World Watch 4.29.23: Prophetic, Last Days News Just Like Jesus Said

Russia / Ukraine War

• Britain sent Ukraine thousands of shells for the Challenger 2 tanks, including those with depleted uranium.
• Thursday night: Massive Russian missile attack on Ukrainian cities
• For the first time, a building was hit by a Russian caliber cruise missile in the city of Uman, a city in Cherkasy Oblast, in central Ukraine, with many casualties.
• A Ukrainian suicide drone hit a huge reservoir of fuel In Sevastopol, Kazakhia Bay Area, Crimea- a Russian controlled area which was part of Ukraine prior to 2014.
• The ethnic cleansing: Russia announced that those who do not receive Russian citizenship in the four occupied districts of Ukraine will be deported.
• Latvia announced that a Russian citizen who does not pass the Latvian language test – will be deported.
• Russian drones deliver “Devastating Blow” to Ukraine’s military after blowing up a Crimea oil depot.

Middle East

• Israeli strike in Syria: A Syrian military official reports that the Israeli Air Force carried out an air attack from the direction of northern Lebanon against several targets in the area of the city of Homs.
• In a move designed to deter Iran, the US military armed its planes operating in the Middle East region with bombs that penetrate bunkers.

Middle East Conflicts Since 1914

The modern list of conflicts in the Middle East begins with conflicts since, 1914, which includes 100 conflicts of which 14 are ongoing. Wikipedia defines conflicts as separate incidents with at least 100 casualties. Many of the conflicts have seen thousands killed, and in some cases over a million lives lost. These conflicts are…

• The Arab–Israeli conflict (1948-present)
• Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978-present)
• Islamic Insurgency in Saudi Arabia (1995-present)
• Iran–PJAK conflict (2004-present)
• Fatah–Hamas conflict (2006-present)
• Iran–Israel proxy conflict (2006-present)
• Shia insurgency in Bahrain (2011-present)
• Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
• Syrian Civil War (2011-present)
• Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict (2011-present)
• Yemeni Civil War (2015-present)
• Western Iran clashes (2016-present)
• Iraqi insurgency (2017–present)
• Persian Gulf crisis (2019–present)

Sudan

UK and US Citizens Abandoned in War-Torn Sudan

(Afghanistan 2.0)😢

The governments of the UK and US took steps to remove small numbers of diplomatic and embassy staffers from Sudan, but both nations are being criticized for not extending rescue efforts to thousands of UK and US citizens in the country.
 
Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “It is not our standard procedure to evacuate American citizens living abroad.”
 
Both British and American citizens in Sudan are saying the UK and US have failed to learn from their failure to help withdraw citizens from Afghanistan in August 2021.

• UK Evacuating Brits from Sudan, Biden Refuses to Evacuate Americans
• Turkish Evacuation Plane Comes Under Attack In Sudan
• Israel offers to mediate ceasefire summit in Sudan

The Pacific: China & North Korea

Biden warns: North Korean nuclear attack will result in end of regime

The U.S. Border Crisis

Why Are Thousands of Military-Age Chinese Men Suddenly “Migrating” Across Our Southern Border?
Vast numbers of Chinese citizens are illegally crossing our border with Mexico. The U.S. Border Patrol is able to apprehend some of them, but thanks to the Biden administration once they are processed most of them are given “notices to appear” and are then freely released into our communities. That means that they are running around without any supervision whatsoever.

Sunday: A Jordanian parliament member tried to smuggle guns, pistols, and cash into the West Bank via the Allenby Bridge crossing. He was banking on his VIP status but the security personnel at the border crossing suspected. He was arrested in Israel.

Antisemitism

Israel News & Commentaries

Ezekiel 38 War

The Russian Defense Minister hosted a meeting of the intelligence chiefs of Iran, Syria and Turkey.

Sudan & Ezekiel 38 War

Note in the map below that Sudan is “Cush”.

• Turkey: A total of 50,783 people reported dead in the twin earthquakes that hit Turkey earlier this year, the country’s interior minister said Saturday.
• Large, rare tornado hit Myanmar – over 200 homes destroyed, 8 fatalities, and 128 injured
• Massive solar storm produces Northern Lights across dozens of states across the US.

• Reports indicate that the Feds are preparing to take over Republic Bank after rescue efforts fail.
• The 16 of biggest companies in the United States are giving the axe to hundreds of thousands of workers.
• P&G (Proctor & Gamble) expects a $2.2B hit from supply costs in 2023. Expect prices to go up.
• Ground parcel delivery costs reach record high as rate hikes take hold
• Panama Canal facing operational uncertainty due to severe drought. (I’ve traveled through the Panama Canal 3 times. It’s an engineering marvel that is crucial to the world’s economy. However, it does depend on water. If there is not enough water to float the cargo vessels as they maneuver the locks, they’ll have to close the canal and ships will have to travel all around the bottom of South America. Or some sort of rail system will need to be developed.)

Deception & Corruption

Ex-Satanist and Ex-Witch respond to The Satanic Temple’s announcement to be held in Boston, Massachusetts this upcoming weekend. ‘The Enemy Is Waging All Out War Right in Our Faces’.

Apostasy and False Teachings

Survey Finds Less Than Half of Professing ‘Born-Again Christians’ Believe Jesus Was Sinless

How “Progressive Christians” are completely misusing the Bible.

For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:21

See, Jesus had to be sinless, so that He could become sin itself. Thus, He was able to defeat sin by dying on the cross and defeat death by rising from the grave.

DEVELOPING…
Different Governments Working Together to Censor Voices They Disagree With
 
On April 14, Twitter files journalist Michael Shellenberger tweeted: “The idea that governments worldwide are working together to censor their citizens sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it’s not. It’s increasingly clear that there is just such an organized effort involving, at minimum, the US, Canada, UK, & New Zealand.”
 
Shellenberger states that he will continue to develop this “major story” in the days ahead.

More Christians were killed for their faith in the 20th century than all other previous centuries combined. And it continues…

• Fulani Kill 18 Christians, Wound Pastor in Plateau State, Nigeria
• Quebec, Canada’s education minister just banned schools from transforming classrooms into prayer rooms.
• Street preacher in Oklahoma is facing a restraining order after citing the Bible to condemn lesbian wedding.
• Colombia: The persecution of Christians in Colombia is worsening, largely due to an increase in violence, including murders. Pray the words of Psalm 5:11 over believers who are exposed to danger for their faith: “Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.”

Jesus promises that his church will be persecuted because he was persecuted (John 15:20). Paul says joining Jesus in his suffering is good news because it confirms that you will also join him in his resurrection (Philippians 3:10). 

Jesus also says that his Kingdom will be like the tiniest mustard seed that, when planted, becomes the largest plant in a garden (Matthew 13:32). As Paul and his small movement are persecuted in city after city, we continue to hear reports that the church is growing (Acts 19:20). Persecution becomes positive proof that God is with them; it is the way God grows the church. 

This shouldn’t surprise us. The idea that oppression leads to growth is found at the heart of the Gospel. Jesus was oppressed unto death. But after the seed of his body was planted in the ground, he rose to create a massive harvest of those saved from death (John 12:24).

Ultimately, the good news of this passage is that no religious in-fighting or opposition, no societal authority or movement, no demonic power or stronghold can stand in the way of the Kingdom Jesus is building. The death and resurrection of Jesus prove that, regardless of how we might be suffering, God is and can work good out of it. 

Spoken Gospel, Acts Bible Devotion

Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus

Pray that God will change the hearts of Islamists, converting them like the Apostle Paul.

More on Christian Persecution

• Day of the Christian Martyr
• Praying for the Persecuted Church
• Open Doors 2023 World Watch List on Christian Persecution

Mexico

• “When you respond to persecution appropriately, you can win the community to Christ,” says Pastor Lauro Núñez. He’s seen locals from his indigenous community, even his persecutors, soften towards him after he resisted retaliation. Pray that this testimony will be replicated across Mexico, leading to people coming to know Jesus.
• “In this world, we’ll have peace and love. United, always united holding hands, we’ll go out to the world singing to God.” These words were sung by 77 pastors during an event run by Open Doors partners to help them prepare their churches for persecution. Ask God to encourage these pastors in their ministries.

Morocco

• As a predominantly Muslim country, many Moroccans have never heard the Good News about Jesus. Sami however is a believer, boldly sharing the Gospel with people. Please pray for the fruits of his work and pray that he is protected.
• Please pray for Laila who recently found faith in Jesus, but at the cost of losing her husband through divorce. Laila is now a single mother, struggling to make ends meet financially. Pray for financial blessings in Laila’s life.

• Thailand: Pray for a team of Thai believers who are currently being trained to respond to enquiries that come from the evangelistic media campaign. Please pray that many non-Christians will access the online material, get in contact and receive encouragement and helpful spiritual counsel.
• Maldives: Football is the national sport of the Maldives so AsiaLink partners are looking at creative ways of reaching this closed nation with the gospel using football coaching as a tool. Please pray that many Maldivians will be hear the good news and find new life in Christ.
• Kazakhstan: Please ask God to build His church among the Kazakh people. Being a strict Muslim country, the few believers living there face many challenges. Working on a ratio of 1 worker for every 50,000 people, it is estimated that 258 gospel workers are needed to reach the Kazakh. Please pray.
• Lebanon: Despite the hardships, the Word of God has spread through Lebanon. Praise God for the opportunities to share Christ through TV-channels, radio-stations and the church. Thank God for the amazing people working to present topical programs that bless the viewers.
• Middle East – Reach Beyond: Pray for the team who are building meaningful relationships with people in the Middle East through social media. The Ephraim Project engages Christians worldwide to volunteer their time to befriend people from this region through English conversations online and sharing Jesus with them. Pray for God’s leading as they engage in spiritual conversations, and that our team would be a source of encouragement and support during times of local unrest and a guide towards the Father’s comfort. Pray for people in areas where Internet access has recently been cut off and for their connections to be restored.
• Texas Senate passes a bill requiring public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.
• On his deathbed in 1993, Lonnie Frisbee made a revelation to Pastor Greg Laurie that left Laurie in disbelief but now has come to pass.

*Name changed for security reasons

Help Spread the Good News of Jesus Christ all over the World!

Disillusioned with Islam

An article in the New York Times in Dec 2019 was headlined, ’A New Secularism Is Appearing in Islam.’  It continues, ‘Across much of the Islamic world, many Muslims are disillusioned with the ugly things done in the name of their religion.’ 

The cause of this disillusionment?  ‘It is mainly Islamist politics and some of the social and political manifestations of the Islamic awakening,” Mr. Sharro argued. These include, he said, “disappointment with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the shock of ISIS, fatigue with sectarian parties in Iraq and Lebanon, anger at the Islamist regime in Sudan.”

When you leave the Arab world and look at the two important powers nearby — Iran and Turkey — you can see the same trend, but on a bigger scale.

In Iran, the Islamic Republic has ruled for 40 years now, but it has failed in its zeal to re-Islamize society. “Instead, the opposite has happened,” the Middle East scholar Nader Hashemi has observed. “Most Iranians today aspire to live in a democratic, liberal and secular republic, not a religious state run by clerics.” Indeed, many have had enough of those clerics, and are bravely defying them in the streets.’

Across the Middle East Frontiers’ workers are discovering the truth of this disillusion – people are sick of the war, violence, corruption and naked greed for power that plague their everyday lives.  In many places workers are finding an openness to Jesus allowing lives to be transformed, even in some of the most apparently ‘closed’ of countries.

The first Muslim movements to Christ did not occur until the 19th century, more than 1200 years after Islam began.  These two movements were followed by a further 11 Muslim movements to Christ in the late 20th century. But something now is happening. In the first 12 years of the 21st century, there have already seen at least 69 new Muslim movements to Christ!

So what has changed?  Why are Muslims suddenly turning to Jesus?  The answer is of course fervent prayer during which each believer captures something of God’s heart for him or herself, and for the world in which we live.  Each of the 82 movements mentioned above were undergirded by prayer movements.  Passionate people beseeching our loving God to show himself to our Islamic cousins, be it in the words of scripture, or in visions and dreams, or any other route.

Prayer

• Pray for disillusioned Muslims to meet Jesus, and find in him the peace, gentleness, probity and humility that they long to encounter.
• Pray that followers of Jesus will be able to communicate the genuine hope that Jesus brings.
• Pray for those developing online resources that will speak into Muslim disillusionment with Islam. Pray too that such resources will be easily accessible throughout the Middle East.
• Pray that followers of Jesus would discover the wonder of passionate, life changing prayer for themselves and the communities around them.
• Pray that God would raise up prayer warriors for each Muslim people group around the world.
• Praise God that this is not a numerical game, and that regardless of the numbers involved he loves each person on earth and longs to be in relationship with each of them.

Jesus said…

“These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭10‬:‭2‬ ‭NLT‬‬