Mar 14, 2006

FASTING & PRAYER - THE SEASON OF PURIM


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FASTING & PRAYER - THE SEASON OF PURIM

- L.D. Oxford
http://www.joshua-ap.net


Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus. Today, i am sending out to you an important prayer initiative which came in from Jim Golls ministry recently, concerning Israel, Iran, and which also involves the United States.

Please read this prayer alert carefully and fast/and pray according to how the Spirit of God would direct you to do for at least three days.The time is overdue, for the Body of Christ to take a stand as never before on the behalf of the nation of Israel and the middle east, which is in a very severe crisis, with the understanding that the media does not report all of the truth of what is going on there.

We really need to stand together here and to pray for God's purposes to be fulfilled for the nation of Israel and concerning the mistreatment and anti-semitismic activities that go on against the Jewish people there.

Then, we also need to pray for all of the descendants of Abraham, which includes the Arabic and Palestinian people as well. For God loves all of these people and has a plan for their lives, just as He does for all people.

When we call upon the Lord, He will answer us, and when we stand in the gap and pray for Israel, then the Lord will deliver them from many adversities as He has spoken in His Word. When we pray, stand in the gap and become a blessing to Israel, then we will also be blessed in return for our faithfulness to pray for God's Chosen people.

This would also be a great time for each of us to study and re-study the book of Esther as we enter the season of Purim on God's calendar.

"For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?"- Esther 4:14

I WANT TO CHALLENGE YOU TODAY

I want to challenge you today, just as we have been hearing from some of the other well-seasoned prophetic ministries recently...to set aside at least 3 days during this time and season in fasting and prayer.

Fasting and prayer is a spiritual discipline that will not only sanctify you, but will also sever away from you those things that have been a road-block to your spiritual progress in your walk with the Lord.

This is now the time for the repositioning, with the changing and also with the improvement of existing relationships. We must not allow the enemy to continue to cause more broken covenant relationships as we move forth into this time of new changes this year.

This very season which you are now entering will determine how you may possess the rest of what the Lord has for you in the coming year on God's calendar.

Do not allow the enemy to keep you focusing on the pain and hurt through your dissapointing circumstances. Begin to look anew through the eyes of faith and to see the best plan that God has for you through the year ahead. Cast aside that unbelief, fear of the future and refuse to be a victim any longer.

This is a walk of faith that the Lord has ordained for each of us and is not a comfort zone or security nest relationship, based on feelings, pain and emotions.

Dare to break those old cycles of defeat and to become the people of victory, prayer and intercession that the Lord has called each of us to become. I am not telling you anything here that the Lord has not been testing and trying me for my own life.

But my life does not belong to me anymore to do as i please, and the same goes for each one of you here also. Our walk with the Lord is all about Him, our faith, our trust in Him, and our obedience to follow through with what He desires for us.

The only way to understand what He wants from us is to spend time with Him and to seek His face like never before. And when we stand in right relationship with Him, then we will also flow into those right relationships with each other in the Body of Christ.

*****

THE EXAMPLE OF A CAR ENGINE

When the engine of a car is not operating properly, we know it because of the sound, smell, or functioning of the engine.... or it just wont crank! (It could be any type of engine trouble, the alternator, the transmission or the battery etc. :)

When this happens, it is time to realize that there is a problem under the hood of the car that needs to be fixed. Right? So you lift up the hood and "look within", find the problem and fix it. And if you cannot fix it yourself, then you take it to the "mechanic" and He will fix it for you.

Spending time with the Master/and Mechanic will fix the problem for you.

ENGINE TIP TO REMEMBER:

If you do not keep "enough oil" (the anointing) and "transmission fluid" (also the anointing- with fasting and prayer being the transmission) then the engine would burn up and not be of any use for the future.

The transmission with the fluid allows the gears and associated parts to function so that power is transmitted from the engine to the driving axle. This is what allows the wheels to turn .

So, to keep those wheels turning, we need a fresh anointing coupled with fasting and prayer to keep our vehicle moving forward with the Spirit of God. The oil (anointing of God) will cause all of the parts to flow in sync and the transmission fluid keeps the gears moving properly, to keep those wheels turning.

So let us as the Body of Christ, check under the hood, find the problem, do our part to fix what we can, and then allow the master/mechanic to give a thorough diagnosis of the problem in our lives individually, then corporately so that we may function in the way that He so desires to see.

In doing so, God will honor your faith and will orchestrate the divine activity that will launch you forth into His highest plan for your lives. Let's not settle for anything less.

- L.D. Oxford
http://www.joshua-ap.net
victorious1_2005@earthlink.net

****

AN UNHOLY CONSPIRACY
THE WORD OF THE LORD FROM PSALM 83

by Jim Goll

www.jamesgoll.com

The new militant President of Iran has declared Psalm 83 and doesn't even know it! He has stated that his goal is to, “Wipe Israel off the face of the earth and that they be remembered no more!”

With nuclear weapons in the process of being made in Iran, the goal of this evil ruler is to attack Israel and the “great satan” (the United States).

With the violent, terrorist Palestinian government headed by the Hamas party now in power of the Gaza Strip, Iraq on the verge of a civil war, and with Israel’s Prime Minister laying in a coma and Israel headed into national elections soon, the entire Middle East is in a major crisis and could soon reach a boiling point!

Psalm 83 tells us of this unholy conspiracy! Many Bible teachers agree that this text has not yet been fulfilled. This particular group has not yet been brought into an alignment with this degree of hatred.

The passage does not say “the peoples of the land of the north,” nor does it say “Germany.”

PSALMS 83 DESCRIBES VIVIDLY A TROUBLING ALIGNMENT SET AGAINST A WEARIED JEWISH STATE.

Psalm 83:3-8 -- “They make shrewd plans against Your people, And conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, "Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, That the name of Israel be remembered no more."

For they have conspired together with one mind; Against You they make a covenant: The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites (southern Jordon and Saudi Arabia), Moab (central Jordon) and the Hagrites (Syria and Arabia) ; Gebal (southern Jordon) and Ammon (southern Jordon) and Amalek (Sinai desert), Philistia (Gaza Strip area) with the inhabitants of Tyre (southern Lebanon); Assyria (Syria/Iraq) also has joined with them; They have become a help to the children of Lot.”

But the last few verses of Psalm 83 tells us God’s redemptive plan in the midst of chaos. The psalmist calls for God to glorify Himself--to make His great name and His name alone known over all the earth.

GOD'S GOAL IN TIMES OF TESTING IS TO GLORIFY HIMSELF.

Psalm 83:16-18 -- “Fill their faces with dishonor, That they may seek Your name, O LORD. Let them be ashamed and dismayed forever, And let them be humiliated and perish, That they may know that You alone, whose name is the LORD, Are the Most High over all the earth.”

CRISIS INTERCESSION NEEDED!

It is my conviction, and also that of many other leaders in the Body of the Messiah, that the Holy Spirit is opening a strategic window of opportunity for the Gentile church to arise “for such a time as this.” We must pray and take a stand as never before in all of Church History.

We must pray for God’s purposes to be fulfilled in Israel, in the Jewish people, and in all the descendants of Abraham.

"For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?"-- Esther 4:14

The Good News is that the Lord answers when we cry out to Him for help. Israel’s history shows a clear pattern of people who, time and again, found themselves in trouble, cried out to the Lord and saw Him deliver them out of their adversity.

IN THE SPIRIT OF ESTHER AND MORDECAI

It is time for us to pray, read, and live out the book of Esther again. God is raising up new Mordecais who have His grace upon them to prepare the corporate Esther (Body of Believers) to do radical exploits in His name on behalf of God’s purposes amongst the Jewish people worldwide and in Israel particularly.

The Holy Spirit wants to inject the burden of the Lord for purposes of God among the Jewish people into the global prayer movement, like a nurse with a fully loaded needle. We need a potent injection of God’s heart into our heart!

That is why God wants to raise up a Mordecai anointing to prepare Esther for a time of intervention. We know what Esther accomplished, but what was Mordecai’s task? What was his divine assignment?

Mordecai’s job was to raise up and prepare Esther for her hour of influence before the king. Mordecai raised Esther as his own daughter.

He did not bow down or pay homage to Haman, who sought the destruction of the Jews, but only worshipped the one true God. He intercepted Haman’s scheme of the enemy and revealed it with wisdom to those in authority.

He walked in prophetic counsel and instilled courage into Esther. Esther, properly tutored and mentored by the counsel of Mordecai, seized the moment through prayer and fasting. Esther was anointed to intervene and stand in the gap, yet she had to walk in cooperation with the preparation of Mordecai, the spiritual authority God had placed in her life.

God chose to work through Mordecai to alert Esther to her destiny and timing of her intercessory acts on behalf of the Jews. God is looking for modern day Mordecais to prepare corporate Esther--His people for such a time as this!

THE HISTORY OF THE DAYS OF PURIM

The celebration of Purim originated out of the decrees of Mordecai and Queen Esther--Esther 9:29-32.

It was a time when intervention arose through desperate acts of prayer and fasting led by Queen Esther to overturn the decree for the annihilation of the Jewish people inspired by Haman. Haman’s evil plot was revealed, the tables were turned, and he was hung on his own gallows.

The events took place historically roughly between 483 to 471 B.C. According to the Jewish calendar, Purim is held in the month of Adar, which usually falls in February or March. Purim, as a Jewish holiday, is observed in celebration of God’s supernatural deliverance of the Jewish people from Haman’s genocidal plot to destroy them in the time of Persia’s King Artaxerxes.

The holiday was held on the 14th of Adar (according to the Jewish calendar) in the un-walled cities and the 15th of Adar in the cities that were walled in the time of Joshua.

Moses was born in Adar. It is also the month when the Jewish leader of the Maccabees defeated the Syrians, and it is also the month when the orders were given to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem preceding the reconstruction of the Temple and first return of the Jewish people to Israel.

Redemptively, the period of time known as Adar has been a time when intervention comes out of crisis. Although Purim was founded in biblical times, its observation is not commanded by God as are the holy convocations mentioned in Leviticus 23.

But the Holy Spirit is prophetically calling believers today to participate in this special time of sacrifice in this generation. Even as Esther called for a nationwide three-day fast preceding her intervention on behalf of the Jewish people, so I am trumpeting a sound for crisis intervention through prayer in these days.

Let’s intercede once again on behalf of the Jewish people for deliverance from Haman’s (the enemy of God and His people) plot.Therefore, every year I am calling on all Christians to sacrifice their time, their comfort, and their agendas to undertake a three-day Esther Mandate Fast at Purim.

This spiritual investment of the Worldwide Prayer Movement in the global body of Christ will not fail. It will bring about nothing less than “God’s will on earth as it is in Heaven” for the Jewish people and the nation of Israel.

THE CRY FOR ISRAEL'S SAKE

In the name of the Lord, I boldly and humbly call for "The Cry", a yearly, three-day time of prayer and fasting corresponding with Purim.May this time of crisis-intervention prayer and fasting for the purposes of God amongst the Jewish people and the nations of Israel arise “until Jerusalem is established as a praise in the earth”--Isaiah 62: 6, 7.

I have a challenge for all who read this: Whose supplications will be heard? Who will lift up their voice to fill up a golden bowl in Heaven?--see Revelation 5:8.

Will you join me and hundreds of others? Join me as we seek the face of God once again as a Bride prepared for her King. The Days for The Cry during Purim--an Esther Mandate Fast--are March 12–14, 2006.

The Fast would start at sundown on the 12th Adar/March and continue until sundown on the 15th of Adar/March. In this year 5766/2006 the days of Adar and March are the same, meaning that the 11th of Adar is also the 11th of March (in this year only). A fast is usually held the day preceding Purim.

by Jim Goll
Encounters Network

*****
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