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I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God. - Ezekiel 39:29
One of the pastors I know has a technical job that has taken him all over the world. On an assignment in Israel he became good friends with one of the Jewish men he had trained. Through this friendship the pastor received an insider’s tour of the Holy land, visiting sites that are not normally included in most of the paid tours.
“This is the place where David slew Goliath,” the pastor was told as he gazed at the landscape that sheltered the memory of David’s victory over the Philistine giant.
One day the pastor and his friend decided to visit the Wailing Wall, the place where Jews come from all over the world to pour out their prayer requests before God.
During the course of their friendship, the pastor had been sharing his Christian faith with his Jewish friend and had answered the other man’s questions about Jesus and why He is the prophesized Messiah.
As the two men neared the wailing wall, the pastor began to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit very strongly. The presence intensified as they reached the Wall and the pastor could not hold back his tears.
Suddenly, the Holy Spirit descended from the top of the wall, much like the first outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost described in the second chapter of the book of Acts in the Bible.
“It was like a wave,” the pastor told me.
It was so strong it brought both of the men to their knees. The pastor looked over at his friend who was sobbing. It was at that moment the Jewish man received the Lord Jesus as his Messiah.
The apostle Paul tells us that God has not cast away His people (Romans 11:1). And even though they have rejected Him by their rejection of the Messiah, they are still beloved for “the father’s sakes,” the patriarchs (Romans 11:28). We are assured by the apostle, who was himself an Israelite, that among the multitudes of Israel there would be a remnant saved by the grace of the Lord (Romans 9:27, 11:4,5). And ultimately when the Lord comes the second time, the Jews will behold their Messiah who has returned to them supernaturally; “For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so also shall the coming of the Son of man be….the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven (figurative of demonic powers being broken) and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” - Matthew 24:27, 29,30.
Jesus’ supernatural return to earth is also recorded in Zechariah 14, where He descends on the Mount of Olives to defend His people who have endured a second captivity under the antichrist.
It is at this time God tells us through the prophet Zechariah that “I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem (Zechariah 12:9). And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, (God was in Messiah reconciling the world to Himself, II Cor. 5:19) and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn” (Zechariah 12:,10, 11).
While blindness in part has happened to Israel (Romans 11:25) blocking their view of who Jesus really is, at that day “all Israel shall be saved” as Paul assures us in Romans 11:26.
A fountain of mercy and forgiveness shall be released, like the wave of the Holy Spirit that descended upon the pastor’s friend, and after a time of mourning, the tears of repentance will turn into tears of abundant joy.
In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleaness.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life - Zechariah 13:1, John 3:16.
Copyright 2013 by H.D. Shively Devotionals | Cafe Logos Homepage | Hebrew Roots
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