What is God doing in relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel?
(Image:Route of AI139 passenger flight from New Delhi to Tel Aviv 22 March 2018)
From the evening of her re-birth 70 years ago, Israel, has been always keenly aware and wary of the vast desert kingdom spreading southeastward from her western neighbor Jordan.
Six months previous, Saudi Arabia had cast their vote against the UN Partition Plan paving the way for the birth of the Jewish State. Now, hours after Israel’s Declaration of Independence, as five Arab armies began their invasion to stamp out the new state, allied under the Egyptian army was a mass of soldiers sent from the Arabian Peninsula.
Twenty-five years later, the Saudis would again send troops to support Egypt in the 1973 War. Afterwards, although there have been no further military overtures, Saudi Arabia has continued to be seen as an enemy nation, one with a hatred for Israel and Jews (By law, no Jew is allowed to live in the Kingdom). They have never opened diplomatic relations with Israel. It was with uneasiness that Israel witnessed in 2010 the US sale of $60 billion worth of F-15 fighters, attack helicopters and advanced munitions to this unfriendly nation, some of whose borders lie only minutes by air from our capital.
For 70 years no Israeli passenger planes have been allowed over Saudi airspace (When, some years ago, the authors travelled to Thailand, our plane was forced to fly southwards along the Arava through the Gulf of Aqaba, then down the length of the Red Sea—with enemy state Sudan to the west, Saudi Arabia to the East— on southward to just before the Horn of Africa, where we finally made a sharp left turn eastwards out over the Arabian Sea towards India—
In recent years, there have been signs that this official stance of hostility may be, at some levels anyway, beginning cautiously to change. The Saudis came out with a “peace plan” related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More recently, rumors began to surface of secret communications between the two countries. When the newly-elected President Trump made his maiden trip abroad last May, his first stop was to Saudi Arabia—from there his plane made one of the few flights ever allowed from Arabia to Israel.
With the remarkable reforms which appear to be attending the rise of Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman Al Saud, an unprecedented warming of relations with Israel has begun to be spoken of as a legitimate possibility (PM Netanyahu recently spoke of Israeli relations with the Arab world—obviously including Saudi Arabia—as “best ever.” As of this week, the flights from India over the Arabian peninsula will continue three times a week.
Then this past Thursday night, history was made. For the first time in Israel’s 70 year history, a passenger plane from another country was allowed to travel the length of the Arabian Peninsula (see map above) en-route to Tel Aviv. The Air India Boeing 787 from New Delhi touched down at Ben Gurion Airport at 10:15 p.m. Israeli Transport Minister Yisrael Katz described the occasion as “the first time that there is an official connection between the state of Israel and Saudi Arabia.” Of its enormous significance, one Israeli analyst observed that even in the absence of an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty (considered for years a prerequisite for relations between Israel and the Arab world), “this shows you can have small gestures that are of real meaning.”
The most generally held explanation for this thaw in relations is that the Sunni Saudi government is eyeing the expansion of its Shi’ite arch-enemy Iran and its nearness to acquisition of nuclear weapons, and is therefore open to (at least temporarily) making an alliance with the Israelis, whom the Iranian Ayatolla’s have repeatedly vowed to annihilate. While not discounting this as a factor, we sense it is essential that we seek the Lord as to what He—Lord of the Nations—is doing. Of course there is war in the heavenlies, with evil powers and principalities over nations at war against the decrees of the Elyon—the Most High—on behalf of His redemptive purposes on the earth.
We believe that through the present year a season of grace is being extended in which nations are being granted opportunity for making choices as related to their alignments with God’s purposes in His covenant land and people Israel. How they choose will significantly determine their pathway in the season ahead—whether for blessing and awakening or for darkness and great deception and delusion. During this year, there will be nations whose past histories would have indicated them to be last in embracing Israel, which will turn towards here—others with reputations as friendly will turn away.
During this window of opportunity, the determined efforts of intercessors, though small in number, may have great influence in swaying the stance of their leaders towards that which is good. It is remarkable that we see the leadership of Egypt, with whom Arabia allied strongly in both the 1948 and 1973 wars against Israel, slowly but steadily engaging in more friendly relations with her. We believe this is being surely facilitated through the prayers of millions of Christian believers and the many houses of prayer in that land who love and are praying fervently towards the fulfillment of the Isaiah 19 “Highway” which God says will connect “Egypt My people” with “Israel My inheritance.”
If God has such plans for Egypt, where His people suffered bondage for 400 years, might He not also have redemptive plans for the Arabian Peninsula, where it is appears that these same Children of Israel may have wandered for 40 years in the desert? (In fact, in the opinion of a growing number of Biblical scholars, many factors point towards the very Mountain where the LORD came down and spoke with Moses as lying, not in the “Sinai Peninsula,” but in that area of Midian on the “back side” (i.e. the Arabian side) of the Gulf of Aqaba).
Might not this area of the world in which the delusion of Islam arose—a delusion which holds vast throngs of people throughout the nations in a bondage not unlike that typified by Egypt before the Exodus—might not this area where His manifest presence once moved among His people Israel be one in which the God of Salvation longs to begin releasing freedom to captivities from evil—even from its very source? Perhaps this itself sounds delusional. But God, whose greatness will dwell in Jerusalem, is beginning to shake things—“Let the peoples tremble…let the earth shake, YHWH is great in Zion, He is exalted above ALL peoples…They SHALL praise Your great and awesome name: Holy is He!” (Psalm 99:1-3). This includes those in captivity to darkness in Saudi Arabia!
Some of the Body of Messiah in Israel is using the shifts we sense occurring to stir us to pray for His life and blessing to spread over this great enemy from our past. After all, a part of our call, from the beginning, has been that through the seed of Abraham, every family and nation will find blessing! (Genesis 12:3; 22:18).
Will you join with us!
PLEASE PRAY:
* That the Spirit which is drawing a new generation in Saudi Arabia towards regarding Israel with favor, will increase - that the leaders there would respond positively to this Spirit.
* That the “true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every human being” (John 1:9), will illumine hearts of Muslims throughout the Arabian Peninsula to the truth that Issa-Yasuah-Yeshua-Jesus who was born in Bethlehem is the divine Son of God and saviour of the World (We personally have heard testimonies of former Muslims who were illumined by this Light while on the Haj in Mecca itself!).
* For Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman Al Saud, that He will be protected in mind and body; that the Power which has already been at work in him towards releasing freedoms towards women, and other areas of his society which have for centuries lain in unjust bondage and oppression, that this Power will reveal itself in a personal way.
* For Israel’s leaders, to regard the initiatives in Saudi Arabia with wisdom, discernment and grace. That God will work His alliances between the two countries out in His way and timing.
* That the grace and favor which is presently linking India and Israel will be released over the Arabian peninsula over which their flights are now free to take place!
“In world first, Air India crosses Saudi airspace to Israel”: AFP (Reprinted in The Times of Israel: 22 March 2018).
Martin & Norma Sarvis
Jerusalem
Prayer Testimonies from the United Nations
In 2207, 2009 and 2013, it was both a great challenge and privilege of the IPC to arrange international prayer initiatives with hundreds of prayer leaders and intercessor children from around the world to pray with ambassadors of the U.N. The Lord graciously worked in answer to the prayers of many and here is an encouraging report of recent developments there, thanks be to God!
“A brief testimony about what God is doing at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. So often we watch and pray for years and do the things we believe God has asked us to do. Then, all of a sudden, it’s as if the prayers that have been stored up in the bowls of heaven are poured out, and doors open that no man can shut.
For more then 25 years, there have been weekly prayer gatherings at the United Nations sponsored by Christian staff members, plus a weekly service with worship and a guest speaker. There are also many other organizations that have specific outreaches to the Ambassadors and monthly Bible Studies, all working hard to bring the presence and word of God into this global community.
In the fall of 2017, several of us who have been praying at the United Nations were invited by Pastor Jim Garlow of Skyline Church in San Diego, CA to come to San Diego for several days of prayer and conversation about a new ministry they wanted to launch to the United Nations. So we went and had the opportunity at the time to meet and pray with former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who had recently joined the Skyline Church staff as the Executive Director of “SkylineUN,” So, since early in January, several of us have been meeting weekly with her for a time of worship and prayer within the United Nations, asking God to open doors and visit this global community with an outpouring of His Spirit. So, fast-forward to March 2018.
The testimony I want to share is of what God did during the 62nd Commission on the Status of Women’s conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. This year’s theme was “Empowering Rural Women and Girls.” Individuals from around the world attend this 2-week conference, and many of the Member States host side events to address issues affecting women and children around the world. We approached the Mission of Guatemala about hosting an event. Their response was that you have to apply for a conference room months in advance because the available spaces fill up quickly. But God….,! We asked just 2 weeks prior to the opening of the conference, and there was nothing available, so we just kept praying and then we heard on a Thursday afternoon that there was one room available on the following Tuesday. So, in just four days we had to get speakers, pick the theme, and make a flyer to get approved to go up on the UN’s Digital Messaging board.
When God opens a doo, He makes a way where there seems to be no way! We put together a panel of five amazing women, a multi-ethnic and multi-generational representation, with the theme, “Personal Stories of Women’s Journey’s in Leadership”. Honestly our expectation was that we would be happy if 25 people showed up for our event since our flyer went up on the messaging board the day before our event and most organization’s events had been advertised for weeks. So, we gathered early that morning before our event and prayed fervently that God would use the testimonies of each one’s journey and how instrumental God and Faith were in those journeys. God did not disappoint. He showed up in a big way. The room was packed with such a diverse group of young and old and many different nations represented, with standing room only! Women in the audience had tears in their eyes, as each of our speakers shared how they found their identity through their faith. Not one person left, even when each one spoke of Jesus and how He brought them through trials and testing on their journeys! At the end of our session we had many attendees follow us out into the hall to ask questions and to speak to us. Many come up to thank us afterward for the event. We were blessed to pray with several women who are leading in their nations. One woman remarked, “I’ve never seen anything like this at the United Nations before!”
The Spirit of God was truly at work. We praise God for what He did and is doing at the United Nations!
- Please join us in praying for those who heard our session. We are praying the seeds that were planted during would take root in the hearts of all and that they would each come to know the love and saving grace of our Heavenly Father.
- Praythat Guatemala will be able to reserve a conference room on a weekly basis so we can gather for Worship and the Word within the Secretariat.
Jody Wood,
New York City Intercessors
Pray: In addition, let us continue to pray for God’s working in the hearts of the ambassadors and staff at the U.N. that they will come to know the Lord of the Nations Himself, Jesus Christ. May they hunger to know Him and to become His vehicle for bringing peace and development to the poor and the suffering around our world. Satan would like the U.N. to serve his purpose as a preparer of the way for the Antichrist and the global oppressive control he will represent. Pray that instead God’s good and loving intentions will prevail as never before in that influential body of diplomats.
Pray for the U.N.: “Sex Education”
A Reason We Need to Pray for the U.N.: “Sex Education” Standards Push LGBT Agenda on 5-Year-Olds
In yet another bid by the United Nations to sexualize and indoctrinate your children at younger and younger ages, the UN Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) just unveiled a new set of “Comprehensive Sexuality Education” standards for humanity. Among other controversies, the UN's planetary sex-ed scheme advocates masturbation, abortion, gender confusion, homosexuality, homosexual parenting, contraception, fornication, and more. The document, which cites abortion giant Planned Parenthood almost 20 times, represents a full-blown assault on parental rights and traditional morality that critics say could devastate a generation of young people. But the UN wants it to be mandatory for every child on the planet, starting at age five.
The UN document, dubbed “International technical guidance on sexuality education,” purports to provide an “evidence-based approach” to teaching young children all about sex, homosexuality, gender confusion, and more. But as the document itself makes clear, much of the “evidence” comes from extremist organizations that promote abortion, sexual “liberation,” fornication, and more. Planned Parenthood, for instance, provided much of the alleged “research” and “evidence.” That is despite the fact that the tax-subsidized abortion behemoth and the UN have been exposed in the U.S. Congress helping the Communist Chinese regime with its coercive population-control schemes, including forced abortions. Another outfit involved in the UN scheme was the rabid LGBT advocacy group OutRight Action International.
While self-styled, scandal-plagued UN education ministry UNESCO played a lead role in developing the controversial new sex-ed scheme, it was hardly alone. In fact, the new global “Comprehensive Sexuality Education” guidelines are also being publicly supported by UNICEF, the UN agency ostensibly in charge of “protecting” the world’s children; UNAIDS, which supposedly exists to protect humanity from sexually transmitted diseases; UN Women, the radical pro-abortion outfit supposedly leading the global fight for “women's rights;” and even the World Health Organization, an extreme organization whose leaders are so out of touch that they recently tried to name a genocidal Marxist dictator as “goodwill ambassador” due to his alleged success in providing “universal healthcare” to the victims of his barbarous tyranny.
The document itself would be considered shocking to anyone who adheres to traditional notions of family or morality, whether they be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or virtually any other religion. For instance, the document promotes “sexual pleasure” for children, beginning before they even turn 10. At age nine, for instance, the UNESCO guidelines call for children to “describe male and female responses to sexual stimulation.” Also at age nine, children are taught that masturbation is fine but should be done in private. The standards brazenly encourage fornication (sexual relations outside of marriage) among children, too, painting traditional morality as old-fashioned and wrong. By age nine, the standards say children should “demonstrate respect for diverse practices related to sexuality.” And by 12, the children are expected to believe that various forms of sodomy are “pleasurable” and less likely to result in infection. They are also to be taught about condom use.
Indeed, the UN document, which distorts abstinence education, is filled with the sexual-revolution ideology that has helped devastate families across the Western world. By age 12, the UN “learning objectives” demand that children “support the right for everyone” to “express their sexual feelings.” And by “sexual feelings,” the UN refers to complete hedonism, with sex being totally divorced from morality. Throughout the manual, which UNESCO hopes will be used to indoctrinate every child on the planet, it is clear that the UN wants everyone to support the so-called “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex” (LGBTQI) agenda. In fact, the document is filled with references to waging war on “homophobia” and “transphobia,” terms that are routinely applied to describe opposition to the redefinition — or undefinition — of marriage that began in recent years and culminated with a rogue Supreme Court lawlessly pretending to create a “right” to something called a homosexual “marriage.”
The document gets worse. When children are nine, for instance, they should be able to “explain how someone's gender identity may not match their biological sex.” At that same age, they must also “demonstrate respect for the gender identity of others.” In other words, even before they reach age 10, they must not only accept, but “respect,” gender confusion that is strongly correlated with mental distress, suicide, and more. At age five, the children are expected to be able to “define gender and biological sex and describe how they are different.” They are also expected to “express respect” for homosexual parenting. “All people should be able to love who they want,” the UNESCO document explains, a clear reference to normalizing and promoting homosexual relations…
In a response to the UN's latest CSE guidelines, Family Watch International President Sharon Slater did not hold back. “We have repeatedly warned governments, parents and other stakeholders that comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is a radical, graphic, sexual-rights, pleasure-based approach to sex education that promotes promiscuity, abortion, and diverse sexual practices and identities to young children,” Slater said in an e-mailed statement. “With this new UNESCO technical guidance publication, we now have additional, conclusive evidence to prove it.”
The recently released UNESCO publication, she continued, “clearly reveals the UN’s stealth global agenda to manipulate and sexualize children through comprehensive sexuality education…
“Parents should be outraged by the content of the UNESCO publication, and UN Member States should demand that the sponsoring UN agencies withdraw their support immediately,” added Slater, whose organization works to defend life, marriage, and the family around the world. Noting the vast array of UN agencies pushing the scheme, Slater highlighted the danger. “This is an all-out frontal assault on the health and innocence of the world’s children from some of the most powerful and well-funded institutions that set the health standards for women and children across the world,” she said.
The CSE mantra is a crucial weapon in the war on the family, Slater concluded. “Comprehensive sexuality education is the primary tool used to advance the global abortion and sexual rights agenda and is designed to change the traditional sexual and gender norms of society by changing the worldviews of children,” she explained. For more information on the dangerous agenda, Slater recommended a short documentary video on CSE by Family Watch International posted at WarOnChildren.org.
The Trump administration's publicly announced plans to withdraw from UNESCO represent a good start. After all, the organization, which has long been dominated by communists, globalists, and other extremists, has been waging war on America, freedom, morality, and more for generations. As this magazine has documented repeatedly, the UN agency is literally trying to standardize indoctrination under the guise of “education” all across the world — not just on sex, but on everything. Indeed, UNESCO leaders have been openly demanding that government-controlled education force drastic changes in the views, behavior, values, and ethics of children worldwide.
However, UNESCO is only part of the problem. As The New American reported last year, the UN appointed an LGBT czar who said that when it comes to brainwashing children to support the agenda, “the younger the better.”…
Pray: Let us pray strongly and persistently that this assault on the world’s children will be exposed and overthrown by those governments that work with the U.N. and its agencies.
Pray: for a great groundswell of opposition to arise in order to protect the innocence of kids who cannot defend themselves from these perverse institutions and the adults that so misguidedly run them. Pray: that those who are responsible for the introduction of these outrageously wicked policies and programs will repent or be removed from being able to cause such corruption and harm to children.
Two world-impacting movies for our time
You may have heard about the release of the very significant new movie about the great Apostle Paul that is hitting movie theaters here in the USA this weekend. It is a movie that covers the awful persecution of the followers of Christ in the first century, especially in Rome under the Emperor Nero. You can see a preview of the film and the 31 nations in which it will be shown on the attached links below. Hopefully many of you will be able to see it.
According to the director with whom some of us prayed the other night, even the non-Christian actors and film crew were all weeping as they filmed this historic retelling of Paul's imprisonment and execution along with many other followers of Jesus that also bravely met their deaths during that horrendous time of suffering for the church in Rome.
Pray: Would you please pray for the movie to impact and transform the lives of those who see it? May it also be powerfully used by the Lord to encourage the estimated 215 million of His followers who live in nations of high or extreme persecution. Pray: that it can be translated and circulated all across the globe so as especially to be made available to this part of the Body of Christ.
Pray: also for Mel Gibson and his team who are said to be working on a new movie about the Resurrection that could be used by the Lord to bring many millions to the Lord around the world. It will be a powerful sequel to his amazing film, The Passion of the Christ. Obviously, these kinds of movies are strongly contested by our spiritual foe, the "the prince of this world". Therefore, pray accordingly that those working on this project will be protected and shielded by the presence of the Lord throughout this whole process. Pray: for a marvelous degree of creativity while being faithful to the Biblical text.
Pray: that the immense amount of finance needed will be released freely and fully.
Thanks so much for your vital support in prayer,
Click here to watch Paul, Apostle of Christ Preview: Starring Jim Caviezel (Luke), Oliver Martinez, James Faulkner (Paul)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFFAPPepjV8: A “must see” video of Jim Caviezel who played Luke and compellingly challenges us to live like the great Apostle Paul
For list of international nations and opening dates, go to www.paulmovie.com/site/international
ABOUT THE FILM
"PAUL, APOSTLE OF CHRIST is the story of two men. Luke, as a friend and physician, risks his life when he ventures into the city of Rome to visit Paul, who is held captive in Nero’s darkest, bleakest prison cell. But Nero is determined to rid Rome of Christians, and does not flinch from executing them in the grisliest ways possible. Before Paul’s death sentence can be enacted, Luke resolves to write another book, one that details the beginnings of “The Way” and the birth of what will come to be known as the church.
Bound in chains, Paul’s struggle is internal. He has survived so much—floggings, shipwreck, starvation, stoning, hunger and thirst, cold and exposure—yet as he waits for his appointment with death, he is haunted by the shadows of his past misdeeds. Alone in the dark, he wonders if he has been forgotten . . . and if he has the strength to finish well.
Two men struggle against a determined emperor and the frailties of the human spirit in order to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ and spread their message to the world."
