A Time When Hearts Are Being Revealed!

[Photo source: Internet screenshot]

"The olive is Israel's national tree. Why? Olive oil illuminates darkness. To get the oil, you have to crush the fruit. That's what's happening to us right now.” ~ Rabbi Lazer Brody in a Facebook post of an olive tree draped in an Israeli flag.

Anti-Israel protests have broken out across the world just as the Bible said would happen in Zechariah 12: 2-3, “Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. . . .and all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.”

Israel is defending itself against an enclave in Gaza that has perpetrated unparalleled acts of evil.

A Jewish soul wrote on social media today:

"I can't explain how it feels to hear people worldwide cheering for my extermination.”

But Zechariah 12: 2-3 is not the end of the story. There is really good news in Chapters 13 and 14 when the Lord returns to save the day for Israel and the nations that survive the future conflicts.

In light of recent atrocities, the following bears repeating: We must remember that silence in the face of evil is itself evil. "First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me." (Pastor Martin Niemöller)

Due to anti-Israel protests all over the world, several times today I’ve heard in my spirit the words of the prophet Simeon from Luke Chapter 2: 33-34. “Hearts are being revealed.” When Mary the mother of Jesus and Joseph brought Jesus into the temple to be dedicated, the aged prophet Simeon was in the Spirit and blessed them. And he prophesied to His mother Mary:
“Behold, this Child is appointed to cause
the rise and fall of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be spoken against,
so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed—” [emphasis mine]

In this hour, God is revealing the true hearts of people and nations! The lie that being anti-Israel is not the same as antisemitism has been utterly exposed over these past three weeks. Millions of Hamas supporters around the world have been chanting genocidal phrases like “Gas the Jews," "Death to Israel ! Death to the Jews,” “From the river to the sea Palestine shall be free.” These misguided, biblically illiterate persons are aligning with the powers of darkness that are intent upon destroying the people of God and thus they are against God himself.

Pastor David Decker wrote to me what I believe is the quote of the day:

I believe this conflict is a Divine Litmus Test that God is using, right now, to separate the "sheep": ( God Fearing People and Nations), from the "goats" ( God Rejecting People and Nations ). As Joel the Prophet foresaw: "Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision ! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision."  (Joel 3.14)

Furthermore, today on the Global Prayer Zoom of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, Romans 11: 22 was shared, "Behold both the goodness and the severity of God" as an explanation of what is happening as Israel defends itself in battle. For too many decades in Christian circles only the love and compassion of God have been preached, but the Scripture also presents the Almighty as a man of war when his people are threatened with annihilation. Just as the Nazi regime and other nations have been punished by God for posing an existential threat to Israel, so Hamas is being punished as will be its sponsor Iran. Behold in hours and days to come..... the goodness of God toward those who repent . . . and the severity of God toward his intractable foes!

Over 220 Israeli hostages are still being held by Hamas terrorists. This includes 40 children and babies, many women, and some other foreign nationals including Americans. Most of these captives are likely being held by Hamas in tunnels 60 feet underground. It is a very devilish task to rescue them safely from the hands of their cruel captors, requiring a supernatural miracle of Divine intervention but many intercessors are praying for miracles and wisdom for the IDF.

Today Jarrett Stepman wrote in The Daily Signal that the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel demonstrates the potential harm of having a disarmed society. When savage terrorists attacked, many Israeli citizens were unarmed. More than 1,400 innocent persons were butchered. How many could have been saved if more law-abiding people were armed? Israel’s gun laws were relatively strict but in the wake of the atrocities, a wave of Israeli citizens has immediately begun requesting gun licenses and firearms. The Times of India reported, “Since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on the western Negev, more than 100,000 Israelis have filed requests for gun licenses, according to the National Security Ministry.”

The framers of the U.S. Constitution not only valued the right to bear arms, but wisely included it in the Bill of Rights for citizens to protect themselves and their communities from threats, whether from a lone gunman, a band of killers, a foreign nation, or even from their own tyrannical government.

According to Stepman, “recent experience, if anything, has likely made Americans even more stubborn in their unwillingness to sacrifice their right to bear arms. As cities like New York start to resemble 1930s Berlin, is this a good time for law-abiding citizens to disarm themselves? The answer, clearly, is 'no.'”

Sensible people are beginning to realize in this conflict that Israel's enemies are not thousands of miles away but are literally sitting right on Israel's borders. But God is able to bring good even out of evil. There is now an increase of ultra-Orthodox men joining the IDF, and many other Haredim doing good works to comfort and care for devastated Israelis. Additionally, thankfully, Israel is seeing that this time that there really are Christians who will speak up for them and guard them. And we pray diligently for peace-loving Arabs to be set free from the tyranny of a terrorist regime and for their children to be given the opportunity to learn to love their neighbors. As Golda Meir once famously said, “Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.” 

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