Gaining God’s Heart for Israel: A Personal Journey
I had been living in Chicago for 10 years, and I knew that was where the Lord had me. However, in the spring of 2021, during a season of prayer and fasting, I knew He was releasing me from Chicago, but I didn't know where He was calling me next.
A week later, He started speaking to my heart about Israel. I told the Lord, “I will go to Israel, but I don't really know a lot about that, so I will walk through the doors You open before me.”
I was an elementary school teacher, so I had to finish out the school year. Though I wasn't sure what God's plans were, I told my principal I wasn’t coming back to teach the next year.
Because going to Israel seemed like a very random thing to me, I asked God for confirmation. The next week I started to get mail from a Jewish ministry that somehow had my name and address. I received information about Israel with a note that said “Share the gospel in Israel.” Then I received another piece about Jerusalem, and then another piece about Israel – every week they kept coming!
So I said, “Okay, Lord. I get it.”
Then, as I continued regularly reading the Bible, I started to really see Israel in the text. Previously when I read the Scriptures, I made it more about what it meant to me personally. For example, when I’d read verses in Isaiah that sounded really good and were addressed to “you,” I would think it's about me. Now I saw the prophet was trying to encourage Israel in their time of future judgment.
I only knew two Jewish believers at the time. Both of those friendships were very random and had already been set up by the Lord years before. I reached out to one friend, Justin, and said, “Hey, can we meet for coffee? God's calling me to Israel, and I don't really know what to do about it.”
This was during the time of the COVID pandemic, when many countries were trying to figure out how to respond and Israel had closed is borders. Justin suggested some practical things I could do in my season of preparation. Among the next steps was to check out a messianic congregation.
Olive Tree Congregation was not far from me. I began attending right before the Fall Feasts[1] started. I very quickly learned a lot pertaining to the feasts and their connection to Yeshua (Jesus). I grew to appreciate the beauty of God's calendar through the feasts and the story He is writing.
Dan Strull, Olive Tree’s pastor, was a really great teacher and leader. He connected me to David, a Jewish believer who was teaching at the congregation during Simchat Torah.[2] When he learned of my interest in Israel, David invited me to stay with his family down in Florida for a few weeks.
While I was with David and his family, I understood so much more about God's heart for the Jewish people and for Israel. I learned how to study the Bible more in its context, and the importance of learning what is really being said by the authors.
After my weeks in Florida, I returned to Chicago and was still in the season of waiting. I had met another young woman while staying with David’s family; God was also stirring her heart for Israel and the Jewish people. We started praying about going to Israel together when the country opened up again.
In that time of waiting, I decided to read the Bible straight through. And wow! I couldn't help but feel God's heart for Israel through the prophets. I felt like I had never read them before, because now I was reading the passages within their context and seeing Israel through fresh eyes. I saw God's persistent pursuit of His people. Despite all they were doing that violated His law, the Lord continued to pursue them and even promised that after they were in exile He'd bring them back to the Land.
In the summer of 2022, my friend and I went to Israel on a three-month “spying out the land” trip. The Lord went before us and connected us to many believers in Messiah Yeshua. God gave us many opportunities to see what the body of Messiah looked like in the Land. We partnered with believers in many ways, including serving in kids’ summer camps and a ministry in Tel Aviv reaching women stuck in drug addiction, prostitution, and human trafficking. We opened our arms to them, cared for them, and tried to show them they're made in God's image. We told them of their value in God’s eyes and that God made them for a purpose.
When I returned to Chicago at the end of the summer, I again entered a waiting season. In that time, I sought to share God's heart for the Jewish people with other believers. I had gone through that experience where I didn't really see Israel in the Scriptures or understand the beauty of celebrating the Feasts. Now I had experienced how Shabbat (Sabbath) dinners were a time of honoring the Lord after a full week, taking time to reflect on His goodness and the rest we have in Him because of Yeshua.
Since I had learned the beauty of “table ministry” – having dinner with people – my friend and I started to host Shabbat dinners at my house. We invited believers who didn't know each other for the purpose of connecting them, as well as sharing about our time in Israel. That was a sweet season of hosting people and sharing God's heart for Israel with them.
And all the while, God was preparing me for further service in sharing His love with Jewish people. When I later volunteered at backpacker hostels in Israel and Argentina, I got to see how He used those waiting seasons to prepare me to host Israeli travelers. The relationships I built with them led to some of them hosting me at their own dinner tables! God is so good in allowing me to meet these Israelis on their journey and blessing me with their friendship, all while Jesus is ministering to them through me!
How the Lord designs His ministry is so amazing to me! The adventures on which He’s been leading me have far exceeded anything I could have dreamed when I set out on this journey of walking in step with God’s Spirit.
Written by Kelli, Life in Messiah staff
Have you ever received a clear, unmistakable answer to prayer? As you recall that specific situation, take some time to thank the Lord for His guidance and provision.
When we aren’t reading the Bible in context, it can be easy to take passages about Israel and make them about us! The next time we read God’s Word, let’s ask Him to help us grasp the plain sense of the text – both as it pertains to the Jewish people and other biblical teachings. Most importantly, may we know our Creator more deeply as we study His word!
As you walk with the Lord and seek to love Him and others, is there a next step the Spirit is prompting you to take? How can you respond in faith and obedience?
Endnotes:
[1] The Fall Feasts are Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), and Sukkot (Feast of Booths). You can learn more about them at https://www.lifeinmessiah.org/feasts.
[2] A Jewish holiday that comes after Sukkot to celebrate the giving of the Torah.