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Today, as the day before Election Day in the United States, I thought we could put into practice what we have been talking about last week. Pray with me!

Dear Lord, I thank You that You have called me to pray. I answer the call and join the great army of people who are praying for our nation. I thank You that all things are possible when we pray, and that You are waiting for us to ask, so that You can answer. We pray right now our city, our state and our nation. We declare that You are Lord over these places, and that Your plan will prevail in our cities, our states, and our nation. We come against the enemy who comes to kill, steal, and destroy, and we believe his work is brought to naught, and that his schemes, plans and strategies will fail. Drive back the works of darkness, and deliver us from evil. We stand in the gap for our country. We intercede on behalf of our nation, and we repent for the sins of its people. We come before you humbly and ask that you would heal our land. We appeal for your mercy, and know that you are a God who shows mercy, even when we don’t deserve it. We ask that the blinders would be removed from the eyes of the lost of our nation, so that they can see the light of the glorious gospel, and repent and return to you, Father so they can know truth from deception. We pray that justice, truth and righteousness would prevail in our elections. We pray for righteous rulers to be placed in office, and for all evil and unrighteous rulers to be removed, so that our nation can experience freedom to spread the truth of the gospel. We ask your protection on our military and pray especially for those who are in active service at this time. We pray that evil men would be captured and that in the process, no harm would come to the men and women who serve our nation and the allied forces. We ask you Lord, that by Your Spirit, You would move people who are complacent to a position of action. We pray that the people of God would realize that the election process is not just a privilege, but also a duty of God fearing citizens. We also pray that we would get a revelation of the importance that each person makes – one prayer and one vote really do matter. We ask Lord, that America would be a light to the world, and that You God, would shine Your light through us, so that Your kingdom can be established, on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus Name, AMEN!

Release heaven into this earth life through prayer. One of my favorite verses in the Bible says Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. For the believer, this earth life can be wonderful. Of course there will be bumps along the way, we live on a fallen planet, and our earth has a curse, but we can rise above, even the difficult moments of our life. Think about this, we have the right and the responsibility to pray for everything this is God’s will that we don’t see manifested on the earth just yet. Our prayer can be what releases God’s power to do immeasurably more than we can ask or even imagine. That stretches my thinking! I have a huge imagination, and I come up with enormous ideas, but Eph 3:20 says that God wants to increase us beyond what we can even imagine. He wants life to be amazing. We can see that accomplished when we take off any limitations we might have, and let our spiritual imagination take over. God’s will for us is way bigger than we can even think. My prayer is that we can grab ahold of that. So many of us live so far beneath what God has for us. Let’s not wait until we get to heaven to realize it. Let’s reach for that immeasurably more that is available, right now….. More power, more anointing, more ability, more provision. God is more than enough!

Has anyone ever asked you to pray for them, and you see them the next week at church and realize you forgot to pray at all? I have an easy remedy for that!!! PRAY immediately when they ask you. I have made it a habit of doing that, and so I pray in some very unexpected places. I pray over the phone, I pray in Costco, I pray at a track meet, I pray in the pew right before church starts, I pray in the kitchen, I pray in the parking lot, I’ve probably even prayed in the bathroom! I look for people who have needs. You can tell by looking when someone isn’t feeling well, or they have a heavy burden, ask them if you can pray for them! All it takes is being observant! Then make a point to follow up. Sometimes we don’t know if a prayer was answered just because we forgot to follow up. What an amazing faith builder answered prayer can be! Follow up and get that praise report. If it’s not a praise report yet, continue praying. Keep standing in faith. Keep thanking God that he heard your prayer and is working on the situation. Make prayer a part of your daily life. I pray in the spirit before I get out of bed in the morning. I pray as I get ready, as I drive places, when I am alone, before meals, before bedtime, there are opportunities to pray all day long, each and every day. Take them, and find people to pray for, and then take the time, to check back with them and find out how they are doing.

When I prayer with others, or especially on my own, I love to pray the Word of God. Whatever the topic, I want to have scripture and verse on each item I am praying for. So if it is the favor of God, provision, healing, walking in joy, or whatever, I like to find a scripture that corresponds to the topic I am praying about. Paul’s prayers in the New Testament books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians are a perfect place to start. If you are needing a clearer revelation, Eph 1:18-20 talks about the eyes of our understanding being enlightened. Eph 3:16-21 is a prayer for spiritual strength. Colossian 1:9-12 is a prayer that helps to process our priorities. Phil 1:9-11 is a prayer for guidance, and I Thess 3:11-13 is a prayer about abounding love. We can pray these prayers over one another. Your family, your church family, your pastor, even those in leadership in our government. We can also pray the Word over people who are in the midst of struggle. Is 40:31 is a prayer for strength. Ps 55:22 is a reminder to cast our care on the Lord. Lamentations 3:22-23 reminds us of God’s unending faithfulness. I know there are scriptures that have been a source of strength to you in your life, and perhaps have even become your life verse. Make it a daily habit to pray the Word over your own life, the ones you love, and especially those who don’t know Jesus yet. Your prayer could be a destiny changer!

Pray from your heart is what the Lord asks from us. So often we have the mistaken idea that God values our word usage, more than our compassion. The opposite is true. God would rather see you pray from a heart of compassion than to pray a perfectly worded oratory! So relax! Take it easy on yourself. I know there are times when I just stop praying in English, and just begin praying in my heavenly language, so I can relax and not think so hard, or so much! Praying in tongues is perfect communication with the Father, so when in doubt, pray in the spirit. Paul told us to pray often and regularly in the spirit. Do it every day! It helps me relax, and even helps to segue from one subject to another when I am praying in English. So let the pray flow from your heart. God loves to hear your voice! Just like we love to hear the voice of our beloved, God loves for you to talk to Him. Share your heart with him, let Him know how much you love Him, in prayer! Take time to express your gratitude, for what He has done for you, and thank Him for His tender loving care that He has shown toward you. His heart of compassion is open for you, and He loves it when we show compassion toward others. Don’t get hung up on the words you pray, just open up your mouth, and let your words express your heart towards God. That is what God wants from you.

I love to pray with a group of people. There is great power when we pray with others. The Bible tells us that when 2 or 3 are gathered in prayer, that God is there in the midst of them. So pray with others, and pray in unity. When praying with others, we can see how each others hearts are connected to the situations and people we are praying for. It can be like climbing a mountain up another path. We can have our set pattern for how we pray, and then when we pray with someone else, we hear the perspective they pray from. You can hear their heart, and you can also be led to pray one after another and build on the other’s prayer. With so many different things to be praying for, a list of family and friends that need the Lord, those who need healing, or those seeking employment, or those struggling in the marriages, our government, the nations of the world who need Jesus, and the list goes on and on, our daily prayer time can seem like overwhelming. When we pray together, we can take a section, and pray the Word over that situation. Then another person can pray the Word over another area. When we combine our prayers together, great power can be made available and it says in James chapter 5.
Power in this instance comes from the word dynamite, and truly, the dynamite power of God can be at work in us to change us, and the situations we are praying for. God can work through us as we pray together, in unity.

Pray from your heart. As a kid I used to think that our prayers needed to be eloquent and have great big words in them to be effective. I was so glad when I discovered that God is so much more about heart than any other factor. He wants our heart, and when we pray from our heart, we are letting the real us show through to a real God who is really concerned about our real life. Prayer isn’t a performance, we don’t get graded on how well we do, or sound, or the manner in which we speak. God loves to hear our voice, praying from a heart of love and concern, speaking to His heart. So erase all those thought that you can’t pray in front of someone else, or that you don’t pray as effectively as someone who has a college degree or a bunch of letters after your name. I see a child expressing concern about an owie that their friend has as being beautiful in the ears of God. God wants us to come to Him in childlike faith, believing that He hears us, He answers us, and that things on this earth are subject to change because God is able and willing to act on our behalf. He sees the big picture and knows the end from the beginning and wants our prayer to be answered so that we can experience a little more of heaven on earth. So let the spirit of God guide you as you pray. Have your list if you want, but be willing to be prompted to pray for something or someone you may not even know the details about, just because you are prompted by the Holy Spirit. Spirit directed prayer can change things on this earth!

Intro: Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with your dailyeword. This week we are talking about the one another’s of the New Testament and how we can experience authentic relationships. This week’s one another is, praying for one another. It is near and dear to my heart, because I love to pray! I know God hears and answers and prayer changes things on this earth. What a better time than now, to focus our heart toward God in prayer. I encourage you to pray the Word, for one another, for our fellow citizens, and for our leaders regularly! Here is your daily eword.

James 5:16 is such a great scripture. It tells us to pray for one another, that we will be healed. What I love about prayer is that it not only changes the circumstances of the other one another’s we may be praying for, but it can change us in the process. This verse speaks to me that I don’t have to be 100% well to pray for someone who needs healing. In fact it says that they will be healed, and the one praying will be healed! When I got that revelation a few decades ago, is when I got turned on to prayer in a significant way. God can use me, when I open up my heart in prayer for someone else. When we take our heart’s concerns to the Lord in prayer, God’s power and ability, his wisdom and instruction can be released into our life. We get to grow by praying, and at the same time, the ones we are praying for get to see changes in their life too. I have a plaque in my home that says prayer changes things. It does, but it also changes people. It starts when we open our heart up to God, and He begins working in us. At the same time, He is working on the situation, or the people involved and things can begin to change from that moment. You’ve heard me say this before. If it’s not good yet, it’s not done yet. Keep standing in prayer. Things are going to get better. Don’t loose hope. Hang in there and keep on praying. Not to spoil the ending, but everything is going to be ok!

John 13:35 is such a powerful scripture. It says the world will know we are Jesus’ disciples by the love we have for one another. Amazing how often the opposite is true. Christians churches don’t like each other because they believe differently. Or they preach against another doctrine because they interpret scripture in another way. Or someone else doesn’t have as much revelation as they have. What a shame that the world has to witness this. We are to be supportive and encouraging of one another. I love how every week as we do communion together at AGF we talk about discerning the body of Christ. That is not only the physical body of Christ that was bloodied, broken and bruised so that we could have a relationship with God, but also discerning the body of Christ worldwide. We have brothers and sisters in Christ, not only around the world, but right down the street from us. As believers in Jesus, who have given our heart and life to Christ, and have chosen to follow Him all the days of our life, we have to realize that heaven is big enough for all of us! God’s arms are opened wide. The prerequisite of heaven is to be born again. You can get to heaven sick, you can get to heaven without speaking in tongues, you can get to heaven poor, but you can’t get to heaven without Jesus. So let’s concentrate of the majors! Christians are on the same team, fighting the same enemy, and the enemy is the devil, not another church! Let’s let the world see love in us!

Family is important. I have a sign in my home that says, Families are Forever, No Matter What. Families should be tight. We should learn to get along, and to show the love of God most at home. If we look at the bond between God the Father, Jesus the Son, and The Holy Spirit, we can see perfect unity. It should be that way in our families too. Take a moment and look outside your family. Is there someone who has had a special relationship with you other than your immediate family? What are some of the qualities you value in that person.? What have you learned about friendship from that person? Can you see the love of God through that person? So often, God places people in our lives to encourage us, to help us grow, and to become more like Jesus. Sometimes they are for a season, and sometimes they are for a lifetime. It is easy to take those relationships for granted. We should value and cherish those who build in our lives. We can be that kind of friend to someone else. I heard a speaker recently begin their sermon like this: I’m so excited about what the Lord is going to do today in you. There was a humility that we can emulate. How can I be a friend to someone who is needing something from God? We can take that stance, I am so excited about what the Lord is going to do in my friend today. Very often you might be the avenue God’s blessings come through.