January 10, 2005

29 Tevet, 5765

Dear Praying Friends and Tent Pegs*,

Years ago, in the first days of the Worship Center, we set aside time to seek the Lord to know if the spiritual conditions surrounding the ministry being launched were such that He would in fact be able to abide with us as He desired.  He honored our request and spoke in no uncertain terms.  They were not.  One of the indications of this came through a vision of a great wave that would demolish the facility if necessary changes were not made.  Of course we had hoped to hear something else, but we were glad to have been warned, and responded with a month of “sackcloth and ashes” before the Lord.

On the heels of this thought we’d like to say a word about the tsunami, the Palestinian elections, and about what is happening in our midst as a ministry.  God tells His watchmen/prophets what He is about to do.  As a result of the tsunami, we now have an indelibly imprinted image of the kind of devastation waiting to overtake the unaware and the unprepared.  All last year, God sent a word  through many voices in the Body that this year would be a year of judgment.  What has already hit the community of believers doesn’t quite seem to measure up to the magnitude of the tsunami.  Not yet.  But it would be naïve to think that such a wave in the spirit realm is not on the way also.

We have seen some photos that defy belief.  Crowds of people stood and watched the approaching wave as if viewing a movie, mere seconds before being overtaken and drowned.  We need to read the signs and see that this is not an isolated situation.  The world’s coma is growing deeper and deeper.  The power the spirit of unbelief is exercising around the world is staggering.   Consider the elections that just took place to choose a new leader for the Palestinian Authority.  The newly-elected Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) declares that he will protect all terrorists from Israel, affirms his undying loyalty to Arafat's maximalist demands, states that he will never crack down on Palestinian terrorism, and calls Israel "the Zionist enemy.”  In response to this, a spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Israel said, "We don't think it is useful to focus on every statement by every official; what's important is the process."  An official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said, "Words don't count in the Middle East; what counts are actions."  How amazing!  One commentator’s response to Sharon’s statement was, ”Have we learned nothing?  In the Middle East, words are actions.  On the question of both ends and means, he (Abbas) chooses to run as Yasser Arafat.”   If this blindness is not the result of a spirit of slumber, and is not ignorance, we are witnessing a much more blatant move to further destabilize the region and pave the way for the anti-Christ.

* * *

As we have been crying out concerning the need to get ready, we have been trying our best to respond to our own words.  All we know to do is to pursue holiness and separation from the world, along with intimacy with God and transparency with our brethren.  For forty days, in the pre-dawn hours, we gathered before the Lord in the Tabernacle.  During the first twenty days we expressed our worship through music, movement, and declaration of the Word of God.  For the second twenty days, the Spirit led us into a mode that we would characterize as laying ourselves on the altar.   Worship in spirit and truth involves both the declaration of His position and the acknowledgement of ours...waiting for the wind of the Spirit and moving out in faith...actively expressing our hearts and also receiving His.  

Towards the end of this forty-day period, the Lord gave a vision to one of our team and the interpretation to a visiting prophet/friend.  The vision was of a cloud that was in part pure white and in part light gray.  The Spirit told us that it was a picture of the condition of the ministry.  It could be seen as a combination of good news and bad news.  There was purity, but there was also mixture.  The change in the atmosphere we are seeking, the Presence of the Lord we hunger for, will only be realized when the cloud is all pure white.  Though we would rather have heard that there was no grey, we are thankful that the Lord let us know where we are and didn’t leave us to the vain imaginings of our own minds.  In the light of God’s holiness, a little mixture is no small thing.  (We are surely glad it was gray and not black).  Upon hearing this word, we knew we could not continue with business as usual and proceed with our regular practice of worship.  Sin or iniquity in the camp is a serious matter.  Immediately, we were led to call a solemn assembly.  This word in Hebrew, by the way, means “a stoppage.”  It doesn’t indicate exactly what is to be done, but speaks of a break in the normal pattern or flow of daily life.  It was 7:30 in the morning when we found ourselves gathered to hear from God.   For the next six hours we went round and round and back and forth, while the Holy Spirit exposed the thoughts and intents of our hearts.  By no means do we think that in such a short time we cleansed the cloud of all its grey, but we had a sense of release from the Lord to be able to again bring our offering before Him.  We receive the release as His response to our intent and commitment to press through until whatever He requires of us is completed.

The solemn assembly in which we asked the Lord to expose and purify our hearts was on Thursday.  Saturday night/Sunday morning twelve friends from the leadership team of TOS Ministries in Tubingen, Germany arrived.  What transpired over the next three days could have been orchestrated only by God.  The ministry they brought took us into the grey and gave us new insight into the nature of iniquity as something passed on through generational lines.  Their unity, maturity, love, grace, and wisdom were exemplary, challenging, encouraging, and just plain fun. The days were filled with revelation and repentance.  Having by no means arrived at the end of this part of our process, we are by God’s grace further down the road.  How dependant we are on God.  How true He is to meet us as we reach out to Him in faith.

On this note we ask for your prayers.  God called us to prepare a place for Him in Tel Aviv.  The “cloud” of Emmaus Way needs to be white... pure white. We don’t know how long this road is or what will be required of us.  Some of the things He has been leading us to do are to go through our books, music, and movies with a fine-toothed comb, and to acknowledge the motivations of our actions as “sin” rather than “struggles” or “issues” or “problems.”  If you would stand with us for grace and strength we would be grateful.  It is for eternity.

* * *

In our last letter we recounted the miracle of Yonit’s participation in the longest-night watch less than a day after her surgery.  We didn’t tell you of the miracle of worship musicians from Tiberius, Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Germany all flowing in the spirit together for several hours of humanlessly-led worship.  The group also included worshippers and leaders from Jerusalem and the nations, including the senior leaders of four different ministries.  It was a company of officers and generals of the Kingdom.  Standing before them in the preparatory moments of the evening was a humbling experience.  The response to what transpired over those hours together was flat-out amazement and wonder at how the Lord took a very diverse company and brought forth a unified sound to express His heart’s cry in the moment.  There has been a breakthrough in the manifest unity in the body in Israel.  We see it happening among worship groups and between leaders of congregations and ministries.  How long we have waited to be able to say that.  Glory!

* * *

Last week Brian and Kari went to the Ministry of the Interior to request a long-term visa in light of their now having a registered business.  The spirit of the official they met with was quite human.  She asked how long they wanted to stay and smiled at their answer...”forever.”  Their request has been forwarded to a committee, which will decide on the status to be granted.  Please pray with us for the unmitigated favor of the Lord to be poured out on this couple that in faith sold all they had to serve God in Israel.

* * *

In our last letter we briefly introduced you to our newest team member, Anne-Rose Krebs from Germany.   We first met when she came to the Center in the summer leading a group of youth as part of a tour led by the ministry (The Bridge) of Waltraud and Gunter Keil.  The resonance of our initial meeting led her back to the Center for what we thought would be the month of October.  The more we got to know each other, the more it was evident that our connection was a “God thing.”  Just at the time we were beginning to build the foundation for a long-term relationship between believing German youth and yet-unsaved Israeli youth, along comes this someone that has been working with youth in Germany for years, is trained and seasoned as a worshipper/warrior dancer, with a call to do the very thing God has laid on our heart.  By the end of November we had come to see that the Lord has brought us together for more than the ministry involving the youth of our two nations.  We are very blessed to have been able to receive her as a full member of the team.  Though much of her time and energies will be spent in Germany building this exciting Fourth Generation movement, her call is also to be an instrument of the Lord taking Spirit-led worship from Israel to the nations.  Please pray for her as she transitions from being based in Germany to being at home in Israel, and for her financial support. She also needs prayer for the healing of the injury she sustained (a torn calf muscle) during our night of worship on December 21^st.

* * *

This Tuesday from around 2 PM until Thursday afternoon, the Emmaus Way team will be having a joint retreat in the Worship Center with the leadership and staff of Adonai Roi Messianic Congregation, Dugit outreach ministry, and Or L’Yisrael (“Light to Israel”) prayer ministry, all of whom are housed in Esther House.  For some time now we have been praying together monthly, but sense the Lord calling us all into a deeper and more intimate fellowship with one another.  We will be spending time in corporate worship, private time with the Lord, and open sharing heart to heart.  Please pray with us for grace to listen, hear, and share and that the Holy Spirit would help us all to be real.

* * *

The results of the pathology report from Yonit’s surgery are not yet in, but will be soon.  Meanwhile, her recovery has been miraculous and pain-free.   The surgeon said that many women who have had this surgery require physiotherapy to regain full range of motion of the arm, but Yonit is able to do everything.  Praise God!

* * *

Our financial situation remains one of believing the Lord to provide from month to month.  At this point it appears that we have enough to cover our expenses this month.  Consequently, we ask that you would make a regular point of praying with us about this.  It was, is, and always will be beyond us to keep the Center going.  Please pray that people would get a vision of the burden of the Lord and the depth of His desire to have this particular resting place in Tel Aviv.

* * *

May God bless you from Zion!   

                                                       Your servants...

                                                           For the Glory of His Name,

                                                        Arni and Yonit