The first worship tour with our group of 14 people included ten precious days, from November 23 through December 2. We went to be selfless before God and serve Him, without knowing beforehand what it would entail and with the simple goal to present to the Lord for His sake our undivided hearts.
We were accommodated wonderfully in guest houses within walking distance from Arni and Yonit’s home. After breakfast, we daily met at Arni’s house at 10 a.m. We had fellowship with God through worship, spent time with each other and with local Messianic believers who took time for us almost on a daily basis to spend these days with us before the Lord. We felt that the intercommunication with them (our Messianic brethren) who have a more intense perspective on what is going on around the Promised Land and who often received revelation about future events from the Lord, was particularly precious. What a blessing for us as German groups to be able to do this ministry together with our messianic brethren in Israel and not all by ourselves. We were very sensitive to the Holy Spirit and to each other. Thus we experienced a strong sense of acceptance and through that also a great liberty to respond to the impressions and the leading of our Lord in times of worship, conversations and excursions. During our stay, we twice visited the Morningstar congregation in Tiberias, where Arni and Andre (a Messianic brother who works full-time towards establishing a worship network in Israel) serve on the worship team. We made a trip to Mount Carmel where we first had a time of worship downstairs in the Eiljah Cave. Afterwards, we took part in a regular worship watch in Kehilat HaCarmel (the Messianic congregation on Mount Carmel). Quite often, we flowed from one session of worship into the next. Sometimes we purposefully spent time on a romantic, beautiful and relaxed meal in the evening, but more than anything we saw to it that the meals did not interfere with conversations and worship sessions. It felt like a brand new lifestyle to not interrupt things born of the Spirit for meals or other activities. Everything simply fell into place naturally.
It felt like recovering the original purpose of man, being created by God as His counterpart. Being a counterpart that simply has time to be a loving counterpart for Him. Some Messianic brethren who spent time with us invited us as a group to spend some time in their homes for fellowship and coffee. So we found ourselves in their personal environment, again exchanging impressions that the Spirit put on our hearts or receiving teaching from our Messianic family or being with singing, instruments, rhythms, melodies, dance and silence before the Lord.
In the silence of the evening, we together sat in Kapernaum and listened to the thoughts of a Messianic brother who starts out each morning by hiding with God in a banana field to hear from Him. We visited the Mountain of Beattitudes, and at the end of our time together we took a step into the public by having a powerful time of worship in a restaurant at a Kibbutz.
Although I’ve never experienced anything like that before, the question wasn’t whether and how much we had like this time, but the key question was and is: Did it please our Lord? How much do we believe that the Lord will for Himself choose a pleasing sacrifice?
I fully believe in my heart that He loves it when brethren are in unity before Him and when their minds are changed into His mind, when their desires seek to find His desire, when we begin to love what He loves, when we begin to hate what He hates, when we laugh about what He laughs and cry about those things that hurt Him. The testimony that has been engraved on my spirit is that He, who searches the depths of our hearts, loves to find our hearts fully surrendered to Him … with all of our being and all of our strength…
How precious it is that we through these trips have the opportunity – certainly among others – to leave ourselves behind for 10 or 12 days of delving into the depth of His heart.
