I have been given some time to think over
what I want to say and to share with those closest to me what way God has lead
and guided me in the past year. After thinking about it on some length what I
want to share is my journey in prayer – because you will come to see that it is
the basis for which all this has happened.
I remember sharing with someone once, that
“If you want to know how to find God’s will for your life go into the prayer
room. While there make it your goal to seek His face. Do this every day. It
will be mundane, but the truth of it is that You will find out that God has a
big heart – He knows your insecurities and faults and will more than readily
prepare you. Then when you come up one day all of a sudden it will click and you
will be wooshed off who knows where. Then you will realize that it is love that
motivates God to share the things of his heart with You”
This is what happened for me in regards to
Israel. I want to say something first. This journey that I’m on makes me
realize that I do have a heart for Israel. The more that I read, discover and
find out about it the more that it is part of me. I do not owe the love in my
heart for Israel apart from the grace that I have found in God. For those that
believe God has finished with the Jews, this is that one predicament that I
cannot understand. If God is unchanging, eternally loving, and keeping His
promises, How can one say these things? It has to be said that I have
encountered God’s heart for his people simply by being in relationship with
Him.
The second thing is this: All I had was a
destination I remember having a conversation with the missions committee at my
church. After the conversation I went up to the prayer room and started
worshipping. While worshipping I realized that I needed to relinquish my right
concerning Israel. The reason I believe God wanted me to do this was two-fold.
The first is this: that my heart is in His hands. The second is that God had a
plan that involved my friends and family to find the revenue that I needed to
make the trip over there. It happened this way, after all – when I realized
that I was bouncing off the walls, my plan to goto Israel was in God’s hands!
While I was in Israel something happened
for me that in a way I was expecting but in other ways surprised me. I am
talking about being in a place that I wanted to give God everything. This
whole-hearted desire was part of giving my heart to Him at the first - allowing
God to shape my heart through prayer. Because I am decidedly someone who wants
to find God and give Him my heart for one reason and one reason only I have
found the worth of Him and I will never be the same.
I want to go back to something I have
already briefly written on. I’ll put it in a new way. God is in covenant relationship
with Israel. This is the why behind the world today – Just like He loves us, He
loves Israel. This love motivates Him to do anything He possibly can to get
them back. While they are in rebellion to Him they will be the jealous desire
of the God of Gods (Zech 8:2) It’s not about Israel! It’s about God keeping
covenant – which is a mystery! (Romans 11:25)
This is why he wanted me to come to Israel.
To see it with my very own eyes! If you have been following this story you know
it’s not about me, but about Him. In a way this shows the why of being in
contact with God’s heart – he wants to share it with us. This is to his glory.
This is why I bring my heart to the table whenever I talk or teach about Israel
– I want you to encounter the God who keeps us close to His heart. I have
briefly written about all of this, but my agenda has not finished, I feel I am
only just getting started.
You see there are some people that I look
upto immensely. The first is Daniel, where He has the boldness to ask God to do
the best possible thing for His people, this is to His glory, because He would
have the hearts of His people. The second is John the Baptist. We receive a
blazing commendation by the LORD Jesus in the fifth chapter of John, calling
John, “a burning and shining lamp” this is none other than givine God the
glory. All these people Give glory to God be being the best possible that they
can be, and this is the outcome of all my prayers, that I would give to God the
glory through my own enjoyment of Him – He designed me to be created in His
image. This is the way that I have come, to experience who God is, it is
through not doing a thing, but by being what he created me to be. It is only
when someone like the LORD Jesus, comes and gives a commendation of our life,
that our life will mean something. He actually gave voice to the cry of the
Prophet that has been seen in generations gone by.
This is what I want to leave with you.
My greatest desire would be that you would
adopt God’s glory for yourself, by living connected to His heart.
We can only learn to live this way by
experience. In 2 Cor 3:18 it says that those who have the new covenant are
being changed from glory to glory, by beholding His face, this face is
available to us simply by coming to God in the scriptures with a desire to find
Jesus. This is the way in which our spirits are connected with His, seeing
things that eyes do not see, hearing things that ears do not hear, and
understanding things that hearts do not understand – for the Spirit gives us of
himself to us.
In closing, I would ask you to pray for
Israel.
Make your heart set on finding Jesus in the
Word
Seek to understand the covenant
relationship that God has with Israel, including his judgments.
Pray daily, and understand scripture by the
Spirit of God.
Make your life successful by being a person
like John the Baptist, who understands God’s glory.
He will surely bless you in this pursuit,
as you give of your heart to Him, and be a cheerful giver.