Last December, I shared a Langstaff Letter entitled ‘Around the World by Sea,’ telling how our good friends and Kairos Board members John and Sandy Halvorsen were embarking on a trip around the world by sea as a continuing part of their prayer ministry they have been involved in over many years.

On Friday, April 25, Dorothy and I met with John and Sandy (and also Ron Olson) to hear about their journey and the new call God has put on their lives that I have called ‘Next Step: Israel.’ Here is a report from John.

JOHN’S REPORT

On January 3, 2023, before the P&O cruise ship cast her mooring lines from Southampton on England’s south coast, I felt Israel was in the bigger picture. God had commissioned Sandy and me to travel around the world by sea, and although Israel was not a stopping point on the cruise, the trip had something to do with the Holy Land.

More on that in a minute.

Our 3-month circumnavigation of the Earth followed what navigators term the Great Circle Route, which takes into account Earth’s spherical shape. Sailing into the setting sun for 99 days, we often found ourselves on deck crying out for a Global Awakening. We traversed the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean, the Panama Canal, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean Sea, the Straits of Gibraltar, and back to the English Channel.

During the trip, we often prayed with a group of Christians on board, outran a cyclone as we headed into New Zealand, and walked and prayed in numerous port cities from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. These stopovers included Florida, Jamaica, Mexico, Hawaii, Samoa, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Viet Nam, Singapore, Malaysia, the UAE, Oman, Malta, and Cadiz, Spain. It was an exciting, prayer-filled adventure, and everywhere we went, we sensed an incredible thirst for the presence of God. We believe the Lord wants to pour out a global revival as the world has never seen, and hearts in every nation are getting ready to receive it!

Now back to Israel. At 3 AM on September 11, four months before the cruise and before I had any idea of making a global trip by sea, Trisha, my daughter-in-law, sat straight up from a dream. In it, she felt that i would be making a trip around the world by ship and that it had something to do with Israel. When discussing Israel in the dream, I seemed to slur my words as though under the influence of drugs. I like to believe that represented the influence of the Holy Spirit. In her dream, I also spoke about a coming war in Israel and other end-time events. She shared this prophetic dream with me after we told the family we had booked the cruise tickets.

Later, Trisha asked me what I thought the Israel connection was about. As soon as she mentioned Israel, the Holy Spirit hit me hard. She said the word ‘Israel, several times in the conversation, and I felt an electrifying jolt of the Holy Spirit each time. I felt then that Sandy and I would need to travel to Israel after the cruise.

At the same time, I received an email from a good friend living in Jerusalem. God had shown her that my previous travels to “ends of the earth” places had everything to do with a coming outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Israel. In my travels, I have witnessed that the Gospel has now penetrated to the “ends of the earth”, Israel’s salvation is at hand, and the return of Christ is nearer than we realize.

Sandy and I prayed about whether or not we should stop in Israel at the end of the cruise on our way back from Southampton to Minnesota, and in response, the Lord directed us to go straight home. We got home on April 15th, and the next day heard that Mike Bickle of the Kansas City International House of Prayer are hosting a 21-day prayer and fasting initiative for Israel involving millions of intercessors around the globe. A few days later, the Holy Spirit came upon me powerfully, instructing me to join this army of prayer warriors. God told me to pray from Israel’s Mount Carmel for seven days in mid-May. As the prophet Elijah prayed seven times for rain to fall on Israel to end a three 1/2-year drought, God has shown me that this prophetic prayer initiative by many spiritual ‘Elijahs’ is critical to ending the 2,000-year spiritual drought that has plagued the Jewish people. We believe the Lord will hear and send a deluge of the Holy Spirit into Jewish hearts globally, turning them to faith in Yeshua.

So from May 9-20, Sandy and I, along with good friends from Florida, Helen Utegaard and her son Elias, plan to be in the Holy Land. The goal while we are there is to travel to Mount Carmel and other strategic places, praying and proclaiming that Israel belongs to God, and it is now time for the rain of the Holy Spirit to fall and for eyes to open to her Messiah.

If you haven’t already, please consider joining countless others in mid-May to pray and fast for Israel. These are momentous times, and I pray that God will give all of us wisdom and understanding to be a part of what the Lord is doing in our world!

You can read more about Mike Bickel’s Global Prayer initiative for Israel here: Isaiah62fast.com

Thank you so much for praying with us! Yours for an Outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Israel and the nations of the world!

Pastors John and Sandy Halvorsen

PRAYER FOR ISRAEL

I want to encourage all of us to join in this time of prayer and fasting for Israel May 7 – 28, 2023, and especially for John, Sandy, and the team as they are in Israel May 9 – 20, 2023. See the video below for more information.

The Bible calls us to pray for the peace (i.e., well-being) of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6). It is expected that over 1 million people worldwide will join in this prayer for Israel and the world today. Let us do just that – Pray for Israel.

“Then I set my face towards the Lord and to make my requests by prayer and supplication with fasting.” (Daniel 9:3)