PRAYING FOR YESHUA’S RETURN

What do you pray for? Who is most advantaged by your prayers?  You?  Others?  God Himself? You might want to take a moment to consider how you would answer your own prayers.  I had to.

This morning I had a dream that was more of a message than pictures. Some dreams you know are from the Lord.  This was one of them. I must preface the dream’s message with a story. In writing the book,  Heaven is Beyond Your Wildest Expectations, (available on Amazon.com) I interviewed a number of people who had been to heaven, most had died but after they experienced heaven, the Lord sent them back to bring the message of what they had seen and heard and to tell people to prepare for the coming of the Lord is soon. How soon is soon, we do not know. But we would do well to “prepare” as He said.   

One man I interviewed recounted the Lord’s words to him which impacted me greatly, causing me to rethink my own priorities in the Lord.  While I do not remember the exact words I do recall that basically it was this:  “My people are more concerned with their own comfort than with Me coming, so they do not pray about what must take place prior to My coming” (my paraphrase).  

I had to ask myself, did I even pray much for His coming when it will be the greatest moment in all of creation?  But in considering the implications of Yeshua’s message to pray for His coming, and what we do or do not pray for, it seems that God takes (most of) our prayers seriously, that He answers the desires of our hearts most often, and that what is NOT sincerely the desires of our hearts, He either does not “hear” or doesn’t take seriously since we really don’t either.  How many things have you prayed for that you either forgot because they really didn’t matter in your life after all, or because you realized later it was God’s protective blessing that He didn’t answer as you had asked?  It’s happened to all of us. 

But I was struck with what this man reported were Yeshua’s own words that His own people’s concerns were largely other than His return.  Now, I’m sure that just about all of us live in great anticipation of His return.  Or do we?  I think each person’s answer may be affected by what “His return” means to them. It is Biblically true that one glorious day Yeshua will appear, no doubt brighter than lightening in the sky to “catch us up” to be with Him forever (1 Thes. 4:16). "in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed" (1 Cor. 15:52). While His coming is a given, the question is when?  

If you believe in what we call a “pre-trib rapture” that before the great and terrible days of tribulation which the Bible indicates will take place in the end of days, then surely you are confident that one day soon you will be “home free” without suffering the ravages of any days of serious difficulty.  Personally, I don’t see it this way in Scripture - the "last trumpet" is after all, the last trumpet. To believe otherwise, if you'll allow me to say so, seems rather escapist to me - though I would be enormously happy to see that I have been mistaken should I find myself suddenly in the sky with Him prior to any difficult times. That would be wonderful, but personally, because as far back as Abraham, there are statements that God does not deal with the righteous as He does with the wicked. There are, in fact, 99 such statements in the Bible.  We see that in Egypt when God brought the plagues upon the Egyptians, Israel remained free of them. The darkness was all over Egypt but the sun was still shining in Goshen.  Pretty superantural, wouldn't you say?  God kept them protected, just as I believe He will keep His people protected as we trust in Him to do so. Still, Israel did go through the first of them.  

So what if we will be here for some of it, half of it, or all of it?  How then should we pray?  What do we need from God if we might in fact remain on the earth for some difficult days ahead?  After all, there are many believers throughout the world today who are suffering now for their faith in Yeshua. Surely, He cannot come too soon for those being persecuted for their faith. We should all pray for His protection and provision, courage and rescue for those suffering for Him until He does come.  

But shouldn’t we be praying that He does come and whatever circumstances will be involved in that marvelous event?  For those who expect a “pre-trib rapture,” what about the millions of people who are left who will go through times of tribulation as the Bible describes?  What is our concern for them?  And what if there is not “pre-trib” happening and we turn out to be the people who are going through difficult times.  What then shall we pray now?  Can we pray to bring about Yeshua’s return?  The Bible does end, after thousands of years of input, with the words, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”   I’m not at all sure I have the answers, but I do feel that I am to put the questions out there for whomever God leads to read this. So if you’ll allow, I will share some further thoughts. 

I expect that most of us know that the world is in trouble. Being an American, without going into the details of American foreign policy or even what is taking place internally in America, it appears we’re losing our grip as a superpower and making some really bad deals, decisions and alliances.  I might not have to remind you, in light of Genesis 12:3, that siding with Israel’s enemies whose intent is their destruction, is far from wise.  Additionally, we are feeding the hand of the dog that will bite us, if we think radical Muslims will decide we’re not really the Great Satan after all because we’re funding them.  Well, I said I wasn’t going to go into it, so I’ll stop and go back to what I feel God wants to put before us – the matter of praying for His return even if it means difficult days ahead.

Are we not praying about it either because we don’t expect to be here, or because we’re leaving it up to God because it’s too scary a picture to look at, or it seems too confusing to sort through all those prophesies or the News to know what to pray?  Maybe it’s a combination of these.  But the question still remains –  how then shall we pray?  And what about the Lord’s statement that we desire our comfort more than His coming? Isn’t that a piercing remark?  I think of myself as desiring Him and His will more than anything else in my life, but this statement has caused me to realize that I really do not want to experience what I might have to, before His return, should we not be “raptured” out of any harm’s way. Or to put that in wider terms, neither do I do want “us” – that is my family, my friends, my people at large, my church, the church, or my country to go through what the Bible describes in various places as end time events. None of us do, which is why most of us would rather not look too closely at that option – being here, I mean. 

Without going into those verses here (you could do a Google search for end time Scriptures) or discussing possible scenarios, what I believe God would have us focus on, at least in this article, is whether the desire of our hearts is His coming more than anything else in our lives.  Of course, while we are still here, we must be concerned with issues in our lives and the lives of those we care about. Life does go on in the here and now and we always need His help and wisdom, so yes, praying about those matters, matter!  

But what is the deepest desire of your heart? Where does Yeshua’s appearing truly fit into the plans and purpose of your life? Do we each really want Him more than anything else? We readily say yes, of course, at least most of us. I would have said it too. But then I came to see, what I really want is “peace and safety.”  Well, of course. We all want that too and that’s God’s desire as well.  He has promised us both peace with Him and protection which is to say, being safe in Him. Only it doesn’t necessarily mean in the worldly sense.  

I want to be a candidate to be able to say with Paul as I’m sure you do, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day….” We agree, right? We want that too.  But then Paul finishes the sentences by saying, “and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Tim 4:7,8).   Are we each among the “all who have loved His appearing?” Of all the things we love, and the ways we love Him, is His appearing high in our priorities and the greatest desire of our hearts?  I mean really?  How much thought do you give to what may be required of you before He returns if what the Bible says will eventually take place does actually come about in our lifetime?  Does that dim or fan the flames of our “love for His appearing”?   

Most of us would agree that “we have peace with God through faith” (Romans 5:1).  I’ve never known why Paul didn’t finish that sentence.  I always want to ask when I read that verse, “Faith in what?  In who?” not that I don’t know.  But I didn’t always.  I remember times in my walk with the Lord when there was such an emphasis on faith that my focus was on having enough faith, rather than on Him.  That was, of course, works because it was dependent upon me having enough faith, so I never felt as if I had enough because any time we look to ourselves and not Him, we are in the deficit.  It will never be sufficient.  Only what is in Him and from Him can be sufficient. Once I put my faith in Him and not in having enough faith, I was at peace.  So then, should we pray for more faith? Or shall we put our trust in the Lord that His goodness is entire toward us, that His promises are true and that He will keep us safe in Him no matter what. Shall we not come to Him with David’s psalms, for instance, to pray them though to God until God’s protection and His goodness become as real to us as they were to David in the midst of his days of tribulation.  He certainly had them, but he remained wrapped in a blanket of confidence of God’s goodness and His love for him, no matter what happened.  And we have a “better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22; 8:6) than David did! 

If God helped David, He’ll surely help us in whom His Spirit lives!  Whatever circumstances may come about in our lives, God has said, “I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6).  And we know that “Messiah Yeshua is the same yesterday, today and forever,”(Hebrews 13:8).  If He was enough for David, He’s enough for us.  God assures us, “For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” says the Lord who has compassion on you” (Isaiah 54:10).  I love that verse. It’s one of my favorites. Is that truth real to you, no matter what comes?  And if we’re His, “…we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). 

His purposes are to bring redemption to the world, and we get to be a part of His doing it.  So even though we may go through difficulties, God gave us His word to strengthen our faith and confidence in Him. Paul wrote, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor 4:17).  When we think in terms of eternity, anything we go through here on earth is momentary.  And any difficulties we may go through, when our trust is in God and we honor Him with our faith in His goodness, no matter what, it results in "an eternal weight of glory to us in ways we cannot even begin to imagine.  Paul was taken to the third heaven so he could write those words, to tell us of what can be our expectation of one day when we stand before the Lord and hear Him say to us, “Well done, good and faithful one.”  Do you live for that all–fulfilling moment?  

The End of Life ~ The Beginning of Glory

About two months ago, I had someone on my mind I hadn't seen for years. He was a boyfriend of many long years ago. The romance lasted for quite a while but in time I realized he was not someone I wanted to build a life with. On occasion, throughout the years, we would reconnect for a brief, "How are you" or a "What's happening in your life?" But he, being Jewish, was not the least bit interested or receptive in hearing about my Yeshua on any level. I suspect it was his lifestyle more than his Jewishness, but his attitude made it difficult to talk at all. We lived in two very different worlds. Still I continued to pray for him, asking God to rescue him and save him throughout the years. I had known he wasn't entirely well when we last connected several years ago. Nothing life threatening, but still....


Then here he was, on my mind again. I decided to send him a copy of my book, Heaven is Beyond Your Wildest Expectations, hoping he would at least be curious enough to read it and consider his own eternity. One of the last things I did the day before I left for Israel was see that the book was in the mail. Then I forgot about it and about him. Back home again six weeks later I sat at my dining room table and confronted the stack of mail that awaited me. I began sorting through the pile when there was the envelope I had sent to him. What? Didn't it get there? Did he refuse it? Then I saw the words someone had written above the address: "DECEASED".

I sat there and stared at those words. They seemed so final, so absolute. He was now dead, and he had never gotten the book. To my knowledge, he had never come to know the forever-hope there is in Yeshua. He never knew the freedom of forgiveness and the cleanliness of soul that comes from exchanging our pride for acknowledging our need for the Lord. And now, where was he? I was afraid I knew. How sad. How very sad. I'm sure he would have let me know if he had come to Yeshua. But he never did. I don't know why we pray and pray for someone and there seems to be no answer, at least to what we are asking for. Should I have prayed differently? Should I have prayed for him to realize the peril of his self-sufficiency or self-aggrandizement that he rejected any thought of needing God? Should I have asked God to bring him to a place of fear of his own pride and arrogance and to somehow be made aware of what it would be to stand before a holy God? I had simply prayed, "Lord, save him; rescue him; help him know he needs You." No long prayer, not a really empathetic prayer,just a sort of perfunctory concern for his eternal well-being. I am not taking on any kind of guilt here. I had committed him to the Lord long ago, and who knows but God, what his last moments on earth consisted of? I may yet find him greeting me at the gates in heaven. Hope springs eternal, as the saying goes. I must leave his destiny to God and move on.


In the here and now, though, I have another friend who possibly faces death -- wait, no! That word does not apply. Death is such a dark and sinister word, so wrapped in a shroud of emptiness and desolation. Tthe end of life here on earth is not at all death for those who are "in Messiah Yeshua" or "in Christ," as many would prefer to say. There is no death in Yeshua, only life. "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord," Paul said, who himself had been to heaven and brought back a report, that there is no sting in death for those of us whose sins have been washed away by the blood of Yeshua. For that we are grateful beyond expression.


My friend may well be dying nonetheless, at least her body may be coming to an end. She has cancer and unless the Lord heals her miraculously, she may not have long to live, though if you looked at her today, you would not think that is the case. Her faith is high, she is trusting God to heal her. She has been given many "words of knowledge" or supposed "prophesies" of God's healing hand upon her life. But so far, though she has been doing well and has beaten the doctor's predictions of the expected duration of her life, the prognosis now isn't matching the "words" and the "prophesies." Were they truly "words" from the Lord, or were they uttered with wishful thinking or declarations of hope without having heard specifically from the Lord about her situation? Now she questions why God would have spoken those words to her if He wasn't going to heal her. I do wish that before we say, "Thus saith the Lord..," we be sure it is really what He is saying in that specific circumstance. Even believers do die. It is a reality in this life that our bodies do give out sooner or later. That may just be a reality that we all need to accept.


My dear friend Igal Hoffman, an Israeli, died of cancer a number of years ago after a bold attempt at alternative medical resources to keep him alive. But in the end he succumbed anyway. But through it all, Igal was yielded to God, that whatever proved to be His will, Igal would trust Him and love Him and rely on His goodness to get him through. He saw himself as a lamb in the arms of the Lord. I once asked Igal how he relates to God through all he was suffering, and suffer he did. I remember his words clearly. He said, "Underneath the pain and the confusion (of why God allowed this to happen), there exists a joy. I know He is with me and I know there is an even greater eternal joy to be had in His presence." Igal was entirely secure in the Lord that God's goodness was with Him and toward Him and that His goodness would be fully manifested to him either in this life or the one to come. He gave no place for the devil in his trust in God and in that he had the Lord's peace. The day after he died, having had my own experience of heaven I told God I wished I could see Igal when he entered heaven and experienced the joy he so anticipated. Suddenly I had an experience I cannot give you chapter and verse for, but I sensed Igal's presence with me, so real, and so there! I "felt" as if he was beside me, even to "feeling" his Israeli accent though I heard nothing. The more amazing thing was that I sensed he was more alive than I had ever known him or anyone to ever be. It was as if God allowed him to come to me to assure me of how real life after death is and that once we are free from these limited bodies in this fallen world, we are indeed fully and completely alive!!


Many years later, the day after my mother went to be with the Lord, I was awakened that morning hearing the Lord say to me, "She's been before Me." At that very moment I had a mini-vision of my mom, who seemed to be about age thirty or so. She was beautiful, the fullness of joy radiating on her face and once again, I sensed she was more alive than I had ever seen her. I kept thinking of God's words to me: "She's been before Me." My mom had been before Yeshua!! What made it even more precious to me was that I had led her to the Lord. I believe God allowed me those experiences to prepare me to write the book about heaven in order to assure people of eternal salvation and that whatever we experience here on earth, it is a momentary light affliction compared to the glory that God has prepared for us who are Yeshua's in life eternal.


I'm not facing cancer and an early death as my friend may be. What I do know is that being yielded, submitted and utterly trusting of the Lord in whatever situations we may find ourselves, can never be wrong. God is good and in Him there is nothing that is not good. There is no darkness, no abandonment, no hopelessness. There is only glory ultimately ahead for any who are His. My brief experiences of life in the eternal realm changed me, it changed my whole view of life here on earth and eternally, and gave me an assurance of the goodness of the Lord in all situations. He is, after all, Lord of all there is! I have felt the joy of heaven's atmosphere until I thought I would explode, the power of it is entirely overwhelming to these earthly bodies we presently live in. And I "felt" the joy, the overarching joy - the indescribable joy - of the oneness, the unity, the love between fellow believers and the safety which is the normal atmosphere of heaven.


Should we not be sharing this reality with others, to make real to them as we are able - and that they allow us to - that we must all come to realize that there is a choice in the here and now that will affect our forever. Would it not be good to ask the Holy Spirit to lead us in how to pray specifically for the people we care about. Romans 8:26 says that when we don't know how to pray the Spirit will lead us. And may we each come to the place, even today, of entire surrender to the Lord, confident of His goodness and His faithfulness to lead you where He will keep you in His love and goodness always. Amen.

Siding With The Lion of Judah

Shalom. As you may be aware, whenever America has taken a stand against Israel, or for that matter even so much as snubbed her Prime Minister in the past, we have suffered either a natural disaster or a significant stock market dip, numbering over sixty of them since the “Peace Process” began. [For more info, watch Sid Roth’s interviews with John McTernan on www.sidroth.org, Go to: TV shows and type McTernan into the Search browser]. God's name is upon Israel. To come against Israel is to stir the Lion of Judah to wrath!

Our president has taken steps to show disdain for Israel and to move toward severing our ties with her. How arrogant of America to think we can settle a dispute between brothers that has been going on for 3,000 years, not to mention that this isn’t a political battle anyway, it’s a spiritual battle. While his decisions affect Israel, your life is likely to be affected by them too. The night Obama won the election, as it was being announced, the Lord clearly said to me, “America has you have known it has just ceased to exist.” It’s appearing to be more and more true.

This year at Shavuot (Pentecost), I had the sense that next year at Shavuot our world may look much different. Now may be the time to put aside what may be less critical issues and be praying for the people of God to rise up and be all that Jesus intends for us to be. And to pray for Israel, and for the Jewish people world wide for they will be greatly affected if Israel is (further) discredited in the eyes of America and the world. This move will undoubtedly then affect the Christians – for it is God’s people whom satan hates. Islam boasts that they will destroy first the Saturday (Shabbath) people, then the Sunday (sabbath) people. But satan's boasts do not stand up against God's truth and sovereignty, nor His protection and blessings. And he cannot destroy what is eternal - souls that are the Lord's!

By the declaration of our president, America is no longer a (Judeo) Christian country. But he seems not to be aware of the Christian force for righteousness that is swelling in our country right now. In asking the Lord what I was to do with my frustration (read, anger) at those in authority who are making such unwise decisions in clear rebellion against the Word of God, which is to say, against the Lord Himself, His answer to me was: “It’s about savings souls, not saving the nation.” That does not mean we are not to be concerned with praying for the nation or taking a stand for righteousness, but not to let political or national concerns take priority over Kingdom concern for the saving of souls.

I also heard Him tell me yesterday during a time of worship at my church (Pentecost Sunday), that just as the first believers were blessed and enjoying God’s favor even to God adding to their numbers daily, they would have stayed in Jerusalem or at least Israel had He not allowed the Temple to be destroyed causing the Jews, which meant thousands of Believers, to be thrust out into the world. What I sensed God saying is that if we, the Believers in Messiah, do not “go and make disciples,” we may find ourselves thrust out of our comfortable congregational buildings where we remain out of touch of those in great need of the Gospel and God’s loving impact on their lives. We keep preaching the Gospel to each other without getting “out there” where the needy and lost souls are! How many people do we walk or drive past in a day, or a week, and never tell them about the treasure we carry within us? WWJD?

This is not a word of judgment, doom or cause for fear. “Fear not, neither let your heart be troubled.” We have just come through Pentecost. I believe God has released a new anointing of the Holy Spirit’s power and purity upon us that will begin to carry us over the waves of any difficulties, if we keep our eyes on Him and stay focused on the tasks of bringing others into the safe harbor of God’s love and His truth. The earliest followers of Yeshua didn’t try to be anointed, they just were! They didn’t “do” or “go” out of a sense of religious duty. They overflowed with Jesus. I believe the Lord is giving us opportunity to come closer to Him than we have before. When we come closest to Him, He will impart His heart to us and fill us with Himself.

Not only will we know His love for us at a deeper and life-penetrating level, but we will be able to throw off grave clothes that have kept us weighted down, and like the blind beggar who threw off his beggar’s cloak, we can rise up and come to Him for new eyes to see as He sees, with eyes of love and compassion, eyes of discernment and truth, of power and anointing. Kingdom eyes!

It could just be that our redemption does indeed “draweth nigh,” and that perhaps Yeshua (Jesus) could break through the clouds within the next several years or so and put an end to the devil’s ways in the earth. We may be the people whose eyes see Him come! We may experience the setting up of His Kingdom during our lifetime. It may be that He’s waiting until all those He intends to save (not the least of whom are the Jews), are saved. So we have some work to do as co-workers with Him; we have some overflowing to do. We must first get alone with Jesus and let Him fill us to overflowing with Himself! Then we can go in His power. Then we will experience His joy, and the angel’s joy, because He’ll share it with us when we bring others to Him.

There is a reason why God says to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” Because when Jerusalem is at peace, the world will be at peace. Jerusalem is the city God says is His own. It’s the “city of the great King.” The King is Jesus! That’s why there’s such a battle for it, especially as we grow closer to the coming of the Lord. Jerusalem is the epicenter of the conflict between God and satan. It always has been. It is the type of the Kingdom of God. It is also the type of the whole earth. If the devil can take Jerusalem from Jacob and his descendents, then he will have made God a liar and rendered Him impotent and the earth will be his. He’s so deceived he keeps trying to make that happen. It can't and it won’t. No matter what it may look like at some given moment, God’s word, the Bible, will prevail. It will all come to pass. Yeshua (Jesus) is The Word of God and He alone is Lord over all.

In the meantime, we pray. Our prayers are effective in praying God’s word, in declaring it prophetically. Don’t just ask Him to fulfill His word, declare it! Prophesy it. Agree with Him that it’s the only reality. “If any two of you agree” gets even better when it’s God you’re agreeing with! Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and for Israel, and for Jews everywhere for their salvation and protection. Pray also for America to protect her Jews, for if we do not,we may arouse the Lion of Judah to wrath.

The hatred against Israel is spewing forth from the lies of Islam. But there are two sides to this situation. We would do well to pray for the millions of Muslims who have been caught in the strangling net of the Liar to believe the rebellion against the Word of God that they have been taught. Thousands of Muslims (I’ve been told millions) have been coming to the Lord in these past few years. When they do, their hatred for Israel turns to love for Israel and the Jews. Their lives are at risk for their faith in Jesus already, but also many of them are now praying for the peace of Israel having received God’s heart and His word for her. Pray for their protection and God's supernatural peace and protection for them as well.

During prayer at a recent Joel Richardson conference (See Sid Roth’s interviews with Joel [www.sidroth.org]about the intended Islamization of America & the world) the Lord imparted to me the heart of Abraham for both his sons, Jacob and Esau. I believe I was feeling God’s heart for both of Abraham's sons, the Jews and the Arabs (most of whom are Muslims). We must distinguish between the lie of terrorism and the souls of people. A verse reverberates through my mind: “Forgive them, Abba, for they know now what they do.”

We have a choice as to how to look at things that may happen. We who belong to Yeshua are seated above in heavenly places with Him. When we learn to come to the Lord there, we can see things as He sees them. The News media doesn’t often tell us much about what God is doing, nor can they see things from His perspective. (There are a few exceptions.) In actuality, the end is aleady written. He’s already won. We are already on the winning side when we’re on God's side. We fight not to win but because He has already won. We fight the good fight OF FAITH, expecting our Lord to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all we can imagine, and beyond all that has been done in His name thus far. This is a time for outrageous faith and confidence in God that He will make this time the church's strongest hour, to His glory. Amen.