For the past few years, a wave of healing and prophetic evangelism has been taking place in Israel. I know this because I’ve witnessed it firsthand.
In Hebrew, the word for “preaching the good news” or “evangelist” is mevaser. In Israel, we have a city named Mevaseret, the female form of the verb. So about a year ago, I was in the Mevaseret Mall—which could also be translated as the Gospel Mall—on my way to a meeting, and I thought, What better place to share Yeshua? I was in the drugstore when I noticed the woman in front of me point to her back as if she were in pain.
I assume it was a divine appointment, given all the little things that had to happen to lead me to that place. I only came to the mall because I made a wrong turn. Once in the mall, I decided to use the restroom first. Seeing the long line at the counter, I went to the pharmacy, hoping I could pay there, but that didn’t work. I returned to the front and the shopper between the woman in pain and me suddenly decided to go back and shop. Finally, the woman in pain inexplicably stopped outside the pharmacy(as if God made her wait for me) while I paid for my item.
Clearly, I was supposed to pray for her.
I ran out of the pharmacy just as she was finally walking away.
“Slicha (excuse me)!” I greeted her. “Did you tell the woman at the pharmacy that you have pain in your back?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Can I pray for you?” I asked. “I believe God will heal your back right here.”
She was a little stunned. After all, asking a complete stranger if you can pray for them—who does that? But when you are in pain—especially lower back pain—you will do anything to get the pain to stop. Looking curious, she said I could pray for her.
I asked her if I could put my hand on her back, and she said I could. I prayed for her in Yeshua’s name in the middle of the public mall, with plenty of onlookers, and asked her to check her back. Clearly shocked, she reported that all the pain was gone. I explained that God healed her back because He wants to know her and for her to know Him. She was very grateful, and I asked if she could just wait a minute. I ran to the car and got my testimony booklet and my book Identity Theft—both in Hebrew. I wondered if she would wait.
I ran back in, and there she was. She took both items and again thanked me. I explained that God loves her and the healing was just the beginning. He wants more. She had no idea what I was talking about, but she now has all the information she needs.
This is just one example of the miraculous healings taking place across Israel. It all started when two young men began watching Todd White and other ministers on YouTube. These ministers would go out on the streets and pray for the sick, often after getting words of knowledge—information about someone that you could not have known naturally.
These young men didn’t know anyone in Israel who was doing this, and they wondered if they could go out on the streets of Tel Aviv and do the same thing. Being Israeli, they did not ask for permission. They began to ask people what was ailing them. Then they would pray. To their shock, a high percentage—roughly 80%—were being healed and touched by God.
They came back to our congregation and testified, and then more people started going out and praying for the sick—and more people got healed. Finally, they started getting invitations to come and share their testimonies in other Messianic congregations. Even more Messianic Israelis were emboldened to go out on the streets.
In our congregation, a woman from a kibbutz (a collective farm community) came to faith. She was under demonic oppression, and when they baptized her in the Jordan, she came under attack. She stepped into the water but then could not move. When they finally got her in far enough, she was immersed, and immediately, the demons left. Suddenly, all the cute nibbling fish that you endure during a Jordan River baptism began to attack! It was like when Yeshua cast the demons into the pigs (Mark 5:1-20).
One Friday, this woman came to share her testimony. One of the young men she grew up with came to hear her speak. He was deeply moved, but not convinced. He wore a prosthetic on his leg. One leg was an inch or two longer than the other. Noticing this, our senior pastor, Gil Afriat, prayed for him, and suddenly his leg grew out. The young man got rid of his prosthetic and is now born again and sharing the gospel.
A few months later, White himself came to Israel on a tour. Most tourists in Israel have no idea there is a growing, thriving expression of the body of Yeshua. There are over 200 congregations and more than 20,000 Messianic Israelis who love Yeshua. Overnight, we arranged for a meeting where White could encourage the believers in healing and prophetic evangelism. We had a crowd of 300 (which, for context, would be like gathering 30,000 in Dallas).
The next few days, I walked around with White throughout Jerusalem and received a master’s course in praying for unbelievers.At one point, a group of teenaged Israelis surrounded us as White prayed for each one to be healed. It was amazing. But I returned to my hotel angry and jealous. I thought, How could this man so freely share Yeshua in my city and see such results?
When I walked into my room, an Arab man named Mahmoud was cleaning the room. Without thinking, I asked him, “Are you in any pain?”
“Yes, my knee,” Mahmoud replied.
We prayed. He was healed. Over the next three days, I saw five workers at the hotel get healed—three Muslims and one atheist. They were all overwhelmed. On the last day, as we were departing for Tel Aviv, the Jewish front desk manager asked me, “Excuse me—can you heal people?”
“Well, God can,” I said. “What is hurting?”
She had hurt her knee. The woman asked for prayer, and God instantly healed her. She was overcome. (For the skeptics out there, yes—we have video of these healings.)
Later, we brought White back to Israel with Tom Routoto and Robbie Dawkins for three days of training and evangelism. We had 300 people at one time on the streets of Jerusalem praying for the sick and sharing Yeshua. The results were astounding.
I have discovered that if you don’t fan the flame, the flame goes dim. We had hoped that more evangelists moving in street healings would want to come to Israel to train believers, but we have not yet been successful in getting them to come. Many do not understand the biblical principle of Romans 11:12, which says, “Now if [Israel’s] transgression means riches for the world, and their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness mean?”
Paul is saying here that the key to world revival is Jewish acceptance of Jesus. He says if the Jewish people’s rejection of the Messiah resulted in the riches of the Book of Acts, then imagine what type of move of God will come when God’s chosen people finally receive the Messiah and fulfill their calling to be “a light for the nations” (Isa. 42:6, 49:6, Acts 13:47)?
In Romans 11:15, Paul repeats this point: “For if [Israel’s] rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?”
We are seeing this happen in our lifetimes. You can trace the revival in China to 1948 when Israel became a nation (again). Back then, there were roughly one million believers in China. Now, there are over 160 million! The greatest revivals are happening now in China, South America, Africa and India. Every miracle in the book of Acts is taking place. And I tell you, this is prophetically connected to Abraham’s seed after the flesh coming back to their Messiah.
When Paul addresses this, he tells the Romans (who had already adopted negative attitudes towards the Jews) that the issue of Israel and the church is a mystery, and if you don’t understand it, you may become proud. He tells the Gentile believers not to give up on Israel, as God will send a massive Jewish revival once the gospel hits every nation—the fullness of Gentiles.
“For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, lest you be wise in your own estimation, for a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:25-26a).
The more we see revival in Israel, the more we will see revival and spiritual riches in the nations. When we do our Israel tours at uptozion.net, we not only show people the dead stones of history but the living stones of the modern-day Messianic Jewish apostolic movement.
What began in Jerusalem is coming back. God has raised up Yeshua-loving congregations in the Galilee, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and even in Abraham’s desert hometown of Beersheva. The Israeli body has a Bible school and is producing indigenous Hebrew worship music. We live in amazing times—and we need you to stand with us!
READ MORE: To learn more about miracles and supernatural healing, visit miracles.charismamag.com.
Ron Cantor is the CEO of Tikkun International, a global family of Messianic congregations, leaders and ministries dedicated to the restoration of Israel and the church.
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