Continue reading »]]>
Heading Image: Treading water shortly before the start of IM Germany 2011

Exercising Control In All Things (Part 2)

Shalom Friends,

We have put together some footage of the most difficult Ironman endurance race I have ever done in Germany last month to help encourage you’all to run the race of faith in this late hour.  We are here to service your faith and give you real time practical ideas on how you too can learn the mystery of I Cor. 9 wherein the Apostle Paul speaks about running this race to win!  In this race the weather conditions in July were not hot but cold…like January cold and really tested our resolve to not give up but finish the grueling marathon!

Enjoy this new video and let us hear from you on how you are being encouraged by these latest video clips!  It is really the last days on planet Earth right now and it is time to get conditioned to suffer and endure hardship….with great hilarious and intoxicating joy (James 1)!  He is coming soon!

In His intoxicating joy,

Scott

Continue reading »]]>
Heading Image: A few minuntes before the swim start IM Germany 2011

Exercising Control In All Things (Part 1)

Shalom friends,

It’s been great to get so much positive feedback from our readership base about how the Holy Spirit has been leading people to discipline their physical bodies for spiritual readiness in this late hour.  In our modern culture, it is a war to live healthy with so many temptations that quickly lead to obesity and a lazy entertainment driven lifestyle that dooms the participant into bad health and overlapping spiritual laziness and procrastination.  So in regards to the overwhelming response you Holy Ghost warriors out there have signaled back, we have provided for you’all a fresh teaching video produced recently at Ironman Germany 2011 European Championship.  (This is the 2nd year in a row we have participated in this event)

The purpose of this video teaching:

1. To encourage you to find the secret of how to maximize the mortification of our temples for war.
2.  To provide for you scriptural references to keep your desire redlined to run this race with endurance.
3. To give you ideas on how you too can go into the market place and reach the future leaders of this current generation.
4. To receive a fresh impartation from the Holy Spirit for supernatural weight loss and healing.

Training you for Godliness in this late hour

In His service for your faith,

Scott Holtz

Continue reading »]]>
Heading image: Ironman Germany swim start

Reaching The Israeli Warrior Anew

Shalom Friends,

It has been a wild week and may this communiqué update you’all with great refreshment in the Holy Spirit!  My morale is so pumped up and the river of God is so strongly flowing in my belly in this late hour to serve you’all and do whatever we can to help you become overcomers per Revelation 21:7.  We no longer live for ourselves but for you’all as this is our new life expression since encountering the desert wasteland glory realm of Gethsemane!  We exist to service your faith and there is no other desire so grand!

So how can we serve you’all with a fresh new move of the Holy Spirit?  Well the first way is to get you under the spout where the glory is coming out…and that location in Heavens GPS scheme of things is Israel and the coming awakening here. The glory of God is moving in these last days apocalyptic grand finale towards a great visitation upon the currently blinded Jewish people and you and I have been given the great privilege to be involved in a ground floor opportunity of unprecedented fruit production for the Master!  All of us believe in the promise of Genesis 12:3 and desire to experience the overflow of those blessings in our lives.  And I believe that we have found the most profound way you can bless the natural seed of Abraham anywhere on planet earth!  It is thru these special operations He has given you and I an unprecedented way to bless and comfort His ancient people!

 IDF Night Warriors

OK, let’s now go outside the box and explore one of these new ways we have been reaching the Israeli Night Warriors here….

As many of you remember from last July 2009, I was strategically placed by the Holy Spirit into the 18th Olympic Maccabiah Games and won a silver medal in the Cycling Time Trial Championship race with absolutely no background whatsoever in this difficult sport (see link).  After these Olympic games were over, unbeknownst to me, my name was being floated around the Israeli sports community as one of the upcoming new athletes in long distance events.  Now those who know me know that I’m in no way interested in sports or competition events, as I would much rather be conducting revival meetings, casting out devils, and doing shofar drive-by’s against the underworld.  But what Dalit and I recognized in the community of IDF special forces was this fierce desire among these incredible warriors to keep fit thru this new avenue of endurance sports (i.e. cycling, Ironman, etc…).  This fascination with extreme endurance sports is what fits perfectly into their ethos of the Israeli mindset of overcoming and winning when one is facing overwhelming odds.  So a few months ago I was invited to join a new professional Ironman team here even though I had never done one or even much less cared to do a intense long distance Ironman race!

This professional team was made up of IDF officers from many different special units and the training classes as well as the training camps were fashioned to mirror that hard and rugged discipline of the Israeli special forces.  Being the oldest person on this team, I suffered greatly trying to keep up with all these young bucks and for the first few weeks I felt like I was being run over by a Mack truck repeatedly (LOL).  It was crazy in the natural…but God was so in this thing as this professional group was just dumbfounded to see how fast I would recover and excel even faster in my interval sessions than most of them.  The coach of this team would make comments of how I was becoming an “aerobic monster” and that if I would keep it up I could qualify for the World Championships.  I would always respond that I was not interested in the World Championships and just wanted to serve them and see them (not myself) reach their athletic potentials.  This attitude was blowing their minds, as we were to found out, because many here do not know how to respond to acts of kindness and thus many on the team have since become very endeared to us these last few months.  I remember that it was during one of these crazy early morning endurance camps last Spring that I was finally accepted into their “fraternity” of warriors even though I have no special forces or military background.  The hand of God was moving and I was granted unprecedented favor to become a part of again another Israeli special forces community and its mysterious IDF ethos.  We are literally becoming all things to all men that we might save some (I Cor. 9:19-27)!  (And all of this was transpiring while the other stealth operations we were doing with the other special units was still on going).  My mind was spinning at all the open doors and the huge network that was opening to us on so many different fronts these last few months, and it was like I was multitasking so many huge programs all at once!  I knew Abba had called us to Israel for a special work…but in no way had I ever envisioned so many different doors opening simultaneously to us for new fishing adventures galore! Glory to God!

The culmination of all this early morning endurance training happened this last weekend on July 4th, 2010 in Frankfurt, Germany whereas Dalit and I traveled with this professional Israeli team to the Ironman EuropeanChampionship.  The atmosphere of this Ironman event was just incredible with hundreds of thousands of German spectators cheering us on.  On race day I had a Israeli flag painted to my right shoulder as a sign of not only the new friendship Germany has with the State of Israel, but also as a sign of how we were being killed here by the Nazi’s 65 years ago, but now we were back from the ashes of the Holocaust as a people due to God’s unbreakable covenant!  Most of the Germans loved us but there was a few that would call out a anti-Semitic remark when I flew past them on the 185 kilometer bike course.  But for the most part it was a very lively celebrative atmosphere especially with 24 hours earlier the German national team powerfully defeated Argentina in the World Cup quarterfinals.

Ironman Germany finish line in
downtown Frankfurt

The results of the Ironman Germany European Championship for our Israeli team was awesome, yet for me it seemed to be a huge let down.  The great witness to the Ironman sporting world was that two new Israeli athletes hammered out amazing course times and secured slots to attend the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. Gilad Rotem (special Sayeret officer and now medical student) scorched the course as a amateur with professional results! And one of our dear friends Nina Pekerman (a Jewish immigrant from Moldavia), also set a record as a amateur finishing in the top ten of the professional women overall!  They both are very incredible and gifted athletes and are going to put Israel on the map in the Ironman scene for years to come!  We are thrilled to see these two represent Israel in such a new surprising way!

Bird’s eye view of Ironman Germany
swim start

So what happened with me?  Well, it is amazing how God can use a seemingly defeat into such a great testimony for His glory!   My race started out awesome with a fast 3.8 kilometer swim.  I came out of the water in the top 10% of over 2000 athletes and hit the bike course with a fast transition.  However, 50 kilometers into the 185 kilometer course my front handlebar bracket snapped off and I almost crashed into a German country villa!  After getting myself back on the bike course, I noticed that my bike was incapable of getting above 35k per hour so I was left to just trying to survive the long ride and get back into downtown Frankfurt and the running section of the course.  Upon arriving back into the transition area I noticed I had either eaten bad gels or forgotten to keep hydrated and began to have severe nausea and dizzy spells.  Once on the first kilometer of the marathon run I decided to check myself into the hospital tent for emergency observation and the medical staff began to check out my vital signs and I was immobilized on a stretcher.  Everything within me was seemingly telling me to call it a day and just go to sleep…however, at this my greatest moment of pain, weakness, and disappointment I heard the still small voice of the Holy Spirit telling me to get up and finish the race!  I knew it was the supernatural secret place to victory and healing coming to me like a gentle fall breeze rustling thru the leaves.  So I did everything I could to get
up off that hospital tent stretcher and put my Ironman uniform back on!  The Doctor and medical staff looked so stunned and asked where I was going…I smiled and said, it is time to finish this 42.2 Kilometer Marathon!  I struggled greatly to get out of that tent but as soon as my feet hit the running course I felt the Holy Ghost take over and His supernatural energy pulsed thru my weakened tabernacle!  And finally at 12 hours and 58 minutes I was able to cross the finish line in tears of joy to see Dalit and the other Israeli warriors waiting to embrace and hug me for not giving up  (see video link below).

Praising Abba for finishing the longest day

Now what has transpired from this unexpected slow race time in the natural has now blossomed into a great testimony to the Israeli warriors who know us.  It is not winning the race or doing well with few circumstantial difficulties that has interested these IDF warriors we know.  What has gripped their conversations and curiosity is how in the world did I get up from the hospital tent and finish the Marathon!?  It is unheard of!!!  Here is some of the emails and messages I have received the last 48 hours from these IDF warriors.  “Shlomo, you are a true warrior!”  “WOW, amazing!  How did you get up and finish the marathon?  What power is in you?”  “Shlomo the Great”!  “There is power in your legs not heard of before”!  “Tell me how did you do it?  What is in your mind that caused you to get out of the hospital bed”?  “Absolute brilliance!  Courageous”!  And from one of the champions theysaid, “Shlomo, I’m not at Ironman today…you are the true Ironman”!

Now please understand I’m not listing these reports to lift myself up in any way, shape, or form.  I’m very content in remaining unknown and living in the motif of the scum of the earth message.  But what I have finally realized is that the best fishing lure we have to break thru the stubborn rebellion and unbelief of the Israeli ethnos here is not to display only a theory of overcoming from the Scriptures, but to live before them a real example of overcoming in a real time Scriptural event of miraculous power that stuns and opens up the Israeli warrior here to the message of the Good News!  It is the overcoming mixed in with them seeing the trials and suffering I went thru that opens up the hardened Israeli to the secret power of the Cross within us who believe!  Glory to God!!!  For when we are weak then we are strong (II Cor. 12:7-12)!

So that is a quick summary of another exciting weekend here at Rivers in the Desert and it is good to be back home in Eretz Israel and getting my shofar ready for some more drive-by’s against the underworld and the terrors of the night!  We also have worked hard the last 48 hours to put together a inspiring video of this Ironman Germany event and scroll below for the link!

Click Here For HD YouTube – The Miracle
Testimony at Ironman Germany

Click Here For Flashfloods – The Miracle
Testimony at Ironman Germany

Keep in touch and may this testimony encourage you in the fight of faith you maybe waging in your sectors of responsibility!

In His service for your faith,

Scott and Dalitt

Continue reading »]]> Shalom Friends,

In these trying times people need to experience the pure and invigorating joy of victory gained by the supernatural hand of God.  I greatly desire that this 3rd installment of my involvement in the Maccabiah Olympic Games here in Israel infuse you with this same pure and supernatural joy of a victory gained against overwhelming odds!  It is transferable via this digital medium so get your hearts open and let the river flow to all the dry areas of your life even now!

Exactly one year ago I was precipitating into quickly becoming another statistic of a hard working middle-aged husband/father who was on the path to obesity and sickness.  It was not due to being lazy and inactive but rather it was the slow descent of a lifestyle based on unhealthy choices that stem from the late night culture of entertainment and fellowship of our modern society.  I knew that my overeating at night after conducting powerful revival meetings was not healthy the last 15 years, but really had no role model to follow as most of the anointed servants I was fellowshipping with were also tipping the scales towards obesity.  I’m not sure I can exactly pinpoint the date when I made the decision to radically alter my culturally influenced lifestyle, however, I do remember the date that a Godly fear gripped my heart to attack evil and it’s greatest manifestation today is in the form of religious terrorism.  Not just the brand of Islamic jihad but also the camouflaged religious caliber of fear that manifest in the kingship monarchy system (i.e. Saul’s pursuing the David’s).

It was somewhere in this mix of visiting Israel and working in sync with the special units in combating terrorism and also preaching the Judges pattern of leadership for war, that my heart became circumscribed to use my physical body as a weapon of war for the Master’s service (see Romans 6:11-23).  My desire to get healthy and fit was not for selfish cosmetic looks, as is so forced upon us by our modern culture, but rather it was to fight evil and thus be a good soldier for the Messiah (see 2 Tim. 2:1-7)!  I now truly believe that if you are wanting to lose weight to look cosmetically good then that is a carnal, selfish, and self-centered approach that will be short lived and unsuccessful in the long run.  But if you instead focus on your temple as being a instrument of war in this hour, then you will have the blessing of God’s supernatural energy and joy to successfully lose the weight, keep it off, and thus enter the realm of making your body a slave as is revealed to us by Holy Ghost in I Cor. 9:24-27!  This is where God’s approval for this endeavor is actualized and this is the place where the commanded blessing mysteriously is found that will keep you in the long run!

Run The Race

Speaking of the long run, let me now turn your attention this morning to the second Maccabiah Olympic race I was in which was the grueling Triathlon Competition on the shores of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee).  After winning the Silver medal three days earlier in the Cycling Time Trial event, my body was still a bit fatigued from the dehydration of that desert race (click here to read our last OIT update).

Here is my Silver medal with Team Canada getting their gold medal on the
podium in the background.  Lots of joy in the atmospherics in this pic!

Here I’m with the overall Gold medal winner of the Elite category (standing center)
who also represented Russia in the 2004 Athens Summer Olympic games.

I had that forewarning in my belly that this was going to be a complex upcoming Triathlon race and much pain was going to be involved due to the extreme heat.  So I got up at 2:30 AM and just waited on the Lord for strength until His invisible shalom settled into my spirit and soul (see Isaiah 40:28-31).  It was in this zone that I repented for my own personal sins and short comings of ambition for another medal, when God told me that in His eyes I had already won the gold in the spirit realm, but in His eternal plan He had already predestined for another man on the USA team to win the medal for his future procurement towards salvation.  (I was later to find out that this man who eventually did win the gold medal in my category had come to Israel to race his last race after competing in sports the last 25 years and now was going to retire.  How awesome and fitting it was for him to race his last race and retire with a gold medal!  I kept encouraging him later that now he can make Aliyah!)

I wrestled with this a few minutes that I was not going to win another medal and then finally saw the beauty of how God was ordaining this race to teach me more about the important themes of endurance, humility, and teamwork.  Let me briefly outline these three character fruits so we all can produce more fruit for our Master.

Endurance-  This was the most difficult race I have ever ran.  It was not the distance but rather the intense heat and very fast, strong International competitors in my age category.  In the last leg of this triathlon race I was in 3rd place after a very strong bike leg, when suddenly I began to get negative, irritable, and wanted to stop.  Why?  This is the first signs of dehydration and I no longer cared about anything except stopping and giving up!  I needed water and fuel!  Thank God there was a aid station right around the corner and was able to chug down cold H2O!  (Personal Application- When you feel like you’re getting irritable or even wanting to give up, that is when you need to soak and drink in His river of life!  Get under the spout where the Glory is coming out quickly and don’t succumb to spiritual dehydration and make the wrong decisions you will later regret!)

Humility-  We are exhorted in I Cor. 10 to not just run the race…but run the race to win!  That is a good ambition but we have to let Abba direct us what race it is we are to run that He has predestined us to win and what race we are to yield and learn the motif of suffering and being last.  This is a very complex subject and I encourage you to read I Cor. 4 to get a handle on this mystery.  Winning is not everything as is taught in our humanistic culture.  We need to be very discerning in this area of what race we are called to aggressively dig into and which one to yield to.  (Personal Application- Be very sober not to fall into the trap of our modern culture to be overly aggressive only to win 1st place.  Whether it be climbing the corporate job ladder or wrongly competing with the local church down the street for numbers.  There is a fine line between the wisdom of God and the wisdom of this world per James 3:13-18!  Preferring one another is the key to humility!)

Teamwork-  This is a much needed fruit today in our modern culture that is possessed with individualism.  When we focus on the big “I” we become idiocy centered and idiots.  When I finally resolved that my part in this race was to help someone else out, then I entered into a supernatural strength to finish this race.  I was later told by the man on our USA team who won the gold medal that he feared my bike riding and was expecting at any moment for me to fly past him on the bike leg…that it was this healthy fear that helped motivate him to win today!  Wow!  That is really cool and I like this aspect of sports where you use your strengths to help the team.  (Spiritual Application-  Hopefully in this climate of turmoil and uncertainty that believers worldwide can pull together and complement each other as the differing parts of the Body.  To bear one another’s weaknesses and for His glory is really the atmospherics I want to stay in after this brutal Olympic race experience!  One for all and all for one!)

The Race-  I want to say a big mega “thank you” to all of you who prayed for me in this triathlon race as the heat was so brutal and the only thing that kept me going was to occasionally look over at the Sea of Galilee and ponder on all that happened here in the past Gospel accounts!  I was able to finish in the top 10 of my category with a very respectable 8th place finish with no injuries or heat related problems.  (Continue to pray however for several athletes who did fall into heat exhaustion and our team USA captain is still in the hospital for treatment and observation.)

Here are some pics that I hope will bless you!

Ready for battle in the shahar blackness of the predawn!

Team USA getting ready!

The 1500 Meter Swim

Lining up with some of the human dolphin’s!

On your mark, get set, GO!!!  Yaw-hooooh!

It’s not synchronized swimming but rather a massive traffic jam at 6 AM!

Sunrise over the Sea of Galilee with us swimming on the far left in the 1.5 kilometer distance leg.

Coming out of the water with Israel to my right and Holland to my left on the first swim leg.

Hammering it up the ramp!  I love it when the Holy Ghost gives me His pleasure to run!

I like this blue carpet reminding me of excellence!  C’mon Mexico let’s catch those speedy Ausie’s!

The 40 Kilometer Bike

Thumbs up!  All systems go!  Don’t you love that H2O image on the background billboard!

I’m coming in from “down and under” to catch up with Australia!

Getting cheerleading support from my daughters Ronit and Yael!

The joy of the Lord is our strength!  Rejoice like a child!

The 10 Kilometer Run

Transition area to the run.  Hint- we must be quick to transition when His Spirit wind shifts!

Digg’in deep….

5K done and 5K more to go!  Help me Abba!  I’m so thirsty!

I would really like to stop and sit down right now…Oh, the pain!

I can see the Finnish line!  Time to switch gears!

Hallelujah!  Almost there!

It may not look like it but I’m running on empty right now!

Finished!

I do not know who is more tired me or the young security guard in the background!

Ahhh…a little shade from the desert sun!

Ahhh…a deep soaking water therapy!  More Lord!!!

Overcome with joy and thankfulness for all Abba has done!

Winners of the 70+ category!  You are never too old!

Pre-race briefing with me being a bit doubled minded.
Which country do I represent tomorrow? LOL!

OK, dear friends that is all I have time for this morning and need to run and get ready for another exciting day in the Promised Land!  Thank you for helping to hold up our hands in this race of faith for the awakening here thru these multi-faceted and unique projects!

In His love,

Scott and Dalit

On the Olympic medals is the Hebrew word Chai, which stands for 18 and life.
Run the race to win the prize of eternal life!

Continue reading »]]> Reflections On Our First Medal and The Opening Ceremony of the 18th Maccabiah Olympic Games!

Shalom Friends,

Blessings to you from Israel!  It has been a very emotional and exciting past 24 hours for me here in the 18th Maccabiah Olympic Games.  Early yesterday morning we awoke in the shahar blackness of the pre-dawn hours and assembled our racing gear and headed to the starting line for the 1st ever Olympic Cycling Time Trial event in Israel’s history!  The competition was held in the Negev just a few kilometers from the Gaza border with top Jewish cyclist from around the world.

(Pre-race briefing)

(Team USA prepares for battle)

(Canada, Mexico, and USA mingle)

The atmosphere was filled with such excitement as we were led to the starting ramp and released like arrows out of months of dedicated preparations and training. I must say that the solidarity and fellowship with other Jewish athletes, coach’s, and racing officials was so delightful and issued out of the prophetic oracle of Psalms 133!  And in the backdrop of the Western Negev next to the Gaza Strip where just 6 months earlier we were in a major war of kassam rockets raining down on these Israeli communities is so remarkable!  I love to see terrorism stifled and our people continuing to thrive here in the Promised Land

(Here I’m released out of the gate)

(Building speed…)

(Final Sprint to the Finish line)

 

(Tired but happy)

 

(Women’s Olympic medalists)

 

(Men’s Olympic medalists)

 

(Here is me with our team Silver medal)

The Opening Ceremony

This event was beyond description as together with 9,000 other Jewish athletes from over 64 nations enter in the procession to Ramat Gan Olympic stadium in Tel Aviv.  To hear the roar of a capacity crowd as they express their mutual bond and solidarity with these visiting Jewish communities from around the world is very special.  I was extremely overwhelmed to see so many young people on the athletic teams so happy to be in Israel and bonding to this Land.  They had so many question for me and really are feeling a mysterious supernatural pull to Eretz Yisrael!  I was in the right place at the right time with so many divine appointments!

(USA delegation enters the Olympic stadium)

 

(The largest Maccabiah Games ever!)

 

(We waved with one hand and took video with the other)

 

(The look on our faces says it all!)

 

(We are packed in like sardines!)

I could not get photos of all the countries represented but here is a few….

 

(Australia and Mexico is all fired up!)

 

(…As is the delegation from Spain!)

 

(Scotland in their traditional dress)

 

(France)

 

(Oh Canada!)

 

(Russia…look how tall that flag bearer is!)

 

(Here comes the Olympic torch carried by swimmer Jason Lezak who is remembered
for his amazing comeback in the Olympic games in Beijing)

 

(Let the Games begin!)

 

There is two very significant spiritual events that happened last night in the Opening Ceremony that I would like to share with you.  First was the speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  I was listening to him and as he was ending this formal communication to the huge crowd…suddenly something very powerful happened!  All the athletes from around the world standing close to me suddenly were overcome with Godly sorrow and apprehended in a mysterious way!  It happened as soon as the Prime Minister invited all the athletes to come back to Israel again and make Aliyah!  When he said that suddenly I felt the anointing fill the athletic area around me and I looked at the faces of all the athletes as they were pierced with the supernatural call to come home and live here!  It was so powerful and gripping that I do not have the English vocabulary to described what happened last night.  Just that it is the hand of God moving on His ancient people to come home again!

The second spiritual event that happened last night was the ending theme of the ceremony that was presented as a live musical in 3 acts.  I was about to leave the stadium early to miss the traffic as the musical presentation was humming along.  When suddenly Dalit calls my mobile and tells me to come back into the stadium because they are showing a video on the big screen about waters in the desert!  The musical was telling of the Jewish people being like lone wayfarers in the desert that finds waters and thus can grow roots into this Land!  I was stunned to see this presentation as it is totally confirming what Rives in the Desert is called to do in Israel!  And here it is being played out on the most expensive and largest media stage of Jewish history!  Wow!  Talk about confirmation about being here and a new vigor to keep pressing into the new thing of Rivers in the Desert to break out here!

Can you now see why dear friends I’m so passionately driven by the Holy Ghost to keep communicating to you’all the vast move of God that is happing here that is beyond expl- anation and not like anything before we have seen in redemptive history!  It is building and there is soon going to be a awakening here like the world has never seen!

In His service for your faith,

Scott and Dalit

 

Run The Race