Gaza War Update: Prayers
Today is the 68th day of the war. Sometimes our prayers of faith are not consistent, especially when we are not completely certain about what God wants.
Yeshua/Jesus/Yasua has all authority in Heaven and on Earth, and the Father’s will shall be done! So, whatever the outcome of this present war of Israel against Hamas in Gaza, the Holy Spirit will use it to further YHVH God’s plan and purpose, and to work all things together for good — for those who love God, and are called according to His purpose.
That is my confidence, my rest, and my peace. Praise the Lord for His mercies and grace to give us such assurance in an increasingly dark and evil world, lying under the power of the evil one.
We continue to pray for a decisive victory by Israel, and for the release of all the remaining hostages held by Hamas. Whether this will actually turn out to be the case, I, at least, am not able to “declare.”
But, I do know that our hope is in Yeshua, and not in Israel; in Yeshua, and not in Jacob/the Jewish people; in Yeshua, and not in the USA; in Yeshua, and not in Christians. In my own mind, a decisive Israeli victory will enable more Jewish immigration (aliyah) to Israel, fleeing growing antisemitism; will enable more Muslims and Arabs to denounce Islam and turn towards the true God and Father; for anti-Israel Christians to come to a choice of destiny regarding YHVH’s covenantal faithfulness, which is what secures them in their New Covenant faith; will put the fear of the God of Jacob/Israel in His people and in their enemies.
I believe that many Gazans will be free to come to saving faith, and to express joy and gratitude for an Israeli victory. WILL THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA SHOW ANY OF THIS AND TELL IT?!
Hamas has made the Gaza Strip into a high-security prison camp with explosives, weapons and ammunition everywhere. Hamas leaders and their operatives steal the humanitarian aid, and the money, that has been given many times over the years for the civilian population, even during this war.
The surviving population will rejoice, and we pray for their protection, when Israel defeats Hamas (if the “world powers” will allow it, or if God sees to it, despite all other opposition), and many will become evangelists to other Muslims, to Arab Christians who oppose the sovereign Jewish state of Israel, and to nominal Christians — even to Jewish people.
There will be a window of opportunity, I believe, that God will use them to draw many Jewish people towards repentance and faith in the gospel, since God the Father will give them a new heart and a new spirit (the Holy Spirit), they will show mercy to the Israeli Jews, and to ask forgiveness for having hated them, many of them ignorantly, since they have been indoctrinated and brainwashed to do so (just as Jewish people have been towards believing in Yeshua/Jesus for who HE actually is).
The Islamic jihadi spirit (the antichrist spirit) against Jews and Christians and not-serious-enough Muslims in particular, and against any other humans, in general (created in the image of YHVH God), will team up with extreme Jewish anti-Jesus sentiment (do you pick up the common element here?) to turn on the believers in Him, especially those who are Jewish or former Muslims. Both Rabbinic Judaism and Islam believe that Christians believe in three gods, or have an “associate” equal to God in their understanding of “one God”: to them, the one God is a singularity, and not a compound unity. Afterward, though, the satanic jihadi spirit that was willing, for a deceptively pragmatic brief time, to join forces with satanically deceived Jews will then turn on the Jews because they are Jews (antisemitism at its core). Satan hates human beings in general, and Jews and Christians in particular, and other Muslims who don’t hate them with his absolute level of hatred, because the Jewish people and the Christians, especially those who are believers, represent YHVH God on the Earth — the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob — as does the nation of Israel in the land of Israel.
The devil hates his Creator for not accepting his grievance. Angels, which Satan was/is, are spirits, and they are not deceived. There is no repentance for them. Humans are deceived by the devil and by sin, and are prone to take his side of being “the victim” against YHVH God — the Father, Yeshua the Son, and the Holy Spirit — the Creator, the Redeemer, the Judge, the Law-giver, the King, and the Savior. A bitter root defiles many. “Unfair!” they cry. Is it fair that our Creator came into the world in flesh and blood in order to die a criminal’s death on the cross for our hatred without a cause towards Him, and to forgive any and all who repent and believe the gospel?!
If you do not like all of the destruction and death going on inside Gaza, pray and speak out for the powers-that-be to demand that Hamas surrender, rather than tell Israel to stop what Hamas started (once again), and what they have already stated to be just a rehearsal for more “Oct 7ths” to come.
God bless you all this very special season of the year that God has given to remind us all of His Light shining in the darkness!
Howard Bass is the congregation pastor/leader of Nachalat Yeshua (Yeshua's Inheritance) in Beer Sheva, Israel.