Israel’s enemies Jacob Damkani

Dear beloved friends, servants of Yeshua, Saints in the mighty grace of our God, Much love and shalom from God our Father and Yeshua our Lord. I thank my God with great joy when I remember you and intercede on behalf of you. I pray with love, faith, joy and hope that my all-sufficient God will meet each and every one of you with your every need according to His riches, glory, wisdom and power, which are in our Lord Yeshua. Your fellowship with us in Trumpet, your love, prayer and financial support in the furtherance of the Gospel among God's covenant people is of great blessing and encouragement to us. Thanks to your love, prayer and your generosity because of your big heart for the lost, God is filling our heart with great joy and shalom in His service. After receiving so many letters and telephone calls requesting me to write down my message about the enemies of Israel, and after seeing and hearing what a blessing it was to so many, with God's help and by His grace I shall now write this message down on paper. As you well know, the choosing of Israel as God's own possession is next to the historical and spiritual meaning also a shadow of something far greater; it is a shadow of the heart cry and desire of God to choose for Himself the elect people from every tribe tongue and nation, for God's desire is that no man shall perish, but that all would have eternal life. The deliverance of Israel from physical slavery in Egypt is a shadow of the heart cry of God to set people free from slavery to sin so the Holy Spirit can lead them into freedom to serve Him in Yeshua. The Promised Land is first of all the land that God gave to His people Israel. But it is also a shadow of the promised kingdom. The temple, built out of stones, silver and gold on Mount Moriah, is a shadow of the temple God wants to build for Himself in people. The animal sacrifices in the temple are a shadow of the ultimate sacrifice - Yeshua, our blessed Lamb. The Shabbat rest is a shadow of the rest that God grants in Yeshua. Our journey for 40 years in the desert and the sukkah (tabernacle) that we built there is a shadow of this world we are just passing through - but God is preparing a place for us. The story of Noah's ark is a shadow of what is coming upon this world. Now there is another great shadow, a truth, which I have recently discovered. It is one of the most powerful lessons God wants to teach His children and if we'll be true doers of the Word our lives will literally be transformed and blessed without limit: “Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been wrought in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of Jehovah; for it is a terrible thing that I do with thee. Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: but ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their Asherim; for thou shalt worship no other god: for Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Exodus 34:10.14

Israel’s enemies Jacob Damkani

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I have read this passage and come across the names of these nations many times. But I have never really thought about them. Now I have discovered a shadow of something most powerful God wants to do in the life of each believer. I discovered here types of spirits that God wants us to deal with so they'll be driven out of our lives through our obedience to the covenant. These types of spirits are torturing many believers. God wants to help us even as He did with Israel as He guided them and went before them to conquer the land. If and when we love our God with all our hearts, if we are totally obedient, cooperate and work with Him, we will surely drive these spirits out of our lives so that we might be totally free to move in the power of the Holy Spirit. Names reflect the character of individuals. So it is with the names of nations. They reflect different types of spirits which He promised to drive out. The first nation mentioned is the Amorites and its root comes from the word ‘amar’ which means ‘to say’. God simply says here: "I have given you your mouth . put it to good use! Glorify My name with it, use it for the building up of My kingdom, speak words of encouragement, love and kindness, share the Gospel, speak truth and do not gossip". We can take it even one step further: Yeshua said "Perceive ye not, that whatsoever goeth into the mouth passeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But the things, which proceed out of the mouth, come forth out of the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings." Matthew 15:17-19 God wants complete and absolute control of our heart - so out of our mouth evil thoughts should never be expressed. "If fire breaks out, and catch in thorns, so that the shocks of grain, or the standing grain, or the field are consumed, he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution." Exodus 22:6 But what restitution of gold or silver can we ever make once we have started a fire with our big mouth and murdered a person's character because of our pride, envy, jealousy, competition, or other hidden motives which cause us to start such a fire and bring shame on the Lord, on our own lives and on the lives of others? We must repent, beloved, and drive this spirit out of our lives, giving no room for wrong use of this mouth, which God gave us to His glory. Then the Canaanites. This comes from the word 'Kni'ah' – 'submission'. As you well know the Promised Land was first called Canaan. The Lord tells us that when we enter the promised kingdom through faith, He wants our absolute submission to Him and Him alone! As God commanded the Israelites to take heed and not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land lest it be a snare in their walk with Him, so the call of God is upon our lives that when we enter the Promised Kingdom, we won’t make a covenant with the idols of this world but we will break down their altars, dash in pieces their pillars, cut down the temples of Baal and Asherim and then worship and be submitted to Him alone. Israel as a nation has not entered the spiritual realms of Canaan 'submission' but we who are born of the Holy Spirit can live a life of submission in God's kingdom. The Hittites' name is derived from the word 'khat' which means 'fear'. Here God tells us: “Fear not! Put your trust in Me, live a life of submission and give no room to fear!” Now fear is a legitimate emotion that God has placed in our lives. If there were no fear in peoples’ hearts, we would have much more crime and violence, many more accidents of all kinds, many more wars, and who knows what else. But as for every good thing that God created, satan has a counterfeit: the unhealthy fear that paralyzes many believers from stepping out in faith and doing what needs to be done in our Lord's kingdom. One of the sessions of teaching in our groups before we go out to the streets of Israel with the Gospel is how to handle opposition. Colorfully I paint before the believers various possible scenarios of what could happen when the opposition arrives. "You might be spat on or angrily cursed at with all kinds of dirty words, pushed, punched in the face, robbed of your bag full of literature, or you might be kicked, stoned or killed." By the time I finish describing all these things, the group gets cold feet, fear takes hold of almost every heart in the group and they have butterflies

Israel’s enemies Jacob Damkani

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in their stomachs. Some of the beloved participants probably think: "What have I done?! Why have I come?! It would be better if I used my vacation time for going to Hawaii, lying on the beach, reading my Bible, praying." As the time comes and we head out for our first outreach, as we start singing in Hebrew and the crowd of Israelis gather round about us, as we start preaching, conversing, presenting the Gospel, passing out books, exchanging addresses, as we see how open, hungry and thirsty the Israelis are for spiritual truth, great praise, joy and thankfulness fills our hearts and there is no more room for fear. What a blessing that our participants don't allow their fear to stop them from doing what God has called them to do. By the end of the outreach almost every one is crying before departing. Often we hear: "In this campaign I have learned more from the Lord than I did in 20 years." Beloved of God, not everyone has to join us on our 'to the Jew first' campaigns. Not every one is to take the Gospel to some Arab country, or to give or to serve or do the same thing: but one thing for sure, fear should not paralyze a child of God. God will drive fear out of our life if we only trust and obey. I can tell you that after 25 years of street evangelism I still feel butterflies every time I go out to preach the gospel. However, a true servant of God does not let fear stop him from doing what he knows God wants to accomplish through him. Please do not let fear stop you from trusting and obeying, for there is no other way to bring glory to our one true God. Why should you let fear rob you of a great blessing that God has for you? Please step into the water, then the sea will open up before you and you will enter into the blessings the Lord has prepared for you to inherit. The Perizzite: the root of the name Perizzite is 'perez'. This root is used in the Bible to describe open country that is not fortified. It describes a person who is scatterbrained, not focused on God alone and not willing to consecrate his whole life or to let Him change his character. This is a person who is cloudy in his mind and who is not sure what he wants to do or where he is going. It has to do with being double-minded, a person who is dancing on the fence; he has one foot in the kingdom and the other foot in the world. At times the mind is sitting with the Lord in the heavenly places and there is a true desire to serve God, and at times the mind is planning a way for the momentary pleasures which sin can offer. "And Elijah came near unto all the people, and said, how long go ye limping between the two sides? If Jehovah be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word." (1 Kings 18:21) No one will ever be guided by the Holy Spirit of God with a Perizzite spirit. It is better for such a person to go to the world than to remain in the church and defile the house of God. When such a person gets his fill of the vomit of this world perhaps he will wake up, repent and turn to God as the prodigal son did. It is a much better place than the place of the older brother who is a type of those who keep visiting the church but bringing more shame to God than glory because the Perizzite spirit has not been driven out. Beloved, make sure you are single minded and focused on the things of God. The Hivites derive their name from the word 'khavaya' - 'experience'. It describes a person who is constantly seeking after emotional experiences and excitement. He can't bear a boring life. Many believers are bored in their life with God and looking for excitement elsewhere. One may get excited about a new car or a bigger house, perhaps a raise in salary or a love relationship, a child or a grandchild about to be born. Or maybe he is excited about a trip to a far country or about a new diploma, or a bit of a suntan on very white skin, or he is excited about losing weight. Beloved, there is nothing wrong with any of this . it is all absolutely legitimate, but "If any man cometh unto me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:26

Israel’s enemies Jacob Damkani

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Surely the Lord wants us to love our family members, but if we love them more than Him and if the Hivite is so strong in us and we get excited about our family and such things more than we do about our King and His kingdom, we cannot be His disciples. Now, you might argue and say, "I don't want to be a disciple, I just want to be saved." Beloved, the Lamb of God is also the Lion of Judah. He came not only as a Savior but as Lord as well. The only way to get long-lasting excitement about our God and His kingdom is to serve Him in a practical way. Remember: I hear and I forget. I see and understand, I then act and my life will start changing. Much of our Lord's impact on people was His life-style and His passion to communicate the kingdom. He lived the kingdom principles with great compassion for others and thus He revived kingdom living in the lives of others. Get excited about putting the talents God blessed you with to good use. If you don't know how to be a blessing to other people lives, pray, seek the mind of the Lord, speak to your pastor, share your heart with other brothers and sisters. I urge you, beloved, to get excited about God and His kingdom. The Jebusites: this name comes from the word 'yevus' but it can also be understood as 'tvusa' which means 'defeat'. God tells us here that as His children we are not to walk in this world defeated. He has come to fight our battles and the victory is ours. We are more than conquerors, overcomers, redeemed, empowered by the Holy Spirit, our names are recorded in the book of life, we are the children of God, heaven is open before us, we are the light and salt of this earth, we are partakers of the nature of God and we all have the fruit of the Spirit. With all that and so much more that God accomplished for us, why should any child of God walk as a defeated person? Here God says: "Shod your feet with the Gospel of peace, let shalom reign in your heart, come sit with Me in the heavenly places, let not this world trouble you, I have defeated satan and all the schemes of men. Trust and obey Me, walk blamelessly before Me, let confidence fill your heart, for I am with you and have defeated all your enemies - so who can be against you?" Time and again I meet believers who so much wish they were born as Jews. Yes, we are very much aware of all that God has done for Israel as a nation, how He delivered them out of Egypt and parted the Red Sea before them, how He went before them in a cloud by day and as pillar of fire by night, how He fed them manna from heaven and gave them water from the rock. Neither their clothes nor their shoes wore out in 40 years and the Jordan river opened before them, the walls of Jericho collapsed at the sound of their trumpets. Yes, we know how the sun stood still as Joshua defeated the enemies and we are aware of many other miracles God did for His people Israel. But now let us look at all that God did for us as believers - Jews and Gentiles alike. He left all His glory and clothed Himself in flesh and blood, He came to this world born of a virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit, He healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, opened the eyes of the blind and let the deaf hear. He cast out demons and fed the multitudes, He spoke great words of wisdom and introduced the kingdom of God. With all that in mind, we see that all the great miracles we read about in the first 25 chapters of Matthew do not compare with the great work of God that is described in the last three chapters. "Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing". He said from the cross, and the greatest of all: He is risen from the dead, He forgives and gives the Holy Spirit to whomsoever believes. With the gift of the Holy Spirit He accomplished for us all that I have described in connection with the Jebusites, and He is granting us eternal life, establishing within us the kingdom of God. When I think of all that God accomplished for us as believers, it seems to me that it is far greater to be spiritually free to serve Him in His kingdom than to be born as a Jew circumcised in the flesh.

Israel’s enemies Jacob Damkani

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"But they, in their own kingdom, with Thy great goodness which Thou didst give them, with the broad and rich land which Thou didst set before them, did not serve Thee or turn from their evil deeds. Behold, we are slaves today, and as to the land which Thou didst give to our fathers to eat of its fruit and its bounty, behold, we are slaves on it." Nehemiah 9:35.36 With everything that God did for us as born-again believers, please let the Holy Spirit speak to you as we read this passage in another fashion: "But we in our own kingdom, with Thy great goodness which Thou didst give us with the broad and rich land which Thou didst set before us, did not serve Thee or turn from our evil deeds. Behold, we are slaves today, and as to the land (the kingdom of God) which Thou didst give to our fathers (and to us) to eat of its fruit and its bounty, behold, we are slaves on it." My dear beloved friends, my coworkers in God's kingdom, my true partners in the good fight, I want to bring to your attention and encourage you with the fact that Nehemiah portrayed a New Testament believer. How? He was not specifically called by God as Moses, Jeremiah or Amos were. He simply heard the news that the brethren brought to him from Judah: "And they said unto me, the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven." Nehemiah 1:3.4 Nehemiah was the type of a man who delighted himself in the Lord, who loved the law and did not defile himself, just like Daniel. He was so much in love with God, and whatsoever was dear to the heart of God was dear to his own heart. So when his heart was broken over the things which broke the heart of God, God found a willing vessel in him and He began to pave the way and arrange all the circumstances before Nehemiah to restore Jerusalem and bring about a revival. Just as God promised through Jeremiah whom He called to bring Judah back at the end of the 70 years, so now He accomplished His promise with Nehemiah He never specifically called. In the book of Nehemiah you will come across every one of those types of spirits that we saw as shadows in the nations that God drove out from before Israel. Look how Nehemiah dealt with and ignored the Amorites, the filthy mouth of Sanballat and others who accused him with all kinds of lies. See how he was in absolute submission to accomplish the will of God, giving no room to the Canaanite. See how he dealt with the Hittite and did not give room to fear even though he had every reason to fear. Read and see how he was focused giving no room to the Perizzite spirit to distract him from the goal. Take a look how he did not let the Hivite, 'excitement', take a hold of his heart, but his excitement came from getting the task of his Lord done. Grab a hold of all this truth in the life of Nehemiah and see how he did not give room to the spirit of defeat, the Jebusite. Consider now this marvelous truth: The Lord has commissioned us to take the Gospel unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Now that the Gospel has reached the four corners of the earth and God is gathering His covenant people back to their Promised Land as dry bones, God asks the Son of Man to prophesy, "And He said to me, Prophesy to the Spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the Spirit, so says the Lord Jehovah: Come from the four winds, O Spirit, and breathe on these dead ones so that they may live." Ezekiel 37:9 Could it be that now, as the fullness of the Gentiles is coming in, God is calling you, the Gentile believers, to come from the four winds, to breathe on these dead ones so that they may put their faith and trust in the Rock of their salvation and come to life? "For faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17(. Could it be that the time has come for the Gentile believers to provoke Israel to jealousy, to breathe the promised Spirit into the dry bones by proclaiming the Gospel 'to the Jew first'? May we understand that if we deny the need of Israel's conversion, we undermine the foundation of our own salvation!

Israel’s enemies Jacob Damkani

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Beloved of God, I am confident in the Holy Spirit that God's time has come for the believers from the nations to be instruments in the hand of God and a true answer to the heart .cry of the Lord who is calling them to provoke Israel to jealousy. Please bear with me as we come to the end of this message and to the most important part of it, which has to do with the practical application of all you just finish reading. Just as the brethren brought the news to Nehemiah, I, Jacob, bring you news from the Promised Land of Israel. Now again God's covenant people, the Jewish people, are in real despair, in great trouble! The religious Jewish establishment is continuing to pour much sand and salt into the eyes of my people Israel, misleading them with false and foolish visions and oracles. Socially the nation is torn to pieces and they have no sense of direction. Economically, Israel is crumbling with many people living in severe poverty. The Gentile world once again is rising up against Israel and the Israelis feel desperate, lonely, and discouraged and they are reaching the end of the rope. God no longer has Moses, Jeremiah, or Nehemiah to work with Him on earth, but He has you and me, born of His Spirit. We are talking about the very same Spirit of God that drove away all the nations from before Israel, nations that are the shadows of all the spirits which He wants to drive out of you and me so we can be free to serve the Lord in His kingdom at this time of history. Beloved of God, dear friends, would you please step with us into the deep water, join us and become part of a mission that is determined to be used by God in provoking the Jews to jealousy? It is time for dreams to come true; in all His might and wisdom God is providing and arranging the spiritual platform in the heart of His people Israel. On one hand He brings Israel to the end of their rope as in the book of Judges, and on the other hand He is raising up the one new man, the Jew and the Gentile as one to be the answer to the heart cry of Paul, provoking them to jealousy: "Did they stumble that they might fall? God forbid: but by their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy.

Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? But I speak to you that are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I glorify my ministry; if by any means I may provoke to jealousy them that are my flesh, and may save some of them.

For if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" Romans 11:11.15 At this time in Israel's history we can be sure and confident that by the grace of God and with His help, we will accomplish His will together: the Jew and Gentile believers, the one new man, we will surely provoke Israel to jealousy so much more and thus see a great harvest. If God used us to bring a revolution in presenting the Gospel to Israel out of this small house in Jaffa, imagine what a revival He will bring with the greater facility in Tel Aviv as we simply obey. Great is the task ahead of us for which I did not ask, but a privileged to serve. Thank you so much for your true sincere love, prayer and support. May God open your eyes to see all that He is doing with you and us in order to bring His will to fruition. To Him be all the Glory as together we keep on serving. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain, Jacob Damkani