Special Report from Israel

reported by: Benny Hinn

As I write these words, I am at an undisclosed site near Gaza. The atmosphere over here is massively charged, both militarily and politically. The Israeli military has been in full operation. Rockets are landing in the distance, and an impending sense of the prophetic importance of what is happening grows by the hour.

What I have to share with you is extremely urgent.

Our days have been filled here in Israel as we have gathered footage and interviewed some of the most influential people in this war-torn region. Those interviewed (or scheduled to be interviewed during my visit) include:

• Dr. Dore Gold (president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations)
  
  
• Danny Ayalon (former ambassador to the United States)
  
  
• Major Avital Leibovich (spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces)
  
  
• Shahar Hermelin (Director of Tourism, Jewish National Fund)
  
  
• David Buskila (mayor of Sderot)
  
  
• General Effi Eitam (Brigadier General in the Israel Defense Forces and war hero who earned Israel's Medal of Distinguished Service in the Yom Kippur War)
  
  
• Dr. Ely Karmon (senior research scholar at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center and leading expert on international terrorism)
  
  
• Avi Melamed (analyst and lecturer, Yanshuf)
  
  
• Colonel Shimon “Katcha” Cahaner (Israeli war hero)
  
  

My Urgent Desire to Share What Is Actually Happening Here
I have shared with you about the dream the Lord showed me early in the morning of December 26. I saw through this dream that the nation of Israel would be involved in a serious military operation in Gaza and that a part of Hamas, the terrorist organization supported by Iran, would be destroyed at the cost of many lives. As I awoke, I was filled with grief for the lives that would be lost in this conflict.

Shortly after waking from my dream, to my amazement I began hearing and seeing the news bulletins about the attacks and air-strikes taking place primarily in Gaza, and as the crisis grew, I knew God was directing me to come here to Israel, not just to gather footage for This Is Your Day! to present a clearer view of what is happening in the Holy Land, but especially because of the need to talk and mediate with many of the leaders in this region.

God is clearly at work, and He has given me favor during these days in the midst of this land and the people that I love!

I came here to Israel as soon as possible after the latest violence in Gaza began, not just because I am interested in what is happening here in my homeland, but also because I believe that it is absolutely crucial for the world to see what is really taking place.

It is as if we are literally seeing prophecy come to life in front of our eyes.

What is truly happening is what you won’t see in most newspapers and news reports. There is such a bias against Israel that permeates our mainstream media. The terrorists who hide behind women and children always end up being projected as innocent freedom fighters, while the Israeli soldiers who seek to defend their people from the smuggled-in rockets and suicide bombers are often pictured as oppressors.

An Eyewitness to History
As I have mentioned many times, a part of my heart will always be in the port city of Jaffa (part of Tel Aviv), where my family had set up residence as immigrants to Palestine from Greece. In 1968, not long after the Six-Day War, my family immigrated to Canada, but during the time we spent in Israel, my father was in a high position with the Israeli government. It was not an uncommon experience for important officials and military leaders to visit our home for discussions with my father. Men such as General Moshe Dayan came to our home regularly. Golda Meir and my father were on a first-name basis.

I was just a child, so I had no idea how important these people were or what my father’s association with them meant. My father, in fact, died without telling any of us exactly what he did. I had to find out from people in Israel after his death about all the things he did during the early years of Israel’s struggle as a nation.

So, even though I didn’t know the extent of all that was happening in my childhood home and our city, I was literally seeing history happening and biblical prophecy coming alive.

That is one of the major reasons that I have spent all of my adult life, dating back to 1972 when I became a Christian, as a serious student of prophecy. Because of my childhood, everything in Israel and the Bible has always been so vivid to me, since I grew up living in the midst of history.

That is also why I have taken such an interest in what is happening right now in the Middle East, for I believe these recent developments in Israel are signaling a hot, accelerated, and unprecedented prophetic season that will quickly change the course of history.

Central to Fulfilled Prophecy
Through the centuries, Israel has always been at the center, the very heart, of prophecy.

Any student of the Bible understands that what happens to the Jewish people affects the world. What happens to the Jewish people is especially momentous for the church.

And in a day when we can see instantly the news that is taking place on the other side of the world, literally happening right before the cameras, we must understand the prophetic significance that these events are signaling.

Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. (Ezekiel 36:22-24)

The restoration of Israel in 1948 was a significant prophetic fulfillment of His chosen people being gathered out of all countries into their own land after twenty centuries. For some unknown, improbable reason, Jews around the world began having the dream stirred within them to return to their homeland.

The history of those momentous times leading to 1948 are increasingly known, including the 1947 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181, which sought to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict by partitioning Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. After the immediate aftermath of that Partition plan, the conflict escalated that continued to spread, even as Israel declared its independence (and rebirth as a nation). The miracles that led to Israel’s defense of its independence are truly remarkable, even to the fact that they had only one plane for its entire air force and only seltzer bottles for bombs, yet they stood against the enemy in such amazing ways and began establishing themselves as an increasingly strong nation.

Isn’t it remarkable that God inspired the prophet Jeremiah to write these words around 26 centuries before 1948: “Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness” (Jeremiah 31:23). When they left the land of Israel, they spoke Hebrew. When they returned, they still spoke Hebrew. Do you know the chances of that happening? In most cultures, people who move into a new culture discard their old language within two generations. Yet God preserved the Hebrew language, despite the fact that His chosen people were displaced throughout the world.

Another major fulfillment of prophecy came during the 1967 Six-Day War between Israel and Arab neighbors, primarily Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, but also including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria). Against overwhelming odds, this tiny nation defeated the best armies, navies, and air forces in the Middle East. Israel annexed East Jerusalem. More and more prophecies began coming into view, soon leading to a fevered pitch for rebuilding the Temple.

So many more miracles have been told and retold about Israel’s years of survival, no matter how improbable their survival has continued to be.

Today, as the conflicts of 2009 heat up, it is apparent that we are living in times as momentous as 1948 and 1967.

The Urgent Challenge
As we continue to talk with the leaders of this region, let me share with you that it is apparent here in the midst of the battlefield that we are living in a serious and dangerous hour.

In fact, I believe that this is the most dangerous hour in recent history certainly the beginning of the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy. Israel is possibly facing another holocaust, possibly nuclear.

We know that God is going to save Israel, according to His Word, but we must earnestly pray for their deliverance.

What do these prophetic fulfillments mean for believers around the world?

• First, we must “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6). As you view the footage and interviews from Israel on This Is Your Day! this command from God becomes clear. Without Gods intervention, the situation will become increasingly impossible as other nations line up on the side of the terrorists.
  
  
• Second, today’s accelerated events create an even greater need to get the Gospel out with intense speed. This is not the time to slow down. This is a wake-up call for all believers. Quite simply, we are running out of time. But this can be our greatest hour as we proclaim the Gospel boldly, no matter what happens in the world.
  

Prophetically, we are eyewitnesses to one of the most amazing times in all of history, and we must be aware of the fact that this could very well be our last chance to share the Gospel!

The end of this age is quickly approaching, and while there is still time, our Lord Jesus has called you and me to go into all the world to preach His blessed Gospel and tell all nations that He is the Lamb of God, slain for the sins of the world, that He is the One who takes away the sins of the world, and that He is the “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6)!

We must take the Gospel to a lost and dying world now, for “now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

I can tell you, as I watch and listen to the bombardments in nearby Gaza while I write this letter, that our time is shorter than we had previously thought. Our time is rapidly running out and this is the time to be vigilant.

We cannot delay in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We cannot lose this glorious moment of opportunity; for people without hope, especially during history’s seemingly darkening days, will listen to the message of hope.

We know that these are days of unprecedented opportunity to share the life-saving and miracle-working Gospel.

This Is Our Hour!
This is the moment of our greatest destiny!

This is the hour for which we have been called and chosen!

This a critical time for Israel, the Middle East, and the entire world, and I am asking you to be a vital part of helping to take the life-changing and miracle-working message of the Gospel to the nations.

We know that Jesus Christ is the only Answer for this crisis, and as you pray and plant your seed today, you are joining with others around the world in this great end-time ministry.

I urge you to join me in setting aside time during the coming days to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”

And please prayerfully consider planting a generous seed today, knowing that our Lord Jesus declared, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38).

Sow your seed with mighty expectation for today and the future! Now is the time, for your greatest days are ahead. Your future is so much greater than your past and your tomorrows can be more prosperous than anything you have known before!

For we know it is “not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6)…

Preaching the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ,
teaching the unchanging Word of God,
and expecting the mighty and miraculous
power of the Holy Spirit,