CLT Grad Faith Gilmore's Israel Trip

I took a trip to Israel with high expectations of how God would reveal Himself to me because I’d heard so much from others about how they wept when they arrived on the land or how the Word of God open up their eyes like never before when they walked where Jesus walked.

My experience was much different, however. Jesus used this trip to break me of all my dictates of how He was to speak to me. He even used other people to “strip” me, as it were. In that place I was able to surrender to His ways and His agenda afresh, a process that felt like brokenness.

While there, I learned about the people of Israel and how warm they are…warm and blunt! I learned how ready they are to welcome in strangers as friends and how faithful they are to pass down the stories of their forefathers. It was amazing to learn about their ability to face crisis and threat head on over the course of history in the many wars that have ensued.

What was more amazing was to learn how true God has been to His character and to His Word as He helped this small group of people overcome insurmountable odds impossible to achieve by any human means. This has been true in every war fought, in the reconvening of the people in the state, in the resurrection of the language, and in the culture and traditions staying alive over 2,000 years.

Then, I learned of the bravery of the Messianic body exhibits in the face of persecution from her own people. The warfare over her is the greatest of this believing part of the apple of God’s eye, because she is like a weapon boldly proclaiming truth without mixture. She needs our prayers and support. I also felt the Lord’s heart for the Arabs while on the Temple Mount as He longs for all His children to be gathered in His bosom.

God asked me to bring my guitar to sing to His people in Jerusalem so that’s what I did. On Ben Yehuda Street, I sang songs He gave me: some themes from the Psalms and some from Zachariah. People connected to the cry to dwell in God’s presence and inquire in His temple and to the promise of not being forgotten as the recipient of His everlasting covenant. Four days I sang, and each time God sent different believers in Yeshua to walk by and pray for me as there were a few angry responses to what I was doing.

Over and over again, God showed His faithfulness to me, confirming He is not limited to time and space and He is ready to keep anyone willing to receive Him.

Faith Gilmore