Glorious Sunset in Jerusalem's Old City
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The Lord Casts His Shadow Through You! By Christine Darg
“ “…they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.” Acts 5: 15-16 Sometimes shadows are a metaphor of blessings. One of my heroines of the faith, Jenny de Mayer, was distributing Scriptures along the Silk Road in the early 1900s as documented in her book, “Adventures with God.” Exhausted on a long and hot journey, her only respite was to rest in “the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” (Isaiah 32:2) There is also the Psalm 91 promise of protection in “the shadow of the Almighty.” However, shadows are also associated with depression, even “the shadow of death.” A shadow! It is intangible, is it not? Yet in the Book of Acts, a shadow had the power to heal! Jesus in You still overshadows the sick and hopeless! Shadow healings can still happen today because Jesus is “the same yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8). When my husband and I worked with Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke in Africa, one month we visited Kenya for a citywide Gospel campaign, and a man testified that he was Detail of a painting of Peterʼs shadow healed in the falling upon the sick and the lame. market when
Evangelist Bonnke walked past him through the vegetable stalls. Bonnke’s shadow healed him! I will always give glory to the Lord for enabling me to lay hands on a woman with a spirit of infirmity who was bent over double and walking on the Street of the Prophets (Rehov HaNevi’im) in Jerusalem. She was a Sephardic Jew, and she welcomed my compassion, kissing my hand after I had prayed for her. She was bent parallel to the pavement. But she was straightened and miraculously healed, not instantly, but on a subsequent day when the long shadow of my car passed by her crooked form once again on the Street of the Prophets! As soon as the car shadow fell upon her, she instantly straightened and did what she could not do previously: she began to run down the street with joy! Hallelu-Yah! You and I have both an inward and outward shadow. What type of presence or shadow do you cast upon others? Your spirit is either strong and loving, projecting a positive influence, or your spirit can be weak, feeble and negative. We all cast shadows and unknowingly exert unconscious influences. Some people are always making others uncomfortable and unhappy. Their very presence depresses and saddens others. Our unconscious and often “silent energy” is most expressive of our real character. We are all responsible for our influences upon others! Even death does not terminate our influence in this world: “The Greeks used to term a disembodied spirit a shadow, an invisible presence, haunting the scenes of its former life, and though not in this sense, yet as abiding influences, the dead are still with us. On the one hand, Lord Byron, Bonaparte, Voltaire, etc., yet stalk the earth and gibber their influence; on the other, Calvin, Luther, Wesley, Chalmers, still live. This truth is a warning to all workers of iniquity, but an encouragement to every true child of God.” ~ C. Wadsworth, D.D., The Biblical Illustrator
Jesus Healing the 10 Lepers, a Painting in the Brooklyn Museum by James Tissot (1836-1902)
According to the Law of Moses, the Lord instructed these cured lepers to report to the priests for a medical examination.
The Lord Is My Leper! On the cross, Jesus became, as it were, a spiritual leper; even the ancient rabbis acknowledge this aspect of the Isaiah 53 prophecy of the Suffering Servant. How did He do this? Jesus, Yeshua, became a substitutionary curse for us, as it is written in the Torah in Deuteronomy 21:23, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” When our Lord hung on the Cross, all of the curses of the Law were laid upon Him as the Lamb of God. Although He never sinned, Jesus literally became a curse and a sin offering, so that in the divine exchange we might become the righteousness of God. Therefore born-again, Blood-washed believers cannot be cursed because our Lord the Lamb bore all curses for us! What a savior! Ancient rabbis believed the Isaiah Suffering Servant prophecy of Isaiah 53 rightly described the Messiah, and in one of their commentaries, Messiah was described as a leper. In one ancient rabbinic commentary, God is represented asking Messiah, “Wilt thou bear chastisements in order to remove the iniquities of the children of God” [as written in Isaiah, "surely he hath borne our griefs"]? And the Messiah replied, “I will bear them with joy.” Although this commentary is extra-
biblical, it nevertheless accurately described the spirit of the Servant Messiah, of Yeshua Himself, as described in Hebrews 12:2: “…. Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the JOY that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Yeshua absorbed, as it were, our sins and sicknesses, during and even before the ordeal of the Cross. This transference of our sins and sicknesses was mysteriously attached to His Body. Virtue also went out of Him to heal others. Thus it can be said that He wrought miracles at his own expense. The thought is far-reaching, and implies that He bore the ultimate cause of sickness, the sin of the world (John 1:29). Each miracle of healing meant a fresh realization of what bearing the sin of the world would mean. Selah. At the Cross, Yeshua took our sins and granted us freedom. He took our sicknesses and in exchange gave us health. He took our poverty and gave us abundance. Galatians 3:13 teaches us the wonderful Good News that “Messiah has redeemed us from the curse of the Law.”
The beautiful succa at Christ Church inside Jaffa Gate
One of the great adventures of Exploits Ministry is receiving new prayer assignments from the God of Israel. This year the Lord led us not only to participate in the nations night of the International Christian Embassy’s Feast of Tabernacles but also to launch a new prayer strategy in Jerusalem’s historic and sacred Old City called “The Moveable Feast of Tabernacles.” We held unprecedented Christian celebrations
in the four quarters of Jerusalem’s Old City: in the Christian, Amenian, Jewish and Muslim Quarters. Each day and evening we staged a Feast of Tabernacles event in one of the historic four quarters followed by praise, worship, teaching, mentoring and healing meetings. Our assignment was to build prophetically a canopy of the glory of God in preparation for the fulfillment of Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour out the
spirit of grace and supplications upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” Delegates came from the UK, USA, Germany, Switzerland, Romania, India and as far away as Australia. The Holy Spirit said repeatedly to us, “Go outside of the convention hall amongst the people!” It was a delight to merit being a part of the fulfillment of the Lord’s command to the Jewish people during the fall festivals in Deuteronomy 16:14, “You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates.” Amen! To be those sojourners within the gates of Jerusalem, waving palm and willow branches, rejoicing with the ancient people of God at the very footstool of Yehovah, dancing in the streets with the Orthodox Jews, was an intense experience and a privilege of Biblical proportions! In the midst of rumors of war, the Lord granted all who joined us by faith a tremendous liberty in the Spirit to worship and to rejoice with the ancient people of God as the Bible commands. Truly ours was a foretaste of Zechariah 14, describing how the nations will worship King Messiah during the Millenium. New encounters in each of the four quarters were uniquely prepared by the Spirit of God, and we presented friendship keys to visionaries and leaders. Our “Moveable Feast” began in the Christian Quarter at our
Priestly Blessing during Tabernacles
headquarters at Jaffa Gate with a joyous Erev Shabbat banquet followed by a healing feast in the Armenian Quarter, and we enjoyed one of the most adventurous days ever in our Muslim Quarter Feast--including a surprise session with a sheik concerning dreams and visions of Jesus in the Muslim world. Our Feast in the Jewish Quarter began in a restaurant overlooking the Temple Mount with keynote speaker Michael Freund. In prayer we called back the Lost Tribes from the four corners of the earth, and the evening concluded in a large succa with an unprecedented meeting with Orthodox Jew Gidon Ariel around the topic of Christians fulfilling Bible prophecies. We participated in the Jerusalem March and also staged our fourth “Messiah’s Birth Celebration” in Bethlehem during the Feast of Tabernacles, when scholars have determined that Yeshua was actually born.
‘Moveable Feast of Tabernacles’ in Jerusalem’s Four Quarters
Our Moveable Feast in the Christian Quarter
Muslim Quarter Revelations
Our Lovely Worship Leader Rosalind Hershkovitz Within Jerusalem始s Gates
Gidon Ariel Gave a Powerful Time of Sharing in a Succa in the Jewish Quarter Worship in Jewish Quarter
Our Fourth Messiah始s Birth Celebration in Bethlehem during the Feast of Tabernacles
Presenting Key in Muslim Quarter to Tsvi Misinai for his vision concerning Palestinian Jews
Our Moveable Feast of Tabernacles Also Joined the Annual Jerusalem March
‘Awaken!’ Conference Celebrates Dreams Among Muslims
Christine Darg Addressing the First Convocation Dedicated to Muslim Dreams and Visions
“Look to Me and be saved all the ends of the earth!” (Isaiah 45:22) Muslims are looking upon Jesus in dreams and visions. The word “look” in Isaiah 45:22 is more accurately “turn,” denoting turning to look in another direction. Muslims are turning from darkness to behold the Light of the true and Living God and Saviour! One point six billion people, about 23 per cent of the world’s population, are Muslims. It might surprise you that India and Pakistan together have more Muslims than the entire population of North Africa and the Mideast, which we traditionally think of as the major center of Islam. Asia also boasts the country with the largest single Muslim population . . . Indonesia. Most of these areas seem to have ever-tightening restrictions on non-Muslims being allowed to share their faith. In fact, Bibles are forbidden in some Muslim countries, and giving a Bible to a Muslim can be punishable by prison, or worse. But One Person can freely walk through the iron gates of Islam-- the Risen Lord Jesus! In my own travels through Africa and the Middle East, I would frequently hear stories about Muslims experiencing remarkable dreams and visions about Jesus. I began to document many of these accounts and wrote a book called “Miracles Among Muslims: The Jesus Visions.” Dreams about Jesus among Muslims began in the 19th Century simultaneously with the return of the Jews to the land of Israel.
Recently, we were invited to Dallas, Texas, to speak at a conference on the subject of Muslim encounters with the Lord Jesus. These dreams and visions are happening with increasing impact and frequency among Muslims. Along with other conference speakers I could see a pattern of divine visitations… and in some cases entire Muslim communities are experiencing revelations and conversations with Jesus through dreams and visions. Entitled “Awaken!,” the conference gathered together believers and key workers in the Islamic Harvest to share notes on this remarkable phenomenon of Muslims around the world who are having life-changing supernatural encounters with Jesus. A speaker at our Dallas conference said he stopped at a Texas petrol station where the attendant at the cashier window was a Saudi Arabian immigrant wearing a hijab (headscarf). He asked her if she had ever seen Jesus in a dream or a vision. She said Jesus had been appearing to her in visions and dreams for 40 years! My friend led her in a prayer on the spot to receive an assurance of salvation after 40 years of divine visitations! We are indeed living in extraordinary times when God himself is fulfilling the words of the prophet Joel who wrote that in the last days God will pour out His spirit on all flesh. And it’s up to us . . . this generation . . . to finish the race, as Paul put it. That is your challenge and mine to share the Good News of Jesus.
Contending for the Healing Arm of the Cross! By Christine Darg May the Lord bless you with “perfect peace,” which in Hebrew is “shalom shalom” (double peace), as you minister healing to others. One of the character diseases we can suffer is blaming God for trials and afflictions. This is a serious issue. I see people often becoming angry at God, but when we study the Book of Job, he didn’t sin “by charging God foolishly.” How many times have we charged God foolishly in a difficult situation? God is just and holy; instead of murmuring against God when things go wrong, it’s far more likely that the root of the problem is sin or rebellion, or satanic opposition, but not God. Often when I’m asked to pray for somebody, I will have a Holy Spirit-directed intuition to know if faith is actually resident in the person who needs healing. Sometimes we just know by the Spirit when it is a person’s appointed time to die, so there is no cause to believe God for unrealistic expectations. I visited a dying woman in hospital who didn’t want to be healed; she wanted to go to be with the Lord, so prayer for healing would have been futile and definitely against her wishes. I enjoy connecting with you on Facebook and Twitter, and recently a woman wrote to me concerning a Christian gentleman, whom she said was seriously ill with cancer. She said the man was about 70 years old, and she believed he still had work to do for the Lord. I replied: the important thing is that HE believes he has unfinished work and that he’s willing to fight the fight of faith! A person’s own attitude toward God as Healer and Deliverer is vitally important. I did pray that the man would rise up in indignation against the cancer and that he would fight the fight of faith and also that he would repent of any possible ground given to the evil one—that’s not a judgmental statement. It’s just a fact of life, that we must examine ourselves often to see if there is within any
of us “an evil heart of unbelief ” as Hebrews 3: 12 warns, or some type of sin that carries the consequences of an open season for the devil. The intuitive healer may also perceive if a person has sinned a sin unto death. In 1 John 5:16, the apostle states the possibility of a sin unto death: “If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that.” This verse teaches us that sin should not be trifled with, and that no sin is trivial. There are various degrees and gradations in sin. There are sins of ignorance and sins due to weakness and wickedness. There are sins of a Peter, but there are sins of a Judas. I encourage you to open your heart to the Lord and ask Him to forgive you of all known and unknown sins, to save you and to heal you. Perhaps you are certain of your salvation, but perhaps you are not certain of your healing. For an assurance in your heart concerning both salvation and healing, I invite you to pray and to agree with the following prayer: “Father God, thank you that Jesus fully paid the penalty at the Cross for the forgiveness of all my sins and for the healing of all my sicknesses, infirmities, pains and diseases. I do believe He was raised from the dead, and I do confess with my mouth that ‘Jesus is Lord.’ Your Word promises that all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Therefore, I call upon Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, and I am therefore saved, spirit, soul and body! Lord, I do believe your Word that ‘Surely He has borne my sickness and carried my pains, and He was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquities. The chastisement for my peace was upon Him, and by His stripes, I was healed!’ Amen and Amen!”
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Exploits Ministry PO Box 109 Hereford England HR4 9XR PO Box 71780 Henrico, Virginia 23255 USA 23255-1780 ©All rights reserved October 2013 Exploits is a registered charity (108 5931) in the UK and a non-profit 501c3 in USA