Since this is the first Word for the Week of 2011, and we are studying how to know God’s voice and the prophetic gifts that He has given to His church, I want to begin by sharing what may be one of the most prolific messages God’s people have been receiving. The question I may be asked more than any other is what 11-11 means. Whether seeing it repeatedly on their clocks or in other ways, many people have been receiving this for years. New Year’s Day was 1/1/11 or 11-11. This usually speaks of a second chance, which is the message of Isaiah 11:11 because it is here that God promises to restore Israel to their land a second time.
When Isaiah received this message, Israel had not even been scattered from the land and re-gathered the first time. When Jesus was asked about the signs of the end of the age, one of the things He said was that we should consider the fig tree, which is a symbol for Israel. Israel is one of the bold prophetic messages that prophets watch and consider. Israel is a barometer of mankind. It is in a perpetual state of conflict, both within and without. This has lasted for so long and they have desired peace so much that they have even been willing to give up large parts of their tiny bit of land in the hope of achieving peace. However, instead of leading to peace, the land they surrendered has become a base for attacking them. Their peace will never come from man, but only from God. The good news is that it will come from God, which is the most basic message of Isaiah 11.
Peace will never come by giving away what God assigned to us, but rather by esteeming everything He has given to us even more than peace with men and by seeing His purpose as even more valuable than life. It is time for Israel to be grafted back into the Tree—God Himself. It is a beginning to be re-gathered to the land, but it is more important to be re-gathered to the Lord.
Israel is a sign of God’s faithfulness to His Word. In Jeremiah 31, the Lord states that the order of the sun, moon, and the roaring of the sea would cease before His promises for Israel would fail. Many believe that these are now fulfilled in the church, “spiritual Israel.” This is true of many of them, but this does not negate that they are also for “natural Israel.” The Lord makes it clear in His Word in a number of places that these are for the physical seed of Abraham. The Apostle Paul also asserted this in his most important Epistle on New Covenant theology, the Book of Romans, as we read in chapters nine through eleven. As we are warned in this text, it is a big mistake to “become arrogant toward the natural branches” (see Romans 11:18).
The main message of the re-gathered nation of Israel is that God is faithful to His Word. He remains faithful even if we are unfaithful, and in His faithfulness He will give us another chance. The whole chapter of Isaiah11 is about the restoration of the earth to the paradise it was originally created to be, a second chance for the whole earth—the re-gathering of Israel “the second time” is a sign that this is near. The kingdom of God that God’s people have been praying for since Jesus walked the earth is near.
This is a year for recovering what has been lost, for many promises to come to pass, and for the backsliders to be brought back. This begins with prayer, intercession, and often fasting. When Daniel read in the prophecy of Jeremiah that Israel was to be scattered from the land the first time for seventy years, he did not just start rejoicing that it was time to return, but he started fasting and praying for God’s Word to be fulfilled.
Why do the promises of God need intercession to be fulfilled? As we are told in Psalm 115:16, “The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, but the earth He has given to the sons of men.” The Lord delegated authority over the earth to men, which is why He will not do things on the earth until we ask Him to. This is also why Jesus became a Man to become the Mediator, and while on earth, He always referred to Himself as the Son of man. He was the Son of God too, but He came here to be a Man to recover what man had lost.
Therefore, when we know it is time for the promises of God to be fulfilled, we need to engage heaven with prayer and fasting, being intercessors in unity with Jesus who we are told “ever lives to intercede” (see Hebrews 7:25). He is a Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek, and we are priests in the same order. For this reason, one of the primary messages and works among His people will be to restore the priesthood to which we are all called.
