• Urgent Prayer Request

    From Spiffwiggler@VERT/NEXXUS1 to All on Thu Mar 6 14:06:00 2008
    Asher Intrater is a highly respected voice in Israel and beyond. He is also personal friend of Pastor Frangipane. Asher is a Jewish believer in Jesus, the Messiah. Francis has asked us to pass on this urgent prayer request for Israel.


    Urgent Prayer Request for Israel
    Increased Military Action in Gaza
    by Asher Intrater

    Almost three years ago, Israel pulled out all
    of its citizens (9,000) who were living in homes
    in settlements in Gaza, as well as all of its
    military units. Shortly after that the Hamas
    movement took over the government of Gaza. Since
    that time, to the disappointment of Israel, the
    Hamas government has continued terrorist actions
    and Jihadist propaganda against Israel.
    Last Wednesday, 27 of February, Hamas began
    increasing missile attacks on Israel. In the
    five days from Wednesday to Sunday, until the
    time of this writing, 183 missiles were shot
    from Gaza into Israel, including 20 Grad
    missiles, several of which even reached the
    city of Ashkelon (population: 120,000).

    Israel was faced with a dilemma. We could not
    just let the attacks continue. No country in
    the world would allow another country to fire
    missiles into its population centers. Yet to
    reoccupy all of Gaza would lead to a much larger
    number of casualties and to a nearly impossible
    situation to control afterward. The government
    decided on a firm, but moderate operation into
    Gaza to deter the rocket attacks.

    In the middle of the night between Friday and
    Saturday, the Givati division of the IDF entered
    Gaza, primarily to the area of Gibaleah, opposite
    the Israeli town of Sederot, which received most
    of the rocket attacks. The Israeli attacks were
    aimed at destroying the following targets:
    1.) Hamas headquarters and leaders,
    2.) weapons warehouses,
    3.) missile firing sites,
    4.) trucks carrying weapons,
    5.) Hamas active military units.

    One of the difficulties in the fighting is that
    Hamas purposefully fires its missiles toward
    Israeli population centers, and locates its own
    weapons units in the midst of their own Palestinian
    population. Hamas propaganda blames Israel for
    atrocities and at the same time, calls for its own
    civilians to assembly and stand in as "human shields"
    in areas that are likely to be military targets.

    In one instance, Israel blew up a truck with 160
    missiles in it, located in a populated neighborhood
    of Gibaleah. In the recent fighting, hundreds have
    been injured on both sides, thousands struck with
    "shock" from the bombings. Militarily, of course,
    the Palestinians have suffered much greater losses;
    3 Israelis have been killed and approximately 100
    Palestinians. Gazan civilian conditions are tragic.

    Israel's military goals are to use force to stop the
    terror and the bombings, yet to do all that is reasonably
    possible not to injure innocent civilians.
    In our congregation on Shabbat, we dedicated a good period
    of time to interceding for the situation. Prayers ranged
    from military victory for Israel to mercy for the
    Palestinians. Interestingly, some of the prayers offered
    for mercy for the Palestinians came from young Israelis
    with first hand battle experience; while some of the
    prayers for decisive Israeli victory over the terrorism
    came from Israelis with much experience in helping and
    supporting Palestinians.

    The warfare here ranges from military issues to spiritual
    ones, and can be quite complicated. Here are a few
    discernments to help us sort out the issues:
    1. Arabs (Palestinians) - are a people group that God
    loves like all people; and we love them as well. We pray
    for their salvation, support humanitarian and evangelistic
    efforts, and demonstrate reconciliation with Palestinian Christians.
    2. Islam - is a religion based on the teaching of Muhammed
    and his followers. We believe that to be false teaching.
    Islam as a religion must be dealt with by correct biblical
    teaching and education.
    3. Jihad - is an attitude within Islam that calls for
    destruction of western civilization and of Israel in order
    to achieve its goals of Islamic takeover. It comes from a
    demonic spirit, in my opinion, that is connected to what
    the book of Revelation refers to as the "beast".
    4. Terror - is a method of killing innocent victims to
    create an atmosphere of fear in order to influence people
    toward political or religious goals. Terror was at first
    a kind of criminal activity, but has increased over the
    years to a full military offensive. Terrorism must be
    fought with strong and decisive police and military action.
    5. Hamas - is an extremist Islamic organization, that has
    now become the head of the government of Gaza. Their election,
    putting them in the place of representing the people of Gaza,
    has made the situation more difficult. Since their coming into
    power, they have encouraged not only hatred to Israel but
    persecution of the small evangelical Christian community
    that was left in Gaza.

    There are many Messianic Jews in the Israeli army, several
    from our congregation. We pray for their safety. Just this
    evening I received a report of a pastor's son who was shot
    in the calf, but the bullet went straight through without
    causing major damage.

    How are we to pray?
    - For the Israeli army to destroy terrorist infrastructure,
    - For as few as possible Gazans to be hurt, and humanitarian
    aid given to them
    - For the gospel to go forth to the Arab people and rescue
    them from the lies of Islam,
    - For the demonic spirits behind the Jihad mentality to be
    bound and divided,
    - For the refuting of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel propaganda,
    - For the Holy Spirit to guide the Messianic believers
    within the army,
    - For the downfall of the Hamas and other organizations like them,
    - For the gospel to go forth to the Jewish people,
    - For the testimony of reconciliation between Israeli
    Messianics and Palestinian Christians to increase
    Note 1: Why and Why?
    Since the Israeli pull out of Gaza, Hamas continues to incite
    terrorism. They say they are fighting the "occupation". How
    can they say that when Israel has removed all of its forces?
    - Because by "occupation", they mean the very existence of
    the state of Israel. They are fighting for the elimination
    of our people.
    Since Israel has a stronger military force, why don't they
    just go in and wipe out the enemy forces in Gaza? They could
    do this easily. The answer is that, despite international
    propaganda, the Israeli people and government do not want to
    see innocent people killed. They are holding back their power
    for humanitarian reasons.
    Note 2: Military force and the Gospel
    Many Christians are confused by the call of reconciliation
    in the gospels with the need to use military force at times.
    There is no contradiction. Police and military are ministers,
    just as pastors and evangelists (Romans 13:4). We should never
    use force against anyone who rejects our message or our ministry.
    That is the wrong spirit of vengeance that Yeshua addressed in
    Samaria (Luke 9:55). In fact, that is the problem with Jihad:
    they use violence to force people to accept their religious views.
    When people reject us, we respond with love, blessing in return.
    We do not reject Arabs for being Arabs - God forbid, that would
    be racism. We do not use force on Muslims because they are Muslims.
    We use force on criminals, murderers, terrorists and tyrants -
    whatever their religious or ethnic background. We do not use
    force against people for spiritual goals; we use force when they
    break the law. In that respect we treat terrorists as we would any
    form of organized crime or despotism.
    * * * * *

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