This is too weird
In my last post, I mentioned that I have begun to participate in a Jewish online discussion forum. The following is a post I put up there last week.
This is too weird…
I live in Canada. My wife signed us up to go to some kind of a Christian conference in south Seattle entitled “When God Speaks.” After 41 years of marriage I am finally getting a clue that when my wife thinks we should do a thing, I should cooperate. Anyway, because of traffic and getting lost, we got to this modest little meeting room in a non-descript Best Western hotel with a meeting already in progress. The music and atmosphere felt strange to us. We didn’t know if these were “our kind of people.”
Anyway, the speaker for that first session was a Steve Schultz, who operates a widely subscribed email list called the Elijah List which apparently exists for the purpose of distributing “prophetic words.” After he started speaking, I relaxed because he had a very low-key, even humorous way of talking. It was quite anecdotal and poked holes in pomposity and religious uptightness.
None of this would be of any particular interest to readers of this post if it were not that, as he was running out of allotted time, he said something like, “There were so many more things I planned to say and I had many more stories to share, but I will just share one to encourage you to submit yourself to God and then obey what inner promptings come to you. Obedience is so important.” He then went on to say that he had promoted on the Elijah List a day of prayer for Jerusalem last October, and a particular prayer gathering on that day, but he himself had kind of forgotten about the date. He had gone to New York to take his daughter to a dog training event or some such unspiritual pursuit and was staying in Queens, I think he said. (I might not get this all right because I was not listening as carefully as I would have had I known what was coming – and I have never been to New York, so I don’t know its boroughs.)
Anyway, he was staying at a place that was near a very large cemetery and someone sent him a “prophetic word” in which they said they had envisioned him praying in a place of death and something about bones. Now, all kinds of people send him all kinds of stuff. But for whatever reason, he felt God wanted him to go and pray in this cemetery. He emphasized that he had forgotten that this was the very day of prayer for the peace of Jerusalem which he had promoted on Elijah List. But he went into the cemetery. It seemed to be a Jewish cemetery. Now Steve Schulz is a fairly unconventional guy, but even he was apparently feeling a little conspicuous about kneeling to pray in this cemetery, so he walked about 15 minutes until he found a place where some tall headstones formed a kind of square enclosure. He went inside it that space and knelt down and prayed. He prayed all kinds of his “usual” prayers for his family, etc. He also prayed for Israel and for the peace of Jerusalem. This also was not unusual. But given his setting and the recollection which had brought him there, he was prompted to also pray, like Ezekiel, for the dry bones of Israel to have life and to stand up as a mighty army. As he knelt, he looked up at the headstone before him and saw the name “Finkelstein,” so he prayed for all living persons of that name to be blessed.
Later, he wrote about this experience and the importance of obedience to what you perceive God is prompting, and sent it out on the Elijah List. In response, one of his subscribers contacted him and said, “Do you realize what you did? The day you prayed in the cemetery was the world-wide day of prayer for the peace of Jerusalem. The main event arranged by the (mainly Christian) organizers was in Germany. As usual, an Israeli dignitary was invited to participate. In this case, it was a member of the Knesset named Finkelstein. She said she had made two vows earlier in her life and broke both of them to attend. One was to never enter Germany and the other to never enter a church. With tears streaming down, she had said how healing it was for her to be there for that prayer event.”
As Mr. Schultz was again pointing out to us that we do not know how our obedience to what we believe God is prompting will be of significance, and that we could “stumble” unknowingly into things for which we are destined. I could not keep silent any more. I stood up at the back of the room and waved my hand until the speaker noticed me. Then I asked, “Do you know what day it is today?” He responded, “No, what day is it?” (This was about 9:30 pm Pacific Daylight Time on May 25th – already Friday in Jerusalem.) I said, “It is Yom Yerushalayim.” He asked what that meant, and I responded that it is a day to remember and celebrate Jerusalem and that, once again, he seemed to have “stumbled” into significance. He agreed. He said there were 10 stories he could have chosen to tell to get his point over, but he chose the one about the day of prayer for Jerusalem.
He ended the session by leading us in prayer for Israel and for Jerusalem. He again prayed for all Finkelsteins and urged those with Jewish heritage to pray for the family names in their own family lineage.
Just to check out the basis for the story a little, I went on the internet this morning and confirmed that there is, indeed, a member of the Knesset named Gila Finkelstein. And I did find stories of a day of prayer for the peace of Jerusalem October 2, 2005 with the main event in Karlsruhe, Germany.
I am so excited. I feel like, for no reason known to me, I am being privileged to have a kind of front seat to watch God blessing the chosen people and land of Israel. It was April 16th when I “stumbled” across this website. It was May 13th when I “stumbled” across the little Mexican church I wrote of at the beginning of this thread. Now this event last night. What is going on? Why is God using people who are not even being intentional to pray for and bless Israel at this time? Why is he prompting them to do things in this regard that they do not understand? Why is he letting me, a gentile, “stumble” upon these “coincidences?”
Perhaps “why” is a useless, futile question. But to me it seems obvious that these experiences of mine point me to the truth the words of ancient Jewish prophets, that men of many nations will cling to the Jews, will want to help, support and be with them and, in turn, be blessed by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
This is too weird…
I live in Canada. My wife signed us up to go to some kind of a Christian conference in south Seattle entitled “When God Speaks.” After 41 years of marriage I am finally getting a clue that when my wife thinks we should do a thing, I should cooperate. Anyway, because of traffic and getting lost, we got to this modest little meeting room in a non-descript Best Western hotel with a meeting already in progress. The music and atmosphere felt strange to us. We didn’t know if these were “our kind of people.”
Anyway, the speaker for that first session was a Steve Schultz, who operates a widely subscribed email list called the Elijah List which apparently exists for the purpose of distributing “prophetic words.” After he started speaking, I relaxed because he had a very low-key, even humorous way of talking. It was quite anecdotal and poked holes in pomposity and religious uptightness.
None of this would be of any particular interest to readers of this post if it were not that, as he was running out of allotted time, he said something like, “There were so many more things I planned to say and I had many more stories to share, but I will just share one to encourage you to submit yourself to God and then obey what inner promptings come to you. Obedience is so important.” He then went on to say that he had promoted on the Elijah List a day of prayer for Jerusalem last October, and a particular prayer gathering on that day, but he himself had kind of forgotten about the date. He had gone to New York to take his daughter to a dog training event or some such unspiritual pursuit and was staying in Queens, I think he said. (I might not get this all right because I was not listening as carefully as I would have had I known what was coming – and I have never been to New York, so I don’t know its boroughs.)
Anyway, he was staying at a place that was near a very large cemetery and someone sent him a “prophetic word” in which they said they had envisioned him praying in a place of death and something about bones. Now, all kinds of people send him all kinds of stuff. But for whatever reason, he felt God wanted him to go and pray in this cemetery. He emphasized that he had forgotten that this was the very day of prayer for the peace of Jerusalem which he had promoted on Elijah List. But he went into the cemetery. It seemed to be a Jewish cemetery. Now Steve Schulz is a fairly unconventional guy, but even he was apparently feeling a little conspicuous about kneeling to pray in this cemetery, so he walked about 15 minutes until he found a place where some tall headstones formed a kind of square enclosure. He went inside it that space and knelt down and prayed. He prayed all kinds of his “usual” prayers for his family, etc. He also prayed for Israel and for the peace of Jerusalem. This also was not unusual. But given his setting and the recollection which had brought him there, he was prompted to also pray, like Ezekiel, for the dry bones of Israel to have life and to stand up as a mighty army. As he knelt, he looked up at the headstone before him and saw the name “Finkelstein,” so he prayed for all living persons of that name to be blessed.
Later, he wrote about this experience and the importance of obedience to what you perceive God is prompting, and sent it out on the Elijah List. In response, one of his subscribers contacted him and said, “Do you realize what you did? The day you prayed in the cemetery was the world-wide day of prayer for the peace of Jerusalem. The main event arranged by the (mainly Christian) organizers was in Germany. As usual, an Israeli dignitary was invited to participate. In this case, it was a member of the Knesset named Finkelstein. She said she had made two vows earlier in her life and broke both of them to attend. One was to never enter Germany and the other to never enter a church. With tears streaming down, she had said how healing it was for her to be there for that prayer event.”
As Mr. Schultz was again pointing out to us that we do not know how our obedience to what we believe God is prompting will be of significance, and that we could “stumble” unknowingly into things for which we are destined. I could not keep silent any more. I stood up at the back of the room and waved my hand until the speaker noticed me. Then I asked, “Do you know what day it is today?” He responded, “No, what day is it?” (This was about 9:30 pm Pacific Daylight Time on May 25th – already Friday in Jerusalem.) I said, “It is Yom Yerushalayim.” He asked what that meant, and I responded that it is a day to remember and celebrate Jerusalem and that, once again, he seemed to have “stumbled” into significance. He agreed. He said there were 10 stories he could have chosen to tell to get his point over, but he chose the one about the day of prayer for Jerusalem.
He ended the session by leading us in prayer for Israel and for Jerusalem. He again prayed for all Finkelsteins and urged those with Jewish heritage to pray for the family names in their own family lineage.
Just to check out the basis for the story a little, I went on the internet this morning and confirmed that there is, indeed, a member of the Knesset named Gila Finkelstein. And I did find stories of a day of prayer for the peace of Jerusalem October 2, 2005 with the main event in Karlsruhe, Germany.
I am so excited. I feel like, for no reason known to me, I am being privileged to have a kind of front seat to watch God blessing the chosen people and land of Israel. It was April 16th when I “stumbled” across this website. It was May 13th when I “stumbled” across the little Mexican church I wrote of at the beginning of this thread. Now this event last night. What is going on? Why is God using people who are not even being intentional to pray for and bless Israel at this time? Why is he prompting them to do things in this regard that they do not understand? Why is he letting me, a gentile, “stumble” upon these “coincidences?”
Perhaps “why” is a useless, futile question. But to me it seems obvious that these experiences of mine point me to the truth the words of ancient Jewish prophets, that men of many nations will cling to the Jews, will want to help, support and be with them and, in turn, be blessed by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
posted by lornewel at
3:03 p.m.
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