On Saturday night, 23rd July 2016, thousands of Israeli young people gathered to take part in an occult event in Jerusalem. “Tomorrowland” was heralded as a music festival, but that is just a thin veneer of respectability. Their own promotional material spells it out loud and clear: this is about the dark forces of Wicca and paganism. It is interesting that it falls on the 17th Tammuz in the Jewish calendar, which remembers the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem by the Romans, and its destruction. Please stand with us in prayer against this attempt to lure Israel’s youth into darkness and deception, and pray for their salvation!

“Tomorrowland” is now happening in seven countries around the world. Having started in Belgium in 2005, it has also reached into Brazil, Colombia, Japan, Mexico, India, Germany, South Africa and now Israel.¹ The details are chilling, so they will not be repeated here; but suffice it to say, it is critical to pray.

As 2 Corinthians 10:4 reminds us, “The weapons of our warfare are not fleshly but powerful through God for the tearing down of strongholds”.  We have been given the authority and the mandate to stand in the gap and pray, even to battle against spiritual forces that seek to harm and destroy God’s people. We are calling on the all-powerful El Shaddai, Creator of heaven and earth, to come and save his people. But how do we do it?

The power of praise

It’s interesting that the occultic event is connected with a certain kind of music, and certainly music can be deeply spiritual in either a good or in an evil way. Just as evil sounds can pollute the spiritual atmosphere, sounds of worship to God have a powerful effect in the heavenly realms. We can also go to war by simply singing God’s praises in the midst of difficulty, just as Joshua and his merry men found out when they sang the walls of Jericho to the ground.

The story of 2 Kings 3 also comes to mind, when the Moabites were coming up against Israel, and King Jehoshaphat called on Elisha the prophet for help. Elisha agreed to intervene, and what’s the first thing he says? “Bring me a musician!” The text tells us, “Now as the musician played, the hand of Adonai came upon him…” and he got his inspiration and direction on how to proceed. “Yet this is an easy thing in Adonai’s eyes”, Elisha assures the King, “For He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand.” The story goes on to explain God’s plan to bring confusion to the enemy, until there is such chaos that they have to turn back, defeated. It ends with the words, “And there was great wrath against Israel that they withdrew from him and returned to their own land.”
The powerful enemy was defeated by worship, prayer, faith, and God’s hand intervening, which led to such chaos in the enemy camp that they are forced to withdraw.

We need to pray like this now!

• Worship the Lord and declare his praises, and his greatness over the situation. Perhaps you have a song to do just that, or perhaps you could read a Psalm instead, like Psalm 2 or 37, which declare God’s victory over his enemies.

• Pray for division, disruption, and delay in the enemy’s camp – that such events would not be able to proceed as planned, or to accomplish the damage that the enemy wants to inflict.

• Pray for protection and salvation for the youth of Israel
  

“But thanks be to God, who in Messiah always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us reveals everywhere the aroma of the knowledge of Himself” (2 Corinthians 2:14).

Today’s young people in Israel are spiritually starving. Many are disillusioned with the rabbis, finding Orthodox Judaism stifling, hypocritical and empty, and many more have been raised by an atheist generation who has lost all faith in God after the Holocaust. There is a great spiritual vacuum, and many are turning to Eastern religions and New Age practices as a result. Satan has not been slow to offer his tempting counterfeits, and now more than ever we need to make sure that this generation knows they can have personal access to the one true God of Israel through their Jewish Messiah, Yeshua.

* Update: God answered our prayers – there was very low turnout (they had hired a stadium for 15,000, and only 1,000 showed up), the satellite linking of the event with other global events was delayed for many hours, and intercessors at the event saw exactly what we asked for happening in front of their eyes. We believe we have what we asked for from the Lord. Thanks to all who prayed!