Mike Bickle: ‘This is the Greatest Time of Crisis’ in Israel’s History
Pastor Mike Bickle says there is an acceleration in the global conversation about the nation of Israel right now, and for good reason.
In talking with many people in Israel, and with Messianic ministries throughout the United States, Bickle says he is hearing that “this may well be the greatest time of crisis in its 75-year history. The nation celebrates its 75th year anniversery on May 14.
Recent events in Israel indicate that the tensions and possibilities for war in the Middle East are increasing each day. Reports say that Iran has already “kick-started” a multi-front, Middle East war against Israel, and that Iran has already begun enriching uranium close to weapons-grade levels, which has a lot of people in Israel extremely worried.
It’s the biggest reason why, Bickle says, he and a collaboration of approximately 1,000 other ministries globally have started the Isaiah 62 Fast website, which is encouraging people around the world to join other believers to engage in prayer for Israel for at least one hour a day for 21 days (May 7-28) “for the increase of God’s salvation’s promises and plans for Jerusalem and Israel.”
“This prayer for Israel comes at the greatest hour of crisis in Israel’s history,” Bickle told John Matarazzo in an exclusive interview with Charisma News. “But beyond that is the explosion of conversation in the body of Christ around the biblical narrative of Israel.
“It’s not just conservative media outlets that are saying this about the crisis in Israel. Secular news media outlets are reporting this, too. So why should we care about this? It’s because, at the end of the day, what we’re really passionate about is the conversation in the body of Christ about Israel to explode. There is an acceleration in the global conversation. Right now, there’s a million believers that are talking about Israel, but I believe we can get four or five million a day and, with two or three people talking about it on their social media, numbers will explode.
“I think probably a year from today, and I’m just making this up, probably 20 million people will have heard about this, and we want it to keep growing.”
A collaboration of ministries—which includes that of Bickle, Jason Hubbard and Lou Engle—are calling 1 million believers to participate in this “global solemn assembly” on those 21 days in May. It is calling for people to fast in various ways and to pray for the Lord’s purposes for Israel and to ask Him to raise up as many as 100 million intercessors for Israel according to his promise in Isaiah 62.
Isaiah 62:6-7 reads, “I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem, who shall never hold their peace day nor night. You who remind the Lord, do not keep silent; give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a glory in the earth.”
The Isaiah 62 Fast website says that in the first three weeks of announcing the fast, more than 1 million are set to participate and to become watchmen in many ways.
The website reads, “Israel’s national repentance (Acts 3:19) and confession that Jesus is Messiah (Matt. 23:39) is deeply connected to Jesus’ second coming, the Great Commission, and ‘life from the dead’ for the whole earth” (Rom. 11:15).
“God is going to actually use Gentile believers, and the generation the Lord returns to provoke Israel to jealousy and say ‘yes’ to Jesus,” Bickle says. “Again, this is a crucial time in Israel’s history, and we compel you to go to this website and to at least commit to one hour of prayer every day for this 21-day period.
“It says in God’s Word in Psalm 102, ‘You will have mercy on Zion [Jerusalem]; the time to favor her, Yes, the set time, has come … This will be written for the generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.” {eoa}
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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
