~ Thursday 25th June 2009 ~

Compiled by David Soakell Tel: 01323 410810
E-mail david@cfi.org.uk Website: www.cfi.org.uk

The Word: Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?" declares the LORD. "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" declares the LORD. "I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, 'I had a dream! I had a dream!' How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their fathers forgot my name through Baal worship. Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what is the chaff to the wheat?" declares the LORD. "Is not my word like fire," declares the LORD, "and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? (Jeremiah 23:24-29)

"In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia [Iran], in order to fulfil the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing: "This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: "The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build a Temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you - may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the Temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem." (Ezra 1:1-3)

• Pointers for prayer: Irrespective of what people think and what politicians declare, the Lord has clearly outlined His purpose for Israel in His word. Israel and the Jewish people are to be a testimony to His existence, His character and His faithfulness. They prove that His word is true. Pray that He will bless and use Israel for His glory (Ezekiel 36:22). Pray for those in authority. Israel’s leaders face a spiritual battle as well as a physical one, and need our help. Pray for the leaders in every sphere of life to be guided by God and to govern according to the principles of His word. Pray too that the Church would desire to be a blessing, and not a curse to the people and nation of Israel.

• Iran in turmoil: I pray that what I have included in this report would stir up the hearts of all Believers. Please intercede for the people of Iran. Pray that they would cry out to the LORD God and seek His mercy. Please pray that the right people would be there to bring help to the Iranians, and that the evil cry of Islam would be heard no more within that nation. Pray that the Lord will raise up men and women who will champion the cause of truth and righteousness in all levels of government. Pray that Iranian Christians will be able to communicate clearly to Iranian society the Biblical view of freedom, human rights, and religious liberty. As Believers in the LORD God, pray that our hearts would be examined, that no sin would be found within us, and that, as God's grace and mercy has been revealed to us, we too may have grace and mercy for those without hope.

• Please continue to pray for protection for Israel from all the attempts by the enemy to destroy God’s plans for Israel. Pray that God will grant Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government courage to not give in to international pressure to divide Jerusalem! Continue to proclaim God's sovereignty over the nation of Israel.

Potential for Apocalypse? Shalom to you all as another News Report & Prayer Update comes your way. Before I go any further this week, I would just like to point out one fact ~ and that is, in no way do I perceive to be, pretend to be, or desire to be a prophet. I've studied the prophets within the Scriptures, and laying on my side for long periods of time, being thrown into deep pits, and eating locusts appear way down on my "to do list". Let's face it, when we read in Isaiah 20:3, "Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia..." would anyone really desire to fulfil this role?

Other characters of the Bible did odd things too, like Noah getting drunk and sleeping naked in Genesis 9:21 (And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.) The drinking wine bit sounds fine... but the rest? And then in Genesis 17: 23, we find Abraham circumcising his son Ishmael along with 318 slaves in one day... Ouch! And when Joshua lead the Israeli's and they circled the walls of Jericho, he commanded them to yell out to the walls, and he told them to blow shofars at the walls, as he had a vision that if they did this the walls would fall down. If a psychiatrist from today’s generation approached Joshua and asked why he was yelling and blowing trumpets at the walls of Jericho, as soon as he said that God had told him to, the psychiatrist would diagnose him with Schizophrenia and visions of grandeur associated with mania!!!! While today’s IDF (Israel Defence Force) would drop precision bombs on a wall, and then send in tanks and ground troops over the crumbled walls, God on the other hand would have his people blow the walls down with shofars (Rams horns) and with the yelling of His people. Gods ways are completely contradictory to our ways, and the ways of God seem like craziness to man. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

So... as mentioned, I in no way see myself, nor desire to be, a prophet. Yet if you have been reading my recent updates, you'll have realised two weeks ago, I questioned whether we were approaching 42 months of peace. With the "President of the World" [as he has been referred as], otherwise know as U.S. President Barack Obama, walking onto the biggest platform in the world, taking centre stage, and with a harsh cold, steel-like arrogance, make his demands upon Israel, to an eager Arab world all lapping up his speech of "freedom"... I pondered whether the world's "Saviour" had come (though not our Saviour). Then, in last weeks update, I questioned whether we could be on the verge of seeing the need for a "supernatural" intervention from God (i.e. approaching Chariots of Fire), to protect the Jewish nation, as Israel appears to become more vulnerable by the day.

Like I said, I’m no prophet, however an article by Erich Follath www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,631799,00.html certainly caught my attention. Under the heading "Is war between Iran and Israel Inevitable?", Der Spiegel's diplomatic correspondent Erich Follath wrote on 22nd June 2009, "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may seem very different, but they are united in their apocalyptic religious visions. Their respective beliefs may be propelling them on a collision course with potentially horrific consequences." Follath states, "A pair of more disparate twins hasn't existed since the muscle-bound Arnold Schwarzenegger and the sharp-tongued, diminutive Danny DeVito played twins in the Hollywood movie of that name. One, the Israeli, is tall and thickset and often wears tailored suits. He is a gifted speaker and a militant anti-Iranian. The other, the Iranian, is short and slight and is almost always seen wearing an ordinary-looking beige windbreaker. He tends to be somewhat gauche and is a rabble-rousing populist and a self-declared enemy of Israel. The two men couldn't be more different. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 59, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 52, are twins in spirit, which is not to imply in any way that they are morally equivalent. Both men are convinced of the absolute validity of their beliefs, both are obsessed by what they see as their higher calling, and both are convinced that theirs is a Messianic mission -- a mission to "honour" a religion or "save" a people."

Erich Follath continues, "There is every indication that the coming nuclear negotiations between Washington and Tehran... will end in a stalemate by the end of the year. If that happens, US President Barack Obama will push for tougher sanctions against Tehran in early 2010, with the reluctant support of the Russians and Chinese. The leadership in Tehran will interpret this as an aggressive act and will likely speed up its uranium enrichment, meaning that Iran will only be a few months away from having the capability to build a nuclear bomb. At some point next spring, things could have proceeded so far that the Israelis could decide, even without Washington's approval, to launch attacks against Iranian nuclear facilities. The entire Middle East would see thousands of casualties, and the consequences for the global economy would be devastating."

Now you may not agree with everything Follath states, and I certainly don't agree with much of his article [and to be fair to Erich Follath, one should at least read the full context of his article at the website mentioned], however his knowledge of the Middle East is interesting. To understand what motivates the Iranian president, Follath informs his readers that it is important to examine the deeply religious ideas that shape both Ahmadinejad and Netanyahu and practically destine them to clash with each other. Writing on Ahmadinejad, Follath states, "The so-called Mahdists around Mesbah Yazdi and Ahmadinejad believe that their Twelfth Imam disappeared from the face of the earth in the 9th century because Allah the Almighty hid him to put mankind to a test. They also believe that this Twelfth Imam, or Mahdi, will return to the earth, as will Jesus, who all Muslims see as an important predecessor to Muhammad. The Mahdi, in their view, will create a paradise on earth for believers and condemn blasphemers to eternal damnation. But he will only return when the world has undergone a catharsis, a whirling, gigantic, cleansing upheaval. Could it take the form of a war between Muslims and heretics, perhaps? Possibly a nuclear war? And do some of the apocalyptically minded within the Haqqani school want to provoke this cataclysmic event to bring about the return of the Mahdi as soon as possible?"

It's certainly something I feel we need to pray against. But whatever may be around the corner, we can take comfort that the LORD God Almighty is in complete control. As Jeremiah 23:24 states, "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" declares the LORD... Is not my word like fire... and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?" It was also interesting to note that Muslims believe that the Twelfth Imam, or Mahdi, will return to the earth, as will Jesus, who all Muslims see as an important predecessor to Muhammad. This, I believe is where "the intercessor" comes in. According to sources, more and more stories are coming out of Islamic closed countries, of God supernaturally speaking to Muslims through dreams and visions. Of the estimated thousands of new believers in Iran in the last few years, over half of them became believers after Yeshua (Jesus) personally came to them in a dream or vision.

This reminds me of one cold January day in Israel as I spoke with an Arab man on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. This man blamed me (as an Englishman) and Tony Blair (the British Prime Minister at the time) for the Jews being in Israel. It was freezing cold, tipping down with rain, and this man wanted to argue about who was to blame for the Jews being in "his land". Hearing the call of Cafe Hillel, I felt I needed to make a quick exit... however before I left, I was determined to bless this man. And so, I asked him (knowing what the answer would be) if he accepted Jesus (Yeshua) as a prophet? Of course he said "yes". And so, I asked if he would mind me praying a blessing upon him in the name of the "prophet" Jesus. And he accepted... so I laid hands upon him, and prayed a blessing that the LORD God would open his eyes to the truth. This was one man... but we can pray that many men will see the truth, and this in turn would have a huge effect upon the Middle East.

Iran in turmoil With the above in mind, and the scenes you will no doubt have seen on TV News, now more than ever is a time to pray into the situation with Iran. Of all of the human empires that affected the people of Israel, the Persians did something rather unique - they permitted the return of the people of the southern kingdom of Judah to Israel, by God's command (see above verses in Ezra), 70 years after their exile by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar. At its peak, the Persian empire reached from India to Greece, and from the Caspian Sea to the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. The Persians are believed to have originated in Media, which today corresponds to western Iran and southern Azerbaijan. They settled in Persia (Iran), on the eastern side of the Persian Gulf.

Today, Iran is in turmoil. Iranian government forces are moving with increasing ferocity to clamp down on dissident activities as presidential challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi urges his followers to gather for the "largest March of Sea of Green" later this week. The protest, planned by the opposition to be the largest ever held in the Iranian capital, is being billed in part as a memorial to Neda, a 27-year-old woman who bled to death after being shot during the weekend protests by the Basij militia. The young woman's death was filmed and broadcast on the video-sharing YouTube website, where tens of thousands of people saw it within hours. Normally, I would choose not to view such hard hitting film, however as I watched this footage from CNN, tears streamed from my eyes. I felt physically sick... but it caused me to cry out to the LORD God for help for these Iranian people. If you reading this online, you can watch the CNN footage here, but be warned, this is shocking. Please note: this is not entertainment... we are not playing games here... I have only included this link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDox6Xk2Pss) to cause people to get on their knees and cry out to God for these people: YouTube - The power of Neda (Iranian girl who Martyred by Iranian ...

Neda has become a symbol for those protesting the Ahmadinejad regime; at many subsequent demonstrations, protestors have been carrying signs proclaiming, "I am Neda." Younger demonstrators are growing somewhat more cautious in the face of the militia brutality. It is impossible to know how many people have actually been shot to death by the government forces; media reports and civilian "Tweets" on the Twitter social networking mini-blogging internet site have put the number between 19 and "dozens." Many more have been wounded in the ongoing violence; government forces have used tear gas canisters, water cannons, gunshots and batons to batter the protestors into abandoning their efforts.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticised the Iranian government's actions against the protestors in a statement issued on Tuesday. Ban Ki-moon's spokesman stated, “The Secretary-General has been following with growing concern the situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran and is dismayed by the post-election violence, particularly the use of force against civilians, which has led to the loss of life and injuries... He calls on the authorities to respect fundamental civil and political rights, especially the freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of information.. The situation in Iran is of concern to the international community, and the Secretary-General calls on the Government and the opposition to resolve peacefully their differences through dialogue and legal means. He urges an immediate stop to the arrests, threats and use of force. The Secretary-General reiterates his hope that the democratic will of the people of Iran will be fully respected.”

Meanwhile, a member of Iran's Guardian Council acknowledged on Sunday that voting irregularities took place in at least 50 polling locations around the country. Spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei tried to play down accusations that the election was rigged, saying that the claims that fraud had taken place in more than 80 cities were not true. Israel's President Shimon Peres noted that the massive protests signalled a threat to Ahmadinejad's intended drive toward nuclear weapons, and possibly his oft-repeated vow to wipe the Jewish State off the map. "I don't know what will disappear first -- their enriched uranium or their poor government," Peres told a gathering of world Jewish leaders this week in Jerusalem. "Hopefully, the poor government will disappear."

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday in a televised interview that both the United States and Israel should "leave all options on the table" in terms of dealing with the continued Iranian nuclear threat. All foreign journalists have been banned by the government from the streets of Iran and all reports on the violence by foreign media on the scene have been censored. The BBC correspondent Jon Leyne was ordered on 21st June to leave the country within 24 hours. The journalist was accused of "dispatching fabricated news and reports" and "ignoring neutrality in news," as well as "supporting rioters and trampling the Iranian nation's rights," Reuters reported. Iranian state radio accused Leyne of "distortion of news regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran and particularly news pertaining to the election."

No to arms embargo The British government has refused to heed a petition calling on the UK to impose an arms embargo on Israel and press other countries to stop supplying arms to the Jewish state. The government responded last week to a petition posted in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead on the official Web site of the Prime Minister's Office. The petition, initiated by a man named Yusuf Ibrahim, was signed by over 38,000 people. Anyone can post petitions on the Prime Minister's Office site, and the government will respond to those that get more than 500 signatures.

The petitioners asked Gordon Brown "to do everything in his power to impose an arms embargo on Israel in light of the recent Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip and to apply pressure on countries supplying Israel with arms that breach international agreements with the intention of restoring lasting peace to the region," the petition read. It claimed Israel was responsible for exacerbating tensions in the region. The petition also stated that an embargo would show that Britain was committed to establishing peace in the region and "will have a far reaching impact in terms of marginalizing the ideologies of radical extremist groups." In its response, the government said it did not believe an embargo would benefit the region and that Israel had a right to defend itself. "We do not believe that the current situation in the Middle East would be improved by imposing an arms embargo on Israel," the government said. "Israel has the right to defend itself and faces real security threats. However, we will not grant export licenses where there is a clear risk that arms will be used for external aggression or internal repression." The government said Britain would "continue to work with our international partners, including the new US administration, to pursue vigorously a comprehensive and just peace in the Middle East."

David Soakell

Sources: Unless otherwise stated: Personal sources throughout Israel along with The Jerusalem Post, BBC News, Arutz-7 News, Israeli Embassy London, Independent Media Review and Analysis & Israel National Radio