When Intercession Shapes Nations

Thursday, January 15, 2026

Year Theme: Watchmen on the Walls — Intercession for Israel, the Nations & the Peace of Jerusalem

Month Theme: Foundations of Intercession — Standing in God’s Covenant Purposes

Week Theme: Intercession as Incense Before God

Scriptures: 

Esther 4 | Jeremiah 29:7 | Psalm 2 | 1 Timothy 2:1–4

Esther’s story opens quietly, almost invisibly, in the corridors of imperial power. A young woman, far from the center of public religious life, is placed by circumstance into proximity with authority. Yet the turning point of the narrative does not occur in the throne room. It happens in fasting, prayer, and a decision to stand before God before standing before a king. This pattern reveals a truth the Church has learned again and again: history often turns on prayers that never make headlines. As Richard Foster observed, “History is moved by prayerful people who seem insignificant to the world but are mighty before God.”¹ You maybe one of those God is using in the quite to turn the wheels of history and to shape nations.

In Esther 4, the crisis is national and existential. Intercession precedes action. The Hebrew sense behind the call to fast carries the idea of afflicting the soul—voluntary humility before God. Before policy shifts, before decrees are overturned, hearts are aligned. This same principle appears when Jeremiah instructs exiles to “seek the peace of the city” (Jeremiah 29:7). Prayer is not escapism; it is engagement at the deepest level. Intercession does not withdraw from public life—it reshapes it from the inside.

Psalm 2 lifts the curtain further. Nations rage, rulers plot, and global power dynamics clash, yet heaven is not anxious. God’s purposes stand above all. Intercessory prayer brings believers into alignment with this larger reality. It refuses to interpret events only through fear or politics. N. T. Wright notes that prayer is one of the primary ways believers learn to see the world “as the place where God’s sovereign purposes are already at work.”² Intercession trains discernment.

The apostle Paul grounds this truth pastorally. He urges “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks…for all men, for kings and all who are in authority” (1 Timothy 2:1–4). The Greek term enteuxis translated “intercessions” conveys confident, purposeful appeal—approaching God on behalf of others with assurance. Such prayer recognizes that leadership decisions, national stability, and the spread of the gospel are spiritually connected.

Church history confirms this dynamic. Movements of reform, relief, and mission have often been preceded by sustained prayer for rulers, cities, and peoples. Intercession does not guarantee immediate change, but it prepares the ground for it. So the pertinent questions to reflect on are: Do we pray only when nations fail us, or do we pray consistently so that God may guide them? Do we intercede for Israel and the nations merely as observers, or as covenant partners who understand the weight of prayer?

As the Church prays today—amid wars, displacement, and global uncertainty—intercession remains a shaping force. Dallas Willard once remarked that prayer is “the place where we participate most directly in God’s governance of the world.”³ This is not triumphalism; it is trust. God chooses to work through praying people and it a mystery.

Prayer

Sovereign God, You rule above the nations, yet You invite Your people to pray. Teach us to intercede with wisdom, humility, and perseverance. We lift before You Your Church, that she may speak truth with courage; missions, that the gospel may advance freely; Israel, that Your covenant purposes may be fulfilled; and the nations, that leaders may govern with justice and peace. Shape history according to Your mercy as we stand faithfully in the place of prayer. Amen.

Endnotes

1. Richard J. Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home.

2. N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God.

3. Dallas Willard, Hearing God.