Author: Kosta Bikesh

From the covid crisis to the horrific October 7^th attacks, fear, isolation and trauma are forcing Israelis to look for answers to existential questions, and many of them are looking to the New Testament. Here at Tiferet Yeshua, seekers and new believers reach out to us on a regular basis. Each month, we receive requests for copies of Hebrew New Testaments. I am grateful to be a part of our discipleship team and have the opportunity to meet with and disciple these people whose search for the truth will not be deterred by religious or cultural stigma.

A YOUNG MAN WHO READ THE NEW TESTAMENT SEVERAL TIMES ON HIS OWN

About five months ago, Yaniv started coming to our services. On his first visit, one of our team members spoke to him and discovered that he had read the New Testament several times already and deeply connected with what he found there. Yaniv was put in contact with me and Moti, and we began meeting with him every week.

The process of discipleship with Yaniv was very special: we discovered that God had already revealed deep spiritual truths to him through his reading the New Testament, things which usually take new believers time to understand. Because of this, we were able to delve deeply into the Word and explore important spiritual issues.

We were excited when Yaniv was ready to make his public confession of faith in water immersion at the beginning of August. Many new believers who start discipleship with us are anxious to be immersed in water right away, even before they have a clear understanding of all the foundations of the faith. This is surprising because there is a deep-seated Jewish religious revulsion to what is perceive as “Christian baptism” due to forced baptisms of Jewish children throughout the history of Church persecution (Jewish children would be abducted, baptized and then taken from their families).

Interestingly, though, many Hebrew-speaking Jews who read the New Testament intrinsically understand water immersion (mikveh) as it has been a purification ritual in Judaism for millennia and is the culminating step for anyone converting to Judaism. At Tiferet Yeshua, we make sure that people have a clear understanding of the foundations of the faith and what it means to follow Yeshua before making their decision to be immersed.  Moti and I were honored to be with Yaniv at his immersion along with some of his family members who are not believers but are amazed at the positive transformation they are seeing in Yaniv’s life.

Our part does not end here: as a spiritual family, we are committed to continue meeting with Yaniv and encouraging him as he begins his walk as a new creation in Messiah. Please keep him in prayer that he would grow and be strengthened in his faith and that God would complete the good work of transformation that He has begun in Yaniv!

A MAN FROM A RELIGIOUS BACKGROUD SEEKS A CONNECTION WITH GOD

Several months ago, Uriel got in contact with us to ask questions about the New Testament. Uriel is a young man who lives in an orthodox community and is currently serving in a combat unit in the army. Our initial contact was through text messages or short conversations once every two weeks or so. After a while, we began meeting on zoom every couple of weeks to talk about faith in Yeshua. Because Uriel was serving in a reserve combat unit, our communication was not weekly. At the beginning of the Gaza war, he was called up to army reserves, at first to the south and then to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

What Uriel was looking for most was a personal connection with God. Our conversations centered around his question about how and where to seek God, how to feel His presence and know Him, and how to pray (in orthodox Judaism wrote liturgical prayers are read and recited instead of spontaneous personal prayer).

At first, Uriel was not willing to read the New Testament himself. However, he was willing that I would read to him from the New Testament or send him portions of verses in text messages. But, he refused to touch a New Testament himself.

After a while, I finally told Uriel, “Listen, you need to read the New Testament yourself. You need to get to know it yourself, not through me.” I thought that this might put an end to our meetings and discussions, but he surprised me by saying, “Ok, where should I start?” Staring in Matthew, Uriel began reading the New Testament, and suddenly our conversations changed. He was anxious to discuss what he was reading, and I could see that God was touching his heart in a powerful way.

Please pray for Uriel, that God would continue touching him with a revelation of Himself through His Word, that He would give Uriel his heart’s deep desire to experience a real personal connection with God. This is what Uriel is seeking with all his heart, and he openly says he has not been able to find it in the orthodox community or the traditional religious framework. Please pray with us that God would remove any hindrances or fears in his heart, that the Holy Spirit would guide him in all truth, and that he would accept and experience that Yeshua is the way, the truth and the life, and that no one comes to the Father but by Him.

The call to “make disciples” often entails dimensions beyond teaching the foundations of the faith: it requires sensitivity to someone’s mental and emotional needs, giving guidance and encouragement, and offering support through difficulties and challenges. Through my experience with Shai, a young man who got connected with us to study the New Testament, I am reminded of this important spiritual truth: God does amazing things in our lives when we have a genuine desire to know Him and a willingness to change.

A Different Kind of Sickness

When I first reached out to Shai, I realized that he was in a dark place and had numerous addictions and emotional problems. After our conversation, we set a date to meet, but, on the day of the meeting, he called saying he was sick. So, I scheduled another meeting for the following week, but when the day of that meeting rolled around, Shai called again to tell me that he was sick. This time I knew that something other than a virus was keeping him from our meetings.

I started asking him questions and quickly realized that Shai had a debilitating anxiety to leave his house and be around other people. Instead of suggesting I come to his place, I simply told him, “The right thing to do is to come and learn to deal with spiritual issues with spiritual tools.” Amazingly, Shai listened—rather, God gave him the grace to overcome his debilitating anxiety—and an hour later he arrived at the congregation. This would be the first breakthrough of many that Shai would experience.

Overwhelming Desire

I have discipled many new believers, and I can say that Shai is different from most. From our first meeting, he showed an incredible desire to get to know God. The more he learned, the more convinced he became that only Yeshua could save him, so he clung to Him fervently and sought Him in the Word and in prayer. Over five months of meeting weekly with Shai’, often twice a week, I witnessed steady growth in his self-confidence and his ability to deal with everyday challenges which once paralyzed him.

Every positive step we suggested, he implemented, no matter how frightening or challenging. And through every critical step he took, God did wonders in him. When we told Shai that It was important to connect with believers in his area, he immediately found a home group and started attending their weekly meetings. Through this process, he started changing his circle of friends and the environment he surrounded himself with.

The Transformation

Over a period of five months, we have witnessed a steady and powerful transformation   in Shai. If someone is willing, God will do amazing things in them, and that is exactly what we have seen with Shai: he’s been set free from powerful addictions and anxieties, received grace and strength to radically change his lifestyle, and He continues to be filled with Yeshua’s transforming love.

Two weeks ago, Pastor Moti and I were honored to be a part of Shai’s immersion to declare his surrender and commitment to follow Yeshua. The witness of Shai’s life is a great personal encouragement for us, and we are grateful and blessed to be a part of God’s plan to save and restore His precious people.

Please keep Shai and all the new believers we disciple in your prayers for continued grace, growth and protection!

(*Shai’s name has been changed to protect his privacy*)

After the High Holidays, I started weekly “Going Deeper” meetings at Tiferet Yeshua where we could go deeper into the Word of God together. God has been blessing our meetings greatly and bringing together a wonderful group of Israeli believers who are hungry to seek more of Him in His Word. At the end of 2021, God put it on my heart to do something special and a little bit different at our weekly “Going Deeper” meeting: I wanted to somehow combine worship with our Bible reading for that week. I had in mind a couple worship leaders who agreed to come and lead worship at the meeting, but a couple days before the meeting they let us know that they could not make it.

A day before the meeting, a couple of young women from Tiferet Yeshua’s worship team happily agreed to come lead worship for our meeting. At that point, I still did not have a clear idea how I was going to combine the Bible study with the worship.  The day of our meeting was especially busy: we started early in the morning with preparing the congregation to host a group of holocaust survivors for a special holiday meal, and we were busy serving and then cleaning up until late in the afternoon. Our event with the holocaust survivors was very meaningful and blessed, and we were all touched by what God had done. But little did we know that God was not finished: we still had our special “Going Deeper” meeting just a couple hours away.

That evening, we arranged our chairs in a circle and had the keyboard and our worshippers as a part of the circle. We started by reading through our passage that week and sharing what the Lord put on our hearts about what we read. Then we just started to worship together. At one point, one of our worshippers began singing in the Spirit, and there was suddenly a heavy anointing of God’s presence in the room. I felt let to read Isaiah 61:1-3

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

At that moment the Spirit fell in a surprisingly powerful way: one young man shared a vision he saw of the fire of the Lord burning up unclean spirits. A moment later he was unable to stand and sank to his knees, overcome with waves of joy. At the same time, another man suddenly started going through a dramatic deliverance from spiritual oppression. I am so thankful that Debbi from our leadership team was there with me so that we could each minister to those who were being touched by the Holy Spirit!

We could see that God was touching another man, and Debbi and I started to pray for him: he shared afterward that God showed him several areas of wrong spiritual ideas he had (in his younger years he was heavily involved in a cult led by a powerful guru) and that God then gave Him three powerful words for his life and his family. Flori, a new believer who prayed to receive the Lord a couple months ago during one of our meetings, said she felt that the Lord Yeshua Himself had laid His hands on her head while she was praying and worshipping. Her husband Hilik was also touched in a powerful way. Everyone who was there received some special touched from the Holy Spirit.

I had no idea that this is what God had planned for us! I just wanted to do a worship evening with the Word, but He started moving because our hearts were open and worshipping Him. All of us were astounded at the end of the meeting, and none of us wanted to leave – so strong was the presence of the Spirit! I also feel that somehow our meeting was even more blessed because we had spent the morning serving and blessing holocaust survivors. Even as I write this, I am astounded by God’s goodness to us and how He surprised us with such a beautiful outpouring of His Spirit, and how faithful He is to set captives free. We are hungry for more, and are excited for what else He has in store for us!

The only way to grow in our faith is to get to know God, and the best way to do that is by spending time getting to know Him in His Word. This last year, God put it on my heart to start a weekly group that would facilitate studying the Word together and encourage a lifestyle of reading the Bible. After the High holy days, I started weekly “P’nima” meetings at Tiferet Yeshua: in Hebrew p’nima means to go inside or enter deeply into something. My vision and prayer for these “Going Deeper” meetings was that God would draw all of us deeper into His Word, closer to His heart, and knit us closer to one another.

As each week has passed, more people began showing up to our meetings: new believers, mature believers and seekers too. God is bringing people to our meetings who are serious about drawing nearer to Him through His Word and discovering more of the depths of His love for us. Each week I am touched and amazed by the spiritual hunger and sincerity that people bring with them and how beautifully God is revealing Himself to us through our studying and meditating on His Word together and praying for one another. All of us are also greatly blessed by the insights and revelations of God’s Word different people are sharing. Our meetings are lively, interesting, and new people are showing up every week!

Over the past couple of years, Israeli believers have been reaching out to us for discipleship; they may have come to faith years ago, but they never connected with other believers, whether it be in congregations or home groups. In their isolation, their faith did not mature, and they ended up going back to living in the ways of the world. Here in Israel, there are many challenges and hurdles people face in coming to faith in Yeshua as the Messiah. Once they do, believers endure an immense amount of spiritual pressure aimed at keeping them weak, isolated and not living in surrender to God.

Hearing the gospel and accepting that Yeshua is the Messiah is incredibly important first step in our journey of faith. However, it is critical that it doesn’t stop there. Providing a place where Hebrew-speaking Israelis can gather together, study the Word of God, and be strengthened and encouraged in their faith is critical for the growth and health of the Body of Messiah in Israel.

We are excited and expectantly praying about the things God will continue doing in our “Going Deeper” meetings! Please keep these meetings in your prayers, that He would use them to draw all of us deeper into His Word, closer to His heart, and knit us closer together to one another.