Today as I was looking back at my life, I remembered the only dream I had when I was a boy—to live to be 20.  I didn’t think I would make it that long.  I had a speech impediment.  I had an ulcer.  I was afraid of everything.  My dad abused me horribly.  I didn’t see any hope for the future.  My classmates at school laughed at me when I said that my dream was to be 20, but I meant it…I just never thought it would come true.

I was 11 years old the night I tried to defend my mother from my father’s abuse.  In response, he strangled me and left me for dead in our home.  That was the night everything changed in my life…that was the night I saw the Lord face to face.

I saw those amazing eyes, smiling, with every color of the rainbow in them.  And I could see eternity through those eyes.  I saw the nail scars—not in the palms, but high in the wrist.  And I heard the most amazing words I had never heard in my life before.  The first one was, “Son.”  My father never called me that.  The second one was, “I love you.”  My father never told me that.  And the third one was, “I have a great plan for your life.”

From that moment on, I have dreamed, not of surviving, but of fulfilling God’s purpose for my life.  And I want you to know how grateful I am to Him for bringing you into my life and for you being part of the amazing work to defend Israel that is the Jerusalem Prayer Team.

You are my family.  I don’t know if you truly realize how much I mean that, but I do with all my heart.  Everything God has done through me and this ministry He has been done also through you, my beloved partner.

Today God has directed me to speak His Word over your life regarding your dreams.  I’ve got a jar of mustard seeds on my desk right now that came from Israel.  Mustard seeds are amazing—really small—and Jesus said that just that tiny amount of faith would be able to move mountains.
What are you dreaming about today?  Does the world tell you your dream is impossible?  Do sincere friends tell you it can’t happen?  Are you about to give up?

DON’T STOP DREAMING!  
DON’T EVER GIVE UP 
ON YOUR DREAMS!

Nothing is impossible with God.  No disease is incurable.  No relationship is beyond healing.  No financial need is insurmountable.  No child or grandchild is beyond God’s deliverance.  No dream that God places in your heart is over as long as you live.

I could fill a book with stories, but let me share just one with you to show you how God can bring dreams to reality.  In July of 1980, I met with Prime Minister Menachem Begin in his office in Jerusalem.  The meeting itself was a miracle.  There was no reason for the leader of the Jewish state to meet with an unknown Gospel minister from America.  But God opened the door, and the meeting happened.

He asked me, “Why did you come?” three times in a half hour.  I repeated the question instead of answering it.  When he insisted, I finally said, “I don’t know.  I know God sent me, but He didn’t tell me why.”  Mr. Begin laughed and said, “You’re an honest man.  You believe God sent you but you don’t know why.   Shake my hand.  I finally met an honest man.  When God tells you why come back and tell me.”  That was on my birthday, June 30, 1980.

By the time I left Israel to come home, I had met Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time on July 4th, 1980, told him that he would one day be Prime Minister of Israel (he laughed because he wasn’t in politics back then) and on July 5th, I asked Mr. Begin to give Benjamin Netanyahu his first position in the government, which he did.

That day I also told the Prime Minister that God wanted me to build a bridge between Bible-believing Christians and Jews and the world headquarters would be in Jerusalem—a place where true Christian love could be shown to the whole House of Israel in an unmistakable way.  Many years passed, and though that dream never left my heart, it didn’t seem like it was getting any closer to becoming reality.
I never gave up on that dream though.  Jesus told me when I was 11, “I have a great plan for your life,” and I knew Israel was that plan.  My call is to pastor the nation of Israel.

But God was working in his timing, and in 2012, He opened the door for us to purchase the building that is now home to the Friends of Zion Museum, and the first building on what became our Friends of Zion Center campus.  This wonderful facility, located just 600 meters from the Temple Mount, is a lighthouse of Christian love brighter than anything since the first century.  It is an embassy where the nation of Israel and the nations of the world gather.

I knew that for the Friends of Zion Center to reach its full potential, we would need to establish credibility with the people of Israel.  God laid it on my heart to reach out to Shimon Peres, the ninth president of Israel and ask him to serve as our international chairman.

I’ll never forget what he told me.  “Mike, my staff didn’t want me to work with you, so they investigated you.  One of the things they found out that you were named after your great-grandfather, Rabbi Michael Katz-Nelson.  But here’s what you don’t know.  My hero in everything, I did in my life was my grandfather, Rabbi Metzner.  He was my Talmud teacher before we moved to Israel.”

“He was my hero…but he also had a hero—and it was your great-grandfather!  He was the cantor in the synagogue where your great-grandfather was the rabbi.  Both of them were burnt to death with 2,000 other Jews locked in the wooden synagogue in Vishnef, Belarus.  You and I are family.  We both go back to that wooden synagogue.  We are partners.”

I had the privilege of working with President Peres until he passed away.  That was a miracle that could only have happened because God scripted it and made it happen.  And He did that so that the dream He had placed in my heart decades before could come to life.  Twenty-five world leaders have now received the Friends of Zion Award that Shimon Peres commissioned, including President Trump when I presented it to him in the Oval Office.

Now God is opening a new door for us—the fulfillment of a dream.  When we opened the Friends of Zion Center in 2015, on the wall was the name Ambassador Institute.  We’ve been pursuing that dream through setbacks and delays, through COVID and wars, and now God is bringing it to pass!  

As you read this, there is a battle being fought in the spirit realm greater than any battle I’ve seen in my lifetime.  No battle can be won in the physical realm until it is first fought and won in the spiritual realm.  I’m talking about the battle over Israel’s future, and the outcome of this conflict is central to God’s plan for the future of our world.  

Thousands of years ago God made an eternal promise to Abraham.  Most of the time people focus on the blessing promised in Genesis 12:3, but there is another promise.  God announced that He would curse those who curse Abraham’s children—the nation of Israel.  In Hebrew the word for cursed means “to visit with heavy blows.”  All around us we see individuals and nations doing exactly that.

Some 150 nations have now recognized Palestine as a country…something it is not and never has been.  This is delusional…and it is outrageous!  What is Israel supposed to do?  If they cave to the demands of the “two- state solution”—which is nothing but an illusion—they are setting up an enemy dedicated to their destruction right next door…but that is what the world is demanding.

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is ground zero for spiritual warfare in our world.  In Isaiah 14 the devil’s plan was revealed—to ascend the sides of the north, an ancient reference to the Temple Mount—and rule from there.  It was not by accident that Satan took Jesus to the Temple Mount for one of his efforts to tempt the Lord.

It’s no coincidence that the attack on Israel on October 7th was named for the famous black-domed mosque om the Temple Mount.  That’s why Hamas called their invasion the Al-Aqsa Flood.  This is what a spirit war looks like.

It is also no accident that your Friends of Zion Center is just 600 meters from the Temple Mount.  God placed us there “for such a time as this” to do our part to fight and win the spirit war that is raging.  That’s why you are so important as a Jerusalem Prayer Team member. 

Long ago Esther heard the words, “You have come into the kingdom for such a time as this.” God is speaking those same words to you and to me right now.  We are under divine assignment.  One thousand Christian leaders will be commissioned in Jerusalem very soon thanks to you to become ambassadors for the nation of Israel to do what I do. 

This is an enormous project that our ministry and the state of Israel are partnering together to do. It’s the first time in history that the state of Israel has partnered with a Bible-believing ministry to do something of this significance.  Even after the government of Israel covers travel expenses and lodging, the expenses for venues and materials and more are enormous for us.  We need hundreds of thousands of dollars that we have not raised. So I need you to be as generous as you can. 

We are standing at a prophetic moment of opportunity.  David stood in the Valley of Elah and asked, “Is there not a cause?” long ago, then went out and defeated a giant.

There is a cause.  Israel cannot win this war without you.  If you are ever going to do something great for God, do it now.  I look forward to hearing from you very soon.

In December we will host the first 1,000 pastors and leaders taking part in our Ambassador Program.  This is truly going to be a world-changing, destiny-altering, Holy Spirit-empowered event.

And it is so important.  We’ve seen the world turn against Israel.  A few weeks ago more than 150 countries voted to recognize Palestine as a nation.  And tragically we’ve seen support for Israel dropping fast—not just around the world, but here in America, and that drop is especially large among young people.

Even within the church, young evangelicals support Israel at rates less than half of what the older generations do.  This is a problem today, but it is a deadly threat tomorrow because today’s young people are tomorrow’s leaders.

If this trend is not reversed, Israel’s safety and stability will be undermined in dangerous ways.  My friend Prime Minister Netanyahu has told me personally more than once that the most important thing we can do for his nation is reach the next generation with the truth.

And that’s exactly what the Ambassador Program will do.  We are training leaders and equipping them to reach young people, countering the lies being told about Israel with the truth and effectively speaking out on behalf of the Jewish state and the Jewish people.  

The leaders have signed up.  The government of Israel has stepped up in a miraculous and unprecedented way, partnering with us on this event, and they are paying for all the travel and lodging expenses—which is almost 90% of the total.  What an answer to prayer!  What favor from God!  You and I are in partnership with Israel in a way no Believers have ever been before.

But the total expenses for this event are about $5 million, and that means we must raise $500,000 immediately—on top of all the other things we are doing to bless and help suffering Jewish people.

The costs for venues, lighting, audio/visual equipment, cameras, staging, signs, and so much more are staggering.  The eyes of the entire nation of Israel will be on this event.  The Jewish people are going to see a massive demonstration of Christian love and support—something many of them have never seen before.  We have to do this right, despite the financial burden.
When I took this challenge—and it is impossible in the natural for us to be able to do all that needs to be done—to the Lord in prayer this morning, He directed me to share the need with you.

Today you and I have an opportunity to do something truly great for God…something that will shape the future and change the course of nations…and something that will have an eternal impact.  But the only way that can happen is if friends like you share the vision and help provide the resources to make it possible.

This first meeting of new ambassadors and leaders and voices for Israel is just the beginning.  Next year we are working and planning for 10,000 more…and even more in the years beyond.  God has given us a 100 year plan—something that will be impacting the world long after we are gone.

So today in obedience to God’s direction I am laying this need before you and asking for your help.  I am praying that thousands of friends and partners will give $50 or $100.  I am praying that hundreds will give $500 or $1,000.  And I am praying that God will touch the hearts of a special few to give $5,000 or $10,000 or even more.

This is the most important thing we can do for Israel right now.  This is a powerful investment in the future of Israel, America, and the entire world.  This is God’s work, and I’m asking you to be part of making the miracle happen.

I’m so excited to see what God is going to do through the Ambassador Program and all the rest of the work of the we are doing in Israel and around the world.  Please be as generous as you can and send your special gift today.  

The Arab–Israeli conflict grew out of the political tension and military skirmishes between both sides.  However, its more recent roots lie in the rise of Zionism and Arab nationalism in the latter half of the nineteenth century.  The underlying reason for the conflict was based on the return of the Jewish people to their biblical homeland—a land also claimed by Palestinian Arabs.  The culmination came in 1948 when the United Nations recognized the modern State of Israel.  Open strife between the two sides began following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, with questions of territorial rights shifting over the years from regional issues to more local Israeli–Palestinian concerns.

Various Muslim groups invoke religious arguments to support their uncompromising hatred for Israel and the Jewish people. The contemporary history of the Arab–Israeli conflict is unquestionably affected by those religious beliefs and the Arab desire to occupy all the territories deeded to Israel from the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The Land of Canaan or Eretz Yisrael was, as outlined in both the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, promised by God to the Children of Israel.  In his 1896 manifesto, The Jewish State, Theodor Herzl repeatedly refers to the biblical Promised Land concept.  Out of 12 major political parties extant in Israel, Likud is currently the most prominent to include the biblical claim to the Land of Israel in its platform.  Conversely, Muslims revere many sites in Israel, including the Cave of the Patriarchs and the Temple Mount.

Over the past 14 centuries, Muslims have constructed Islamic landmarks on these ancient sites, such as the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a scant distance from the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism.  This proximity has, as much as any thing, brought the two groups into sometimes open conflict over the rightful possession of Jerusalem.  Muslim teaching proclaims that Muhammad passed through Jerusalem on his first journey to heaven.  Hamas (the Palestinian Sunni Islamist organization), which governs the Gaza Strip, claims that all of the land of Palestine (the current Israeli and Palestinian territories) is an Islamic waqf, or indisputable religious legacy in Islamic law, that should only be governed by Muslims.

The Middle East, including Southern Syria (later Mandatory Palestine), was under the control of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 400 years.  Near the end of the empire, the Ottomans began to exert their Turkish ethnic identity, leading to discrimination against the Arabs.  Hopes of liberation from the Ottomans led many Jews and some Arabs to support the Allied Powers during World War I.  In the late 19th century, European and Middle Eastern Jews increasingly immigrated to Southern Syria, purchasing land from the local Ottoman landlords.  At that time, the city of Jerusalem did not extend beyond its protective walled area and contained a population of only a few tens of thousands.

During 1915–16, with World War I underway, the British High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon, secretly communicated with Husayn ibn ‘Ali, patriarch of the Hashemite family, and with the Ottoman governor of Mecca and Medina. McMahon convinced Husayn to lead an Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire, which was then aligned with Germany against Britain and France.  McMahon assured Husayn that if the Arabs supported Britain in that endeavor, the British government would establish an independent Arab state under Hashemite rule in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, which included Palestine.

That revolt, led by T. E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia and Husayn’s son Faysal, successfully defeated the Ottomans, and Britain took control of much of the area.  In 1917, Southern Syria had been conquered, and the British government issued the Balfour Declaration stating that Britain favorably viewed “the establishment in Palestine as­­­ a national home for the Jewish people,” but that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.”  The Declaration was issued due to the belief by Prime Minister David Lloyd George and other key members of the British government that Jewish support was essential to winning the war.

As one might imagine, the declaration was not received well in the Arab world.  Following the war, the area remained under British rule and became known as the British Mandate of Palestine.  It included what is today Israel, the land claimed by the Palestinian Authority, and the Gaza Strip.  Transjordan was eventually designated a separate British protectorate—the Emirate of Transjordan, which gained autonomy in 1928, and today is known as the nation of Jordan.

Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine continued, but less documented immigration was occurring in the Arab sector, bringing workers from Syria and other neighboring areas.  Palestinian Arabs saw this rapid influx of Jewish immigrants as a threat to their land and their identity as a people.  Moreover, Jewish practices of purchasing land and prohibiting the employment of Arabs in Jewish-owned industries and farms were not well received in Palestinian Arab communities.  Demonstrations protesting what the Arabs felt were unfair preferences for the Jewish immigrants set forth by the British mandate that governed Palestine proliferated.

By 1931, 17 percent of the population of Mandatory Palestine was Jewish, an increase of six percent since 1922.  Immigration would soon peak after the Nazis rose to power in Germany, causing the Jewish population in British Palestine to double.  In the mid-1930s, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam arrived from Syria and established the Black Hand, an anti-Zionist and anti-British militant organization. He recruited and arranged military training for peasants; by 1935, al-Qassam had enlisted several hundred men.  The cells were equipped with bombs and firearms used to kill Jewish settlers in the area, as well as engaging in a campaign of vandalism aimed at Jewish settler plantations.

Escalating tensions led to the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.  In response to Arab pressure, British authorities greatly reduced the number of Jewish immigrants allowed into Palestine.  Those restrictions remained until the end of the Mandate, a period which coincided with the Nazi Holocaust and attempts by Jewish refugees to escape Hitler’s Europe.  Consequently, the majority of Jewish entrants to Palestine were considered to be illegal, further increasing tension.  Following several failed efforts to solve the problem diplomatically, the British petitioned the newly formed United Nations for help.  In May of 1947, the General Assembly appointed a United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), composed of representatives from Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Peru, Sweden, Guatemala, Yugoslavia, India, Iran, Netherlands, and Uruguay.

Christian Zionist John Stanley Grauel is credited in some circles with literally making Israel possible. You might recognize the name of the refugee ship SS Exodus, which was made famous by Exodus, the Leon Uris novel released in 1958.  Uris had earlier covered the fighting in Israel as a war correspondent.  His novel would become an international bestseller—the biggest since Margaret Mitchell’s blockbuster, Gone with the Wind.  Director Otto Preminger turned the book into a movie in 1960, with the lead role going to Paul Newman.

Grauel was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1917. In 1941, John bowed to his mother’s wishes and entered the Methodist Theological Seminary in Bangor, Maine. She would hold great sway over his education regarding the Jewish people and the path John would take in later life. During his last year at seminary, John met and married. Sadly, he lost both his wife and son in childbirth and never remarried.  Shortly after graduation, John essentially became a circuit-riding preacher, as he was sent to pastor several small towns. However, his heart was soon captured by news of the war raging in Europe, and specifically by the suffering of the Jewish people under Hitler’s regime.

In 1944, at his first Zionist conference, John met David Ben-Gurion.  From him, he learned of the Haganah, the Jewish underground army in Palestine.  After returning home, Grauel soon noticed a steady stream of young men going in and out of an adjoining office.  One day, his curiosity got the better of him, and he walked next door to introduce himself to the man in charge, Bucky Karmatz.  Over a lunch of sandwiches at Karmatz’s desk, John discovered that the office was a recruiting station for Haganah.  When the two men parted company, John recorded, “I knew I had found my niche.  I would join Haganah…to become part of that organization to rescue those who could be helped to leave Europe.  I liked that affirmation of life after the war.”

During Haganah meetings at the Hotel Fourteen in New York City, John rubbed elbows with the men and women who would be totally invested in the future of Israel: David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Teddy Kollek, Nachum Goldman, Meyer Wisgal, and others of note who attended the meetings occasionally.  At one session, John was informed that an ocean liner had been secured and would be outfitted to transport Jewish immigrants from Europe to the Holy Land.  Grauel arrived at the docks in Baltimore expecting to see the luxurious SS President Garfield but was met instead by the derelict and rotting hulk of the SS Warfield.  He was horrified at the thought of crossing the Atlantic in the old liner but was determined to fulfill his commitment.

He boarded the ship and later said: “By the grace of God and a touch of insanity, I passed from the world of Reverend John Stanley Grauel to John Grauel, ordinary seaman.  There were thousands of leaks…it took the crew days of scrubbing, sanding, polishing, and mending just to make some order out of chaos.”  On March 29, 1947, after a storm delay had set them back by a month, John and the crew set sail for Marseille aboard the ship renamed Exodus.  He was there ostensibly as an undercover correspondent for the Churchman, an Episcopal journal.  With that designation, he secured a visa from the British Consulate in Paris, enabling him to legally enter Palestine.  His assignment was to make certain the world knew of the events surrounding the ship. The ship steamed toward Palestine with more than 4,550 refugees packed aboard.

Just as she neared Haifa on the Mediterranean coast, the ship was rammed by the British Royal Navy cruiser Ajax, in a convoy with five destroyers, and was boarded by sailors.  This was not an easy task, as the SS Exodus had been fortified with barriers and barbed wire to discourage such actions.  The British reportedly bombarded the ship with tear gas grenades to subdue the passengers. Captain Ike Aronowicz and his crew challenged the boarding party.  One crew member, First Mate William Bernstein, a sailor from California, and two passengers were bludgeoned to death.

The ship that had brought such hope to so many had been attacked by the British navy a mere 17 miles offshore, in international waters.  It was a wanton act of piracy for which the Royal Navy commanders were never charged. Grauel reported that, as the Exodus staggered into the port at Haifa, those still able to stand gathered on the deck of the ship and sang “Hatikvah,” the hymn of hope. Grauel, the only passenger onboard with a valid visa, was arrested but soon escaped with help from none other than the future mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek, and the Haganah.

The Jews onboard the SS Exodus were then forced to disembark in Haifa and were eventually and unwillingly returned to British-controlled camps in Germany.  Grauel was summoned to Kadima House in Jerusalem to give a firsthand account of his experiences during the voyage with the refugees to the United Nations Committee on Palestine.  As he stood before that group, he leveled his heartfelt accusations regarding the treatment of the Jewish passengers on the SS Exodus.  He later said of his testimony: “There was great gratification for me in knowing that my eyewitness report was now a matter of record.  Inherent in the nature of the relationship between Christians and Jews was the fact that, because I was a Christian, in this situation, my testimony would be given greater credence than that of a Jewish crew member.”

Grauel’s witness proved to be an effective means of gaining compassion and support for the Jewish cause.  His eloquent speech to the UNSCOP later earned him the moniker of “the man who helped make Israel possible.” Prime Minister Golda Meir believed it was Grauel’s recounting of the events surrounding the SS Exodus that persuaded the UN to support the creation of a Jewish state.  After five weeks of study in Palestine, the UNSCOP group returned to the General Assembly in September 1947 with a report containing both a majority and a minority plan.  The majority proposed a Plan of Partition with Economic Union; the minority proposed an Independent State of Palestine. With only slight modifications, the Plan of Economic Union was recommended and adopted on November 29, 1947.

The Resolution carried by 33 votes to 13 with 10 abstentions.  As expected, Arab states, which constituted the Arab League, voted against it.  At the time, Arab and Jewish Palestinians fought openly to control strategic positions in the region.  In the weeks before the end of the Mandate, the Haganah (the clandestine military wing of the Jewish leadership that became the basis for the Israel Defense Force) launched several offensives to gain control over all the territory allocated to the Jewish state by the UN, creating a large number of refugees and capturing the towns of Tiberias, Haifa, Safad, Beisan and, in effect, Jaffa.

On May 14, 1948, the day the British Mandate expired, the Jewish People’s Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum.  It approved a proclamation declaring the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael, to be known as the State of Israel.  In an official cablegram from the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States to the UN Secretary-General on May 15, 1948, the Arabs stated publicly that various Arab Governments were “compelled to intervene for the sole purpose of restoring peace and security and establishing law and order in Palestine.”

That same day, the armies of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq invaded what had ceased to be the British Mandate just the day before.  It marked the beginning of the Arab-Israeli War.  The newly formed Israel Defense Force repulsed the Arab League nations from part of the occupied territories, thus extending Israel’s borders beyond the original UNSCOP partition.  By December 1948, Israel controlled most of that portion of the Mandate, including Palestine west of the Jordan River.  The remainder of the Mandate consisted of Jordan, the area that today is called the West Bank (controlled by Jordan), and the Gaza Strip, now controlled by the terrorist organization Hamas.

Prior to and during this conflict, Palestinian Arabs fled their original lands to become Palestinian refugees due, in part, to a promise from Arab leaders that they would be able to return when the war had been won.  The war came to an end with the signing of the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and each of its Arab neighbors.  Though the open fighting stopped, the hatred never died.  

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.