As you compare scriptural examples as well as contemporary life experiences, you find a variety of times, ways and styles that people have been called into prophetic (or any other) ministry. Some seem to be “born with a gift.” Others are “born again with a gift” or “baptized in the Spirit with a gift.” Still other callings are gradual and emerge later in life even though the person was sovereignly called before they were ever born.

Samuel was called as a child (1 Sam. 3:1-15). Elisha’s call came when he was a man plowing a field (1 Kings 19:19-21). Amos’ call to prophesy came while he was a herdsman and grower of figs (Amos 1:1, 7:12-14). John Baptist’s call came in the womb (Luke 1:41). The following are a few clips from my personal journey of receiving and following after His call upon my life.

In my pilgrimage, I was set apart unto the Lord by the prayers of my mother before I was ever born. As I grew up, Jesus was my best friend and close companion! But it was not until I met the Jesus People in the early ’70s and was introduced into the baptism of the Holy Spirit that I began to operate in the vocal gifts. In fact, before I ever was released into the wonderful gift of speaking in tongues, I prophesied—though I did not even know what the gift was at the time. The visionary side of the prophetic broke forth also, as mental snapshots would invade my mind. But back then, I didn’t know that these were actually visions.

I spent much time in prayer, worship, community and sitting under anointed teaching. But I could not find a prophetic mentor. Nevertheless, for the next 10 years (1973–1983) I cried out to the Lord for the “School of the Prophets” to come forth. Eventually I came across the books Elijah Task and Interpreting Symbols and Types and they, alongside my New American Standard Bible, became my mentors and constant companions.

Those days were filled with abounding zeal, passion for God, and a hunger to impact people through the gifts of the Holy Spirit and an unquenchable thirst for His unfolding destiny in my life.

Peaks and Valleys—The School of Hard Knocks

For many of us, Elijah is a prophet we connect with in a special way. He had great mountain top experiences but he also had some serious valleys he walked through. After a great victory on Mount Carmel where a 3 1/2-year drought ended, he then went and hid in a cave in fear of Jezebel.

Some of us, like Elijah, also have had our share of peaks and valleys in the life of a prophet. I have had my share of lessons learned in the School of Hard Knocks like the necessity of mercy, what to share with whom and when to keep your mouth closed. The following (from a humorous yet truthful side) exhibit some of the pits and pinnacles in the pathway of becoming.

The Pits or the Valleys
1. People treat you like you’re special.
2. People no longer treat you like you’re special.
3. You are treated like you are a jukebox machine or a wind-up toy.
4. You’re not prepared, and you’re “called up front” in a meeting.
5. You think you are ready, and nothing comes to you.
6. You are read, and others don’t want it, like it or respond to it.
7. You are ready, and you aren’t called on.
8. You make messes for yourself and others to clean up.
9. There are so many parameters put in place that you’re afraid to do anything.
10. You’re too afraid to risk your reputation.
11. You’ve exaggerated a word and everyone knows it!
12. You’ve exaggerated a word and no one knows it except you and God.
13. Your gift exceeds your character!

The Peaks or the Pinnacles.
1. When it really works!
2. When character and gifting match up.
3. You learn from past mistakes and failures.
4. Denial is turned into correct identity.
5. The prophetic spirit is imparted to others.
6. You embrace the pits, kiss the cross of Jesus and you are changed.
7. A heart of mercy and penetrating truth is joined together.
8. You step aside long enough for Jesus to be seen.
9. When the lost are impacted and Jesus is glorified.

The Quest Continues—Moving on Out!

There can be many excruciating lessons in our journey of becoming all that He desires. God doesn’t want us to give a message only—He wants us to become a living word. Because a person gifted in the revelatory is often extra-sensitive, the area of character development must be given special attention. But eventually the cross of Christ will become the love of any truly prophetic person.

I have been through many seasons of hurt, misunderstanding and deep anger. But the Lord has redemptively used it all to cultivate a deeper place of mercy within, a genuine love for His body and a high value of releasing the power of blessing to others. The power of forgiveness and displaying honor are both keys that will keep you moving forward. But never lose your desire for “More Lord!” Always be a person of passionate pursuit of the will and ways of God.

The prophetic person must learn to overcome fears and failures of the past. These old fears will influence you less and less as you mature. Seek cleansing and release of fear from past hurts; fear from past deceptions, fear from past defilements; fear from past sins; and fear from past control of men. Keep on keeping on. Walk in the light! Don’t quit. Continue! Press on to the upward call in Christ Jesus!

In life and ministry there can be many progressive times of release and various types of commissioning. We are called, and we continue to be called. We are trained, and we continue to be trained. We are “sent out” and we are brought back again to be re-trained, re-tooled, and re-envisioned so that we can be re-commissioned with fresh purpose and power all over again. Always give the glory to the Lord and continue in your quest!

Casting the Mantle: The Power of Multiplication

A year ago, I was given a dream where I walked into an office that had been vacated for some time. Dust had accumulated on the top of the desk. I took my finger and wiped the dust off the desk. I asked the Lord, “What is the name of this office?” He spoke to me, “This is the room of mentoring. It has been vacated for a long time and it holds the key to the multiplication anointing.”

After 30 years of full time ministry, I am captured with the desire and the need to multiply my life and ministry into the lives of others. It is time for a new generation of fathers and mothers in the prophetic to arise and pour their lives into others. It is time to “cast the mantle.” This should be the goal for all of us as authentic Christians.

Elijah cast the mantle and anointed three in his place—Jehu, Hazael and Elisha (1 Kin. 19:15, 2 Kin. 2:12). Jesus trained the twelve (Luke 10:1-17). Paul mentored many but especially fathered Timothy (1 Tim. 4:14, 2 Tim. 2:6). I too have been graced to have various mentors at different times in my life—each for different purposes.

I have been taught by teachers; received a spirit of supplication while praying with intercessors; empowered by the Holy Spirit when ministering with healing evangelists; received revelation by hanging out with prophets and seers; learned to love the church by strategizing with apostles. On and on it goes. But it is time to continue.

Family Background

For years, I have wanted to share some of our family’s personal pilgrimage as it pertained to raising children in a highly prophetic culture and attempting to be naturally supernatural. Michal Ann and I had the honor of bringing four wonderful children into the world: Justin, GraceAnn, Tyler and Rachel. They were miracle children as we were told it was impossible for us to have our own biological children naturally. But then there was God and this was how we learned the art of Prophetic Intercession.

With each child came amazing dreams and visions from the Lord, open visitations from angels and messages from heaven. At times we were shown aspects of their destinies and callings. But how do you steward this? Are there keys we learned to pass on from both our strengths and our weaknesses? I would say yes!

(This is the short written form but for the full impact it is imperative that you listen to the audio message from Justin and I sharing together that is included in this e-blast.)

Key Scriptures

Proverbs 22:6—”Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Colossians 3:21—”Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.”

1 Samuel 1:26-28—”And she said, ‘Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman that stood by you here praying to the Lord. For this boy I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of Him. Therefore also I have let the Lord have him. As long as he lives he will be dedicated to the Lord.’ And he worshipped the Lord there.”

Principles in Parent-Child Relationships

The following are “principles”—not rigid laws. Every child is different. The entire key here is “relationship.” Are you as a parent only in a functional position or are you developing an ongoing relational equity with your children? Relationships take time and priority.

The following is a brief look at three stages in life that Michal Ann and I attempted. We were in no way perfect (well, she was close)! In fact, we believed that our goal was not to be “perfect” but rather “engaged” in the developing relationship.

By the way, there are no perfect fathers or mothers. In part, this gap exists so God can reach in and be our perfect Father to each of us. He jealously wants that role in each of our lives—no matter your age, profession or position in life.

Three Basic Stages:

Stage One: When they are young, your world is their world. You determine their boundaries and their goals. You teach them core values not only in word but also by your very lifestyle and actions. You must realize how you conduct yourself is as important as the guidelines you present. Have stricter guidelines when they are young and learn to loosen the belt as they grow—enabling them to eventually learn personal responsibility.

Stage Two: As they grow older, your goal changes as a parent. You are to help them discover what are their passions, callings, gifts, talents and desires. When this begins and ends all depends on the maturity level of the child and your capacity to help them learn to make godly life choices. You must learn to teach them how to make decisions, not just make decisions for them.

Stage Three: When they are older, their world must become your world. You step-by-step shift out of the definition role and into a supportive encouraging role. If their world does not become your world, then you will only end up with a functional and positional role. If you engage with them and give value to them and their passions and pursuits, you will have the potential—though always tested—of having an on-going relationship, which is the key to all things. Do you have a relationship or only a function?

By the way, every stage needs to be filled with celebration and fun—not just duty, responsibility and toleration. Enjoy these munchkins you call children. I know. I know. You lose your hair in the process, but trust me, your sacrifice for their gain will pay off in the long run! Whew! Thank God for grace and mercy! Without it we are all sinking!

Principles in the Prophetic I Had to Relearn

Revelation * Interpretation * Application

While being a part of the early years of the Prophetic Movement, we learned there was a three-stage process in dealing with “prophetic revelation.” I must state though, that we primarily taught these wonderful principles on more of a church level and not as much on a family level. Nonetheless, these simple guidelines apply to every area of life and ministry.

Stage One: Receiving revelation in its various forms and having it confirmed by the testimony of two and three witnesses. Journaling becomes a big key in this journey of receiving and retaining revelation. Apply the scriptural tests to judging revelation. (This is explained more thoroughly in the book Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Experiences and Receiving and Discerning Revelation Study Guide.)

Stage Two: Learning to properly interpret the revelation you have received. This indeed is a constant art to learn. Many believers move into presumption and thus move out with their own understanding instead of properly seeking the Lord for the spirit of wisdom and revelation.

The first response to every form of revelation is prayer. Have you given the revelation back to the Lord and are you seeking godly input and counsel? Prayer first! Remember, You can do more than pray after you have prayed. But you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed!

Stage Three: Bringing application to the interpretation of the revelation you have received. Mercy! If you get the wrong interpretation to the revelation then you will surely move into the wrong application. Period! So Stage Two becomes all the more important.

Now we begin to flesh out the word. You must be committed to a plan. You must put action steps to your faith. Faith without works is dead. (Sadly, that is exactly where some parent/young adult relationships end.) Please hear me, there is always a “trial and error” aspect to these ways of God. They now must bear the majority of the weight of their decisions.

Enjoy the Ride!

Dear prophetic papa Bob Jones always use to tell us, “Just kick your feet up on the coffee table and enjoy the breeze! Enjoy the ride.”

Your children are not just work! They are a lump of clay that is very impressionable and that you get to help shape. Always remember, they are the Lord’s first. But they are in your stewardship for a while. Date your kids. Play with them. Provide a safe place for them. Pray for them. Speak God’s destiny over their lives.

Then yield them back to the Lord and ultimately release them from your control and enjoy the journey of destinies fulfilled!

Dr. James W. Goll is the president of Encounters Network, director of Prayer Storm and coordinates Encounters Alliance, a coalition of leaders. He is director of God Encounters Training—an e-school of the heart—and is a member of the Harvest International Ministries apostolic team. He has shared Jesus in more than 50 nations worldwide, teaching and imparting the power of intercession, prophetic ministry and life in the Spirit. Goll is the prolific author and co-author of numerous books—including Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Experiences (co-authored with Julia Loren), from which this article is adapted—and has also produced multiple study guides and hundreds of audio and video messages.

“The great serpent has coiled himself around the globe, and who shall set the world free from him?” This was the message from the “prince of preachers,” Charles Spurgeon.

If the serpent had a strong grip in Spurgeon’s day, what can be said about our own? Is the grip of the enemy the reason a new breed of radical, fierce, yet humble and broken intercessors is emerging on the scene? Remember Psalm 24:1: “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains.” We are seeing a joining together of the offices of priest and prophet. After years of observing the ravages of the serpent’s hold, it is time for a company of anointed prophetic intercessors to come forth and lay hold of God’s promises for our generation

A Widow Called Anna

One of the most significant yet hidden vessels of the New Testament is the prophetess Anna. After seven years of married life, she was suddenly widowed. We do not know how she lost her husband or if she had children or whether she was left all alone. All we are told is that this sacrificial woman, now age 84, extravagantly devoted the rest of her years to the ministry of prayer and fasting, waiting in the Temple for the coming of the Messiah.

“And there was Anna a prophetess, a daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow of about eighty-four years of age who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fasting and prayer night and day” (Luke 2:36-37).

We do not know the age at which Anna married. In all likelihood she was young, possibly seventeen or even younger. If so, she was widowed by age 24 and then devoted the next sixty years of her life to priestly intercession. In the event that she married a little later in life than was normal for her culture, let’s say at 37, then she was widowed at 44 and had spent forty years waiting on God. Or say she got married late in life, at 67. By the time her husband departed, she was the ripe old age of 74. That would mean she had spent ten years in the Temple.

Whew! Whether it was ten years or forty or sixty, she had been at the Temple for a long time, never leaving but crying out to the Lord day and night with prayer and fasting. Anna must have been consumed with a burning passion sustained those many long years in what some would consider a state of inactivity.

Like you, I have seen numerous prayer ministries start but few continue. It takes a prophetic vision to continue such a ministry long term. You need a clear revelation of your target, purpose and goal. Prayer ministries that endure over a period of years, I have found, are those that operate from a context of inspiration. But what inspires them? Burdens and crises come and go. What motivates intercessors or intercessory groups over the long haul?

Only one thing. Like the praying prophetess Anna—and like David, the shepherd-king—we must have a consuming vision of the one we serve. First and foremost we need a vision of our Lord Himself. After all, He is the goal and prize of life.

What Was Her Prophetic Ministry?

In what way can Anna be considered a prophetess? The Scripture does not tell us that she wore a coat of camel’s hair or ate locusts and wild honey. I doubt that she pointed a long, snarling finger at people and said brazenly, “Thus saith the Lord!” revealing the secret sins of their hearts. We have no clue that she ever confronted the prophets of Baal like Elijah of old or called down fire from heaven. In fact, we find not even one recorded prophecy from this devout woman.

If she did not give personal prophetic words, then what was her prophetic ministry? She was a woman of the secret place, not with a public ministry at all but interceding in keeping with the purposes of God for her generation. The expression of her prophetic ministry was her enduring intercession. She was a prophetic, intercessory Jesus fanatic!

When Joseph and Mary brought 8-day-old Jesus to the Temple to present Him to the Lord, “coming at that moment [Anna] gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of Him to all those who looked for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).

Undoubtedly Anna’s intercessory burden had included searching through the prophetic promises that had not yet been fulfilled. This verse in Luke tells us that she “continued to speak of [Jesus] to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.” You see, Anna was looking for a Deliverer, the Messiah, the hope of Israel. She was one of a special task force of prophetic intercessors whom God had ordained for that generation. They were the ones who were listening and watching for the Lord’s appearing. Like Joshua they were waiting at the doorway of the tent of meeting in hopes that they would be the first to see the shining forth of the Lord’s great presence. Anna was doubtless praying through those beloved prophetic promises of a coming Messiah.

Wanted: A Bunch of Holy-Ghost !

The Lord is searching for an “Anna Company” in our day, intercessors who will pray through the promises of the Second Coming of our lovely Lord and Messiah. Who will pave the way for the coming of the Lord? New recruits are wanted and the Holy Spirit is sending out invitations today. Have you signed and returned yours?

Many of the greatest intercessors of our time have been women. Their sensitivity of spirit, their passion for the things of God, the readiness with which they yield their hearts to Him to plead His cause—all position women for this great calling. It was a woman who anointed Christ prophetically beforehand for burial. Women remained at the cross when the rest of the disciples fled. Women were the first to proclaim, “He is risen!”

The real issue, of course, is not whether you are male or female. To be part of this prophetic, intercessory “Anna Company,” all you need is an ever-growing conviction of the purposes of God and a desire to pray through God’s promises until you see them fulfilled. These revelatory warriors know how to .—Pray Until Something Happens!

In our day and time the Holy Spirit is drawing together a people who will stand united in a congregation, city or region. God is wooing ones and twos to find one another as covenant prayer partners. He is summoning the leaders in an area to stand together and fight. He is calling all of us in His body to join hands and collectively take our places until the promises of a great, end-time visitation for our generation have come to pass.

Let us arise, O Church, put off our slumber and cry out until our eyes, like Anna’s two thousand years ago, behold Christ. It is time for a bunch of Holy-Ghost to show up on the scene.

So Then What Is Prophetic Intercession?

What is prophetic intercession? It is the place where the ministry of the priest and prophet unite. A passage in Jeremiah wonderfully portrays this: “But if they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is with them, let them now make intercession to the Lord of Hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem not go to Babylon” (Jer. 27:18). Prophetic persons do not simply pronounce the Word of the Lord only; they pray the promise back to Him! In so doing they actually give birth to it and bring it into being.

Prophetic intercession, therefore, paves the way for the fulfillment of the prophetic promise.

Prophetic intercession is our conspiring together with God, “breathing violently” into situations through prayer to bring forth life. When God’s people in community have the spirit of grace and supplication poured out on them (see Zech. 12:10), they share a joint sense of divine possibility and become excited that circumstances are about to change. The old limits and expectations of what God wants to accomplish are radically overturned.

Prayer embraces new horizons, challenges and possibilities. Suddenly intercessors are liberated from considering conditions from a merely human perspective. As Ephesians 2:6 tells us, we have been “raised … up with [Christ], and seated … with Him in the heavenly places.” These focused warriors now begin to peer intently from a heavenly vantage point. They see with the discerning eyes of the Holy Spirit. Their intercession assumes a revelatory dimension. As they gather up the promises God has willed for their day and age, they stake claim to them tenaciously in the judicial courts of heaven.

A Prophetic Appeal for Intercession

Some years ago I took a train from Heidelberg to Rosenheim, Germany—a six-hour excursion in the middle of the night. While attempting to rest on the train, I kept hearing the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit within. I know He was talking to me as an individual, but He was also imparting a burden for a many-membered band of people to come forth.

Here is what I heard that dear Dove convictingly speak:

Where are My Daniels? Where are My Esthers? Where are My Deborahs? And where are My Josephs?

Repeatedly I heard His piercing, relentless plea:

Where are My Daniels? Where are My Esthers? Where are My Deborahs? And where are My Josephs?

I state with conviction that you, reading this article right now, were created “for such a time as this” (Esth. 4:14). For such a prophetic intercessory task God brought you forth. Will you arise and be one of His radical revolutionaries? Will you be one of the answers to His persistent plea?

Many vacancies exist; you can still sign up. It is not too late to answer the call, volunteer for on-the-job training and be commissioned as one of God’s servant-warriors. I think I can hear drumbeats in the background. The march is beginning. Yes, humble, persistent warriors are aligning themselves under God’s command.

There Is an Urgency Right Now!

In closing, I want to release an appeal for this type of intercession once again! It is urgent. It is critical! Now hear me out.

The first night after I moved into my new place in Franklin, Tennessee, last summer, I had a warrior angel come and stand at the end of my bed. I had not seen this angel for 26 years! It was dressed in a military uniform and pronounced, “ATTENTION! Be on the Alert!”

I was electrified by the resounding voice of that angel waking me up in the middle of the night. I could not go back to sleep that night even if I wanted to. It is time! Now is the hour for God’s prophetic intercessors to engage once again!

I can hear another sound coming forth: “Calling all watchmen! The time has come for you to mount your walls.” Let’s restore the lost art of prophetic intercession.

Who will answer the call? Will you join me in making history?

In that day the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, who shall be left, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. —Isaiah 11:11

The collapse of the Soviet Union’s suffocating curtain of terror brought astounding transformations that still affect that region and the world at large. Most significantly, from the moment the Iron Curtain began to unravel, the number of Jewish immigrants making “aliyah” to their biblical homeland increased dramatically.

Before the beginning of the end, Russian Jews were rarely allowed to emigrate, even though the former communist government of the Soviet Union was historically hostile toward them and openly treated them as second-class citizens. Just before the fall, as few as one hundred Jewish people were allowed to leave the Soviet Union annually. The collapse of the Iron Curtain completely changed the situation.

In the thirteen months after December 1989, almost 200,000 olim (“those going up”) flooded out of the former Soviet Union to Israel. By June 2000, 1 million Jewish people had arrived in Israel from the land of the north. They fled for freedom in automobiles, airplanes, trains, buses, and ships. Most were assisted by Jewish or Christian agencies, individuals and groups. It amounts to the emancipation and transportation of an entire people group from one part of the world to another. In missions language, this is referred to as a “people movement.” Nothing like it has ever happened on such a massive scale! But many more Jews still need to be reached and rescued.

Refuseniks Finally Leave

When the walls came down, a large number of “refuseniks” (persecuted Jewish people who were not allowed to leave the Soviet Union) were ready to go. Most of these people of conscience lost their jobs and endured years of persecution simply because they had at one time applied for permission to emigrate to Israel. Year after year, the Soviet bureaucrats denied their requests. In most cases the persecution extended into their places of employment and the local communities. Nevertheless, for years the refuseniks stood against oppression under the communist regime. Many of them spent time in prison; most of them were Jewish.

When the Iron Curtain finally dropped, these Jewish survivors were eager to leave. The first to leave had prepared their official papers many years in advance and had lived “ready” for years. These people, for the most part, were clearly Jewish in their culture, bloodlines and religious belief.

Many “second-round” Jewish immigrants, however, were barely identifiable as people of Jewish descent or faith. Some could not tell you who Abraham or Moses was. These descendants of Abraham were the product of a secular and anti-religious culture in which “being Jewish” evoked images of tattooed numbers on the skin. Since the era of the Russian tsars, many families had changed their Jewish-sounding names or hidden their Jewishness to avoid exile to the Pale of Settlement, an old tsarist community of isolation that segregated Jewish people from the mainstream population.

In many cases it was difficult for these “hidden Jews” to prove their Jewish heritage. Corruption and organized crime in the former Soviet Union—particularly the forging of false identification and immigration papers—led to an unwillingness on the part of Israeli officials to accept many of the new identity papers held by Jewish people wanting to make aliyah.

Jewish Immigrants: An Unreached People Group

Some have estimated that nearly 90 percent of the Jewish immigrants entering Israel are totally unreached by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many are almost as ignorant of their Jewish heritage and religion. Christian ministries that work closely with Israel to help transport Russian Jewish immigrants to their homeland are careful not to evangelize the olim. But the ministries working inside the former Soviet Union among the Russian Jews have had more freedom.

In 1990, before the collapse of the communist government, Jonathan Bernis led a fact-finding mission to Saint Petersburg (then called Leningrad). The American Messianic pastor wanted to assess the condition of the Jewish people in the Soviet Union. During his visit, Bernis was struck by the spiritual hunger of the people he encountered. By May 1993, he had founded Hear O Israel Ministries (HOIM) and conducted the first Messianic music festival in Saint Petersburg at the Oktobersky Concert Hall. No one was prepared for what happened there. Bernis stated, “We had no idea what the results would be or how many people would come. So we were all shocked on opening night to find the 4,000-seat hall filled to overflowing.”

Even more stunning was the scene following Bernis’s short message and altar call. Over 50 percent of the crowd—half of them Jewish—rushed to the front of the concert hall to pray. Many on Bernis’s team began to weep as they witnessed an outpouring of the Spirit not often matched in two thousand years since Jewish people became the first Christians in Jesus’s day.

HOIM, renamed the International Festivals of Jewish Worship and Dance, subsequently conducted twenty festivals and reached more than 500,000 people in the former Soviet Union. Nearly half of those who attended the festivals were Jewish. The largest festival drew more than 60,000 people to the central football stadium in Odessa, Ukraine, in 1995. More than 200,000 people (approximately 80,000 of them Jewish) responded to altar calls at the festivals. In an email correspondence Bernis wrote, “God is at work among the Jewish people in a way that we have not witnessed since the first century.” While Bernis still continues his outreach to the Jewish people in diaspora around the globe, today he is the director of the Jewish Voice ministry, which has a widely watched television broadcast.

Prayer Assignment: Go to Russia

In the summer of 1994, some of my close friends and I participated in Bernis’ third festival, which was convened in Minsk, the capital city of Belarus (White Russia). We each had been involved in different prayer groups that conducted prophetic intercession for Israel and the Jewish people. For a season though we would be a team with specific prayer assignments. Working hand in hand with Bernis and the festivals, we set out on a prophetic journey that crisscrossed Russia.

Our assignment was to pray that God would open a way for Jewish people to exit from the land of the north and return to Israel. Belarus, and the capital city of Minsk in particular, marked part of the path leading from Russia to Israel through the great seaport of Odessa.

Most of the other routes required Jewish immigrants to take long detours or pass through nations and regions dominated by fundamentalist Muslims. Since ancient times, the path from the Black Sea through Ukraine and Belarus has been recognized as the southern gateway to Europe, a fact that was not overlooked by the Nazis during World War II. We learned that a lot of atrocities had been inflicted upon the Jewish people of Belarus and beyond. In preparation for the festival, we visited some of the sites.

Preparing the Way in Minsk

We wanted to find a high place in the city where we could pray. A non-religious gentleman in Belarus suggested the Mound of Glory. We did not know what it was, but it seemed to make sense.

The Mound of Glory, we discovered, was really a massive hill created by people who carried dirt one handful at a time in processions from their villages all over Belarus. The members of our prayer group walked up on this Mound of Glory and prayed for Jewish people to be able to escape the land of the north.

The day before the festival in Minsk was to begin, Bernis encountered significant resistance from local authorities. Intercessory prayer by the entire festival team played a key role in the crisis, and God made a way where there was no way! In the end, local authorities asked if the festival could be extended another day to accommodate people who had been turned away from overflow crowds!

Minsk was just the beginning of our prayer team’s intercessory cycle. During the next three years, we lifted up specific prayers for a variety of locations as God gave them to us.

A Messianic Congregation in Kishinev

Several festivals later, in 1996, we embarked upon another strategic prayer assignment in Kishinev, Moldavia, the city where nearly a hundred years earlier Joseph Rabinowitz had established the first Messianic synagogue since the first century. It would mark the culmination of our prophetic intercession efforts for that season of the Spirit, and it was to be one of our most significant prayer assignments.

Throughout our time in Kishinev, the heart of our prayer was that God would anoint the Messianic Jews of this generation with the same radicalism and fire evident in the lives and ministry of Paul, Peter and the other first-century Jewish leaders. We prayed that Jewish people in the land of the north would come back into their full heritage, just as Joseph Rabinowitz did. The contagious devoted zeal that surfaces in certain Jewish followers of Yeshua is amazing.

Once again we were involved in the intercessory and outreach aspects of each festival but spent a few days scouting around and just listening, as God led us to key points of information and directed us to the exact place we were to launch our prophetic prayer.

Our first goal was to locate the place where Rabinowitz and the Israelites of the New Covenant had worshiped. That was difficult because nearly a century had passed. Many landmarks were destroyed during the pogroms against Jewish citizens of Kishinev in 1903 and 1905, and during the Nazi murder of 53,000 of the city’s estimated 65,000 Jews in 1941.

As we walked around, we prayed for discernment and crucial information to guide our intercession in Kishinev. After praying and asking questions, we were ready for the next step in our journey: We had an address!

A Message in a Hole in the Wall

As we entered the neighborhood where we believed Rabinowitz’s congregation may have met, we immediately noticed that most of the buildings were relatively new. We knew that meant that the original structures had been bombed during the war. Only one block of older buildings had somehow escaped destruction or extreme damage.

We parked the car in the old section. As we climbed out of the vehicle, we all were struck by the same sight: An old, 10-foot-high concrete wall stretched along the full length of the block, except for one place where a hole had been created. The buildings were perched on top of this foundation.

Our guide led us around to the back of the buildings where a number of doors led to apartments. We made our way to the door of the building we believed was built just above that hole in the foundation wall.

Since we looked like foreigners, we decided to play the part. It would have been unwise and virtually impossible to explain our prayer, so we entered what I call our “dumb, naive American tourist mode.” (This comes under the “Be wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove” principle.)

When we knocked on the door the building owners answered. Through our guide we said, “Hello, we are visitors from America. Could we tour your building?” For emphasis, we added that we had heard it had been used for something or other a long time ago.

The owners were very gracious, and the couple invited us in to examine their apartment building. We looked around, but we did not initially see anything that stood out. Then just as we were about to leave we noticed a door leading to a stairwell to what appeared to be a cellar.

We had already established our identity as dumb American tourists, so we had nothing to lose. We asked, “What’s down there? This might be silly as can be, but can we go down in the cellar?” The couple quickly nodded and motioned for us to freely explore the passageway. They must have been thinking, Those crazy Americans! What will they want to see next?

Fresh Oil of Anointing and Fresh Wine of God’s Spirit

The stairway was nearly blocked by various items that had been stored for a long time. Nonetheless, we made our way down the stairs and turned right. When we entered the cellar, we looked at each other, amazed. We could see daylight streaming into the room through the hole in the wall we had seen from the street. Old bottles of wine, still packed in their cases, were stacked on a pallet, and empty bottles of olive oil were scattered about on the shelves in the room.

The prophetic symbolism of the scene was almost overwhelming. Immediately we knew this was the place where we would complete our assignment and release “fresh oil of the anointing” and “fresh wine of God’s Spirit” into the Jewish people.

Re-digging the Wells

Just as Isaac had his men re-dig the wells of his father, Abraham (see Gen. 26); there is a spiritual concept of re-digging the ancient wells of the anointing of those who walked with God in earlier generations, even in the face of opposition (see Gen. 26:18–22). It was therefore part of our assignment to issue a prophetic on-site prayer to release God’s high anointing on His ancient people and to urge them to escape the old walls that were closing in upon them. We were to call forth the apostolic grace of church planting that had originated and rested on that location. We were to call forth the new wine and the fresh oil of the Holy Spirit.

This is why the hole in the wall was significant. It was time for God’s ancient covenant people to return from the land of captivity to their land of promise with the help of the Gentiles who received the New Covenant through the Jewish people. Perhaps it also indicated there was an opening to pray.

The Lord had led us to the exact place where He birthed the first Messianic Jewish congregation nearly a century earlier. He took us to their very foundations, to a place still containing prophetic signs of empty olive oil bottles and old wine bottles.

By that time we knew the research portion of our journey was over. We had the information we needed, but we agreed that we were not to pray overtly in this couple’s basement. After thanking our bewildered hosts for their hospitality, we returned to the front of the building where the hole breached the old wall. We were in total agreement that this was the spot where the Lord wanted us to pray. Together we released the prayer that we had come to deliver to the city of Kishinev. Out of death and decay would arise a new anointing and fiery zeal to restore the Jews of the diaspora to the God of Israel and to their long-awaited Messiah, Yeshua.

God’s Purpose Continue to Proceed

Teachers of Bible prophecy have speculated for years about various end-time scenarios, but I find it quite amazing that virtually no one fully foresaw the radical changes in Russia preceding the end of the second millennium. Could it be that the biblical predictions of conflict between God and Magog (understood to be the region of the former Soviet Union) might be triggered by divinely engineered jealousy?

What does the future hold? 1 Corinthians 13 say that we each prophesy in part. Yes, the Lord Himself has a grand scheme of parallel restoration of the church and Israel in the last days. Remember, Israel is God’s time piece and His clock is ticking every so quickly in these days!

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me. For I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30).

Resting Around the Ark of God

You hear a lot these days in the church about “soaking.” Some people object to it because that term is not in the Bible. (Of course, a lot of things we do are not directly stated in the Bible. Sunday School, bus ministry and electric guitar music among others are some examples.)

But the soaking concept is there—it’s all over the place. It’s in almost every book of the Bible, including 1 Samuel. You can see it in this familiar story:

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no vision coming forth.

At that time, Eli was lying down in his place (now his eyes had begun to grow weak that he could not see), and the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord where the ark of God was.

Then the Lord called to Samuel, and he answered, “Here I am.” He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called to me.”

And he said, “I did not call. Return, lie down again.” And he went and lay down.

The Lord called Samuel again. So Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”

And he answered, “I did not call, my son. Return, lie down again” (1 Sam. 3:1-6).

Where did young Samuel lie down? Where did he sleep? He “was lying down in the house of the Lord where the ark of God was” (1 Sam. 3:3b). Little Samuel had been brought to the old priest Eli by his mother, Hannah, and he lived there in the temple, ministering to the Lord and learning about God. At night, he lay down to rest near the ark itself.

And when the voice of the Lord was released, but Samuel couldn’t yet discern that it was God’s voice, what did Eli tell him to do? He told him to go lie down there again. He didn’t keep him wherever he was sleeping, and he didn’t send him somewhere else to do something. In essence, Eli told Samuel to go and soak up some more of God’s presence so he would recognize the voice of God when he heard it.

This is instructive for us. Like Samuel, we need to spend time resting in God’s presence, going back again and again, falling in love with God all over again. We can be changed, and not just temporarily stirred up, by returning to our first love (or by finding that first love if we’ve never tasted it before). We can learn to recognize His voice and we can experience personal revival. Out of that renewal, we can obey His voice as we minister.

Hide and Seek

When you seek Him, you will find Him. Imagine for a moment that you could spend a day with Jesus—just the two of you. If that’s too much time to imagine spending with Him, imagine spending only an hour with Him. Imagine that it’s right now, right this minute. Just you and the lover of your soul. Just be …

Go ahead, soak in His presence. If it helps to put on a quiet worship CD, feel free to do that. You can find Him in ever so many ways. One of my favorite ways is hiking alone in the woods or, while I was growing up, walking on the railroads tracks outside my parents’ house in rural Missouri. You can find Him in the love letters (the Bible) that He wrote for you to read. You can see Him in the flowers that are blooming and in the creation that’s groaning around you. You can see Him in the body of Christ. But draw closer still. Yes, draw closer to His loving heart.

While going through my cancer battles, I would simply put on some great “healing, soaking music” and rest in the presence of the Lord right in my bed. I found Him waiting to meet me every time.

Get alone with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Rest around the ark, like Samuel did. Take a “selah” pause from the hectic pace of this life. Rest, wait, repose, reflect on the One who loves you more than you love yourself.

Worship. Listen. Respond.

• Get still before Him in order to commune with Him. Read Psalm 46:10, 2 Samuel 7:18, Revelation 3:20 and Habakkuk 2:20.
• Draw near to His heart. Read James 4:8; Psalm 42:1-2; Isaiah 55:1-3, 6; Psalm 65:4; Psalm 73:28; Psalm 84:1-4, 10; and Hebrews 10:22.
• Seek His face. Seek God for God’s sake. To become an effective intercessor, I encourage you to engage yourself with the Lord, in order to be able to engage yourself in the work of praying. Read Matthew 7:7-8; Psalm 27:4, 8; Psalm 63:1-8; Hebrews 11:6 and Jeremiah 29:11-14.
• Just spend time in His presence. Become an Exodus-33-aholic like Moses. Read Exodus 33:14-15, Psalm 16:11, Psalm 89:15, Isaiah 29:13, Isaiah 63:9, Lamentations 2:19 and Jude 24-25.

Have Plenty of Oil

Keep that oil replenished. Keep your lamp trimmed and ready. Get to know God. Address Him by one of His many names. You can find over a hundred of them in His Word. Sometimes one of them will capture your heart. Stay with it a while, even for the rest of the day.

I remember one time when I landed on “Friend of Sinners,” and the Holy Spirit just fastened it onto my heart and unfolded it to me. You can get to know God—and you can minister His presence to others—when you address Him by various names and get to know Him through His Word. (See Matt. 11:29; Jer. 9:23-24 and Phil. 3:8, 10.)

If you count all things as loss in comparison to knowing Him, that’s getting oil in your lamp. Read Philippians 3:7-8, 1 Chronicles 21:23 and 2 Samuel 24:24. It’s also a great trade!

Allow yourself to be overwhelmed with the amazing person you are speaking with. You are talking with Him, not merely to Him; He is speaking back to you. The God of the universe likes to hear your voice. Read Romans 5:5; Psalm 143:8, 10; Isaiah 54:10; Lamentations 3:22-25; John 17:23b and Romans 8:35-39.

Gather Strength in the Eye of the Storm

You’ll be more effective as an intercessor when you maintain your private “watching and waiting” times with the Lord. You’ve got the lamp in your hand already—God gave it to you when you were saved. Now it’s time to gather the lamp oil and keep it fresh.

It’s like being in the eye of the hurricane, where you can regather your strength and your resources for the next onslaught. Your strength is in Him. Sit, rest and sleep right at His feet. Gather strength from being in His presence.

The oil of His presence will soothe your wounds and aching muscles. It will lubricate your joints and limber up your mental processes. It will tenderize your heart.

Seek Him. Soak Him in. Let Him prepare you for what’s next.

Closing Prayer

Father, I present myself before You in Jesus’ great name. I come as an intercessor, but this time all I want is more of You. Let my words be pleasing to You. Awaken my soul and spirit to hear Your voice. I love you and I want to love You more.

I want to be like young Samuel and learn to rest around the ark. I want to soak in Your presence. Draw me close to You. Let me hear Your heartbeat. Pull my deepest heartstrings. I want to know Your voice and mirror Your ways. I choose Your ways over mine.

Give me oil in my lamp and grace me to be a wise attendant in these days I live in. I come to You with expectancy and joy. Amen!

We need to be anchored by the Word of God! In today’s increase of supernatural activity, we need to make sure our foundation is sure and that the plumb line of God’s Word is our standard.

With this in mind, here is a list of nine scriptural tests by which we can test every revelation that we receive for accuracy, authority and validity. The following truths are for all of us—whether you are an acknowledged seer prophet or everyday believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s drop the plumb line of God’s Word in our lives!

1. Does the revelation edify, exhort, or console?
   “But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation” (1 Cor. 14:3, NASB, emphasis added). The end purpose of all true prophetic revelation is to build up, to admonish and to encourage the people of God. Anything that is not directed to this end is not true prophecy. Jeremiah the prophet had to fulfill a negative commission, but even his difficult message contained a powerful and positive promise of God for those who were obedient (see Jer. 1:5,10). 1 Corinthians 14:26c sums it up best: “Let all things be done for edification.”
2. Is it in agreement with God’s Word?
   “All scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16a, KJV). True revelation always agrees with the letter and the spirit of Scripture (see 2 Cor. 1:17-20). Where the Holy Spirit says “yea and amen” in Scripture, He also says yea and amen in revelation. He never ever contradicts Himself.
3. Does it exalt Jesus Christ?
   “He will glorify Me; for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you” (John 16:14, NASB). All true revelation ultimately centers on Jesus Christ and exalts and glorifies Him (see Rev. 19:10).
4. Does it have good fruit?
   “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. …” (Matt. 7:15-16). True revelatory activity produces fruit in character and conduct that agrees with the fruit of the Holy Spirit (see Eph. 5:9 and Gal. 5:22-23). Some of the aspects of character or conduct that clearly are not the fruit of the Holy Spirit include pride, arrogance, boastfulness, exaggeration, dishonesty, covetousness, financial irresponsibility, licentiousness, immorality, addictive appetites, broken marriage vows and broken homes. Normally, any revelation that is responsible for these kinds of results is from a source other than the Holy Spirit.
5. If it predicts a future event, does it come to pass?
   (See Deut. 18:20-22) Any revelation that contains a prediction concerning the future should come to pass. If it does not, then, with a few exceptions, the revelation is not from God. Exceptions may include the following issues:
   1. Will of person involved.
   2. National repentance—Nineveh repented, so the word did not occur.
   3. Messianic predictions. (They took hundreds of years to fulfill.)
   4. There is a different standard for New Testament prophets than for Old Testament prophets whose predictions played into God’s Messianic plan of deliverance.
6. Does the prophetic prediction turn people toward God or away from Him?
   (See Deut. 13:1-5) The fact that a person makes a prediction concerning the future that is fulfilled does not necessarily prove that person is moving by Holy Spirit-inspired revelation. If such a person, by his own ministry, turns others away from obedience to the one true God, then that person’s ministry is false—even if he makes correct predictions concerning the future.
7. Does it produce liberty or bondage?
   “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!'” (Rom. 8:15) True revelation given by the Holy Spirit produces liberty, not bondage (see 1 Cor. 14:33 and 2 Tim. 1:7). The Holy Spirit never causes God’s children to act like slaves, nor does He ever motivate us by fear or legalistic compulsion.
8. Does it produce life or death?
   “Who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6). True revelation from the Holy Spirit always produces life, not death.
9. Does the Holy Spirit bear witness that it is true?
   “As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him” (1 John 2:27). The Holy Spirit within the believer always confirms true revelation from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of Truth” (see John 16:13). He bears witness to that which is true, but He rejects that which is false. This ninth test is the most subjective test of all the tests we’ve presented here. For that reason, it must be used in conjunction with the previous eight objective standards.

God’s Word tells us that we must prove all things and hold fast to that which is good (See 1 Thess. 5:21). At all times we must seek the Lord’s wisdom while refusing to use “wisdom” as an excuse for fear. We must be careful not to become offended at the genuine things that the Holy Spirit is doing, no matter how strange they may appear to us. Divine revelation and visionary experiences come in many different forms, and it is vital that we understand how to discern the true from the false. 

Now I know that some of you are waiting for me to dish out “some of the deeper things” to you by this point. But from my perspective, I would be remiss not to make sure these foundational truths are laid well before taking us further on our “mystical journey.”  So study to show yourself approved a workman unto the Lord!  Let us learn to test the spirits to see whether they be from God. I want you to step out on the tight rope of faith, but I also want to supply you with a safety net of the wisdom ways of God underneath to help catch you in your journey.

Dr. James W. Goll is the president of Encounters Network, director of Prayer Storm and coordinates Encounters Alliance, a coalition of leaders. He is director of God Encounters Training—an e-school of the heart—and is a member of the Harvest International Ministries apostolic team. He has shared Jesus in more than 50 nations worldwide, teaching and imparting the power of intercession, prophetic ministry and life in the Spirit. Goll is the prolific author and co-author of numerous books—including Shifting Shadows of Supernatural Experiences (co-authored with Julia Loren), from which this article is adapted—and has also produced multiple study guides and hundreds of audio and video messages.

The following are excerpts taken from posts composed by Jon Hamil of Lamplighter Ministries located in the Washington D.C. area. Jon has hosted James Goll on three national teleconference prayer calls in October on issues related to the Middle East, the rise of ISIS and other strategic issues. This written report correlates with the phone conference call from this past Wednesday, October 21, 2014 that we have posted in the PS Audio section on our website (). We encourage you to listen to the interview and read the following summary written by Jon Hamil.

Blessings!

James W. Goll

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Historic Prayer Calls by Jon Hamil

In a historic prayer call two nights before Yom Kippur, James W. Goll mapped out the prophetic season we are entering into with great clarity and resolve. Much of what was shared was originally seen by James prophetically back in 1987—more than two decades ago. He essentially was shown three Mideast wars America would be involved in and was commanded to spend a month in prayer during the outset of each one. Click here to read the recent article “Crisis in the Middle East”.

The final war the Lord highlighted to him in this visitation was conveyed as a “boiling cauldron.” And if I’ve got my facts right, in 2007 the Lord further showed him that Yom Kippur 2014 would mark the time this cauldron really boils over. Click here to read the article “8 Strategic Turning Points.”

Based on this revelatory understanding, he and I both agreed to blow the trumpet and sound the alarm for what we are now immediately facing. Let’s review a few key points from the call from that night.

Step to the Plate in October and Beyond

In the prophetic experience seven years ago involving the fall of 2014, the Lord also showed James, “When all eyes are on a nuclear Iran—as they should be—that will mark the time of greatest threat from Syria.” Please understand this was seven years before most of us heard of ISIS and four years before the civil war began in Syria.

Warning—Chemical and Biological Warfare

In James’ experience in 2007, the Lord highlighted that a primary danger would be chemical and biological weapons—possibly even those smuggled from Iraq into Syria during the Second Gulf War. James emphasized we need to pray that these weapons not get in the hands of ISIS.

Both the threat and the connection with Iraq have proven accurate. Because the primary architects behind ISIS’ successful invasion of Iraq were not radical Islamists but exiled Baathist generals from Saddam Hussein’s army. Here’s a link to the Breitbart article.

These generals were known as “enforcers” of Saddam’s regime of subjugation and terror against his own people. And more than likely they know how to access the weapons James has warned of for over a decade.

PM Netanyahu and Israel

Egypt—Region of Refuge and Revival

James reiterated again and again the importance of praying for Egypt—for awakening, for God’s blessing in the country’s government and economy. I couldn’t agree more. Fuel their beginning revival with more prayer! James has seen reoccurring dreams of Coptic Orthodox priests (and other Christian leaders) coming under an anointing of gifts of healing and workings of miracles and a national revival coming to Egypt. 

Could this be a key to the future in birthing God’s Isaiah 19 prophetic movement in the midst of these very challenges? Could pieces be falling into place? Time will tell!

Pray for Believers in Mideast

James noted that they are now being subjected to a level of evil that has not been seen in the earth in 70 years since Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. This evil must be stopped—for their sake and ours. We must pray for our brothers and sisters!

Praying for Port Cities—Shut the Gates of Sabotage!

James also recalled a prophetic word given to him while in Jerusalem years ago concerning the significance of worship, prayer and high praise being raised up over America’s places of “origin and places of birth.” Perhaps last summer’s Glory Procession on the east coast of the U. S. has been a partial fulfillment of this word. 

We specifically need to continue in prayer and close the gates to the enemy in seaports across the nation. Lets shut the gates of sabotage!

BREAKING NEWS—DOES ISIS HAVE CHEMICAL WEAPONS? 

Our general response to the fulfillment of prophecy is often celebratory, but in all honesty, it should be one of humility. As James aptly stated, “I wish the words below could have never seen any manifestation in the earth.”

And my sense is that we’ve entered a season where many such prophetic warnings, generated by the Spirit of God, are coming to pass. Whether engraved on the scrolls of Scripture or shared recently under the inspiration of the Spirit of prophecy, the testimony of Jesus for this hour clearly conveys both the great and terrible day of the Lord. For more on this read “The Collision of the Shaking and the Glory.” Below are some warnings shared by our friend and prophetic statesman James Goll, stated just weeks ago.

Warning: Chemical Weapons from Syria Greatest Threat

Remember, a few weeks ago, James Goll shared a sobering warning on our prayer call. “When the eyes of the world are focused on Iran’s nuclear capacities—as they should be—that’s the very time Syria’s chemical and biological weapons will pose the greatest danger.”

Confirmation—ISIS May Have Obtained Chemical Weapons 

The Huffington Post reported that ISIS may already have chemical weapons. “The Islamic State militant group may possess chemical weapons that it has already used to extend its self-proclaimed caliphate, according to photos taken by Kurdish activists and examined by Israeli researchers,” according to the article by Akbar Shahid Ahmed. 

“The group, making gains in Iraq and Syria, may have captured chemical agents in Iraq in June and used them in July to kill three Kurdish fighters in the strategically important region of Kobani in northwest Syria,” suggests a report released Sunday by the Global Research in International Affairs Center, a branch of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel.

Warning: Iraqi WMDs Now Accessed in Syria

On one of the recent calls, James openly declared perceptions that he had shared privately with us before. Iraq indeed possessed weapons of mass destruction when President Bush made his fateful decision to invade. Think of the implications of this. They may not have been nuclear—but chemical and biological weapons.

Further, based on the prophetic warning about chemical weapons from Syria, James believed that much of the chemical and biological weapons already used in Syria were actually smuggled across the border from Iraq years before.

Confirmation: ISIS Chemical Weapons May Be From Saddam’s Arsenals 

Recently, Fox News reported the same. “Disturbing new photos of ethnic Kurds killed by Islamic State fighters are stoking fears the terrorist army may be using chemical weapons seized from Saddam Hussein’s old arsenals, according to a Middle East watchdog.”

According to the Fox News article by Paul Alster, “… bodies of Syrian Kurds … appear to have been gassed by ISIS in the besieged Kobani region this July. That fighting came just one month after Islamic State forces surged through the once-notorious Muthanna compound in Iraq, the massive base where Hussein began producing chemical weapons in the 1980s, which he used to kill thousands of Kurds in Halabja in northern Iraq in 1988.”

Warning: Is Israel Their Next Target?

When the Spirit of God showed James the vision of a “boiling cauldron” spilling over in the Mideast, the Golan Heights was actually highlighted.

Clearly, Israel in general and the Temple Mount in particular represent the ultimate prize for ISIS and radical jihadists of all creeds.

Here’s a point that needs to be made. He “saw” clear specifics of this emerging crisis seven years ago. Further, back in 1987 the Lord showed him three Mideast wars in which America would become involved—one in 1991, one in 2002 and one 2014 that could lead all the way to 2020.

Why would the Spirit of God convey such warnings? Because James isn’t first a prophet, he is an intercessor. Clearly the war and its effects can at least be mitigated through prayer.

“‘For I,’ declares the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst'” (Zech. 2:5, NASB). This is the ultimate expression of “Homeland Security.” And we have the honor of serving as watchmen on these walls, our lamps blazing with holy fire for Jesus and His purposes in the earth.

RECAP—JAMES GOLL ON MIDEAST! ENEMY PLANS, INTERCESSORY INTERVENTION

“If we’re not supposed to be ignorant of the devil’s adversarial blueprints,” James Goll mused this last Wednesday night, “then we must have the capacity to access his plans!”

And most preferably, even before they come to pass. The truth of this statement was in full demonstration during our prayer call. Warning! What follows is a strategic-level prophetic intelligence report, encompassing prayer targets that involve significant spiritual engagement.

James wisely counseled us on this. “Some battles you are called to the front lines,” he said. “Sometimes called to bless those called to the front lines. Sometimes it’s not your battle. You need to discern what you need to pick up.”

Really wise advice. That said, fire up those jet engines, and let’s roll!

Overview—Iraq and ISIS

The unfolding Iraq war itself is a boiling cauldron—and the Kurdish people are facing an existential threat.

In forming the nation of Iraq, it probably wasn’t wise for Western powers to cram together ethnic groups who had never in history done well together. Obviously, they still don’t get along. Sunni Iraqis, frustrated from being marginalized by then-president Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, essentially invited ISIS in to invade and take over their nation.

According to James, Shias dominate much of southern Iraq, Sunnis reside in the middle of the nation, and Kurds dominate the upper portion. Their ethnic population also spans southern Turkey as well as northern Iraq, northeastern Syria and northwestern Iran.

“Ethnic violence related around radical Islam is now targeting not just Jews but Kurds,” said James. This is perhaps due to their well-known aspirations to frame out their own nation out of the lands in which they dwell. Another reason is the vast resources they steward. Most of the Iraqi oil fields are in the Kurdish region and are overseen by the Kurds. 

James pointed out that the Kurdish land is essentially part of the land of Daniel and Esther—historically known as Babylon. We are dealing with the same geography, and more importantly the same demonic spirit at work when Daniel served, prayed and prophesied.

Watch Turkey Now!

In standing for the Kurds, James felt it was also imperative to pray for Turkey, and especially the nation’s leader, Recep Erdogan. “Turkey is now raising its head, turning from being basically one of the U.S.’s moderate allies,” he said. “Turkey is getting fearful because of the desires of the Kurds to have their own nation.”

“Turkey is going to react,” James felt prophetically. “It could get violent” apart from divine intervention. “They are going to react like a mother chicken trying to keep her chickens under wing. There could be a volatile act coming out of Turkey, maybe a firebomb from a plane, a bomb released, releasing terror and fear.”

As of now, “ISIS is coming up from south to take Kurdish cities, and Turkey is persecuting Kurds from north,” said James. Iran could attempt eventually to come in and overtake southern Iraq as well as a “puppet regime.”

ISIS Riots Spread Across Europe, Targeting Kurds 

The open hostility against the Kurds, directed by Turkish President Erdogan, is catching fire in Europe as well.

“ISIS riots spreading across Europe as Islamists clash with Kurdish supporters in Germany,” declared headlines from the UK Independent. Hamburg has been besieged by riots countering the demonstrations by Kurds against ISIS. “These are the most violent riots since World War II,” James Goll noted, “fueled by radical muslims against the Kurdish population of Hamburg.”

And according to James, “This is going to get repeated in cities across Europe.” (Let’s stand in the gap, though that this does not occur.) 

Stop, Curtail or Mitigate Through Prayer

Another word of wisdom. “Some things you can stop, some things you can curtail, and some things you must discern properly” through prayer, James noted on the call. “Some things the enemy tries to bring forth prematurely, and we need to hem in the enemy to thwart his effort. But let’s make sure we are not in any presumptive warfare.”

Prophetic Intel—ISIS Seaport Strategy

Perhaps the most astounding part of the call was a prophetic warning about ISIS seeking to overtake a seaport. Remember we are not to be ignorant of what James called “the devil’s adversarial blueprints.”

“Two Saturdays ago, I lingered with the Lord, paused, rested,” James said. “Rest is the incubation bed of revelation. So Saturday I was lingering. And a whole new thing was coming to me—one of the next plots or ploys to watch out for in dealing with ISIS.”

According to James, “I saw something before it happens, and I do not want it to happen. Territories and cities were lighting up with fire, but this was a distraction for another plan. They want a seaport.”

In pursuit of this goal, James saw how ISIS was planning to sweep through Syria and even cut a swath through Lebanon to the Mediterranean Sea. “I saw in this troop of enemy darkness, dark flags, dark hats, marching through Syria and cutting Lebanon in half. One of the reasons they want a seaport in the Med is that is part of ISIS’ next major plot or plan.”

I See a Strategic City

While eyes are on other hot spots, this could be used as a form of distraction. ISIS or ISIL wants to take a swath through the middle of Syria and wants to cut Lebanon in half, to ultimately get a seaport. James stated, “I believe in prayer we can cut this off before it happens.” 

“But another strategic city lit up to me. I saw a map with a city’s name written out: Aleppo. This is highly strategic. Why?” James mused … “I do not know for sure. But I sense there is a hidden chemical weapons factory there and a military base not far away with fighter jets.” Watch the battle over Kopani and Aleppo. (This too has already been confirmed with 3 fighter jets getting into the hands of ISIS.)

There is so much more to share and prayer about than was stated through these strategic prayer calls. But let’s close with the last encouraging dream James received.

I WANT TO POSSESS YOU!

Just this week on Wednesday morning, before our call this last Wednesday night, James was given another significant dream which is recorded on the posted prayer call. 

“I was lying in my bed and a hot electric blanket came upon me. The external voice of the Lord came into my bedroom and declared, ‘I want to possess every fiber of your being with my Presence.’ This was similar to the time when Samuel Howells prayed over me years ago at the Swansea Bible College of Wales. The son of Rees Howells the intercessor stated to me, ‘You must understand, the Lord’s servant was possessed by God!'”

It seems to me that the Lord is offering once again the mantle of “Crisis Intervention through Intercession”. “This was not an experience that was for me alone. It was a word for all of us who volunteer freely in the day of His power. Be possessed by God! This is the key to effective intercession. It is not as much about methodology—it is about God who possesses His people to alert us ahead of time. We are not called to only pray to God, but to be seated with Christ in the heavenly places and learn to pray with God for such a time as this.”

Although Israel as we know her today is only a little more than 65 years old, the Jewish nation is actually one of the oldest on Earth. These people and their land reach back to the time of Abraham’s prophetic pilgrimage and the covenant promise of God to him and his descendants (see Gen. 17:4-8). But after what many considered to be a silence of 2,000 years, this land has been reborn. Israel is once again the showpiece being displayed before the eyes of the world. All the more as I have declared that in these very days, the Middle East would be a boiling cauldron. Click here to read the article.

Brief Historic Overview

Let’s take a peek at the past to be able to have a proper view of the future. How could a remnant of scattered and persecuted Jewish people, who went through their darkest hour in Hitler’s Holocaust, come forth all at once as a sovereign nation within their age-old boundaries? Not without divine intervention, for sure, although many Israelis today believe they did it all on their own. Let’s sketch this history briefly.

On Nov. 29, 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution requiring the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. Israel was then reborn the following May 14, in 1948.

Just a day later, on May 15, this creation had barely come forth, when five Arab nations assaulted the newborn Jewish state. Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq (40 million Arabs, 1.5 million of them armed) attacked Israel in what became known as the Israeli War of Independence. The war continued for eight months with heavy casualties on all sides. The miracle is that Israel, which had just been reborn, could not be destroyed (see Is. 54:17).

In 1967 the Six-Day War also should have ended in disaster for Israel, but God’s mercy again prevailed. Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Golan Heights were occupied by the Israelis in only six days. This conflict also saw the notable capture by the Jews of the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem and the remaining Western (Wailing) Wall of the Temple. All holy Jewish and Christian sites were controlled by the Israelis at that point.

And consider the outcome of the surprise 1973 Yom Kippur assault. The Arabs, backed by one of the world’s two nuclear superpowers, the former Soviet Union, attacked on two fronts. But Israel, coming close to major defeat, again came out the victor. Taken by surprise on their highest holy day, the Israelis were pushed back as the Arabs made territorial gains. Yet by what I believe was divine intervention, Israel regained all her land. Once again the hand of God, working in part through the agency of human beings, protected the outnumbered and despised Jewish nation.

What is the lesson to learn here? God has done it before, He will do it again!

Prophetic Foretellings

The history of God’s divine protection of Israel since it was reborn as a nation in 1948 is a brilliant study in its own right. So let’s take a quick look at some significant Old Testament prophecies regarding Israel’s dispersion and regathering.

Jeremiah’s Declaration

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, glimpsed through the lens of time that Israel’s faithful, covenant-keeping God would offer His stretched-out wings as a place of divine protection to His people during their ingathering to the Promised Land:

Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare in the coastlands afar off, and say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock” (Jer. 31:10).

We find three truths contained in this one verse from Jeremiah. First, it was God Himself who scattered Israel from her own homeland. Second, the same God who scattered Israel will regather her to her own land. And third, God will not merely regather Israel but keep her and put a divine hedge of protection about her as she is regathered.

Hosea’s Pronouncement

Hosea 1:10 reads: It will come about that, in the place where it is said to them, “You are not My people,” it will be said to them, “You are the sons of the living God.”

This piercing prophetic statement was given concerning the condition of the house of Israel at a time when she was in a state of rebellion and sin (“You are not My people”). But God’s critical word of judgment did not end there.

This one verse speaks of physical restoration and relocation and also of the spiritual rebirth or revival that will take place among God’s covenant people when they are returned to their covenant-given land. A miracle of major proportions is being declared here. What a reflection of the awesome faithfulness of our Father!

Two Regatherings Predicted

With the needed foundation in place of God’s grace and His faithfulness, let’s trace a few more steps back in history and glance at the topic of the Diaspora (the dispersion) of the Jewish people in history.

The First Regathering

It is my understanding that Scripture speaks prophetically beforehand that the Jews would suffer two major dispersions, or scatterings, from their own land, followed by two regatherings.

The first was in the years when the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel were exiled in the land of Babylon, that period in which the Jews of the Judean (southern) kingdom were displaced from their country after the destruction of the Temple, Jerusalem and commonwealth by Nebuchadnezzar (see Dan. 1:1-6). It was around 605 B.C. when Daniel and his associates were carried away. Their restoration to the land began in 538 B.C. (see 2 Chron. 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-4), and the Temple remained unrestored until 515 B.C. (see Ezra 6:15), about 70 years after its destruction in 587 B.C.

Daniel, a prophet of the one true God, was in captivity with the children of Israel in Babylon, a foreign land with a foreign culture and foreign gods and ways. It was perhaps in their 63rd year of captivity, while meditating on the Word of God (see Dan. 9:2), that Daniel received a revelation based on the prophetic promises of Jeremiah:

“This whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,” declares the Lord” (Jer. 25:11-12).

“Thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place'” (Jer. 29:10).

Not only did Daniel believe the word and declare it as revealed to Jeremiah—that at the end of 70 years of Babylonian captivity, the children of Israel would be released from their enslavement and return to their own land—but Daniel sought the Lord for any reasons or blockades that could stand in the way of the prophetic promise being fulfilled (see Dan. 9:3-19). Daniel then responded by confessing the sin of his people as his own. The verse that summarizes his confession is Daniel 9:19:

“O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Thine own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name.”

The fact that the word of the Lord happened precisely as had been declared through the lips of Jeremiah, and knelt upon by the prophet Daniel, gives us an example of prophetic intercession at its best. At the end of 70 years, the Israelites were released into the beginning of fulfillment of the prophecy of their first return to their covenant land.

The Second Regathering

That was not the only dispersion and regathering prophesied by God’s watchmen. Isaiah 11:11-12 states that the Lord would set His hand a second time to recover a remnant of His people:

It will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people, who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He will lift up a standard for the nations, and will assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth (emphasis added).

Let’s make it simple: The Scriptures explain that there would be a regional dispersion followed by a regional regathering. Then there would come a second worldwide dispersion followed by a second worldwide regathering. When did the second dispersion occur? It began around 70 A.D. under the Roman ruler Titus, when the Jewish people once again fled their homeland and ran for their lives. For many hundreds of years, they scattered—for almost 1,900 years they were banished from their homeland to the four corners of the earth.

Closing Appeal

A warrior angel came and stood at the end of my bed one year ago. All it said was,“Attention! Be on the alert!”

Are you alert right now as a watchman on the walls?

From my vantage point, that is exactly what I is see is needed in the Middle East today. We need the Spirit of wisdom and revelation concerning His prophetic calendar for Israel, so that His heart for Jerusalem and the people of the Middle East will beat in our own heart. Join me as together we help give birth to God’s purposes through the power of prophetic intercession.

Join me on the walls, watchmen, and let’s lift a cry for Israel for such a time as this!

Dr. James W. Goll is the president of Encounters Network, director of Prayer Storm and coordinates Encounters Alliance, a coalition of leaders. He is director of God Encounters Training—an e-school of the heart, and is a member of the Harvest International Ministries apostolic team. He has shared Jesus in more than 50 nations worldwide, teaching and imparting the power of intercession, prophetic ministry, and life in the Spirit. Goll is the prolific author of numerous books—including The Prophetic Intercessor, from which this article is adapted—and has also produced multiple study guides and hundreds of audio and video messages.

When God hears prayers from His people, He responds. What happens is that He dispatches His angels before, during and after our prayers. It’s a dynamic, living sequence, repeated over and over:

1. Angels usher in God’s presence and declare His intentions to people.
2. As a result, Spirit-inspired intercession rises from believers.
3. In response to the prayers, God releases His angels to deliver, protect, heal and strengthen people, to execute His judgments, to reap and to gather and to do whatever else He wants them to do.

Do you think about this when you pray? That prayer you prayed this morning may be the one that God used to mobilize an army of angels. This means your intercessory prayers are important! It also means that it may have been angels who helped you know what to pray before the word was on your lips. Angels can come to prepare the way for your prayers, to convey your prayers to heaven, and to execute the answers to those prayers.

How Are Angels’ Assignments Related to our Intercession?

We don’t hear as much about the relationship of angels to our intercession as we do about the intercession itself. I want to take the three points above and relate them to some specific types of angelic assignments:

1. Angels usher in God’s presence and declare His intentions to people.

   By definition, angels are assigned to minister the presence of the Lord. They usher in His glory. They connect heaven and earth. Sometimes we feel God’s glory and usually we don’t, but they never stop ushering it in.

   And in the same area there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And then an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were very afraid. But the angel said to them, “Listen! Do not fear. For I bring you good news of great joy, which will be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:8-11).

   Angels may simply pronounce God’s will in the silence of your prayer time, dropping into your mind and heart the very thing that God wants to do—and that your inspired prayers can subsequently bring about. Angels sometimes release wisdom and understanding in dreams or visions. In a variety of ways, angels help to give guidance and direction to human beings, who are their fellow servants, earthbound and in need of heavenly assistance.

2. As a result of having been ushered into God’s presence and learning His will, intercession now rises from believers.

   Angels are involved in our responses to God’s guidance. They are involved in our praise and worship. They come from the throne room, after all, where worship ascends perpetually. Angels worship with us, and they enhance our praises. Without their help to cultivate grateful, expectant, worshipful hearts, we cannot carry out our function as intercessors. Paul wrote, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with gratitude, make your requests known to God” (Phil. 4:6, emphasis added).

   Angels are divine watchers. They look into the historical affairs of humans. They mentor us in alert and prayerful watching. They tip us off when they see something. (See Dan. 4:13-17, Acts 12:20-23, 1 Tim. 5:21.) They also tip each other off, and they go to battle whenever the need arises. Angels are definitely involved in our spiritual warfare. We can’t stand against the devil without them.

3. Response to our prayers, God releases His angels.

   Angels bring the answers to our prayers. They carry God’s provision from His storeroom. The angels bring deliverance, and they bind demonic powers. They provide protection and strength to people. God uses them as His healing instruments. They execute His judgments. They are His reapers and gatherers. They stand ready to do whatever He wants them to do.

5 Foundational Premises

Another way of talking about it is to identify five foundational premises that underlie the truth that angels are intimately involved with our intercession. They are as follows: 1. Believers are co-workers with Christ; 2. God hears and answers prayers; 3. An innumerable company of angels is available; 4. Angels are involved in both the spiritual and practical affairs of humankind; and 5. Angels deliver God’s answers to people’s prayers.

1. Believers are coworkers with Christ.

   Here is a phrase for you to remember: God’s resources are released by man’s invitation of intercession. We do not have a passive role to play. We are actively inviting God to get involved in human affairs, both small and sweeping. “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much” (James 5:16b).

2. God hears and answers prayers.

   This is very basic; we absolutely must operate on this premise. God does not turn a deaf ear to our prayers. In fact, our prayerful intercession influences Him to advance direction and destinies of individuals and entire nations.

3. An innumerable company of angels is available.

   Heaven’s army of the angelic host is waiting for its next assignment. Each angel is ready to be dispatched. Angels, in a manner of speaking, are unemployed—at least between assignments. They are waiting for our invitation in order to be released to most of their assignments.

   Nobody can count them, there are so many: “… the host of heaven cannot be numbered nor the sand of the sea measured” (Jer. 33:22a).

4. Angels are involved in both the spiritual and practical affairs of humankind.

   Sometimes we think angels are only involved in the hyper-spiritual stuff such as at Bethlehem, or at least protection from imminent danger. We are under the impression that angelic assistance happens only once in a while. I don’t think so. I know angels have preserved me from traffic accidents time and time again. (Somebody once told me, “James, you must have more squashed angels than anybody.”)

   Angels are servants, and they do practical tasks. Remember the story of Peter and the angel who came into his jail cell to let him go free? The angel woke him up and said, “‘Put on your clothes and sandals.’ And Peter did so. ‘Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him” (Acts 12:8b). That’s a practical assignment.

5. Angels deliver God’s answers to people’s prayers.

   I don’t think we can differentiate between God’s direct answers to our prayers and His “indirect” answers, conveyed by angels. The angels are often His best option, and they are direct. They’re obedient; they’re fast; they’re powerfully efficient. They carry God’s love and His character. What more could you want?

The important thing is that God answers prayers. The “extra credit” part is recognizing that angels have an important role in delivering His answers.

Lord God, may the veil that separates the eternal from the temporal, the supernatural and the natural, keep getting thinner and thinner. We welcome heaven’s army into our earthly sphere, into the regions over which we have been given jurisdiction. We call forth the angels who watch, who report, who heal, who deliver. We invite angels to join us in our praise and worship. We expect to see the outcome of the work of angels of breakthrough and protection. We enter into deep intercession, with worship. Awaken our senses. Today, send forth your angels to intervene in our lives, families, cities and nations. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

For more than a decade I have been declaring in many gatherings in many cities of the Earth: “While all eyes would be on Iran, watch Syria. Iran will pose a great threat, but the imminent danger to Israel and the entire Middle East would arise out of Syria.” I have warned of chemical and biological weapons being stored up in this rogue nation and how they would attempt to export them to their puppet regime of Lebanon. I have seen a terror that would emerge out of Syria—and now it is right in front of our eyes in ISIS. I have seen this multiple times in dreams over the years. But I also believe that prayer changes things! It is time to take a stand!

Sometimes I have grace and faith to pray that what I see does not occur. Sometimes I sense grace to intervene. Other times, like many of you, I have called forth the “Shields of the Lord to Arise” and protect Israel. At one point I called forth for 91 Days of Prayer for the Homeland Prayer Initiative to protect the borders of the United States of America. Sometimes I have sensed things are “out of God’s appointed timetable” and to call forth angels from heaven into the earthly realm to hem in the demonic enemy. Sometimes I sense the clock is ticking according to God’s prophetic calendar and in the midst of turmoil, His purposes are coming forth. It takes discernment to pray properly!

A Pivotal Time in My Prayer Life Journey

In the fall of 1987 an angel of the Lord visited me and declared to me that times of great distress would come to the Persian Gulf. In that angelic visitation, when we lived in south Kansas City, Missouri, I was given the exact dates of both Gulf War invasions in 1991 and 2003. I was assigned by the Lord to be a “Crisis Intercessor” for the entire month of February 1991 when there would be a “ground engagement” in the land of Iraq. I took my place and I did my part along with others around the world. It started on February 1st and ended on February 28th.

Later, I saw in the Spirit that Syria would conspire a scheme of invading the Golan Heights as things would heat up and temporarily go “out of control in the Middle East.” Years ago the Holy Spirit spoke to me about the fall of 2013 and how things would heat up and spill over into an eruption in 2014 and potentially till 2020. I have meditated on Psalm 83 where it says, “The nations will conspire to wipe Israel off the face of the earth to be remembered no more.” I have written and spoken on Psalm 83 for the past decade. Like many of you, I have logged many personal hours over the years being up the middle to night to “watch to see what the Lord would speak.”

The Countdown to Zechariah 12

In January of 2004, the Lord woke me up in the middle of the night and said, Watchman, tell me, what do you see? I looked up and in a visionary experience saw a clock that was not there in the natural, hanging on the bedroom wall. The time on the clock read 11:53 p.m. and above the 12 were the letters “Zech.” The Holy Spirit then said, Watchman, tell me, what do you hear? Then suddenly the external, audible voice of the Lord came: It is the countdown to Zechariah 12.

I rested in the presence of God for a while and did not move until His manifest presence withdrew. Then I turned on the light and read Zechariah 12. It is the most amazing chapter, all about a city named Jerusalem. Let’s read a portion of it together:

The countdown to Zechariah 12 is on. I never have stated that this would happen in the next seven minutes, seven years or even seventy years. What I do know is that God’s prophetic clock is moving toward a kairos moment when God’s plan for Jerusalem will be consummated. This is the final countdown!

God has a Road Map, and it points toward Zech. 12:10. It is easy to identify with Zech. 12:3 as we hear about the nations coming against Jerusalem. But read further and you will see that Zech. 12:10 declares that God will“pour out the Spirit of grace and supplication on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and they will look upon the One whom they pierced and will mourn.” Let’s arise and pray for Israel’s destiny and that of the entire Middle East! There is coming a great outpouring of the presence of God and tens of thousands will turn to the Lord.

Romans 11 through Isaiah 53

Since that revelatory encounter those many years ago, I have pondered on the time shown on the clock-11:53. Perhaps it is something like this: Romans 11 will be fulfilled through Isaiah 53. Romans 11—“all Israel will be saved”—will be fulfilled by a revelation of the Suffering Messiah in Isaiah 53.

Romans 11:12 speaks of how the Jewish people’s rejection of their Messiah has brought salvation to the Gentiles. Paul says, “[If] their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!”Romans 11:15 goes on to say, “For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?”

What do you think “life from the dead” looks like? Zech. 14:5, 8-9 and 11 give us a glimpse of that day:

The Father will reward His Son, the Messiah, for His sufferings. The salvation of Israel is a key component of that reward, and the Father will not do without it. If we are going to align ourselves with the God of Israel, we are going to have to align ourselves with His covenants and His prophetic promises of the salvation of the Jews and the restoration of Jerusalem.

It is not difficult to find political analysts, historians, reporters and even theologians ready to explain their theories and share commentary on Israel’s current state of affairs. But despite the abundance of opinions and strong feelings, the future of Israel still remains a mystery to most of the world. Paul, the apostle and bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, did not want believers to be uninformed of this mystery or to be wise in their own estimation concerning Israel (see Rom. 11:25). The Holy Spirit through Paul made a number of very clear points in Romans 11.

Despite what it may look like, Israel has not fallen so far from God that they can never return. In fact, their falling away was ordained by God as a measure of grace to us, the Gentiles. Paul said it this way: “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit” (Galatians 3:14, NIV).

The Gentiles are being embraced by the Jewish Messiah in part to make Jews jealous (see Rom. 11:11). Gentiles are not “natural branches” on God’s family tree, but rather “wild olive shoots” who must recognize that they have been grafted in. God’s plan is to graft the “natural branches” into their own olive tree once again (see Rom. 11:24), resulting in the reality that “all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:26).

God Has a Grand Plan!

We must not be wise in our own estimation when it comes to Israel or be uninformed of this mystery. Rom. 11:25 says that, “A partial hardening has happened to Israel until…”

Until what? Maybe you have read this verse many times. Have you realized that the word until is the key word in this passage? “A partial hardening has happened to Israel until…” That means there is a point in time when the hardening will be removed. That time is when “the fullness of the Gentiles has come in”(Rom. 11:25).

What does the fullness of the Gentiles look like? Perhaps it deals in part with the day Jerusalem was released from Gentile control and restored to Israeli rule in 1967. But knowing the God that we serve, this probably does not deal only with land but with hearts as well. Oh yes, He has the hearts of the people of the Middle East in His heart and plan!

What Gentile people group would, in the minds of most people, be the most unlikely to come to faith in the Jewish Messiah? Would it not be the Islamic people? What if the Holy Spirit moved powerfully upon a remnant of the Islamic people and they turned away from their false god to serve the Jewish Messiah? What if a movement of God fell upon them with the signs and wonders of an apostolic dimension, and they were grafted in as wild olive shoots to the Master’s tree? Talk about pricking the Jewish heart to jealousy!

What I do know is God has a Road Map, and it is different from the international Quartet’s Road Map or other political agendas. God has a grand plan and ultimately His will shall be done!

Dr. James W. Goll is the president of Encounters Network, director of Prayer Storm and coordinates Encounters Alliance, a coalition of leaders. He is director of God Encounters Training—an e-school of the heart, and is a member of the Harvest International Ministries apostolic team. He has shared Jesus in more than 50 nations worldwide, teaching and imparting the power of intercession, prophetic ministry, and life in the Spirit. Goll is the prolific author of numerous books and has also produced multiple study guides and hundreds of audio and video messages.