October 2017 – Blessing Israeli Believers

Dear Friends and Partners,

The Fall Feasts are upon us, specifically the Feast of Succot (Tabernacles). There is much more to this special Tabernacles season that I will not be able to share due to the brevity of this letter. But here are a few thoughts: First the Old Testament introduction and then some New Covenant fulfillment.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it. (Leviticus 23:33-36)

The Israeli calendar was a lunar calendar, much different than ours today. In these passages we see a holy appointed time when the LORD’s people are gathered to meet with Him. There is to be no work on the special meeting days —they truly are holy days. We also see an animal sacrifice—the shedding of blood.

And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.’” (Leviticus 23:40-43)

The children of Israel were to make booths to live in for seven days. This was a reminder of how the LORD faithfully took care of them in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. They lived in temporary dwellings on their way to the place of promise. In this New Covenant we are to rest in the Lord and bring to Him the sacrifice of praise! This is because Messiah Yeshua offered the blood sacrifice to provide forgiveness for our sins! He is the reason we meet together for a holy convocation.

Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. (Hebrews 13:15)
There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. (Hebrews 4:9-10)

The LORD faithfully led the Israelis through the wilderness to the Promised Land in temporary dwellings, so He will also do with us today! We live in these temporary bodies flawed by sin—yet our faithful Savior will keep us and lead us to our eternal Kingdom destiny. Hallelujah—and glory!

VERY IMPORTANT: The LORD is by no means, finished with Israel. To the contrary, the world is experiencing Israel’s birth pains today. Soon and very soon King Messiah Jesus will be sitting on His throne reigning over a redeemed and Messiah Yeshua worshipping Israel. Until that day, may we praise King Jesus in the wilderness and prepare to celebrate this Feast when He tabernacles amongst us.

And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Zechariah 14:16

Thanks to all of our Blessing Israeli Believers prayer and financial partners. We pray for you often and trust you are blessed according to Genesis 12:3. Happy Succot!

Update from Ariel & Shayla:

Salvation in the middle of a Suicide Attempt
Adrian, who came to faith after watching our Isaiah 53 video and is now in our homegroup, went out with me last week to share the Gospel and pray for the sick. God did some wonderful things and a man named Chen physically felt something leave him when we prayed for him, then was very open to the Gospel, repented of his sins and gave his life to Yeshua! It was so exciting to help someone whom we helped to bring to faith to also learn how to share the Gospel and pray for the sick himself.

A few days later we met with Chen again, then afterwards I was on my way to another event, but I heard the Holy Spirit tell me, “Don’t go yet. Just keep walking straight ahead.” I continued to an area where there weren’t many people, then saw a lady sitting down. When I offered her prayer (her name is Amalyah), she started telling about how horribly depressed she was and how life wasn’t worth living. She shared that she is divorced with four young children, works hard as a nurse, and is a Muslim Bedouin.

I shared with her that there is great hope and beautiful meaning to life in Yeshua, then shared the whole Gospel with her. She decided to repent and receive Yeshua as her Savior.

Then immediately afterwards she said, “Oh no, I made a mistake.” She opened her bag and showed me all the empty packages of pills she had taken in order to kill herself. She had already swallowed 120 pills and was just sitting there, about to die!

I immediately called an ambulance and sent out some prayer requests quickly. Before the ambulance arrived, she started to go unconscious and handed me her suicide note and told me what to tell her children. It looked like she was going to die right in front of me, but I was crying out to God to have mercy on her and redeem her life.

I rode with her in the ambulance to the hospital, and when the doctors understood how many pills she had taken and how long it had already been, they were shocked that she wasn’t dead already. It was a miracle!

If the Lord hadn’t led me to her right at that moment, she would have been dead a few minutes later – not just physically, but also separated from God for eternity. Not only was she made alive spiritually through Yeshua, but because people were praying for her in Yeshua’s name, she was physically healed and was able to be released the next morning!

The next day her Muslim Bedouin family invited our family (we were also together with my parents) to come visit them and celebrate. They were extremely grateful for what happened. We made a good connection with them and heard their stories, then we offered them prayer. Yeshua healed Amalyah’s father, mother (of quite severe pains all over her body), her sister-in-law, and aunt. Then we shared the Gospel with them and they were very open. They are very close to coming to faith, but need more prayer and follow-up.

Praise be to our God, who does the impossible! “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD” (Psalm 118:17).

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Romans 15:26-27 For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal (material) things.