Month of Elul-Gate of Repentance

By Apostles Vance and Debbie Russell

(August 21- September18, 2009) Month of Elul (For more information see “Victory at the Gates”)

In the Hebrew month of Elul (sixth month) our primary mode of relating to the Lord is as a child to his father. The theme of Elul is returning home (repentance). It’s the time of introspection and inventory, a time to review one’s deeds and spiritual progress over the past year and prepare for the upcoming festivals. They are:

Feast of Trumpets (9/18-20/09 Rosh Hashanah) – A Wake-up call! A time set by God to call you to attention.
The Ten Days of Awe (9/20-28/09 Ten Days of Repentance) – An extended time of seeking the Lord!
The Day of Atonement (9/27-28/09 Yom Kippur) – A time for your fellowship with the Lord to be restored!
The Feast of Tabernacles (10/2-9/09 Feast of Sukkot) – An appointed time to experience God’s presence!

During this month it’s important to rediscover the Lord after a lengthy period in which we may have deserted or ignored Him. In the month of Av, the month that precedes Elul, the deterioration of our relationship with God is so deep that He withdraws to His concealed, inner sanctum, reflecting our withdrawal from Him. However, because of repentance the Lord is likened to a king who goes out into the field, where all of His subjects can meet Him. Our “rediscovery” of God in Elul draws Him from His inner sanctum out to the field. Meeting the Lord in Elul is an “informal” meeting, in which we seek His paternal kinship (intimacy).
In Haggai 1:2-11(Tyndale NLT), in the month of Elul, the Lord gave a message through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: ‘The people are saying, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.’” Then the Lord sent this message through the prophet Haggai: “Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruin? This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes! “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! Now go up into the hills, bring down timber, and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored says the Lord. You hoped for rich harvests, but they were poor. And when you brought your harvest home, I blew it away. Why? Because my house lies in ruin, says the Lord of Heavens Armies, while all of you are busy building your own fine homes. It’s because of you that the heavens withhold the dew and the earth produces no crops. I have called for a drought on your fields and hills – a drought to wither the grain and grapes and olive trees and all your other crops, a drought to starve you and your livestock and to ruin everything you have worked so hard to get.” For those who live in drought stricken areas we may want to pay particular attention to this prophetic word. Elul is the time when the Body of Christ needs to repent for sins against the Church for focusing on their needs rather than the Church. We must be careful that we don’t turn our backs on the Church during this season. Case in point, when Israel did not fulfill God’s will, Hebrew tradition says that the cherubim atop the Ark of the Covenant would miraculously turn back-to-back. This back-to-back posture does not necessarily reflect hostility, but on more subtle terms – a lack or break in communication. Sometimes, our friends, family or churches require our attention when we are consumed with ourselves. Our face is turned inward, and we don’t desire to turn our hearts to our loved ones or to the Body of Christ. On the other hand, we don’t wish to insult them, so we lightheartedly answer their appeal for our attention with an offhand, “a little later.” What we are really saying is “I want to remain engrossed in my own world.”
Because Elul is the month of healing our relationship with the Lord and others, let’s be proactive to interact with the Lord and those we love in a new way! Over the next few month’s we must awaken spiritually, spend extended time in prayer and fellowship with Him so that our relationship can be restored. As we pursue Him we will experience the Lord’s presence!

Apostles Vance and Debbie Russell
Arise Ministries International
Austin, TX . San Antonio, TX . London, UK
www.ariseministries.com

Israel Prayer Update (August 17, 2009) Glory of Zion

This week in Israel:

1. Elul

Friday August 21^st begins the Hebrew month of Elul, the 6^th month in the religious calendar and the 11^th of the civil year. This is traditionally a month of self-examination and repentance before the Lord in preparation for the High Holy Days of Yom T’ruah (The Day of Trumpets/Rosh Hashanah) and Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement). As a call to this, it is customary in some Jewish circles to blow a blast on the shofar each morning (except the Sabbath) of this month. It was in this month of Elul that Nehemiah finished rebuilding the Wall around Jerusalem (Nehemiah 6:15). It is a time for securing all breaches, all places of vulnerability along our ‘borders’. And it is also a period, in ancient Hebrew tradition, when God, although always near and accessible to us, chooses, to make Himself especially available to His people-when the “King comes into the Field” to meet with those who will come out to Him-who will respond to the inner inclination to “Seek His Face”. In fact, many observant Jews choose to read Psalm 27 (from which that phrase is taken) each day between the First of Elul and the “Last Great Day” of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles.

PLEASE PRAY:
*That many Jews will sense the Holy Spirit drawing them-and will respond; pray for revelation that it is the Lord’s kindness (Romans 2:4b) that leads us to repentance.

*For an awareness amongst believers that it is a time for examining and securing our spiritual borders.

*That the LORD release spiritual guidance and leadership upon His returned people in our day as He did for the returned remnant from Babylon (Ezra and Nehemiah). That He define Israel’s physical borders and the lines of Jerusalem according to His desire, in a such a way that Israel’s enemies will “perceive was done by God” (Nehemiah 6:16). That He Himself become a wall of fire around Jerusalem-and her glory within (Zechariah 2:5).

*The first day of Elul also is the first day of the Muslim month-long observation of Ramadan. It has been many, years since this has taken place during the heat of the summer. Please pray for the Body of Messiah throughout the world to be awake and stand in vigilance and attentiveness to the Holy Spirit during this time. Pray against release of strategies of the enemy for violence and evil. Pray for miracles of illumination amongst Muslims-that those who are truly seeking Truth will find it and be set free.

A little over a week from now, Thursday-Saturday August 27-29, Succat Hallel, a 24-hour worship-intercession ministry in Jerusalem will host a three-day end-of-the-summer youth gathering called Elav (”Unto Him”) at an outdoor venue in the center of Israel. Some 700 Israeli young people are expected to attend. Unusual for such events in Israel, these young will include both Jewish and Arab believing youth (more often these two peoples hold and attend separate events). Some of the Arab young people come from Christian, some from Muslim backgrounds. Speakers and musicians will be both Israeli (Messianic Jews and Christian Arabs) and from the nations.

PLEASE PRAY:
*For efficient completion of the enormous work required – setting up a huge tent and preparation of the grounds, co-ordination of lodging, busses from the city each morning and evening, meals, security; organization of the program…and receiving of the remaining funds (mounting such an event here is very expensive) required.

*For physical, emotional and spiritual protection over each leader, teacher, musician — and that the Lord release in and through them all that He has for this young generation of Israeli Believers.

*For angels guarding and protecting the conference, all transportation to and from, stopping any spiritual attack from without or within.

*Health and protection for everyone; this is an outdoor event in August in the heat of the Middle East.

*That a great move of the Ruah haKodesh (Holy Wind/Spirit of God) would blow through the camp-awakening, convicting, revealing, igniting, equipping!

*For walls to come down between Jewish and Arab believing young people-for guidance from the Holy Spirit as how to move forward as brother and sister in Messiah in this land!

From ancient times there has been a weekly portion from the first five books of Moses (The Torah) and from the prophets (Haftarah) read on the Sabbath in synagogues around the world. This portion is given a Hebrew name taken from the opening words of the passage. An illustration of this practice appears to have been recorded in Luke 4:16 where Yeshua (Jesus) arrived in the synagogue in Nazareth and was asked to read the portion (Isaiah 61) from the Prophets. We have found that in perusing these weekly readings, not only are we provided opportunity to identify in the context of God’s Word with millions of Jewish people around the world, but very often the Holy Spirit will illumine specific passages pertinent that week in our intercession for the Land and people of Israel. All texts are those of English translations of the Scriptures.

The reading for 16-22 August 2009 is entitled: Shophetim-Judges.

Torah: Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9
Haftarah: Isaiah 51:12-52:12

The Haftarah two weeks ago was Isaiah 49:14-51:3. Last week it skipped to 54:11-55:5; this week it doubles back to 51:13-52:12 and next week it will leap forward again to 54:1-10. Significantly, what gets left out here is Isaiah 52:13-15 and all of Isaiah 53. Of course, all Jews are free to read these passages-but unfortunately, Biblical exposure to even many religious Jews is often limited to what they hear read aloud in the synagogues on weekends. Most are completely ignorant of the existence of this passage, surely the most powerfully prophetic passage in the Hebrew Bible about the suffering Servant, the Messiah who was to come and give Himself as a propitiation for sin. We have heard of more than one situation in which a Jew, being introduced to the words of Isaiah 53, would strongly protest that what he or she was hearing must certainly be taken from the New Testament! (Rabbis have gone to great lengths to try to explain away its obvious teachings-but all such teachings break down; there is no way that all of the assertions in this passage could possibly refer merely to Israel). PLEASE PRAY: That Jews who read or hear read this week’s Haftarah passage (Isaiah 51:12-52:12)-will be moved to go further and read the last three verses of Chapter 52-then proceed on through Chapter 53. Pray that they will see, understand, and embrace the truth of this passage as part of their heritage-as the basis of their hope and that of their families and loved ones!

*Deuteronomy 17:18. “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you.and they shall judge the people with just judgment.”

*Deuteronomy 18:18. “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which he speaks in My name, I will require it of him.”

*Deuteronomy 20:2-4. “So it shall be, when you are on the verge of battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people. And he shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel: Today you are on the verge of battle with your enemies. Do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, and do not tremble or be terrified because of them; for the LORD your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’”

*Isaiah 52:1-2. “Awake! Awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city.Shake yourself from the dust, arise; Sit down, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion!”

*Isaiah 52:7. “How beautifully the feet of those bringing good news beautify the mountains- those who proclaim shalom, who bring glad tidings of good, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”

*Isaiah 52:8: “Your watchmen shall lift up their voices, with their voices they shall sing together; for they shall see eye to eye when the LORD brings back Zion.” PLEASE PRAY: for clarity and singleness of vision amongst those God is bringing back to Zion-and among those watchmen already there who are praying for them.

*Isaiah 52:11-12. “Depart! Depart! Go out from there, touch nothing unclean.go out from the midst of her, be clean.For the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.” This passage seems to have applied first of all prophetically to those in captivity in Babylon, encouraging them regarding their return to Israel. PLEASE PRAY: for believing Jews still in the nations whom God is calling back to their Land-that when He speaks, they will hear His voice and GO.trusting Him to “go before”.and also to be their “rear guard.” The Hebrew word for “rear guard” has within it the concept of “gathering” as well as guarding against attack from behind. Pray that God will gather the loose-ends of those He is calling-and press them forward through the gates into their heritage and place of inheritance.