Behold Israel

Good morning from Spokane’s International Airport.

My time in the U.S. has come to an end, and I am on my way to catch my flight to Dubai, where I will be teaching next.

The Lord was so good to us yesterday. We had a full house of hungry believers who came to hear our messages on The Israel Decree. I can already feel the relief that comes with focusing on teaching the Word without the constant race to report the news in between. My team tells me I’m back to my pre-2023 teaching mode - a little less edgy.

As Pastor Mike said, “Welcome back!”

I am now laser-focused on my upcoming trip to New Zealand and Australia, although it often feels as if I’m traveling back in time to Europe before World War II when it comes to the hatred of Jews and Israel in those countries. Thankfully, the Lord has always preserved a remnant that will never bow to the demonic spirit of our time. I look forward to opening God’s Word, for it remains the only true source of peace, joy, and salvation. I am excited to fellowship with the local saints in both countries and share the Word with them.

While the exchange of kinetic blows in the Persian Gulf continues, the primary battlefield remains the minds of people who are being relentlessly brainwashed and deceived.

I often tell people that Israel is the litmus test by which God is testing both the world and the Church. That nation will neither disappear nor be permanently cursed. It will, however, as it has throughout history, suffer the consequences of its unbelief.

Why, then, does God continue to shelter, protect, and love Israel?

Because of His nature and His character.

From the moment He brought us into the Promised Land, He made it clear:

“For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bo***ge, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

Deuteronomy 7:6-8 (NKJV)

These words were spoken after the nation had already sinned repeatedly from the very beginning of the Exodus, throughout the forty years in the wilderness, including the terrible sin of the golden calf.

Don’t look at this as something unfair. Rather, rejoice that we serve a loving God who is faithful to His promises and does not cast us away when we stumble and fall. He is a God of restoration. He is a Father who always waits for the prodigal to come home.

I can’t remember a single day in my life when I was perfect. Yet I also can’t remember a single day when I felt hated by God. If anything, it was usually me condemning myself. But God has always been there for me.

As I prepare to travel thousands of miles, my thorn in the flesh - sleeplessness and back pain - continually reminds me that His grace is sufficient for me.

“For My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Therefore, when I am weak, then I am strong.

Happy Sunday, everyone.

Awaiting His Return,

Amir

We Don’t Die - We Fall Asleep

While sleep is important, it often isn’t practiced enough by people like me. Yet for the believer, the term sleep carries a far deeper meaning.

The moment we put our trust in the finished work of the Messiah on the cross and in His shed blood for the remission of our sins, we are no longer subject to death in its ultimate sense. From that moment on, unless we are among those who are raptured alive, we simply fall asleep until that glorious day.

This wasn’t a new concept introduced in the New Testament. Hundreds of years earlier, Daniel wrote:

“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life…” (Daniel 12:2, NKJV)

Likewise, Job declared with confidence:

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God.” (Job 19:25-27, NKJV)

Yeshua Himself used this language. When speaking of Lazarus, He said, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps,” only to explain later that He was speaking of his death (John 11:11-14). Likewise, Paul consistently referred to deceased believers as those who have “fallen asleep” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

Why? Because we no longer experience death as separation from God. Death, in its fullest biblical sense, is separation from the Giver of life. But Yeshua declared:

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” (John 5:24, NKJV)

The moment we believed, we experienced a spiritual resurrection. As Paul wrote:

“And you, being dead in your trespasses… He has made alive together with Him.” (Colossians 2:13, NKJV)

He also reminds us:

“Even when we were dead in trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ… and raised us up together.” (Ephesians 2:5-6, NKJV)

Our physical resurrection still awaits the return of Christ, but spiritually we have already crossed from death into life.

That is why the body of the believer, once it ceases to live, is described in Scripture as being asleep. Meanwhile, the believer’s soul is immediately in the presence of the Lord. Paul leaves no room for doubt:

“…to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8, NKJV)

He even wrote:

“…having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.” (Philippians 1:23, NKJV)

Then, at the sound of the last trumpet, the Lord will gather His church. The souls of those already with Him will be reunited with their resurrected, glorified bodies.

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout… And the dead in Christ will rise first.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16, NKJV)

Why am I saying all of this?

Because we must stop being afraid of death.

For the believer, death is no longer something to dread. Yeshua has defeated it. Its power has been broken.

Centuries before Paul wrote to the Corinthians, the Lord had already declared through Hosea:

“O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction!” (Hosea 13:14, NKJV)

Paul triumphantly echoed that promise:

“‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’… But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57, NKJV)

Nothing - not even death itself - can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Yeshua our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

Because of Yeshua, death is no longer our destination. It is merely the doorway into His presence. Until the trumpet sounds, believers who leave this world simply fall asleep, while their souls rejoice in the presence of the Lord, awaiting that glorious day when mortality will put on immortality.

So until that day, don’t fear death. Fear the One who conquered it.

Awaiting His Return,

Amir