Before the events of this weekend, ministries had been organizing the effort to mobilize 100 million people to pray for Israel. Surely this is inspired by the Lord.
On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth (Isa. 62:6–7).
Have you taken your place on the wall?
Many have said that the simple plot lines of the TV sitcom Seinfeld reveal nuggets of wisdom that can be applied to almost any scene of life’s real storylines. In the episode titled The Opposite (season 5, episode 22), as the chronically woeful George Costanza ruminates over the endless string of failures in his life, he surrenders to the fact that every decision he has ever made has been wrong. But this reckoning brings forth a revelation from Jerry that changes George’s entire worldview (well, at least for that episode): “If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right,” Jerry counsels him.
From that point, as George jettisons his initial instincts and dares to believe that the counternarrative must indeed be true, his life miraculously blooms with countless benefits and heaps of unexpected good fortune.
What does any of this have to do with Israel?
Nearly every Spirit-filled believer and independent thinker has been fully convinced for a long time that the establishment media cannot be trusted. As mainstream media goose-steps their hackneyed propaganda across the many screens of our lives, we can be 100% certain of one thing: Whatever the media are telling us, the opposite must be true.
Such newspeak as “safe and effective”; “Russia collusion”; “the lab-leak theory”; “the Covington boys”; “Brett Kavanaugh is a serial rapist”; “Putin’s price hike”; “the most secure election in U.S. history”; “the greatest threat ever to our democracy”; and countless other misleading and deceptive gems have relegated the national media to the status of wholly untrustworthy arms of the regime.
The only thing more reprehensible than their barrage of anti-truth, flash-bang grenades is their unbounded shamelessness in lobbing bomb after bomb of that stuff into our homes.
If every narrative of the mainstream press is wrong, then the opposite must be right.
But again, what does this have to do with Israel?
As political protests erupt in Tel Aviv and you hear the mainstream media herald that Benjamin Netanyahu represents a “threat to democracy,” remember “the George principle” from that Seinfeld episode. When The Washington Post promotes the World Economic Forum’s Antichrist candidate Yuval Noah Harari to foment that unelected judges on Israel’s Supreme Court should be given more power than the elected government and the military — remember the George principle.
And when the BBC cobbles the killing of three armed Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank onto those Tel Aviv protests to instigate further anti-Israel sentiment, watch that Seinfeld episode again.
As both the establishment media and our current administration display ever deepening animus toward Israel and unthinkably wink at blatant and growing antisemitism, stop to consider whether your positions on Israeli policy and Israel’s right to exist have been formed by biased pundits or by holy Scripture.
The verse above from Isaiah 62 charges us to pray unceasingly until Jerusalem is a praise in the earth. Do not let biased, globalist-billionaire-funded “news” outlets control the way you think. Instead, allow Scripture to invite you to pray.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they be secure who love you!”
Psalm 122:6
Notice the inherent promises for those who pray for Israel.
“How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel! … Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you.”
Numbers 24:5,9
As Israel prepares to celebrate her 75th anniversary of rebirth this April, millions of intercessors around the world are preparing to pray blessings upon the nation of Israel like never before.
What’s Happening?
Ministries from around the world are collaborating to mobilize over 100 million intercessors to fast and pray for four specific regions in 2023. If such a number of believers praying for any specific nation seems outlandish to you, you may be right; but then again, doesn’t lavish, extravagant prayer seem to be exactly the thing heaven desires from us?
And before you dismiss this as impossible, did you know that on Jan. 22 of this year, over 100 million people prayed at the same time for the nation of China? On April 17, over 100 million will simultaneously pray for the Middle East, and on Oct. 31, over 100 million will pray in concert for India.
Has your attention been piqued yet?
Most important for Christians and Jews, on May 28 over 100 million believers will set themselves upon the wall and intercede in focused, earnest prayer for Israel. And in preparation for this historic event, over 1 million intercessors are being rallied right now to pray and fast from May 7 through May 28.
Pastor Mike Bickle announced that this will be the most important event in the history of his ministry at the International House of Prayer (IHOP), in Kansas City, Missouri. If you know anything about the 50-year prophetic history of IHOP, your attention was just piqued even more. The Lord has chosen this humble community of faith to birth some of the most significant movements our country has ever experienced. The most notable of these is the IHOP Prayer Room, which has sustained over 23 years of continuous praise and worship. I have lingered for hours in that holy place myself, and I can only imagine how heaven’s angelic beings marvel at what mere humans are accomplishing there: 23 years of perpetual, uninterrupted worship, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. If this sounds heavenly to you — well, it is.
How Do We Take Part?
Visit the Isaiah 62 Fast website to learn more about how this movement started and to find out what is happening next. Then pray and ask the Lord to show you how you can be an active participant in this global solemn assembly. It may be as simple as praying every day, May 7–28. Maybe you will be drawn to fast for all or part of that time. If that feels at all overwhelming, remember that you will have over 1 million people appealing to heaven along with you!
Then, on May 28, we can all join with over 100 million intercessors from around the world and pray tirelessly and with great faith as Jerusalem becomes more and more conformed to the image of being a praise in the earth.
What’s the Goal?
Never think this is just about Israel, however. Scripture is very clear that the Jewish and Gentile believers will be united, as the consummation of the ages described in Hebrews 9 continues to unfurl. Therefore, pray also that the Christian Church will more and more reveal the fullness of Yeshua so that her Jewish brothers and sisters can see Messiah:
“For I tell you, you [Jerusalem] will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”
Matthew 23:39
And while our gaze remains fixed on the return of Messiah, we should also contend continually for more and more souls to take part in the kingdom here and now — every day. Many prophets have said that this next era of the Church will be marked by a billion-soul harvest. Indeed, that billion-soul harvest is something IHOP has been praying and preparing for over these past five decades.
The eccentric and richly anointed prophet Bob Jones famously prophesied three occurrences that would herald the most exciting, heaven-on-earth harvest we have ever dared to dream of. He shared those prophetic insights with Pastor Bickle almost exactly 40 years ago.
First, Jones declared that the days would come when an abortion could be accomplished by swallowing an over-the-counter pill. Can you pause long enough to “hear” the scurrilous snickering Jones endured in 1983 for making such a claim? Well, claim No. 1 has come to pass.
Next, Jones declared that homosexuality would become the law of the land in America. In 1983, not even the most virulent of activists could have imagined such a cultural shift. Today, in light of the Biden administration’s passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, we are forced to acknowledge that Jones’ second projection has come to pass.
And third, Jones unthinkably envisioned Chinese farmers working in the rice paddies while watching livestreams of 24/7 worship and prayer for Israel — on hand-held TVs without electrical plugs. Again, linger long enough to hear even the staunchest of Star Trek fans mock Jones mercilessly. Today, as the IHOP Prayer Room is live-streamed around the world, and nearly every rural corner of the planet has cell phones, it seems that prophetic claim No. 3 can be checked off.
And the more we understand the Scriptures, the more we see that Israel is the centerpiece of Adonai’s plan here on earth.
May we lift our eyes in this season of active revival and become emboldened to pray more fervently than ever before. May we celebrate the great love Adonai has for the nation of Israel, and may we remember why they are the apple of His eye. May we joyfully position ourselves atop the intercessor’s wall and, with uncountable millions of others, pray and fast for Israel this May.
And may we continually be transformed into the likeness of our risen Christ, so that our lives may be temples of perpetual worship to display to the entire world the praise of His glory.
For more information, please visit Isaiah 62 Fast.
We thank You, Father, for the way You delight in the nation of Israel. May we never be silent in our own affection for Israel, or slothful in our defense of her.
Are you inspired to join millions of others in praying for Israel? Share your heart below!
Keith Guinta writes at www.winepatch.org. He is a husband, father, small-business owner, and worship leader. He has been a church planter, a pastor, a mountaineer, a stand-up comic, and an Ironman athlete and coach. Having led mission trips to Rwanda, Uganda, and India, Keith now focuses on his work rescuing girls from the sex trade in the Philippines with www.wipeeverytear.org.