
<br />Peace will never come by giving away what God assigned to us, but rather by esteeming everything He has given to us even more than peace with men and by seeing His purpose as even more valuable than life. It is time for Israel to be grafted back into the Tree—God Himself. It is a beginning to be re-gathered to the land, but it is more important to be re-gathered to the Lord. <br /><br />Israel is a sign of God’s faithfulness to His Word. In Jeremiah 31, the Lord states that the order of the sun, moon, and the roaring of the sea would cease before His promises for Israel would fail. Many believe that these are now fulfilled in the church, “spiritual Israel.” This is true of many of them, but this does not negate that they are also for “natural Israel.” The Lord makes it clear in His Word in a number of places that these are for the physical seed of Abraham. The Apostle Paul also asserted this in his most important Epistle on New Covenant theology, the Book of Romans, as we read in chapters nine through eleven. As we are warned in this text, it is a big mistake to <span style="font-weight: bold;">“become arrogant toward the natural branches” (see Romans 11:18). </span><br /><br />The main message of the re-gathered nation of Israel is that God is faithful to His Word. He remains faithful even if we are unfaithful, and in His faithfulness He will give us another chance. The whole chapter of Isaiah11 is about the restoration of the earth to the paradise it was originally created to be, a second chance for the whole earth—the re-gathering of Israel “the second time” is a sign that this is near. The kingdom of God that God’s people have been praying for since Jesus walked the earth is near. <br /><br />This is a year for recovering what has been lost, for many promises to come to pass, and for the backsliders to be brought back. This begins with prayer, intercession, and often fasting. When Daniel read in the prophecy of Jeremiah that Israel was to be scattered from the land the first time for seventy years, he did not just start rejoicing that it was time to return, but he started fasting and praying for God’s Word to be fulfilled. <br /><br />Why do the promises of God need intercession to be fulfilled? As we are told in Psalm 115:16,<span style="font-weight: bold;"> “The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, but the earth He has given to the sons of men.”</span> The Lord delegated authority over the earth to men, which is why He will not do things on the earth until we ask Him to. This is also why Jesus became a Man to become the Mediator, and while on earth, He always referred to Himself as the Son of man. He was the Son of God too, but He came here to be a Man to recover what man had lost. <br /><br />Therefore, when we know it is time for the promises of God to be fulfilled, we need to engage heaven with prayer and fasting, being intercessors in unity with Jesus who we are told “ever lives to intercede” (see Hebrews 7:25). He is a Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek, and we are priests in the same order. For this reason, one of the primary messages and works among His people will be to restore the priesthood to which we are all called.<br /></span></p>