Although I love Israel, I want you to know this: I also love other nations and America in particular. The Lord gave me a prayer assignment for her many years ago and today it is stronger than it’s ever been. I want America to be blessed. I want her to fulfill God’s plan and purpose. And to do that, she must deal with Israel not according to political opinion but according to the Word of God.

Since those who bless Israel will be blessed, as Americans, one of the greatest things we can do for our nation is to pray for America to bless the nation of Israel.

In what ways should we bless it?Continue reading

One thing most everybody agrees on today is that Jerusalem is a holy city. It’s holy to the Jews. It’s also holy to Christians and Muslims. But it’s only promised to one of those groups. God promised it to the Jews. It is a sacred part of their past and central to their God-ordained future.

This, too, is something many believers haven’t understood. Certainly, they know about the city’s biblical history. They know Jerusalem was the site for the first Jewish temple, built by Solomon and later destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. They know many years later, a less glorious version of the temple was rebuilt by Herod and destroyed by the Romans in about 70 A.D.

But that’s not the end of the matter. Bible prophecy reveals that when Jesus returns to reign on the earth, He will come to Jerusalem and build a third millennial temple there. It will rest on the original site of Mount Moriah and be the most glorious temple of all.

I can’t go into detail about it here but to get an idea of how important Jerusalem will be during the Millennium, read about it in Ezekiel 43. That chapter tells how the glory of God will fill the temple at that time and remain there forever. It declares that Mount Moriah will always be most holy and separated unto the Lord.

The prophet Zechariah adds that in those days the Lord Himself will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem:Continue reading

Yesterday, I started sharing with you more about how you can pray for Israel. I’d like to pick up where I left off and look at Ezekiel 36:24, which shares another step in praying for Israel. There, God says to the Jews, “I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all countries and bring you into your own land.”

As you probably know, the Jews were dispersed all over the world several thousand years ago after the destruction of the first temple. Some of the tribes got so lost that even today nobody can find them. But in our generation, we’ve seen a miracle take place. We’ve seen Jews streaming back to the land of Israel from all over the globe.

Some Jews, however, are still being held captive because they live in nations that won’t let them go. One group I have prayed about a lot is the Jews in China. Isaiah 49:12 speaks specifically about them. It says, “Behold, these shall come from afar—and, behold, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim (China).”Continue reading