Starting Now

There are places at times that our hearts just long for. Paul knew this well. He wrote in Romans

“ I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong” Romans 1:11

Maybe there is a nation or a place in the world that you think of like this. You long to be doing spiritual work there today. You may be in a season in which going to that nation isn't possible due to conflict in the area, health or life conditions that have happened in your life, or a variety of other reasons. Paul wrote just a few verses later in that same letter:

“I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.” Romans 1:13

There is a way that you can effect massive healing and change for that nation starting today- even from a distance. The apostle Paul's ministry, as evident in all his letters, was clearly one of intercession. While the phrase “there is power in prayer” seems rote, it is very true.

We see Jesus come up on the centurion in Matthew 8:5-13, and the centurion's servant was suffering from paralysis. He knew, however, the long distance power of prayer. When Jesus offered to come to him, the faith of the centurion responds that he knows Jesus's healing would be just as effecting from a distance. True to his faith, in that very moment, the servant was healed.

Through prayer, we have the power to be all over the world in a moment. And it doesn't just stop at healing. National change can be effected through fasting and prayer, and we have evidence of this in the Old Testament. Esther had Mordecai and the Jews enter a time of prayerful fasting before she approached the king, and the result was deliverance and radical legal change.

Wherever God has you stationed right now in the world, don't let your prayers be limited to that place. Begin praying for other nations with the same purposefulness and strategy modeled by Esther, Paul, Jesus, and many more. These prayers prepare the way for the Lord and the workers in those nations.