Holy Conquest

Less than a year ago I received the first vision concerning what the Lord was about to do regarding the Arab people.  Let me share it with you.

Vision:

As I looked at a huge weather map on the wall before me, I began to see diverse nations leave their geographical area one by one and come together to form a huge map of their own. Each nation, having its own color, lit up as it became a part of the new map. With the twelfth nation finally in place, the composite map resembled a 3D heart. This new large holographic map rested on top of the original map. As I gazed in wonder at the new map that formed before my eyes, I remarked in surprise to myself: "Oh, a map of the Arab Nations!" As the last few nations were moving out of their original settings to merge into the new map, I called them out by name: "Egypt, and there Syria, and now Lebanon!" When the new map was fully composed, a fiery rose descended from heaven and rested in the midst of the map.

"Oh a fiery rose, a gift for the Father," I mused aloud as the whole scene unfolded before my eyes, thinking of the 12 Arab Nations represented on the map. I knew they had become a part of the Kingdom of God. At once I was baptized with God’s own love for the Arab people. Then I heard Messiah say, "There ~ now is my heart satisfied!" For days afterwards, every time I thought about the vision, I would weep.

I want nothing more than to see His lofty and loving heart satisfied. So now I intercede for the harmony and salvation of the Arab people whenever I intercede for Israel.

The Nations

Coming from a Jewish ancestry, it could be real easy for me to get caught up in a "We’re right, they’re wrong" kind of mentality. But the Lord of the harvest won’t have it. It is not at this time a matter of who is right and who is wrong: on both sides of the Jewish-Arab conflict innocent souls are dying and going to everlasting torment. Realizing this, how can we but weep for both sides?

At times, upon special invitation, I find myself in front of a T.V. watching brief news clips because a friend or family member wants me to see the latest tragedy in Israel.

It was during one of those moments that I learned that Palestinian mothers were beginning to send their little children out to the front line to wage warfare against Israel. I also learned that parents and families of freedom fighters who died for the Palestinian cause would be compensated with set amounts of money.  I could not hold back my tears. I wept not only for Israel but also for her greatest enemies, for I saw the painful reality of the incredible blindness afflicting the sad Palestinian people. My heart broke. I couldn’t help but weep for them.

I once saw pictures of Palestinian youth who had sacrificed themselves by becoming human bombs, taking with them many Israeli lives. As I looked at the pictures, I wept at the thought that those precious souls were raised all their lives to hate my people. The tragic cycle of hatred, violence, and revenge seems unstoppable: a beguiled Palestinian patriot decides to be the next suicide bomber; Satan laughs; the greater part of the Church either scorns at such stupidity or is shocked into denial in the face of such senseless horror; Arabs raise their thumbs in triumphant defiance; and our Father weeps because another soul has just gone to hell.  I couldn’t take my eyes from those pictures. And, knowing that my own people were the focus of their outrage only added to my hurt.

Although my heart continued to ache for the Palestinian dead and for their families, I still didn’t feel a real burden for their souls, not like I do for Israel. I would pray occasionally for Israel’s attackers, but would experience no real burden. It wasn’t until the most recent two trips to Israel that I really received a burden. I will share with you how that progression came about both spiritually and naturally. The Lord often puts me with people groups in the natural to open my heart to their needs, and then fills the newly created vacuum with His understanding of their needs and His love for them, which is precisely how He worked this time.

The Palestinian Professor

First, I was flying to the Northeast Coast from California. From Chicago on, I sat next to a male Arab, who was a Muslim and a college professor. Throughout the earlier portions of the flight the Lord kept pouring into my heart a love for this man as though he were my son. I managed to sneak a peek at what he was reading, as I wanted to understand why I was experiencing the baptism of love. The literature he was reading was pretty staggering: it was filled with hate propaganda against Christianity. Yet, apparently it was part of a basic college course on something unrelated to the beliefs being expressed. This made me extremely curious. Eventually I struck up a conversation with him. We talked about Islam and Christianity. He talked about his family and his work. I talked about my ministry and some of the books I had written. By the time the flight landed he didn’t want to let me go. As for me, it felt like I was letting my son go whom I might never see again. In all honesty, it was pretty overwhelming. I prayed for him the remainder of that evening. That day, the Lord tore down many walls I didn’t even know I had toward the Arab people.

An Egyptian Doctor turned Canadian Minister

Next, I went up to Canada to help David Demian, who heads ‘Watchmen For the Nations’ work in forging reconciliation between the Church and Israel in preparation of the Lord’s return. We spent a great deal of time together. He, his wife Ruth, and I became friends during this time. I immediately came to love and respect both of them tremendously. David and Ruth are both Egyptian. As David and I traveled together across Canada to speak to Christian groups I would make light-hearted comments to the crowds about the Lord’s good humor, in that He had an Egyptian and a Jew traveling and speaking together at such an hour as this. What I didn’t state openly ~ but something David, Ruth, and I knew deep inside ~ was the love that we carried for each other. Later I met another dear person who was Jordanian, for whom I came to love very much.  Interacting closely with and building relationships with people who are part of people groups who have by and large made themselves enemies of your people can have a tremendous positive effect on your overall perception of the nations to which they belong.

Palestinian Friends

Last July, I took a prayer journey to Israel with several very special friends. As ‘fate’ would have it we found ourselves up on the Mount of Olives, which at this time is nearly one hundred percent Palestinian. We spent the entire evening worshipping and ministering with a German brother. At around midnight, when we returned to our van to head home we found our van hemmed in by several cars, all owned by Palestinians. Our host had to knock on doors to get our sleepy neighbors out of bed and move their cars so we could get out. When they emerged from their cars, which had hitherto idly lined the small parking area before and behind us, they weren’t even angry at being called out of bed. They were some of the friendliest people one could meet. They were willing to do anything to help us.

Thus, as you see, in a natural and unthreatening way, the Lord led me down the path of discovery, allowing me to meet wonderful people from the Arab world. My walls were all tumbling down. I was ready to hear the Lord’s heart about Abraham’s other sons.

It was during my most recent prayer journey to Israel that a greater well of revelation, insight, and love with respect to the Arab people was released in me concerning this important time in which we are living.

He spoke to me through His Word, through visions, through a mass of historical information, and through my friend and Bible scholar David Michael. Together we uncovered the future of the Arab Nations as the Holy Spirit guided us along the path of revelation. After all the visions were given to me specifically to direct my search through the Scriptures, Messiah released one last series of visions.

Vision

I saw a set of infant sextuplets and asked the Lord what they represented. In response to my question I was given another vision.  I saw a huge sports stadium full of people. I knew they were there for the sake of the Gospel. Suddenly the skyline of a large Arabian city appeared, superimposing itself over the stadium. I then saw a cross of light descending into the stadium, and thousands of souls were saved. As I searched to see if I might find that stadium in an Arab country, I located it in Jordan.

I came to understand that the infants represented Keturah’s six sons. Counting Ishmael makes seven other sons of Abraham besides the promised son Isaac. For the most part, the Arab people have come out of the stock of Abraham the Hebrew through Hagar and Keturah and, later, through Isaac’s wife Rebekah, who bore Esau. Ishmael’s descendants initially populated Egypt, and eventually a great portion of northern Africa. Keturah’s six sons mostly populated Saudi Arabia, later moving to other parts of the Mediterranean basin as well as spreading into the northern parts of Africa. Also, we have Jordan, which is the land of Esau, Moab, and Ammon (the latter two being Lot’s sons). Through centuries of intermarriage between the descendants of Ishmael, Esau, and Keturah, one can safely say what we have left is a sort of intricate but undeniable Arab/Hebrew multi-generational amalgamation. Members of this vastly extended family can all legitimately claim their ancestry in Abraham, even if it is only a matter of marrying into the grand patriarch’s family line.

This mass of the Arab populace was divided into 12 nations in the early 1900s, with more nations have springing up as little cubs of the original 12 in the ensuing years. The original list is as follows: Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen/Aden, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Algeria.

Please keep in mind that there are other Islamic nations but the roots of the entire modern Arab world are found in these 12. For instance, the Arabian Peninsula is now composed of not one but six independent countries. In the vision I had of the sextuplets, I believe the Lord looked at five of the six babies as what is now simply the Arabian Peninsula.

I am sharing all this with you to help you understand a little about the people for whom the Lord is now giving birth into His lofty Kingdom.

What Constitutes An Arab?

What makes an Arab an Arab? The word Arab originally meant "mingled peoples" or "nomadic peoples." It was used to refer to those who were for the most part of *Semitic (Shem) stock but not Hebrew or Jewish. For a later period of early history the term "Arab" came to reflect anyone who lived in Arabia. It also came to refer to one who spoke the Arabic tongue. This was the early metamorphosis the term "Arab" underwent.

(* Please see my article "The Glorious Harvest Of Abraham’s Seed" for more clarification.)

Being Muslim does not necessarily imply being Arab.  Also, not all Arabs are Muslim. In addition, a person can live in an Arab nation and/or speak the Arabic language and not genealogically be an Arab. In the simplest sense, an Arab, I would say, is one who is descended from Arphaxad the son of Shem, son of Noah, and who is not Jewish.

Hours of research every day taught me a great deal about Arab history. I didn’t always discover things I wished to know, however. For instance, the Arab nations have continued to persecute my people sporadically throughout recorded history, both  ~ in the Land of Israel ~ and out of it. Accosted by account after account of persecution and murder of innocent Jewish people in Arab pogroms, I had to take my wounded and broken heart to the Lord to be healed. Night after night, I would ask Him to restore the love He had already deposited in me for the Arab soul.

I also learned how the religion of Islam, through terror and war conquests, penetrated deep into the Arab soul, such that the terms "Arab" and "Islam" have long become nearly synonymous. The spiritual darkness has spread unchecked and has intensified over time. As I read more into that history my heart broke for the blinded and entrapped Arab people. The greater populace of whom would probably never have embraced the Muslim religion had it not been forced upon them through the savagery so typical of Islam back in the 700-800s AD. Islam is a repressive religion that ruthlessly rules the individual and the entire nation wherein its tenets are embraced.  Today, among the Arab Nations, children are raised Muslim, so there is no longer need of using brutal force to obtain assimilation. Albeit, every Muslim must strictly conform to Islam"s every teaching or suffer the serious consequences.       

Ironically, the ones who possibly suffer more than even the Jewish people and Christians because of Islamic intolerance are the persecutors themselves, who are bound by Islam"s seething hatred and darkness, as we can see existing in many Arabic communities today. Needless to say, having my eyes opened to this sad episode and outcome of history has been an emotional journey for me. However, in many ways it has also been beautiful, especially in light of what is about to occur.

In the study to follow, I am going to list specific Arab nations, and, where it is possible, unveil God’s plans for their future with the Biblical promises given to them. Where that is not possible I will allude to the contemporary prophetic promises. I will also list Scriptures revealing the plans of the antichrist. Then I will wrap it all up with the plea of God’s heart to the Church. I will begin with the sons of Abraham that I did not cover in the first article "The Glorious Harvest Of Abraham’s Seed."

The next few pages may seem a little technical. But bear in mind that most people are not aware of this information. So it will be given in hopes of building your faith and giving you insight into the Lord’s plans.

Keturah’s Son’s

With all due respect to Arabs — by way of bloodline, the children and descendants of both Hagar and Keturah were originally Hebrew, for they came from the loins of Abraham. But by way of linguistics, culture, and the lands they inhabited, they became known as Arabs along with the rest of Abraham’s extended family.

Keturah, whom we met in the vision of the sextuplets described earlier, became Abraham’s second wife after Sarah’s death. Her name, fittingly, means incense or fragrance. I think you will find by the end of this teaching that Keturah will be a true fragrance before the Lord through her progeny. Although Keturah’s boys were not all born simultaneously, the time arrived for their offspring to become global nations in the early 1900s and beyond. It was at that time that England overthrew the Ottoman Empire, liberating millions of Arabs and Jews as well as other nations and peoples. By the early 1930s the 12 Arab nations were fully established. The seven nations who would represent Keturah’s sons are Syria, Yemen/Aden, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Morocco. (Aden has since been swallowed up in Yemen.)

Saudi Arabia was the original home of Midian, Medan, Zimram, and Jokshan, four of Keturah’s sons.  From their ancestral home, sons of these tribes spread out, conquering and establishing their own kingdoms, such as Libya and Morocco. As they also intermingled with the existing Arab tribes of South Arabia, their descendants can also be found in Yemen/Aden.

Ishbak, more nomadic than his brothers, scattered and settled in East Canaan and would eventually be absorbed into the land we now call Jordan. Keturah’s sixth son Shuah settled in the land adjacent to the Euphrates in what is now N/E Syria and southern/mid tip of Turkey.

Christians are better acquainted with some of Keturahs sons because of certain events in Biblical history. As an example, it was from the tribe of Midian that Moses took his wife. Another of Keturah’s more famous grandsons would become the founder of Sheba, a tribe that settled in the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. He became famous because it was one of his descendants, the Queen of Sheba, who visited King Solomon. Messiah later commented on her, telling us that she was born of the Kingdom of God through her visit to Israel’s celebrated King.

Promises of Future Ingathering

We have already discussed the promises of a powerful visitation of the Lord upon Jordan in "The Glorious Harvest of Abraham’s Seed," the first article in this series.

The visitation upon Jordan would affect the descendants of Ishbak, and in a small part the descendants of Midian as well, something we didn’t mention in that article. We won’t cover Jordan again, but we will address those nations not previously discussed.

Saudi Arabia

Midian/Saudi Arabia:

Midian’s tribe occupied the very lowest tip of what is now called Jordan, but for the most part peppered its growing tribes throughout north and central Arabia. Although Midian would prove to be a fierce enemy of Israel in the beginning of Israel’s return to Canaan, the Lord did not withhold His mercy from them. Of this tribe the Lord gave us a powerful promise to be birthed at this time in history.

The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries
of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come:
they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall show
forth the praises of the Lord.
(Isaiah 60:6)

How wonderful it is to fulfil this Biblical promise ~ to bring to the Lord glorious gifts for this hour! How it will warm His tender heart to see the Arab sons of Abraham flocking into the Kingdom in the end of the age along with His people Israel! Not only will they be saved, but they shall also show forth the praises of the Lord in these last days.  Midian is an important part of the populace of Saudi Arabia. Therefore this is an important promise for the Saudis.

Jokshan/Saudi Arabia:

Another of Keturah’s sons, Jokshan, founded the tribe that actually carried his name. Later in history, during the 800s AD the tribe of Jokshan flourished under the Gospel, and much of the tribe was then known to be Christian.

It was Jokshan who begat the Sheba who founded a tribe after his own name. The Queen of Sheba who trekked hundreds of miles north through the hot Arabian Desert to see King Solomon made this tribe famous. They settled in the southern Arabian Peninsula, now known as Yemen/Aden. The Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon changed her kingdom’s destiny. The light of the Lord entered Sheba, later known as the Sabean tribe, through this relationship.

Medan and Zimram/Saudi Arabia:

Medan settled just south of Teman and Zimram just west of Mecca, both locations being in Saudi Arabia.

It was from the tribe of Zimram who also dwelt in Arabia, that a man by the name of Gregory Suren-Pahlov sprang. He descended from Parthian royalty. It was this man who was responsible for leading nearly the whole of Armenia to the Lord in the early hundreds AD.

Although I have no specific Biblical prophecy over these two particular tribes, I remember that the Lord said this great outpouring of His Spirit would touch all of Keturah’s sons. They add to the Saudi population, thus bringing the glory of God to the Saudi people in the near future.

Grandsons:
Apher, Japhran and Epher/Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia

Apher and Japhran were grandsons of Keturah. They eventually spread out and conquered Libya, initially calling it Africa. Descendants of Keturah, Hagar, and Joktan also conquered Morocco in 700 AD, gaining control of the Berber Aborigines.  Also Epher, another son of Midian later settled in what is now called Tunisia, thereby populating it with the descendants of Abraham. These nations, having come into the lineage of Hagar and Keturah, are conscripted into the promised blessings of the same for the near future. Further, I am reminded that the 12 nations from which sprang the present Arab world are all going to be touched by the coming revival.  Although I could not find ancient blessings awarded to them outside of their link to Abraham’s bloodline, I am now fully persuaded that, in this day, the Lord of mercy and grace is going to once again send His Spirit into their vast territories and bring forth a harvest of their seed unto His glory.

Shuah/Syria:

Shuah, Keturah’s sixth son, settled in upper Syria. I will cover Syria in a moment as it falls into its own category of future blessings as well as the blessings coming down through Keturah.

We have summoned both old and new prophetic blessings in our understanding of the future of Abraham and Keturah’s sons. Regardless if the promised blessings are old or new, the Lord will honor them both. The blessings of a visitation of God’s glory has been granted and will come upon the sons and the nations they inhabit, as in the case of Syria, Morocco etc.

12 Nations To Be Blessed

Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, Aden,

Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Jordan,

Saudi Arabia

These 12 nations I saw in the vision described at the beginning of this article have been set aside by the Lord to experience a wonderful visitation of His saving grace.

Some are going to experience much greater levels of His glory than others, but all will be visited.

With regard to Jordan and Egypt, I have already discussed them in the previous article entitled "The Glorious Harvest Of Abraham’s Seed."

Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Aden ~ included under prophecies about Arabia ~ have already been discussed in the light of Biblical prophecies. We will be discussing the remaining nations I have listed: Syria, Lebanon, as well as Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya. These Arab nations are all promised a visitation in this hour simply because they are inhabited by the descendants of Abraham, Keturah, and Hagar.

Although Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and the southern part of Saudi Arabia are only admixture of Abraham’s lineage and not representing his pure seed, they are nonetheless predominantly Arab. These nations form part of the 12 nations in the new kingdom map God had assembled in the vision He showed me. So they surely would be made ready for a touch from the Father’s hand.

Syria

In earliest recorded history Canaanites are said to have dwelt in what is now known as Syria, which is located at the northeastern part of present Israel. In the course of time, Syria was overtaken and populated by the tribe of Aram, who was a Semite by virtue of the fact that he was of the ancestral line of Shem.

Just to mention a familiar point of history, Laban, Aram’s distant grandson known by the title "Laban the Syrian," was the father of Rachel and Leah, the two women who built the house of Israel.

The remnant of Syria; they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel.