Lance Wallnau Show Interviews FIRM CEO Michael Mistretta

Michael Mistretta on the Lance Wallnau Show

Last month, Michael Mistretta, the CEO of FIRM, was invited to the Lance Wallnau Show to speak about Israel. Below you can read excerpts from the interview. To enjoy the episode of the Lance Wallnau Show with Michael Mistretta as guest, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID824gW73Hc

Lance LIVE! on Miracles in Israel

Lance Wallnau: Welcome to the Lance Wallnau Show! Tonight, we have a very special guest. I just came back from Israel… my prayer was to meet Jesus there. I’ve been a Christian for 40 years, but I just wanted to have a greater sense of Jesus — in Israel, just the geography of where he was and what he did… And there was a young man who was part of facilitating that trip. I have him with me in the studio – he flew in today from Israel! It’s Michael Mistretta!

He opened up his home for Passover… This was my first Passover experience; can you believe that? You opened my eyes to so many things! So, I wanted to have you on the show to talk about what it’s like to be a believer in Israel, because it must be a challenge. 

Michael Mistretta: I’m honored to be here, thanks for having me. And it was great to have you in our home as well! So, yeah, being a believer in Israel… First of all, if you haven’t been to Israel, you’ve got to come! It transforms the way you look at the Bible. 

I never wanted to go to Israel. I grew up in a Christian home and just thought, the Great Commission, Israel – it all happened back then. Why would you look backwards, right? And God supernaturally replanted me and moved me to Israel. It wasn’t a desire of mine, I just felt I’ll do ministry there. Then I got aligned with pastor Wayne Hilsden, who has been pastoring in Jerusalem for 40 years now. Pastor Wayne started a congregation there called King of Kings.

We were able to join forces and start a ministry called FIRM – Fellowship of Israel Related Ministries. So, looking at the believing body in Israel, there are nine and a half million people in Israel: seven and a half million Jews, about a million and a half Arabs… And of that, only maybe 30,000-40,000 are believers in Jesus. So, we’re talking about a quarter of one percent! 

Imagine, it’s a quarter of one percent, and this is the place where the gospel events happened… This is the place where Jesus lived, where His disciples were from. I mean, this is from where the gospel went forth to all the nations of the earth! And yet, today only a quarter of a percent would acknowledge it. 

LW: Shocking, really! I mean, this is the place of the Upper Room, where we had the original outpouring…

I AM or YHVH

The Veil Over Israel

MM: So many of the biblical stories and all the biblical authors lived in this land. Especially Jerusalem, it is the epicenter of religion – for the Jews, the Muslims, and Christians… A powerful place to live, and yet the believing witness in Jerusalem is not [large]. Most Jewish people, when they think of a church, they think of a Catholic Church, stained glass windows…

LW: Give me the mentality of a typical Israeli regarding Christianity – what do they see?

MM: I think it would shock most people to realize that [for them] to become a Christian is worse than what Hitler [did]… because you’re not just killing a Jew, you’re killing the soul of a Jew. If you go into Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, one of the first quotes you see when you walk in [is] about how the German Church paved the way for Hitler’s ideology, which led to the Holocaust. 

So, the average Jew in Israel looks at a Christian as a traitor. Think of the inquisitions, the pogroms, the crusaders… a lot of pain [was inflicted on] the Jewish people. My own [Jewish – ed.] father-in-law would have said, the New Testament was a book on how to persecute the Jews. 

We know that’s not the case – it’s a book written mostly by Jewish people, in a Jewish context, all Jesus’ early followers were Jewish… When we talk about the birth of the church on the day of Pentecost – that was Jewish people from all over the world who were [in Jerusalem] for the Jewish Festival of Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks! And God poured out His Spirit on that community and the gospel spread.

So, we see that there’s an offense, a stumbling, like the Bible talks about that they stumbled over the stumbling stone. And there’s still a veil over the eyes of the Jewish people. But we believe that God is actually lifting that veil…

LW: So, the Bible says, and this is a promise I’m very interested in, that a veil is in part over their eyes, as you quoted, until a period of time. Then, the Bible talks about the fullness of the Gentiles. When the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, that veil [will be lifted] when [the Jews] shall turn to the Lord. 

A Jewish Person Following Jesus

LW: And so, we anticipate there will come a time when that fraction of a percentage is going to be considerably more! And they’ll realize that they’re not giving up their Jewish identity. They’re actually completely maximizing and actualizing what a Jew is!  

MM: Because it’s not actually about converting to Christianity. In fact, Jesus was Jewish, His disciples were Jewish people, and to follow Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, Jesus the rabbi, it’s the most Jewish thing you can do! 

The problem we have today in the church is, we say, “how can a Jewish person follow Jesus? That seems so crazy”. But that’s not the problem the early church had! The early church had the opposite problem – they’d say, we’re all Jews, we can follow Yeshua. The problem is, how can the Gentiles follow the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, [how can they] follow the God of Israel? 

LW: That’s true! As a matter of fact, there may have been some division over the movement, but they were all Jews. They were meeting on Solomon’s porch, they felt like they were as entitled to the Temple as anyone. After all, this was their Temple, it was Yeshua’s Father’s House. So, the Jews were arguing about whether the Gentiles should come in! 

MM: When you read Romans 9, the climax of [the Letter to] Romans – Paul is saying, we’re more than conquerors. All things work together for good, we’ve been adopted as sons and daughters, nothing can separate us from love of Christ… 

But [in the next chapter] in the first five verses, he says, I have this great sorrow. I have this never ceasing anguish… You might be thinking, Paul, what are you talking about? You just said, all things work together for good, but now you say, I have this unceasing anguish in my heart? Why? 

Paul’s Anguish Over the Jewish People

MM: He says, I wish I was cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers – for the sake of the Jewish people. 

He said, everything that I’m talking about to you, Romans – the covenant, the worship, the giving of the law – that was all promised to the Jewish people! You’ve inherited it, but it was promised to them and belonged to them. And so, my heart’s desire and prayer for Israel is that they might be saved! 

So the question is this. If God said to Israel, I will be your God, you will be my people, and yet the majority of the Jewish people rejected Jesus, what happened? Did that catch God off guard? Is God not strong enough or powerful enough to accomplish what He intended? Or does he have a greater plan? 

And that’s what you talked about – through Israel’s stumbling salvation has gone to the gentiles. This offense opened the door for salvation to go to the gentiles. And it says, one day the gentiles are going to wake up and they’re going to show Israel that same mercy. That’s going to lead to a day, Paul says in Romans 11:26, when all of Israel shall be saved. 

LW: When all Israel shall be saved… We talk with so many charismatics and Pentecostals about the resurrection, and they really believe this resurrection miracle is coming. But most people miss this [connection], and Paul connected it: “what shall there turn into the Lord be but life from the dead…” 

The period when the resurrection is coming will be confirmed by the fact that the Jewish people will be turning to the Lord! And then resurrection life is going to begin to be manifest even more. 

MM: Exactly! And most theologians would say that this verse [about] life from the dead is talking about a worldwide revival. So, Paul’s logic in Romans 11 is, if their rejection meant the reconciliation of the world and if their stumbling meant riches for the nations, how much more… 

LW: …their grafting in will be life from the dead, and a worldwide, third-day awakening!

Lance Wallnau Show: Planning a Must-See Biblical Sites Trip to Israel

LW: We’re going to have to put together a trip… What are the great places you recommend that we should go? 

MM: You have got to go to the Galilee, everyone loves the Sea of Galilee, and so much of Jesus’s ministry [happened] there. The Dead Sea, Mount Carmel [where] Elijah calls down fire and kills all the prophets of Baal, a very significant place. Caesarea… In Jerusalem [there’s] so much to see! The Negev Desert… 

Israel is a very special place, and if you haven’t been — for me, living in Israel almost 10 years now, it’s changed the way I read my Bible. It’s connected the narrative and the story. These aren’t just pictures and allegories; these are real places.

LW: How many days is ideal?

MM: I think coming for eight or nine days is ideal… at least! That way you’re able to get to see the whole country. You can’t see everything on one trip, but you come, and you just say, God, I want to see you! We can really love the Lord, but when we see His hometown, and His people that He reached. He said I’m called to the lost sheep of the House of Israel; He wasn’t called to the Nations. [Recognizing] Israel helps us see His heart. 

LW: I couldn’t agree with you more. Michael, I think we’re going to do that! 

Lance Wallnau: You Can Count on FIRM

LW: And how do people get in touch with you and follow the exploits of what you’re up to with FIRM?

MM: You can learn more about us at firmisrael.org. We are a Fellowship of Ministries, so we [work with] about 70 ministries across the country reaching the lost, helping people in practical ways. If you’re looking to get involved in Israel in a gospel-centered way, we want to help you with that. 

LW: I love that! 

Everybody who has a heart for Israel, I wonder, with all the money, and effort, and investment, what percentage is actually [spent] well…

MM: I’ll say this, and I don’t say this often. Of the hundreds of millions of dollars a year, raised by Evangelical Christians for Israel, a very small fraction actually goes to equipping the believing body, to see the gospel accelerate in Israel. 

LW: What? What?!

MM: Yes, it’s shocking. Many of it goes to doing good things – but not all of them in Jesus’ name. Some of it goes to organizations with anti-missionary [agenda], that are actually persecuting and disrupting the believing community. So, I would just say, if you’re called to invest in Israel, just make sure that your investment is accelerating what God’s Kingdom purposes are in Israel. And not just giving to Israel out of a romantic love.

LW: Well, [FIRM is] one of the Ministries we can count on.

Ladies and gentlemen, this has been a great night! 

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Visual Verse of the Day

“The wilderness and the dry lands shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom.” Isaiah 35:1