One positive outcome of the Corona crisis is the increased burden for prayer among the ICEJ’s global family. This is greatly encouraging!

From the onset of Corona, the ICEJ initiated a weekly online Global Prayer Gathering which we co-hosted with Angus Buchan from South Africa and Peter Tsukahira from the Mt. Carmel congregation. These meetings have attracted believers from over 100 nations in recent months.

Then in late May, the ICEJ held a special Global Pentecost prayer marathon. Thousands of Christians from all around the world joined us for this 13-hour online prayer meeting, and many testified to tangibly feeling the presence of God during this prayer time even though it took place in cyberspace. Our national branches reported they wanted to repeat it, but 13 hours was not enough time.

So we felt led to launch a special monthly 24-hour watch to make room for this increased desire to pray. The date the Lord placed on our heart was Rosh Chodesh, an overlooked biblical holiday which marks the beginning of the month on the Hebrew calendar. Our first Rosh Chodesh 24-hour prayer call took place on 22-23 June, and God was present from start to finish. For 24 hours, we sought the Lord in earnest prayer from dozens of locations around the globe and in many languages.

“Why on Rosh Chodesh?”
Rosh Chodesh is a joyous festival given to Israel on Mt Sinai. The blast of two silver trumpets were to signal the new moon and thus the new month (Numbers 10:10). God also commanded that special sacrifices be offered every new moon (Numbers 28:11-15). These celebrations became an integral part of Israel’s culture, when families held feasts and the king celebrated it with a banquet (1 Samuel 20:5-6). It also has a prophetic aspect, as the prophet Isaiah sees the day coming when all flesh will worship Him every Rosh Chodesh:

From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord (Isaiah 66:23).

We thus feel to ‘blow a trumpet in Zion’ and invite all the nations to join us at for this monthly prayer marathon. In biblical times, the trumpet call summoned the people to gather for war or for Temple rituals. This is a season when prayer is vitally important and this trumpet call needs to be heard around the world. Our prayer aims are straightforward: We will pray for revival worldwide, in your country, and in Israel. We will pray that Corona will lose its impact and that God will show up and bless this year’s Feast of Tabernacles more than ever!

We will write more about the prophetic significance of the biblical festival of Rosh Chodesh. Meantime, we invite you to join us for these unique prayer times on the following dates:

22-23 July                           20-21 August                     18-19 September

Zoom link: on.icej.org/RoshChodesh!

Please check our online schedule for the exact hour when your own country/language will be praying. Visit: https://int.icej.org/prayer

The Father’s House on the Mt of Olives
We were privileged to host some of our recent prayer events from a unique prayer house on the Mt. of Olives which has a spectacular view of the Golden Gate and Temple Mount (see photo). It has been used for decades by devout Christians, mainly from Germany, to intercede for Israel and the nations from this strategic location. The Evangelical Sisters of Mary were living there in June 1967 when Motti Gur and his troops were descending the hillside to take the Old City of Jerusalem, and they invited him in for a quick tea and prayers of encouragement. The noted German Christian publisher Axel Springer also often stayed in the prayer house and considered it his favourite place in Israel. Over recent decades, Berlin pastor Andreas Bauer has maintained a prayer ministry at the ‘Father’s House’, as he calls it. We are grateful to Pastor Andreas for opening the house for us to host some of our prayer events from this strategic location.