Following Jesus

Life Matters

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It has been a bad summer, apparently, for people drowning, particularly at the beaches along our coastline. People have been taking risks such as swimming at unpatrolled beaches, entering water that was dangerously rough and so on. In a couple of cases, people have died in the process of rescuing somebody else who was in trouble.

We add to those people dying in the water to those who lost their lives on the roads, and it is clear that it has been a dangerous summer for many people.

When I was young, I used to love the water. Waves were fun, and the beach was a place that seemed almost magical in many ways. There were a few times when I could have been one of those who was swept out in a rip or suffered an injury from a dumper.

The phrase, “but for the grace of God” springs to mind when I think of those situations.

We are used to thinking about our lives stretching on for ever, with no thought that it might end one day. None of us knows when that time will come. For any of us it could be much sooner than we ever thought possible.

The Bible tells us that “each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgement,” (Hebrews 9:27). There is no replay or second chance. We all get one shot at life.

The Good News is that Jesus, in His death on the cross, paid the price for us. All who put their trust in Jesus can be sure that everything is forgiven and the slate is wiped clean.

Taking a risk in the surf or on the road can be fatal. Taking a risk with God has eternal consequences.

Jentezen Franklin: You Shall Be Filled

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Our American diets are loaded with sugars, toxins, processed foods, meats, etc. Yet it is possible for us to be eating large meals, be overweight and still be malnourished.

In that sense, it is easy to see how our physical lives again parallel our spiritual lives. We can become over-nourished on a hefty diet of church programs and activities, religious structure and traditions of men and yet be severely undernourished when it comes to the deeper things of God.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled,” (Matt. 5:6). When you begin to develop a hunger for the deeper things of God, He will fill you. However, sometimes just being in a good service is not enough. I believe God is already raising up people in this hour who do not want a diet of just “church as normal” any longer. I see it at Free Chapel; people are fasting and developing a hunger for more of God, and religious traditions are having to just get out of the way. Hungry people are desperate people. They will push over the custom; they will push over the ritual—they don’t want to leave hungry.

Hungry in Flesh. . .Hungry in Spirit

Jesus found such hunger while visiting Tyre and Sidon. A woman whose daughter was possessed and tormented by a devil heard that He was there. But the woman was Greek, “a Syro-Phoenician by birth” (Mark 7:26), and, therefore, outside of the covenant God had made with Israel. But that didn’t matter to her. She was hungry, and her faith was persistent. Even when Jesus discouraged her, saying that the “bread” was first for the children of Israel, she was hungry enough to ask for even a crumb that would fall to the floor. Many of the children who sat at the table had not shown such great hunger. Jesus honored her request, and her daughter was healed because of her persistence (vv. 29–30).

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Hungry, desperate people are hungry for more of God than they have ever had. They are breaking out of religious rules, regulations and traditional thinking and breaking through to more of His presence, more of His power to turn situations around, more of His healing power, and more of His miracle-working power. Only Jesus satisfies that hunger!

Fasting stirs a hunger in your spirit that goes deeper than the temporary hunger you experience in your flesh. When you hunger for God, He will fill you. Jesus went through cities where He could do no miracles—because there was no hunger.

As Jesus entered Capernaum, He was confronted by a Roman centurion whose servant was paralyzed and tormented (Matt. 8:5–13). But the centurion knew it would take only a word from Jesus for the servant to be healed. When he said those words to Jesus, the Bible says Jesus was amazed at his faith and told those around him, “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” (v. 10). He was saying, “So many in Abraham’s lineage don’t have the hunger this man has shown. They come to see Me, but they don’t hunger.” In this day, God is saying, “I’m looking for somebody who wants something. I’m looking for somebody who will do more than show up, but they will hunger for that which I want to place in them!”

Anybody can be normal. Normal is overrated. Someone has to say, “But I want more! Lord, I’m hungry! I’m going to have to push tradition aside! I’m going to have to push religious rules aside! I’m going to have to push all of the rituals aside because I’m starving to death, and I just can’t do ‘church as usual’ any longer.”

My suggestion is to begin by pushing the plate aside. Show God that you are serious. We must get to the place where we are desperate for God again. We must begin to desire Him more than food or drink. Let us be filled with the Bread of Life instead of the refuse of religion. Begin to make fasting a regular discipline, and see how God answers your hunger!

Christian Fasting Part 2

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There are different kinds of fasting, in the same way that there are different kinds of prayer or different forms of worshipping. All are offered to God as our holy sacrifice.

Firstly there is the complete fast. Usually this involves just giving up food for a specified period of time- perhaps a day, two days, a week. At the beginning of His ministry Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness. We are told that He was hungry, not that He was thirsty. Jesus would have drunk water during this time.

In a complete fast, people sometimes allow themselves fruit juice to maintain their sugar levels. I drink tea as normal, sometimes with milk but sometimes black. Even though fasting is a discipline, we have freedom within the discipline.

Secondly there is the absolute fast, which includes abstaining from water or any other fluid. This should be done very carefully as our bodies do need water, especially during hot weather or physical exertion. During the month of Ramadan, devout Muslims engage in this type of fast during the daylight hours only. So an absolute fast might just go for the day time, or 24 hours maximum.

Finally, there is the partial fast. People sometimes choose to go without things that they consider to be luxurious food items. The most widely known partial fast is the so-called Daniel Fast. There are actually two fasts mentioned in the book of Daniel.

In Daniel 1, Daniel asks for his friends and himself to be given just fruit and vegetables and spared from the richer foods of the King’s table. These would have been considered unclean in Israel’s dietary laws. This was initially given on a trial basis for ten days, but then they were allowed to continue.

Then in Daniel 10, Daniel enters a special time of “mourning” that involved abstaining from wine, meat and fine food for 21 days. During this time he undertook special prayers for his people. Often a Daniel fast is considered to allow fruit, vegetables and grains, but exclude things like cakes, fine pastries and sweet desserts.

It is important that we do not get hung up on rules about fasting. Decide in prayer what kind of fast you will undertake and for how long. Pick a particular prayer project that God is laying on your heart and make that the focus of your prayers in that time.

In the past I have only ever done a sunrise to sunset type fast, that is fasting until the evening meal. Recently the Lord led me in a whole day fast, that is eating nothing at all from when I got up in the morning until I went to bed at night. That was harder, but still doable. I believe that in the upcoming Lent season I may do a number of these fasts, and maybe even a two day fast.

Whatever kind of fast you do, just do it to the glory of God. If you fall down and fail to complete the fast, don’t get discouraged. Learn from your mistakes and try again later.

Joseph Mattera- 7 Typical Prophetic Buzzwords Given to Hype Crowds

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From Charisma

Every year, many prophetic words are given to start the new year. Many prophetic words are just repetitive rewordings of previously hyped-up words. However, are they really prophetic words? With all the prophetic lunacy in much of the charismatic church over the last few years, we need to revisit the prophetic standards statement as a guide for church movements and Christ followers.

Also, I encourage you to check out the 2023 review of prophetic words given last year by Remnant Radio.

To aid the body of Christ in developing discernment, the following is a summary of some of the standard generic words or phrases that appeal to many despite the fact they rarely come to pass.

The following are some generic prophetic hype buzzwords:

1. There will be a wealth transfer this year. In the past few decades, I have often heard many words like this that I have lost count. The truth is that many people who believe in these words are still in the same financial position year after year. Even though I have seen some individuals go from poverty to wealth quickly by utilizing faith, creativity and hard work, the Scripture regarding wealth transfer implies that it takes several generations. Hence, it usually entails parents instilling practical life skills and biblical discipleship into the next generation, imparting money management skills and life principles that result in a wealth transfer from the wicked to the seed of the righteous (Prov. 13:22).

2. A great revival is about to take place. For many years, prophetic words have been used, promising an imminent revival that will shift the nation. Words like these tickle the ears of vast prophetic adherents but have yet to come to pass despite many local outbreaks that have come and gone through the years. Also, many local church pastors have told me that a prophet came to their church and said their church would be the center of a great revival in their city. However, in every city I visited, I met a pastor with the same word. Even within the same city, multiple pastors received the exact word about their local church.

Can a prophetic word predict a revival? Of course! However, pastors should not build their entire ministries upon these prophetic words.

3. All your adversaries shall come, bow down and repent to you. Some iterations of Isaiah 60:14 have been given numerous times to multitudes through the years regarding a promise of adversaries repenting to them. However, these kinds of words are conditional and do not come to pass without a Christian exhibiting humility, brokenness, forgiveness and unconditional love toward those who hate them (Matt. 5:44-45).

4. This is the season of your elevation. I have heard this kind of word spoken over people online and in some conferences too often. However, walking in Christlike humility is always the conditional precursor to God lifting a person up whether they receive a prophetic word or not. The written word promises this for those who live for the glory of God (1 Pet. 5:6).

5. God is sending you to the nations. I have heard this prophetic word spoken over people more often than any other word on this list. What does this mean? Since all the nations have come to major cities like NYC, believers no longer have to cross an ocean to minister to the nations. Unfortunately, traveling prophets often give words like this to people, resulting in them becoming distracted from serving and committed locally to their own congregation. They are always looking to leave to fulfill that prophetic word rather than stay home to make a difference. Can a word like this be legitimate? Of course. However, I wish more prophetic people would give words that help build up the local church rather than prophetically sending all gifted people out of their church.

6. Using a New Year’s rhyme to prophetically predict what’s to come. In late 2019, I heard prophets say things like, “2020 will be the year of 20/20 vision,” essentially a year when there will be an acute level of prophetic accuracy. However, it may have been the year with the most inaccurate prophetic declarations as virtually few, if any, foresaw the looming global pandemic and the failure of Trump to get reelected.

Another word I heard in late 2019 was that 2020 would begin the so-called Roaring ’20s, when the power of God and great revivals would break out. Thus far, nothing implied in this prophetic rhyme has occurred nationally except perhaps in some local areas in North America and beyond.

Furthermore, before 2024, I’m sure there were words such as “There will be an open door in 2024,” and in the coming years, there may be prophetic declarations like “You’re gonna thrive in 2025” or “Everything will be fixed in 2026” or “2027 will be an open heaven ….” You get the picture. It’s almost as if these so-called prophets think God depends upon man-made calendars to shift His actions or focus.

7. Hebrew calendar usage. Many popular prophetic people use the Hebrew calendar or alphabet to predict what is to come. Unfortunately, most of these words (sometimes interspersed with symbolic visions and dreams) are so complicated that very few people understand the totality of what’s being communicated, which makes it challenging to edify the church (1 Cor. 14:3, 11-12). Furthermore, this utilisation of the Hebrew calendar can sometimes be considered by some to be a form of Kabala, which is Jewish mysticism.

I have no issue with people attempting to understand the importance of certain times of the year corresponding with a Jewish feast in Scripture (the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, Passover and Pentecost, to name a few). My point here is that we must be careful with prophetic words that are so mystical that they are either too difficult to interpret or can be interpreted in numerous ways.

Fasting

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A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to a podcast, on my bike, about fasting for miracles. This particular speaker is a part of a church in the USA where members regularly fast for 21 days in January. As I was listening I was drawn to the idea of fasting as a congregation, not in January which doesn’t work at all in Australia, but through Lent.

I have spoken to a few people who think, as I do, that the Lord is calling the church to do this project together. It is interesting that at the time that the Holy Spirit was talking to me about it, He was also talking to other people.

Fasting is not a big part of the Western church in our times. The idea of voluntarily abstaining from food for even just 1 day fills many of us with anxiety. I think because we are so used to having food of almost any sort, whenever we feel like it, we can’t imagine not eating when we are hungry.

I confess that I have not been a big practitioner of fasting at any time in my life, except for brief times. Yet this was a big part of living for followers of the Lord in the Old Testament and for followers of Jesus. The early church, and right through to modern times, extolled the value of fasting as a spiritual discipline.

If you search for “Fasting” on Amazon, there are literally thousands of titles on fasting for health, intermittent fasting, and so on. The number of christian titles on fasting is much smaller.

There are two things, I want to emphasise in this short article.

Firstly, Christian fasting is linked to prayer. It is not about just doing without food, but setting apart a time period when we seek the Lord with such intensity and passion, that you are willing to do without food for a period of time. There are many testimonies of people being saved, healed, receiving miracles, breakthrough prayers being answered because people fasted and prayed. Fasting turbo charges your prayer life by reminding you that you are dedicating this period to the Lord. Every time your stomach growls is a call to prayer.

Secondly, Christian fasting is about your relationship with God. In the Old Testament, various people are described as humbling themselves before the Lord, and usually in connection with fasting. Fasting reminds us very powerfully that we are totally dependent on the Lord for everything we need for life.

We fast for spiritual reasons, but there are health benefits. I have a tendency to snack almost constantly. When I fast it resets the bad habit of picking up food and mindlessly eating. Often people experience a detox process as their bodies take the opportunity to process and eliminate the bad stuff in their bodies. It gives your digestive system a rest and renews its strength.

So what does a Lenten Fast look like? How long do you have to keep it up for? What can I expect?

We will explore these topics and much more as we get closer to Lent.

My Mission

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In the bloguanary project, this morning’s prompt is “What’s Your Mission?”

My mission in life is to honour Jesus in all I do. This has not changed since my conversion in 1976. Of course, the focus has changed as I have journeyed through life.

I see this mission as being filtered through 3 main responsibilities in my life.

Firstly, I want to be the best husband possible to my wife. I am not always successful at this, as my own sins and insecurities can sometimes mar the relationship. But after 43 years of marriage, we are more in love than ever.

Secondly, i want to be the best father to my four (grown up) children that I can. Again, I am more often aware of my failings in this regard than my successes. Nowadays three of the four live a distance away from Narrabri. But I always notice that when they are all together there is so much laughter. Maybe, just maybe, I can consider that I haven’t done too bad a job.

As a pastor, I want to see my parishioners grow in their experience of Jesus Christ. I want to see them all grow to be all that they can be in the grace of God. This is not always easy, but it is a very rewarding mission.

I won’t ever get to the place where I can say “Mission Accomplished.” These are all life-long missions that will keep me busy for the time I have left on earth.

Time Matters

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

I decided to write some articles for Bloganuary, an annual blogging start of year encouragement on WordPress.com

Today’s prompt: Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?

As a pastor, I spend a significant amount of time thinking about the future. God gives us dreams and visions about how our lives as individuals and as a community of faith might develop over the years ahead.

To do this, I need to think about the past also. How does my past inform my future plans? What has worked or hindered the vision in the past.

In another sense, I have to think about the past whenever I read the Scriptures. The are God’s living words to His people right now. How do I reach into an ancient culture to understand the followers of Jesus in order to bring their experience into the present?

The Biblical understanding of “remembering” was very different to ours. When Jesus tells us to celebrate the Lord’s Supper in memory of Him, He is not just telling us to act out an event that happened two thousand years ago. Similarly when the Jews celebrated Passover, it was not just about ancient history. To remember means that we bring the events of the past into the present and allow them to transform us now.

Past, present and future all impinge equally in our lives. But then there is eternity, where time takes on a very different meaning. Followers of Jesus will live forever in a perfect, reconstructed heavens and earth. That seems like the far future, but really it isn’t that far from us.

Any one of us could die in the next 24 hours and find ourselves in the presence of God. Then all of our earthly lives will be past tense. We will be asked to give an account of our lives. Those who faithfully followed Jesus will be brought into heaven, while those who rejected Him will be “cast into the outer darkness.”

God Has A Plan For Gaza

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From Faithwire.com

‘God Has a Plan’: Former Terrorist Turned Christian Predicts Thousands in Gaza Will Come to Faith in Jesus

Joel Rosenberg on TBN/YouTube screenshot
Joel Rosenberg on TBN/YouTube screenshot
A one-time terrorist who turned to faith in Jesus in the 1990s is predicting thousands of Gazans will become Christians as the war between Hamas and Israel rages on.

The 73-year-old Taysir “Tass” Abu Saada, a former member of the Fatah terrorist group, recently told Joel Rosenberg, an American-Israeli communications strategist, he believes the war will lead many in Gaza to feel hopeless, abandoned, and lied to by Hamas, the terror group governing Gaza. As a result, he predicted they will turn from Islam and toward Christianity.

Listen to them on the latest episode of “Quick Start” 👇

“Hamas is an ideology that is spread among many people, not only in the Gaza Strip but all over the world,” Saada explained on the “Rosenberg Report” from TBN. “However, God has a plan. And I believe the Arabs’ and the Jews’ plan is also part of that — and that is where my hope is.”

He continued, “That is why I am back in the Holy Land, to move to the Gaza Strip and take part in rebuilding. I believe, with all the destruction, with all that happened, with the hardship the Palestinians have gone through, they cannot sit back, but will ask, ‘Why?’ God is going to do a lot of work [in Gaza], and I want to be a part of that.”

 

Saada, born in Gaza, was overcome with rage toward Jewish Israelis in the aftermath of the Six Day War in 1967. His family moved to Saudi Arabia and Qatar when he was young and, ultimately, ran away to join Fatah and fight to support Yasser Arafat, the former chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

“After the Six Day War, I felt as if I was having a nervous breakdown, and my hatred just grew and grew,” Saada said in his testimony, published on jewishroots.net. “I did not understand how we could lose so many wars against Israel. We were bigger than Israel in numbers and size, we had more equipment — everything we had was more than they had, but still, we lost the wars against them.”

“I was thinking that, once again, our leaders sold us to the Jews,” he added. “That was when I decided to go and fight for our land, which I believed was ours.”

A series of events landed Saada in legal trouble that ultimately sent him to the U.S. After integrating, he married an American woman and met a Christian who led him to faith in Jesus.

The Christian man told Saada, “If you want to experience the peace of mind that I have, you have to love the Jews.” He recalled, “I completely froze and asked him how he could even think of such a — to love the Jews? He knew I hated them. For me, as for most Arabs, a good Jew was a dead Jew.”

Saada and his faith mentor read Scripture together and, the following day, the former terrorist felt an urge to pray.

“The first people that came to my heart to pray for were the Jewish people,” said Saada. “I was praying, ‘Oh, God, bless your people, Israel. God, gather them to the Promised Land.’”

The ex-terrorist told Rosenberg he believes the world is now enduring the end times.

“What we are seeing today happening is really one of the signs of the end of times, because it is not normal — the destruction that is taking place,” he told the host. “The evil hand of Hamas is attacking Israelis in a radical, very evil way. Naturally, Israel had to respond and defend itself.”

But as the destruction and horror continues, he feels a glimmer of eternal hope.

Saada said that, in time, “the harvest is going to be huge,” referring to the number of Gazans he is confident will ultimately turn to the same faith in Jesus he has found.

What Will You Give Jesus This Christmas?

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From Crisis Magazine What Will You Get Jesus for His Birthday?

The thought that Christ wanted me at a time when I was so displeased with myself was sobering, relieving, and enough to inspire a few silent tears

 

 

Two years ago, about two weeks into Advent, I posed a question to my class of high school sophomores: What will you get Jesus for His birthday? We spend so much time thinking about what we will give our loved ones—we are intentional, searching for the thing that will demonstrate how well we know them and their desires. Weeks of shopping aim to deliver a gift that will give them that feeling of Christmas magic. The hunt is epic, the purchase triumphant, and the joy of giving is reward enough. The reason for doing all this is, of course, Jesus’ birth; though I fear we often give Him so little. 

“What do you mean, Ms. Karp? What can I give Jesus?” my students responded. 

We discussed different ways we can make an offering to the Lord: fasting, participating in extra service work, paying attention to areas of prayer we struggle with, being consistent in prayer, getting flowers for the Mary statue, and so on. I explained to them that Jesus’ love language is quality time, so some extra time in prayer is always a good gift. 

The more contemplative students really examined their prayer lives and opted to give Jesus the things they had been holding back in prayer. Others went with more concrete offerings. Despite the reflection being one of my own creation, I had no personal answer. I did not know what I could possibly have to give Jesus that would be good enough.  
The pinnacle of Christmas joy when I was a kid was Christmas 2002, when my sister and I received the ultimate gift. It was the thing we knew our parents would never buy us—something too big, too expensive and extravagant, too perfect…the Barbie Travel Train! I look back on this now with great fondness and treat it as an example of what Christ so often gives to us. He gives us things bigger than we allow ourselves to hope for. He gives us things that satisfy us so intimately. He gives us something perfect. 

That Christmas two years ago, I wanted to give Jesus something that would make him “Travel-Train-happy.” My search for the perfect gift was frequently interrupted. Teaching at a new Catholic high school certainly kept me busy. I was in a new relationship at the time. And I was struggling with my health. 

The fall of 2021 was the height of a long bout of what I referred to at the time as “mystery disease.” After more doctors than I care to count and a strange array of symptoms, I finally got a diagnosis, but only after my condition became severe enough to land me in the hospital. I never expected to have an autoimmune disease at twenty-five, and it certainly rocked my world. All the parts of myself that I loved were slowly slipping through my fingers. My curves melted away to reveal a skeletal frame, my long hair became half as thick, my rambunctious energy was replaced with a quivering frailty, and my spirits were at an all-time low. 

Usually, I would have gone above and beyond in the gift-giving department. I would have harnessed my creativity and strong work ethic to pull off something remarkable. But at that time, I had nothing that could possibly be good enough. I had nothing left to give. 

I remembered the gifts of the Magi, the dedication of the shepherds in their travels, and even the percussion solo of the drummer boy. I had little money left to give after medical bills, I could barely walk across the parking lot without feeling faint, and I was terrible at the drums. The prayers I had to offer were sad, angry, and confused; hardly the Gloria that Christ deserves.

Christmas Eve arrived, and I still had yet to answer for myself the question posed to my students: “What will you get Jesus for His birthday?” As tradition held, I would be singing in the choir with my family at Mass and acting as official page turner for my brother, the pianist. I looked out on the quiet church from the choir loft before Mass began. The strung lights illuminated the altar, and an empty manger sat quietly in front, awaiting the baby Jesus that our priest would process down with once Mass began. I saw that empty manger, and I felt my own emptiness. I wished for something good enough to give. 

In answer to my silent prayer, a wave of peace washed over me, and I knew that the only thing Jesus wanted, the only thing that could make Him “Travel-Train–happy,” was me. Broken spirit, broken body, the humblest of offerings. That’s what He wanted most, if I was only willing to give. 

“But it’s not good enough.” I whispered in the depths of my heart. 

“But it’s all that I want.” I heard in reply. 

The thought that Christ wanted me at a time when I was so displeased with myself was sobering, relieving, and enough to inspire a few silent tears. The ultimate gift is love, a full and free exchange of personhood. Mary lovingly submits her will when the angel Gabriel comes to her. She does not have to say fourteen novenas or fast for a month. She lays her life in God’s hands in loving trust. Christ gives Himself for us in the most intimate and radical way, so of course the thing He wants most is simply us in return. 

I looked again at the manger and accepted that the frail and vulnerable self I had to offer was a perfect fit in that nativity scene. In a moment, I understood that even in my weakness, emotional, spiritual, and physical, I could still be pleasing to the Lord—and not just “pleasing” but, in fact, His most cherished gift. 

Christmas looks very different this year. I am no longer Ms. Karp. I will be in Chicago with my husband, my first Christmas away from home. I am in clinical remission, and I praise God daily for my good health. I feel more like myself, but I still find myself asking, what does Christ desire most this Christmas? 

My inclination to conjure up something grand remains. My energy and ambition have returned. I know in my heart of hearts that His request has not changed, but every year it is hard to believe. Though my imperfections are of a different variety now, they still do not deter Him. I have to remind myself of the many things I have to be thankful for and offer all that I am, all that I have, humbly at His feet. 

Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess You have given me: I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will. —St. Ignatius of Loyola 

  • Katie Łastowiecka

    Katie Łastowiecka is a classical education advocate, presenter, and instructor specializing in upper level literature and drama. Currently, she is a freelance writer and teaches at Kepler Education. She holds a masters in education and a bachelors in English.

Hundreds in Gaza Report Jesus Appearing to Them in Dreams

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From Charisma Online, James Lasher writes

Hundreds in Gaza Report Jesus Appearing to Them in Dreams

 

According to Christian professor Michael Licona, more than 200 Muslim men have experienced life-altering visions of Jesus in their dreams, leading them to embrace Christianity.

Licona, a New Testament Studies professor at Houston Christian University, shared this extraordinary account through a Facebook post:

Quoting a report from underground Christian ministries in the Middle East, Licona revealed, “Last night, Jesus appeared to more than 200 of them in their dreams! They have come back to us to learn more from God’s Word and are asking how to follow Jesus.”

This miraculous event parallels the biblical accounts of visions and dreams during the end times. Acts 2:17 says: “In the last days it shall be,’ God declares, ‘that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.’”

These conversions are not isolated incidents, as similar reports surfaced before the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack. Assemblies of God missionary Dick Brogden emphasised the significance of dreams, stating, “Dreams are contributing to revelation … the process of evangelism and conversion.”

As believers, it is crucial to remain vigilant and faithful, sharing the message of salvation through Jesus. Despite the ongoing conflict, the transformative power of these dreams demonstrates that God’s grace, love and mercy can reach even the most challenging circumstances.

Licona, expressing his perspective on the Israel-Hamas conflict, urged prayers for the war’s end and the liberation of Palestinians from the oppressive influence of Hamas. This aligns with the Christian call to seek peace even with those who do not believe, as stated in Romans 12:18: “If it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men.”

In times of uncertainty, these visions serve as a beacon of hope, reinforcing our faith in the redemptive power of Christ. As we navigate the complexities of the end times, we can draw inspiration from these conversions and continue to share the love and teachings of Jesus.