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Hello, this is Rick Ridings coming to you from Jerusalem, from Succat Hallel, with a very important update in prayer. I think most of you who would watch these videos and prayer alerts would be aware that this Saturday, starting Friday night to Saturday evening, is the 9th of Av.

The Significance of the Ninth of Av

And in Jewish history it’s just amazing and uncanny how many very serious things happened on the 9th of Av, such as the breaching of the gates of Jerusalem in 586 BC by the Babylonian army, which led to the destruction and the exile.

And then 70 CE, 70 years after Yeshua, Titus and the Roman army destroyed the temple in this city. In fact, just recently archaeologists described discovered burnt timbers from the temple that verify and confirm what is said in history, that at that date there was a destruction of the temple.

But then even through history there were other things, such as in 1290 the Jews were expelled from England.

In 1306, they were expelled from France. 1492 was a deadline for the expulsion of the Jews from Spain.

In 1942 was the deportation of the Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto into the death camps. So very serious things have happened through the centuries on this date. So obviously it’s a date when the enemy somehow releases great demonic opposition against Israel.

The Three Weeks (Bein HaMetzarim)

And because of that, and the tie-in with what’s called the 17th of Tammuz, which was the destruction of the First Temple, and many similar things happened on the 17th of Tammuz, the 3 weeks between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av are a special time where we need to really be vigilant in prayer.

We need to be as watchmen, watching in a special way, because Satan has traditionally chosen that time period to unleash great demonic attacks against Israel.

In Israel, they have a fast on the 17th of Tammuz, the Orthodox Jews, and on the 9th of Av, to mourn for the fact that these things happened and to confess the sins of the nation before the Lord.

And so they call these 3 weeks from the 17th of Tammuz to the 9th of Av, they call it “Beyn HaMetzarim”. That means “between the straits” or “in a very narrow place,” because in Lamentations chapter 1 and verse 3, it says, Judah has gone into captivity because of affliction, because of great servitude.

She dwells among the heathen, she finds no rest.

All her persecutors overtook her between the straits, bin ha-metzerim, between the narrow straits. And, He says here they overtook Israel to bring them into exile.

But the wonderful news is we now are living in the time where great Aliyah has been happening, and where God is regathering the outcasts and exiles from all over the world. In fact, there’s a scripture in Zechariah chapter 8 and verse 19, great promise.

The Lord Almighty says, the fast of the fourth month, and that’s this fast of the 17th of Tammuz, and the fast of the 5th month, the 9th of Av, will become months of joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah.

God’s Promise to Turn Mourning into Joy

In other words, God is going to do something at some point during those 3 weeks so great and so powerful that it makes all these horrible things fade into, into the past, and it eclipses them.

And instead of a fast on the 17th of Tammuz, a mourning on the 9th of Av, there will be rejoicing and festivals. Maybe this year is the year, we don’t know, but we do sense we are getting closer and closer to the time when God will do something so great on behalf of Israel that these fasts will be turned into times of rejoicing before the Lord.

The Straits of Hormuz and the Birthing Canal

Now, as we were praying into this in the past few days, it suddenly struck me, it’s between the very narrow place. And the focus of the whole world almost right now is on the Straits of Hormuz, upon this very narrow place that is so difficult for the oil shipping.

Now they’re threatening the straits near Yemen, and Yemen is threatening those straits and the oil supplies from there. So things are heating up here in the Middle East.

We don’t know when there will be the full resumption of war involving Israel, but there’s already quite a big resumption of war with the US, with Iran right now over the Straits. The war is over the Straits. And as we were praying, I felt like the Lord said the Straits are like a birthing canal.

They’re a very narrow place. When a baby is born, the baby has to go through the Straits, through the birth canal, through a very difficult narrow place in order to be born.

And afterwards comes a great rejoicing. It’s difficult for the mother, obviously, during that time, difficult for the baby during that time, but once the baby is through the streets, the baby is alive and the baby is born.

A Season for the Birthing Anointing

So we felt very strongly that this is a season for intercessors to receive the birthing anointing from the Holy Spirit to help birth the new things that God wants to do in the Middle East.

We believe that God has spoken from the beginning of October 8th, 2023, that we were to believe the Lord for the total collapse, the total uprooting of the evil Iranian regime and their proxies.

Now, that was looking quite hopeful a few months ago, and then we went through a period where it looked like that wasn’t going to happen, like they were just going to give in and cave into the regime and build them back in and put funds back in.

But I believe strongly that God wants us to contend for the birthing of a baby. And the birthing of the baby is the harvest, great harvest in the Middle East. It’s for the collapse of the wall of the lies of Islam that held people in captivity. And for there to be a great release and great harvest.

We believe that Iranians, when this regime falls and collapses, will go out all over the Middle East and all over the world describing the horrors of living under Sharia law and helping people just pull the mask off of that and help people to realize that true freedom is only found in Jesus, in Yeshua.

So we believe it’s a season for birthing. Again, the full birthing may happen really soon.

But if it doesn’t, we hold on until it does come, and we believe the Lord for that full birthing to come. And so I’d like to close praying a scripture from Isaiah chapter 66, verses 8 and 9.