Key Time to Pray for Israel May 7-28!

MAY 5 ZOOM—9AM ET. Honored to join longtime friend Jason Hubbard for his zoom call dedication of the 21 days of prayer for Israel. Jason is helping to mobilize Mike Bickle’s call for a hundred million intercessors to pray for Israel. Lamplighter family, please don’t miss! Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86035513580 (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86035513580)

MAY 7 MORNING! WHOLE WORD FELLOWSHIP—Jon & Jolene sharing at Sunday morning service with Pastor Pitts Evans and the Whole Word Fellowship family. More info at https://wholeword.net

MAY 7-28 ISAIAH 62 PRAYER FOR ISRAEL. Lamplighter family, please join in the global prayer surge for Israel with fasting and prayer as the Lord directs.

MAY 11-14 LIMITLESS CONFERENCE with Chris Mitchell, Jon & Jolene Hamill, hosted by Pastor Jay Francis. International Accelerated Missions, Rock Road Chapel, Berne NY (metro Albany). More info at https://www.iamoutreach.org/events/iam-spring-gathering-2023-limitless 

DEAR FRIENDS,
FROM WASHINGTON DC, WE ARE PRAYING WITH YOU during the National Day of Prayer today. As mentioned yesterday, Jolene and I are home after co-leading the Spirit of Elijah tour of Israel with Ed Watts, Jamie Fitt, and just over a hundred powerhouse believers from across the United States. There are simply no words to describe the sacredness of what transpired. That said, over the next few weeks I’m going to try.

And today I am reposting a prophetic, parabolic alert we shared last night. During our tour the Lord began to birth in me a literal trumpet call, an awakening alarm to pray for Israel. As you will discover, God’s call to sound the alarm was actually prophesied beforehand. Never had that happen before. For this reason we are going to engage May 7-28 in the 21 day prayer surge for Israel that’s being mobilized by Mike Bickle and IHOP-KC, along with our friend Jason Hubbard. 

In obedience to a prophetic word, I am now beginning to sound the alarm here. Allow me make it clear from the beginning. It is a “now time” to pray for Israel, especially regarding an existential threat from the government of Iran.

How the Lord made this clear dramatically underscores this prophetic conviction. Something about the journey is itself holy, sacred, and will hopefully unlock within you an unbounded conviction. Lets begin on the bus during the Spirit of Elijah tour. 

Prophetic Word—Sound the Alarm
Close to the first day of the tour, a word was given to me by a friend on our tour bus based on a dream she had received the night before. Kristin Walch shared something like this. The tour would be peaceful and full of joy. But by the final day of the tour, the Lord would give me a warning for Israel that would need to be “sounded” or released to the tour group.

Maybe it’s not a coincidence that less than a day after we left, a hundred rockets were fired from Gaza after two weeks of peace. The fragile peace was broken when an imprisoned Hamas terrorist died after an 86 day hunger strike. Just for clarity, a hundred rockets after a loss or a perceived injustice should be read as a “statement” and not an act of war. For this reason Israel’s response was relatively muted. 

But that said, the rockets still flew immediately after we left. Further, on Wednesday President Raisi of Iran visited Damascus, Syria to announce greater collaboration between the two nations. Note that Damascus is only 40 miles from the Israeli border, and some 130 miles from Jerusalem. For years Iran has used Syria as a proxy to store, assemble and ship arms, as well as mobilizing terrorists against the land. 

From my perspective, all this is important—but expected. What I look to in the midst of circumstantial confirmation is the witness of the Lord within my own journey, and especially the inner witness of Holy Spirit. 

And the alarm is indeed beginning to sound. We must engage in forerunning prayer for Israel now, especially regarding Iran. Remember that just before World War II, ancient Persia renamed itself as “Iran” to show solidarity with Adolf Hitler. The word “Iran” directly references “Aryan,” the race that Hitler deemed to be superior to all. Beloved, it is no coincidence the Iranian government is now seeking to carry out such a similar mission. And according to recent reports, they now have nuclear capacities  towards this end.

Lion of Judah—the Shofar Becomes a Sign
Let me share with you a very unusual parabolic prophetic experience the Lord brought in our lives to bring unmistakeable confirmation to this call. To be honest, I am much more used to the Lord directing me simply by His still, small voice. Warning on Iran? Grant me a dream or a vision. Speak a word. Release a scroll. Lets roll. 

Which in fairness the Lord did. At Tel Megiddo He gave Jolene a vision on December 9, 2022 of a coming midnight hour that would shake nations but would also culminate in victory. We have been engaged in fasting and prayer over this ever since. 

Because of this very vision, when our friend gave us a word about sounding an alarm, I “filed it away” instead of pursuing it. I did not want to “manufacture” a confirmation, or misinterpret what the Lord was genuinely saying based on expectations one way or the other. Experience has taught us all that can be a real danger.

So my journey began when I bought a shofar on Mount Carmel from my friend Israeli friend Robert Weinger. I had wanted to make my first-ever purchase of a shofar to commemorate our encounters with the Lord in December at Tel Megiddo and Gideon Springs. But knowing little about them, I decided to wait for some expert advice upon our return. 

The shofar was more than I wanted to pay, but thanks to Robert’s generosity it was far less than it was actually worth. Robert is sought after as an expert at refining rams horns into pure-sounding shofars. He is even more skilled at playing them. He even mentored me in making a decent sound. A true miracle, given the muffled failures that emanated from every one of my previous attempts beforehand. Which may have contributed to the fact that I had never purchased a shofar before in my life. 

Confessing my indulgent purchase to my wife, Jolene looked the shofar over and said simply, “I wish it had the Lion of Judah or something on it.” Not quite the reaction I expected. But she had a point. It would be a powerful companion to our book “Turnaround Decrees,” highlighting the Lion of Judah unsealing the scrolls of mankind’s redemption.

Jolene and I had the privilege of connecting with Robert again on the tour, for a landmark gathering he hosted at Gilgal. It is literally the lowest place on the earth. Robert, a conservative Jew, lives on a moshav there. More on this later.

Two days before our departure I discovered the amazing shofar I had purchased did not fit into my luggage. Not even close. Which was a necessity for future prayer journeys, including a “Wind Tunnel Tour” this fall. So at the last moment, I texted Robert to see if he would be willing to trade my amazing shofar for one a little more compact. Any chance he would be near Jerusalem?

“I’ll be in Jerusalem. Where are you going to be on your final day?” Robert asked.

We had one major place left to visit on the tour. That was Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Museum. It was named according to Isaiah 56 for the sacred resolution that all who perished in the Shoah should have a memorial, their name honored, within the walls of Jerusalem. Jolene and I took a class there over Hanukkah 2015, and wept for an entire week as the resolution “never again” became forged into the very depths of our being.

“Meet in the parking lot?” He suggested.

I asked Robert for an incredible personal favor—that he seek HaShem for just the right shofar for Jolene and me. I mentioned again the “Wind Tunnel Tour” beginning this fall over Rosh Hashanah, and the need for it to fit in our luggage from region to region. 

In between the tour buses parked in the Yad Vashem lot, Robert and his friend Michael showed me the shofar he selected. I gasped—then broke down in tears. In stunning silver and gold, the shofar bears the image of a lion. Inscribed on the shofar are the words “Lion of Judah.” 

I’m pretty sure Robert had no idea of the book we had written just a year ago, with the Lion of Judah on the cover. Further, he had absolutely no idea of Jolene’s initial response to the previous shofar. She wanted one that said, “Lion of Judah.”

Only problem was the price. I thought my trade for a shorter shofar would have given him more of a profit, which I really wanted for him. Instead he brought me his best. It was out of my range by far. 

Family Perished in the Shoah
Robert joined the Spirit of Elijah group for our tour through Yad Vashem. He showed me the tree planted in the memory of Oskar Schindler, who saved countless lives during the Shoah right under the nose of the Nazi regime. I prayed secretly to be used by God in a similar manner should such a horror ever again arise. 

Robert then told me that only days ago, he just discovered that many of his own family had perished in the Shoah. He had no idea until researching the scrolls of names at Yad Vashem. This was his first return after the initial discovery.

After walking through the museum, in the courtyard of Yad Vashem, Robert pulled out the Lion of Judah shofar again. Before our group, the man who had just discovered family members had perished in the Shoah lifted his horn to the sky and pierced the silence with “Taps.” And all we had just borne witness to suddenly became real. To me, an alarm had just been sounded for this very hour. 

“I am a Jew…”
The final portion of tour was a memorial to the children who perished in the Shoah. I shared with the tour group about an American commander and his company who had been captured by the Nazis during the waning moments of World War II. The Nazis demanded to know who among his troops were Jewish, so they could kill them. 

“I’m the only Jew,” replied the commander, lying to his face to save the life of his friends. 

The Nazis then interrogated the other soldiers. And to a man, they all replied, “I’m a Jew.” 

When questioned by the Nazis about this unusual “fact,” the commander’s simple reply was, “Well, sir, I guess we are all Jews today!” The Nazis decided not to slaughter the entire company, and the commander’s name was added to Yad Vashem’s memorial to “The Righteous Among the Nations.” 

A memorial and a name. I mentioned a similar resolve may be required in our hour. To a person, our tour group raised their hands and echoed the same resolve. “I am a Jew!” 

Today we are all Jews. We MUST stand together to defeat the antichrist expression of our time. 

And at that moment, I realized that a “shofar alarm” from the Lion of Judah had indeed sounded. To bear witness, on the final day of the tour. Just as was prophesied.

Purchasing the Lion of Judah shofar was still beyond our budget, of course. But it didn’t matter. The alarm itself had been sounded in the midst of a transaction that bound earth to heaven, and heaven to earth. 

The Shofar Becomes a Sign
One more stop on the tour. To Yad Hashmona, to pray for our tour guide and bless her village. Robert decided to join us. He shared with us the impact of HaShem in his life, and gave a brief testimony regarding the time our tour joined him at his moshav. The was again unsheathed, and sounded by him powerfully. 

Unexpectedly, Jolene and I were then called forward. And with tear-laden eyes, Robert presented us the shofar as a gift. “I prayed about it. It’s all paid for,” he said, grinning while gazing into my eyes. 

Lion of Judah shofar, all paid for. What a mysterious admission. Maybe Robert anticipated my initial instinct to refuse such an overwhelming gift. But what these words convey reach far beyond the gift, to the priceless essence of the Giver Himself. 

Amidst this sacred, selfless act, a prophecy that had privately haunted us the entire tour came to pass before our eyes. And our ears. With no orchestration on our part, at the very end of the tour, Jolene and I were literally given an “alarm” from God that needs to be sounded. 

I’m experiencing a birthing of the substance of this warning. But the Lion of Judah shofar has itself become the sign.