The Enemy Is Beneath Your Feet

Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

Luke 10:17–19

In Luke 10, we see our Lord Jesus sending seventy disciples out against the kingdom of darkness, as “lambs among wolves.” Look in today’s scripture at the exchange between the seventy disciples and the Lord Jesus when they returned. My friend, the power and authority our Lord Jesus gave them to operate in is the power and authority we have as believers today!

Romans 16:20 declares that the God of peace will crush Satan underneath our feet! He is a defeated foe. The Bible is very consistent and always puts the devil beneath your feet (Gen. 3:15, Eph. 1:22). You are not at the mercy of the enemy’s attacks. Don’t put him on a pedestal, as if he has power and dominion over you. Remind yourself that in Christ, you are “far above all principality and power and might and dominion” (Eph. 1:21), and every lion and serpent you shall trample underfoot!

We exercise our authority as believers when we go on the offensive against the enemy today. How do we do that? We wield the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God! Our authority, our strength, and our victory are found in His Word.

Look at how the Bible describes the armor of God: “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:14–17).

Do you see that the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, is the only piece of the armor that is offensive? That is why, for every round of attack the devil launched at our Lord Jesus, He fought back with the sword of the Spirit—He used the written Word of God.

When we pray the prayer of protection in Psalm 91, we are praying according to the Word of God and wielding the sword of the Spirit. So no matter what report is roaring at you, be it from doctors, bankers, or from the news media, take your place of authority and lay hold of scriptures for your situation. Fight back with the Word of God!

This devotional is taken from the book The Prayer of Protection Devotional—Daily Strategies for Living Fearlessly in Dangerous Times. Joseph Prince

Message from Amir Tsarfati

When the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, He’s going to go back to the Jews, lift up that veil, and then the Bible says, “All Israel will be saved.” As it is written in the book of Isaiah, “The Deliverer will come out of Zion. He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. This this is my covenant.” By the way, the Deliverer would come out of what? Hello?

Okay. You’ve got to be more vocal than this. The Deliverer will come out of… Zion.

It’s not the Zion Park in Utah or wherever it is. The Deliverer will come out of Zion. This is another name for the nation of Israel. Okay? Clear? Good. Because to be a Zionist is not a bad thing. It’s to believe that the land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel. That’s all it is. You can be a Gentile and a Zionist. The world tries to convince you that it’s a bad word. Zionist. You know who calls you a Zionist? All the terrorists. “We are going to kill the Zionists.” I’m proud that they call me a Zionist. I wish they knew what it meant. The Deliverer will come out of Zion.

Romans 11:25-27
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”

Zion is an interesting term scripturally. It represents the mountain on which the first and second temples stood, it symbolizes the whole city of Jerusalem, and it represents the entire nation of Israel. The interesting part is that the word “Zion” actually means “a parched place”.  

Ezekiel 19:13
And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.

“She” in this passage is Israel and she’s portrayed as a dry and thirsty land. This is true literally and spiritually to this day. Yet that is not the end of the story.

Isaiah 44:1-3
“Yet hear me now, O Jacob My servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. Thus says the LORD who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you: ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.’”

Someday this parched land is going to experience a flow of water from Zion and be refreshed and restored. Someday this spiritually dry people are going to experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and be made alive. 

What is this land? Israel. Who are these people? The Jews. 

If you bear the label “Zionist” today, that means you believe the Jews are God’s chosen people and Israel is their God-given national homeland. You believe that God brought them back into their homeland and is going to pour out His Spirit on them and awaken them to the fact that their Messiah, the Holy One of Israel, is none other than Yeshua, Jesus of Nazareth. 

To say that modern Israel is not Biblical Israel and modern Jews are not God’s chosen people is to say the Bible is wrong and portions of things promised to Israel are never going to come to pass. The same is true when someone calls the Jews occupiers. 

The truth is that if you are called a Zionist, that means you believe God is faithful to His word and promises, and Israel is living proof!

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus,

What’s Your Response to the Voice of Accusation?

In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you.

Isaiah 54:14

It is important for you to be established in the righteousness of Christ, because it will determine how you respond to the voice of accusation when you are believing God for big things, and trusting Him for answered prayers.

“Who do you think you are?”

“Don’t you remember how you yelled at your spouse this morning? Why should God give you favor for your important presentation at the office today?"

“Look at how easily you lose your cool on the road. How can you have the cheek to expect good things to happen to you?”

'You call yourself a Christian? When was the last time you read your Bible? What have you done for God? Why should God heal your child?”

Do these accusations sound awfully familiar? Now, how you respond to this voice of accusation will expose what you really believe. This is the litmus test of what you believe. This is where the rubber meets the road!

A person could think, “Yeah, you are right. I don’t deserve this. How can I expect God’s favor to be on me for my presentation at the office when I was so harsh with my wife this morning?" Now, that's the response of someone who believes that he needs to earn his own righteousness and place of acceptance before God. This person believes that he can expect good from God only when his conduct is good and his own checklist of self-imposed requirements are met to the hilt.

He would probably storm into his office, still seething with anger at his wife. Worst of all, he feels cut off from the presence of Jesus because of his anger and thinks that he does not qualify to ask for God’s favor for his presentation. He steps into the boardroom disheveled and disorganized. He forgets his points and fumbles, causing his company to lose that major account. His bosses are disappointed with him and give him a huge tongue-lashing.

Frustrated and shamed, he drives home like a maniac, sounding his horn at every car that does not move the instant the traffic lights turn green. When he gets home, he is even more upset with his wife because he blames her for putting him in a foul mood in the morning, for his terrible presentation and for the loss of the major account! It’s all HER fault!

Now, see the difference if this person thinks, “Yeah, you are right. I don’t deserve to have God’s favor at all because I lost my temper with my wife this morning. But you know what? I am not looking at what I deserve. I am looking at what Jesus deserves. Even right now, Jesus, I thank You that You see me perfectly righteous. Because of the cross and Your perfect sacrifice, I can expect God's unmerited favor at my presentation. Every one of my shortcomings, even the tone I used this morning, is covered by Your righteousness. I can expect good not because I am good, but because You are good! Amen!”

See the amazing difference? This person is established upon Jesus’ righteousness and not his own right doing or good behavior. He goes to work depending on the unmerited favor of Jesus, and he aces the presentation and clinches a major account for his company. His bosses are impressed by his performance and mark him for the next round of promotion. He drives home with peace and joy, feeling the Father’s love and favor. Consequently, he is more patient with other drivers.

Now, does this mean that he sweeps all his failings under the carpet and pretends that they never happened? No way! This man, full of the consciousness that the Lord is with him, will find the strength in Christ to apologize to his wife for the tone he had used on her. You see, a heart that has been touched by unmerited favor cannot hold on to unforgiveness, anger, and bitterness.

Which of the above accounts demonstrate true holiness? Of course, it is the second account. Depending on God’s favor results in a life of practical holiness. Right believing always leads to right living!

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Favor—Daily Readings from Unmerited Favor. Joseph Prince

Only Grace Brings Hope

“. . . the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound… to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness . . .”

Isaiah 61:1, 3

After several decades of ministry, I have found that only the preaching of God’s radical grace brings hope to believers. Only the finished work of Jesus can bring us wholeness, shalom-peace, and freedom from condemnation and a painful past. Let me share with you a heartfelt praise report I received from Alena, who lives in New Zealand. Listen to how God put her heart back together:

Pastor Prince, I grew up in a home with an abusive father whose difficult ways strained our family relationships to the breaking point. When his health deteriorated with multiple diseases, the Lord placed in my heart my parents’ need for help. I asked Him, “Why me? I can’t stand my father’s ways!” In the end, I told God that although I didn’t want to, I would do it for Him.

My care for my parents lasted many, many years, and I sacrificed much to take care of my father. I put my entire heart into it, praying for him and keeping him company when he was lonely. Yet, right up to the moment he died, all I received from him was rejection. Whenever I went to him, he would just turn his face away. He never relented, not when I asked him for forgiveness for anything I may have done to cause him hurt, and not even on his deathbed.

You can imagine how heartbreaking that was. During his funeral preparations, I was so devastated that I couldn’t even think straight. I was totally broken. I couldn’t breathe through the pain and overwhelming guilt in my heart.

Reading your book has brought a healing release that I needed so much because of all the guilt and condemnation that had built up inside me. The release was so tremendous that I jumped for joy, cried my heart out for days, and felt God’s peace in my heart and life. I feel so free! Free from the weight of legalistic teachings, rejection, and bondage. The weight that came off me was phenomenal. My heart that was once so full of pain became so light, so at peace.

Thank You, Jesus, for Your finished work on the cross! I am free from condemnation! Every day, I confess over my family and myself that I am greatly blessed, highly favored, and deeply loved! Hallelujah!

You may be familiar with the guilt and condemnation Alena experienced during that devastating period in her life. Perhaps condemnation has also imprisoned you in a suffocating grip over some things that may have happened in your past.

Beloved, God in His love and grace wants to set you free today. What you need to know is that no amount of trying to fulfill God’s law can ever bring you the wholeness and restoration you need. But where you could not and cannot, Jesus fulfilled the law on your behalf and paid the price for your sins at the cross.

Today, your part is to believe in your Savior and receive from Him the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. That’s how you receive healing for your broken heart and body, wholeness for your mind, and His strength and victory to overcome every area of defeat and darkness in your life. It’s time to step into a life of rest in Christ Jesus and His finished work, and watch Him give you the breakthrough you need.

This devotional is taken from the book Reign in Life—90 Powerful Inspirations for Extraordinary Breakthroughs. Joseph Prince

What the Savior Endured

His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.

Isaiah 52:14

Our Lord Jesus chose the bread and wine as the elements of the holy Communion because they are practical, visual reminders of what happened to Him as He went to the cross. Both grain and grapes have to go through a process of being pulverized before you can get bread or wine.

You don’t get wine from just eating grapes. The grapes have to first be trampled upon and completely crushed. They are then left in the dark to ferment. That’s what happened to our Lord Jesus.

It is important we discern the Lord’s body for our health. Each time you partake of His broken body by eating the bread, don’t rush through it. Partake with a revelation of what He did for you, and meditate on the process the bread had to go through.

To get bread in Jesus’ time, the wheat stalks first had to be threshed, either through beating (Judg. 6:11 NASB) or with the use of a threshing sledge (Isa. 41:15). It was a violent process that involved beating, crushing, and cutting the wheat to separate the grain from the stalks. Then the grain had to be ground in a millstone or beaten in a mortar to get flour. After that, water had to be added, and the flour was then kneaded and punched into dough before it was baked over fire.

All this is a picture of what happened to our Lord Jesus. To become the Bread of Life for you and me, He was brutally beaten and pounded over and over again during His trial and crucifixion. When He was condemned by the high priest and Sanhedrin, they mocked Him, spat on Him, and beat Him. They blindfolded Him and struck Him on His face (Luke 22:63–64; Mark 14:65). He was then sent to Pontius Pilate, who had Him savagely scourged by Roman soldiers (Matt. 27:26). Then they put a scarlet robe on His battered body, twisted a crown of thorns, and rammed it on His head. They put a staff in His right hand, bowed before Him, and mocked Him. They spat on Him and took the staff and struck Him on the head again and again, driving the thorns deeper and deeper into His flesh with each blow. When “they were finally tired of mocking him,” they led Him away to be crucified (Matt. 27:27–31 NLT).

All of that was before His body was nailed to the cross. We can never fully imagine or understand the horrifying torture, degrading humiliation, and excruciating pain our Savior endured for our sakes. He suffered so that you and I would not have to suffer the scourge of sickness in our bodies. By the scourging He bore, we are healed! Hallelujah!

This devotional is taken from the book The Healing Power of the Holy Communion—A 90-Day Devotional. Joseph Prince

Message from Amir Tsarfati

Shalom from Galilee! You know, sometimes you look at the events happening around you and all you can do is sit back and say, “Oh, my goodness.” I mean, seriously! If you’ve read my thrillers, you know what a great fan I am of the Mossad and how highly I think of their skillset. But the events of Tuesday and Wednesday? Again, oh my goodness!

It was 3:30 PM, Tuesday afternoon. All the Hezbollah leadership and mid-level guys were out doing their Hezbollahy things – buying some fruit, visiting family, torturing prisoners. Suddenly, their pagers went off. Yes, you read that right. Their pagers, just like what happens to millions of people every day all around the world, or at least it did back in the 90s. The message was an error code that kept the device beeping and vibrating for ten seconds. Some lifted their pagers up so they could read the code before clearing it. Others just figured there was a problem and cleared the code while the device remained on their belts. As soon as they pressed the clear button, the devices exploded.

It was ugly. Many had their waists severely burned. Others had others parts of their nether regions seriously and permanently compromised. The ones who got the worst of it, though, were those who were trying to make out the numbers on the tiny LED screen. Many of them were blinded. Others lost their lives. It was the most direct, well-planned, and perfectly executed cyberstrike of the modern era. More than 4000 Hezbollah terrorists were wounded initially, and at least 11 were killed. Four hundred of those wounded are in critical condition, more than 500 lost their eyesight, and 18 high-ranking terrorist commanders were injured.

This all started with Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah, calling on his minions to abandon their cell phones, because they could be tracked. He encouraged them to go back to low tech communications, like pagers. So, the terrorist organization put in an order with a Taiwanese company who subbed the order out to a Hungarian company that just might have been tied in very deeply with the Mossad. Hungary, by the way, claims the devices were never in their country. But one way or another the order was fulfilled, with a free bonus to 5000 of the pagers – 20 grams of PETN explosives. Once completed, they shipped them to Lebanon where they were distributed to various levels of leadership. Soon, all the cool terrorists were sporting them on their belts. The run-of-the-mill terror-guys didn’t need them, because they just follow the orders of their bosses.

Then came 3:30 PM, the alerts, and the explosions. It happened all across Lebanon and even into Syria. Lebanese terrorists were taken down. Some Syrians were hit. Even Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, lost an eye and had his other severely damaged. Strange that an Iranian ambassador would be carrying a Hezbollah pager, don’t you think? The Iranian connection goes even farther with the son of Ali Maruf Hejazi, the Iran Supreme Leader’s representative in Lebanon, seriously injured in both of his eyes when his Hezbollah pager blew up. Later in the day yesterday, Al-Hadath, a Saudi newspaper, reported that 19 members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed by the pagers in Syria and another 150 were injured.

Back in Lebanon, it was chaos for Hezbollah. They had ditched their cell phones and now their pagers had blown up. Thankfully for the terrorists, many of the leaders who had survived the attack still had their hand-held radios. They were large and a little clunky, but they kept them connected.

Then Wednesday came, and it all started happening again.

But this time, the explosions were bigger because those hand-held radios the terrorists still had were bigger. Bigger devices, more explosives. Sixty buildings, 15 cars, and dozens of motorcycles were damaged or destroyed by the hundreds of blasts. First reports said that 14 people have been reported killed and more than 450 injured. Hezbollah is at a loss. Their communications have broken down. They’d try to send smoke signals, but they’re probably concerned that the Mossad somehow poisoned their wood to emit deadly fumes. They are truly at the point that Nineveh was when the prophet Nahum wrote that they are “empty, desolate, and waste! The heart melts, and the knees shake; much pain is in every side, and all their faces are drained of color.” That is a very apt description of many who are in Lebanon’s overfilled hospital rooms today.

The details of how the intelligence agency (allegedly) pulled off this second feat remain murky. But it’s not the first time that Israeli intelligence assassinated someone by a hand-held device. In the early 1990s, Yahya Ayyash, Hamas bombmaker and head of Hamas’s West Bank division of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade, was a busy young man. Known as “the Engineer”, he was responsible for making bombs that killed dozens of Israelis in at least eight suicide attacks. After a little arm-twisting, the Shin Bet convinced an acquaintance of Ayyash’s to get a certain cell phone into the hands of the terrorist so that they could listen in on his conversations. This acquaintance gave the device to his nephew, whose phone Ayyash would often borrow. Sure enough, Ayyash came by to use the nephew’s phone so he could call his father. After confirming that it was Ayyash on the line, the Shin Bet triggered 15 grams of RDX explosive that they had stashed inside the device and Ayyash was killed instantly.

But this is the first time a cyberattack on communication devices was this widespread. The rigging of the pagers and the hand-held radios is truly an intelligence feat! As of this morning, the official numbers put the dead in the two attacks at 26 and the wounded somewhere well over 3000. The unofficial numbers, however, say that already a hundred are dead, many more are wounded than officials are reporting, and hundreds of terrorists are not expected to survive.

What other nation can you imagine pulling this off? Steve Yohn and I joked yesterday that some people thought we had crossed a line of believability when we put explosives into artwork in By Way of Deception. That’s despite that plot being based on an actual attack on the Natanz nuclear facility when explosives were built into the framework of a desk that was then smuggled into the plant. But we both had to admit that loading mini bombs into thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies then having Hezbollah themselves distribute the deadly devices to their own people was beyond even our wild imaginations. And that’s just from the information that we know. Even as I’m writing this, reports are coming in that the order may have been taken by a European-based Israeli shell company, which would mean that Hezbollah actually paid Israel for all the devices that exploded. Not long after, a Bulgarian newspaper reported that a company in Sofia called Norta Global Ltd sent the pagers. We may never know the full truth. What I do know is that as a writer and an Israeli, I am giving my government and my intelligence agencies an awe-filled standing ovation.

As an Israeli, however, I am also pleading with my government to go into the north immediately. Hezbollah has been greatly weakened. They are afraid of their communications systems. Their leaders are wounded or dead. Now is the time to finish off Hezbollah for the sakes of the Israelis and the Lebanese. I know that there is pressure coming from the United States. The last thing the Harris campaign wants is an expanded battle during Biden’s tenure. But Mr. Prime Minister, you know that it has to be done! We must push hard today, so that we don’t have to push hard tomorrow. This is despite the fact that so many are against us, including the fools at the United Nations who just voted 124-14 to deny Israel of its right to self-defense in Gaza and the West Bank. I was very encouraged Tuesday, when I heard that resituating northern Israeli residents back into their homes was added to the official war goals. Of course, that can only happen when Hezbollah is disarmed and pushed out of southern Lebanon. I was also hearted when I learned late last night that the Israeli cabinet granted Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant the green light to take military action against Hezbollah, even if it leads to all-out war.

I understand the risk. It was a difficult week for Israel. In Rafah on Tuesday, four young Israeli soldiers lost their lives. Capt. Daniel Mimon Toaff, 23, Staff Sgt. Amit Bakri, 21, Staff Sgt. Dotan Shimon, 21, and Staff Sgt. Agam Naim, 20, were killed in Rafah when there was an explosion in the building they were in. Agam Naim, a paramedic and the first female killed in combat in Gaza, was only two days away from going on leave. Our hearts break for their families. Pushing hard in the north is going to cost more lives. I know, I have children in active service and in the reserves. But it must be done if we are ever going to have peace. 

According to Ezekiel 38, when Russia comes down with Turkey, Iran, and her other allies, Lebanon and Syria will not be part of the attack. I believe Syria will be out of the fight because they’ll be dealing with the destruction of Damascus as spoken of by the prophet Isaiah:
 

The burden against Damascus. “Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, And it will be a ruinous heap” (Isaiah 17:1).
 

What Lebanon is facing right now could possibly be the reason why they are irrelevant. Unfortunately, a fight against Hezbollah means a fight against Lebanon, because the country has allowed the terrorist organization to become so imbedded into their infrastructure. If Israel is forced to fight tooth and nail to destroy Hezbollah, the country could end up in shambles. Let’s pray that the Lord intervenes, the guilty receive justice, and the innocent are allowed to live in peace, whether they live in Israel or in Lebanon.

Fresh Grace for Every Failing

The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

Lamentations 3:22–23 NLT

My friend, every time you fail, there is fresh grace from Jesus to rescue you. Every time you fall short, confess your righteousness in Jesus by faith. I know you probably won’t feel particularly righteous, and that is why you need to say it by faith.

I have received so many testimonies of breakthroughs from people around the world who, even as they succumb to their addictions, would confess, “Even right now, I am the righteousness of God in Christ” and eventually found freedom from their bondages. It could be a smoking addiction or an alcohol or pornography addiction.

Michael, a brother in Australia, happily shared, “I have just given up smoking by following what you’ve taught in your books and DVDs (about being conscious of and confessing my righteousness in Christ) whenever I was tempted to smoke. I have also been set free from twenty years of drug and alcohol abuse and am free of paranoid thoughts. I couldn’t give them up through my own efforts, but through Christ I have.”

The more these people confessed and saw themselves as righteous in Jesus, even in the midst of their failings, the more they came to see their true identity in Christ. The dead leaves began to fall, and they came to the place where they didn’t have any desire to ever smoke another cigarette, drink another drop of alcohol, or visit another pornographic website. New leaves, new flowers, and new fruits unconsciously and effortlessly sprang up in their lives. Grace put an end to the barrenness and torment of winter and ushered in perpetual spring for them.

Beloved, if you are grappling with something right now, stop struggling and start receiving. Start receiving the abundance of the Lord’s unmerited favor. Start receiving the free gift of His righteousness. Start receiving the cleansing power of His forgiveness. There is nothing for you to do but to soak it all up and to allow His resurrection power to drive out every symptom of death and decay in your circumstances and in your life.

This devotional is adapted from the book 100 Days of Right Believing—Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing. Joseph Prince

Gathered Under His Wings

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate.”

Luke 13:34–35

There’s a beautiful picture hidden in verse 4 of Psalm 91. It’s a picture of a mother hen protecting her chicks. The scriptures above record how the Lord Jesus looked at Jerusalem and lamented over it. Later, Jesus wept over Jerusalem, saying, “For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:43–44). The Greek word for “wept” in verse 41 is klaio, and it means to be so affected emotionally as to sob and wail aloud.

Can you see the Lord’s tender mercies toward Israel as He shed much tears over her? He wished that He could gather Israel under His feathers as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but the Lord could not force His protection on them because they rejected Him. I believe that as our Lord wept, He foresaw not only the Roman siege of Jerusalem, when the temple was burned to the ground and many of the Jews killed or sold as slaves, but He also foresaw the horrors of the Holocaust.

Notice that the Lord said, “But you were not willing!” This clearly tells us that the Lord will not force on us His protection if we are not willing to come under His wings.

Beloved, are you willing to have the Lord Jesus protect you and your family today? Then tell Him. Let’s never take our Lord’s protection for granted. Instead, let’s take time daily to let Him know that we are putting our trust in Him for His covering and protection.

Do you want to know what happens when you do that? Look at what Boaz said to Ruth: “The Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge” (Ruth 2:12). Wow! It was already a privilege for this Moabite outcast, who was disqualified by the law, to find refuge under the wings of the God of Israel. But God even rewarded her for doing so.

In the same way, it is a privilege for us to be able to take refuge under His wings. Yet when we tell the Lord that we need Him and want His refuge, He gives us a full reward for trusting Him and for coming under His wings. What a God!

This devotional is taken from the book The Prayer of Protection Devotional—Daily Strategies for Living Fearlessly in Dangerous Times. Joseph Prince

Message from Amir Tsarfati

I believe that the most significant end-time prophecy is the rebirth of Israel and the rebirth of the fig tree. You have to understand, Israel in the Scriptures has been described as three different types of trees: the vine, the fig, and the olive. Each and every one of them was a symbol of something else. The vine was a symbol of the spiritual privileges of Israel. The fig was a symbol of Israel’s national privileges, and that’s why the birth of Israel as a nation. They were still the people of God, He still cared about them, but there was no rebirth as a nation back in the land. So the national privileges are the fig, and the religious ones, the olive tree. That olive tree that had roots deep, the roots of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God says, “I am the Lord and remember My name. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

So when somebody says to you, “Oh, we, the Muslims, we believe in the same God as you. We believe in the God of Abraham.” Well, ask him if he believes in the God of Isaac and Jacob also, because that’s the full name of our God. And if they stop at Abraham, that’s not the same God, folks.

May 14, 1948 was a day of great prophetic significance as it began the final march toward the end of the church age and the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel. The fig tree Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24:32 has “become tender and put forth leaves.” The Greek word translated as “tender” means “to be full of sap” which carries the nutrients to the leaves making it ready to bear fruit.

Satan is well aware of the sequence of events that will take place during the last days and his efforts are to destroy the fig tree before it bears the fruit of Zechariah 12:10, which reads, “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”

The enemy has attempted this through the Holocaust and the current and growing antisemitism around the world. But he has also done this “in-house” through spiritual deception convincing some that the church is the new Israel, while others he has convinced that the Bible has been corrupted and a “new and improved” word from God has now come. This is what the Mormons and Muslims have done. They will use familiar sounding terminology but they have an altogether different dictionary. The Mormons use the name Jesus, but their Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer and both are the offspring of a former human from a different planet who became a god. Same vocabulary, different dictionary. The Muslims have a personage they call Isa whom they say is the Jesus of the Bible. They claim he was born of a virgin and performed miracles, but he did not die on the cross for the sins of the world. Which means the Islamic Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible.

This is why genealogies in the Bible are so important. Luke 3 records the genealogy of Jesus all the way back to Adam through David, Jesse, Boaz, and on to Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham, and then finally all the way back to Adam.

Genesis 17:15-19
Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.”

Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”

Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.”

The Lord said that His everlasting covenant was not with Ishmael but with Isaac and his descendants. How do we know this is still true? The descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob are back in their national homeland just as the Bible foretold. And that means Israel is about to bear the fruit of coming to know their Messiah at the end of the Tribulation, and the Rapture is about to bring an end to the church age. 

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus,

The Gospel Brings Health and Provision

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Matthew 7:11

I have had people call me a health and wealth “prosperity gospel” preacher. Actually, there is no such thing as a “prosperity gospel.” There is only one gospel and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through Jesus' finished work on the cross, you can depend on Him for His resurrection life to pulsate and flow in your physical body from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet. Sicknesses and diseases are not from God. On the cross, Jesus bore not just our sins, but also our sicknesses, diseases, and infirmities, and “by His stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:5)!

That’s not all, my friend. On the cross, Jesus bore the curse of poverty! This is what the Word of God declares: “For you know the grace [unmerited favor] of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). Read 2 Corinthians 8 for yourself. The entire chapter is about money and being a blessing financially to those who are in need. So don’t let anyone tell you that the verse is referring to “spiritual” riches. Let me tell you this: It is the devil who wants you sick and poor, but the God I know has paid a heavy price to redeem you from the curse of sickness and poverty!

Let’s understand how God deals with us from the point of relationship. As a parent, how would you teach your child character and patience? With sicknesses and diseases? Of course not! There are institutions where we put such parents! Again, as a parent, how would you teach your child humility? By cursing your child with poverty for the rest of his life? No way! Now, isn’t it amazing how everything becomes crystal clear when we start thinking from the point of view of a parent, and put our own children in the picture?

When you start to think along the lines of relationship, everything will converge and you will begin to see things from God’s perspective. He is our Father who operates on the frequency of relationship, and through His unmerited favor in our lives, we learn character, patience, and humility as we rest from our self-efforts and depend on Him. The more we know our Father, the more we become like Him. This is how God causes us to grow from glory to glory in every area of our lives. It is simply by beholding Him (2 Cor. 3:18)!

You know that as parents, we always seek the best things for our children. How much more would our Father in heaven want the best things for us, His precious children? In the same way that you want your children to be healthy, God wants you to enjoy His divine health. And in the same way that you want your children to always have more than enough, God wants you to enjoy His supernatural provision.

When He provides, get ready for a net-breaking, boat-sinking load (Luke 5:6-7). Get ready for twelve baskets full of leftovers (John 6:13)! The Bible puts things in perspective most clearly in Matthew 7:11—If you then, as imperfect parents, “know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him”!

My friend, get this right: God abhors sickness and He loathes poverty. He gave everything He had to annihilate sickness and poverty, when He gave us His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for us. He placed all of humanity’s sin, as well as the curse of sickness and poverty on the body of Jesus. All you need to do right now is respond to Jesus' finished work—your sins have already been forgiven. Your physical body will be healed and your poverty will indeed be history!

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Favor—Daily Readings from Unmerited Favor. Joseph Prince

Are You Trying to Fix Yourself?

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

Matthew 5:17 NIV

I can never emphasize this enough: Christianity is about having a relationship with a loving God. My friend, it is when you get a revelation of God’s desire to have a personal, loving relationship with you and how Jesus has forever made secure this relationship that real transformation from the inside out begins to happen to you.

Listen to how this revelation led fifty-year-old Jarvis, whose personal life was a daily struggle, to his breakthrough:

I have gone to church for as long as I can remember. I have run the sound at church for nine years, painted, cleaned, donated time, and done everything I was able to. I gave my 10 percent and more. I also sang praises, read books, and spoke in tongues. I did all this and yet was miserable. I lived in lack, had no confidence, and had no relationship with Jesus. I always wondered what was wrong with me.

My friends in church were like me too and we all acted as if life was wonderful when, in fact, it was the complete opposite. In the end, I was mentally and physically drained with all things concerning God. I read numerous books on how to fix ME. I prayed and had people pray for me but nothing changed! I thought that I had a problem and even wondered if I had a mental issue. I felt like the worst husband and father even though I love my wife and have the two greatest kids in the world.

One day, just before going to bed, I discovered your television program. I saw only three minutes of preaching before your broadcast ended, but I heard enough to want to know more. I picked up my Kindle Fire and typed in “Joseph Prince.” I downloaded a free preview of one of your books, read one chapter, and bought the book.

I read three chapters that night and was SET FREE before I went to bed. I have never experienced anything like this in my entire life. “The law has been fulfilled by Christ . . .” Oh man, GLORY TO GOD! What a blessing this book has been.

My life is forever changed. I am back to reading the Word, worshipping with CDs, and praying in the Spirit. I’m in love with Jesus, I am on FIRE, and I am not a fake trying to impress others. I have an intimate relationship with Jesus that I didn’t know was possible and that has been the greatest blessing of all. I know my life will never be the same!

I pray you will discover, as Jarvis did, that the answer to your struggles does not lie in you trying to fix yourself. If you go down this route, you will never see an end in sight.

The truth is, because of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice, nothing you have or have not done can hijack or derail the loving relationship God wants you to have with Him. Let this truth sink into your heart and begin to enjoy a relationship with your heavenly Father where you can freely receive His love and grace for you.

All your fears, confusion, and struggles to receive from Him will come to an end. You won’t be struggling to love Him. Instead, your heart will be fired up with love for Him, and like Jarvis, you will know and see how your life will never be the same!

This devotional is taken from the book Reign in Life—90 Powerful Inspirations for Extraordinary Breakthroughs. Joseph Prince

Stand Still

“Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. . . You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.”

2 Chronicles 20:15, 17

When King Jehoshaphat and the small tribe of Judah were besieged on all fronts by 3 powerful and bloodthirsty armies rapidly advancing toward Jerusalem (2 Chron. 20), the king set himself to seek the Lord and pray with hope before all the assembly of Judah. It was then that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel, who spoke the words of the Lord that we read in today’s scripture. On hearing these words of hope, all Judah humbled themselves before the Lord, bowing before Him and worshiping Him.

Today the Lord is saying the same words to you in your situation. Hope in Him for He loves you! You don’t have to live in fear and discouragement when you know that the battle is not yours, but the Lord’s. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. The battle is His, and you will not need to fight in it.

What do you do when you don’t know what to do? The best thing you can do is to stand still. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord in your situation.

But Pastor Prince, if I stand still, nothing will happen!

My friend, standing still is not inactivity or doing nothing. It’s a posture of hope, and it involves keeping your hope anchored on the person of Jesus and having a sure and confident expectation of good. When the marauding armies of Pharaoh were charging toward the children of Israel, hell-bent on annihilating them, Moses simply declared to the terrified Israelites, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord” (Exod. 14:13). The Hebrew word for salvation is yeshua, which is actually the name of Jesus. So salvation is the person of Jesus, and He is with you.

When you are caught in a hopeless situation, learn to position yourself— stand still and see the saving power of Jesus work on your behalf. He will never leave you nor forsake you (Heb. 13:5). And as you center yourself, your thoughts, your beliefs, and your hopes on Him, He will lead you concerning what to do, just as He led Jehoshaphat to a triumphant victory over his enemies.

This devotional is adapted from the book 100 Days of Right Believing—Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing. Joseph Prince

Message from Amir Tsarfati

Shalom from CONNECT in Israel! As I work on this, it is still Wednesday. In other words, today is 9/11. I can still remember being in the Twin Towers on September 10, 2001, asking my friend who accompanied me what would happen if a plane were ever to strike the buildings. Isn’t it interesting that I was in-country when America was viciously attacked, but I was out of Israel on October 7, 2023, when my country was brutalized. Thinking back 23 years, I can recall the day after the towers came down. Sorrow, anger, shock, vengeance – all were in the hearts and minds of the people. The same emotions filled the population here in Israel eleven months ago. Although I missed the day of the invasion, I was home soon after and have been riding the aftermath rollercoaster ever since. Just as the memory of 9/11 still haunts so many over twenty years later, I know the specter of 10/7 will plague the minds of Israelis for decades to come.

A major reason that Hamas was able to hit Israel so hard was that we didn’t take their cunning and their ruthlessness seriously enough. We didn’t know the details about the miles of tunnels under Gaza nor the immense size of the weapons cache smuggled in from Egypt through the Philadelphi Corridor. We learned our lesson on the military side. We are also learning our lesson on the political side.

This past Friday, the German newspaper BILD published a document that appears to have come from the computer of Yahya Sinwar. In it, we find a ceasefire strategy that shows the manipulative and disingenuous of Hamas’s claims to want to return hostages and end the war. The article detailed six key points:

1)    Blame Israel: Hamas is committed to blaming Israel for every failed hostage negotiation. This is going according to plan. Despite Hamas rejecting every deal that doesn’t include a complete Israeli surrender, the media lays the responsibility at the feet of Netanyahu without fail. Just last week, the BBC was found to have breached journalistic rules 1500 times in the past months, pushing their agenda of anti-Israel propaganda in order to brainwash the people.

2)    Preserve Military Power: Hamas is not thinking about giving up. They are ready to fight to the death of the last of their human shields. But they may be facing trouble very soon now that the IDF has closed the underground armament highway from Egypt through the Philadelphi Corridor. In fact, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant revealed a letter yesterday from the recently exterminated Khan Yunis brigade commander Rafa Salama to Yahya and Mohammed Sinwar in which he reported that 70% of Hamas’s weapons had been destroyed, 95% of its rockets were ruined, and 50% of his operatives had been killed or wounded. Worse yet, 60% of his terrorists who were still of able body had fled, leaving him at only 20% strength. In summary, Hamas is not negotiating from a position of strength.

3)    Use Hostages for Pressure: This is where Hamas is finding its most success, both in Israel and abroad. Last Friday, 25,000 demonstrators marched in Tel Aviv demanding that Netanyahu sign a hostage deal. This is despite the fact that there is no hostage deal. I understand the pain of the families of the hostages. But we cannot just cut and run out of Gaza. Hamas must be broken, or there will soon come a day when the butchers will pour over the border again, slaughtering more people and kidnapping more hostages.

4)    Prolong the Negotiations: Hamas does not want a deal. They thwart every attempt. That is because the greatest weapon they have is public opinion. The longer they can extend the talks – despite the suffering of their own civilians – the more the pressure will build against Israel’s government to either cave or to throw Netanyahu out of office.

5)    Use Arab Forces as a Buffer: This is a strategy in which they envision placing Arab troops along the border between Israel and Gaza. Doing this will allow Hamas to buy time and regroup, as they prepare for a future confrontation.

6)    Keep Raising the Price for Hostages: Like going to a retailer who ups the price every time to reach for your wallet, Hamas continues to raise their demands with each negotiation. Again, this is because they have no interest in returning the hostages. They are just pawns in Hamas’s terrorist game. This was made quite clear this past week when RAdm. Daniel Hagari of the IDF showed the horrific conditions in which six hostages were kept for the last 11 months. When it became evident that the hostages were about to be rescued, Hamas put a bullet into the back of each innocent’s head. To Hamas, Israeli hostages are no different than their own civilians – they are just cannon fodder to be used then disposed of when their usefulness is at an end.

This is what Israel is dealing with. Anyone who believes that Netanyahu or his government can just negotiate their way out of this conflict has absolutely no understanding of the true situation.


The Middle East

If you have not subscribed to my Telegram channel, I would encourage you to do so. It will keep you on the cutting edge of what is happening in the Middle East and in the world. Also, if you missed my CONNECT MidEast Update Tuesday, please take time to watch it. It will take what you read in this newsletter to a deeper level.

Israel’s Focus Shifting North
Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant clearly indicated the changing attention of the Israeli Defense Forces from south to north when he told troops, “The center of gravity is moving northward, we are near to completing our tasks in the south, but our mission here is not yet done.” A second indication of this shift also came Tuesday when US CENTCOM chief Gen. Michael Kurilla met with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and others to discuss Lebanon. Israel will not be safe as long as the terrorist group Hezbollah has thousands upon thousands of rockets pointed toward the border.

In preparation for the coming attack, the Israeli military has been daily destroying Hezbollah’s ability to launch their missiles. This included an unusual strike in the heart of Syria last Thursday into Friday. The target was an Iranian research facility that worked with drones and chemical weapons. There were three waves to the attack at Masyaf. The first destroyed access roads to the targeted facility. The second wave took out the anti-aircraft batteries. The third wave brought commandos in helicopters. They took out a number of people at this Iranian research facility, confiscated computers, then destroyed the compound. When they left, they brought some prisoners with them to be interrogated. If you want to find out more about this, watch my Breaking News Update from this morning.

Unfortunately, there are many more sites to hit and so many more rocket launch locations to go, as evidenced by the 60 rockets fired at Israel from Lebanon in a single hour just yesterday. This shift of focus to the north will be the first time that my region in Jezreel will be seriously affected by the war. My family and I are preparing for some difficult times ahead. Still, we are anticipating the beginning of the northern battle, because once it starts, we will be that much closer to it being over with. It is then we can experience peace again, reestablish tourism, and no longer fear being attacked in our own homes.

New Eastern Front in Israel
Even as the IDF gears up for the north, a new front is rearing its ugly head. Citing Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei’s statement that the West Bank will be armed like Gaza, Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote on X, “The Iranian terror octopus is working to establish an eastern terror front against Israel and moderate states in the region.” Many don’t realize that 50-60% of those living in Jordan are Palestinian. So, it was no wonder that when a Palestinian opened fire at the Allenby Crossing between Israel and Jordan on Sunday, killing three Israeli civilians, there was great celebration in Jordan with the passing out of sweets and the setting off of fireworks.

You’ve read in this newsletter many times about the terrorist threat in the West Bank. Where do you think their weapons came from? You need only look to the east. In fact, just this past Sunday, police foiled an attempt to smuggle 74 handguns into Israel from Jordan. Then, the next day near the Na’aran settlement in the West Bank’s Jordan Valley, the IDF located and confiscated more handguns, along with a shotgun. Sadly, when the terrorists don’t have guns, they make do with what they have. The day after the attack at the Allenby Crossing, a 58-year-old Palestinian drove his tanker truck into a bus stop killing 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Geri Gideon Hanghal. Fellow soldiers, along with a civilian, ensured that the perpetrator would never have the opportunity to hurt anyone ever again.

Bad Day in Gaza
Yesterday was a difficult day in Gaza. A Yanshuf (Black Hawk) helicopter on an evacuation mission crashed near Rafah, killing Sgt. Maj. (res.) Daniel Alloush, 37, and Sgt. Maj. (res.) Tom Ish-Shalom, 38, and injuring seven others. While these Israelis gave their lives to aid someone else, Hamas is sacrificing other people’s lives to aid themselves. An Israeli news station reported Tuesday that the terrorist organization has profited by at least a half billion dollars by stealing humanitarian aid, then selling it to civilians who are in need. That right there is the epitome of the Hamas mindset.

An interesting idea is being discussed that could eventually bring normalization to the region. One of the strongest relationships for Israel to come from the Abraham Accords is the one they share with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While Prime Minister Netanyahu demands open-ended control of the Philadelphi Corridor and the border with Egypt, he is open to discussions that might place an Emirati-controlled buffer between Gaza and Israel. It will be interesting to watch if the Emiratis and other Arab states warm up to the idea.

The United States Election
Tuesday saw the first post-convention debate between the presidential candidates. On one side was former president Donald Trump. On the other side were current vice president Kamala Harris and the two moderators from ABC. I will not give my opinion as to who I thought won the verbal contest, because I’ve got no business declaring winners. I am an Israeli. I have no vote.

I will tell you, though, that the world is closely watching the United States. I know that all of Israel is monitoring it, because we know that our future will be affected by the outcome. Harris claimed in the debate that she has always been a big supporter of Israel, then immediately followed by saying that too many innocent Palestinians are being killed and we need a two-state solution. Oy! When Trump was asked what he would do, he responded by saying that if he were president October 7 never would have happened. And he’s probably right. Still, as an Israeli, I would have liked to hear him say that he’s going to let us fight this war to the end.

So many parts of this globe will feel the effects of the November election. My prayer is that the church pours out in droves, prays on their way to the election booth, then votes the way the Holy Spirit is leading. If that is done, then good cannot lose.

Erdoğan is Still being Overly Chatty
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey has a vision of making his country the center of Sunni Islam. To become so, he needs to somehow find a way to matter on the world stage. Thus, the president is using his platform to try to rally Muslim nations together against Israel. At a recent event, he blustered, “The only step that will stop Israel is the alliance of Islamic countries.” He went on to complain about Israeli expansionism, which is understandable when you consider all the colonies Israel has established around the world. Oh wait, there are no colonies. Maybe the president needs to look up the word “expansionism” in the dictionary. I do not think it means what he thinks it means. All that being said, President Erdoğan has developed a passionate hatred for Israel and will do what he can to help destroy the nation. That’s why it is not surprising at all that I spent a great amount of time last week filming the promo to our next book, The Sick Man’s Rage, that focuses on Turkey and its desire to destroy Israel. According to the prophecies of Ezekiel, Turkey must rise up and join an alliance with Russia and Iran and others. Together, they will strike Israel. Unfortunately for them, their attack will not quite go as they planned.

Got Any Extra Missiles?
If you happen to have any ballistic missiles laying around, I hear Russia will be more than happy to take them off your hands. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed Tuesday that Iran has sent more than 200 short-range ballistic missiles to Russia. In return, Russia provided Iran with technological information that just maybe could have been nuclear in nature. As part of a food-for-arms deal, North Korea has sent millions of rounds of ammunition and artillery shells to Russia, along with a hefty supply of ballistic missiles. So, if you have any spare rockets, give Putin a call. I hear that with every hundred missiles you send, you get a free set of hand-painted matryoshka nesting dolls. What a deal!


The Ministry

As I mentioned earlier, October 7 was a day of unimaginable horror. Few, if any, of us will ever experience the unfathomable terror of being chased down, assaulted, and killed. Because of that lack of personal experience, there is a danger of downplaying the nightmare of each individual and relegating the victims into statistics. Steve Yohn and I are determined to not let that happen. That is why the beginning of our next novel takes the reader through that traumatic day, both from the standpoint of a victim and that of the helpless friends and family who could only sit by and watch. From there, the rest of the thriller lets you see how Israel deals with those who perpetrate violence on its people, along with the ones who support them. The Sick Man’s Rage is a novel unlike anything you’ve read before. Preorder your copy today.

How do we know that what’s in our Bible is what God intended to be there? Maybe the formulators of the New Testament simply took the many Gospels that had been written, threw them up in the air, then chose the first four that landed in a basket. If you want to know why you can trust your Bible, then join Dr. Rick Yohn and me on Monday, September 16 at 11:00 AM PDT for “Explore the Bible”. And, don’t forget, you can also go to the “Explore the Bible” page on our website for even more resources.

As I mentioned above, if you missed Tuesday’s CONNECT MidEast Update, be sure to check it out. We dove deep into what is happening in the north of Israel and the threat coming from the east. Also, on Monday I had a great time with Pastor Barry Stagner and Pastor Mike Golay for CONNECT Q & A. As always, it was deep, powerful, and just plain fun!

Make sure to take the time to visit our Behold Israel Shop to check out our most recent additions! We have even added a build-your-own-bundle feature in order to provide you with efficient pricing as you add more books to your cart. At the end of the day, our passion is to get resources into the hands of people everywhere. We have also added new accessories and apparel!

The world is in upheaval. But those of us who belong to the Messiah can have blessed peace. No matter what happens, He will carry out His plan to perfection. Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us and supported this ministry. May God bless you deeply.

Awaiting His Return,

Protection in the Father

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.

1 Peter 3:18

Can I show you a beautiful picture of God’s love for you found in the story of Daniel? We saw how in Daniel’s case, the law of the land was violated and how, in spite of his love for Daniel, the king had to carry out the law and punish Daniel. If he hadn’t, he would have been an unrighteous king.

Now, imagine if someone came again a year later to accuse Daniel of this crime and asked for Daniel to be punished again, what would the king do? Would the king throw Daniel into the lions’ den again? No! Daniel had already been sentenced; he had already paid the price for his violation of the law.

My dear friend, because our Lord Jesus has been punished on the cross in your place, the devil cannot come to the King and ask for you to be punished and thrown into the lions’ den. You see, your sins were forgiven not because the King simply decided to close an eye and let you off the hook. The King forgave your sins righteously after judging them in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who was completely without sin took your place and bore the full weight of the punishment for your sins (2 Cor. 5:21). ALL your sins have been legally and judicially judged at the cross. Because of His finished work, once you received the Lord Jesus into your heart, God’s justice and righteousness are on your side!

Do you know how much God loves Jesus, His beloved Son and the apple of His eye? Then I pray that you will have a revelation of how much your Father in heaven loves YOU. To redeem you, God paid the price with the blood of His only Son. It must have been a most difficult decision for Him. None of us would ever fully comprehend what God experienced in sending His own beloved Son to the cross.

We catch just a small glimpse of the torment that God suffered when we read about King Darius’s suffering. King Darius wanted to save Daniel, but he could not violate his own law. Similarly, God loves His Son, but He knew the only way to save us, who had violated the law, was to sacrifice His own Son, Jesus Christ. May this revelation of His amazing love and grace give you boldness to come freely to Him and find protection under His wings.

This devotional is taken from the book The Prayer of Protection Devotional—Daily Strategies for Living Fearlessly in Dangerous Times. Joseph Prince

It Is All About Jesus

“He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.”

Matthew 8:17

You might be familiar with the verse, Isaiah 53:4, which says, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” But notice how the author of the gospel of Matthew quoted it in today’s scripture.

I love the word Himself because it is so personal and so intimate. Surely He Himself took our diseases and our infirmities. It wasn’t an angel. Your health and wholeness were too important to Him, so He Himself bore your every sickness and disease.

Take some time to meditate on the word Himself. Take some time to remember the One who suffered and died for you, the One who took your infirmities and bore your sicknesses so you need not bear them. Jesus Himself did it because you are so precious to Him.

Whatever condition the doctors have diagnosed you with, Jesus Himself has taken it upon His own body. Don’t focus on looking for healing; focus on the Lord Jesus Himself. Focus on the One “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Pet 2:24).

Many times when you seek Him and simply spend time in His presence, your fears and worries just melt away. You find that in His presence there is shalom-peace. There is healing. There is wholeness. And when you look for your symptoms, you find them no more. Why? Because you are in the presence of the Healer.

When God told the children of Israel, “I am the LORD who heals you” (Exod. 15:26), He was introducing Himself as Jehovah Rapha. He was not saying, “I will give you healing” or “I will provide you health.” He was saying I AM your healing, and I AM your health. When you touch Jesus, you touch healing. He does not give healing as though it were a thing. He gives Himself.

You don’t have to seek after healing, provision, and protection. When you have Jesus, you have all you need. If there is an area of death in your body, the Lord says to you, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). If doctors have told you that you will die young, the Lord says to you, “I am your life and the length of your days” (Deut. 30:20). If you have received a negative diagnosis and are fearful, the Lord says to you, “Do not be afraid. I am your shield” (Gen. 15:1). If you have been dealing with relapse after relapse and the discouragement is overwhelming you, the Lord declares to you, “I am your strength and your song” (Exod. 15:2)!

This devotional is taken from the book The Healing Power of the Holy Communion—A 90-Day Devotional. Joseph Prince

Message from Amir Tsarfati

“Concerning the Gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” Now listen to this, “For as you were once disobedient to God.” I want you to raise up your hand, okay? Okay, watch this. “For when you were once disobedient to God.” Can I see your hand? Yes, yes. Keep them high. You were disobedient. Okay, “Even so these also have now been disobedient that through the mercy shown you,” hands up, “they also may obtain mercy.” See, that’s the mystery. They hardened their hearts. God opened His arms. 

The Gentiles are believers, and now the Jews are looking at you. And now you show them that there is one way, one truth, one life, and His name is Yeshua. He’s their salvation. And they need to believe in Him in order to be saved. “For God has committed them all to disobedience that He might have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.” Not of man. Man’s ways are foolish. God is wise. He says, “How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him? For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be the glory for forever.”

We live in a time where many feel as Elijah did, asking where are all God’s people? Where are the Bible-believing Christians? Where can I find a Bible teaching church? Yet, as was true in Elijah’s day, God has people all over the world who have not bowed to the world system and they are made up of those from every tribe, tongue, nation, and people, including Israel.

Romans 11:1-5
I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, “LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life”? But what does the divine response say to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

This is what Paul was reminding the Gentile Christians of in Romans 11. Yes, blindness in part has come to the Jews through their disobedience, yet in the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, He continues to show mercy on those from all nations, tribes, tongues, and peoples who were also disobedient.

We need to be mindful of what Paul said when living in such a time as this – a time where the remnant church exists in an unprecedented season of global blindness in part, a time where those who have not bowed the knee to Baal – meaning become idolatrous – are far outnumbered by those who have.

Romans 12:1-2
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The context of the statement here cannot be separated from the content of chapter 11, since there are no chapter divisions or verse numbers in the original manuscripts. This tells us that the church has the divine responsibility to prove the good and acceptable and perfect will of God to all the world, including, and maybe even especially, to the Jews.

This can’t happen by saying God has cast the Jews off forever. This can’t happen by saying the church has replaced Israel. This can’t happen if we are conformed to this world and live like those who have bowed the knee to Baal.

Paul says that while the Jews are generally opposed to the gospel, they still constitute a mission field for the church because their blindness is only in part. God is still saving Jews today by the blood of the King of the Jews, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the true and living God.

Romans 11:25-27
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”

This glorious event is recorded in Zechariah 12:10 when at the Second Coming of Christ all Israel will look upon Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. And they will mourn for their own, and their ancestors, rejection of Him as their Messiah, the Holy One of Israel, their Savior.

We live in times where it seems like the church has followed the pattern of Israel. The word of God is rejected as divine and inspired by many who say they are among the chosen of God – a royal priesthood who are called the church. However, you cannot separate the word of God from the God of the word as Jesus is presented as the “word made flesh” in John 1:14. To reject the word of God is to reject Jesus, and, sadly, many do just that today.

So what do we do in times such as these? We do not conform to the world, we do not bow the knee to Baal, even when we feel alone like Elijah did. We stay the course, we keep the faith, and we do not deny His name. Instead, we present our bodies, not as the dead sacrifices that the Jews were accustomed to, but as living sacrifices that prove the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Romans 11:13-15
For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

When we live as we should in a loving personal relationship with God that is visible to others, especially to the Jews, the difference between religion and relationship becomes evident and provokes those who see it to want the same for themselves.

God is still saving Jews today and He has not cast them off forever. There might be few among them who are saved during the time of the Gentiles, but the fact that God is still saving them in this time of national disobedience should be a reminder to us all that no one is beyond the reach of our mighty and merciful God!

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus

The Spirit of Wisdom

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.

Ephesians 1:17–19

If God tells us that wisdom is the principal thing, then it behooves us to know and operate in the “spirit of wisdom.” But do you know what the “spirit of wisdom” is?

Look at the prayer (above) that the apostle Paul prayed over the church in Ephesus. The spirit of wisdom and revelation is in the knowledge of Jesus! The more you know Jesus and have a revelation of His unmerited favor in your life, the more you will have the spirit of wisdom. I challenge you to pray this prayer for wisdom on a regular basis because when you increase in the knowledge of Jesus, He will surely lead you to good success in every aspect of your life.

Note that when Paul was praying this prayer for the believers in Ephesus, they were already filled with the Holy Spirit. But Paul still prayed that God would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in their knowledge of Jesus. It is one thing to have the Holy Spirit inside you, but it is another thing to let the Holy Spirit inside you flow as the spirit of wisdom and revelation.

And as you pray to be led by the spirit of wisdom today, be confident that you will experience the Holy Spirit leading you in Jesus’ divine and unmatched wisdom. When the Holy Spirit leads you in the wisdom of Jesus, there will be no impossible situation, no insolvable problem, and no insurmountable crisis. The wisdom of Jesus in you will help you to successfully navigate all your trials and cause you to prevail over all your challenges!

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Favor—Daily Readings from Unmerited Favor. Joseph Prince

The Power of the Blood

“And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

Exodus 12:13

Did you notice that before the Passover, God promised that when He saw the lambs’ blood on the Israelites’ doorposts, they would be saved from destruction? When the angel of death passed through the land, anyone among the children of Israel who was quaking in fear did so needlessly. They were saved not because they were Israelites and not because of their good behavior or anything they did. They were saved just because of one thing—the blood of the lamb.

You might be feeling anxious because doctors have detected some abnormalities in your recent health check. Or perhaps a few of your relatives have succumbed to a particular disease and you are fearful you might be next. My friend, I want you to know you do not have to be afraid, for you have been saved by the shed blood of the true Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

If you are a believer, you can put your trust and confidence in the royal blood that flows through Immanuel’s veins that is on the doorposts of your life. The cross transcends time, and on that day His blood washed you clean of every sin—past, present, and future. You are completely forgiven not because of your good deeds but because of His blood (Eph. 1:7). Rest in the Lamb who died for you at Calvary!

Stop disqualifying yourself from His healing because of the failures in your life. Stop believing the enemy’s lies that you don’t deserve to be healed because of the mistakes you have made or because you have not been going to church enough. When God looks at you, He doesn’t see you in your failures and frailties. He only sees His Son because you are in Christ.

Because you are in Christ, you are completely accepted in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6), and you are already blessed with every spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3). This means that even if there are symptoms in your body, God sees you as healed. Each time you partake of the holy Communion, start seeing yourself the way God sees you. See yourself healed, whole, and filled with divine strength and life.

Each time you take up the cup of the new covenant in His blood (1 Cor. 11:25), know that the blood of Jesus “speaks better things” under the new covenant than the blood of Abel (Heb. 12:24). Abel’s blood had cried out for vengeance (Gen. 4:10). Jesus’ blood cries out for your redemption (Eph. 1:7; 1 Peter 1:18–19), your justification (Rom. 5:9), your victory over the enemy (Rev. 12:11), and so much more!

This devotional is taken from the book The Healing Power of the Holy Communion—A 90-Day Devotional. Joseph Prince

Message from Amir Tsarfati

Shalom from the Jezreel Valley in Israel! It is so good to be back home. On my return from vacation, I took the opportunity to stop in Switzerland so that I could teach at ICF Zurich. What an amazing church and what amazing people! The last time I spoke abroad was November 2023, but teaching God’s Word is like riding a bike. The Holy Spirit moved and we had a wonderful time. Thanks to all at ICF Zurich!

The same day I arrived home is the same day that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave what I believe to be the most powerful speech of his political career. Two days earlier, six hostages had been executed by gunshots to the back of their heads because Hamas felt the IDF was getting too close to discovering them. It shocked the world and outraged the nation. In response, and under fire from Israeli leftists, families of hostages, international governments, and the United States’ White House, Netanyahu risked his political life by taking the unpopular stand against appeasement for the sake of hostage returns. As the saying goes, “With friends like these….”

There was one truth that Netanyahu communicated that could not be misunderstood. As long as he is prime minister, Israel will not back down. Despite the liberal politicians, Bibi’s stand will stay strong. And despite IDF generals who prefer plotting with one another rather than listening to the government, the PM is going to ensure that the military serves the government’s wishes rather than the government serving the military’s. After listening to the speech numerous times, I believe there are four main takeaways:

1.    Unity is vital to winning the war. This was a message to the Israeli public, and it came in the wake of protests and a failed labor strike that the courts declared illegal and political. The majority of our citizens agree with Netanyahu that we must remain strong together as we push to finish this war. Unfortunately, those who stand contrary to him – leftist media, big-mouth politicians, and buttinsky foreign governments – have the microphones and the television screens and the news sources.

2.    We received a detailed explanation of the history and importance of keeping the Philadelphi Axis in the hands of the IDF. It is through that area along the Egypt-Gaza border that most of Hamas’s armaments pass into the country. It provides the military oxygen that keeps the terrorists breathing, so it must remain cut off. Passing it back over to Hamas is like committing martial suicide for the IDF.

3.    Israel Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, U.S. President Joe Biden, and all the others exerting political pressure on Netanyahu need to back off and let him work. As always, the left-wing media took up the cause of the anti-Bibis and grilled the PM mercilessly. But Netanyahu responded masterfully. No matter how hard they tried to trip him up, he was able to communicate his point clearly and concisely.

4.    Yahya Sinwar now knows in no uncertain terms that he is a walking dead man. No pressure from the U.S. or our own far-left elements will change Bibi’s stance on the Philadelphi Axis or on the removal of Sinwar from this planet. By saying it so publicly, Netanyahu has locked himself in and he can never go back.

Again, I think it is the best I have ever seen the prime minister. If you want a more detailed breakdown of his speech, check out my special Breaking News Update from Tuesday.

Once again, I am angered and heart-broken at the barbaric loss of life. But I am not surprised. In fact, I remain optimistic, because biblically I know that we must win this smaller war for the big one of Ezekiel 38 to begin. A time of peace and security is coming for Israel. Once that is finally achieved, Russia, Turkey, Iran, and others will pour out of the north with the intention of destroying and pillaging Israel. All that has happened, God knew before. And He has planned out the perfect path that will ultimately lead to His people crying out to Him, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Luke 13:35).



The Middle East

Once again, I remind you to check out my Telegram channel to get all the latest news. Make sure you only subscribe to the one with over 560,000 followers, so that you can avoid scammers. In addition, with the future of Telegram possibly a little sketchy, I’ve been increasing my presence on X, formerly known as Twitter. Once again, for safety’s sake only subscribe to the one that has over 112,000 followers.


Gaza and the Massacring of Hostages
Last week we celebrated together the rescuing of Arab Bedouin hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi from a Hamas tunnel. Just a few days later, Israel was once again outraged and mourning as six of its innocents were executed via gunshot to the back of their heads by their Hamas captors. Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Alexander Lobanov, 32, Almog Sarusi, 27, and Ori Danino, 25, were stolen away nearly 11 months ago from the Nova Music Festival and forced to live underground up until their lives were unceremoniously taken from them in just a moment. Carmel Gat, 40, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri, was massacred alongside them. Hamas readily admits to the executions, saying that these are the new rules. But they don’t accept responsibility. Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said, “Netanyahu killed the six prisoners, and he is determined to kill the remaining ones.” The lie is so transparent, and it is so evil. And the media is printing it as if it came from the lips of an archangel.

What about an agreement? Is Hamas begging for Israel to put down their weapons? After their tremendous losses, are they pleading with their hands folded desperate for relief? Hardly. Khalil al-Hayya, senior member of the political wing of Hamas, boldly asserts, “Without an Israeli withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor, from the Nezarim Corridor, and the Rafah crossing there will be no agreement.” In other words, “Israel, you are defeated. You must give up and go home.” It sounds asinine, but is it really? Hamas is counting on the two weapons that might be big enough to defeat Israel. The first is international pressure, and the second is the left-wing inside Israel. Hamas can’t do it themselves, but they have some pretty powerful allies.

It's not all bad news from Gaza. On October 7, Ahmed Fozi Nazer Muhammad Wadia, the commander of the Nukhba Company in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion, paraglided into the Netiv HaAsara community and took charge of the slaughter. While the children of slain father Gil Taasa were forced to stare at his body, Wadia looked on as he casually a coke. On Tuesday, Wadia and seven others were killed in a Gaza City compound.

Hezbollah and the North
The battle in the north continues. On Monday, the IDF attacked ten rocket launchers belonging to Hezbollah. Unfortunately, there are many other locations where rockets are stored and from which they can be launched, as evidenced by the 60 rockets they launched during the morning hours yesterday. The IDF responded immediately with a heavy strike. It will be interesting to watch how and when the prime minister will address Hezbollah. So far, it seems that the terrorist group is content to let their chicken-killing rocket attack of August 25 serve as a strong message to Israel that they should stop killing Hezbollah commanders like they did with Fuad Shukr. Unfortunately for the terrorists, the only ones who really seem to be upset are the members of the National Poultry Lobby who apparently took to the streets soon after, crying, “Fowl!”

The West Bank
The violence inside and coming out of the West Bank is only getting worse. On Sunday, a Palestinian gunman belonging to a group known as the Khalil al-Rahman Brigade ambushed an Israeli police car, killing the three officers inside. Later that day, the terrorist was dispatched while hiding out in a home in Hebron. Terrorism has become rampant in the West Bank. In recent weeks, Shin Bet has thwarted two significant terrorist attacks originating in the Nablus area. This is the same region that sent the failed suicide terrorist of August 18. Since the beginning of the year, about 200 terror attacks have been thwarted by Shin Bet.

UK Bans Arms
In a case of the worst timing ever, just a few days after Hamas cold-bloodedly executed six Israeli hostages, the United Kingdom announced that it was suspending a whole series of weapons exports bound for Israel. This move brought criticism from all corners of the land, including former prime minister Boris Johnson and former home secretary Priti Patel. British columnist Allison Pearson called the Labour party’s ban “a shameful betrayal of a heroic ally”, adding that doing so immediately following the execution by Hamas of six innocents “presents a bold challenge to the limits of satire.” Hey, UK, at least let us mourn our dead for a few days before you stab us in the back.


Russian Missile Attack on Ukraine
As Ukraine struggles to push farther across the border, Russia is fighting back. On Tuesday, two ballistic missiles hit a military educational institute and a nearby hospital in Poltava. More than 50 were killed and hundreds were injured. Russia defended its actions, saying that the military institute was a viable target.

The Ministry

Have you wondered what it would have been like running for your life from the terrorists on October 7? Have you thought about how life has changed here in Israel since that horrendous massacre? Those two themes lay the foundation for our new Nir Tavor thriller, The Sick Man’s Rage, and give the story a depth like none that we’ve written before. After giving you a glimpse into what that fateful day was like, we’ll take you into Israel’s response and the resulting repercussions that triggered a global reaction. Preorder your copy today of The Sick Man’s Rage, releasing December 3, and prepare to be drawn into the Israeli mind deeper than you’ve ever been before.

On Monday, I have an exciting opportunity to be interviewed on the “Got Questions?” podcast. If you have ever done a Google search on a biblical question, then chances are you have seen Got Questions. It’s a great opportunity with a solid organization. Once I learn when it will be aired, I’ll pass the information on to you.

Also on Monday, it will be time for another live Q&A CONNECT with Pastor Barry Stagner and me. We’ll talk Israel, the Bible, and Israel as it relates to the Bible. Come loaded with your questions at 10:00 AM PDT. Then, be sure to join me the next day, Tuesday, for a fresh edition of MidEast Update.

While the vacation was good and the time with family was great, it’s still wonderful to be back at work in the office at CONNECT. Thank you for your prayers and your support. Your faithfulness to God allows Him to be faithful through you. May He bless you as you trust Him day by day.

Awaiting His Return,

Jesus Paid Our Debt

John 12:31 'Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.'

JOHN 12:31

There is still a future judgment of the world coming, where the wicked will be separated from the righteous and cast into the lake of fire. This verse refers to the sins of the world that were about to be placed on Jesus and that He would suffer our punishment.

Jesus suffered the punishment for our sins, so there is no reason why we should suffer for them too. The price for sin has already been paid by the only one who could fully pay it and that is Jesus. All Jesus asks of us to make His redemption ours, is faith in Him as our Lord.

Sin has a wage it must pay and no one can avoid payday without faith in Jesus. Anyone who does not receive the new birth will be held liable for all the wrong they committed as a result of their sinful nature. However, those who receive the new birth through faith in Jesus, don't have a sin nature and therefore, will not receive the payment of death.

Physical death as well as every result of the sin nature (i.e. sickness, depression, fear, etc.) is only a by-product of the spiritual death that was already inside of us. The Lord told Adam that in the day he ate of the forbidden tree, he would surely die (Gen. 2:17). Adam didn't die physically that day but he did die spiritually. Physical death came 930 years later for Adam (Gen. 5:5) as a by-product of his spiritual death.

Eternal life is a gift. The dictionary defines a gift as 'something that is bestowed voluntarily and without compensation; a present.' We have nothing to do with earning this gift. All you have to do is receive it by faith. Andrew Womack