How to Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

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(Singing) I know my God has made the way for
me. I know my God has made the way for me.
ANNOUNCER: How do we pray for the peace of Jerusalem? Join
Gloria Copeland and Billye Brim on today's Believer's Voice of
Victory and learn to apply the scriptures to our prayers for
the land God has called us to uphold. Here's Gloria.
GLORIA: Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Believer's
Voice of Victory. Billye Brim's back with us
today, and we're just having such a good time in the Word,
and I'm glad you're here. So have your Bible ready, and let's
go. BILLYE: Yes, we are. We're having a great time in the Word.
And today we're going to look at one psalm out of a group of
psalms. There are six psalms that go together. They're Psalm
113 to 118, and they're called The Hallel psalms. You know that
word "hallelujah," "hallel" means praise. These are praise
psalms. And Psalm 113 begins, "Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!"
So these are the psalms that they would sing back in the
days, you know, of the Bible times as they were coming up to
Jerusalem. They had to come up to Jerusalem three times a
day--a year. The men were asked to come up, and the women and
children could come, too. But they were asked to come up three
times a year to wherever the Ark of the Covenant was, to come up
to where the shekinah glory was. So they would come up to
the--let's take temple times. They would come, and they would
sing these songs. Let's take the time of Jesus. He lived in
Nazareth as a little boy, and you know that He, with Mary and
Joseph, came up to the--to the feast. And you remember how one
time they didn't find Him because He was there in the
temple with the lawyers and the doctors, and He was talking over
Scripture. GLORIA: He was about His Father's business. BILLYE:
He was about His Father's business. GLORIA: That's right.
BILLYE: But these psalms, 1 through--113 through 118, they
would sing. As you came closer, closer, closer, closer, closer
to Jerusalem, you reached a higher spiritual meaning as
well. You go up to Jerusalem. It doesn't matter where you are on
earth. If you're on the highest mountain on earth, if you go to
Jerusalem, you're going to be going up, because spiritually
it's up. You go up to Jerusalem. GLORIA: Okay. BILLYE: So as
they're coming up to Jerusalem, they're singing these psalms,
113-118. And they sing these at--today, they sang them at the
special festive--festivities. They will be singing them at
Passover. Jesus sang--I used to wonder, when I was a little
girl--it says, "They sang a psalm, and then they went out."
I used to wonder which psalm they sang. Well, now I know.
They sang Psalm 118. That's what they sang at Passover. So He
would have sang, "This is the day the Lord has made. We will
rejoice and be glad in Him." He would have talked about the
stone which the builders refused. He would have sung
that. So one of these is Psalm 113. That's the beginning one,
and let's read it. No. That is the beginning one. The one I
want to read is Psalm 122, which is a Song of Degree, a Song of
Ascent. It's not of The Hallels. It's not one of 113 to 118, but
this is also in a group of psalms. This is the Psalms of
Ascent as they come up to Jerusalem, the Psalm of Degrees.
And they start with Psalm 120. And we're going to read--there
are groups of psalms is what I'm talking about, and these are the
Psalms of Ascent, your Bible might say, or Songs of Degrees.
As you go closer, closer, closer to Jerusalem, you're going to be
singing these psalms. So let's look at Psalm 122. And you can
see, they're going up to Jerusalem. They're singing this
song. "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the
house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O
Jerusalem. Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact
together: whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto
the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the
Lord. For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the
house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall
prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, prosperity
within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' sake, I
will now say, Peace be within thee," shalom be within thee.
GLORIA: Mm. BILLYE: "Because of the house of the Lord our God, I
will seek thy good." GLORIA: Praise God. BILLYE: So they're
going up to Jerusalem, and they're singing this. And
they're glad when they get up there into the house of the Lord
in that day. And this is the scripture--I'm a member of
Christians United for Israel. And you all are, too. And,
actually, I think Terri and George are the state directors
under the John Hagee Ministries, and I'm a regional director. And
so this is one verse that many people, lovers of Israel, say
over and over. They say, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they
shall prosper that love thee." Well, let's take the last part.
"They shall prosper that love thee." God, in Genesis 12:3,
said, concerning Abraham and the--and the nation that would
come from his loins, "I will bless those who bless you and
curse him that curseth you." So we know that blessing Israel is
going to bring prosperity. I have blessed Israel for a long
many years, and I believe that so much of my blessings come
because I blessed Israel. And I do prosper. Now, the first part
of that verse says, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem." And
many, many lovers of Jerusalem pray for the peace. They use
this scripture. "We're going to pray for the peace of
Jerusalem." But what does this scripture mean, "Pray for the
peace of Jerusalem"? Does it mean to pray that there will
never be any wars in Jerusalem? We know that the final wars are
going to be in Jerusalem. The war in Zechariah 14, the war
where the Messiah comes back and puts His feet on the Mount of
Olives, there's a war going on. So it can't mean just pray for
the absence of all wars there. And I know that some of our
presidents, who, in their hearts--well, I'll just say it,
George W. Bush. I know he wanted to bless Israel. He was a friend
of Israel. But he came up with this plan of dividing Israel. He
came up with something called "The Road Map to Peace." Well,
it wasn't the road map to Bible kind of peace. GLORIA: No.
BILLYE: It wasn't the road map to wholeness. It was the road
map to division, and it could never be. It could never last,
it could never have the blessings of God because God
doesn't want Jerusalem divided. He says so in His Word. Now, so
what can this mean, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem"? Well,
we've been studying the real meaning of the word "peace" in
Hebrew. We know that all Hebrew words grow from a root word. And
the root word for "peace" is "shulem." So this is going to
tell you and me, "You pray for the oneness of Jerusalem, the
wholeness of Jerusalem." God doesn't want that city divided.
That city's not to be divided. That city is one city. If there
is one place on all the earth that God doesn't want divided,
it's Jerusalem. We're to pray that it would have the peace
that comes because it's not divided. Now, a very interesting
thing's happened for me when I was coming about and getting
this revelation. So, when we pray for the peace of Jerusalem,
we're praying--it's the same kind of peace we talked about
that Jesus got for us with God. It's a prayer that it will be
whole and that it will be undivided, the eternal capital
of Israel. Now, we know that it's not God's will for Israel
to be divided. It's not God's will for the land or that city
to be divided. And on page 2, Gloria, you're going to find
that I have typed "Joel 3:1." GLORIA: Yes, you did. BILLYE:
And this is talking about when He brings them home. And we know
He's brought them home, Gloria. In your lifetime and mine, He's
brought the Jews home. He's turned their captivity. And so
it says, in Joel 3:1, "For behold, in those days, and at
that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah--"
In other words, turn it. "--the captivity of Judah and
Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and bring them down
into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will plead with them there
for my people, for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered
among the nations, and parted my land." Now we're going to read
that in the Amplified Bible. "Behold, in those days and at
that time when I shall reverse the captivity and restore the
fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and
will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat--"
"Shaphat" is judge, and, J-e-h-o, "Jeho," that's Jehovah.
Jehovah will judge. God the Father's going to judge these
nations. "And there will I deal with and execute my judgment
upon them for their treatment of My people Israel and My--My
people and of My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered
among the nations because they have divided My land." So
anything that's God's is not to be divided; the land, the city,
your heart, you. He doesn't want you broken. He doesn't want
anything missing from you. That's why He sent the God of
peace--we found out He's called that, yesterday. Sent the Prince
of Peace, Sar Shalom, to get you peace with God. Now you're one
with God if you're born again, and that you can have wholeness
in your life. It's not God's perfect will for you to have
anything broken, anything missing. GLORIA: That's right.
BILLYE: And it's not God's will for His city upon the earth to
have anything broken, anything missing, not His--God's will for
it to be divided. You know, Gloria, how He says to the
Church that we're to forgive? And He said, "Don't let there be
a schism in my Body." See, His Body, in the earth, He's the
head, we're the Body-- GLORIA: Is that-- BILLYE: --the Body of
Christ. GLORIA: Would you say that's division, separation,
"schism"? BILLYE: Yes, it is. It's division and separation,
which is not a part of the way God is. God has character. I
mean, He's the character of God. GLORIA: Yes, He is. BILLYE: Yes.
The Old Testament talked so largely about the Jews and about
their place in God's plan, but in that, you find the character
of God. All through the Word of God, you're finding His
character revealed. And His character, when He reveals that
He is the God of peace, He's the God of wholeness. He's the God
that comes from being whole. And He wants everything that
demonstrates Him to be whole. He wants His Body on the earth to
be whole. He wants Gloria Copeland to be whole. He wants
Jerusalem to be whole. And He wants Israel to be whole.
GLORIA: He wants marriages to be whole-- BILLYE: He wants
marriages to be whole. GLORIA: --families to be whole. BILLYE:
Yes. GLORIA: That's right. BILLYE: Oh, what a planner. Oh,
what a plan, I say of Him. GLORIA: Oh, much better than--
BILLYE: Oh, what a God. And so, when we pray for the peace of
Jerusalem, we're praying that it be undivided. And to tell you
the truth, right now, there's a lot of nations that, if they
don't straighten up their act--I thought about this when Nikki
Haley said, in the United Nations--our ambassador to the
United Nations-- GLORIA: Yeah. BILLYE: --she said, "We're
taking names of you who vote against Israel." GLORIA: I saw
that. BILLYE: You see that? Boy, I love that lady. I think she's
brave. And, go, Nikki! But I thought, "Uh-oh, there's
somebody higher taking names." GLORIA: Yep. BILLYE: There's God
the judge of all, is what He's called in Hebrew, and He's
taking names. And if you're against Jerusalem as a
nation--I'm talking about nations. And if you--if you
divide His people and make up plans to divide His land, then
He's going to take your nation down to the valley of
Jehoshaphat. And there He's going to judge you because you
did what? You divided His land. You divided His people. You
don't want to do that. You don't want to divide anything or
anybody from God. You don't want to bring a schism in the Body of
Christ. GLORIA: That's right. BILLYE: Oh, my goodness. He
tells us He wants us to build the Body. You do this so that
you can build the Body. You speak in--you prophesy so that
you can build up His people. You preach to build up His people.
So anybody who's tearing apart God's people, God's churches,
oh, you know-- GLORIA: Not healthy. BILLYE: --not healthy;
not healthy for them, not healthy for you. GLORIA: Hmm-mm.
BILLYE: So you don't want to be a part of that. Now, we're
talking about--when you pray for the police--peace of Jerusalem,
what do you mean? I'm going to take you back to Verse 3.
"Jerusalem is builded--" See, He builds Jerusalem. He builds the
Church. "Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact
together." When I first went to Israel and started spending a
lot of time there after Kent passed away, I asked to the
Lord, "What do you want me to do?" And He said, "I want you to
study Hebrew in the land." So I went over. And I went to a
Hebrew school, and I spent some time there. And I started going
around through the land. And later, I started taking tours
through the land. And I noticed that everywhere, I would see
these paintings, these pictures, and it would have Jerusalem. And
then it would have, in the clouds up here, another city.
And I did this book, Gloria, you can see right here on this
picture. And I think they maybe they have a-- GLORIA: Here, I
got one. BILLYE: Yeah, uh-huh. You see below how those houses
are below? GLORIA: Yeah. BILLYE: And then they've got, above it,
another city? GLORIA: Uh-huh. BILLYE: Okay, that's
because--yeah, they've got it. They've got the picture. They're
putting it up for us. Great. I'm glad you're looking at that now.
This is what I saw going all over Israel. I saw paintings
like this. There'd be the houses below, and sometimes it would be
a little more artsy in what's in heaven above. And I thought,
"These Jews, they know so much about heavenly Jerusalem. How do
they know so much about it?" And they talk about it all the time
because it's mostly in the New Testament that I saw heavenly
Jerusalem. So I--I said, "How do they know it? How do they see
about it?" So I found some old synagogues, the oldest
synagogues in Jerusalem. And I went into one of them, because
that synagogue has a painting on the wall over the holy ark. They
have the ark that holds the Torah scrolls. And over that
ark, they had buildings. And then above it, they had clouds,
which kind of--there was a menorah like in the clouds, and
there was a--indicating light, and there was a dove. The clouds
made this. And it was representative of Jerusalem
above. They call it Jerusalem Shel Ma'ala, Jerusalem that is
above; and then they call the earthly Jerusalem, Jerusalem
Shel Matta, the earth--the one--the Jerusalem above,
Jerusalem below. They talk about it all the time, Jerusalem
above, Jerusalem below. They're more conscious of it than we
are, yet I see it more attached to the Church and attached in
the New Testament, you know, to us. So I was wondering about how
this was. And I went to visit that old synagogue, and the old
rabbi was in there. He was from New York, and he had a long,
white beard. And he was really a friendly guy. And he said--I
said, "I want to know what I'm seeing all over this country.
I'm seeing this depictions, these pictures of Jerusalem
above. I hear people talk about it. Tell me about it." And so he
said, "Well, let's have a cup of tea." So we just sat and had a
cup of tea. And I like to tell this. This is a little joke on
him. But when Jews--they do, "L'chaim." Like, you have your
coffee cup there. GLORIA: Yeah. BILLYE: They do--they're going
to do, "l'chaim," "to life." And then they say, "To a 120." "Ad
me'ah essrim." "To 120, to life," in other words. GLORIA:
We should say that. BILLYE: I think that's why they live so
long. They have more centenarians than anyone, in
Israel. And they say--every single time, they say, "To life,
live to 120." GLORIA: Hallelujah. BILLYE: And so,
anyway, he said, "You know what I say to myself when I do
l'chaim with my wife?" And I said, "What do you say?" And he
says, "I say, to myself, 'L'chaim, Ad me'ah essrim
vahd,'" which is, "to 121." He said, "I say that to myself. I
want to live one year without her." So she's always saying,
"120." So he's saying, "121," to himself so he can live one year
without her. But he was funny. That was the kind of a guy he
was. That tells you his personality. And so I'm asking
him about this picture. And he says, "Well?" I said, "How do
you know about Jerusalem above?" And he said to me, "Well, Moses
went there." Well, I thought, "Yeah, I guess he did. We always
think of him sitting on top of an ice cream cone mountain. But
if Jesse went there one afternoon from a hotel room, I
guess Moses did go there. And they said Moses went there, and
there he was shown the pattern for the tabernacle. And there he
was told about--he saw Jerusalem above, and he saw the pattern of
heavenly things. And he said to me--he said, "There is--there's
a parallel between Jerusalem above and Jerusalem below. We
have trees here because they have trees there. We have a
river here because they have a river there." And so he said,
"Now, this--" And not just him, but other rabbis I learned these
facts from. Jerusalem is as a--as a city compact together. I
looked up that word for "compact, builded compact
together." And it is "chavar." And it means adjoined, joined.
GLORIA: Joined. BILLYE: And the--I know this Hebrew word
"chaver" is "friend." So you have a friend, it grows from the
root word "joined" because you're joined together. You and
I are friends. So this word says, "Jerusalem is builded as a
city that is joined together." It's compact together. And he
said, "What this means is the heavenly Jerusalem and the
earthly Jerusalem are coming together." In fact, they really
believe it's just on another--another realm, heavenly
Jerusalem, earthly Jerusalem. And so, when you're praying for
the peace of Jerusalem, you are praying that--you are praying
this right here: "Jerusalem is builded as a city that is
compact together." You're praying the future plans of God
in. You're praying that Jerusalem on earth will not be
divided, and you're praying that heavenly Jerusalem and earthly
Jerusalem will be joined and come together and manifest
during--through the millennium. It's going to be manifest.
They're going to see that city-- GLORIA: Praise God. BILLYE:
--1,500 miles long, 1,500 miles wide. It's a real place. It's
more real than this. It'll be over earthly Jerusalem. So what
you're doing when you pray for the peace of Jerusalem, you're
praying for the joining. You're praying for the oneness of
heavenly Jerusalem and earthly Jerusalem. It says, in
Revelation 21, "He carried me away in the spirit to a great
and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy
Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God." We're going to
talk about that tomorrow and how-- GLORIA: Oh, that'll be
good. BILLYE: Yeah, about heavenly Jerusalem and what it
means in the life of the believers. GLORIA: Praise God.
BILLYE: So what we're doing here when we pray for the peace of
Jerusalem, we're not just praying that they'll never--I
said that about President Bush. He didn't want to have war
there, so he made this thing called the Roadway--Roadway to
Peace, and it was going to end up in division. No, that's not
what this means. You don't pray--you're not praying that
they'll never have war there. You're praying that earthly
Jerusalem will not be divided, and you're praying that God's
plan for heavenly Jerusalem and earthly Jerusalem to come
together will come to pass. Even in the name of Jerusalem, we see
there's two cities. When you're in Israel, they will call it,
"Yerushalayim." "Yerushalayim," the ending is "im." That's a
double ending. In counting to three, "achat, shtayim,
shalosh," you can hear the "im" on the two. So you don't have to
say--when things come in pairs, they normally come in pairs like
a pair of shoes. You don't have to say, "two shoes." You say,
"na'alayim." You speak of your glasses as "mishkafayim." So
when they say the word "Yerushalayim," every time they
say it, they're telling you there are two. They're conscious
there are two. Oh, Gloria, this isn't all she wrote what we see
right down here now. There's going to be that coming together
of the heavenly Jerusalem and the earthly Jerusalem. And we're
going to talk about it tomorrow-- GLORIA: Praise God.
BILLYE: --and what your place is in the heavenly Jerusalem.
GLORIA: Wow. That'll be exciting. BILLYE: Mm-hmm.
GLORIA: Glory to God. So don't miss tomorrow.
That's the key to that. Billye and I'll be right back.
ANNOUNCER: We hope you enjoyed today's teaching from Kenneth
Copeland Ministries. And remember Jesus is Lord.
2018 Branson Victory Campaign: Using Our Power in the Name of Jesus (7 p.m.) 2018 Branson Victory Campaign: The Anointing Exchange (9 a.m.) The Root Determines the Fruit You Obey God When You Believe He Loves You 2018 Branson Victory Campaign: Take Your Healing Today (9:30 a.m.) 2018 Branson Victory Campaign: Getting to Know a "Personal Jesus" (7 p.m.) Saved, Healed and in Perfect Peace Jesus Is Our Prince of Peace 2018 Branson Victory Campaign: Friday Evening Offering Message (7 p.m.) 2018 Branson Victory Campaign: Friday Morning Increase Day (11 a.m.)

How to Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

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