Old Time Prayer Meetings

I just recently finished the book Through the Fire, without burning by Dimitru Duduman, a Romanian who lived under oppressive communism in Romania. I recommend it for every believer in the western world who has not experienced true persecution. As I read, Mr. Duduman was always traveling around the country to prayer meetings. He testifies of so many miracles as he secretly transported bibles throughout a mostly rural landscape.

A Call To Prayer

I was reminded of my own childhood in Colorado Springs where I attended Victory Chapel, a little non-denominational church with my Dad in my teens. Pastor Ron Johnson was a dutiful prayer warrior and held prayer meetings at 5:00 am every morning. I was only maybe fifteen or sixteen and though I was always a half hour late, I felt a powerful call to prayer. When I attended church, which was off and on as a young man, I loved being in the prayer room and on the worship team.

A Messianic Believer

Since becoming a Messianic believer most of that seems to have gone the way of the meek, as meekness itself is something one rarely sees. I remember my grandparent’s generation was always full of fire, faith and prayer, they are commonly referred to as the last great generation. I still feel that fire, since I saw it myself, and admired it. The body of believers needs to get back to prayer meetings and not just prayer…fasting and prayer.

Our Family

My wife’s and my families were Apostolic, and the Spanish Apostolic churches were always on fire when I was a child. I myself was raised secular since my Dad, the eldest in a Pastoral family, left the church. I knew nothing of God except for when my Grandmother would take me to church and that was rare. It wasn’t until I was seven years old that Yah touched me, and gave me what I called a spiritual compass. My long journey to finding the Torah has been a journey searching for truth through many doctrines and denominations. We have been Torah observant since 2008, and three of those years were being schooled in Chassidic Orthodox Judaism, a religion to which we no longer adhere.

Trusting In God

In these past 15 years we have learned how much our Heavenly Father wants us to put Him first, in every aspect of our lives, sincerely and seriously. How many of us are praying like Daniel did three times a day? How many of us are presenting ourselves before Yah at the break of dawn, at noon day and at the evening sacrifice as Sons should? How many of us are still serving mammon rather than trusting fully in Yah’s provision?

The Challenge

I don’t ask these questions of you, without challenging myself with them. Those that love Yah are always striving to exemplify Yeshua, aspiring to hit the mark, since we know how easy it is to miss. However, the place I believe many of us are missing the mark the most is in communal prayer. I can’t remember the last time I went to a prayer meeting. We as a family don’t assemble in a church building or a synagogue as we used to. We keep the Shabbat at home since that is what the Torah teaches us to do.

“See that the LORD hath given you the sabbath; therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.”
Exodus 16:29 (JPS Tanakh 1917)

“Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will restore the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling. If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath, from doing as you please on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the LORD’s holy day honorable, if you honor it by not going your own way or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words, then you will delight yourself in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the land and feed you with the heritage of your father Jacob.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.…”
Isaiah 58:12-14 (Berean Standard Bible)

Shabbat Shalom

In staying at home during Shabbat, our prayer meetings consist of myself, my wife and my eldest daughter. It’s still powerful, but not as powerful as a community prayer meeting. I have decided to search out prayer meetings being held in my town, no matter the denomination. I am reminded of the revealing words of the Apostle James:

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

James 5:16

The Fast & Prayer Solution

How are we supposed to effectively pray for each other if we don’t come together as a brotherhood of Yah’s people and pray one for another as instructed. Confessing our faults, repenting for sins, admitting our struggles and submitting to prayer. The world and our adversary have no qualms at all of using wicked and subtle tactics to compromise, kill and destroy any of us, all the more reason we need to keep vigil and watch with solemn fasting and prayer.

The true gospel is a call to self-denial.
It is not a call to self-fulfillment.

John MacArthur

Intentional Fasting

Fasting is the primary way a believer denies himself. Now, not any kind of fasting will do, true intentional fasting is what Abba is looking for. Done in secret, not done for the sake of being noticed or for vain glory, but that our prayers would be fervent…passionate. When we fast, we remove ourselves from our comfort zone, from being led by our appetite. Being hungry is a good dose of reality and makes one’s soul serious. Denying ourselves the comfort and pleasure of eating sends a strong signal to Abba that we are serious in our supplication, and committing ourselves to fasting will render the adversaries’ attacks weak and useless and our power over them clear.

None of us really knows if we are going to be a part of the Remnant, we believe we are, we hope we are, and we strive to be, but we don’t really know for sure if we are. Persecution has increased exponentially across the world. A weatherman Adam Klotz for Fox News (A self-professed conservative news agency) was just attacked by a group of teens as he tried to defend an elderly man whose hair the teens had lit on fire. The weatherman spoke up on behalf of the elder man and was beaten for that act. We as ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven have a responsibility to stand up for the weak and oppressed, to stand up for justice.

“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; save them from the hand of the wicked…”

Psalm 82:2-4

A Jubilee Year is Upon Us

There is a very real possibility we will be beaten for it. Are we ready for that? I’m not. I am calling all of the body of believers who read this article to set yourselves apart for fasting and prayer from now until Passover, in whatever way or level you are determined to. We are not the only ones making this call, but have received emails from others in the body looking for a concerted effort by the body to be set apart – prayer and fasting. This is a Jubilee year, so we need to be ready to go home if Yeshua comes for us.

The Ministry

T.O.R.A.H. Works Ministries (TWM) is spearheading efforts to house the homeless in Española New Mexico, praying for the deliverance of drug addicts, alcoholics, and the oppressed. New Mexico is absolutely filled with Sephardic Jews who don’t know who they are. Having been exiled more than 500 years ago from Spain and Portugal this group was hunted down by the Spanish Inquisition until they became a lost and obscure people. Many are still practicing Catholicism and are unaware of their heritage as YHVH’s people, Herança de Yahweh. These lost tribes Israel a.k.a., crypto-Jews of stretch from the northernmost extremities of North America to the farthest tip of South America.

A Call to Action

Ephraim D’Angelo Hernandez de Mascarenhas with his wife Lisa, the founders of TWM put out a call to all descendants of the Sephardim in 2014 to make the declaration: Ya No Estoy Escondido! It is their desire that this Ya No Estoy Escondido project touch the lives of all the descendants of the Sephardim to inspire the sacred family, the children of the Most High, to forgive and seek the healing of Yahweh so that we can be ready when Yah comes to gather us from the four corners of the Earth. To learn more about the Sephardim visit T.O.R.A.H. Works Ministries blog page at https://ephraimdangelo.wixsite.com/torah-works/blog.

Shalom!

Ephraim D’Angelo Hernandez de Mascarenhas
January 23rd, 2023
Day 30 | Month 10 | Year 4995 | A Jubilee Year