How is Jesus at work in Israel today?

This is Andy Thomas from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we discover what it means to be a wholehearted man. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds.

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Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. We would love to hear from our lovely wife, Miriam Levi-Shirnov, and they are with the Joseph Project.

Oh my goodness, what a story behind the Joseph Project, but just in real time. Tell us a little bit about what you guys are currently doing in the situation. Thank you so much, Robbie.

Appreciate it. We are very, very happy to be here, humbled to actually be with you today and your audience. I am a Messianic Jew. I am a Jewish person that does believe Yeshua, or Jesus, is the Messiah and Savior. Some famous Messianic Jews, Robbie, were Peter, Paul, Philip, James, all of the apostles, all the early believers. Those were some famous ones, right?

Okay. So we are just simply following in that tradition, and I am very, very happy to say that truly God is pouring out His Spirit upon our people all over the world and in Israel. And that prophetic movement amongst our people, the Jewish people, is called the Messianic Jewish movement. He's working in the United States.

He's working in Europe. Everywhere where there are Jewish people, God is pouring out His Spirit upon them. Now, I don't know if I even started answering your question, did I? Well, you bring up a wonderful point that I think kind of is illustrated by your beautiful wife. There are Jewish people scattered all over, and she's from Mexico, right?

Right. So, Miriam, tell us a little bit about how did you meet your husband? I guess that's a great question. Well, I am also a leader in the Messianic movement, so I met him in those meetings. Oh, really? Yeah, in one of the international conferences of the International Messianic Jewish Alliance. So I was the president of the Messianic Jewish Alliance of Mexico. Really? Uh-huh.

That was neat. And so how did your family end up in Mexico? Well, my great-grandfather, he was from France. So then, when he was 12 years old, his family moved first to the United States. He was a great violinist. Really?

Yes. So he was traveling around, performing as a great violinist. And he went to a few countries.

So then he went also to Mexico, and he made a stop in Colima, and he loved it, and he decided to move. Oh, that's beautiful. And it's amazing to me how God has gifted so many Jewish folks, right, with all those abilities, like when you look at, you know, especially in the arts, you know, how many Jewish people are in that, and I would suppose, Joel, the Messianic Jewish people as well? Yes, of course. I mean, God has given the Jewish people certain giftings. He has given every people group giftings. And the Jewish people have a calling. The sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have a calling, if you will, to be pastors amongst the nations.

And in fact, in Genesis 12, 3, it says that I will bless them that bless you and curse them that curse you. One of our purposes is to be a blessing to the nations. And of course, the Messiah came through our people. Yeshua came through us. The Bible came through us. It was to be a blessing to the nations, not to like wave it around, look at us, but to serve the nations. That is our is our calling.

And so God has given us giftings that match that calling. So that's what the Joseph Project is currently like. Israel's at war. Israel's at war. Miriam and I were actually there at the beginning of the war.

We were there for an international Messianic conference. We had just gotten into the country, October the 6th, gotten into our hotel, had a nice Shabbat dinner, Sabbath dinner, went to bed, woke up on the 7th, sirens, were going off. I said, what is going on here? Because they didn't stop.

He just kept on going, and that is a warning siren. And I said, that's strange. And I'm waking up, and then all of a sudden, boom, there was a huge explosion.

I said, wait a second, this is not normal. And I jumped out of bed, ran outside of my room, and everybody's moving into the bomb shelters. Well, that was the start of the war.

And of course, the war, we had no idea at that moment how dramatic and horrific it was as the thousands of terrorists poured over the border and just killing and raping and beheading and doing it on purpose because their purpose was to strike terror into the Jewish people and chase them away from the border. So we didn't we didn't know that at first when we're standing in the bomb shelter, and we're in there with a lot of other believers, and we're starting to get the reports 30, 30 killed. 30? That sounds large. Then all of a sudden it was 50, and all of a sudden it was 100. And I turned to all of our colleagues. I said, this is big. This is going to be very big.

This is not normal. Something very big is going on. And of course, it unfolded that the war had started. The terrorists had declared war on Israel.

Israel then declared war, and we were off and running. Darrell Bock All right. So how do you think, right? You're listening. I know you've got some thoughts.

How do you think Jesus is at work in the midst of all this? We want your call. 866-348-7884, 866-344-TRUTH. You're going to find out what The Joseph Project's up to in Israel when we come back.

Stay tuned. Darrell Bock Well, welcome back to Truth Talk Live with today's question. How do you think Israel, how do you think Jesus is at work in Israel today? How do you, well, how is Israel at work in Israel? But how do you, no, seriously, I would really love to hear your thoughts on this. I'm completely serious. I know you have concerns or maybe you have a viewpoint on what Jesus is really up to.

I mean, what is it that you think, and that's what this show is for, and so I need to know. 866-348-7884, 866-344-TRUTH. Again, we have these wonderful folks with The Joseph Project, Joel and Miriam Levy, Ashernoff, which I love that Levy part of it. We're going to get to that sooner or later, but in the meantime, so what is The Joseph Project doing in real time during the war right now? What you guys do is, you guys are the largest importer of humanitarian aid into Israel, right?

Yes. Since 1999, we started shipping goods into Israel. There were various Christian charities wanting to partner with us. We are a Messianic Jewish charity. We started it in the United States, and then we eventually moved the offices to Israel. We rented out a facility, the warehouse. We began moving goods into the country. That was in 1999. Of course, at that time, almost all the philanthropy done in Israel is done with cash that is wired into the country from the United States, Europe, and all over, and then charitable things are done.

This was different. We didn't know it was different at the time, but we started shipping goods because we were partnering with our Christian brothers and sisters like Samaritans, Person, Operation, Blessing, and so forth, and they would give us the goods and containerize free goods, new goods oftentimes, put it on a container, put it on a ship. We would pay for the shipping over and then take possession of it and put it in our facility, in our warehouse, and then our truck would take it out and take it to the poor and the needy. Now, it started off very, very small, but there's a tremendous need in Israel. Poverty is a huge problem in Israel.

People don't know that, but it is. A quarter of the adults living below the poverty line in Israel, a third of the kids, and that was before the war. So we began to work and learn how to do this, and by today and during this war, we have a larger facility, about 15,000, 16,000 square feet, three stories tall, five or six trucks, full staff, offices.

We are importing over 160 million dollars worth of aid into the country and are considered the largest importer of aid in the country of Israel. So naturally, the war, interestingly enough, before the war started in January, the Lord spoke to me in my quiet time and he said, I want you to start storing goods, not just getting the goods in, computerizing them, inventorying them, and then pushing them out the door, but instead store some of those goods because crisis is coming. Now, we didn't know what it was going to be exactly, but that was the impression, strong impression of my quiet time. I took that word to our board of directors, to our executive board, and I said to them, this is, this is what the Lord is showing me.

What do you think? And they concurred. And so our staff began storing a portion of the goods away, a few million dollars worth of goods.

They just kept storing and giving it out. And all of a sudden, October the 7th happens and we were ready. Our trucks were ready. We had goods ready to go. So that was in January of 22. January of 23.

Right, 23. And all year we were, we were storing up the goods. And then when the war happened, we have the infrastructure. We have the facility.

We have the staffing and the drivers. Can I just jump in here with just an unbelievable, like, it's so cool what God showed you in your original vision for the Joseph Project, that that was like your namesake there. He kind of stored up goods. That was his deal. Right, right.

Exactly. And so isn't that cool that, that, that, I mean, I really love the original vision that you got, but here you were, you were ready for it. But here you were, you were ready for this on October 7th.

We were ready, yeah. And so we, we began, because the government, and we work closely with the government, we work closely with charities all over the country. Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, everybody. Another question that I'm just dying to ask is Jewish people, right, you're an outsider to them.

Why? Because you're messianic, right? And they're like, so when they see all this aid coming, this isn't something, they're used to getting persecution from Christians. They're not used to getting aid, right? And so what are they saying to you? Well, I mean, Christians now, Christian-Zionist movement has, has created a lot of, of goodwill inside of Israel because they stand with Israel.

Right. And the evangelical Christian world is probably the greatest friend of Israel, outside of Israel, even to this day. Messianic Jews are a little bit different in the traditional Jewish world because of our faith in Yeshua and because of centuries of Christian persecution of Jewish people, meaning the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, even in Nazi Germany, et cetera, used a lot of Luther's works to persecute our people. And so there is a reticence, even a block, a block, block against us. Why?

Because our people think of messianic Jews as traitors. How could you join our persecutors? Right. How could you do that?

They're like a tax collector. Yeah. How could you, how could you do that? So, and it's completely understandable because the pain came from that world, but God is changing that. And so the Lord, I mean, there's a growing messianic movement inside of Israel, a huge one outside of Israel and, and growing because this is the day prophetically in the scripture of this, of the physical and spiritual restoration of Israel. God is actively moving our people back into the kingdom of God. We are coming back in, in, in stages.

Let me just give you a feel. My father used to tell me in the late sixties, the mid sixties of last century, Joel, there are fewer than 3000 messianic Jews in the whole country. That was in the mid, mid sixties. Then the, then the Jesus people thing happened and boom, that revival was different than any other revival previous to it.

Why? Because it included tens of thousands of hippie Jewish kids having supernatural experiences, not only with God, but also the Messiah, Yeshua, Jesus. And so they were swept into the kingdom and that's how the messianic synagogue started. The congregation started and so forth. That was now there are probably 1.5 to 2 million Jewish people in this country alone that have some positive faith in the Messiah, Jesus. That's a huge difference from the mid sixties. In fact, I can confidently say messianic Judaism, which is biblical faith in Yeshua is the fastest growing stream of Jewish faith in the world today, since 1967. No other stream of Judaism can even compare to that kind of growth. We need your view.

866-348-7884. We'll be right back. Oh, you want to hear the rest of this. There's a lot more, believe me, behind this prophecy.

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. How do you think Jesus is at work in Israel today? How do you think that? We would love your view. We would love your view. 866-348-7884.

866-344-TRUTH. And I have to tell you, I know everybody wishes they could have been sitting through the break to hear what Joseph and Miriam are talking about is happening in Israel right this minute. Like, oh my goodness. And so we could talk about, and believe me, we could talk about what the Joseph Project is doing during the war. And we're going to get to that in a minute.

But first, I think we're going to dive right into the bigger subject, which you pointed out so well, Joel. This is not the war that we think it is in the West. It's a different kind of war, isn't it?

Yes. The conflict in the Middle East between Israel, the Jewish people, and our Arab cousins, who were the progenitors of the Muslim faith, is a spiritual battle. They believe that their God is God and that the God of Israel is not God. And in their minds, no matter what the secular Western world wants to think, they can't be negotiated with on this level.

They think it's a spiritual issue. This is a war for truth. And they can't understand how they can't win a war in the Middle East against eight million people, and there's 350 million of them. How is it that Israel wins these wars?

It shouldn't have happened. They see it as the God of Israel against the God of Islam and who is the real God. And that's how they see it, and that's why they will not give up until they win or God changes their mind.

One of the two. And I love the way that you described Isaiah 11 for those of us sitting in the studio. What's prophesied there? Is it a beautiful outcome of how God will change their mind and there will be a revival amongst them as well?

Yes. In the book of Isaiah 11 and in 17, both of those passages, prophesies a final Arab-Jewish war. This is a limited confrontation between the bordering Arab states and the desert tribes, which are the Saudis and Omanis and all those, Egypt and Assyria and the North Lebanon and Syria, and Israel. And it prophesies, and this war has not happened up until this date.

And I've been and I've been waiting for it. But it says there, Israel will swoop down, listen to this, upon the shoulders of the Philistines, the Philistines in English, but the Palestinians, that is the English for that. Now it says the Palestinians in the West, not in the East, but in the West. And that is Gaza.

That's where they are located en masse is there. It says Israel will swoop down upon the shoulders of the Philistines and will subdue them and then move across the Jordan to Moab, Edom and Ammon, which is Jordan. And then God says, I, in other words, they will be winning this war. But it's with all of the bordering Arab states. And then God says, I will intervene in this war and I will breathe a scorching wind over the Euphrates in the north and the Nile in the south. And I will dry it up. And then in the book of Isaiah 7, 17, it prophesies Damascus will be emptied out.

This will happen in a day quickly. And the purpose of it isn't to destroy the Arabs, but to turn their hearts to the to the God of Israel. In other words, he's going to settle the question, who is God?

Is it the God of Israel or is it the God of Islam? This is the way they see it. This is this is this is the reason why that fire can't be quenched.

God himself will do it. They will see the supernatural sign and will properly credit it to the to the God of Israel. And then it says in the book of Ezekiel, 37 and 38 and 39 to prophesize another another war in in in which Israel is attacked by Russia, Persia, which is Iran and to Garma, they will come in. But none of the bordering states are a part of this confederacy. That's because they are at peace. It says that that the entire area has become possessed of cattle and goods. There's there's no security issues, no walls.

Why is that? Because God has already moved in this final Arab Jewish war and settled the question between the Jewish people and their and their Arab cousins. And they are all serving the God of Israel. Therein lies the hope he will resolve it himself. War itself will not resolve it, will not resolve it. It will just prolong because there's three hundred and fifty million of our Arab cousins are not going to be quenched if they if they end up losing another war.

Israel, Israel cannot even hold that land for any length of time. That's absolutely amazing. We have hope. We have Buskman in Ohio, and Buskman wants to jump in on the conversation. Busman, you're on Truth Talk Live, my friend. What's your thoughts? Oh, this is such a great topic here, Robbie, and thanks again for taking my call.

It's always an honor. Pray for the peace of Israel, Truth Talk Live, and we know who the peace is, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ who come to the house of Judah first and then to the Gentile. And I was telling your screener, there's a fantastic organization, guys, that we should really be praying for that is active in Israel right now. I get their email to say how everything's going since October 7th when that horrible day happened and Hamas came in. It's called One for Israel. And I want to say it's oneforisrael.org, but I'm looking it up now. Joel, are you familiar with — hang on, Busman.

Let me see if Joel knows about him. Yes, One for Israel is a very, very good organization. They have a Bible school there. We are very much acquainted with them. They do excellent work, and they have a great TV ministry with testimonies of Jewish people who have come to faith in the Messiah. So yes, they are very, very good people. Excellent.

Well, thank you. They are awesome people. They're messianic Jews. They reach the loss of the tribe of Judah. They reach Jews, and they even have folks that will reach to the Palestinians, reach to the Arabs. Well, Busman, since I got you right here, I'm curious, had you ever heard that idea that the Philistines were actually the Palestinians? This is a new one on me, but I love it.

You've got me wanting to study now. No, let me clarify. Philistines is in English. Pilishtim, Hebrew.

Right. Now, when they translated it into English, it was Philistines. The Philistines were a Greek people immigrating into Israel, and they were there for centuries.

They were eventually dissipated and disappeared from the pages of history. Of Samson. But interestingly enough, the Arabs living in those areas chose that name to take that name of the Philistines, which is crazy because the Scripture talks about the Philistines in the latter days. Well, that Greek derivative disappeared centuries ago, a thousand years or two thousand years ago. But the modern day people that call themselves Philistines are the Palestinians.

And that's what makes the Bible so darn relevant, is that two thousand year gap, and here they show up again, and it says Israel will swoop down upon the shoulders of the Philistines. They call themselves that. The Arabs living in that area have taken that name, not only in the West Bank, but also in Gaza. They are the only ones who have taken that name. That's unbelievable.

I want to run this idea by you. It's unbelievable. In the Old Testament, King David went into Philistia, and he was the—correct me if I'm wrong, brother—wasn't he not the proprietor of zigzag? Yes. He actually set up shop there in the enemy's territory.

God's chosen was right there in zigzag. Right, well, for a season, yes. Yes. By the way, Bussman, I want to let you know that if you want to check out the josephproject.org, you know, speaking of great organizations. And when we come back, we're going to talk about what they're doing. Bussman, thank you, as always, for your insight. I appreciate you calling. Love you, man. God bless. How about your thoughts? 866-348-788486634 truth. More coming with The Joseph Project. josephproject.org This is the Truth Network.