Have we been faithful, have we been true
Blessings and Shalom in our Messiah Yeshua!
I am asking myself, "have we been faithful?", "have we been true?"....I so desire for all of us at Highway to Zion, which includes you, if you are receiving this email, to be like Yeshua, the One Called Faithful and True. I love this Name for Him. (Rev. 19:11) It sums up His wholeness of being - Faithful and True - always about Abba's business and always walking in faithfulness and truth.
So, have we been faithful and true to what He's asked of us? For those of us with the perfectionist spirit, it will probably be difficult to answer that question without hesitation, but I'm thinking of His grace and His mercy and His Ruach, and it's because of Him, that I think we can answer that, yes, dear Lord, You are the One who has empowered us to walk in faith and in truth in a Way that only You know. Just this truth alone totally motivates my heart to keep moving in Him! (Php. 4:13; I Tim. 1:12-14)
My report on behalf of all of us in Highway to Zion is that we have followed Him and we see that He has us on this highway helping to make a way for His people, Israel, and a way for Messiah's return to restore all things. (Isa. 40:3-5; Isa. 62:10-11)
The year, 2016, has been in many ways a transition year for us. It's the tenth year of our ministry and the year that I believe we left our season of beginnings and have moved into a deeper level of understanding and purpose and service. The ministry vision the Lord gave us is still the same but the roots are growing deeper and deeper:
Worship Elohim, the God of Israel, the one true God and come into the fullness of the Sh'ma
Teach/Learn of God's covenant purpose for Israel and the nations
Restoration of Israel - supporting and becoming One with believers in the Land - Jew and Gentile
Revelation of prophetic destiny for every passionate follower of Yeshua - our destiny is ultimately tied to Israel
At the beginning of 2016, we knew that we had a three-pronged focus for the year -
Salvation of Israel
Revival in the nations
Aliyah
And, yes, we plowed up the field in all three of these areas. We moved out with several outreaches for the "salvation of Israel" that produced funding for anointed evangelistic efforts targeted specifically to Israelis - as most of you who bless Israel through financial gifts to HTZ know, we have two ministry partners who have a specific anointing for the salvation of Israel - Ze'ev Nevo of Israel Media Ministries and Avi Mizrachi of Dugit Outreach Center in Tel Aviv. The Lord has knit us together with them over many years of serving together and loving Messiah together. Giving financially became a focus that really bore fruit this year because so many of you are hearing the same thing we are hearing from the Ruach and you have poured into the salvation of Israel. Thank you with all our heart for this.
The focus, "revival in the nations", had a surprise execution in that this revival piece seemed to be expressed through our women's ministry - an absolutely remarkable and powerful corporate expression of revival in our women's gatherings - a "great company of women". It has been said over and over by women who come for the first time to our meetings that what they see and experience and become a part of is a group of women who are passionate for God and zealous for the prophetic fulfillment of His Word in these days. The interesting thing, too, is that we are seeing the revival of the power gifts of the Spirit in these meetings, something that we know must happen in the last days....the final fulfillment of the Spirit being poured out on all flesh. (Joel 2:28-29)
Also, during our September tour to Israel, we saw again "revival" being poured out as faithful servants of God who were on our tour boldly pressed in to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit, Jew and Gentile pressing in together, and we saw with our own eyes and heard with our ears in a garden in the City of Jerusalem the sights and sounds of the pouring out of the Ruach. We know that it is just beginning to rain, and that soon the downpour will come! Hallelujah! "He will come to us like the rain." (Hosea 6:3)
And "Aliyah" - the return of the Jews to the Land from all over the world - this focus is even now becoming ever more deeply etched in our hearts. For a couple of years now, because of your giving, we have brought Jewish believers to Israel, allowing them to "make Aliyah" to Israel for the first time! These trips are unconditional for those who receive them - our heart is to do our part in bringing His sons and daughters to the Land, allowing them to taste and see their homeland. (Isa. 49:22) We did not realize how quickly the Lord would begin to draw us deeper into serving in the area of helping Jews make aliyah and in helping the new olim (immigrants) get settled in the Land.
This year while in the Land, the Lord connected us with a group of believers in the Galilee who have a unique approach to helping in the aliyah effort - this group, The Aliyah Return Center, is providing residences for those who return to the Land to help get them started and established. It's not easy to live in Israel, and these olim are coming from all over the world. And, again, because you believe in what we are doing, we were able to sow significant funds into this effort. We are also going back to serve with Aliyah Return Center on a ministry outreach trip where we will assist in preparing the facilities for the new olim. It is becoming ever more obvious that the Lord is telling us, literally, that the wealth of the nations must be poured into Zion in these last days. (Isa. 60:8-12)
Throughout the year, we continued on with our other ministry outreaches to broaden and deepen the fulfillment of the goals He has given us -
Assemblies - we met several times this year in corporate Assemblies where we join hearts in Messianic worship and learn from anointed teachers and prophetic exhorters. We had Scott Volk from Together for Israel at our March meeting and Ze'ev Nevo of Israel Media Ministries at our August meeting. In October, HTZ leadership led our Succot Assembly.
Israeli Folkdance for Worship - these gatherings for the purpose of worship and learning Israeli folkdance for congregational worship are times of purity and truth in seeking to fellowship with Him and each other - we met seven times this year.
Women's Ministry - we had our "Great Company of Women" Conference in May, and we met again at our "Sisterhood Gathering" in November where our focus was on "Let it Rain". This year we plan to expand our women's ministry by adding small group opportunities in both the North and South parts of the city.
Tour - in September, we went up to Zion with a phenomenal group of zealous worshipers of Elohim. This group immediately came together as mishpocha. There is a unique bond between those who know the signs of the times and walk in it. This group was like that. Half of the group had never been to the Land before and the other half had been multiple times yet the unity of the Spirit was solid and powerful. I believe the Lord used this group to help usher us into the deeper dimension of our calling for Aliyah.
Intercession - undergirding, and more than that, initiating the spiritual direction of HTZ through prayer and intercession is a faithful and true group of intercessors who meet weekly by prayerline. If you are called to intercession, ask for the phone number to join the prayerline and be prepared to be immediately propelled into the Ruach when you get on the line. This is a powerful time of prayer and continues to be the heart of mobilizing all that we do.
Giving - as those of you who attended our Succot Assembly know, I was blessed to announce that this year, Highway to Zion went over the $100,000 dollar mark in cumulative giving! We are an "organically grown" ministry that did not set out to be a fund-raising center, but when you begin serving Him for Zion's sake you soon realize that Israel has needs that must be met with material means. If we are to fulfill what He has asked of us, we must give financially as well as every other way.
It has just brought me humbly to my knees when I think about what He has done. The donations we receive from you are more than money because we know that you truly are part of what we are doing - if you are giving into HTZ you realize that you are part of hands-on, grassroots, touching, feeling, going, and experiencing-prophetic-destiny ministry as we build up Zion. We're going to need more as we embrace "bringing the wealth of the nations" to Zion, but we only have to do our part, dear friends....I'm speaking of you and of me. Just do what He says to you to do.
Some of the main ministries that you support:
Israel Media Ministries - Indian Land - www.israelmediaministries.org
Dugit Outreach Center - Tel Aviv - www.dugit.org
Chazon Yerushalyaim - Jerusalem - www.jerusalemvision.org
Heart of G-d Ministries - Galilee - www.heartofg-d.org
Vision for Israel - Jerusalem - www.visionforisrael.org
Aliyah Return Center - Galilee - www.aliyahreturncenter.com
Christian Friends of Israel - Jerusalem - www.cfijerusalem.org
We also support additional ministries in the Land, including Dan Ascher, Revive Israel, Restoration from Zion, ICZC as well as several of our partner ministries here in the USA. We know that giving nearly all the donations we receive to other ministries is not the norm for "ministry" organizations and that most ministries have a focus that requires most of their donations be spent within their own organization but this has not been the way for us. He has just taken us by the hand and led us this way, and we just keep holding on to His hand!
Thank you for listening to this end of the "Gregorian year" recap! You are so dear to my heart as I believe the final Day is soon approaching, and I am so grateful that we share in this Hope and in the calling to serve Him for eternity. I long for His appearing as I know you do, too.
Have we been faithful? Have we been true? And what will we be?
"Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." (I John 3:2-3)
Love and shalom in the Name of the One Called Faithful and True, Yeshua ha Mashiach,
Cathy
