On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists killed over 1,200 Israelis on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War.  The attacks marked the single greatest act of violence against Jews since the Holocaust, with Israel immediately declaring war against the terror group.

Over 250 hostages from a dozen nations were taken into Gaza by Hamas. Most were Israeli, including women, children, infants, and elderly.  It is believed that less than 20 of them are still alive, although Hamas continues to hold the bodies of those who have died as part of their psychological warfare against the Jewish people and a means to inflict more cruelty on their families.

As Israel called up reservists and warned civilians in Gaza to flee to safe areas ahead of ground assaults, pro-Palestinian protests launched worldwide, calling for an immediate cease-fire. Protesters stopped traffic on bridges in New York and San Francisco, while others were arrested storming the Capitol in Washington.

At elite college campuses in the U.S., academic leaders justified the brutal actions of Hamas, equating rape with resistance.  Some were criticized, and college presidents at Harvard, Columbia, and U Penn resigned over anti-Israel rhetoric, while others remain under pressure.

A new distinction also became popular during this time.  To avoid the label of anti-Semitism, those on the left made a distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Anti-Zionism is the view that opposes Zionism, or the belief that the Jewish people have the right to establish their own nation.  While the distinction became popular among many liberals, the view does not escape an anti-Semitic worldview.

Jewish conservative commentator Dennis Prager rightly critiqued this view by the illustration of another nation:  “Imagine a group of people who work to destroy Italy because, they claim, Italy’s origins are illegitimate. Imagine further that these people maintain that of all the countries in the world, only Italy doesn’t deserve to exist. Then imagine that these people vigorously deny that they are anti-Italian. Would you believe them?  Now substitute “Israel” for “Italy,” and you’ll understand the dishonesty and absurdity of the argument that one can be anti-Zionist—that is, against the existence of a Jewish state—but not be anti-Jew. Yet, that is precisely what anti-Zionists say.  They say that Israel’s existence is illegitimate. They don’t say this about any other country in the world, no matter how bloody its origins.  And then they get offended when they’re accused of being anti-Jew.”

This is precisely the argument the mainstream media often makes in referring to Israel as an apartheid state, comparing it with the racism of South Africa of the last century.  Rather than affirming the right of the Jewish people to live in their historical homeland and establish a nation, the media and political left argue for either a so-called two-state solution or even advocate for removing Israel from the map.
Iran directly supports Hamas.  Iran has been waging a war against what it calls the “Little Satan,” Israel, for decades, and Iran has been waging a war against the “Great Satan,” America.  On October 23, 1983, I preached the Gospel to the Marines in Beirut, giving them the Christmas gift of a small Bible.  A young soldier, 18, from Worcester, Massachusetts, asked me if I could send a message to his mom.  So, I had my camera crew tape it.  He said, “Dear Mom, I know you’ve been praying for me.  I won’t be coming home for Christmas.  But I have a Christmas gift for you. I’ve just accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. Merry Christmas, Mom.”  That Marine and 240 others were dead the next morning.

Since then, Iran has conducted ongoing attacks on numerous countries in a long-term effort to exert influence in the region.  A 2021 State Department report observed that in that year alone, “Iran pursued or supported terrorist attacks against Israeli targets…including a thwarted January plot to attack an Israeli embassy in East Africa, a January bomb attack outside the Israeli embassy in New Delhi for which the Indian government said the IRGCQF was responsible, and a disrupted attempt to attack an Israeli businessman in Cyprus.”

The United States presently has the USS Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group in the Red Sea south of Israel, including an array of weapons and 5,000 sailors.  The U.S. also has a nuclear-powered Ohio-class submarine in the area, the USS Ford Carrier Strike Group in the Mediterranean Sea, which includes three ballistic missile defense ships and four additional warships.  The Pentagon deployed 1,200 additional troops to the Middle East since October 7 to act as a deterrent and protect 45,000 U.S. service members and contractors throughout the Middle East.  Despite the show of force, Iran has attacked U.S. troops over 40 times since October 7, 2023.  A reported 56 U.S. military personnel have been injured.  The U.S. has responded with airstrikes hitting targets in Syria and over 800 targets in Yemen.

During one of my many trips to Israel following the October 7 attacks, I spoke with four individuals who told amazing stories of divine intervention.  I heard a story of a woman whose kibbutz was attacked by Hamas terrorists. She lifted her hands and started declaring in the mighty name of the Lord that God would blind their eyes.  They were entering her room, another room where her mother was, and a third room where the grandchild was.  The terrorists went up to all three doors with their weapons but didn’t open any of the doors, nor did they fire through any of them.  When the Israeli military came, they saw the deaths of many near her home, and she told the story of lifting her hands and crying out to God.

Another woman in Jerusalem was in a terror attack.  As the terrorists were firing in her direction, she shouted out loud in Hebrew Psalm 121.  It says, “The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life” (v. 7).  Not a bullet touched her.  A third soldier told the story that his battalion was in a line late at night, going into a highly explosive area, when suddenly he saw a dove flying towards his face.  He thought he was seeing things because he had hardly slept for 36 hours.  Suddenly, the dove stopped within a foot of his face in midair.  He felt he was imagining the dove, so he stuck his rifle out to poke in the direction of the dove.  At that moment, he realized the dove was perched on a tripwire.  Had it not been for the dove, he would have hit the tripwire, detonating enough C4 explosives to kill his entire battalion.

Another soldier was eating a can of tuna fish.  He struck a match to the oil to warm the tuna fish, and it caught on fire.  He threw it down into a nearby tunnel shaft, not realizing it contained explosives.  It blew up the explosives, and all the terrorists came out of the tunnel, surrendering over his can of tuna fish!  Another soldier had the book of Psalms in his front pocket by his heart.  When terrorists shot at him during the battle, a bullet lodged into the book of Psalms and saved his life.

Israel is under attack by Iran and its demon-possessed proxies, but this is nothing new.  This battle has continued for thousands of years since the day Abraham pitched his tent on Mount Sinai and made a covenant with God, but I’ve never seen the battle as fierce as it is at this present moment.

On October 7, the codename for the attacks by Hamas was the Al-Aqsa Flood after the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.  This is where Satan declared that he would exalt himself above the Most High (Isaiah 14:13).  Despite the agony Israel is going through, I can hear the prophet Zechariah crying out, “I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:9).

Israel is a tiny country about the size of New Jersey, the fifth smallest state in the U.S.  The survivors of the Holocaust poured into Israel as human skeletons, crying and rejoicing as Israel was reborn in March of 1948.  The day they declared independence, Israel was attacked.  There has been war ever since.  The Jewish people believed that neither they nor their children would ever again experience what they had experienced in the Holocaust.  But they did on October 7.

Israel is God’s dream.  The title deed belongs to Him.  A spirit of anti-Semitism has swept the globe in a way that I’ve never seen in my lifetime. You and I cannot be silent.

Like Esther, we have come into the kingdom for such a time as this. Satan has tried time and time again to wipe the Jews off the planet.  Pharaoh attempted it.  Hitler attempted it. Now, Iran is on the brink of going nuclear and is attempting it.  You and I, as Israel’s last line of defense, must do everything humanly possible to help. There’s never been a time in my life when our ministry has done more for the nation of Israel.  I can tell you the people of Israel are very grateful, but the battle is not over yet.

For me, the battle against anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is personal.  I have been the target of an assassination. Richard Snell, a member of The Covenant, The Sword and the Arm of the Lord—a white supremacist—aimed to take me off this earth.  On June 30, 1984, while I was working with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Snell attempted to assassinate me because I supported Israel and the Jewish people’s right to a state in their historic homeland.

Sadly, Richard Snell was labeled as a Christian extremist, even though he was not a real Christian.  Real Christians believe in the promise, the truth that God has given the land of Israel to the Jewish people.  Real Christians are friends of Israel and friends of the Jewish people.  Snell believed that the United States was being taken over by the Jewish people and other minorities at the expense of “white Americans.”

My father was also an anti-Semite who cursed the Jewish people and believed in anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.  Their ideology is ignorant and intolerant at best; the Jewish community is one of the biggest success stories in American assimilation. American Jews serve in public service roles nationwide and play an active and positive role in the country’s future. The Jewish community, a tiny minority in the United States, has always contributed more to society than is possibly known.

In my experience, I have faced too many Christians who are not educated on the Christian’s real role in assisting the Jewish people. That is why I have dedicated my life to defending Israel and the Jewish people.  Yet much work remains.  Even near my own home, anti-Semitism has been deadly.  In January 2022, I woke up Saturday morning to drive down Pleasant Run, near where I live, to my favorite Starbucks.  As I drove, I passed Congregation Beth Israel as I do every morning.  It was around 11 a.m.  I am very familiar with the congregation and have participated in many of their services online through Facebook, but suddenly, I saw police cars rushing in every direction on Pleasant Run.

I asked someone nearby what was happening and was told there was a terrorist on Pleasant Run at the Beth Israel synagogue who was threatening to blow it up.  The man, later identified as a 44-year-old UK citizen named Malik Faisal Arkram reportedly had a bomb and held four Jews as hostages.  More than 200 local, state, and federal law enforcement officers converged on the Beth Israel synagogue. The terrorist had been making statements that were going out live on Facebook from the synagogue that he would be going to Jannah, the Muslim concept of heaven.  He was shouting about dying and not liking police officers or Jews.  Why would such a thing happen?  The answer is simple: Anti-Semitism.  It’s being fueled and fed, and it gets Jews killed.

That terrorist was originally from Pakistan. Anti-Semitism doesn’t begin with a gun in the hands of a terrorist.  It begins with young children being brainwashed to hate Jews.  Some of the attackers of Jews are not Muslims, like the ones who attacked the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and the Chabad of Poway synagogue in California, but the vast majority are Muslims.

We must acknowledge the root of the problem and stop the media terror.  The media often fuels anti-Semitism and lionizes these demon-possessed individuals.  Terrorists are the only group in the world that gets free media.  Everyone else must pay for it.  The founder of Israeli intelligence, Isser Harel, described it this way.  “You kill a fly and rejoice.  We kill one, and 100 come to the funeral.”  You can be sure there will be many more recruited who want to become martyrs and be famous.  We must stop media terror by cutting it off at its roots.

 The sad and inexplicable truth is this: Anti-Semitism is alive and well on planet Earth, and the United States is not immune.  For me, all of this is very personal.  My mother named me after her grandfather, Rabbi Mikel Katz-Nelson.  A rabid and bigoted mob burned him to death inside his synagogue in what is now Belarus, along with 2,000 Jewish men, women, and children.

Many people have asked me why I built the Friends of Zion Center and Museum in Jerusalem.  The answer is quite simple: to combat Jew hatred.  My work began when I was 11 years old.  My father, an anti-Semite, beat my Jewish mother, declaring her to be a whore.  My father, a Christian man, insisted I was not his son.  My greatest shame was that I could not protect my mother, and when I tried, my father picked me up by the neck and nearly strangled me.  At that early age, I knew that my life’s work would be to defend the Jewish people.

Anti-Zionism has been an Ebola virus of anti-Semitism. The sickness has mutated from the pogroms, the Nazi Party, and Hitler, and now it’s being fueled and fed by radical Islam.  

The face of evil has been revealed, and it is up to us to respond.  

There is a unique calling from God on your life—a plan He has for no one else. What you do with it is up to you.

Will you bury it in the ground as did the servant with one talent? (Matthew 25:14-30). Will you come into agreement with the prayers of Jesus and be part of the answer? Or will you continue to live with Self on the throne—with its hurts, ego, deficiencies, selfishness, deception, and its clouded, narrow-minded worldview ruling your life?

Though the issues of knowing and living God’s plan for your life may seem complex, the actual decision is really very basic: Will you live this day—this hour, this minute, this breath—with Jesus as Lord of your life, or do you think you can do better on your own?  This is the moment to make the decision that will influence this and every moment following for the remainder of your life. It may be difficult, but I wouldn’t want to live any other way!

 Recently, I heard about a football player who had the personal motto: “No one will work harder than I do today.” It was a motto that took him to Harvard on an academic scholarship after having been born into a family that could never have otherwise afforded it. This motto brought him to a starting position on an NFL team even though Harvard is rarely a place an NFL scout finds great talent.

We should have a similar motto that is just as simple: “Today I will seek God in order to do His will.”

 One of Satan’s greatest ploys is to make us believe that living the Christ-life is out of our reach. He would have us idolize certain men and women of God just as a teenager might idolize a rock star or sports hero. He would have us think, “Oh, if I could only be like them! But it must take such great talent and determination to do what they do. It is so far beyond anything I could ever do!”

There is the deception: If I could only be like them. Well, guess what? You are like them! If you are a Christian, then you have inside you the same Holy Spirit others have. You too have Jesus Lord and Savior, and you have a heavenly Father who loves you and wants to know and be known by you. In God’s eyes, all that matters is your obedience to His will. Large meetings don’t matter. Big churches don’t matter. Incredible mission outreaches don’t matter.  If they are of God, then they are merely byproducts of Believers who have obeyed Him. The important thing is the obedience.

“Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep” (Psalm 127:1-2).  We can work hard, stay up late, rise early, work at the church 120 out of the 168 hours in a week, but none of it matters if we are building a kingdom unto ourselves rather than unto God. In fact, the opposite is true: If we are obeying God, then we won’t be working impossibly long hours to build His kingdom, because He gives His beloved sleep and rest. The only real work is staying in our quiet place until we learn His will. Then we simply have to live it out. The rest will take care of itself.

We need to come into agreement with God and His Word. We need to come into agreement with the prayers of Jesus.  The works of Jesus—and greater works—will only come to the Church when we as Christians come into agreement with His Word, His will, and the nine prayers from John 17. We need to seek His face sincerely to know what He wants us to do. God is waiting for those who dare to draw close to Him. Are you willing to be faithful to God and press in close to Him until Jesus’ nine prayers are really and truly answered?

1.  “THAT THEY MAY KNOW THE ONLY TRUE GOD,”
 (JOHN 17:3).

We cannot be content with knowing about God or what others think of Him. This is dead religion and self-worship. We have to take the risk of spending time with Jesus and His Word and learn to really know Him, His heart, His ministry, and then just do it. We will never know God, until we seek Him with all of our hearts. “‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me
with all your heart.
I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 29:13-14).

2.  “THAT THEY
   MAY BE ONE,” (JOHN 17:21).

Division comes from not being one with Jesus. If we were one with Him then we would take our proper place within His Body. If we are ever to have unity in the Church, it will not be through ecumenical movements that water down the truth in order for it to be more accepted by others. Only when we are one with Jesus will we be one with each other. Each of us must first learn our individual place in His plan. “Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love” (Ephesians 4:16).

3. “THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE MY JOY” (JOHN 17:13).

We don’t have His joy because we are trying to live by our flesh and its deceptive desires. His joy is not a fruit of the flesh, but of His Spirit (see Galatians 5:22) and comes from doing His will. When we live by His Spirit and give Him our emotions and desires, there is nothing the devil can do to us to steal our peace and joy. We have “joy unspeakable and full of glory” (see 1 Peter 1:8) because we celebrate the Christ within as we become part of manifesting His kingdom on earth.  “When you obey Me, you remain in My love, just as I obey My Father and remain in His love. I have told you this so that you will be filled with My joy. Yes, your joy will overflow” (John 15:10-11)

4.  “THAT YOU SHOULDEST KEEP THEM FROM EVIL,”
  (JOHN 17:15).

When we become comfortable in our flesh or accept its dictate that we cannot live like Jesus, then we give evil free reign in both our own lives and our communities. We adopt the attitude, “Well, there is really nothing that I can do about it! I wonder what’s on TV tonight.” We accept being entertained rather than fulfilled. This complacency breeds spiritual poverty.  If we are ever to be a threat to evil rather than having evil be a threat to us, then we must learn that our new nature in Christ has obliterated our past, and given us new values and a new life. Because of this, we now supernaturally have a new present and future! Childlike obedience to His direction can usher in His present-day ministry, vanquish evil and establish His will and kingdom around us.  “My brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:10-11)

5.  “THAT THEY MIGHT BE SANCTIFIED THROUGH THE 
  TRUTH” (JOHN 17:19).

Do we live by truth? Are we brutally honest with ourselves at all times? Are we willing to go through Christ’s daily pruning to cut off that which is dead so that we may bear more fruit? (See John 15:1-8.)

Loving the truth is the key to living out the present-day ministry of Jesus. Those who believe or accept half-truths lapse into complacency and self-contentment. They are satisfied with where they are and care little about pressing in to seek God’s will and His desires. People who love truth are not afraid of letting others see their weaknesses or humanity. In fact, they are able to glorify God as His strength can be seen through their weakness! It is not a special anointing that counts, but having been with the Anointed One—Jesus Christ.  “Since God has so generously let us in on what he is doing, we’re not about to throw up our hands and walk off the job just because we run into occasional hard times. We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don’t maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. And we don’t twist God’s Word to suit ourselves. Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God” (2 Corinthians 4:1-2).

6.  “THAT THEY MAY BEHOLD MY GLORY”
  (JOHN 17:24).

God’s glory has appeared from time to time on the earth as men, women, and children have humbled themselves before God, sincerely seeking His presence and repenting of their fleshly lives. But repentance alone has never kept God’s glory and revival growing. It has always been limited to a certain place for a certain time. It has always been quenched as we have turned back to our flesh for answers, thinking we can provide the necessary discipline to reach heaven.  The Bible is clear on this: It is not what we don’t do, it is what we do. It is time for a generation that will forsake the flesh and rise to walk in the Spirit, empowered by His gifts and gifted by His power.  Only then will the fruit of His glory take root and flourish throughout the earth.  All of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more (2 Corinthians 3:18)

7.  “THAT THEY MAY BE MADE PERFECT” (JOHN 17:23).

The only perfect person is a dead person. We have been crucified, buried, and resurrected with Christ. It is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in and through us. (See Galatians 2:20.) We must let the Christ-life flow through us so that we can be revived as was the valley of dry bones before Ezekiel. (See Ezekiel 37:1-14.) Are we willing to leave the rotting corpse of our flesh behind and move forward with His Spirit into God’s holiness and perfection, being made into a vessel “meet for the master’s use”? (See 2 Timothy 2:21.)  “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you” (1 Peter 5:8-10).

8.  THAT THE WORLD WOULD KNOW THAT WE HAVE
 “BEEN WITH JESUS”  (JOHN 17:22-23, 25).

The world could see that the apostles had been with Jesus. Even Peter’s shadow had been empowered with healing after he had been with Jesus. (See Acts 5:15.) And, lest we think that walking the earth with Jesus was the only way to qualify for walking in His anointing, remember Paul spread even more of Christ around the world than did the Twelve who had spent time with Jesus before and after His crucifixion. Paul had only met the Messiah after He ascended.  It is time to press into Him until the world sees the love of Jesus shining on our face, and as a result, is born again.  “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

9.  “THAT THE LOVE WITH WHICH YOU LOVED ME MAY
 BE IN THEM” (JOHN 17:26).

As we reveal Christ to a desperate world, we reveal that supernatural love which embraces and heals. We can no longer be content to focus on the outside, polishing, painting, and admiring the container of spikenard as if it were of more value than the perfume of His love from within. It is time to shatter the worship of outside appearances and allow the love of God (see Romans 5:5) within us to flow forth, as well as His righteousness, and His kingdom. We cannot ignore the greater commandment of Jesus: We must love others with the same love with which He loves us.  “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him” (1 John 4:7-9).

You Can Be the Answer to Jesus’ Prayers

When Jesus returned to heaven after His work here was complete, He sat down.  That’s because He has assigned the ongoing work to us.  Jesus Christ delegated everything He had—His power, His reputation, His Name, His life, His history, His Words, His very Spirit, everything He’d ever been and everything He ever would be—and gave it all to us. Jesus Christ gave His ministry to the weakest Believer in the Body of Christ—the rights to His Name, the keys to His Kingdom, all His authority over the earth, and all power to represent Him on this earth. That person can abuse the power, misrepresent Christ’s Name, exploit His reputation, or choose not to do one thing with what Jesus gave—it is that person’s choice. It is our choice as well.  Jesus knew—beyond any shadow of doubt—there would come a day when the people who are called by His Name will stand up and fulfill all His prophecies and answer all His prayers.