by donfinto | Mar 13, 2014 | Uncategorized
Purim – Adar 14 – March 16 this year – A Day to Celebrate God’s Faithfulness
Over and over through the centuries, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have been targeted for annihilation. Over and over again, God has supernaturally stepped in to save them. Every generation has its Haman(s) – world rulers who persecute and even kill the Jewish people. Zechariah tells us that the last great world upheaval will be Satan’s final attempt to destroy Israel – international leaders will turn against Jerusalem (See Zechariah 14).
But God has a different plan!
That’s why we celebrate Purim. That’s why we boo and drown out the name of Haman, cheer Mordechai, celebrate Esther, and hail King Ahasuerus when their names are called during the reading of the book of Esther. That’s why we throw a party to celebrate God’s faithfulness to see that eventually good always wins over evil.
Perhaps the most famous quote from the small book of Esther comes from Mordechai’s warning to Esther, who was a bit reluctant to risk her own life and go to the King. “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Emphasis mine.)
What are the messages to learn from Esther and Purim?
*Each of us is important for the plan of God in our day.
*We will endanger others if we do not stand strong in the Lord.
*No power will thwart the ultimate purpose of God.
*Righteousness eventually wins; God will prevail.
Why are you in the kingdom? What does God to do through you? You will never experience the depth of contentment or joy until you yield to His call!
Have a blessed Purim!
by donfinto | Mar 10, 2014 | Uncategorized
Our brother James said that “you do not have because you do not ask God” (4:2).
Jesus told us that “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven,” that “if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven” (Matt. 18:18-19).
Paul said that “no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God” (2 Cor. 1:20).
We ask. We agree together. We learn God’s promises and we speak the “Amen” to those promises in order for them to be released upon the earth.
Several key promises are being fulfilled in our day. These promises should saturate the prayers of intercessors around the world.
1. Israel is back in its land of inheritance. This is exactly what Isaiah, Ezekiel, and others of the prophets predicted (See Isaiah 43:5-6 and Ezekiel 36 and 37).
As we read these promises, pray them and declare them to all the forces of the enemy and to the heavenly forces, the promises come into greater fulfillment.
2. Another promise that is equally strong, the timing very clear and the fulfillment astonishing is that hundreds of thousands of Jewish people have come to receive Jesus as their Messiah in the last forty plus years. It began to happen in force about the time Israel took possession of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War. (That return was predicted by Jesus Himself in Luke 21:20 and 24). God told Isaiah that the eyes and ears of Jewish people would be closed and their hearts hardened for a season (6:9-10). Jesus and Paul both referred to Isaiah’s prophecy as a reason why the nation as a whole did not receive Him during Jesus’ ministry (See Matthew 13:13-15, John 12:40 and Romans 11:8). In agony, Isaiah cried to the Lord and asked how long Jewish eyes would be closed. God told him they would be closed “until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged,” and until “the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken” (6:11-12).
The devastation of Israel’s and Israel’s land took place for hundreds of years, but the fulfillment of Isaiah’s “untils” have happened in our day. The Land is no longer devastated, the houses no longer deserted, the fields no longer ruined nor ravaged, and the people are back in force – six million strong. God’s timing spoken to Isaiah is fulfilled and Jewish people by the hundreds of thousands have come to recognize that Yeshua/Jesus is indeed their Promised Messiah as well as the World Redeemer.
The role of intercessors is to understand this and to declare to unseen forces that Jewish people will come to the Lord in our day, since the promise of God has spoken it!
It also helps if pay attention to how these Jewish people have come to faith. Many have had visions, supernatural manifestations, angelic appearances, or even Yeshua Himself has appeared to them. God is opening their eyes, just as God predicted through Isaiah.
Isaiah was not the only prophet who foresaw our day. Hosea (3:4-5) said that Israel would be without king or sacrifice for many days, but would come back to the Lord in the last days. Israel has had no king since Zedekiah was taken to Babylon in 586 BC. They have been without sacrifice since the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Today is the day when Hosea’s words are being fulfilled.
Ezekiel agreed with Isaiah’s vision. He not only saw the valley of dry bones coming to life, but he saw breath coming into the dry bones, and said that when this begins to happen, “Then you (Israel) will know that I am the LORD” (37:6). “I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land… I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you… I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees” (36:24-27). This is being fulfilled before our eyes.
In looking forward to all this, Jesus told leaders of His people that “You will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord” (23:39). In other words, Jesus does not intend to return to earth, to Jerusalem, until there are Jewish people in Jerusalem who are ready to receive Him.
3. The promise of world revival connects to all this. Mission agencies of the world have been concentrating on another word of Jesus: “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations (ethnic groups), and then the end will come” (24:14).
But these mission agencies have not connected world revival to the return of Israel, yet Ezekiel and Paul made this quite clear.
Paul said that “if [Jewish] transgression means riches for the world and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!” (11:12) “If their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead” (11:15). I call this the “greater riches” revival of the world.
Paul also told the Romans that one of their roles is to make Israel jealous (11:11), and that those of us from the nations are to extend mercy to the Jewish people (11:30-32). Ezekiel agrees with Paul’s assessment that there is a connection between God’s work in israel and revival in the nations. Ezekiel predicted that “then the nations will know that I am the LORD when I show myself holy through you (Israel) before their (the world’s) eyes (36:23).
Tod started calling this the “cycle of revival.” As the nations of the world understand God’s role for Israel and begin to pray into existence the opening of their eyes, ears and hearts, as Israel comes into their fullness, they (the Jewish people) become a light to the nations, just as they have been in the past and will continue to be (See Isaiah 42:6 and Isaiah 60:1-3). A Jewish person who has come to faith in His Messiah Yeshua/Jesus is a great testimony to the nations. As that happens, more from the nations will come to know this Jewish Messiah, and will honor God’s host family who have brought salvation to the world, which means that more Jewish people come to faith, which means that more from the nations come to Jesus and honor the nation that brought them salvation, which means that more Jewish people to faith…… This is God’s intention for our day.
The role of intercessors is to understand this cycle of revival, this connection between Israel’s redemption and world redemption, to pray it and to declare it to all of heaven and hell, to speak the “Amen” to the purposes of God in our day.
We ask. We agree together. We learn God’s promises and we speak the “Amen” to those promises in order for them to be released upon the earth.
Blessings,
Don Finto
by donfinto | Mar 2, 2014 | Uncategorized
Greeting in Yeshua’s name!
It is with great joy in my heart that I share this guest post with you from Tod McDowell, Co-Director of the Caleb Company.
He has a heart of gold and a deep desire in his heart to see Israel and the nations transformed by the glory of God!
Blessings,
Don Finto
| Let There Be Light
“When God said, “Let there be light,” He created the sun and all the other fiery planets that gave forth light.
We may forget that biblically speaking when light is referred to, the only source of light was fire. There was no electricity!
We are called to be the light of the world. And to be light we need to be ignited. We only shine God’s light when we are on fire and burning for the Lord.
John the Baptist was called a burning lamp and blazing torch and those in his day enjoyed the light exuding from him. John 5:35.
That is why in the book of Acts 2:1-3 when the disciples were infused with Holy Spirit there were white hot flames of fire over their heads. This metaphor of light that was long prophesied was manifesting in the Spirit and in the natural.
My prayer is that we would receive the fire of God through fresh outpourings of Holy Spirit.
As Matthew 25:1-10 reveals, one of the keys to burning for the long haul is to pay for jars of oil which I believe is our individual personal intimacy. We can’t get this from others, from a church or ministry, or from receiving a prayer of impartation, but rather we must pay the price of personal sacrifice and worship, and by devoting time to sitting at the feet of Yeshua.
May we be ignited by His Spirit to be burning lamps and blazing torches in our day!”
Blessings,
Tod McDowell (@todmcdowell)
“Equipping God’s people with His heart and purpose
for Israel and the nations.”
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| If you would like to make a contribution, you may send by mail to:
Caleb Company, PO Box 493, Thompson Station TN 37139-0493
or by going to the Caleb website: http://calebcompany.org/give
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by donfinto | Feb 25, 2014 | Uncategorized
Seven words… one sentence…changed the way I look at the future:
“Let both grow together until the harvest.”
Matthew 13:30
These are the words of Jesus in His parable of the wheat and the tares. He later explained to His disciples that the wheat are the righteous, and the tares are the wicked. The harvesters are angels and the harvest is the end of the age – righteousness and wickedness ripening side by side as we move toward the Lord’s return and the final judgment. John saw the same scene (See Rev.14:14-20). Two angels reap the righteous; two the wicked.
I don’t look forward to living at a time when world wickedness has reached its zenith, but I must remember that this will also be the finest hour for the people of God.
Righteousness ripe! I like the sound of it! “Many will be purified, made holy and refined,” Daniel says in describing the same time period. “The righteous will shine like the sun,” Jesus said when explaining the parable (13:43). And will “lead many to righteousness,” Daniel adds (12:3). “Be merciful to those in doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire,” counsels Jude (vv. 22-23).
Let’s lean into the future with hope!
Blessings,
Don Finto
by donfinto | Feb 17, 2014 | Uncategorized
Have you read Ezekiel 37 lately?
I just prayed my way through it.
Oh, yes, there is a hint of the fulfillment when Judah returned from Babylon, but there was much more. Ezekiel speaks of a time when the northern kingdom of Israel (Ephraim) and the southern kingdom of Judah, based in Jerusalem, will become one.
That promise is happening through the return of the Jewish people from the nations – without regard for whether they were from the northern tribes or from the southern kingdom.
But Ezekiel gave another promise. The breath (that’s the Spirit) of God will be blown into the regathered Israel. If He can perform the miracle of bringing the Jewish nation together again after centuries of being dead, then He can perform the miracle of breathing His Spirit into Israel!
I read through the chapter and then put my hand on the book and looked up to God. “Remember what You said? I’m standing here, along with thousands of intercessors all over the world, watching to see when and how You will do this.
I trust You to fulfill Your Word!
Blessings,
Don Finto
by donfinto | Feb 17, 2014 | Uncategorized
A SERMON OUTLINE I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE
Luke 24:27
On resurrection morning, Cleopas and his friend were walking along talking about Jesus and all that had recently transpired in Jerusalem. Jesus came up and began walking with them, but they did not recognize him.
“What are you discussing together as you walk along?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they responded, then began to process with him all that they had heard.
“We had hoped that he was the One who was going to redeem Israel.”
Luke says, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”
Now that’s a sermon outline I would like to have – Jesus referring to the Hebrew Scriptures that refer to Him!
When Cleopas and his friend arrived in Emmaus, Jesus acted as though he would leave them, but they urged him to stay with them.
So he went in with them. Not until he “broke bread” with them, did they recognize him. “Then their eyes were opened.”
Lord, open our eyes that we may see!
Blessings,
Don Finto
