Revival Strategies for 2003/2004

Israel Revival Strategy
by Asher Intrater

August, 2004 Revival in Israel is on the way. We can be sure of that because the Bible promises that, "All Israel will be saved" - Romans 11:26. That is the banner cry of our ministry.

Yet before all Israel will be saved, there will be 144,000 Israelis who will be saved (Revelation 7:4). And before the 144,000 saved, there will be a remnant of 7,000 (Romans 11:4-5). And before the 7,000, we must do all we can to at least "save some of them" (Romans 11:14, I Corinthians 9:22).

And before having even a few saved, sometimes it feels that we are completely alone ("For I also am an Israelite" - Romans 11:1). It all starts with each individual person's decision. Those Messianic Jews who came to the Lord in the late 60's or early 70's remember the experience of "I must be the only one ..."

Revival for Israel, as in any other aspect of the kingdom (Mark 4:26-32), develops in stages. The process here is: 1) one to 2) some to 3) seven thousand to 4) 144,000 to 5) all Israel. The process is in progress already. We are not to sit back waiting idly for a "post-rapture" revival, but to be actively involved now in evangelism, discipleship and congregational planting.

At the turn of the year 2,000, we reached the point of 7,000 believers in Israel. Now we are setting out sights to grow from 7,000 to 144,000. To some that would seem impossible, yet in the 1980's we saw the Messianic movement in the U.S. grow to those numbers and in the 1990's in the former Soviet Union as well. So we've got two positive testimonies already to build our faith.

By faith, we envision 144,000 believers in Yeshua (Jesus) who are Israel citizens and speak Hebrew. How can we get there? The answer can be found in two words: MULTIPLY CONGREGATIONS. The goal of our ministry is to help messianic congregations multiply around Israel.

Dave Garrison, in his new book, "Church Planting Movements" (WIGT press, 2004) gives an insightful analysis of massive revivals over the last decade, particularly in Asia. In all those movements he found the common factors of local lay leadership, indigenous evangelism and multiplying home cell churches.

Dave notes that a team of people, which he calls "church planting strategy coordinators", often plays a key role in fostering the revivals. In our terminology, we refer to this as a "five-fold" or "apostolic" ministry team (Ephesians 4:1-16). The concept of training local believers to multiply congregations throughout Israel fits exactly what is on our heart.

For this reason my intention is not to become a pastor myself of a congregation, but to "equip" others to lead their own. This is a transition from being a "player" to being more of a "coach". Yeshua Himself was a revival preacher, but He placed more importance on training the twelve to multiply the kingdom after He was gone. Following this example, Betty and I are looking to invest our lives in 12 young men and 12 young women, to help them fulfill their destinies, and in turn train others.

A pastor focuses on tending the flock, an evangelist on reaching the lost, a teacher on discipling the saints through the Scriptures and a prophet on responding to the Holy Spirit. An apostolic ministry team seeks to combine and coordinate these gift ministries into the goal of multiplying congregations. Planting new congregations is the distinctive mark of apostolic ministry.

The key to multiplying congregations is to train local believers to be able to lead home cells. Some of those are called to be cell leaders within a larger congregation, and others are called to start new congregations. For this reason, our program will focus on a discipleship-training center. The goal is to train, send out and provide long-term "back up" for home cell/congregation leaders.

The DTC will include daily prayer and praise ministry in which the prophetic gifts will be encouraged. We will plan strategic evangelistic outreaches, as well as personal sharing with "not-yet-believers." And of course there will be daily teaching and impartation from the scriptures. For each of the trainees, we seek to have a local pastor take charge of the personal mentoring and follow-up.

[Note: Along with these ministries, we must always remember to give to the poor. Revive Israel Ministries is involved in three funds that provide financial assistance to needy believers in Israel. We see this as an essential part of true apostolic ministry (Mark 14:7, Acts 11:3, Galatians 2:10, Romans 15:26, I Corinthians 16:3).]

The vision is for national revival in Israel. The goal is to multiply congregations across the country. The program is a discipleship training center, combining prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral and teaching ministries, to produce home cell leaders for the congregations. Yet that is not enough. Because of the particular spiritual warfare concerning revival in the "Holy Land," we need a special degree of backing.

The backing comes from a network of prayer support from believers around the world. Paul prefaced his prophecy that "All Israel will be saved" with the condition that the international community of faith would first receive revelation about the importance of revival and restoration in Israel. With the revelation of the international church concerning Israel, they will certainly begin to pray, and "SO" or "THEN" (Romans 11:26) and only then, will the revival take place.

One of the godly benefits of the Internet is that it provides a network of prayer, information and unity in His body internationally. It is so important for us to link up with Christians around the world in our weekly email update in order to pray in an informed and accurate way concerning end-time events in Israel.

Simply stated, here's our strategy from the Lord:
1) International prayer network [the backing]
2) Discipleship training center [the program]
a. Prophetic prayer and praise
b. Evangelistic outreaches
c. Teaching to produce local leaders
3) Multiplying congregations [the goal]
4) Revival in Israel [the vision].

Thank you for standing in agreement with us as partners for the restoration of the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:5-8).

Vision for Revival in Israel

by Asher Intrater

©October, 2003: Our guiding vision is for a great revival in the nation of Israel, hence the name of our ministry "Revive Israel". This end-times national revival in Israel is promised to us in scripture, as it is written:

Romans 11:28
"And so all Israel will be saved."

The core of this revival is that myriads of local Israelis will come to faith in Yeshua. We have set our goal to be a part of God's work in this land to see 200,000 Israelis come to salvation.

While this number may seem outlandish to some people at this time, we do not see it as unrealistic, as God will give us grace. In the mid 70's there were barely a few thousand Jewish believers in Yeshua (Jesus) in the United States. Through the late 70's and the 80's, even by conservative estimates, that number grew to be well over 200,000.

At the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, there were also just a few thousand Jewish believers in Yeshua. Throughout the 1990's, that number also grew exponentially, and would also cover 200,000 believers throughout Eastern Europe and other Diaspora communities.

Since the late 1970's there has been a steady, albeit slow, growth of local Israelis who believe in Yeshua, particularly from secular Israeli backgrounds. We believe that the next decade will show a rapid increase of faith in Yeshua among local Israelis.

Commission for Revival and Restoration

We find a commission and guidelines for this revival in the following discussion between Yeshua and his disciples:

Acts 1:6-8
"When they were gathered together, they asked Him, saying, 'Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' And He said unto them, 'It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has set in His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the ends of the earth.'"

The season for revival and restoration of Israel was not in the first century following Yeshua's resurrection. That was the time for the exile of Israel and for the gospel to go around the world. We believe that God's timing for Israel's revival and restoration is in the last century right before the second coming of Yeshua, as the Jews have been re-gathered back to their land from the exile.

From these words of Yeshua we understand that revival here will have three basic parts:

1. An outpouring of the Holy Spirit and power among the believers within Israel.
2. Wide spread evangelism to local Israelis across the country.
3. A positive and Godly influence upon the government and society of Israel.

Following these guidelines we find our first step to be fostering the move of the Holy Spirit, together with all the prophetic gifts, among the believers in Israel. This revival experience is best described for us in the scriptures in Acts 2. We believe that Acts chapter 2 sets the standard and example for revival and renewal of the community of faith in Israel, not only in the first century, but also in this present day as well. We look forward to more and more of these spiritual elements described in Acts 2 occurring in our midst today.

Some Personal Background

During the 1980's I was privileged to serve in a network of ministries that later became known as Tikkun International. The director of that ministry is Dan Juster, and has included such men of God as Eitan Shiskoff, Paul Wilbur, Michael Brown, Thurlow Switzer, Don Finto, and many others too numerous to mention here. My international ministry connection remains with the Tikkun network to this day. During the 1980's I was involved with them in such projects as Beth Messiah Congregation in Washington D.C., Ets Chayim day school, Montgomery Covenant Academy, and El Shaddai congregation in Frederick, Maryland.

In the early and mid 1990's, after our immigration to Israel, I was privileged to serve as assistant to Joseph Shulam of Netivyah Ministries in Jerusalem. Joe is one of the foremost authorities in the world today on the Jewish background of New Covenant faith.

In the mid to late 1990's I was privileged to serve as assistant to Ilan Zamir, (who has gone on to be with the Lord), in helping to establish the Messianic Jewish Alliance of Israel and Israel College of the Bible. MJAI is a national union of Jewish believers in Yeshua. ICOB is a national Bible college both for Jewish believers and international students.

During that time, both in discussions with Ilan, and in an ever-growing burden in my personal prayer life, I saw the need for native-born Israelis to come to salvation in Yeshua. This became a passionate desire of my heart. I began to seek new avenues to be able to share the gospel with Israelis.

At that time I started to work together with Rachel Natanel. We began to share the gospel in personal home settings. We were surprised at the openness of Israelis to hear the gospel when it was presented to them in love, in the anointing of the Holy Spirit, in Hebrew, and in an Israeli cultural setting.

At that time as well, a young Israeli woman by the name of Sarah, from an ultra-orthodox background, came to faith in Yeshua together with us. Her faith resulted in persecution against her (including beatings), and general attacks against us from the ultra-orthodox. With both Rachel and Sarah, we saw many new opportunities, breakthroughs, and challenges for evangelism in Jerusalem.

In the late 1990's, I joined and began preaching at congregation Tifferet Yeshua in Tel Aviv, led by Pastor Ari Sorkoram and Elder Eddie Santoro. We had a similar vision for the power of the Holy Spirit, direct evangelism, and a totally Hebrew-Sabra cultural framework for the congregation. We began to see great spiritual blessing in the congregation.

At that time I was split between the personal evangelism ministry in Jerusalem, and the preaching and congregational ministry in Tel Aviv. I realized that we would have to join the two together in one location. In the year 2000, we decided to move our family to the Tel Aviv area in order to unify the congregational, evangelistic, and discipleship ministries. I joined in partnership with our dear brother Simcha Davidof for street evangelism in Tel Aviv.

During this year (2003) we began to see again yet another break through as the pastoral and evangelistic ministries were combined. We have seen a steady stream of new, native-born Israelis come to faith in Yeshua and join the congregation. This has been an exciting and unprecedented experience.

Through this season of harvest we find ourselves blessed with a new challenge: How to raise up new cell group and ministry leaders, and how to multiply these beginning streams of revival across the country. It is with this challenge in mind that the Lord has been renewing in our hearts the vision for a comprehensive and intensive discipleship training center, located in the Judean hills outside of Jerusalem, which would serve the Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and surrounding areas.

http://www.revive-israel.org/