Prayer changes things. It can even "move mountains" (Mark 11:23-24).
Prayer is so important that Yeshua had a regular discipline of praying early in the morning before the sun came up (Mark 1:35). His primary "job" now is interceding for us in heaven (Rom. 8:34).
Prayer changes us. It changes our will: "Not my will but Yours" (Matt. 26:39). It removes our sin ("forgive us our sins"), our unforgiveness ("as we forgive others"), our tendency to sin ("lead us not into temptation"), and attacks against us ("deliver us from evil") (Matt. 6:12-13).
Prayer changes the world around us. It moves the will of heaven down into the earth (Matt. 6:10). It moves angelic powers to change history (Dan. 9:20-23; Rev. 8:2-5). It can even stop the sun from moving (Josh. 10:11-13).
We are called to pray for all people, but particularly for government leaders and those in positions of authority. "Therefore I exhort first of all that you make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for everyone, for kings and for all who are in authority" (1 Tim. 2:1-2). This is an issue of strategic priorities.
You can't just pray one by one for every single person in the world. So obviously we would want to pray for those who have the largest amount of influence over other people. When we pray for government leaders, we in effect pray for all the people living in their nation or serving in their organization.
Who has the most influence and authority in the world today? Donald Trump probably is the foremost. What about U.S. Vice President Mike Pence? Or Guterres, the Portuguese U.N. General Secretary? Or Pope Francis? Or Russia's Putin, China's Xi Jinping, Germany's Merkel? Or the leader of whatever country you live in? In Israel we have Prime Minister Netanyahu, key government leaders like Bennet and Lapid, as well as Jerusalem Mayor Barkat.
Imagine how you could change the whole word by even such a small investment of 15 minutes of daily, concentrated, faith-filled prayer for key people in government, business, religion and media! Pray for those who shape others' opinions.
Our prayers can influence their decisions. Here is one key how to pray for them: Proverbs 21:1 says, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water; He turns it to any place He will." Along with with our prayers, God can influence government leaders, who will in turn influence those around them.
I encourage you to choose a small number of key leaders, and pray for them daily in a focused way. God will tilt them, turn them, bend them, cause them to make right decisions, and have them act according to His will even if they didn't understand why. This is a very effective tactic to change our world for the better. 
Asher Intrater is the founder and apostolic leader of Revive Israel Ministries and oversees Ahavat Yeshua congregation in Jerusalem and Tiferet Yeshua congregation in Tel Aviv. Asher was one of the founders of Tikkun International with Dan Juster and Eitan Shishkoff and serves on the board of the Messianic Alliance of Israel and Aglow International. He and his wife and full-time partner in ministry, Betty, have a passion for personal prayer and devotion, local evangelism and discipleship in Hebrew and unity of the body of believers worldwide.
This article originally appeared at tribe.reviveisrael.org.
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