Faithfulness, Friendship, & the God Who Will Not Forsake
HOW UNDERSTANDING THE LORD’S HEART & ETERNAL PURPOSES FUEL PRAYER FOR ISRAEL
A GUEST ARTICLE BY KRISTI WALSH OF YWAM FURNACE NEW ZEALAND
In a little prayer room in New Zealand, a few people there have recently ventured into something new: a weekly prayer meeting for Israel. It was something that had been on our hearts to do for a long time, but for whatever reason, it had either never been done, or hadn’t been done consistently. Recently, though, we decided it was time to stop talking and start doing. It has quickly turned into one of my favorite hours in the week.
I’ve spent the better part of twenty-plus years in prayer rooms, and I have been in plenty of prayer meetings for Israel. I understood why we prayed for Israel, but I didn’t understand why, and I always seemed to have a difficult time connecting with the topic. I think I felt that I needed to muster up an affection for a culture or an affinity to certain set of rituals that, quite frankly, weren’t all that appealing to me. I knew that Israel was an important nation in the Lord’s end time plan. Correction: I knew that Israel was the central nation in the Lord’s end time plan. But still, something in my heart failed to grasp the significance of devoting time to pray for her.
Over years and decades, I began to discover that praying for Israel isn’t necessarily about coming into agreement with a secular nation-state or endorsing the humanistic agenda of a governmental leader— especially when those plans and values may be contrary to the Kingdom of God. It’s not even about adopting those certain traditions from a foreign culture. Simply put, praying for Israel is about loving what God loves because we love Him. And because we love Him, what’s important to Him should be important to us.
My husband works in professional sports, and he has been working with one of New Zealand’s rugby teams for a couple of years. I’m an American girl from the midwest who loves baseball, not rugby. I barely know or understand the game, and it certainly wouldn’t be my first choice of things to watch on TV on a Saturday night. My husband has always loved sports, and especially rugby, but now that he works for this team, suddenly the importance and significance of their games has increased dramatically. Also suddenly I found myself either watching the games on TV as well, or at least tracking the live scoring online every time they played. Why? I didn’t suddenly develop this love for rugby because my personal interests changed. What happened was what was important to my husband became important to me, simply because I love him. The exact same principle is true related to Israel. When we begin to understand how much the Lord loves this people and the incredible plans that He has for her, we want to get on board with Him in what He’s feeling and doing, simply because we love Him.
The nation of Israel has been the Lord’s chosen people ever since He called Abraham and set him apart to be the father of a new nation, several thousand years ago. He covenanted Himself to this people, declaring that He would forever be their God and they would forever be His people, and nothing or no one could ever change that. Throughout their journey as a nation, there were times in which they remembered the Lord and were walking in His ways as a corporate people, but there were also times in which they forgot the Lord, chased after other lovers, and forsook the One who called them to Himself. Then Jesus came on the scene hundreds of years later, and although a small remnant of them understood who He was and acknowledged Him as their Messiah, the vast majority of the nation didn’t see it. To this day most of the Jewish people are still rejecting Jesus and they continue looking for their Messiah who is still to come.
There is one thing that they are forgetting though— God entered into a covenant with them, and He has absolutely no intention of backing out of or nullifying it. Over and over and over again in Scripture, the Lord declares Himself to be a faithful, covenant keeping God and that He will never forsake His people or His promises.
This is extremely good news for Israel, because Lord will never abandon them or give up on them. No matter what. Even though they have rejected Him and walked away, He hasn’t. His heart yearns for her still. And He has a perfect plan to bring her back into relationship with Himself.
This is one of the most beautiful things that I was surprised to discover when we began praying for Israel— the same God who is faithful despite her great weakness and rebellion is the same God who is faithful to me, even in all of my weakness and rebellion. It’s who He is, it’s how He leads, and He will never, ever change.
Unfortunately His fierce, never-ending, jealous love is also bad news for Israel because He will do whatever it takes to draw them back into friendship with Himself. And that process can, at times, be intensely painful. Sometimes the greatest trouble for anyone who has abandoned their terms of covenant with the Lord isn’t the enemy, but it’s God Himself. This is true not necessarily because He is angry and is taking revenge, but because He longs for restored relationship so much that He will go to great lengths to remove whatever is standing in the way of love.
We now find ourselves at a pivotal time in history when the Lord is about to arise and call His chosen people back to Himself in a way that we have never seen before. This will be both glorious and painful, and as the Gentile church, it is our destiny and privilege to stand alongside Israel in both prayer and love, agreeing with the Lord’s heart for her.
That prayer meeting in New Zealand for Israel? It’s not flash or fancy. In reality, it’s simple and small. We have a worship leader and a prayer leader. We worship. The prayer leader prays. The worship leader sings in response to what was just prayed. Then we worship again. Sometimes there’s people in the room, sometimes there’s hardly anyone. Sometimes other people will join in and pray too, sometimes they don’t. The point is that anyone can do this. It doesn’t require. many people, a building, or large crowds. All that’s needed is time and a heart that wants to agree with the Lord to see His plans and purposes for Israel established in the earth.
Maranatha.
Kristi Walsh is a worship leader and teacher. She and her husband, Aaron, established the Tauranga House of Prayer in New Zealand in 2006. She continues to serve at YWAM Furnace New Zealand, a missional community centered around prayer and worship, as they train and equip disciples to be sent into the nations. Learn more at ywamfurnace.nz