I sit here in the stillness of my little home, after getting John safely to bed. I'm thankful we kept such a quiet Shabbat.  We watched God unfold His sign in the heaven today and John spent a full hour in the front yard,  sitting in a chair with his Eclipse glasses over his eyes. The 33-degree temp brought on shivering and I wrapped him in a big, fleece blanket.  How he loves watching the signs in sun, moon and stars, even as the Lord promised in Luke 21:25!

Then together we watched Jacob's Tent Shabbat Service and the wonderfully anointed teaching of Bill Cloud. He mentioned a few things today that went deep into my spirit.  I wouldn't have expected anyone to use Isaiah 60:1-3 in reference to the horrific, bloody terror-filled days of this past week. But I'm glad Bill did. 
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the LORD rises upon you and His glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

Thick darkness does indeed cover the peoples in these days - but what is this LIGHT that comes and draws even kings to the brightness of the glory?  We do have a mighty HOPE in Yeshua, the Promised Messiah, who WILL one day soon return to His homeland of Israel, conquer and completely destroy His enemies, and set up His Kingdom in Jerusalem, amidst the glory of God.  But I want to submit to you that I think there is an additional understanding of who carries this LIGHT. I believe it is also you and it is also me.  The thick darkness and demonic deception of Satan is over SO MANY PEOPLE OF THE EARTH, that if we are not careful, we will grow weary and hopeless. We are pummeled with the unbelievable images and numbers of people, worldwide, who wave flags of Hamas and shout jubilant cheers for the unspeakable, barbaric murder and torture they inflicted upon people in Isreal. Who celebrates this? Whose heart is so dark that they choose to support it?

It's incomprehensible to us. But instead of retreating into our rooms and filling our eyes with tears, we can begin to pray for this LIGHT that is rising upon us.  We can share the Word of God, we can read the ancient prophecies, and in so doing, we become aligned with His purposes and His will. We can BE the light in the darkness by encouraging ourselves and one another with prayer and encouragement. 

As Bill Cloud said this morning, we certainly should feel grieved and angered by the horrific atrocities against our Jewish brothers and sisters and others who were murdered or kidnapped in Israel.  But we should not be surprised or rattled or in fear because we have read the prophecies of these events in our Bibles for years.  I found myself in Habakkuk Chapter 1 all week, marveling over the words that so perfectly foretold this massacre.  I spent a lot of time in Isaiah Chapter 5, meditating on the "woes" - the WARNINGS - that the LORD spoke over His people. They are as pertinent today as the day Isaiah uttered them.  Israel has NOT been a light to the nations as she was ordained to be. But I believe that is a work of God amidst all the blood and all the mourning - a work of salvation through Messiah Yeshua, as He makes Himself known to His lost ones. His Light rise upon you and His glory will be over you in many ways, as you come alongside the grieving and the wounded. His radiant Light and His great Heart of Love will permeate Israel in a way that it never has before - and eventually even kings will come to His brightness!

But the ancient Amalekite spirit that is still attempting to rid the whole earth of every Jewish person is still alive and operating across the earth, and it must be vanquished.  I believe that Israel's leadership is finally understanding that LIGHT AND DARKNESS CANNOT CO-EXIST.  GOOD AND EVIL CANNOT CO-EXIST.  Even as God separated the light from the darkness in the Creation story of Genesis 1, so it must be now.  HAMAS - the Hebrew word for VIOLENCE - must be fully eradicated from the earth. 

I am posting a link below that just blessed me with an anointing and peace of the Holy Spirit.  It will bless and inspire you - and perhaps bring you to fresh understanding of what our FAITHFUL GOD is doing in the earth.  Take the time to click on the link and listen. Continue to pray. And continue to shine your light into the darkness!
​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPmDL4nWxcs

So many are writing to ask me about this horrific war in Israel and to "get my take" on it.  I'm no political analyst. I know very little about physical warfare; all my warfare is done in the Spirit! But after watching several days of photos and videos from Eretz Israel, the land I call HOME, and the place that holds my heart, I can tell you that one clear answer to all this endless fighting, hatred, and ongoing war comes into view. 

People are wondering what happens now to the "peace agreements" that were being forged between Israel and surrounding Arab nations. What about the Abraham Accords?  What will happen to the pending agreements with Saudi Arabia?  What is the fate of a so-called Palestinian state, and who are Israel's true friends?  While they were all saying, "peace and safety" sudden destruction HAS come upon them!

So here are my thoughts, friends, for what they are worth to you. The Abraham Accords were not really peace agreements. They were about money, technology, politics and commerce; but not about peace. These agreements, like so many other so-called "peace deals" in other nations of the world, are not permanent. They do not pass the test of time. We can look back at North and South Korea, Serbia and Kosovo, India and Pakistan, and very recently the terrible conflict in Armenia and Azerbaijan.  These countries were all neighbors, yet sworn enemies. Their peace agreements are actually all unfinished conflicts that do not address the ROOT PROBLEMS. 

So, what is the ROOT PROBLEM in the long Arab/Jewish (Israeli) conflict?  It is a very ancient tale of two brothers who were vying for their father's favor and approval.  This conflict between the two sons of Abraham continues across the ages. We are watching it right now in the fierce, hate-consumed faces of Hamas fighters and the agonized, tear-stained faces of the Israeli people. 

Let me take you back to Scripture so that we can reach full understanding of this war that is even now raging in the Middle East. Most of us know the story. Abraham's wife, Sarah, was barren so she arranged for Abraham to have a child by her maidservant, Hagar.  We know that Hagar bore a son of Abraham and he was named Ishmael.  In Genesis 16:11-12, we see Hagar has fled into the desert after being mistreated by Sarah, and the Angel of the Lord finds her there and speaks to her. He says, "You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers." 

This is quite a prophecy regarding Abraham's son Ishmael, wouldn't you say?  It most certainly describes the conflict that rages to this day.  And we see further evidence of the jealousy and hatred Ishmael carries when we look at the way he treats his younger brother, Isaac. In Genesis 21:8-13 we get deeper understanding of this ancient conflict:
The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham gave a great banquet on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom Hagar had borne to Abraham, making fun of Isaac; so Sarah said to Abraham, “Throw this slave-girl out! And her son! I will not have this slave-girl’s son as your heir along with my son Isaac!” Abraham became very distressed over this matter of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Don’t be distressed because of the boy and your slave-girl. Listen to everything Sarah says to you, because it is your descendants through Isaac who will be counted. But I will also make a nation from the son of the slave-girl, since he is descended from you.

The LORD makes clear to Abraham what his original plan and intention was. He had promised that Sarah (not Hagar) would have a son who would be the heir and the line through whom the promised Messiah would come. Yet, God acknowledged Ishmael, since he too was a son of Abraham, and he promises to make him a nation also (although this clearly is not to be the "son of the promise)." 

Ishmael does indeed become the great Arab nations of the world; but in the very words of the Angel of the Lord, his descendents LIVE IN HOSTILITY toward their brothers (the Jewish people) - from the very beginning. And no "Abraham Accords" have yet solved the hostility and the conflict, over these thousands of years. So what will it take?

I am grateful that God actually gives us the answer to that ageless question.  In Galatians 4:28-30 we read, "Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. IT IS THE SAME NOW. But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”

It sounds almost cruel and unfair, doesn't it? "The slave woman's son (Ishmael) will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son (Isaac)."   So, does this mean that Ishmael's descendents (the Arab peoples) are forever cast out by God and lost?  No. As I said, Scripture gives us the answer. And the answer is the same one He gave to Hagar thousands of years ago,  when she and Ishmael were alone in the desert, cast out of the camp by Sarah.  Genesis 16:7-9: 
The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered. Then the angel of the Lord told her, 'Go back to your mistress and submit to her.'”

Do you see it, my friends? Do you see the answer to this ancient conflict? Do you see how a REAL AND LASTING ABRAHAM ACCORDS covenant could be made?  It would require one thing. It would require the people of the false Islamic religion to humble themselves and submit to the eternal authority and Kingship of the Holy One of Israel, and of His son, their Messiah, Yeshua. Even as Hagar was told by the Angel of the Lord, "Go back to your mistress (Sarah) and submit to her," so are all the peoples of the world called to cast off their hate and their jealousy of ISAAC AND JACOB and bow the knee to the God of Israel.  The Word does tell us that one day "every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Yeshua is Lord!"  And Yeshua was a Jew.  

But in the meantime there is a very real "prince of the air" (Satan) who is ruling the earthly realm, and his goal does not change. Even as he convinced Herod to go through the cities and towns of Judea and murder every Hebrew boy, so he just did it again in Israel.  Through towns and villages the fighters of Hamas (which means violence) murdered young and old, innocent civilians, children and grandparents, motivated by the very same hatred and jealousy that coursed through the veins of Ishmael, Esau, Herod, Nero, Hitler, and the modern-day ayatollahs of Iran and neighboring Islamic nations. 

Will it ever end? Is there any answer? Only one. Submit to Yeshua, the Rightful Inheritor of the Kingdom of God.  As we pray for our brothers and sisters who suffer unspeakable loss in Israel, let us also pray for the supernatural power of our God to reveal Himself to the family of Ishmael and bring them to their knees.

Amen.