Does your heart yearn for Zion?
I haven't thought much of the land of Israel in times past. Even after I realized Yeshua's love for the Torah and His people. I was quite comfortable where I was, still am in many ways. I even went on a trip to Israel and although I enjoyed myself, I was still very happy with my home in the states. Jerusalem produced both joy and stress, mostly stress if I'm honest. Driving through those small ancient streets that were clearly designed for a donkey and not for my rental car made me relieved when I traveled north to the Galilee. Having returned home after a week in Israel I was convinced that the country was just not for me. There was much more things I liked here. And Jerusalem in particular was definitely not where I wanted to be. I remember the spiritual atmosphere of the place felt intense. Like there was tremendous heavenly battle happening all around me.
But within the last few years, Yah has been working on my heart. Especially my attitude toward Jerusalem. My wife was given this verse by the Holy Spirit: "“Rejoice with Yerushalayim, and be glad with her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn for her; so that you feed, and shall be satisfied with the breast of her comforts, so that you drink deeply, and shall delight yourselves in her overflowing esteem.”
(Isa 66:10-11 TS2009)
We were convicted that we had despised the city that the God of Israel loved. The city that Yeshua the Mashiach wept over. We have since repented of this.
Over time a tiny ember of affection for this land has steadily grown, and surprisingly even a desire to abide there. This is unexpected for me, I still have everything I could want here. But just maybe this is the beginning of Yah's promise:
“Therefore say, ‘Thus said the Master יהוה, “Although I have sent them far off among the nations, and although I have scattered them among the lands, yet I was for them a set-apart place for a little while in the lands to which they came.” ’ “Therefore say, ‘Thus said the Master יהוה, “And I shall gather you from the peoples, and I shall assemble you from
the lands where you have been scattered, and I shall give you the land of Yisra’el.” ’ “And they shall go there, and shall take away all its disgusting matters and all its abominations from there. “And I shall give them one heart, and put a new spirit within you. And I shall take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, so that they walk in My laws, and guard My right-rulings, and shall do them. And they shall be My people and I shall be their Elohim.
(Eze 11:16-20 TS2009)
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