“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; May they prosper who love you.”
(Psalm 122:6)
Our society is facing challenging times, as the Word teaches us. Many things are being shaken, and we hear of wars and rumors of war. It is no secret that the people of Israel are going through a difficult situation at this time, and I feel in my heart that the Lord’s call is for the entire Church worldwide to unite in prayer.
When we started the International Charismatic Mission, the Lord gave us the promise from Genesis 12:2-3:
2 will make you a great nation; I will bless you. And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you, And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
We know that over the years, God has been faithful and has fulfilled His promise. However, most people only memorize the first verse and the end of the third verse, but for us, from the beginning, it was clear that we should bless the people of Israel.
In fact, with the leadership of that time, we committed to pray for Israel, where we would pray for this nation every time we consumed food, which we have continued to do to this day.
Therefore, in this blog, I want to teach you how and why, as believers, we should pray for Israel.
Blessing Israel is our duty as believers.
In His conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus taught that salvation comes from the Jews, and not only this but the entire Bible was revealed to the people of God to be later shared with all of us. Our two greatest treasures—the Salvation and the Word—come from Israel, so our attitude towards them should always be gratitude and blessing.
A true believer loves Israel as if it were their nation.
Our attitude toward Israel determines whether we live in blessing or cursing.
“I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you.”
This passage is evident because it teaches us that God Himself will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse it. Also, the Psalm I shared at the beginning shows us that we must pray for the peace of Jerusalem and that those who do so will prosper. Blessing Israel and praying for its peace opens the door to blessing in our own lives.
How to pray for Israel
1. Join the prayer commitment.
- As I mentioned, this commitment involves praying for the peace of Israel every time you eat during the day.
- It is something that you should do every day.
2. Set aside a specific time in your day to pray for Israel
It doesn’t have to take too much time; simply take 5-10 minutes each day to bless and surround Israel with your prayers.
3. Declare the promises of the Word.
Remember that confessing what the Bible says is the best way to pray. If you don’t know how to pray, you can look for some biblical texts and repeat them aloud. For example, Psalm 121 or the text from Daniel chapter 9, I share them with you here so you can have them at hand.
Psalms 121:1-8 NKJV
1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help? 2 My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade at your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night. 7 The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. 8 The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore.
Daniel 9:4-19:
4 And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. 6 Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. 7 O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.
8 “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. 10 We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. 12 And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.
13 “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. 14 Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!
16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. 17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
Thank you for being sensitive to these times, and may the Lord reward each of your prayers.
César Castellanos