War in Israel: what is happening in the spiritual realms

Posted on Author Vivian

Dear Friends

I want to speak out some things that I hear God saying, about Israel at war, right now. It started out this past Sunday, when the scriptural Call to Worship at Centre Street Church at the 9am & 11am from John 4:21-26 was read out.

The visible things that we see on earth, are only a shadow pointing to things that are happening in the Heavenly realms.

Among God’s prophets are those whom God calls Seers. A Seer is someone who can see and hear in the spiritual realms. Samuel, the Old Testament prophet, was a Seer.

…Saul approached Samuel in the gateway and asked, “Would you please tell me where the seer’s house is?” “I am the seer,” Samuel replied. “Go up before me to the high place, for you shall eat with me today. And when I send you off in the morning, I will tell you all that is in your heart.  1 Samuel 9:19

For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers).  Isaiah 29:10  (The brackets are in the text.  They are not mine.)

In 2019, I attended a conference of all the Evangelical Churches in Geneva, Switzerland.  I was living in Switzerland at the time (lived there for a decade) and worshipped at a Baptist Church there.  The theme of the conference was, “Called for Such a Time and Place.”  This was God’s call to Esther, who becomes the means of Salvation for her people, because she was brave and asked for what she didn’t feel worthy to ask for and didn’t think she would receive, but she asked because it was important and there was nobody else that could ask it, for her.  

During the conference, a sermon was preached that mentioned the Sons of Issachar.

“Of Issachar, men who understood the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their command.” (I Chronicles 12:32).

The Sons of Issachar were part of King David’s “Mighty Men.”  These Mighty Men were the ones that fought for David in his battles, and helped him to be victorious in all his wars against the enemies of Israel.   No King can stand and be victorious on his own.  Kings need advice and support.

The Sons of Issachar, were those who “understood the times” and therefore knew what Israel needed to do, to be victorious.  Understanding the times included being able to read the things that were happening around Israel, and being able to understand what God is saying through them, being able to perceive what is happening in the spiritual realms because of them, and then giving “King David” the battle plan, the strategy to win in what was ahead.  

So, in terms of myself, there have been many, many times (and especially during Covid) in my walk with the Lord where I “understood the time” in that it was literal, that the time (usually a Holy Day calendar date) gave me extra illumination as to what God was doing in the spiritual realms. 

In this email, I will tell you how I am reading the Holy Dates surrounding the War in Israel, and what I hear God saying through the setting of these dates.

The Bible is literature and one of the signs that I point to, that tell me that we are in the Book of Revelation is I see God being so intentional with the setting of things happening in the world.  The setting of a story includes character names, place names, and time.   If the Bible is literature, then the fulfillment of events prophesied in The Bible, including The Book of Revelation, means God is intentional in our present Age, about character names, place names, and time, because He’s writing out the last act of a three-part play!  Act 1 was Old Testament.  Act II was New Testament. Act III is The Book of Revelation  🙂

There is precedent for God to speak through calendar dates, because God carefully timed Jesus’s Passion Week to fall on certain Holy Days, that gave us extra illumination for Jesus’s identity.  Jesus was crucified on the Passover, pointing out that He is the Sacrificial Lamb.  Under his blood, we can pass safely through the veil, from Slavery into Freedom (what I call ’Sonship’).  Jesus laid dead in the tomb and the backdrop was the Feast of the Unleavened Bread.  Scholars says that this refers to Jesus being sinless, but I believe it refers to how Jesus was void of the “breath of God, the breath of Life” because He was dead.  Leaven is “breath” for literal bread.  This is noteworthy because in John, Jesus breathed out to impart the Holy Spirit to His disciples.  Easter was the Feast of Firstfruits, which was pointing to how Jesus was the Firstborn to rise from the dead, with many Sons to follow (Romans 8:29)   Pentecost happened on Shavuot, which celebrates the Ingathering of the Early Wheat.

Pentecost is especially noteworthy, because the Early Wheat is a much smaller harvest than the Autumn Wheat.  God is foreshadowing that at the End of Age, there will be a greater harvest (of souls) than even Pentecost.   Scholars believe that because Jesus’s first first coming fulfilled the prophetic meanings of the first 4 feasts that happen during the Spring, that His return will fulfill the prophetic meanings of the last 3 feasts, which always happen in the Autumn:  

  • Feast of Trumpets (Sept 15-17, 2023) that refers to the Jewish bridegroom arriving to fetch his bride, which is always accompanied by trumpet blowing.  This is pointing to Jesus, arriving as the bridegroom to fetch his bride, the Church what will come with the “blast of the trump!”
  • the Atonement (Sept 25, 2023)–when the Great High Priest enters the Holy of Holies once a year, to sacrifice a bull to make atonement for the sins of the Nation.
  • the Feast of Tabernacles  (September 29- October 6) that celebrates how God’s spirit dwelt with Israel in a tent (tabernacle), during their wanderings in the desert of Sinai.  God’s Spirit will walk with us again, at the End of the Age, as He walked with us in the Garden of Eden. 

It is against the backdrop of these significant Holy Days, this autumn,  that the war in Israel broke out.   God sets out the times and places for all that happens in the world. Nothing is random or an accident, or is meaningless.   Seers, who look mainly at the spiritual realms, can read the visible markers (what is happening on earth) to understand what is happening in the spiritual realms.  They are the Sons of Issachar, so it’s not just to satisfy curiosity, but so that we have a strategy for how to move ahead in the things of God, which is to push the enemy back until God’s Kingdom is fully revealed on earth. 

The War in Israel broke out on Saturday Oct 7th.  I don’t know if other people saw this, but I SAW this.  Oct 6/7 was the very last day of the Feast of Tabernacles.  For the Jews, their day starts at sunset, therefore we have Oct 6/7 as the last day of their Feast of Tabernacles.  Scripture refers to this day:

“On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’ ”    John 7:37-38

The feast mentioned in John 7 is the Feast of Tabernacles, that celebrates the presence of God dwelling with his people. On this day, Jesus calls out to all to believe in Him, and streams of living water would flow from within them, spilling over onto everything and everyone, among them.  Living Water means revival!  When we are dying of thirst in the barren wilderness, void of the supernatural works of the Holy Spirit, including revelation as to God’s purposes for the desert, we need to be revived!  

“Without a vision, the people perish!” (Proverbs 29)

War broke in Israel on and “last and greatest day of the feast of Tabernacles.”  It was the GREATEST day of the Feast for the Jews, this year.  As they don’t know Jesus, they would have missed this Undesigned Coincidence, which are the fingerprint of God, leaving evidence that “He is here.”

So, Undesigned Coincidences are a technique of Apologeticists to prove the authenticity of a Word from God. This is because coincidences that aren’t designed by Man, point to an Intelligent Designer, and this Designing must be God.

https://crossexamined.org/undesigned-coincidences-in-the-scriptures-an-argument-for-their-veracity-part-1-old-testament-examples/

A coincidence is a function of TIME.  A coincidence is two or more things happening at the same time.  Time is a function of the movements of the SUN and those of you who know how intimately important Malachi 4 is to my life, will understand what I mean by the Sun…. 🙂

So, ANOTHER NAME for the Feast of Tabernacles, is the Feast of the Ingathering.  The Feast of the Ingathering celebrates the Autumn harvest, which includes the later and the GREATER wheat harvest—representing the Word of God which is called The Bread of Life, as well as representing the gathering up of the Souls of people (Jesus said that the fields were ripe for harvesting, meaning the gathering up of souls for His Kingdom). The Ingathering also celebrates the gathering up of olives (representing healing, anointing, consecration, priesthood), and grapes (for wine which is for rejoicing). 

The Book of Revelation speaks about the trampling of grapes representing God’s wrath. The trampling of grapes to make wine is during the autumn harvest, too… This means that first comes God’s judgement and wrath, and then afterwards rejoicing for God’s people who make it to the other side! 

So, I will piece together two more things, before I tell you what I hear God saying through all these prophetic symbols that He has laid out, through the Feasts and Holy Dates that make the backdrop to the War in Israel.

1. This past Sunday,  at church, this John 4: 21-26 about the Samaritan Woman was read out:

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—-I am he.” John 4: 21-26

If you click at this link, you’ll be taken to the exact spot:

2. THIS WEEK, during Bible Study Fellowship (www.bsfinternational.org), people all over the world studied the account of the SAMARITAN WOMAN.  BSF has a very rigid curriculum that is planned years in advance.  This means 400,000 adults, 77,000 children, in 37 countries studied the account of the Samaritan Woman in John 4: 21-26 this week.

So I spoke out what I was hearing God say, at my BSF study this week.  I’ll share with you via email. 🙂

It is NOT a coincidence that the Lord led CSC and BSF (and probably many other churches in the world) to speak out the story of the Samaritan Woman at the Well (Jacob’s Well, or Israel’s Well if we take Jacob’s new name, that God gave him.)

Jesus in John 4, has already spoken towards the battles Israel will have, over the ages, over the Temple Mount in literal Jerusalem. Jesus was telling people that the physical (visible) temple is only pointing to an invisible temple.  There is a greater temple, built of Living Stones, which are the gathered people of God, all with Holy Spirit residing in all of us, as we individually are Temples of the Holy Spirit. But—we collectively, as God’s gathered people, IS the ETERNAL Temple that He planned before creation.  The Tabernacle in the desert, during the Exodus, and Solomon’s Temple are only a shadow.

If we’re fighting over shadows, we are fighting in the dark.

So, look at the parallels between the account of the Samaritan Woman at the well. Scholars would call this using typology to interpret the Bible.  What I am doing, is using typology to interpret the events that I see around me.  We talk about how our lives are a story.  Well, the whole world is a story to be read, as well.  There is a unmistakable parallel that I see between the war in Israel and the account of the Samaritan Woman.

The Samaritan Woman was of the “other tribe” that was excluded from worshipping in the Temple in Jerusalem which was on Mount Moriah.  They were the despised, “immoral tribe”.   The Samaritans were of the people who asked to be part of the rebuilding of the Temple in Ezra-Nehemiah, but weren’t allowed by the Jews because they weren’t “the Chosen Ones.” So, they in anger and jealously, started to oppose the Jews as they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and the Second Temple. In my New Testament annotated by an Orthodox Jew, it says that they discouraged them, made them afraid, bribed counsellors against them. The mention of the “bribing of counsellors” makes me wonder what financial interests are going on, that are making people take sides  🙂

The Samaritans made themselves an alternate temple in Mount Gerizim, because they were excluded.   So, here we have two “ethnic people’s group” fighting over access to the Temple Mount.

Jesus has provided an answer to the fighting.  It’s NOT about who has literal possession of the Temple Mount, with access to the Temple.  God is calling ALL PEOPLE’S, ALL NATONS to come to Him, where we will all worship him in Spirit, as we are led of the Holy Spirit that wells up from within us.

So, our hearts should not be too intricately consumed with the politics of the matter, which lead us into anger.  The Hebrew word, for Anger is to be “short-nosed.”  People with “short-noses” are lacking the breath of the Holy Spirit, meaning they are lacking the leading of the Holy Spirit.  If YOU WANT to be more closely led by the Holy Spirit, it’s is of utmost importance that you resist allowing anger to take root in your Spirit.   The other emotion that leads us away from leading of the Holy Spirit is FEAR. This is because Fear takes away our literal breath.  When we are fearful, we hyperventilate, we get dizzy, we pass out.  This tells me that the leading of the Holy Spirit happens through our higher brain which is our cerebral cortex!  When we are fearful or angry, we go into “flight or fright” mode, and all our oxygen is channeled to our lower brains which are our REPTILIAN brains (the SNAKE brain!).  Because we lack oxygen to our critical thinking part of our brain (where the gift of Discernment operates), we are not being led in wisdom, which is the counselling part of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said that we are not to be alarmed by wars and rumours of wars (Matthew 24). These things will come, but we need to be about the Father’s Work, while it is still day, which is to take in the harvest while we can.   The labour contractions, as coming closer and closer together, as we see the earth convulse and groan under the weight of its sin, …so we know that night is coming soon.

The Father of the Palestinians was Esau.  The Father of the Israelites was Jacob.  Esau and Jacob were twin brothers!  They don’t appear to be identical twin brothers, yet they were twin brothers.   If there is no Jew or Greek (Galatians 4:28) because there are no racial divides in the Kingdom of God, it would be wrong of us to make a villain of either brother.  Instead, our hearts are to break for them, as a Father’s heart would break over the fighting among His twin sons.  

The answer to peace in the Middle East will never be an earthly solution.  It has to be rooted in the spiritual, which means all people’s need to come to Jesus, at the End of the Age.  Only Jesus alone can give us the power to forgive what is unforgivable (the massacres and rape of our family members), and to be forgiven of what is unforgivable.  We know that both sides of the conflict have inflicted both on each other.

In this Spirit, we pray for reconciliation between all the brothers. Ishmael was the Father of the Muslims.    This means praying for family reconciliation between Isaac (Israel & Ishmael, between Esau & Jacob, that only Salvation in Jesus can bring.

So, through these Holy Dates, that make the backdrop of the War in Israel, this is what I hear God saying:

  • Feast of Tabernacles— God’s people are the tabernacle of the Holy Spirit.  Don’t let the visible (staring at the Temple Mount) make you stumble at seeing the invisible –the creation of God’s eternal tabernacle which is the collecting up of the Living Stones  (1 Peter 2)—the salvation of the Unsaved, which are His Chosen people, which is not defined any longer by ethnicity. The Jews believe they are the Chosen People and that Israel is the Chosen nation.  Well, “yes,” but that was only a shadow of what God intends at the end of the Age, which is when all God’s children of all nations rise up to be His metaphorical Israel and the New Jerusalem  (Revelations 21)
  • Jesus spoke out that He is the Living Water to all who will believe on the Last and GREATEST day of the Feast of Tabernacles.  I believe that the crisis in Israel that started on the last and GREATEST day of the Feast of Tabernacles is Jesus calling all the people’s groups in Israel to him, but especially the JEWS–that they may believe and their wanderings in their drought of the Holy Spirit, will finally cease.   Jesus met the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well.  I hear God saying that out of the crisis in the nation of Israel (Jacob’s new name) will be a WELL where the means of Living Water to overflow into nation can spring up from—Israel’s Well!  As well, introductions at wells led to marriages! Moses & Zipporah & Jacob & Rebekah!  Lots of prophetic possibilities in this! 
  • Feast of the Ingathering—-God desires this crisis in the Middle East to be the start of the great Ingathering.  People believe that there will be a last great spiritual awakening before the return of Christ and they call this the Ingathering.  There will be an Ingathering but also a great falling away.  The falling away will be the people who go into despair and hopelessness “because the days are evil.”  (I Timothy 4).  For those with spiritual eyes, our hearts and spirits need to quicken with joy, seeing the signs that our Lord’s return is near—so that we hurry about our task to take in the last Ingathering of souls.  We know that crisis and persecution grow the Church.  Even more people will be looking for hope in the days to come:  “The fields are ripe for harvest….ask the Lord of the Harvest to bring more workers….” (John 4).   During the furnace of affliction, the Word of God that has been planted will start to germinate during the watering of tears.  This is how God is going to bring back our Prodigals, during these in-stable times.  But, if there are no seeds planted, then nothing will germinate.  God promises that even a mustard-sized grain holds promise for a huge harvest.  So don’t lose heart, if your planting doesn’t seem to be making a difference right now.   When the heat of the sun bears down on us, suddenly a huge field of harvest will appear before our eyes.  The sower who has sown in tears and the reaper will rejoice together as we bring armloads of sheaves (John 4)

Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy,  carrying sheaves with them. Psalm 126

  • The first day of the Feast of the Ingathering, always starts on the Harvest Moon, which is the full moon during the Harvest month.  That was Sept 29, 2023, this year.  The full moon means there is more light for the harvesters to gather in “more harvest.”   Light is a symbol of revelation, meaning “more revelation” helps us to gather in more harvest because we can gather even during “the night” now.   So, when Jesus talks about how we should not be caught unprepared, as the Five Virgins or Five Bridesmaid where, without enough oil.  I believe Jesus is saying to not be caught without light or revelation to take us through these dark times.  Oil is a symbol of consecration, or being set apart for the purposes of God.  You all have the light, so you are all set part for God’s purposes in the days ahead,  so use your little lamp to lead those around you through the night. 🙂

So, I started this with the Samaritan Woman, and I will end this email with the Samaritan Woman.  You can draw so many parallels through this account of her,  with the war in Israel.   As the scripture was read out last Sunday at CSC, and then studied all over the world through BSF, I believe this to be God’s Voice, speaking to His Watchmen in spiritual warfare (Watchmen “watch,” so they are Seers, too.) and pointing out that Jesus gave us the answer many years ago, of how to respond to the present crisis in the Middle East.   If you believe John 4: 21-26  this past week, is God’s voice, He’s telling us we’re in the Book of Revelation, because the Jews are prophesied to be gathered to Jesus at the End of the Age, so the present War in Israel is the start of the Ingathering because of what Jesus called out, years ago “on the same date.” 

The Sons of Issachar know how to read the times, and sometimes it is literally reading the times.  🙂  

God gave me a prophetic Word, 20 years ago that said, “You are like Hannah, crying out in the house of the Lord, as of old—I have seen every prayer that you have prayed, every intercession that you have made towards my throne and I will give you your Samuels…and I will birth them through you….”

So, a Samuel is a seer, a watchmen, and a Son of Issachar.   God promised me Samuels, which is plural!   I can’t really explain in an email, but I believe that the people that God brings across my path, since Covid started, are those “Samuels” that He promised to birth through me.  If I tend to write long pieces with a lot of detail and some of it is hard to grasp, I understand this.  I am not unaware but my intention is to ever so gently push the boundaries of your past experiences, so that you may hear the voice of God, like how Samuel in the OT, did, too. This is my way of doing my part to fulfill that promise God gave me, so many years ago.  If you are reading this, I believe that you are one of the the Samuels that God promised to birth through me, so many years ago.  

So…in conclusion…

We pray for the restoration and re-building of the Invisible Temple (God’s Children as the Body of Christ), and we grieve for those who are spiritually-blind and believe that hate, anger, and killing can ever be the will of God to usher in peace.  It is a spiritual principle that death cannot birth life. :). We pray for God to intervene, that God would use this crisis in the lives of all Nations in the Middle East and across the world, that all may encounter the Living God who, with, “all things are possible.”

If Living Waters are to pour out of us, God says that our mouths cannot pour out salt water, as well as fresh water (James 3).  As well, the Wisdom that comes from above is peace-loving and impartial:

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.  (James 3)

When I hear the Word, “impartial,” it’s a warning to not take sides out of fleshly desires, which unfortunately is where political anger is usually rooted in, and then in our anger,  our speech is pouring out waters of death…  The flesh looks at what is visible.  The Spirit sees the invisible which are God’s intentions for the visible.

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  I Corinthians 10:3-5

For those of you who will be attending the Mid-Autumn Concert, this Friday, Oct 27th (Doors open at 7pm) at Central Campus, the choir (I will be in the choir) will be singing, “Be Not Afraid,” which has been on my heart especially this week.  This song is from Isaiah 43.   God gave me Isaiah 43, on New Year’s Eve 2019 in preparation for Covid, as well (a Watchmen story that I need to tell you all in detail, one day!)

But now, this is what the Lord says—
    he who created you, Jacob,
    he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters,
    I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
    they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
    you will not be burned;
    the flames will not set you ablaze.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

You can listen to a version of it on YouTube here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTf0ysDNBp4

Blessings!

Vivian

Soli Deo Gloria

…

Hello again!I need to correct a typo, from my previous email. A missing bracket can make a big difference to understanding 🙂

“In this Spirit, we pray for reconciliation between all the brothers. Ishmael was the Father of the Muslims.    This means praying for family reconciliation between Isaac (Israel) & Ishmael; , between Esau & Jacob, that only Salvation in Jesus can bring.
I lived in Indonesia, a muslim nation and the most populous muslim nation in the world, for two years. Eid al-Adha is a muslim holy feast where they celebrate Abraham’s offering of Ishmael, to God.   Ishmael and his descendants so desire the Inheritance, that they have swapped out Isaac, for Ishmael in their telling of Abraham’s obedience to God.   So, it was at Mount Moriah where Abraham offered up Isaac, to God,  that would eventually become the place that Solomon built his temple—the Temple Mount. So, there’s that connection.   
There’s so much spiritually going on, around that Temple, …but again—

“Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, who found favour in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,“‘Heaven is my throne,and the earth is my footstool.What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,or what is the place of my rest?Did not my hand make all these things?’   Acts 7:44-50 where Stephen quotes Isaac 66:1

After I sent off my email to you, I came across this Youtube short (1 minute), which illustrates the point I was making that earthly solutions cannot bring Peace:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFWZpUkYShc
Cheers!

Vivian