So, last week, we were honored to have Asher Intrater come and teach us. He is from Israel and a widely respected leader in the Messianic movement. He always comes to Gateways with new revelation that inspires passion within all of us. This year, we took advantage of his visit for God's work in Cyprus and scheduled one of our "Streams in the Desert" conferences during that time. We started the Streams conferences last spring with the vision of bringing together the Body of Messiah on the island. All denominations are not only invited, but welcomed! Our groundbreaking event last spring (hosted by Gateways Beyond, a Messianic Jewish ministry) was the first gathering of believers organized by Messianic Jews on the island in 1,800 years - since Paul and Barnabas. So, we've been excited to see how God has blessed these events with His presence and moved among the people. The theme of our event on February 11th was "God's Heart for Israel." There is a considerable anti-semetic presence in Cyprus and even many of the believers do not have the revelation of God's heart for His chosen people. We were pumped! We had a great turn out and people were eager. You could see the expectancy in their eyes, knowing that God had met them at our events before and they were back for more. Many don't come from what we would call a "spirit filled " background, but they know something is different about the worship, the speakers, and our team...and so they keep coming back.
God poured out His beautiful presence during worship and His Spirit was thick in the room. We were gathering in a meeting room at the Ajax Hotel in Limassol. The sign in the lobby to direct people to us, read "Religious Meeting Upstairs". If only they knew that the Lord of heaven was in the building, touching lives, transforming hearts. If it's "religion", it's in it's truest form. After worship, Asher got up to speak. He did not teach a deep theological message against replacement theology or anti-semetism. He shared his testimony - a young jewish man, raised in the synagogue, but searching for more. He shared about meeting Yeshua and being baptized in water and the Spirit. He showed them that he loves the same Jesus they do. And although I believe God spoke to many hearts about Israel that night, He did so much more! As people heard this respected man share his life story in humility, their softened hearts were touched by the Holy Spirit. As he shared his love for Jesus and how that enables him to love others, including Arabs, people's own walls of prejudice began to crumble. You see Cyprus has a very large foreign worker population, and they endure much persecution. Racism runs rampant and the people are broken. What followed after Asher finished speaking was a beautiful time of repentance amongst the church in Cyprus. Cypriots got up to represent their country and repented to the different nationalities who have been mistreated on the island. And in return, immigrant workers stood up to forgive and embrace them. This went on and on and on. Cyprus is a divided country. The south side (where I am) is Greek and the north side is controlled by Turkey. There is a lot of animosity between the two sides. Living in a divided nation is never easy. Countries like Germany are still recovering. A sweet woman stood up and confessed that she had been harboring anger and hatred in her heart towards the Turkish people. She confessed her sins (James 5:16) and repented. It was so powerful, and God's grace flooded the room.
Asher also gave the gospel message and two women made a decision that night to reconcile themselves to God and trust in Jesus!!! God is so good. There were also healings and other awesome works of God. What a night! We were all tired, but it was so worth it. This is real life, the way it was meant to be lived.
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