Watch the teaching, or read the transcript below.

Zechariah 8: See What God Sees

In Zechariah 8:2-3, the Lord says, “I am very jealous for Zion. I am burning with jealousy for her.” I remember at the beginning when ISIS arose and was committing the same atrocities that Hamas just committed–beheadings, killing babies, raping, all the different things.

One of our young leaders said something that just really blessed me. He said we must remember as we pray about ISIS that all the headlines are saying they’re going to roll over the whole Middle East. They’re going to take it over. They’re going to make their big caliphate. They’re going to rule.

And at the time, they did look unstoppable. They were taking one region after another of Syria and Iraq and looking at coming to the borders of Jordan. It was all very quick, and it looked impossible to stop them.

Their throne will not remain

But this young prayer leader said we must remember that it says they are temporary, that the demonic powers operating through them are temporary, but God is eternal. They can be shaken, and He will shake all things that can be shaken so that that which cannot be shaken will remain. We must remember that ISIS can be shaken because they’re not part of the eternal plan of God, and the battle belongs to the Lord.

And it reminded us of what’s happening today. It seems so long ago, but it really wasn’t that long ago when they looked unstoppable. The demonic power working behind Islam can look, at times, unstoppable, and difficult. But even that throne, God is going to shake.

Every demonic throne he is going to shake. It’s going to lose its hold over people, lose its power to capture people, oppress them, and keep them in prison. God is going to set the captives free.

And so we need to come into our prayer, again, being reminded that He’s eternal God. His throne is forever.

It helps to understand how much of the warfare in group after group, we’ve seen for many years here that the ultimate goal is the same. It has to do with Jerusalem, with the holy city, and with his mountain of holiness, and with his worship. That’s the ultimate thing that Satan is after.

So it’s really important to put that into that perspective. And it’s also important to say, Lord, we don’t want to just pray thoughts. We don’t want to just pray scriptures. We don’t want to just pray for our understanding of the end times, which may be right or may not be right in every detail.

We don’t want to be just sowing of peace, a seed of peace, a time of peace, but we want to pray for the peace of Christ Jesus to come, however, that looks, and whatever way that comes.

I mean, obviously, the big things are clear in the scriptures, how it works out when everything belongs to God. And it’s important in it to say, Lord, help me to love what you love and to hate what you hate.

Love all the nations with God’s love

I remember when we first moved here in 1999, we were hearing all kinds of stories and narratives from different people saying, Well, this happened. I know this story. This happened to my family. This thing happened. And we were hearing all kinds of things that people were saying, wanting us to take on their perspective. And I was in one of the early gatherings of the Jerusalem pastors, where Jewish and Arab pastors came together.

Massem Adronomy was there. Massem grew up here in the old city of Palestine. And he said this, which was so good: if you love the Jewish people with a soulish love, in other words, a love that’s born out of stories, movies, books, what people say, all of those things are going to our soul, into our emotions, our mind, and all of this, then you’ll hate the Arab people.

And he said, if you love the Arab peoples with a soulish love, you’ll hate the Jewish people. But he said, if you love either one with God’s love, you’ll love the other one because God’s love is so huge, it is so perfect.

That doesn’t mean the other foreign nations don’t serve different roles and have different callings. God called Israel to keep the law, to receive the scriptures and the revelation that there’s only one true God, that he’s God most high, and that he’s above every other God. They were to serve only the one true living God, the God of the scriptures. And so they were given that task.

And each people and each ethnic group is given their own task, and all of it together is to worship the Lord and love the Lord.

But in Zechariah 8:2-3, as we see, the Lord says, He is burning with jealousy for Zion.

In other words, this message, it’s not just a thought in God’s mind. It’s not just a plan in God’s mind. It’s a deep heart, bridegroom commitment that he has to this city, not just to the Gentile bride, but to this city he has as part of his end-time bride.

Zechariah 8 says Jerusalem is set apart

The Lord says, I will return to Zion, and I will dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain. So his mountain is going to be holy.

Holy means set apart. It’s set apart for him and his worship only, ultimately. I want to just look at some scriptures of God’s end-time focus on Jerusalem.

We’ll look at  “Why is Jerusalem God’s end-time focus?” And then we’ll look at “Why is it Satan’s end time focus?” And then we’ll look at “Why is it the nation’s end-time focus?” But it’s first important to really understand, especially as God’s called us as watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem, “What is He saying as His end-time purposes on Jerusalem?”

Jesus Christ prophesies desolation and restoration of Jerusalem

So the first point here, letter A, is that Jesus Christ, Yeshua himself, made it a prerequisite that He will not return to earth and restore all things until there are enough Jewish people in Jerusalem who will welcome him back. And that’s based on Matthew 23.

It’s really important to realize the Jewish people actually have had a presence here for over 3,000 years. I remember a few years ago, we were celebrating the 3,000th anniversary of the Davidic Kingdom.

We need to realize the people, the covenant people of the land, are the Jewish people. They are the ones with whom God covenanted. And a long time ago, and there’s always been a Jewish presence here through all of those years, but there were times when Satan tried to get them all out.

And one of those times was the destruction of the temple in the time of the Romans. And they tried to ethnically cleanse the land and get rid of the Jews. Even then, they were not able to.

There was still a remnant that was here. But Christ Jesus, Yeshua, of course, had prophesied that. And he said there in Matthew 23:37-39,

Jerusalem, Jerusalem,  you who killed the prophets and stoned those I sent to you, how often have I long to gather your children together? As a hand gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.

He says, “Look, your house is left unto you, desolate.”

In other words, he prophesied that the walls would be brought down, the temple would be brought down, and that they would try to ethically cleanse the land of the Jewish people. It came very close to that. If you look historically, until about 150 years ago, almost all of Jerusalem was desolate.

There was only inside the old city walls and then a very small group. And many of those city walls we see now were built in the 14 and 1500s. So it was left desolate.

But then he gives this wonderful promise. Speaking at the time to a Jewish church in Jerusalem. He says, You will not see me again until …  Not you will not see me again, but you’ll not see me again until. What’s the until?

Until you say, Baruch haba bashem Adonai. Until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” And of course, we all know in Hebrew, Baruch haba, also means just welcome. Blessed be your coming. Welcome.

And so he’s saying, I’m not going to come back to Jerusalem until there are enough Jewish people in this city again who are crying out and saying, Baruch Haba bashem, and blessed are you who come in the name of the Lord.

The importance for gentile and Jewish believers to pray for Jerusalem

And so, those of us who are from gentile nations, it’s so important that we pray for a quick acceleration of the numbers of Jewish believers in this city. And today, there are a lot more.

Martin Norbik had testified to this, too, since the beginning of St. Kalal in the year 2000, the number of believers of Jewish and Arab believers in this city has really grown. It is amazing.

Last Wednesday night, on short notice, they called the Jewish congregations together for a united Prayer Time. Over 300 people came on short notice, ready to pray, ready to repent, ready to confess the sins of the nation before the Lord, to cry out to the Lord for mercy, and to pray for the nation.

We need to realize something has been shifting not only in terms of the Jewish people who were in exile and were exiled from the land being able to come back not just in physical terms but in terms of spiritual restoration. Something is shifting.

And we believe that we’re in a time where it’s going to be a more major shift now. The number of people open to the Lord, the number of people coming to Yeshua, having a revelation of Yeshua.

It’s the time. This is the time. And so we’re here. I mean, isn’t it amazing? And those that are watching you’re there by virtually praying for Jerusalem. Those of us here in the room are actually here as watchmen on the walls.

God is restoring Israel physically and spiritually

And we live in this time when He’s moving from primarily only physical restoration to full spiritual restoration. People in the nations often asked me to visit. They said, Well, I thought that was the Holy Land.

It looked like as much a sinful place as back home. And God made it very clear. He said I will not bring them back holy. I will bring them back as dead, dry bones, and then I will breathe upon them.

He didn’t say, They have to come to life spiritually, and then I’ll bring them all back. He said, I’ll just bring them back as dead, dry bones, but I will breathe on them in the land.

In Ezekiel 36, he talks about gathering them on the mountains of Israel, which is basically what the world calls the West Bank, what the Bible calls Judea and Samaria.

And he says, When they are gathered back, then I will turn their heart of stone into a heart of flesh.

Then I will sprinkle clean water. Then they’ll turn from their idol.

So we’re living in a time where I believe we’re right at the edge of the heart of stone becoming a heart of flesh. We were right at the edge of the sprinkling of clean water upon the people and of the breathing on the dead, dry bones.

And the part for the Gentile body of Christ, of Messiah, He says, Call for the breath. Prophecy is the breath from the north, the south, the east, to the west.

We’ve had people from the North, from Moscow coming down here, praying, and many people from mainland China who have been here through the years and spent long periods of time from the East prophesying the breath of God; from the very tip of South Africa prophesying the breath of God; and from the West, from the Americas, prophesying the breath of God.

And He says I can’t stand it anymore. They love me so much, I’ve just got to go. It’s like we pull him down with our love. And he’s just like a magnet. I can’t stand it. I’ve got to get down there to my bride.

And it’s just like He prepares a heart for him to welcome him back. So how cool is that? It’s amazing that we’re living in this time where that’s shifting that that is really happening.

Ezekiel 43: God Will Establish The Throne of Jesus

In Ezekiel 43:6-7, God says, “Son of man, this is the place for the footstool of my throne on earth. Here will I dwell forever among the Israelis.”

So he says it’s among the Israelis. In other words, he does restore the kingdom to Israel, but ultimately it’s His hill. Ultimately, it’s His throne. And that is what He will establish here.

God will establish the throne of His son, Jesus, Yeshua, on His holy hill, which often is called the Temple Mount, Mount Moriah, the mount where Abraham came to sacrifice Isaac. So it goes clearly back 5,000 years ago.

Yeshua will reign from his holy hill

When we look out our window here at Succat Hallel, we’re looking at the place where Abraham came to sacrifice Isaac 5,000 years ago. And this is where Abraham, 5,000 years ago, gives a 10th to Melchizedek, which is the picture, obviously, of Yeshua, the priest and king without any human ancestry.

He has a human ancestry, but he’s beyond human ancestry. He’s eternal. And so he will establish his throne in this city.

So even though he comes back to the Mount of Olives, it’s very clear in the scriptures that he’ll reign from his Holy Hill. His throne will be from His holy hill.

But we need to realize that we can worship the Lord everywhere in the world now in Spirit and truth. People say, Well, what about John 4? You don’t have to go to Jerusalem to worship.

And that’s absolutely true. We don’t have to go to Jerusalem to worship. Now the Holy Spirit is poured out in the whole earth. We could worship the Lord in Spirit and truth everywhere.

But there’s only one place where the government of God touches the governments of the earth. And that’s the hill behind us here. That’s his holy hill.

And he said This is the footstool of my throne forever. The glory of God will begin to cover Jerusalem at that time. It will become the center of justice and the center of teaching the nations the ways of the Lord, thus bringing peace to the earth.

In a time of war, we’re reminded that the only one who is the Prince of peace is Yeshua. And where and how does he rule? He does it from his Holy Hill. He does it from his throne.

As it says in Isaiah 2:1-5, “This is what the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains.”

So again, he’s making clear that the Temple Mount will be established as the highest of the mountains. It will be exalted above all the hills. All the nations, all the peoples will stream to it.

Many people will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways. ‘ so that we may walk in His paths.

The word of the Lord will go out from Jerusalem

And then He says, “Then the law or the instruction of the Lord …”  It’s more the idea of the Torah. It’s the instruction of how to live. “… will go out from Zion.”

The word of the Lord will go out from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations. No more arbitrary things of men judging things.

He, who knows everything, every thought, every heart, every bit of history, everything he knows, will judge with perfect justice. He will settle the disputes for many people. Then they will beat their swords into plow shares, their spears into pruning hooks, and nations will not take up sort against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

So He says, as a result of the coming, let us walk in the light of the Lord. He says to Jacob, Let us walk in the light of the Lord.

And it’s so important that we realize that only God knows what is true justice. A lot of people want to think, Well, I know what’s just. I tell you, I know.

But Proverbs 28:5 says, “Evil men do not understand justice.” So we shouldn’t be surprised when the United Nations doesn’t seem to understand justice because it’s comprised of evil men.”

But those who seek the Lord, those who seek the Lord understand it because we begin to have our minds and thoughts renewed by the word of the Lord.

God’s glory will cover Jerusalem

And then, at that time, the glory of God will cover Jerusalem.

In Isaiah 4, verses 2-5, In that day, the branch of the Lord will be beautiful. And, of course, the branch of the Lord is who? In the scriptures, it’s Yeshua.

Yeshua is the branch that comes out of dry ground. So he’s going to be beautiful to everyone who lives here. Everyone’s going to love him. Everyone’s going to know who he is.

He’s going to be honored and loved and appreciated by everyone. The branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and the glory of the survivors in Israel.

Those who are left in Zion and who remain in Jerusalem will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. So somehow, by the time he returns, the ones who will be left are the ones that are holy.

In another place, he says, none of the proud or arrogant will survive. So we really need to humble ourselves before the Lord. There will only be the humble in Jerusalem. There will only be those who have become holy to the Lord.

The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion. He will cleanse the blood stains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire.

Need to realize that whatever difficult things we’ve gone through, whatever difficult things we may go through, all of His judgments are righteous and are redemptive. They’re redemptive.

And it’s a redemptive thing that out of the fire will come a refined people who seek Him and know His ways and where then His word can go forth from Jerusalem to the very ends of the earth, that they come from all over the earth because his justice, His righteousness, His truth comes forth out of Jerusalem.

But then he says an interesting thing: The Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assembled there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night.

So he comes back to this city with an actual cloud again, like the cloud that led them in the desert, the cloud that led by day, and the fire by night. And then he says over everything of that, there will be a canopy, a chuppah, and it will be His glory.

So His ultimate plan for this city is to fill the city with His glory. And that’s so wonderful that that’s what we can pray. We can continue to, and we need to pray for the long-term purposes of God for this city, which is that he will make this city holy, that it will be faithful, that it will be true, that it will be beautiful, that it will be a praise to Him in the midst of the earth, that it will be a place his throne can be, a place that he’s pleased to dwell, to have his dwelling place back completely.

Zechariah 12: This Is a Spiritual Battle for Jerusalem

In Zechariah, chapter 12 says, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged, as well as Jerusalem.

The bottom line in the Middle East conflict is it is a spiritual battle for Jerusalem.

And in Jerusalem, it’s the spiritual battle for the Temple Mount. And on the Temple Mount, it’s the spiritual battle for who will be worshiped on His holy hill. And that helps a lot once we realize that.

I mean, we all know the Bible says, ultimately, we’re not fighting flesh or blood, but we’re fighting spiritual powers of darkness in heavenly places. It is a spiritual battle.

We were talking a night or two ago about spiritual Air Force versus physical Air Force. A physical Air Force is very important in a physical battle. Absolutely important. But the spiritual Air Force is even more important because, ultimately, it is a spiritual battle.

We cannot explain what goes on in the Middle East. When we first arrived here and began to travel all over the Middle East, I began to realize you cannot understand the Middle East and what goes on here only in terms of traditional ways that people think about past wars, past borders, past people movements, all the different things. It’s way, way beyond that.

There’s a spiritual dynamic about this city that is way beyond any of that. And ultimately, the battle is the spiritual battle of the whole Middle East is the spiritual battle for Jerusalem.

It’s all about Jerusalem

Satan actually doesn’t care who’s worshiped on the Temple Mount as long as it’s not God, as long as it’s not Jesus. He could care less.

At times, they’ve had a statue of Zeus up there, a statue of Jupiter up there. Right now, it’s the false moon god from Saudi Arabia who receives a lot of worship up there. But Satan doesn’t care who it’s through as long as it’s not to the true and living God, the God who created the heavens and the earth, and the God of the Bible.

As we begin to understand that, it really helps us understand why what we’re doing is as important as it is. I know sometimes the pressures are here. This is an intense city.

Some people, when we travel, will say, Well, what’s it like living in Jerusalem? I’ll say, Well, some days it’s intense, and other days it’s more intense. We’re very thankful for the days when it’s only intense and not more intense.

But it’s because of the nature of the spiritual battle for this city. It’s the ultimate battle of the universe. It’s a battle for worship. And the center of that worship and of his government and His kingdom is this city. He’s chosen it.

Now, honestly, I think if I were choosing, I would have chosen a place with beautiful mountains and rivers and whatever. And someday, we’ll have a really nice river coming down here. But in the meantime, as I said, It’s a dry, dusty place.

You think of a great place for a capital city, but he’s chosen it as his capital. And so we need to realize this.

Back in, I think it was about the year 2000, 2001, through a long series of events, I was in southern Lebanon with a friend who grew up here and speaks perfect Arabic, even though he is an American.

And we were told by the Lord to go on a prayer journey to the south of Lebanon to Balbank, which it turns out was the place where more human sacrifices happened than any other place in the whole of the Middle East, in the whole region historically, Balbank, Lebanon.

And that is the headquarters of Hezbollah, which is interesting. And we were there praying and just trying to obey the Lord on things he was telling us to do. And my friend, talking to some of the Arab people there.

Oh, we’ve made the museum into a museum now about our struggle, and what our struggle is for is Hezbollah. Maybe you’d be interested to see that. And so he said, Yes, I would. Can I bring my friend? And he brought me in.

And so this museum was set up by Hezbollah to explain to the people of Southern Lebanon why they were there and what their goal was. And interestingly enough, not a word was said about some Palestinian state or anything like that. They showed us gory, horrible things to Jewish people.

And it was so hard to hide our feelings. And it was like they would get this look in their eyes of glee, almost like, Here’s this one we killed. Here’s this one we butchered.

It was so hard, but we felt like God wanted us there, wanted us to see. But the last thing they showed us, they said this is what Hezbollah is all about. What was it? A model they made of the Temple Mount, and they had red to represent blood running down. And then they had the green, they said, were their caskets put together in the formation of the Cedar of Lebanon, the symbol of Lebanon.

And they said this is what it’s all about. They said We must give our blood in order to liberate Jerusalem.

The throne of the whole world

Now, why do they need to liberate Jerusalem? You’re not even allowed to take a Bible to the Temple Mount. Jewish people are not allowed to pray Jewish prayers.

All that’s allowed is the Quran and Islamic prayers. Why would they need to liberate Jerusalem?

There’s something there that is very, very coveting about that mountain and the worship of the true and the living God on that hill, on that mountain.

Here is a quote by Hamas leader, one of the early leaders in a mosque in Damascus in 2006. He said, By Allah, you will be defeated. There, he’s referring to Allah in the sense of the moon god from Saudi Arabia. You will be defeated in Palestine.

He says then our nation will sit on the throne of the world.

Now, isn’t that interesting? To be honest, I think most Christians don’t realize that the Temple Mount is the throne of the whole world and that the Lord has his throne on that holy hill. But it is interesting. The leader of Hamas knows that. He said our nation, the nation of Islam, will sit on the throne of the world.

God will bring His people together

This is not a figment of the imagination but a fact. This is a direct quote from him in February 2006. There were people who came to try to claim it for ISIS. I remember we were in the middle of our youth conference in Jerusalem.

During that time, Hadar came to us, and he showed us a pamphlet with an ISIS flag on it. He said this ISIS flag is being distributed all over the Temple Mount. He said there are thousands of them being handed out to people. And on it, it said, Warning to the Arab Christians of Jerusalem: If you are not gone by the end of Ramadan, you will be killed.

And, of course, the way ISIS was going at that time, we took this very seriously.

I remember in our youth conference in Elav, because we had Jewish and Arab and Palestinian young people there together, several hundred, I felt at a certain point that I should make an altar call. I said This is a very serious one.

I said, “I’m going to ask only those of you who are Jewish believers that if Arab Christians have to leave their homes because of ISIS, you would say, You’re welcome to come to my home. You can come and stay with me. I will protect you.” There were a lot of Jewish believers that came forth.

As it turned out, ISIS didn’t carry out their threat, and they didn’t attack the Arab Christians like they said they would by the end of Ramadan, but they put a lot of pressure on Arabic believers and engaged in a lot of persecution. Even one of our worship teams that was Arabic said they had a hard time coming out of their apartment because there were extreme Muslims in the streets rioting in front of it.

But they said, “We prayed, Lord, protect us, hide us, and we’re going to go, and we’re going to go to love anyway and be together with the Jewish believers.” And they came.

They can make all the threats they want to, but God is going to bring His people together.

Here is a quote from an ISIS fighter when they broke through the Syrian border.  He said, “This is not the first border we will break, Inshallah,” which means Allah willing. Abu Bakhi, the leader of ISIS, says Allah will break all barriers, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, all of them, until we reach where? Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem.

So ISIS’s goal was not to rule and have a caliphate over Iraq and Syria and wherever. Their end battle goal is Jerusalem. We will break every barrier until we take Jerusalem.

But once again, God arose. And the wonderful thing there is earlier this year, Patricia and I were in Iraq, and we were with Yazidi boys who had been captured by ISIS and were forced to be soldiers and commit terrible atrocities, and girls who had been sex slaves of ISIS. God is healing them.

I mean, it’s so wonderful, the ministry we were with. If you could see, these kids are the healing that’s coming, just the light of the Lord coming out of their lives.

This leader of Isis is gone, long gone. But these kids who he was oppressing and abusing are coming to the Lord. And before that, the Yazidi people were almost impossible to talk to. They were a very closed community. But through all of that terrible stuff, they went through, they opened up to people that came in ministry and showed love and showed the love of Yeshua.

Zechariah 12: The expanding spiritual battle

But the bottom line I want to put here is each of these radical Islamic groups has exactly the same end goal, which is Jerusalem. It’s not just Israel. It’s not just the Jewish nation.

From the Hamas Principles and Policies document: “Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine. Its religious, historic, and civilizational status is fundamental to the Arabs”.

In other words, not only Islamic sites but also Christian and Jewish sites belong to radical Islam control.

Praise God, this statement begins to lift the mask off of Islam, and people begin to see what the true heart of the Quran is. Not one stone of Jerusalem can be surrendered or relinquished. He said it all belongs to Islam.

There are a lot of narratives trying to just totally twist history rather than a 5,000-year-old presence of Hebrews, rather than a 3,000-year-old, I would say, the capital city of Israel being Jerusalem. It’s like suddenly, we have this long, long claim. Actually, if you look historically, it just isn’t true.

There were periods of time, mainly under the Turks, where there were hundreds of years of Islamic rule, but even that was by the Turkish. It was not a local kingdom. Because of this, if God’s end-time plan is to set it on this hill, set it on the worship on this hill, set it on this city, then we shouldn’t be surprised at what we just heard from all of those that Satan’s end time focus is to get the nations to fight against Jerusalem.

Right now, it has been primarily among Muslim extremists, but that is quickly changing, as we can see by some of the things in the universities in America and Europe and some of the things this last week that were said. Ultimately, he’s trying to put it in the hearts of all men to come against this city.

Again, Zechariah, chapter 12, says, “On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.” He said, “If they try to move it, they’re going to be injured. It’s not going to be moved.” He said.

My plan is sure, says the Lord. My plan will not be moved, but they will injure themselves. “On that day, I will strike every horse with panic. It’s rider with madness. I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations.”
Now, part of that may be literal, and part of it may be figurative, but he will inflict the people with blindness just like he did to the army of Syria at one time in the Bible.

And as we pray, he will right now in tunnels in God’s word, pray, He will blind eyes that need to be blinded, those who have sold themselves to this demonic plan to take the hill, God’s holy hill, of Jerusalem.

Seek God’s strength in the battle

But then Zechariah 12  says that God says, I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind the horses of the nations. Then, the clans of Judah will say in their hearts that the people of Jerusalem are strong because the Lord Almighty is their God.

Now, we’re strong not because we’re strong, but we’re strong because we’re strong in his strength, because he has changed us. We believe in him, and we’re calling out to him as our shield and our rock, as the one who promises to give us strength and keep us intact despite those gathered against us.

Isaiah 15: The Lord Will Make Himself Known

On that day, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. On that day, Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth.

Isaiah 15:23-24

Do you remember the prophecy experts, I mean, all those experts that missed Jesus?

They knew he’d be born in Bethlehem. They knew enough to tell the wise man, Yeah, he should be born in Bethlehem. I mean, they knew the scriptures. They had the prophetic plan of God understood, but not the timing.

They missed him, even though they knew so much of the plan, of the prophetic plan. But who did not miss Jesus when he was born? Those who were worshiping and interceding–people like Anna and Simon. Why? Because they were worshiping. They were praying. They were in the presence of God.

They knew the scriptures also. I’m not taking away from this in any way, but they didn’t own the scriptures. They knew it in their heart and their relationship with God. They were trusting in the timing of God.

Pray for the timing of God

We need to pray and say, Lord, help us to understand your timing. A few years ago, the Lord gave me a vision in which I saw demonic powers that were building wood bridges and sea ramps and highways coming to Jerusalem. They were all from every direction.

They were coming from New York, from the UN, from Geneva, from the UN headquarters there. They were coming, unfortunately, even from South Africa, from Iran, from Moscow, from different places. There were these highways coming. They were feverishly working to build these highways.

Suddenly, I felt in the vision that the Lord said, Not yet. He began to set back their plans, and he just spoke a word over them. Logs that were part of their highways and their siege ramps just began to shake and fall apart.

Their plans were very set back and severely set back. But he didn’t mean they couldn’t rebuild, but they were set back in their plan. Why? I believe the Lord said that it was because I needed to bring forth a worldwide great harvest before I allowed this to happen.

There are people who don’t know me, don’t know my name, don’t know my salvation, don’t know the salvation in the blood, the name of Jesus, of Yeshua, and they need to know. He loves the nations, every nation, every people.

He wants Israel to know, and He wants the whole Middle East to know, and He wants to give everyone an opportunity to hear and know about salvation through Jesus, through before those who refuse him and persist because it says they hate the truth.

This is the time for a mature harvest

Isn’t it interesting? It’s not just that they don’t want the truth. They hate the truth. He said, They hate the truth. And then he says, Then he’ll allow them to build these siege ramps against Jerusalem.

I believe we’re still in that time. I believe this is not the time, as I’ve said before, for a premature World War III. This is the time for a mature harvest, for a great harvest worldwide. I believe it looks impossible, but I told you all years ago that I felt the Lord said clearly in a time of great harvest, Satan would try to stop it through a premature World War III, that he would try to use regional wars, regional conflicts to escalate together into a premature World War Three.

But that we, as intercessors, were to pray to contain and restrain each regional conflict. In other words, we couldn’t stop it. He said there would be regional conflicts. There would be regional wars. We’re in one right now here where we live.

But it’s interesting that Russia thought they would run over Ukraine in about two weeks, and they’re still there, and they’re bogged down. I believe God has contained and restrained that. I believe if they’d run over them in two weeks, I believe China would have been emboldened.

Again, by China, we don’t mean the people. The government would have been emboldened to attack Taiwan and other countries. And Iran would have been emboldened to attack here, not just through their proxy, Hamas, but they would do it.

But God has contained and restrained. That’s the same thing, I believe, we’re to pray about this war right now that it will be contained and restrained. It will not go beyond the borders and the timing of God for right now.

Now, we also need to pray it’ll be less than what God wants. I believe God wants Hamas uprooted. I really believe with all my heart that demonic oppression is for the sake of the people of Gaza as much as for the sake of the people of Israel.

He wants to take out that demonic spider and spider web. And if you just prune, if you just cut a tree, it looks cut back, but then it grows back even stronger. I believe now is the time when it needs to be uprooted.

Every plant that my father has not planted shall be uprooted. And we declare that today these demonic groups like Hamas and Hezbollah will not be able to continue to oppress and hold back the harvest in their areas.

They will not continue to be able to try to wipe out Israel off the face of the map and to make sure there are no Jews to welcome Jesus back to Jerusalem. We just declare that this will not go less or more than what God allows it to be for His redemptive plans for all the peoples, his redemptive plans for the nations, and his redemptive plan for this nation as well.

I believe we need to just keep holding on to that. Now, today, 600 pastors of Taiwan just wrote me that they are meeting for the next three days. They’re fasting, and they’re praying that there will be either no war or containment of any military thing between the Chinese government and Taiwan.

They’re also praying for us here. They’re agreeing with us that Hamas will be uprooted. This evil, demonic entity will be uprooted, and whatever else is in the plan of God for this time.

The times and the seasons belong to God. They do not belong to Satan. They do not belong to the Antichrist, who will try to change the times and seasons. The times and seasons belong to God and only that which will bring forth ultimately a great worldwide harvest of people who will be saved from eternal death and come to eternal life in Jesus. Only that will be allowed to go forth.

Signs of the Lord

Now, another thing that I want to mention on this is there are also signs of the Lord too. In 2004, we were having a watch just before we had our first facility. We met in the House of Peace at that time, several days a week. We were proclaiming and worshiping together, and suddenly, I felt like the Lord came on me, and He said, Get up right this minute.

It was like, don’t wait. Get up this minute and proclaim Psalm 99. So I did. And it says. The Lord reigns. Let the nations tremble. He sits on the throne between the cherubim. Let the earth shake. Great is the Lord of Zion.

There are only nine verses total, and the last verse says, Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain. For the Lord our God is holy. And the moment I said the word holy, the last word of this short Psalm, we had a 5.0 earthquake in Jerusalem. So strong.

This is up on the third floor. There was a chandelier. The chandelier was rattling. Pieces of furniture were shaking in the room. And we’re all screaming. It was right on that word.

Here, it starts out by saying, The Lord is exalted over all the nations. Let the nations tremble. Let the earth shake. And it was like God just gave a good shake to let us know that He will cause the earth to shake before Him.

Now, the interesting thing in the newspaper is they said if there had been just a little stronger earthquake, there could have been a lot of damage. They said the only damage was a crack over the Prime Minister’s seating, the Knesset, which, at that time, he was doing some very compromising things.

And the Dome of the Rock they said that there was a crack in the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount. I believe God was showing He can do whatever He wants to whenever. The earth belongs to me., says the Lord.

Let the nations tremble. Let them shake before me. They can make all their highways to take Jerusalem, but what the Lord wills, remains.

The highway of God

I was in Iraq back in the days of Saddam Hussein and heard on the television tens of thousands in the streets saying, We will give our blood to take back Al-Quds, to take back Jerusalem.

We were in Egypt, and they were chanting that during the revolution. We were there, and they were chanting it sometimes with a million people in Al-Tawid Square, chanting that they would give their blood to take back Al Quds, to take back Jerusalem.

So again, it shows all these demonic highways. It’s all the same thing.

It’s the same line. It’s the demonic spirits behind Islam. But eventually, it will affect the other nations as well so that the nations come together against Jerusalem. So God and Satan are both raising up these highways to Jerusalem.

And the wonderful thing is that God will build His highway. God is building His highway. It’s happening. Satan’s highways will be set back. At some point, He will allow them to be seized in Jerusalem. But even then, He’ll ultimately just stop the whole thing.

He will glorify His name, and He will reclaim His holy hill, and He will be worshiped on His holy hill.

I just want to quickly mention the Isaiah 19 highway because we often pray for that here in Succat Hallel. Back in the year 2000, at the beginning of Succat Hallel, the Lord spoke really strongly to my heart.

He said, I want you to go to Iraq, and I want you to proclaim in ancient Ur, which is the city Abraham came from, in ancient Nineva, which was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, and in ancient Babylon, the last verses of Isaiah 19 that say in that day there will be a highway between Egypt and Assyria, meaning the Assyrian Empire or most of the Middle East.

And it says they will worship. It’s a highway of worship. He says the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. And then he says, Then something will happen. And he says then something will happen, and he says Israel will join in as a third.

In Hebrew, it has the idea almost like a trio. Suddenly, now, they’re all singing in harmony. He said They will become the center of blessing for the whole earth.

The center of blessing will go from Jerusalem to Israel to all of the Isaiah 19 highway, all of these nations. And if you take the boundaries, the size of the new Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation, if you put it more like a diamond than a square, it’s almost exactly over the Isaiah 19 highway.

So it’s almost like the whole new Jerusalem comes centered on this old Jerusalem, but it extends out. And this becomes a center of blessing for the whole earth. This is one of the early times in Egypt with the believers there worshiping and praying together.

He told me, “Go to those major cities and proclaim I’m about to begin the fulfillment of Isaiah 19.”

I said, “Well, Lord, I can do that in Jerusalem just fine. But Saddam Hussein is in power in Iraq. America is the great Satan, and Israel is a little Satan. It’s bad enough having an American passport, but if he finds out, I live here. I don’t think I’d exactly be welcomed.”
But the Lord said, “No.” He said, “This particular assignment cannot be done from far away. You have to get your feet on the ground. You have to go read this and do this.”

Long story short, how I got into Iraq, I can’t tell you the whole thing, but the same guy that got me into the Hezbollah headquarters down in Lebanon is the same guy that got me into Iraq.

I was in a hotel in Baghdad. It’s only men because it’s a Muslim hotel. You sit at these big, long tables, and I find a man who speaks some English and start speaking to him.

He’s Egyptian. As we talk a little more, it turns out that he’s a pastor from Egypt. I said, “Can we go outside and talk?” We went outside to talk because everything was wired in those days. I said, “I need to tell you something … Have you ever heard of Isaiah 19?”

He said, “Isaiah 19? Of course. I’m Egyptian. It says Egypt shall become my people. I will bless them on that day. Say, Blessed be Egypt, my people. Assyria, the work of my hands. And Israel, my inheritance.”

He said, “Egypt is going to become his people.” I said, “Yes. Well, I said, Here’s what I felt God wanted me to do. He told me to come to Ur, Babylon, and Nineveh and proclaim that God’s going to start fulfilling Isaiah 19.” And his eyes got really big.

And he said, “He told me exactly the same thing, the same three cities.”

And we had never met until the breakfast table in Baghdad with the same assignment from the Lord, the same three cities.

But some of you in this room might have traveled and seen a lot of places where God is doing this.  God has done things like this on the Isaiah 19 highway to just give us a glimpse of what He is doing.

It’s small. It’s all small, but it’s significant in the heavens. I believe for God, it’s significant.
We went to Turkey to dedicate the House of Prayer. There were Iranians and Kurdists as well as Turks in the room. Some of them were experiencing miracles. It was amazing.

One of them came to the Lord while he was on the Islamic haj in Mecca. Jesus appeared to him. He went there because he had problems with alcoholism and with his wife. He thought, If I could just have enough money to do the haj, maybe this will help me.

And Jesus appeared to him, not a vision, not a dream. He came into the room, and Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Now, he didn’t know the scriptures, but Jesus did.

And then he said, “If you will follow me, if you’ll leave the Haj, not complete it, but follow me, I will totally deliver you.” He said he would. Then He said, Jesus, Yeshua, touched his chest.

He said, “I just felt like fire went into me.”  It was at night. The next morning, he got up to get ready, and He looked in the mirror.

Of course, most Turkish men have a lot of black hair on their chests. He got up and looked in the mirror, and there was a white handprint on his black hair. Now, this is not a second-hand story. I know the man. He showed me. I mean, I’ve seen it. Now it’s gray hair, some gray hair, gray and black. But still, you can still see the handprint.

This is not a second-hand, exaggerated story. I saw it, and I heard it from his own lips. And he came to the Lord.

Isn’t God doing amazing things on this highway? And that needs to encourage us as we’re praying in the midst of this war that there will be the revelation of Joshua both to the Israelis and to the people of Gaza, that there will be revelations, dreams, visions, visitations.

The Lord is able to go anywhere in the deepest, darkest tunnel. He can go and reveal Himself. I’m praying we’ll have testimonies of some of the hostages coming out miraculously and saying, “Jesus appeared to me. Yeshua appeared to me while I was there.”

Psalm 83 says that when he defeats a united conspiracy of peoples coming against Israel. It says he does it in order that they may seek His name. That’s why we want to put this in context for those of you praying among the nations.

This is God’s redemptive work in the middle of what Satan means to do, to steal, kill, and destroy.

Pray for the shalom of God in Jerusalem

In the middle of all of this, God can move redemptively and reveal Himself, redeem His people, and bring them to Himself. Zechariah 9 talks about Gaza losing her king, which I believe means the demonic king as well as the earthly rulers like Hamas. It says many of the survivors will become a clan of Judah, a tribe of praise.

What we’ve been praying for years and years for the people of God. We’re praying that very quickly, we will see a huge number coming to the Lord and delivered from eternal death into eternal life. This is why all the believers on earth are commanded to pray for the shalom of Jerusalem. And just a side note, shalom, in Hebrew, does not have the idea necessarily of the absence of war. We think of peace as the absence of war. It’s peace within, even in the midst of war.

It means a supernatural peace that passes all understanding that even in the midst of war, we can have shalom. It does not mean there won’t be this final besiegement when Yeshua comes to return to rescue the city. But it does mean that we can have the peace of God.

When you’re praying for the shalom of Jerusalem, it means the fullness of its identity, of its calling. We are praying not just for Jerusalem to be rescued. We’re praying for Jerusalem to become what the Bible said it would be: the center of the law of the Lord, of the instruction of the Lord, of truth and justice and righteousness going forth to the world that finally brings an end to all these horrible wars as it emanates from Jerusalem.

That’s why Satan wants to destroy it.

Don’t just pray that we won’t have war. Pray that we will have the fullness of His calling upon Jerusalem. A city filled with His presence, a city filled with His glory, a city filled with truth, filled with light, filled with justice, filled with Himself, His very own presence, and that it will once again become His dwelling place.

Pray for Jerusalem to be filled with the presence of the Lord