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It’s day 78 of the Israel-Hamas war. It’s a very important time not to give in to apathy and sleepiness but to stay alert in the spirit and to pray what the Holy Spirit wants us to pray. It’s so important.

We’re so thankful for all of you who have come from the nations and who tune in together to pray and worship together with us because we believe it’s making a difference. We’re very blessed here in Jerusalem to see that something similar to October 7th they were predicting to happen in East Jerusalem has not happened by God’s grace.

Today, I would like to share with you something from Numbers 14. There in verse 9, if you remember, Caleb and Joshua tell the people not to be afraid of going into the promised land and warring against the Canaanites. They say:

“Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”

For the Good of Gaza, for the Good of Israel

Today, we do feel our prayer and worship is having a role in calming down what the demonic realm would like to do in this region. In the past week, the IDF two times came very, very close to capturing Yahya Sinwar, who is the leader of Hamas, the terrorist group that has oppressed not only Israel but also Gaza.

For years and years, we’ve already been praying here. One of our staff members grew up in Gaza. We’ve been praying very much that God would mercifully take out this oppressive leadership that is just crushing the people.

They’re using money, the billions in aid sent to help the Gazan people from countries around the world to live in luxury in different places. At the same time, they’re also building tunnels and military infrastructure rather than investing in the good of their people.

What we’re praying is for the good of Gaza as well as the good of Israel.

What we felt was the Lord showed us was showing us something as this Hamas leader had escaped two times just this week, and another mastermind of the October 7 massacres, Mohammed Deif, also narrowly escaped, someone they’ve tried several times and come so close to capturing.

The Lord reminded me of something back in 2004. During that time, there was an end to four years of suicide bombings here in Jerusalem, of terror bombings toward innocent victims. And we knew some of the victims. And toward the end of that time, we were crying out to God, Lord, we thank you each time that we see you intervene, but this has to come to an end.

During that time, we felt like the Lord spoke to us about occult shields of protection, that people who are demonized terror leaders have an occult shield of protection.

Numbers 14: Pray That Shields are Broken

It’s interesting in Numbers 14 when Joshua and Caleb said, Look, we can just go in and take the giants. It’s nothing to us. The other people were so afraid because it seemed so impossible. But they said their protection is gone.

Their protection is gone. God is with us. We will go in, and we will slay the giants. We will take what God has promised and not allow them to continue. But of course, God had been very patient for 400 years for the cup of iniquity to be filled up by the Canaanites before God judged the Canaanites.

So God reminded us in 2004, there was a main terrorist leader named Sheikh Yassin, who was continually demonically calling the people to continue in their suicide bombings. The Lord spoke to us and said pray that his occult shield of protection would be taken away and that God would deal with him however He wills.

Of course, we prayed for his repentance first, but if he did not repent, we prayed that God would remove him from his ability to continue to incite the death of so many people.

And so we prayed this, and within two weeks, though previously the IDF had tried to capture him or take him out, within two weeks, he decided to go outside. His aide told him not to go outside because he had seen a plane, but Yassin said, “Allah protects me. I can go anywhere I want.”

And when he stepped outside, he was taken out in a strike that affected no one else. Within a very short time, that four years of suicide bombings had dialed down and stopped. And this was the major turning of the tide.

Time for the Turning of the Tide

So, we believe it’s time for the turning of the tide. It’s interesting that Friday morning, yesterday morning was the winter solstice here in Israel, which means it was the longest night. That means tonight will be shorter, and the next night will be shorter.

So, we believe that the darkness of the night of war will become shorter and shorter and that the light will begin to arise. But the key to this is removing these two major leaders, Sinwar and Deif, from power.

Now, I’m not calling that we pray for them to die. What we’re praying is that they repent, first of all. But if they do not repent, we pray that God will remove them from power.

We prayed a  similar prayer concerning a leader in Sudan. We prayed, Lord, would you remove him? We prayed to let him repent and remove that spider and his spider web, the evil terrorist state he had built in Sudan.

I’ve never had this happen before, but the very next day, in the headlines of the New York Times, it said that the leader of Sudan, Alba Shire, had been removed, and it used these words: The spider has been removed from his spider web, the exact words the Lord had led us to pray.

Now, he was removed without dying. The coup overthrew him. They had tried time after time for over 20 years without success. But the next day, he was removed in a successful coup.

And soon after that, a few months after that, Sudan actually normalized relationships, made peace with Israel, and said, we are no longer supporting terrorism.

And now they’ve been seeking to help the people of their country instead of using all their money to buy weapons and enact terror.

As Joshua and Caleb saw their battles could be won in Canaan in Numbers 14, let’s look to God, and know that He will demolish the protections of those who stand against Him and bring about His will in both Israel and Gaza for His good and for His glory.