Once again as the Jews prepare to celebrate the Feast of Purim, the story in the Bible mirrors the situation in the world TODAY.  I will say it again: our God works in patterns. In Ecclesiastes 3:15 it says, "Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God calls back the past."

For those who haven't been able to keep up with the latest news in Israel, I'm going to re-print an article from World Israel News that is dated today.  We know from the verse in Daniel 10:20 that there is a very vicious, demonic principality known as "The Prince of Persia" over the ancient land of Persia, which is now modern Iran.  In my spirit I sense that this evil entity rises up at this time of year, stirring up deep hatred against the Jewish people , even as Haman did in the book of Esther.  Read the book this week, my dear friends, so that you will be moved to fast and pray as Esther did for her people.  

Netanyahu warns Iran that Israel will not sit idly by as the ayatollahs threaten to destroy the Jewish State.
By Paul Shindman, World Israel News


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Tuesday that Israel will not permit Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons to fulfill its oft-repeated goal of destroying Israel.
“On the eve of [the festival of] Purim, I would like to say to those who seek our lives, Iran and its proxies in the Middle East: 2,500 years ago, another Persian villain [Haman] tried to destroy the Jewish people and just as he failed then, so too will you fail today. We will not allow your extremist and aggressive regime to attain nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said during a speech at a memorial service in northern Israel. “We have not made the journey of generations, of thousands of years, to return to the land of Israel in order to allow the delusional regime of the ayatollahs to end the story of the revival of the Jewish people,” the prime minister said.

The Purim festival celebrated each year recounts the story of how an evil advisor to the ancient king of Persia persuaded him to order the genocide of the Jewish people, but the king subsequently fell in love with a Jewish woman, Esther, who he took as his queen. Esther turned the tables on Haman, the evil advisor, and saved the Jews from destruction. Iran’s political and military leaders have for decades said their national goal is to destroy Israel, which it calls a “cancer” that has to be removed from the Middle East.

Israel objected when world powers signed a deal with Iran in 2015 to restrict its nuclear activities, pointing out the numerous shortcomings of the agreement, particularly the fact that it didn’t address Iran’s murderous intentions, included  ‘sunset clauses,’ and put limits on how the UN’s international nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, could inspect Iran’s nuclear sites.
Last month, Iran announced it was increasing the rate at which it enriches uranium in a clear violation of the agreement.

My friends, the situation in the Middle East right now calls for us not to just read about Esther, but to BE Esthers, willing to fast and intercede for the protection of the Jewish people for such a time as this. And while we are at it, let us do the same for our own nation, which is also being greatly threatened by demonic forces.  May a day come when we can celebrate a "modern Purim" ​as a day when the Jews [and America] got relief from their enemies and as a month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration."  (Esther 9:22)

Most all believers I meet and talk with these days are perplexed. They are trying to discern where we are in time and what this "great political disappointment" was all about.  Some are calling it the "calm before the storm." Many are asking, "How did this happen?" Others are focused on a political/military-engineered miracle to deliver us from the wicked rulings that have taken over our nation.  But after much prayer, I believe I am finally beginning to understand the mind of Christ and what HE is doing.  I have always believed that God works in patterns. All the way back to Exodus we can see so many patterns He established that He will no doubt move in again.  The "Exodus Pattern" is that of a great deliverance of His people after they have suffered mightily under a cruel regime.  The time of the Passover, which is fast approaching, is a time of standing on tiptoe, peering into the skies, expecting a great deliverance but not knowing when the King of the Universe will do it!

Allow me to re-post one of my blogs from 12/11/2015 - a Word from the LORD:
"So much is about to happen - so much!  I keep telling you to hide yourself because this means 'HIDE IN ME.' You are still thinking like the world. You need MY mind, MY thoughts! Take every thought captive in Yeshua (2 Cor. 10:5). Ephraim is a child without wisdom. When the time arrives, he does not come to the opening of the womb (Hosea 13:13). I AM BIRTHING A KINGDOM UPON THIS EARTH! Repent of sin and get close to ME.  Fully trust me for all you will need.  Have I not always provided for you, My child?

"O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a green pine tree; your fruitfulness comes from ME. Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of YHVH are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them (Hosea 14:8-9)."

His words shook me back into the glory of all that He is.  He is not sending most of us to a physical place in this season -- he is calling us to HIDE OURSELVES IN HIM, getting so close to Him that fear cannot enter our minds and trust will be our daily bread. He is calling His chosen ones to GET INTO POSITION IN THE WOMB, READY TO ENTER THE BIRTH CANAL!  He has hidden us in the secret place and knit us together in the womb -- and soon it will be time for us to launch forward into all the splendor and might of His Kingdom Reign -- but not yet!  

So, God gave me those words 5 years ago and we are still in the "soon and not yet" period; but oh beloved, we are getting SO much closer! If we would only focus on the splendor and majesty about to reveal itself as His Kingdom is birthed, we would not be agonizing so about the difficulties of this world we live in.  This world is passing away.  The pandemics and pestilence, the earthquakes and devastating weather, the wars and rumors of wars are all foretold and we have read about them many times in Matthew 24.  Why then are we groaning like the Israelites and asking to go back to Egypt?  Were the leeks and cucumbers really that good? Or does God have something so much more wonderful planned for us?

Zion's Hope excellent teacher David Ettinger recently wrote, "What about today, in this time of global pandemics, financial uncertainty and civil unrest? What has God promised to all who love Him and His Son, Jesus Christ? What are His plans and purposes for believers that cannot be impeded?
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John 6:39-40
39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

Matthew 24:31
31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever."

David continues, "Yet, here we are living in a world growing ever more hostile to everything we hold dear. Life will continue to grow increasingly difficult for believers as we near the end of the age. We will continue to be stripped of our rights and our freedoms. True Christians in the West may soon face the type of severe persecution seen only in the distant corners of our plant under oppressive regimes and authoritarian dictatorships.  So, to the believers of today who long for Messiah's return, He tells us to be patient and endure.  Our Lord's promises will be fulfilled. What He has planned and purposed for you WILL come to pass!"

I believe David is right. Things are going to get much worse according to the Scriptures. Birth pains do NOT get easier, they get much more intense.  But I was encouraged - and I hope you will be too - by the words the Lord spoke to me five years ago: "So much is about to happen! Stop thinking like the world. Hide yourself in ME. I AM BIRTHING A KINGDOM UPON THIS EARTH! Repent of sin and get close to ME.  Fully trust Me for all you will need."

Turn off the TV, hide yourself in Him and look up! Stand on tip-toe! Your redemption draws near!