Veterans in the Front Line – Easter Message 2024

He is risen! Oh what a glorious message – and it’s true! May the joy of the resurrection be yours this Eastertide.

When Jesus rose from the dead a trumpet call went out from Jerusalem which heralded the birth of the church. The end times had begun and they won’t be over until Jesus comes again and puts His feet down in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4). Between now and then we have work to do!

The spiritual temperature is rising. Israel is at war with an enemy whose declared objective is the obliteration of the nation and its people. The eyes of the whole world are focused once again on this tiny plot of middle-eastern land. And as the signs of the times unfold, the eyes of alert believers, the world over, are looking to the skies (Matt 24:30-31), but at the same time are acutely alert to the urgency of the days – there is a harvest to be reaped before He comes again.

Jesus urged that “as long as it is day we must do the work” (John 9:4). Paul stressed “the hour has come to wake up from your slumber” (Romans 13:11).

No Retirement from the Kingdom of God

I do not like the word ‘retirement’ when it comes to understanding Kingdom principles, although I do understand retiring from ‘office’.   Having stood down from the office of ‘International Director’, I made it clear I was not standing down from my calling under God, which is as clear today as it was when I received it in my youth.

Many close friends and advisers encouraged me to keep going, even though four score years were already on my life’s time-line. I was often reminded of Moses, who began his work at the age of eighty!! I was deeply aware of the desperate need there is for workers in the harvest field, who bring their gifts and talents without restraint.   As I entrusted my gifting and calling to the Lord afresh, I did so in trepidation, yet knowing I could not hold back, being thankful for good health and strength in spite of the limitations of age.

As I walked forward in faith to launch Gates of Hope International, I knew that the leaders who urged me on were hearing the Lord.   Scripture makes clear that it is only when you step out of the boat that Jesus draws near. God is calling His people to step into His purposes for each one of our lives.

Ministering in the Middle East

Then I was invited to minister to Christian leaders from all the Middle Eastern Arab nations. I stepped out of the boat into what was, for me, unknown waters and have only just returned from an assignment that has left me deeply challenged, inspired and changed. What a privilege it was to be teaching and ministering to Arabic speaking leaders from twenty-two different nations. Only God could have orchestrated such an event.

I saw first-hand how Isaiah’s prophecy (Is.19:21) is coming true today. God is making himself known to the sons of Ishmael (the Arab world) in an unprecedented way. The years of sowing by generations of mission workers are bearing fruit. Many are turning to the Lord and, as promised, “he will respond to their pleas and heal them” (Isaiah 19:22).   There is a powerful move of the Spirit of God among the sons of Ishmael, complementing what is happening in Israel as Jewish believers (the sons of Isaac) are discovering that Yeshua is their Messiah.

It was an amazing opportunity to take the message the Lord had laid on my heart for the Arab world and to teach on evangelism and healing. I have often taught that, from our perspective, God’s straight lines can look like a zig zag.  I could never have imagined I would find myself in the thick of how God is now moving across the Middle East!

Yet I know that this was God’s timing and His leading. It is His timing for bringing His Bride, the church among all peoples, into its end-time destiny.   I learnt so much from my brothers and sisters in the Middle East, many of whom are enduring great suffering and persecution, what it really means to have a radical love for Jesus.  I was humbled and awed as I saw in these end-time days, how God is incorporating all that He has taught us across the years about healing and deliverance into evangelism which transforms lives in time, as well as prepares them for eternity.

Veterans Call-Up!

God has His ways of confirming His Word and His timings.  On my return from the Middle East, a very unusual Easter card came through the post from a friend I had not heard from for a long time. When she saw the card in a shop she was prompted by the Lord to buy it and send it to me. Any temptation I might have had to retire from the fight was promptly squashed when I saw this picture on the card!

The Veteran in a New Field, 1865, by Winslow Homer Photo ©Bridgeman Images

The painting dates from the years immediately after the American Civil War when surviving soldiers returned to their fields to bring in the wheat harvest. But, because many of the young men had been killed, old men also were called upon to help bring it in.

As I looked at the picture the message was loud and clear. The workers are now few, many have deserted the church, but the harvest is still great. God wants every one of his people to be involved in the harvest – even the elderly (the veterans), which of course includes myself, must be brought back into service and share in the work.

It is “those who are led by the Spirit of God who are the Sons of God” (Romans 8:14). Un-noticed and hidden from the headline writers of the current age, people all over the world are being led by the Spirit of God to do the works of His Kingdom as sons and daughters of the King. Romans 8:28 makes it clear that “in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to the purposes of God.”  

Easter Prayer

My Easter prayer for 2024 is that believers with a true heart after God will allow themselves to be led by the Spirit of God, according to His purposes. That they will be willing to both take up the weapons of spiritual warfare against the enemy and to harvest the fields wherever God is preparing a people to hear the good news of the Kingdom.

In these days it is the Gospel of the Kingdom – evangelism and healing (Luke 9:1-2) – that will impact the lives of the hurting and broken. In the Middle East, it is the message of healing that is breaking through the tough shell of inherited Islamic beliefs. Healing bypasses the mind and reaches the heart.

I pray that evangelism and healing together will once again put fire in the belly of the church – as it did in the Acts of the Apostles. God’s people are called out from subservience to the god of this world, into the glorious liberty of those “who live according to the Spirit and have their minds set on what the Spirit desires” (Romans 8:5)

May the joy of knowing the risen Saviour be yours this Easter-tide – and may the Spirit of God inspire your vision with action.   None of us can say we are too old!    As we put our hands to the plough may  the glorious message that not only is Jesus alive for evermore – but that He’s coming back, not as a helpless babe, but as the King of Kings, enflame our hearts.

Copyright © Peter Horrobin 2024.

Peter Horrobin is the Founder of Gates of Hope International. To find out more about the work please go to www.gatesofhopeinternational.com or, in its abbreviated ‘Go-High’ form: www.gohi.world

To receive regular updates about the work of GOHI, please register your name and email address on the website.  We are currently investing greatly in the work in the Middle East, in  both Israel and the Arab world. You can share in supporting this precious work by giving to GOHI online through the website. Anything you can do to help will be deeply appreciated.