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What is the Shema and how does it apply today? It is a prayer, it is a pledge, it is a song of praise.

 

It is words spoken in one’s last breath and words taught to children each night as they lay down to sleep.

It is an invitation.  And in turn, it is a pledge of loyalty and devotion to the ONE true God and a rejection of all that is false.  It signifies covenant and devotion.

“Listen, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One” Dt 6:4

This is followed quietly by “Blessed is the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever”

The rest of the Shema includes:

In the Jewish faith, it serves as a daily reminder that the LORD alone is God.  Historically and presently, it is a reminder of truth to those surrounded by a polytheistic society.  The cultural narrative, even when it is not “our own” has a way of seeping in and potentially infecting our morals and values, and yet we have been marked.

While our country is not a polytheistic culture per say, it is still a fertile ground for “worship” of anything other than the one true God.  It is all about to whom do we give our allegiance?  Are we choosing to live for an audience of ONE – and allowing all else in life to flow from that one place of full surrender?

It is TRUE that the Word is living and active (Heb 4:12), written by the breath of God (2 Tim 3:16) and applicable for today!  As we pray and speak the Word of God aloud, it has power to bring our world into greater alignment with His Kingdom!  These days I open His Word and almost every chapter comes alive and speaks hope and truth into the world we are currently living in!  Have you encountered His Living Word today?

Bind These Words

The recitation of the first verse of this prayer is done with the right hand over one’s eyes, to signify a focus on these most important words.

“In the book of Revelation, John the visionary drew upon this prayer to describe Jesus’ followers. Part of the Shema prayer in Deuteronomy 6:8 contains these words: “You shall bind these words as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as symbols between your eyes.” The physical location “on your hands” and “between your eyes” is a symbol with fairly obvious meaning. Your eyes are the place where you see and you use your hands for almost everything you do. This prayer was to guide the vision and action of every moment of life. This is why John the visionary says that in the new creation, when God’s people live in intimate proximity to God and the risen Jesus…

“They will see God’s face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” Rv 22:4

The Shema can keep God’s love and loyalty in the forefront of your mind and drive you towards obedience, not out of obligation or duty, but out of love.”  (Tom Mackie, “What is the Shema?”, Bible Project)

We love because He first loved us!  It’s a response that demands our whole lives, our whole devotion.  Isn’t this the cry of our hearts in this day and in this time – that HE would become the center of our lives, that HE would become the center of this nation once again?

Would you join me in praying the Shema this week?  Would you commit at least the first verse to memory?  Let’s join our brothers and sisters in Israel and pray this over the Jewish people and over our United States of America.  And let’s allow HIS love to transform us!

HE is the reason for the hope that we have – no matter how your emotions might be swirling these days.  He alone is our anchor and our place of refuge – our God in whom we trust!

As you pray, call this nation, God’s people back and our own families back to a place of allegiance, to a dying of self and to a place of repentance as we press into surrender and holiness.  We are called to be the light of a city on a hill.  The Lord is our God; He alone is the ONE.

Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheynu Adonai Echad

I have learned the words as I listened to this beautiful worship song:

Author Suni Piper is a prophetic intercessor who blogs at A Surrendered Life. (Photo Credit: Unsplash.)

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Shelley
February 22, 2021

Suni,

I am just now catching up on reading some of the things on IFA and I couldn’t agree more. We have lost this part of our faith and our heritage. The heavens above declare Shema Israel! Just listen and obey Him. It’s such a beautiful prayer and once I was able to see it/learn it in a new way…it has made all the difference.

THANK YOU FOR WRITING ON THIS. I can’t wait until He gathers everyone up and we are all echad. 🙂

Well done!
Shelley

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LVW
February 20, 2021

I sing the Shema in the morning along with the Lord’s Prayer to start my day. I end the day by singing my birds to sleep with the Shema (they bow their heads and know it’s time to sleep). The Lord our God, the Lord is one is the beginning and ending of my life. I am not Jewish, I am a Messianic Gentile. I have several mezuzah’s around my house for many years. Recognizing the position the Lord has in life, let alone my life, makes me look at the world in a different way and I want to fight for the world’s inhabitant’s – spiritual and physical.

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    Michelle
    February 21, 2021

    Dear LVW,

    Thank you for sharing your sweet morning prayer time routine. I just love the idea that your birds feel YHWH’s Presence via the Shema and knows it is time to sleep! That is so awesome. I think birds are more sensitive than most people know. We had an Amazon parrot and “Miss Bird” (she was VERY prissy!) loved worship and praise music! She would “bee-bop” on her perch. So cute! Do any of your mezuzah’s have the “Grafted-In Symbol”? I have seen some of them and they are beautiful. It’s such a lovely way to “set aside” your home as sacred space for The LORD. Peace!

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      LVW
      February 22, 2021

      Hi Michelle,
      At the time I purchased the mezuzah’s I wasn’t officially considered Messianic. Just in heart and soul. I couldn’t find a church to worship at that time. I actually didn’t know some of the symbols. I should look for one. Be blessed Michelle, and Miss Bird. Shalom

Michelle
February 20, 2021

Dear Suni,
(Sorry, this might be long but I am excited!)

Thank you for this article! This blessed my heart tremendously! As a Christian, I say the Shema (the longer version)and The Aaronic Blessing daily. In 2019, in thanksgiving for His profuse blessings in the midst of a storm, I asked God to show me His Heart that I might serve HIM as HE WANTED, and not how I “thought I should serve Him”. He showed me there was a Messianic Remnant growing in The Beautiful Land and in the diaspora. I had no idea! I was directed to be a fiery prayer-warrior for them!

I started by learning to say “The Shema” so that I could grow into maturity and obedience well pleasing to Jesus. What a blessing it is when we step out in faith and just do what He has commanded! 🙂 We live in exciting time to be able to pray for this remnant, and to begin to walk in the Romans 9-11 “One New Man” mandate of loving each other! (YHWH has used COVID isolation & the lockdowns in Israel during all the Feasts of the LORD to POWERFULLY use the videos of ONE for ISRAEL ministry to open their eyes to the truth that Yeshua (Jesus)is Their Messiah!) HalleluYah! I invite my fellow prayer warriors to indeed add The Shema to their daily prayers and see what God will do within their hearts!

Also, we desperately need the Holy Spirit to MOVE in our nation in a fresh outpouring of repentance! If we repent surely The LORD will save us from all the horrible legislation and crises in our land! In a Spirit of Unity so well pleasing to the Lord (Psalm 133), let us come alongside our Messianic Jewish brethren on February 25 and 26th. Let us seek His Face and Mercy with humility, repentance and fervent prayer just as Esther and Mordechai did in the Book of Esther. Esther had a teachable spirit, pleasing to the Lord. Mordechai had deep faith. Both traits are needed in America at this time! YHWH defeated Haman and his evil legislative plans to kill all the Jews throughout the empire. The Nazis had a Spirit of Amalek in their “Final Solution Plans” and used legislation much as Haman did in the Book of Esther.

Just as Our Mighty God defeated the Spirit of Amalek then, let us ask, seek and knock that ONCE AGAIN “He work so that mankind can stand in awe of HIM and that whatever is, has already been, and whatever will be, already is. God repeats what has passed”. (Ecc 3:14-15). In September 2020, Jonathan Cahn “The Return Gathering” beseeched America to repent. Recently a young man donned “Sackcloth & Ashes” (Philip Blair & Christina) on Inauguration Day to warn America. Please view this, if you have not already:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24FK6UkgwQo

Bless their BOLDNESS! Thank YOU, YHWH for the gracious gift of 3 Witnesses to America and Your Holy Word! “by 2 or 3 witnesses shall a thing be established” (Deut 17:6, 2 Cor 13:1). Let us pray for repentance!

Please consider doing serious spiritual warfare on behalf of America on February 25 & 26th. Just like Aaron (“to be Enlightened-Illuminated”) and Hur (“Liberty” in Hebrew) held up Moses’ arms for prayer at Rephidim (which means “balusters”—as in the supports on a staircase) during the original battle against Amalek —we will hold up Jesus, Our Great High Priest’s Arms as He intercedes before the Father for us! Unlike in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36-46) we will keep coming back to the Holy Spirit for energy and strength to STAND WITH OUR MESSIAH! We cannot afford to fail; we must STAND WITH JESUS and do spiritual warfare!

Father-God, as oil was lavishly poured out for the woman & her sons into the empty vessels (2 Kings 4:1-7), may we empty ourselves Lord, so that YOU can POUR Your Holy Spirit into us for our service of prayer to YOU on behalf of our beloved nation. Joshua defeated the Amalekites with the help of Moses, Aaron and Hur. Esther and Mordechai and the Jews sought the LORD and He heard their cries and hung Haman on his own gallows. In 1946, on the Feast of Purim, a Nazi Ware Crimes tribunal took place. A major Nazi official and 10 others were all hung and thus repeated history AGAIN! One Nazi yelled out “Purim 1946!” right before he was hung. May Our Gracious Heavenly Father give the word and do another move on our behalf. Through the power of the LIVING GOD may the devil soon hang on his own gallows! Shalom/Peace!

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gallows+jess+ray&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D5pupsopSaJ8
“Gallows”- sung by Jess Ray

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Rosalie Dahlvang
February 20, 2021

Mine is “Jesus I trust in You”

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Jean Johnson
February 20, 2021

Wow! That song is absolutely beautiful!!!

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Linda Rice
February 20, 2021

Israel was reciting the shema while rejecting their Messiah. A script can break the ice but it is not the goal. Intimacy is the goal.

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Mary D
February 20, 2021

Yes! I will declare the Shema! Hear O Israel, The Lord is our God and He is One! The nations that previously honored Him have forgotten Him. He alone is God! And He means what He says! Reading the choice of blessing or cursing in Deuteronomy and Leviticus, one cannot but be astounded to look at what happens when we forget! May God have mercy on the USA and nations and people who have decided to play god.

Father, we Praise You. You are one! ThankYou for sending us Your Son, Yeshua, and our helper, Holy Spirit! O wonderful God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob we Bless You, we Bless Israel and we Praise You for what You are accomplishing in our hearts and the hearts of Your Jewish people! You are the same yesterday, today, and forever!

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Linda
February 20, 2021

It’s no coincidence how Satan will copy God again in requiring the mark of the beast to be on the hand and between the eyes, on the forehead.

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    Susan CC
    February 20, 2021

    Yes, the adversary is very unimaginative. he has to mimic God in his efforts to pervert. In the end the Lord turned it back on him. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” I imagine he was gleefully watching as our Savior was crucified. But Christ “disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.” What a God we serve!

    Galatians 3:13
    Colossians 2:15

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InHim
February 20, 2021

🗣🔥💨🔥PURIM IS COMING‼️🔥👁 👁🔥LOOK LOOK LOOK TO JESUS OUR GREAT DELIVERER \o/HALLELUJAH\o/
ALL GLORY TO OUR GREAT AND MIGHTY GOD.‼️ GET READY?!?! GOD SAYS BE READY ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE FORGIVENESS RIGHTEOUSNESS PURIFICATION LIKE THE OCEAN POURING DOWN OVER YOU AND THEN STAND AND WATCH THE GLORY OF THE LORD POURING OUT UPON THIS LAND\o/HALLELUJAH\o/ THIS IS PRE-TIME PRE-GAME PRE-MIERE FAITH PLACED FIRM IN HIM IS THE SEAT TICKET TO SEE BEFORE THE MAIN EVENT …GOD HAS DONE GOD HAS FINISHED GOD HAS PLANNED AND THE GATES OF HELL WILL NOT PREVAIL NO WEAPON FORMED WILL PROSPER AND NO TONGUE NO MESSAGE WILL CONDEMN FOR WHO CAN BE AGAINST YOU IF GOD IS FOR YOU?!?! HA! SAIY HA‼️ GOD SAYS, HA‼️ BE-LOVED BELIEVER CHILD OF THE MOST HIGH GET FILLED AND OVERFLOW WITH THE JOY OF THE LORD AND HAVING DONE ALL THINGS…STAND AND WHEN HE APPEARS…YOU SHALL APPEAR WITH HIM AS A MIGHTY SON OF GOD WITH THE POWER THE MIGHTY AWESOME POWER OF TGE HOLY GHOST NEVER SEEN BEFORE WILL EXPLODE AND THE HARVESTERS YES PRAY TO THE LORD OF THE HARVEST TO SEND FORTH THE WORKERS IN POWER AND HEAL THE SICK CAST OUT THE DEVILS AND SET EVERY CAPTIVE OF THE enemy FREE FREE FREE FOR GOD SENT FORTH THE WORD IN FLESH AND HIS OWN SPIRIT IN POWER TO SET MANKIND FREEEEEEEEE \o/HALLELUJAH\o/ ALL GLORY TO GOD EVEN OUR GREAT AND MIGHTY SAVIOR …HIS TRUTH IS STILL MARCHING ONNNNNNNNNN OH LORD FATHER GOD\o/ THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRESENCE YOUR WORD YOUR SPIRIT OH LORD POUR POUR POUR OUT YOUR GLORY GLORY HALLELUJAH AS YOUR LIGHT COME STREAMING AND AS YOUR EAGLES COME SCREECHING FOR TO REVEAL THE GLORIOUS BODY OF CHRIST OUR LORD\o/

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    Brenda Dormann
    February 20, 2021

    Amen even so come LORD JESHUA
    Shabbat Shalom let us enter into HIS rest

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Ken
February 20, 2021

Lord You are the one and only true God; I love and serve You because You are worthy. You are our Creator, our Provider and Protection. You are our Redeemer and so much more. Amen.

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