SONS OF ABRAHAM CONFERENCE SYDNEY 19-22 SEPT 15
HOSTED BY CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL RECONCILIATION & PEACE
Report no 2 by Barbara Miller, cfirp@bigpond.com
This report is from notes I made during the conference. However it is best to watch the DVDs so that you get the proper context, humour and compassion of the speakers. Thanks to Lilian Schmid from Transforming Sydney for the opening prayer/welcome to Sydney and Peter Magee for his wonderful item in song. Thanks again to our wonderful team from Cairns (Miller family) Melbourne (David and Carol Jack) and Sydney (Trish Jansze, Anne Crofts, Shanshan Hu, Patricia James etc.) and speakers.
Hani Selim & the Hope Team leading worship in Arabic opening night
PROPHETIC WORD 21/9/15
Barbara Miller- Thank you Lord that you showed me this conference was like a womb that is going to birth many things in the spirit. Just like Mary who the angel came to and told her about the birth of Messiah, that she would be the one who would bring Him forth and she said be it unto me as you have said. Lord I say now what You want to birth out of this conference, be it unto us, be it unto me, be it unto this conference as you have said.
For I believe the Lord would say I have established My plans and My purposes in this place for this hour. It is part of My divine plan says the Lord for I am making a way where there is no way. I am removing the obstacles from the path. I am preparing My endtime church says the Lord and I would have a bride that not only loves Me but loves one another. I don’t have a divided heart says the Lord and I would that my people would not have a divided heart for one another.
The Lord would say I have planned and purposed this conference in this place at this time to bring forth a great awakening in the spirit not only over this nation of Australia but even as it flows into Israel and the Middle East. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard what I will do says the Lord. You will marvel at what I will do. It will be beyond your comprehension at times. It will be beyond your imagination at times but I the Lord know what I am doing so trust Me. Do not fear. Do not fear. Do not let the eyes of the world intimidate you. Do not let the mouth of the world intimidate you. Fix your eyes upon Me. Follow Me and My commands. I will not lead you astray. I will not lead you into danger. I will not lead you into the paths of wild men. The Lord says I will lead you in My paths. I will open the way to you, only trust Me says the Lord. Do not fear. Be of great courage for I am with you.
And I’m going to bring about My plans and purposes in this nation from the ends of the earth back to Jerusalem, the centre of the earth. You’ll be amazed at what I will do says the Lord. I’m birthing something here and man cannot stop it. It will go out from here like ripples on the waters. It will go out from here. It will flow out from here. You will not even know where those droplets of water will land in the hearts of men, women and children in the nations. But, says the Lord, you will look back at this day and you will remember it and you will say I had a little part in what the Lord was doing that day. I was there to see His glory. I was there to pronounce His honour.
So Lord I just say again be it unto us, be it unto this conference as You have said that we would bring forth from the womb of this conference Your plans and purposes. And Lord thank You for protecting the baby You are bringing forth. Thank you for protecting the new birthing that You are bringing forth that it will not be devoured by the enemy and help us also to watch over it carefully in prayer and protect it. LUKE 1:38
Penny Cowell – At the end of the conference, Penny said to me “the head is engaged.” (This means the baby is in the correct position for birth).
Norman Miller – said later that the word reminded him of Isaiah 52:1-12….”Awake, awake, O Zion….v7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace…….v10 ……and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.”
Tabernacle of David Cairns worship team – Colleen Burfitt, Thomas Miller, Glen Sebasio (Canberra) & Norman Miller + John Ackad on drums
MON 21/9/15
RABBI LAWRENCE HIRSCH – ISRAEL, THE EVERLASTING NATION
Eph 2:14. He Himself is our peace. Any reconciliation must be based on the final work of Messiah. He forgives us so we must forgive others. It is not an option. Jer 31:35-37 talks about the new covenant which is to the Jew first. God made the promise to no other nation – that Israel would always be a nation no matter what they had done. We are ambivalent or even embarrassed about being chosen. Some have pride about it but we need to be humble because it’s not based on our goodness. Some say choose someone else like Fiddler on the Roof. There has been persecution – Pharaoh, Haman, Hitler, Hezbollah, Hamas etc.
Deut 14:2. God has chosen us so we can’t argue with that. He has chosen a people to be holy to the Lord, His treasured possession. He chose:
• A man – Avram (Gen 12:1-3)
• A land – Gen 15:7 and
• A plan – of salvation for Israel and all nations
God owns all the land so if He gives it to somebody, it’s His choice. It is a major issue of contention. The land God promised to Avraham is much larger than Israel is today. Each tribe had a tribal inheritance of land. Land could not be sold or given away but could be leased until the Jubilee when it would return to its owners. Israel is just leasing the land from God. Tasmania is 4.36 times bigger than Israel.
Israel can’t give up this land for peace. Gen 15. What does the Lord say about the original owners of the land? The Canaanites have disappeared and so the Israelites are the most ancient people in the land. Palestinians say they were there at the time of Christ but they were not there before Israel.
Lawrence & Louise Hirsch, Barbara, Norman & Bassem
In Ro 9, 10 and 11, Paul explains that the covenant was first to the Jews and then to the nations. God loves the whole world. God has not rejected us. He has a plan. It’s not supersessionism. Ro 11:1 did they stumble as to fall beyond recovery? Yes it was a big stumble. But because of the Jew’s rejection and transgression, it meant salvation for the Gentiles. Gentile is not a bad word. It just means nations. Your calling is to make the Jews jealous. God wants to save Arabs to make Jews jealous. Most Jews come to the Lord through Gentiles.
Ro 11:12. It’s tough for Jews to have our eyes closed for 2,000 years. How many Jews died without salvation? Salvation is only through faith in Messiah. We’ve paid the price for our rejection of Messiah. Jews are enemies of the gospel but loved because of the patriarchs. Our hearts have been hardened for the sake of the salvation of the world, including the Arabs. What would have happened if we had accepted Messiah? It would all have been finished. The shop would have been closed.
The day will come when the full number of Gentiles has come in and all Israel will be saved. Zech 13. If we bless the world through our disobedience, how much more will we bless the world through Messiah? When God chooses, He does not unchoose, because of disobedience.
Re the Isaiah 19 highway, I have not thought much about it but it fulfils Gen 12:1-3. Perhaps we won’t see it till the Messianic Age but we can build it now through prayer.
PS JOHN & MAGDA ACKAD – UNDERSTANDING THE MINDSET (1)
Not available on DVD. John did a role play & we could ask questions. It was an excellent session.
PS GEORGE FATTAL – ARAB CHURCHES IN AUSTRALIA
George dressed up and gave us a few laughs with his jokes. Then he said I’ve just come from Fairfield. It is Bagdad – Assyrian and Chaldean. Liverpool is called Basra. We just had our monthly pastors meeting over breakfast. Hundreds of millions come in through embassies in Canberra to build mosques in Australia but when we in the church give, it might be $5. We’re so stingy. They give according to numbers of their believers so imagine how much money goes into other nations.
The Lord’s prayer is for unity. John 17. The first Arabic church in Australia started in the mid 60’s with Maronites coming here in the 1800s and there are 33 Arabic churches in Sydney now. For many years the Arabic churches didn’t talk to one another. In 1987 or 1988, an evangelist from Jordan came and asked me to organise a breakfast for Arabic pastors. Ten pastors came and he rebuked us for our lack of unity. Things changed and we started meeting together.
We combine for activities like Heaven’s Gates and Hell’s Flames. We needed 33 actors so we got one from each church and we shared the costs. Many souls were saved. We do carols in Arabic at Christmas. We are producing a magazine called “Eternity” together. I made each church take 500 copies each so we could finance it. We translate it to Arabic and write it ourselves.
Arabic Christian TV is active. George spoke about the Arabic church in Victoria and South Australia and that the Arabic churches are now looking at how to help with the influx of refugees from the Middle East. A great mission field for us is in the Gold Coast where 250,000 tourists from the Middle East go each year.
Gen 11:5 tells us that when the Tower of Babel was built with the people working together and speaking one language, the Lord said nothing will be restrained from them that they can imagine. We need unity and right motives.
Pastor SHELLY VOLK & Wife JUNE – PEACE, SALAAM, SHALOM & ATONEMENT
June shared on God’s faithfulness in healing hatred and unforgiveness. Her burden was for Ishmael and Isaac’s Seed to be reconciled. She gave two examples from her life:
1. June had hatred in her heart after Shelly was fired and thrown out of a church where he had been senior pastor for almost ten years. Their home was on the property of the church and the congregation had given them a car — both were taken from them. The Lord touched her heart at a meeting where she was slain in the Spirit for almost an hour – when she got up from the floor, the hatred was gone! She realized how her Arab cousins felt, and her heart hurt for them – We all need to turn to God for healing and deliverance to forgive.
2. On a tour to Cairo, Art Katz and Shelly spoke at a University to Medical Students. Some of the people from the tour accompanied them … The Lord had her read Genesis 50 (to herself) about Joseph reconciling with his brothers and told her to speak: “There is hatred for the Jews in your hearts, even
June & Shelly Volk. Their books are a blessing and were available to buy
though you have smiles on your faces”. She told the Lord she would not say that! And, asked to please give it to someone else. After arguing with the Lord because of His persistence, Art said, “Someone has a Word from God speak it” … She refused, when Art said again, “Speak the Word – Now!” She heard herself speaking what God had told her say. A female student arose from her seat and said, “Art and Shelly I have not heard a word you spoken because I hate Jews, I have always hated Jews, and I will always hate Jews!” The air could have been cut with a knife, when Art said, “Let’s pray.” June asked the Lord three times to let her go to that student, but the Lord said, “No – she needs to come to you!” She felt tears on the back of her neck – it was the student weeping asking forgiveness … June asked her to forgive her and her people for any hurt they had cause her and her people. The student backed up and gasped, “I don’t hate you anymore-I don’t hate Jews anymore”. The student drove June to a women’s meeting when June shared with her what had happened while praying. The student said, “I had asked the Lord three times to have you come to me! But, He said I had to go to you!”
God desires to heal us of unforgiveness and bitterness – however, we need to go to Him, and to the ones we are offended by, and ask for forgiveness — God’s gift of forgiveness will be experienced.
Shelly’s Message: The Cross is the essential instrument in reconciliation. When Arab and Jew recognize this truth, reconciliation will be possible. Let justice roll on like a river. This stream will overcome the current coming against us. Two questions were asked from the Jews after Peter’s message in Acts 2: What does this mean? What shall we do?
One day the seed of Ishmael and Isaac will worship together. Reconciliation is non negotiable. It is not land for peace or military action. The Cross is reconciliation. There is an anti-Christian spirit in the heart of Jews, just as there is anti-Semitism in the church. Anti-Semitism is the longest lasting of all prejudices, as exhibited by Pharaoh, Haman, Stalin and Hitler etc. Jesus cannot return until the Jewish people say “Baruch Haba B’Shem Adonai” Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
Cor 4:10. “We carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” Death works in us but life in you. We need redemptive suffering (2 Tim 3:12). We will suffer persecution but as John 11 tells us, the sickness and death of Lazarus was to bring glory to God. We see this truth when Jesus resurrected Lazarus. We all have a ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:19). The purpose of the Church is to demonstrate the wisdom of God to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places (Eph 3:10 ).
PS NORMAN MILLER – HEALING THE HURTS OF HISTORY
Norman took us through a number of photographs on power-point that explained the journey God had led him and Barbara on in relation to healing the hurts of history:
• We pioneered a church in Cairns called the Pentecostal Church of Reconciliation with founding scriptures such as 2 Cor 5 about all having the ministry and message of reconciliation, Mt 5:23 about leaving your gift at the altar and making things right first if someone has something against you and Gal 3:28 that “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Also Ezek 22:30 about standing in the gap, Dan 9:20 repenting on behalf of your nation and Amos 5:24 and Ps 89:14 about justice and righteousness.
• We were attending the World Conference of Indigenous Christians in NZ in 1996 and the Lord gave me a word that started with “Healing every aching life internationally, nationally and generationally” and it has become a theme for me.
• We led some reconciliation workshops at Praise Corroboree at Parliament House Canberra in 1996. It was hosted by Peter Walker and Warwick Marsh. Roger Mitchell, a key intercessor from England came to the same event the following year and repented on behalf of Britain’s treatment of Indigenous people and the Indigenous Christian leaders felt they needed to ask their communities first if they could receive it. I stepped into the gap and received Roger’s genuine repentance and responded to his pain. I also extended forgiveness.
• This followed a trip Barbara and I took to England in 1997 for a Reconciliation Conference at Coventry Cathedral. The Lord moved on Barbara to repent for anti-authority and anti-“pommy” attitudes of Australians towards the British as a result of our settlement with convicts. I repented of the bitterness of Aboriginal people to the British because of colonisation and released forgiveness to them. No one responded. A year later an English intercessor called Jackie, who was at the conference and troubled by what occurred, travelled all the way to Cairns to receive my repentance and release forgiveness.
• On the same trip in 1997 we attended a Reconciliation Conference organised by Indian Christians on a reservation in Manitoba. We were asked to speak and had a number of speaking engagements on reconciliation throughout nearby cities.
• We changed our name to the Centre for International Reconciliation and Peace after coming back from England. We organised a Reconciliation Conference in Cairns in 1998.
• The Australian Prayer Network organised prayer tours in Australia 1998 and England 1999 with a follow up in Uluru in 2000 and we participated. We prayed at Whitby where Captain Cook left for Australia and Portsmouth where the First Fleet left for Sydney. We made a DVD on British-Australian reconciliation.
• We were invited to speak at 2 reconciliation conferences and a number of other meetings in Zimbabwe in 2000. We worked with bringing reconciliation between the Ndebele and Shona and between black farm labourers and white farm owners. The Lord would not let me speak at Ps John Chimbambo’s home church without kneeling in the dirt in my white pants and washing his feet to honour him. Barbara chose to wash his wife’s feet.
• We apologized to Jews in Sydney in 2002 and Yad Vashem in Jan 2004 and again with a plaque in 2010 re Evian where the nations met to deal with the Jewish refugee problem from Nazism and most closed their doors. We had a 10 year journey to get a government to government apology. Our lobbying resulted in 2010 in Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd’s apology re Evian at Yad Vashem while honouring Aboriginal William Cooper for leading the only known private protest worldwide against Kristallnacht. We were there and Barbara subsequently wrote William Cooper’s biography.
• We facilitated prophetic acts of reconciliation with Jews and Arabs at the Sons of Abraham conference Sydney 2005 hosted by Ps Jack and Anne Yeo. Barbara and I were speakers.
• We hosted a Healing the Land Healing the People conference at Uluru in 2005.
• I apologized to Pacific peoples re blackbirding and we facilitated Jewish -Arab reconciliation at the Bethany Gate All Pacific Prayer Assembly in Cairns 2006 with 2,000 attending from the Pacific, Asia, Israel and Kuwait. We co-hosted this conference with the Jerusalem House of Prayer for All Nations and the All Pacific Prayer Assembly.
• In 2006 we did repentance and healing the wounds of first settlement where the First Fleet arrived in Sydney.
• At Darnley Island in the Torres Strait in 2006, we worked with the local church in healing the east and west division of the island and healing European-Indigenous relations.
• PM Kevin Rudd led Australia’s apology to Indigenous people in 2008 for the stolen children (children taken from their families and communities by government or church for assimilation, education and cheap labour). I painted a 2m x 2m painting in 120 colours as a thank you to him.
• We organised repentance by an ANZAC team we led to Israel in 2010 at Surafend (not nearby Ayun Kara) near Rishon Le Zion. The Bedouin village was razed in Dec 1918 so it was hard to find the site but we had help from Ps Shlomy and Miriam Abramov. A Bedouin was stealing from a New Zealander who tried to stop him and was killed. Resentment had built up over a long time of the British not dealing with Arab theft. They took no action this time either. The New Zealanders took it into their own hands and cleared the women and children out and killed 30-40 men when the village leaders would not hand over the perpetrator. Police statements record Australians didn’t take part. As we couldn’t find the relevant Bedouins to repent to, we repented to the Lord and put a record in the city archives at Rishon Le Zion. Also, we laid a wreath at the Turkish War Memorial at Be’er-Sheva Oct 31 2010 as well as the British.
• At Barbara’s book launch of the William Cooper book in Dec 2012, she organised for a re-enactment of Cooper’s and the Aboriginal Advancement League’s walk from his Footscray home to the 1938 site of the German Consulate in Melbourne. She also organised for Uncle Boydie to give a replica of Cooper’s letter of protest to the current German Consul who apologized to William Cooper’s grandson, Uncle Boydie Turner and Holocaust Survivors. It was a very moving moment. Abe Schwarz and David Jack were very involved in organising this as well.
• Our Uncle Boydie’s Dream Team helped Uncle Boydie fulfil his dream of presenting to the Queen the petition for improvement of the lot of Indigenous people that his grandfather had tried to present to the Queen’s grandfather. The Australian government had not allowed it. We managed to get an audience with the Governor General in 2014 who then passed it onto the Queen with the fresh signatures we had gathered.
• I have been campaigning for the recognition of Indigenous people in the Australian constitution and the removal of racism from it. I started a petition and gained over 2000 signatures. It was tabled in Federal Parliament in Dec 2013. I also presented a giant boomerang with about 360 signatures to then Speaker Bronwyn Bishop in Nov 2013.
• Barbara and I spoke at the Vanuatu Prayer Assembly in 2012 and 2013, repenting in 2012 for Australia’s slave labour of their people on sugar cane farms. In 2013, we stood in the gap with Helen Grainger from Australia to say sorry for the kidnapping of 3 children by Ferdinand de Quiros in 1606. De Quiros is the one who declared “the southlands of the Holy Spirit” over Australia and the Pacific (really lands south of Vanuatu). It was very moving as we did a re-enactment of taking away and returning 3 boys from the same family they were stolen from. Amazingly it is the family of the pastor at the landing site, Matantas. See Barbara’s book.
• Barbara was able to organise for Catholic Education to invite Courage to Care to Cairns for 4 weeks recently to present their exhibition and course to students and teachers. They use Holocaust survivors and children of survivors to talk of Gentiles and Jews who saved their lives. It helps to combat bullying in schools and challenges people not to stand by while others are mistreated.
Norman was led by the Holy Spirit to extend a welcome, as an Aboriginal Christian leader, to Australia of anyone in the room who had migrated to Australia. There were a considerable number of people in the room and they were very touched by this with many tears and much healing following. One of the speakers commented afterwards that now they knew some of our journey, they could understand why we had the authority to organise the conference.
TUES 22/9/15
BASSEM ADRANLY – THE SPIRIT OF ANTI-CHRIST
Bassem gave a different message than the topic advertised but it was a big blessing. 1 John 2:22. Why is Israel anti-Christ? This question puzzled me for many years. Why are they enemies of the gospel but beloved of the Father? John asks who is a liar? He answers he who denies Jesus is the Christ. No one who denies the Son has the Father.
Islam has a very strong anti-Jew theology. In their eschatological beliefs, their Christ is the anti-Christ who will destroy Jews who are pigs etc. Even a tree will say, here is a Jew, come and kill him.
I found the answer in Psalm 120:5-7, the story of salvation. “Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar! Too long have I lived among those who hate peace. I am a man of peace; but when I speak, they are for war.” In Ezekiel 38-39, Gog is the prince of Tubal and Meshech. Kedar means black like the Bedouin tents. Kedar is the 2nd son of Ishmael. Israel is still dwelling in the tents of Kedar.
John 8 – To the Jews who challenged Jesus and said they were the children of Abraham, Jesus said if you were you would do as Abraham did and not want to kill me but you are sons of the devil who is a murderer, a liar. Religious Jews are against Christ. These Jews are captive in the land of Meshech. They long for peace but speak of war. They are captive. Pray for their release. It tells us in Zech 13, that Israel will eventually recognize her Messiah.
2 John 7. We must acknowledge (a) that Jesus came in the flesh and (b) that Jesus is from God. There are 2 heresies, one is Gnosticism and one is Docetism. The first is that the world is evil so how can God accept to be manifest in human form? The second is that Jesus only seemed to have human form but didn’t. Muslims believe Jesus did not die on the cross but someone was substituted for him. I say to Muslims how can you believe in Mohammed and not in the Qur’an? They say it’s not possible. So I say how can you believe in Jesus and not in what the Bible says about him?
In Mt 16 Jesus asked who do people say I am? Peter said Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus said this was not declared by the flesh but revealed to him by God and it was after that that Jesus predicts his death. When Peter rebuked Him, Jesus said to Peter get behind me Satan. He dealt with it as a spirit not as an ideology – Mt 16:23. Eph 1 shows us that the church is based on 2 main pillars – the revelation of who Jesus is and the revelation of who we are in Christ.
The west worries about freedom. If you are told you can leave the room but you will be shot, where is the freedom? Or you can walk away from Christ but you will go to hell, where is the freedom? But it is not like that. By nature, we walk the wide road to hell. God tries to save us. But if we reject God, we’ll get there eventually. 1 Cor 1:18 tells us the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.
Satan uses the channel not just of Islam but of Christianity also. Our enemy is not Moslems, but Satan. I had a vision of 3 army generals sitting around a table. I saw the devil’s back. A general asked do you want us to drop Islam now? No, not yet said the devil. My replacement plan is not ready. So don’t make Islam your enemy.
Moslems are taught the death of Christ is a disgrace because prophets are not meant to die. It is not consistent with God’s wisdom for Jesus to be humiliated. Gandhi loved Jesus, thought he was a martyr and great man but he couldn’t accept he saved the world. It was the very central point he couldn’t get. Bassem discussed other philosophers’ viewpoints about the Christian view of Jesus being fully human and fully divine.
Nietzsche, who Hitler was influenced by, wrote a book called “Anti-Christ” in 1895. On P115-118, he defined good as the will to power and bad as proceeding from weakness (Christianity was weak because it turned the other cheek). He dreamed of a superman, a ruler race, the survival of the fittest and thought Christianity was a religion of pity.
But Jesus taught the cross, lived the cross. It contradicts everything around us.
• If you want to live, die to self
• To be strong, be weak
• To get known, humble yourself
• To be great, serve all
• To be first, be last
• To win all things, give up all things
• If you want to be wise, be ignorant
• To win your life, use it for Christ
• To be free, be a slave of Christ
• If someone sins against you, reconcile with them
• If someone does evil to you, do good to him
• If someone steals your property, forgive him
It contradicts everything Mohammed taught. Islam is a mask for Satan who tries to replace the plan of God. If Islam disappears, another mask/system will replace it. It is a system of anti-Christ. Psalm 2. The battle is overcome by prayer and love because it is a spiritual battle.
Adel Moussa from Egypt, now living in Australia and doing street evangelism, shared briefly.
BOB MENDELSOHN – LESSONS FROM THE BOOK OF JONAH; CROSS-CULTURAL EVANGELISM
The book of Jonah will be read in synagogues worldwide tomorrow. If you had a vote, would you keep Jonah in the Bible? Usually in the Bible when a word comes to a prophet, they obey but Jonah says you want me to go to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire? Leaving from Joppa, he fled to Tarshish (possibly Spain) away from the presence of the Lord. There was a storm and the mariners were afraid. For these burly seamen to be afraid, it must have been severe! The ship was about to be broken up and everyone called out to his god. They were polytheists, Neptune etc.
Jonah was asleep, not even helping. They woke him up and told him to pray to his God. Drawing lots to see who was responsible, it fell on Jonah. They were yelling at him. Who are you? Where are you from? Jonah told them he was running away from his God and there is only one God and now they were even more afraid. Jonah said to throw him overboard. They then prayed to Jonah’s God, the God of Israel and said please do not let us pay for this man’s life. They tossed Jonah into the sea and the storm stopped. They made sacrifices and vows to the God of Jonah. They were converted!
Glug! Glug! Glug! Prophet lost at sea. Instead of drowning, God provided a whale to swallow him. There with yesterday’s lunch, pretty unsanitary. Wouldn’t you think Jonah would cry out now but Jonah waited 3 days and 3 nights to make a desperate cry to God – save me and I’ll serve you the rest of my life, a cry others have made in desperate times (as in the book “Unbroken”) and God answered. So the whale vomited Jonah out on shore.
God sent him to Nineveh again. This time Jonah went, happy to declare destruction on Israel’s enemies. But they repented and fasted from food and drink. Even the animals! How do you stop a cow from eating? Put it on concrete? Wouldn’t Jonah be happy a whole city repented? Yeah, that happens often to me when I travel. Jonah 4:1 tells us Jonah instead was angry. He was a dutiful preacher. He really didn’t want them to hear him. Now he defended himself to God – I know you’re merciful that’s why I fled. Take my life from me. I’m done with this religion thing. He then got angry over the plant God caused to spring up to shade him and then die. You still want Jonah in your Bible? He was an embarrassment, a racist, everything we’re talking about not to be at this conference. God cares about the mariners, Jonah and the Ninevites.
After the conference the other night we had a great meal at a Lebanese restaurant at Lakemba and two of us ended up having conversations about Christianity, Judaism and Islam for 2 hours on the street. One man came up and was hostile but the others sent him away. No one was converted but I’ve never had such a great chat. I can say to Muslims – You and I are both the same. We rejected Jesus. See the photo on flickr.com.
Mt 16:13. Finally he’s on our side of the Bible some of you may be saying. It was in Caesarea-Philippi that Jesus asks who do people say that I am? Peter’s answer that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, caused Jesus to conduct an ordination ceremony calling Simon bar (son of) Jonah, Petra, the rock and revelation on which he would build his church. He gave him the authority, the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Notice the similarities to the story of Jonah.
Acts 10. This is where Peter or Simon bar Jonah, in Joppa, where the first Jonah fled from, has the vision of unclean food because the Lord is calling him to witness to the Roman centurion Cornelius in Caesarea-Philippi. Peter didn’t get it even after receiving the vision 3 times. However he went and the whole family was saved and baptised in the Holy Spirit. Rome was the enemy of Israel. God sent someone to you when you were undeserving. We need to reach out with God’s message even to enemies.
FLICKCM
Bob and Adel with 2 men in the conversation, centre, Lakemba
BARBARA MILLER – THE ISAIAH 19 HIGHWAY
The Isaiah 19:23-25 “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. The Lord Almighty will bless them saying ‘Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance’.”
Israel’s titles will be shared with her long term enemies. It will be a highway of salvation. Perhaps this highway will be complete in the millennial reign of Jesus when all roads will lead to Jerusalem (not Rome) from where Messiah will reign (Acts 2:29-35, Luke 1:30-33). However the highway is being created by Christians now.
I shared re a dream God gave me about the highway being vertical as well as horizontal i.e. there is a dimension of being lifted up to communion with God in it. It reminded me of the stairway to heaven Jacob encountered at Bethel. I don’t have space to go into it but it’s covered on the DVD.
Who is Assyria today? Some researchers consider it to be Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Armenia, Georgia and Cyprus. There are Christians in these nations who love Israel and pray for her. Many of them are Muslim background believers or former Muslims who had very personal encounters with Jesus. There are also Jews in these nations though many of them were forced out after Israel became a state in 1948. Jews had lived in Egypt since before the Exodus led by Moses. Jews had been in Assyria since the 10 northern tribes were taken into exile and the 2 southern tribes were taken into captivity in Babylon. Some lived in Iran since the days of ancient Persia. Coptic and Orthodox Christians have been in the Middle East since Bible times and early Catholic communities followed.
Today the Islamic attempt to remove Christians from the Middle East by death or persecution is similar to what happened with the Armenian genocide in World War 1 which included Arameans, Chaldeans, Syrians and Greek Orthodox. Israel is surrounded by Islamic nations who want her wiped off the map and the Jews driven into the sea. They want Jerusalem as the capital of an Islamic caliphate.
Vision
This is the picture I’ve had of Israel for a long time and it is true but God has shown me a vision very different. It is these nations on the Isaiah 19 highway i.e. the nations surrounding Israel as not just a danger to her but actually protecting her. I see an arc of prayer, praise and worship around Israel that is like a shield of support, love, comfort and protection. These Middle Eastern (ME) Christians have the spirit of God on them and in them and the Lord showed me that the ARC was like an ARK. God is in them just as His manifest presence was in the Ark of the Covenant. He presences Himself with these believers as they worship and pray to Him.
I kept seeing feathers around this arc of ME Christians and I sensed it was Ps 91:1-4, 11. I sensed that there were angels on top of the prayer and worship of the saints as another layer of protection. As I prayed more into it, I was taken to when Jesus wanted to gather Jerusalem under His wings as a mother hen would but it would not. Jesus also wept over Jerusalem. Mt 23:37-39.
Continuing to pray, I was taken to the scripture about rising up on wings of eagles (Isa 40:31) and I sensed that as the prayers and worship of the saints rises up, heaven and earth join together and the saints renew their strength and are sustained. The prayers of saints are like a spiritual Iron dome. My long-time prayer has been for angels around the borders of Israel.
Abraham walked the Isa 19 Highway when he came from Ur of the Chaldeans to Canaan and then to Egypt and back to Canaan again. The Isa 19 prophecy fulfils Gen 12:1-3 that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abram and the nation that came from him.
Strabo, a Greek historian and geographer, informs us about Babylon’s paved roads in about 2000 BC: “There were three Great Highways that ran from there to Susa, Ecbatana, and Sardis. The
highway leading from Babylon [Iraq] to Memphis, Egypt was paved and the cities along the highway were Nineveh, Palmyra, Damascus, Tyre, Antioch, and other great cities.” There is a highway from Egypt to Iraq today – several. So we are prepared for the return of Jesus Christ.
The highway vision is the opening of Houses of Prayer and Worship (Tabernacles of David, Amos 9:11) along this ancient and future Highway. SE Turkey (part of ancient Assyria), is at the northern end of the Isaiah 19 Highway. Pray into God’s radical peace plan, His highway of worship running through Egypt, Israel and Assyria. It is also a peace highway. Isaiah’s prophecy in his day must have been unbelievable as it is to many today. A highway of blessings – Israel’s enemies and pagans would one day be God’s people sharing in the covenant blessings. It can only be by His amazing grace. It is also a highway of holiness. Isaiah 35. We need to “Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Isa 62.
L to R John Ackad, Michael Fraser, Fifi Farag, Adel Moussa (Egypt) Shelly Volk, Marianna Chandler (Israel) Bassem Adranly, Florence Farjandi (rep Assyria) Barbara praying & Norman Miller back reading Isa 19
The re-founding of Israel in 1948 was a part fulfilment of the Isaiah 19 prophecy. Ps 87:4-6 shows us that God wants all to be saved and to be citizens of the heavenly Zion. “I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me – Philistia too, and Tyre, along with Cush – and will say, ‘This one was born in Zion…..The Lord will write in the register of the peoples: ‘This one was born in Zion.’
However before the prophecy is fulfilled, there will be judgement on Egypt and this will lead to revival. Isa 19:1-22 says the idols of Egypt will tremble before the Lord, brother will fight against brother, the Egyptians will be handed over to a cruel master, the waters of the river will dry up, fields will be parched and fisherman groan, the wise counsellors of Pharaoh give senseless advice, and Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians. We have seen partial fulfilment of this. There’ll be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt and a monument to the Lord at the border as a sign and witness. When they cry out to God because of their oppressors, He will send them a saviour.
There is an ANZAC inheritance for Australia and NZ that is not only about Be’er-Sheva but because the ANZACS cleared the way for the Isa 19 highway from Ottoman rule. There is a spiritual ANZAC inheritance for bringing Jew, Arab and other Gentiles into unity re the Sons of Abraham.
PS JOHN & MAGDA ACKAD – UNDERSTANDING THE MINDSET (2)
Not available on DVD. Magda did a role play and we could ask questions. It was an excellent session.
Pastor SHELLY & Wife JUNE VOLK – HINENI, HERE I AM (EREV YOM KIPPUR & JUBILEE)
Shelly and Bassem led communion. Shelly said the blessing in Hebrew and Bassem in Arabic. This was very special –
June gave her testimony, which is included in her book THE GOD WHO ANSWERS BY FIRE. It was very encouraging and enlightening to the faithfulness of God – when she cried out to Him – He answered.
Ps Shelly Volk and Ps Bassem Adranly praying over communion Erev Yom Kippur
Shelly’s Message: Shelly gave a brief description of the Shemitah and Jubiliee years. There is much debate on when the Jubiliee year occurs. Hineni – Here am I: Shelly gave four examples of men responding to God by saying Hineni: Samuel (I Samuel 3), Isaiah (Isaiah 6), Moses (Exodus 3), and Abraham (Genesis 22).
Each of these men responded to God saying Hineni before they knew their specific call. Their faith was in the One who called, not the calling itself.
Keep in mind, each of these specific calls were extremely difficult. As we are living in the end of this Age, we need to exhibit the faith these men demonstrated.
In Isaiah 58:8, 9: “Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry, and He will say, ‘Here Am I’ (Hineni).
If God will answer us by saying Hineni (Here Am I) – should we do any less when He Calls us?
Blowing the trumpets and shofars. Judy Miller on sound & Trish Jansze on books
MECO and Al Hayat TV’s books, the Volks’ books, Norman’s new coffee table art book Reef and Rainforest: An Aboriginal Voice Through Art and Story, Barbara’s books on de Quiros and William Cooper & Tabernacle of David Cairns’ new album Reconciliation with the sounds of the didgeridoo and clapsticks were available.
pastor best known for his best selling book The Harbinger
