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January 6, 2006 6 Tevet, 5766 Dear Praying Friends, Regardless of what we might think about the current policies of Ariel Sharon, he is a father in Israel and has played a significant role in the development of the country. We pray first and foremost that God would visit him with a revelation of Yeshua and let him see beyond this life into the eternal realm. We pray that his life would be spared and that he would return to us a saved man with God’s Word in his mouth. Though we have not agreed with his actions of recent days, we cannot and will not judge the motives of his heart. God alone knows him like that. Without the blood of the Lamb we all stand judged before God. According to His Divine will, He chooses to show mercy, suffering us to go on in our own ways for a season. And then, for reasons of His own, His hand touches the earth. It is unimaginable and even unscriptural to think that such an occurrence as the Prime Minister’s massive stroke could take place in Israel without the involvement of Israel’s very present King. This event does not surprise us, though it is amazing and sobering. Our prayers are next for the safety of our nation. May the enemy not be allowed to take advantage of this moment. Could it be that our responding with a heart of mercy for our former leader might have a bearing on the latitude given to our enemies? We stress this in the knowledge that many of the brethren, including us, have declared that Ariel Sharon was unfaithful to his own words and has in effect betrayed the nation. This is now history. An era has passed. God knew he would take that path before he was allowed to take office. Who knows but that his experience, whether conscious or comatose, will be like Nebuchadnezzar’s awakening after living seven years as an animal in the forest? Who can know what temptations and pressures come along with the office of Prime Minister of Israel? Surely, any weakness or broken place in one’s life would be magnified exponentially. The Lord showed something about Ariel Sharon just prior to his stroke: he had a congenital birth defect...a hole in his heart. I thought to myself, “How much more clear could that be? The physical condition reflects a spiritual one.” I (arni) fell into the trap of seeing this defect as the reason for his removal, relating to him as a Prime Minister first and a person second. Beloved, if we accept that the physical in this case mirrors the spiritual, and only relate to the “hole” as the confirmation that there is something wrong with him, I believe we miss God’s heart and perspective in the matter. The thought of his having had a defective heart since birth now fills me with love and compassion for him. The change has to do with what God is doing right now in my own life. In my first few years, I sustained a wound to my heart that has left me yet partially crippled in my emotions and struggling to respond fully to the overwhelming, repeated declarations of God’s love and care for us and for me personally. One of the most powerful spiritual experiences I’ve ever had was seeing how, if not healed, my “congenital” defect -- this thing that happened to me that I had no control over or ability to process -- would cause me to veer from the center of the Lord’s heart in the execution of my (then) yet-to-be-revealed future ministry and result in personal disaster. When I saw this in myself in a Divine moment of grace in 1990, I wept with quaking sobs, crying, “Mercy, mercy, mercy...God have mercy...fix me in time.” We are coming to understand more and more that when our response to the brokenness, sinfulness, abject poverty and degradation of the world is mercy...mercy...mercy, then we will be ready to take our place with Yeshua to rule and reign in the heavenly realms. I have tended to look first at what is wrought in others by one’s dysfunction while I am now more inclined to believe that God looks first at the pain of the one. So let us pray that Ariel Sharon, a son of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and a father in Israel, would find mercy and grace in his time of need. There is more to say, but we will stop here for now. Selah.
May God bless you from Zion! Your servants… For the Glory of His Name, Arni and Yonit |