How to Pray for Israel - Part 3

Derek Prince Ministries, proclaiming the inspired Word of God around the world. Derek Prince is an internationally recognized Bible teacher and author. Through books, audios, videos, and radio broadcasts, Derek seeks to reach the unreached and teach the untaught.

In over 50 years of ministry, Derek has reached over 100 nations in more than 50 languages. And now, Derek Prince. It doesn't pay to curse the Jews.

It doesn't pay to have resentment in your heart against them. If you want to be blessed, then you have to bless Israel. Point number nine, about prayer.

Don't tell God what to do. Have any of you ever done that? All right, let's turn to Isaiah chapter 40 for a moment. Just a short passage from Isaiah 40.

Isaiah 40, verse 13. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the balance. Look, He lifts up the isles or the coastlands as a very little thing.

And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counted by Him less than nothing, and worthless. Notice the declining order.

First of all, all nations are as the small dust in the balance. Then they are as nothing, and then they are less than nothing. So God says, do you think I need your advice? Do I need to be instructed by you? Well, that's a very common failing of Christians.

They think that God needs their advice, and they're prepared to tell Him what to do and how to do it. And that's often true in the political realm. When it comes to election time, a lot of Christians tell God who should be elected.

And they're sometimes wrong. Yes, yes. You see, last year there were elections in Israel and in the United States.

And I was in Israel when the elections took place. And just before the election we had a most unique meeting when a lot of different Jewish congregations came together near Tel Aviv. And I mean, you know the saying, if you have three Jews in a city, two Jews in a city, you knew three synagogues, you know that saying? One for one of them to go to, one for the other.

And one in which neither of them would be seen dead. Well, some of that carries over when they become believers. And it is not easy for the Jewish congregations in Israel to relate to one another, although tremendous progress has been made.

There are seven Hebrew-speaking congregations in Jerusalem, and they meet regularly once every month for fellowship, which is a tremendous stride ahead. Anyhow, we were down there near Tel Aviv, and the remarkable thing was there was no disharmony among any of us the whole time. And we felt we had prayed through about the election.

And I think a great majority of Jewish believers were convinced that Shamir ought to be re-elected. But he wasn't. Well then, a little while later, here in the United States, there were the presidential elections, and as I understand it, many committed Christians believed that Bush should be re-elected.

But he wasn't. So don't do. Now, let me add a little comment.

If Shamir had been re-elected in Israel, most Americans would have thought it was a terrible mistake. And if Bush had been re-elected in the United States, most Israelis would have thought it was a terrible mistake. Because I'm sorry to say that Bush and, above all, Baker are regarded as anti-Semites, and so they are.

And my dear friend, Lawrence Lambert, speaking about the political situation quite early in 1992, before there was any talk about elections, said this in view of the policy being followed by the American administration in regard to Israel. He said the American administration is on a collision course with Almighty God. And in November, they collided.

That's the explanation. You see, as I understand it, the restoration of Israel is priority number one for God at this time. Before anti-abortion, before all the other issues, priority number one is the restoration of Israel.

If the space given in the Bible to this theme is any indication, there is chapter after chapter after chapter dealing with the restoration of Israel. Nobody can line up against that and prosper. And I don't believe God has given authority to any politicians to decide how much of Israel should belong to the Jews.

Because God has already said, I've given it all to them. Now, as I said in a previous meeting, I saw this with my own nation, Britain. I saw the British government emerge from two world wars victorious, but I was actually living in Jerusalem when the British administration, not openly, but in an underhand way, took its stand opposing the birth of the state of Israel.

And Israel, with 600,000 people, survived a war with six Arab nations numbering 40 million. The British didn't think it could happen. So they thought, we've got to back the winning horse.

But you know what happened? Israel survived. The British Empire didn't. It disintegrated without any obvious political reason.

Immediately, the British government took its stand against the birth of the state of Israel. And I tell my dear American friends, be very careful. It happened to Britain when it was the most powerful empire on earth.

And no matter how powerful the United States may be, if it takes a stand against God's purposes for Israel, ultimately, it will fall apart. I am not politically minded, but I have a certain understanding of the Scriptures. So, come back to my little suggestion.

Don't tell God what to do. Let me also say this, and I think it's important to say it. Nationalism is a sin.

Patriotism is a virtue. The difference is, patriotism puts the interest of God's kingdom before the interest of my nation. Nationalism puts the interest of my nation before the interest of God's kingdom.

And the great recent warning is what happened in Germany at the time Hitler came to power. Because there were many fine, born-again German Christians at that time, especially in the area of Prussia. But their nationalism overcame their commitment to Jesus.

And so many of them, most of them, identified with Hitler and supported him to their own unlimited loss. So, I say to American Christians, don't make that mistake. America is not indestructible.

Israel is. I don't know of any passage in the Scripture that guarantees the continuation of the United States. Do you? But there's a lot in the Bible that guarantees the continuance of Israel.

So don't set yourself up against God. Humble yourself. If you really want to pray effectively for your own nation, 2 Chronicles 7.14 has the key.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves. You see, until you've humbled yourself, all the rest doesn't apply. I've taught people for more than 30 years here in the United States, you need to pray for your government.

I've quoted that Scripture hundreds of times. But only just recently, I think it was last year, God very quietly intimated to me, American Christians haven't met the first requirement. They have not humbled themselves.

And all the rest is dependent on self-humbling. Let me give you a little advice from personal experience, an experience of Ruth and myself. And we're not wearing the badge for humility.

I want you to know that. Do you know about the man in the church who was given the badge for humility? And then they had to take it away from him because he wore it. Well, we're not even, we don't have a badge for humility.

But we have. And we have learned that without our recognizing it, there was in our lives a great deal of pride. Partly because I was a successful preacher.

But that's a contradiction in turn, isn't it? To be proud of being a successful preacher. Come up, sweetheart, we're going to do a proclamation. They'll have a real full diet of proclamations.

So about three or four years ago, we started proclaiming the last three verses, or maybe four verses, of Psalm 19. And I want to say, when you start proclaiming something, you have no idea what it will do to you. So this is how it goes.

Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me.

Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. You see, we said, who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.

And God took us at our word. And we took a, quote, sabbatical in Hawaii in 1990-91, to seek God. And he began to deal with us, with our secret faults.

I don't want to, there's no time to go into this. But God showed me one thing out of Scripture. The only way to have your sins forgiven is to confess them.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But if you don't confess your sins, God loves you, but your sins are not forgiven. And we discovered we had a lot of secret faults.

And the essence of them all was summed up in the word presumptuous sins. What is one short, simple word for presumptuous? Pride, that's right. And God required us repeatedly to humble ourselves before him and before one another.

And this is my recipe for self-humbling. Confess your sins to God. And, if you're married, confess them to your spouse.

It is very hard to be arrogant with a wife or a husband to whom you have confessed your sins. I believe that's essential for successful intercession. Let me read a verse in Isaiah 59.

I'm outside my outline now, but I think I'm in the will of God. There's one, two verses in Isaiah which we Gentile Christians always tend to refer to the Jews. But the name Jew is not on it.

Isaiah 59, verses 1 and 2. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot say, nor his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. The one supreme barrier to answered prayer is sin.

And sin is not a respecter of nationalities or denominations. And if we really want our prayers answered, we have to let God put his finger on our secret sins, and then deal with them. God took me back in my own life, forty years, to something I had done and never confessed as a sin.

And it had never been forgiven. I mean, I'm a child of God, I'm a servant of God, but there were areas in my life which were a barrier between God and me. Excuse me for blowing my nose.

As I've said before, it's embarrassing to blow your nose over the microphone, but not to blow it is even more embarrassing. Now, what I've been saying now is not in my outline. I didn't plan it.

It's probably the most important thing that I've said. John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Program, Pilgrim's Progress, that's what I'm thinking, Pilgrim's Program. That's what we've substituted for progress, is program.

Anyhow, John Bunyan, remarking about his preaching, in grace abounding, his autobiography, said, I observed that a word cast in by the by did more execution than all the rest. In other words, he said, the words I didn't even plan to speak were the ones that really did the job. And I think tonight, without planning it or intending it, I've zeroed in on the number one problem of this congregation and practically all congregations in America at this time.

We have become presumptuous. We have presumed on the grace of God. About 250 times the Bible speaks about the need for the fear of the Lord.

That's the one thing that will keep you from being presumptuous. So let me come to the end of my... There's two more. This is number 10 and 11, if you've been following, probably you haven't.

Number 10, on how to pray for Israel, says, pray for the harvest of the Gentiles. Let me take you back to Romans 11.25, which says, blindness or hardness in part has happened to Israel until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved.

All Israel will not be saved until every Gentile appointed by God for salvation has come in. So we as people concerned about Israel have a very important reason to be concerned about the salvation of the Gentiles. This thought has occurred to me sometimes.

Jesus said in one of his rather cryptical statements, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. I think in a way that applies to Israel and the Gentiles. Israel were number one.

Jesus went first to them and he didn't go to the Gentiles. Alas, Israel didn't meet God's conditions. And so God went to the last, the Gentiles.

And Israel thus became in turn the last. But now I believe the last will be first. There's a changeover.

The grace of God is moving like a cloud from the Gentile world to the Jews. It's only begun to move and yet there are masses and millions of Gentiles to come in. But that's the direction that God is moving.

All right, finally. And I sometimes tease myself because when I say finally it very seldom is finally. However, in Philippians chapter three, Paul says finally, my brethren, and goes on for two more chapters.

I have at least a precedent. But this is the last thing that I want to say in my list of suggestions for how to pray. Take the sword of the Spirit.

Proclaim it. It's one of the most powerful things that you can do for Israel. You remember what Paul said in Ephesians 6, I think it's 17.

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Now you are not born with the sword of the Spirit in your hand. When you're born again, Paul says take the sword of the Spirit.

If you take the sword, the Spirit will wield it. But if you don't take it, the Spirit has nothing to wield. So one very effective way to take the sword is by proclamation of the word of God.

Every time you do that, you're thrusting with the sword against the forces of darkness. Now Ruth and I are going to give you a little pattern of proclamation. Come on sweetheart, you've got to know the way here by now.

Psalm 33, verses 8 through 12. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

For he spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing.

He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of his heart to all generations.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. The people whom he has chosen as his own inheritance. And the name of that people is? Israel.

Israel, that's right. And everything that the nations plan, contrary to God's plans for Israel, will not come to pass. All right, Jeremiah 31, 10.

This is only part of the verse. Now let me stop and think how it begins. It's only the latter part.

He who scattered Israel is gathering him and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock. I think we'll say that again. He who scattered Israel is gathering him and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.

So regathered Israel is ultimately secure because God will not merely regather them, he will keep them. Now Psalm 125, verse 3, we have to say from the NIV. And this is only part of the psalm.

The scepter of the wicked shall not remain over the land allotted to the righteous. Now I believe the scepter of the wicked is Islam. And it says the power of Islam will not ultimately continue to dominate the territory allotted to the righteous.

At the same time, the Lord has to make the Jews righteous, so it's a double process. Then Psalm 129, verses 5 and 6. Let them all be confounded and turn back that hate Zion. Let them be like the grass upon the housetops which withers before it grows up.

And notice we're not against a nationality, we're only against a certain category of people, those who hate Zion. Let's say that again. Let them all be confounded and turn back that hate Zion.

Let them be like the grass upon the housetops which withers before it grows up. In other words, they will never come to maturity. They may have many plans and schemes, but they'll never come to full maturity.

And then Psalm 17, verses 7 through 9, where we put Israel in with the Psalmist Sidney. Now I've got to think how to start. All right, Psalm 17, verses 7 through 9. Show your marvelous loving kindness by your right hand, O you who save those who trust in you from those who rise up against them.

Keep Israel as the apple of your eye. Hide us under the shadow of your wings from the wicked who oppress us, from our deadly enemies who surround us. That's the exact situation of Israel today.

Let's do that once more. Show your marvelous loving kindness by your right hand, O you who save those who trust in you from those who rise up against them. Keep Israel as the apple of your eye.

Hide us under the shadow of your wings from the wicked who oppress us, from our deadly enemies who surround us. So that's my 11 suggestions. You probably lost track of them.

I will read them very quickly and then we will move on with the meeting. I'm not going to take time to comment on them. I'll simply read them.

Number one, stay within the parameters of God's Word. Number two, enter with thanksgiving and praise. Number three, whether Jews or Gentiles, confess your appropriate sins against the other.

Number four, identify with God's ultimate purpose, a people for Himself. Number five, only by God's Spirit. Number six, plead for mercy and favor in this set time.

Number seven, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Number eight, bless Israel and be blessed. Number nine, don't tell God what to do.

Number ten, pray for the harvest of the Gentiles. And number eleven, take the sword of the Spirit. Proclaim.

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