© 3 July 2015 Revive Israel Ministries

Yeshua at Prayer: Tears, Shouting, and Godly Fear

By Asher Intrater

There are many examples of Yeshua praying throughout the gospels, including his rising early in the morning (Mark 1:35), praying all night (Luke 6:12) and fasting 40 days (Matthew 4:2). His disciples saw how important prayer was to Yeshua and asked Him to teach them how to pray (Luke 11:1).

Yeshua's prayer was not casual, but very intense:
Hebrews 5:7 – He offered up prayers and supplications with great shouting and tears to the One who was able to save Him from death and was heard because of His fear of God. 

Why tears?  Tears are a sign of pain.  In times of intercession, Yeshua was burdened by compassion and could feel in his heart the sickness, suffering and death of mankind.  Our "lostness" pained His heart. Our pain was His pain.  He wept for us.

Why shouting?  Shouting is a sign of resistance.  In times of spiritual warfare, Yeshua faced the forces of sin and Satan. He fought against the moral darkness of the world.  He opposed and overcame evil.  In prayer He fought energetically on our behalf.

Why fear?  This was not normal fear or worry, but the pure fear or reverence of God.  Even though Yeshua was perfect and never sinned, as a man, it was possible for Him to sin.   In humility, He had to deal with the temptations of pride and lust like any person living in a human, fleshly body.

Let us strive for the same kind of prayer life that Yeshua had: feeling compassion, resisting evil and walking in the humility of the fear of God.

By Ariel Blumenthal

America

This past week, the U. S. Supreme Court legalized Homosexual Marriage, overriding the decisions of many conservative states to the contrary.  The leading nation of the free world has decided to tinker with one of the most fundamental doctrines of Biblical and Natural law--the nuclear family based on the union of one man and one woman.  Where will it lead?  As I’ve watched this unfold over the last few months, one thought is constantly with me: we are witnessing the rapid decline of Western civilization, and a threat to the unity and integrity of the United States of America.

Greece 

At the same time, the corruption and profligate borrowing of the nation of Greece seems to have finally come to a head.  For the last 2000 years, Western civilization has been founded on two major pillars—Greco-Roman philosophy, politics, and law; and the Judeo-Christian revelation of religion and ethics.  There has always been a tension between the two; but gradually the more secular, humanistic, Greco-Roman stream has become primary in the public sphere--so that we now speak of the West as a “Post-Christian” world.  Isn’t it ironic that this same week we see--as if written across the forehead of a classical Greek statue, symbolizing our Western heritage—“BANKRUPT!”    

Aliyah 

At the same time, three different members of our Revive Israel team independently found ourselves thinking and writing about Aliyah—Jewish return to Israel in fulfillment of biblical prophecy.  When we look at OT prophecy in a literal way it is easy to see that a very serious shaking must take place in order to bring home the millions of Jews still in North and South America and Europe.  Could it be that we are entering such a time? 
Today, seventy years after the Holocaust, statistics seem to indicate that the Jewish population has reached its pre-World War II level; and for the first time, the number of Jews living in Israel (est. 6,500,000) has passed the number living in the United States (est. 6,100,000).  The nation with the third highest number of Jews today is France (est. 450,000). 

In this message, Asher speaks about how the revelation of God as our Heavenly Father was released through Yeshua. To watch in English, click HERE!

On Tuesday morning, Israeli Navy commandos boarded the flotilla ship Marianne that had left Greece four days earlier.  Passengers included former Tunisian president Munsaf Marzuki and Arab Israeli Knesset member Basal Getas.  The flotilla boat was redirected to the Ashdod harbor without incident, injury or media scandal.  This marked a significant strategic and diplomatic achievement for Israel. 

Prime Minister Netanyahu released an open letter addressed to the flotilla participants. The letter started out saying, “Welcome to Israel! It appears you’ve made a mistake along the way. Perhaps you meant to sail to Syria. There, Assad’s regime is massacring his own people every day with the help of the murderous Iranian regime. In contrast, here in Israel, we are dealing with a situation where terrorist organizations such as Hamas are trying to harm innocent civilians."

Netanyahu mentioned that Israel has allowed 1.6 million tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza this year, (representing about one ton per person!).   “There is no blockade on the Gaza Strip, and you are invited to transfer humanitarian supplies through Israel. Preventing access through the sea is done in accordance with international law. If human rights really interested you, you wouldn’t sail in solidarity with a terror group that executes Gazans without trial, and uses Gazan children as human shields.”

What was the most famous journalistic photo of the 1970's?  One candidate is this picture of a Vietnamese girl fleeing naked, having ripped off her burning clothes after a bomb attack.  The girl's name was Kim Phuc.  Would you like to know what happened to her?  See this amazing story (testimony) in a CNN report. Click HERE!

Our friends from JIJ (Jerusalem Institute of Justice) just posted an informative video which describes the Palestinian refugee crisis and how it came to be like it is today. To watch in English, click HERE!