Right from the beginning we knew that this year’s Arab Deborahs Arising Conference would become very special, not only because it had 178 participants, the highest number ever, but also because it was held in the middle of a war, with the security situation in the north continuing to be very serious. The ministry team consisted of 15 locals (Arabs and Messianic Jews) and international Christians, who had chosen to come to Israel for such a time as this to be a blessing and encouragement to the Arab women. Before the beginning of the conference, we had met as a ministry team to pray for a breakthrough in some areas. One of those areas was the problem with navigation in northern Israel, where the GPS apps were often out of function due to the security situation, and we were sensing that the enemy wanted to use this to bring confusion. Amazingly, after we prayed, the navigation apps on our phones started working again, and during the two days of the conference they kept working, meaning that every participant in the conference arrived safely and without any trouble finding their way back and forth. Hallelujah!

On Friday morning, after a time of wonderful Arabic worship led by the HOPE worship team, Rania opened the conference, which this year had the theme, “Come up here” (Rev. 4:1.) When God called the Apostle John to come up, he was calling him to enter the throne room of Heaven. John’s incredible encounter with the Lord is a model of what God wants each of us to experience, when we enter into our personal destiny. In these difficult times, He is calling all of us to come up higher with Him, as we keep our eyes on what is in the heavenly places. Genesis 5:21 mentions Enoch, who was taken up by God. Even though he had a household to take care of, he still had a very close relationship with God. It is important to focus on that intimate place with Jesus. If we want to see greater miracles in our lives, we need to make it a priority ascending higher with the Lord. The path that takes us to His throne is holy. We can use the elevator called “the Blood of the Lamb” to go up. Before the conference, Rania had seen a vision of a ladder with women standing on different steps, all holding hands, and as some were struggling to get up to the next step, they were helping one other to come up higher. As illustration, the stage was decorated with two beautiful, symbolic ladders.

During the first session, we also had the breaking of bread together, after Ps. Andrew had asked for forgiveness from the women for the offense that the leadership or pastors had caused them over the years. This was a deep moment, where many women received healing by releasing forgiveness and blessing.

Pastor Linda Bergling from Arken Church, Sweden, then spoke about making sure to have the oil of the Holy Spirit. God says, “I will come and make my Spirit dwell with you.” Therefore, we should keep the oil fresh every day. If we want to go higher, we need to go deeper in the Holy Spirit. God wants to give us more authority. We need to pour out His love on the nations and be more dependent on Him. He needs to be our first love. When God is calling you to do something that seems impossible, if Jesus is your first love everything is possible. God called Linda to get away with Him for one week and just wait for Him. After five days, she heard His footsteps, and He gave her an open vision. She saw a flood of blood – the blood of war, of rage, of suffering and tears, and the Lord said, “I have opened a bridge of healing to quench the worst hate, a bridge for healing between hearts and nations.” An anointing that will quench the worst hate is an anointing of the Holy Spirit, of the Father’s love. Jesus told the congregation in Ephesus that they had lost their first love (Rev. 2:4.) The first love is a manifestation of God’s heart, a fragrance of Heaven, and the Devil hates that. Pastor Linda once saw Jesus with mud on his face and clothes, and He revealed to her that the mud is the sin of division in His body. The only way to get this mud away is to love Him and each other. When we say yes to God and the thing He wants to do through us, it will melt away the mud from the inside, and we will see His face.

Margaret Abu-Ghazaleh shared how her hunger for the Lord brought her to study the life of Moses. He was intimate with God instead of being too busy with the multitude. When God called Moses by the burning bush, he was struggling with the fear of man, like we do, too. Going up the ladder, you will not stay in one place and not be satisfied anymore. Once Moses was ready to accept His calling from the Lord and do what he was called to do, God took off Moses’ wrong identity and brought him into his right identity. God had already been preparing Moses in the desert and He knew what he needed in order to fulfil his task. In Exodus 28, God is calling Moses to come up to Him on the mountain. There are different levels. Aaron is on one level, while Moses is on a different level. All the elders were anointed, and they saw the God of Israel, but they stayed on a lower level. We should be jealous and want more of God. Our relationship needs to come before our ministry. God gave Moses the 10 commandments on the mountain. Moses used to be angry with the people, but when he descended the mountain, he started interceding for them. He was in a continuous relationship with the Lord, and when God spoke to Moses face to face in the tent of meeting, the glory of the Lord was so strong.

Lilo Keller from Schleife Ministry in Switzerland spoke about the love of Christ, and how He came knocking on her door three times at night with nobody being there when she opened. She described it as a knock of love like in the Song of Solomon. Another time when Lilo was just waiting on the Lord, he came close and gave her a pomegranate, as he asked her, “May I love you?” He wants to have a close relationship with us, to lead us into His perfect love, and put us on like a glove, meaning that we will become like Him in words and deeds. The Lord is our strength and identity. On another occasion Lilo was in a mountain house in the USA, and suddenly she heard church bells ringing. However, when she got outside, there were no bells. She could only hear them while she was inside the house. Her spiritual father afterwards explained to her, “You heard the high priest walking the land proclaiming His Kingdom in the land. You heard in the spiritual realm, but it impacted the natural.” In Exodus 39:24-26, there is a description of the pomegranates and bells that were on the garments of the priests in the temple, and as illustration Lilo had brought a pomegranate and a bell.

On Saturday, Lilo Keller also shared about another encounter she had had with the Lord, where He came to her as a lion. He came very gently and began licking her face. Then He lifted her up by His paw and began running into heavenly places. There, He placed her on a rock, so that she could see the sea (the nations). When he stood above her, He began to roar proclaiming His victory, and she was roaring with Him. It is His strength that comforts us. Lilo went on talking about overcoming fear. If we are captured by thoughts about what will happen in the future, then we are not living in the today. We need to use our faith to see ourselves in Jesus. We are surrounded, but He is in us. If we do everything we do for the Lord, fear can have no hold on us. If we choose to find Him in the midst of the circumstances, we will always find comfort.

The HOPE worship team led most of the Arabic worship during the conference, and the first song, “Alen Howa” (“He is High and Lifted Up”) from their new album was launched through powerful prophetic dance by one of the HOPE team members, Christine Souti. A worship leader from Ramallah named Jackie also led some of the Arabic worship, and Karen Davis led us in Hebrew and English worship on Friday. One of the most powerful moments was when Karen started singing, “Hineh Ma Tov U’ma Na’im” (Psalm 133) in Hebrew, and Arab and Jew joined hands and began dancing around the room in a big circle, united as one in Messiah.

On Saturday morning, we had another very powerful moment when the Messianic Jews who were present were called forth to share their hearts in the middle of the war situation. Many tears were shared, and we broke bread together after releasing forgiveness in the middle of the crisis of the war. The session ended with a release of powerful worship and dance together in Hebrew and Arabic, as the Arab and Jewish women were hugging and sharing their love for each other. We felt a fresh outpouring of the love of God by the Holy Spirit melting away and removing much pain over the land.

After the final evening session with Lilo Keller on Saturday evening, there was a powerful time of ministry, as all the Arab women were lining up to go through the “fire tunnel” receiving prayer and blessings by the ministry team members. All glory to God!