning of a great moral decline and erosion of the family unit along with many godly values.  We had the sense that these last forty years were like Israel’s time in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land but couldn’t quite explain how it was so.  This thought stirred our hearts because if it was true, and we take Israel’s natural life as a foreshadowing of the spiritual reality, it means that we are at the moment of crossing over into our spiritual inheritance, which is nothing less than a generation calling on the Name of Yeshua.

 

I believe the Lord has given us the missing puzzle piece we were looking for.  When God called our fathers to go in and take the Land, ten of the twelve spies came back saying that the inhabitants of Canaan were too much for them to overcome.  After all the miracles, they still didn’t know, trust, or believe God.  Forty years ago, as the Arab world was preparing to attack Israel, our military launched a pre-emptive offensive that restored the city of the Great King to its rightful stewards.  And what makes Jerusalem the city of God? It is that His Presence dwelt there…there, where Abraham laid the cornerstone of faith and opened the way for Yeshua...on Mt. Moriah, the site of the Temple.  In 1967, having come to a threshold with the possibility to once again control the Temple Mount, in the same spirit as the ten faithless spies, by the word of our military commander, we said,  “We can’t take the ground.  The uproar in the Arab world would be too great.  The western retaining wall of the ancient Temple will be enough for us.”  We placed the most spiritually significant 36 acres of ground in the world back in the hands of those whose passion and goal is to wipe Israel of the face of the earth.  Once again the spirit of compromise ruled.  We had won our security…or so we thought.  But God’s glory and Name were not our concern.  Again and again, in ancient times and in modern times, when God opened a gate before us, we stopped short of going all the way. 

 

Unless our passion for the Lord is joined to the purposes of God for the establishment of His Kingdom and the revelation of his glory, our love will grow stale and wither.  Our battle must be fought for the Kingdom and not just our own lives.  God becoming the one desire of our heart must lead us to fulfilling the one desire of His heart.  Israel is the apple of God’s eye.  It is His firstborn son (Ex 4:22).  It is the appointed channel of blessing to the world.  It is the measure by which He will judge the nations (Matt 25.)  It is the key to release life from the dead to the world (Rom.11:15).

 

 

Praying for the Conference and Beyond

 

Beloved friends, we believe it is time for the children of Israel to cross over and take possession of our spiritual inheritance.  This time the opposing forces are not just those of the land, the Canaanites, but they are the whole world plus the kingdom of darkness.  This time, the goal is not just the physical land or even the Temple Mount, but the temple that resides in the hearts bound in darkness yearning for truth and life. 

 

What will it take to bring our very dry bones to life?  We are convinced that it will be nothing less than the intercession of the worldwide body of Messiah.  We have got to break through into an understanding of Israel’s centrality in God’s strategy for world revival.  Our hope and expectation rests in the youth.  We see God wanting to impart His burden to the youth of the world for the youth of Israel.  For from them will flow a fountain of tears that will wash away the scales of blindness from the eyes and hearts of His chosen ones.  This is where the water will come from to restore and reconstitute the house of Israel.

 

Is it not always repentance that opens the ancient gates?  Is God not always looking to visit and abide with us?  Fully believing that the One Thing conference is called by God to open a well, I pondered what the repentance might be that would be required.  Here is what came to me.  Perhaps you could pray along these lines:

 

-  The youth of Israel can stand in the gap and repent for former generations’ lack of honoring the Lord in not really considering Jerusalem as our chief joy;

-  The youth from the nations can stand in the gap and repent for the way the church has not really taken its call to make Israel envious, but only sought to deal with Israel’s deep wounds superficially;

-  There is a place for the older generation to repent to the younger for not truly releasing them into the Lord’s hands and for all the well-intended but actually binding religious forms we have laid upon them;

- There is a place for the younger generation to repent to the older for withholding their hearts from their parents.

 

If these points are from God, they are true and applicable for more than this one conference but form a basis to fulfill the Lord’s desire to turn the hearts of the parents to the children, the hearts of the children to the parents, the church to Israel and the body in Israel to the nations.  Please pray with us especially from Friday through Sunday, according to the witness in your spirits, for the fullness of God’s purposes to be accomplished.

 

 

School of Worship

 

On the home front, we are just completing our current school on “Preparing a Place for the Presence of the Lord”.  Though the material is basically like the schools we have conducted in the past, this time around there seems to be a greater simplicity of focus.  One question in particular has been before us:  “For whom are we living?”  Through the teaching and examples in the Scripture along with our own living walk with the Lord, the Holy Spirit has worked in our midst to help us see beyond what our mind tells us should be there.  How true it is that left to ourselves we will see only what we are looking for and interpret only according to what we already understand.  It is a divine work to break into our conscious reality with something new, not to mention something we would rather not hear.  In speaking to the seven churches in the book of Revelation, Yeshua repeatedly said, “I know your deeds.”  Ultimately, our deeds are the testimony of the true motives of our hearts. As we have waited before Him, God has faithfully opened our eyes to our own hearts.  In the end this will lead us to the realization of our inability to accomplish the work of God in our own strength.  The big surprise comes in seeing how often what we thought was his strength was ours and how often what we thought to be doing for Him was really for us.

 

After beholding ourselves in His light, we set our sights on getting in touch with His heart. Endeavoring to know what God feels and leaving ourselves open and available for Him to express Himself to and through us often turns out to be a wee bit different than our normal approach to the believing life.  Seeking the face of the Lord is more than looking for answers to questions, direction for our lives, or understanding.  The literal Hebrew meaning of “seeking His face” is to look to see what He is looking at.  Since Scripture calls Israel the apple of His eye, when we seek His face we arrive at His heart for Israel.

 

For photos from the current school click here.

 

We are planning to hold our next School of Worship from August 12-24.  If you are interested in coming, please contact Michael at Michael@emmausway.org.

 

 

Help Help

 

If you have a heart for the work of Emmaus Way…If you have a desire to minister to the Lord and His body Israel…if you would be blessed in assisting others as they seek the Lord…if you enjoy straightforward simple work like cooking, cleaning, and gardening and have some time to invest, please please let us know.  You can contact arni at <arni@emmausway.org.> 

 

 

Dire Straits

 

In six days is the 17th of Tammuz, marking the beginning of the three-week period of “dire straits” wherein the children of Israel have historically and repeatedly experienced disastrous events.  The need to pray is certainly underscored by the movements in Gaza, Iran, Syria, etc.,etc.,etc. 

 

We are blessed so much by your standing with us.  May God bless you from Zion!

 

Your servants…

 

For the Glory of His Name, 

   Arni and Yonit

 

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Emmaus Way is a faith ministry dependent upon the support of God’s people.