Today: September 9, 2010

 

A Day of Prayer Part 1

Posted: Thu 18th December 2008 12.42 PM  | Author: Sam Hailes

Praying for our enemies

It was a bright but cold day in mid September when staff and friends of Christian Friends of Israel gathered together for a day of prayer.

But this was no ordinary prayer meeting.

Flying in all the way from Israel, Ruth Nessim had brought a group of Jewish and Arab believers in Jesus to the UK. This 3 part series details some of their inspiring words.

From left to right: Tanya, Elizabeth, Ruth, Najib and Carlos

Pastor Najib stood and told us his story, starting with when his family arrived in Haifa. Ruth translated Najib's words from Hebrew to English. 

“When we arrived we were 2- our [Arab] family and another Jewish family. We lived in the same house, shared the same fridge, toilets. It was a very poor place, the Jewish lady had a little baby boy, when she went to work, her son would feed from my mother. When my mother left the house, I drank from the Jewish woman’s breast. To this day we are very good friends. We grew up in this neighbourhood, it was not easy. There were many drugs and criminals. Thanks be to Jesus that he saved us. I thank God that he touched by heart and I believed.”

Pastor Najib went on to tell us how he started his ministry in Israel.

“I did hear in the beginning that there were some Jewish believers. I was 7 years in the Brethren Assembly and I did not know there were Jewish believers. When I heard this I was very pleased because I had many Jewish friends and was breastfed by a Jewish mother! I began to pray ‘I want to meet some Jewish brothers.’ In 2002 God arranged it that there was a fellowship of brothers, so I went with Elizabeth and my children, while we were serving there I met a man who came for prayer and fasting. We sat together, talked and prayed together. He said I came here to get to know an Arab believing brother because I have a vision to fellowship with Arabs. We prayed, cried and hugged together. Since then there has been a strong connection between us. We want to change people’s ideas that Arabs hates Jews and Jews hate Arabs. As it is written in Romans 10- “how will they understand without a preacher?” so we have to do this work.”

This ‘work’ now involves planting fellowships all over Israel, at one church, over a period of 3 years, 70 people were saved, many coming from difficult backgrounds of drugs and alcohol. “The Jews were a real blessing to us [during this time] and we got to know them. It was deep in my heart to continue in this way of Jews and Arabs together” Najib said.

Najib and his wife Elizabeth have a strong vision “There is much work to be done, what we are asking you is that you will pray for us. Arabs and Jews together for Jesus. We want to stop the enemy having a party in Israel, we want to bring salvation to the people. Not easy, but we believe Jesus is with us and that he will help us. Then we will see as it says in the scriptures, all Israel will be saved. We don’t want to just read it but we want to see it! Arabs and Jews together, and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is the Son of God! We have to work hard, and praise and worship his wonderful name.”

Pastor Najib continued to speak and preach from the Bible as we prayed together

"We haven’t come to pray for food, clothes or other things. We are going to pray for something much stronger. We are soldiers of Jesus Christ, not secretaries. Soldiers have to be on their guard and know what is going on in the world. It is written in Ephesians 5:15-20...

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here we are talking about bad things and in chapter 6 we are told that we have to take our weapons and armour with us so we can fight in the evil day. I believe we are in this evil day, Islam is growing in the whole world, and we also feel this in Israel and all the time we are being threatened. As believers, what do we need to do? Do we need to build more tanks and aeroplanes? Do we need to produce more weapons? This is not the purpose of Yeshua, his command to us is to pray that God will pour out his spirit on these bad people so that the spirit will lead them. We have been told that we have to love our enemies, and he has asked us to have a soft and white heart. Our war is not with Muslims as people. Our war is with the spirit of Islam. How can we bring these people to Jesus? It is not through power or force, it is through love that we can do that.

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