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Shalom Friends and Prayer Partners! |
“I Will Give you a New Heart”
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Written by Eliel
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We’ve been continuing to reach out to Shlomit and praying with her, (you can see more about the beginning of her search for Jesus, Yeshua from an ultra-Orthodox Jewish background here), and God has been working in amazing ways.
After many phone calls, she has finally decided to put her faith in Yeshua as the Messiah! Hallelujah!
She is actually considering making a public statement of her faith in Yeshua - even though it would almost certainly mean being completely cut off from her family and community!
In our latest talks, she was asking questions about how to build a strong relationship with Yeshua. I started to teach her about worshipping God in song, and shared one of my favorite songs with her, "Worthy of It All." She responded, “Wow, this is so new for me!”
She also wanted to learn more about prayer, so I taught her The Lord’s Prayer. Whenever we pray together, she talks with Yeshua with such amazing freedom!
It’s wonderful to see her hunger for Yeshua and how she is excitedly reading the Word of God. She recently said, “There’s so much life in the New Testament!”
Her heart has truly come to life! It reminds me of Ezekiel 36:24-28 - God has given her “a new heart and a new spirit”!
At the end of our last talk when we prayed together, this is what she prayed:
“God, sometimes I think, ‘Why am I doing this to my family, why am I causing so much trouble?’ But then, when I think of what You did for me, how can I deny You? Thank You Jesus that I feel so much freedom in You and that I am no longer under the burden of the Law.”
I could hear how genuine her prayer was! She’s not struggling to find righteousness through the Law but has found it in Yeshua!
Afterwards, she said she needed to go - she was eager to get off the call so that she could spend more time with Yeshua! |
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A Voice in the Middle of the Night |
Shlomit has been sharing her new faith with her cousin, Matan. So she asked me if I would be willing to talk with him and explain more about Yeshua. I was more than willing to!
I knew I could not do it without the power and wisdom of God, so I began praying and asking God to give me wisdom and the words to say.
From the start Matan opposed me and accused me of “brainwashing” Shlomit, and causing her to leave her religion. What a “pleasant” start…
Anyhow, I let him express his heart, and when he was done, I told him that Shlomit is the one that always calls me and not the other way around, and that I am actually encouraging her to love God with all of her heart and follow God’s Word.
Matan shared how Shlomit is different now: she is more free and became more spiritual, constantly wanting to pray and dedicating everything to God. I was delighted to hear this!
Matan and I agreed to discuss the biblical prophecies of the Messiah. He challenged me, “If I prove to you that it’s not about Yeshua, would you leave your faith in Yeshua?” I countered, “If I prove to you that it is about Yeshua, would you believe?” So we both agreed to the terms.
After a few long conversations about the first prophecy from Daniel 9, which so clearly shows the timing of Messiah’s coming, His death, what He would accomplish, and how Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed after His coming, Matan came to understand that it clearly was fulfilled exactly during Yeshua’s time.
But unfortunately, Matan decided not to continue talking. I was greatly saddened, yet told him that I will be praying for him and if he wants to talk again, the door is open.
When I spoke with Shlomit about all this, she responded, “There is power in the name of Yeshua.” She said we need to declare Yeshua’s name to Matan.
God started to wake me up in the middle of the night to pray for Matan.
After one week, he called me with a really weird question/accusation: “Did you put a magic spell on me?” At first I didn’t understand what he meant. He explained: “I have dreams at night, that someone is telling me ‘Take up the Cross’”. Hallelujah, God is answering prayers!
I asked him, “Do you know Who said that?” He replied, “No. And what does it mean, anyway?!”
I explained that this was Yeshua’s call to all of us, and that it means to forsake everything to follow Him, even if it will cost everything, including our lives. I added, “Yeshua is calling you to Himself.”
I told him that I've been waking up at night and praying for him. He was so shocked that after our call, he called me right back and asked why I would do that for him! I responded, “God loves you and wants to save your life. There’s a battle right now for your life.”
In the last conversation with Shlomit, she said that she noticed that Matan’s heart is becoming softer toward Yeshua! All the glory be to God!
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A Voice in the Middle of the Night |
Shlomit has been sharing her new faith with her cousin, Matan. So she asked me if I would be willing to talk with him and explain more about Yeshua. I was more than willing to!
I knew I could not do it without the power and wisdom of God, so I began praying and asking God to give me wisdom and the words to say.
From the start Matan opposed me and accused me of “brainwashing” Shlomit, and causing her to leave her religion. What a “pleasant” start…
Anyhow, I let him express his heart, and when he was done, I told him that Shlomit is the one that always calls me and not the other way around, and that I am actually encouraging her to love God with all of her heart and follow God’s Word.
Matan shared how Shlomit is different now: she is more free and became more spiritual, constantly wanting to pray and dedicating everything to God. I was delighted to hear this!
Matan and I agreed to discuss the biblical prophecies of the Messiah. He challenged me, “If I prove to you that it’s not about Yeshua, would you leave your faith in Yeshua?” I countered, “If I prove to you that it is about Yeshua, would you believe?” So we both agreed to the terms.
After a few long conversations about the first prophecy from Daniel 9, which so clearly shows the timing of Messiah’s coming, His death, what He would accomplish, and how Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed after His coming, Matan came to understand that it clearly was fulfilled exactly during Yeshua’s time.
But unfortunately, Matan decided not to continue talking. I was greatly saddened, yet told him that I will be praying for him and if he wants to talk again, the door is open.
When I spoke with Shlomit about all this, she responded, “There is power in the name of Yeshua.” She said we need to declare Yeshua’s name to Matan.
God started to wake me up in the middle of the night to pray for Matan.
After one week, he called me with a really weird question/accusation: “Did you put a magic spell on me?” At first I didn’t understand what he meant. He explained: “I have dreams at night, that someone is telling me ‘Take up the Cross’”. Hallelujah, God is answering prayers!
I asked him, “Do you know Who said that?” He replied, “No. And what does it mean, anyway?!”
I explained that this was Yeshua’s call to all of us, and that it means to forsake everything to follow Him, even if it will cost everything, including our lives. I added, “Yeshua is calling you to Himself.”
I told him that I've been waking up at night and praying for him. He was so shocked that after our call, he called me right back and asked why I would do that for him! I responded, “God loves you and wants to save your life. There’s a battle right now for your life.”
In the last conversation with Shlomit, she said that she noticed that Matan’s heart is becoming softer toward Yeshua! All the glory be to God!
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Please pray with us: |
For the outreaches to the poor - Another woman, Leah, just received Yeshua as her Lord during the last outreach! Lord-willing we’ll share more of her story soon. But please pray for now for her husband Yedidyah. We’ve been sharing the Gospel with him for a number of months, sometimes sitting for several hours at a time. But he hasn’t yet made a decision to follow Yeshua. Please pray for their relationship also during this crucial moment in their lives - especially that Leah would begin living for Yeshua and Yedidyah would see the difference! For the new believers (just one example here):
Thank you for praying for Daniel (his story here and here, and prayer request in here)! We are back in touch again. He had an intense period with family and simply didn’t answer his phone for a while. But we urged him to really make sure to put God as his first priority and to daily seek Him in His Word and in prayer and to regularly meet with believers for discipleship. He confessed that he had made a wrong choice of priorities and recommitted to really seeking God first in every area of his life. For our Pro-Life and Gospel Campaign, all the other evangelistic videos, and daily follow-up with seekers - for wisdom, anointing, unity, and great fruitfulness, and that many would have their eyes opened to who Yeshua truly is and come to Him! |
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