This sermon emphasizes the importance of identifying with God's ultimate purpose, which is to have a people for Himself, zealous for good works. It highlights the significance of waiting for God's chosen remnant and the role of the Holy Spirit in transforming hearts. The sermon also stresses the power of intercessory prayer for Israel and the need to pray for the release of the Holy Spirit. Additionally, it discusses the impact of blessing or cursing Israel and the consequences of anti-Semitism. The sermon concludes with a reminder not to instruct God in prayer but to trust in His sovereignty.

Now my next suggestion, number four, is identify with God's ultimate purpose, which is what? Why has God tolerated the appalling wickedness of humanity for hundreds and hundreds of years? What is He waiting for? Come up, sweetheart. My answer is, He's waiting for a people for Himself. That's what God is going to get out of history. Not an institution, not a lot of buildings, not a lot of government schemes, but a people for Himself. And Ruth and I have had impressed upon us Titus 2, 11 through 14, which we will now say. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that the denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. That's what God intends to get out of history, His own special people, zealous for good works. That's why He waits with endless patience while wickedness runs its course, because God has a chosen remnant, both Jew and Gentile. And He's not going to let history close till every one of them has come to Him through Jesus. So when you pray for Israel, don't start by praying for political issues. You can do that, but that's not primary. What's primary is that Israel will become the special people that God is after. And He's going to go on until He gets it. Now the next principle is connected with that. It's based on Zechariah 4, 6. This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel. Not by might, and not by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord of hosts, that's the Lord of armies. So if it was a question of might or power, God has it all. But might and power, laws and military power, will not do what needs to be done. Because what needs to be done is to change the heart of men and women. And the only agent that can do that is the Holy Spirit. So, you can get very upset about the political situation in Israel, and we often do. But bear in mind that God is tolerating a lot of things He doesn't approve of, because He's waiting for His own special people. And the only power that will accomplish that is the mysterious, invisible power of the Holy Spirit. In 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 3, Paul brings out this principle. In this chapter he's kind of stating his qualifications to be a preacher. And it impresses me that he didn't say he studied under Gamaliel. He doesn't trot out his degrees, but he says, if you want to know my message, go to Corinth. Because he said, when I arrived there, no one had ever heard the gospel, and it was a wicked city, full of every kind of immorality and wickedness. But he said, go and look at the people that have heard my message, and then you'll know what I believe. See, that impresses me, pastors and others here. The real justification of your ministry is what you produce. Paul could have said all sorts of things about his rabbinical learning, but that wasn't what interested him. He said, if you want to know whether my message works, go to Corinth, and there you'll find a demonstration of the results of my ministry. And then he said to the Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 3, you are manifestly a letter of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, of the heart. And that has become so vivid to me. The only agent that can write on human hearts is the Holy Spirit. And if the Holy Spirit isn't in our preaching, we can lecture people, admonish people, challenge people, accuse people, but nothing will happen. It's only in the measure that the Holy Spirit flows through us that people's hearts can be changed. And God is looking for a people whose hearts have been changed from hard stone to vibrant, responsive flesh. And he'll wait until he's got it. It will often inconvenience us. We'll have to deal with awkward people who get in our way and interfere with our pleasures and make life difficult for us. But God says, too bad, but I'm waiting until I've got the people that I'm looking for. And that will only come by the Holy Spirit. And one of the greatest and most effective intercessory prayers is to pray for the release of the Holy Spirit upon Israel. And it's beginning to happen, but it needs a great deal more. All right. Suggestion number six, pray according to Psalm 102, verses 13 and 18. Let's turn to that and read it. Psalm 102, verses 13 and 18. This is a revelation that was given to the psalmist in a mood of deep despair. I mean, he had come to the end of everything. He felt God had lifted him up and then thrown him away. What can be worse than that? And the opening verses of the psalm are all a dirge, a mournful dirge. But then, dear brothers and sisters, if you're struggling with depression, of course none of you are, except that it's the most common single psychological problem of Christians. If you should be struggling with depression, do what the psalmist did. Look away from your problems and look to the Lord. Because as long as you focus on your problems, you'll have to live with them. And so much counseling is just causing people to focus on their problems. And there's no solution. But the psalmist said in verse 12, But you, O Lord, shall endure forever, and the remembrance of your name to all generations. And there was a total change of mood at that point. And he had a revelation of the end-time visitation of God upon the Jewish people. And he said, You will arise and have mercy on Zion, for the time to favor her, yes, the set time has come. For your servants take pleasure in her stones and show favor to her dust. Now that's one of the marks of God's servants. They take pleasure in Jerusalem's stones and show favor to Jerusalem's dust. Do you have that mark? Then it says, So the nations shall fear the name of the Lord and all the kings of the earth, your glory. God's intervention on behalf of Israel is destined to demonstrate His glory to all nations. Verse 16, For the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory. The old King James said it. When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory. One of the great indications that we're approaching the end of the age and the Lord is getting ready to appear in His glory is that He is rebuilding Zion. So, every one of us who loves the Lord should be happy today. Now the psalmist said, The time to favor her, the set time has come. Sweetheart, come up again, we're going to do another. The Hebrew word for set time is moed, which is the word used of all the sacred festivals of Egypt, of Israel, Passover, Pentecost, Yom Kippur, the New Year, everything. So God has a calendar, and on His calendar there are certain moedim, entered it beforehand. You see, that's your business as an intercessor, is to remind the Lord of what's on His calendar. Then you become the Lord's mosqueer, or more probably, mosqueer up. And one of the most effective forms of intercession is to say, Lord, this is the set time to favor Zion. Please do what you've said. Now I've asked Ruth up because we have a rather complicated grace that we say at meals four times a day, because we eat four times a day. Not because we're greedy, but because it's easier to avoid putting on weight if you eat smaller meals more frequently. Now I make no charge for that advice. So we are going to say the grace we say before every meal. Now I can't help smiling because there was a meeting in Britain, I think two or three years ago, and I was talking along this line and I said, Come up Ruth and we'll say our grace. Well, Ruth got the giggles. And I didn't really know what she was giggling about. She said, I was thinking all those people, they've been a long time without food, and if we say a grace, it'll just stimulate their appetite. Anyhow, we said it amidst our giggles. Now the family grace started in 1938 with my first wife in Jerusalem. And it was very simple. Like everything my first wife did, Dear Heavenly Father, bless our food in Jesus' name. But gradually accretions have taken place, mainly through me. So we'll give you, we might as well give you the whole thing. It takes a little while, I warn people when they eat with us, when we say Amen, that doesn't mean the end. All right, are we there? Dear Heavenly Father, bless our food in Jesus' name and the hands that prepared it. Show mercy and favor to Israel in this set time. Send revival to the United States, Great Britain, and the English-speaking world. Amen. That's not the end. Then we say, quicken our mortal bodies by your Holy Spirit and help us to eat wisely. And then we make a proclamation. Shall we make one now? What should it be? You tell me. Well, we'll do 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 and 24. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify us completely, and may our whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he who calls us, who also will do it. So that's a little pattern. The reason I did that was to show you it's effective to pray that God will do what he said he will do at the set time. When you identify the set time, then you know how to pray. All right, another very obvious prayer is Psalm 122, verse 6. Many of you, I know, are familiar with that. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper who love you. Some people consider that part of the prayer. I think it's part of God's reward. When you pray for the peace of Jerusalem and love Jerusalem, you will prosper. You know how it goes in Hebrew, it's kind of a, what do you call it, not onomatopoeic, but where the same sound occurs. Yeah, well, that's not the word I want. Alliteration. That's it. Thank you. Go to the top of the class. All right. In Hebrew, my Hebrew is limited, but it's so beautiful. Sha'alu shalom l'yerushalayim. You've heard all the sh's and the l's. Sha'alu shalom l'yerushalayim. Do you want to try saying a little Hebrew? Say it with me. Sha'alu shalom l'yerushalayim. Yerushalayim is Jerusalem. Now, I want to say again, when you pray for the peace of Jerusalem, you have to pray with an intelligent understanding of God's prophetic purposes. It doesn't just mean that peace will come down upon Jerusalem now and everybody will stop fighting everybody else. Not at all. But it means go on praying until God's purposes for the way that peace is to come to Jerusalem shall be worked out. And the truth of the matter is Jerusalem will never know peace until the Prince of Peace comes. You say, well, why should I pray for Jerusalem? I live in Phoenix, or I live in Dallas, or I live in Miami, or wherever it may be, even New York. The answer as I understand it is that God has so arranged things that no other city on earth will know permanent peace until Jerusalem knows peace. So when you pray for the peace of Jerusalem, you are also praying toward peace for your particular city. All right. Now, the next suggestion I have is bless and be blessed. I want to turn to Numbers 24 verse 9. You see, when we pray our grace, which we've just been through, you realize every time we pray it we're qualifying for the blessing of God. I mean, it's foolish to turn that down. I don't mean the blessing of God is easy, because if you start praying for Israel, you'll get all sorts of opposition you never experienced before. But that reluctant prophet Balaam, who was hired to curse Israel, did his best to curse, but under the overruling of God ended up by blessing more and more and more. And every time he tried to curse worse, he blessed more. His final words in Numbers 24 verse 9, speaking to Israel, he says, Blessed is he who blesses you, and cursed is he who curses you. So you've got a choice. You can either get a blessing or a curse. If you bless Israel, God will bless you. If you curse Israel, God will curse you. Now I have a book called Blessing or Curse. You can choose. And the theme of this book is, first of all, are you under the blessing of God or the curse of God? Because a lot of people are under the curse of God and don't know it. That's why their lives are going wrong. And then the next theme is how to get out from under the curse and get into the blessing. And I deal with most of the common causes for curses. One of the commonest and the most destructive is anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism automatically brings the curse of God upon an individual, a community, a church, a nation, or a civilization. I have here in chapter 8 of this book the testimony of a Palestinian Arab who is a personal friend of ours. His name, which is given in the book, is Nabil Haddad. He was born in Haifa, immigrated to the United States, went into business, became very successful. In fact, at one time he owned nine McDonald's and then went bankrupt. And, in the course of all that, met the Lord and was baptized in the Holy Spirit. And then God began to deal with him about his finances. And he heard Derrick Prince preaching on curse or blessing, or blessing or curse. And then he says at the bottom of page 85, For months the Lord continued to show me additional areas of curses in my life. Each time I repented and claimed my release on the basis of Jesus becoming a curse for me. One day as I was worshipping I said, How great you are! You created the universe and everything in it. The Lord asked me if I really believed that. I said, Yes, Lord. He said, What about the Jewish people? Do you still hold resentment in your heart against them? Now, 98% of Palestinian Arabs have resentment for the Jews. And they have some pretty strong historical reasons for it. So God said to him, What about the Jewish people? Do you still hold resentment in your heart against them? I remembered how my whole family had always cursed the Jews. And this is a pretty typical Palestinian Arab family. It was a good class and they were nominal Christians. But they always cursed the Jews. I was trained to hate them from my earliest years. Now in the presence of the Lord I said, I renounce any resentment in my heart toward the Jewish people. I forgive them. Immediately something changed inside of me. Shortly after this I saw that God in his word had told Abraham, the father of the Jews, I'll bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. Then I realized that my finances had not been under a blessing, but under a curse. A curse of insufficiency. I had never been able to make enough money to meet my needs. Even if I made $250,000, I would need $300,000. Later, when I made $500,000, I would need $700,000 to cover my expenses. Since 1982, when I was released from the curse of anti-Semitism and the curse of insufficiency that went with it, my income has always exceeded my expenses and my needs. And I am able to give liberally to the work of the kingdom of God. God has also healed my body and my emotions. I am totally free from depression. I can truly say I'm walking in victory. My testimony has helped many others to be delivered from the curse and to live under God's blessing. And we know for a fact that to be true. He has a particular ministry to Jewish people. He relates to them in a special way, and also to Moslems. And quite a significant number, both Jews and Moslems, have met the Lord through Nabil Haddad. But first of all, the Lord had to do something in his heart. So there's a pretty up-to-date testimony. It doesn't pay to curse the Jews. It doesn't pay to have resentment in your heart against them. If you want to be blessed, then you have to bless Israel. Point number nine, about prayer. Don't tell God what to do. Have any of you ever done that? All right. Let's turn to Isaiah chapter 40 for a moment. Just a short passage from Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40, verse 13. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has taught him? With whom did he take counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice? Who taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the balance. Look, he lifts up the isles or the coastlands as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beasts sufficient for a burned offering. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted by him less than nothing, and worthless. Notice the declining order. First of all, all nations are as the small dust in the balance. Then they are as nothing, and then they are less than nothing. So God says, do you think I need your advice? Do I need to be instructed by you? Well, that's a very common failing of Christians. They think that God needs their advice, and they're prepared to tell him what to do and how to do it. And that's often true in the political realm. When it comes to election time, a lot of Christians tell God who should be elected. And they're sometimes wrong. Yes? Yes. You see, last year there were elections in Israel and in the United States. And I was in Israel when the elections took place. And just before the election we had a most unique meeting when a lot of different Jewish congregations came together near Tel Aviv. And I mean, you know the saying, if you have three Jews in a city, two Jews in a city, you knew three synagogues. You know that saying? One for one of them to go to, one for the other, and one in which neither of them would be seen dead. Well, some of that carries over when they become believers. And it is not easy for the Jewish congregations in Israel to relate to one another, although tremendous progress has been made. There are seven Hebrew-speaking congregations in Jerusalem, and they meet regularly, once every month for fellowship, which is a tremendous stride ahead. Anyhow, we were down there near Tel Aviv, and the remarkable thing was there was no disharmony among any of us the whole time. And we felt we had prayed through about the election. And I think a great majority of Jewish believers were convinced that Shamir ought to be re-elected. But he wasn't. Well then, a little while later, here in the United States, there were the presidential elections. And as I understand it, many committed Christians believed that Bush should be re-elected. But he wasn't. So don't try and tell God what to do. For more information, visit www.fema.org