The theme for Open Heaven Daily Devotional August 8 2023 is Intercede II
SCRIPTURE: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:10
God doesn’t only need people who will pray for others, He also needs people to enforce His Will on earth. For example, when elections are coming up in your state or country, you and other Christians in that vicinity should come together and pray fervently that only the will of God would stand. You must pray these kinds of prayers not only during elections but all the time. The Lord said in Isaiah 62:1: “For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.”
When you hear of or know someone working especially hard for the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth, you should begin to pray for that fellow.
Your prayer and fasting for that person will be very instrumental in their success and you will also be a part of that success. In Esther 4:15-17, when Esther was going to turn around the evil policy that sought to kill the Israelites, she asked that everyone on her team should fast and pray for her. That is why she received so much favour from the king, so that he quickly ordered the death of his well-trusted right-hand man who had generated the said evil policy.
We need to pray for our leaders. They may not tell you, but they face a lot of battles from the devil and need your prayers to win these battles. Pastors are included in this group; you must pray for pastors and ministers of the gospel if you want the Kingdom of God to continue to win against the devil.
Lastly, Matthew 5:44 says you should pray for people who despise and persecute you:
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Can you pray for people who are about to kill you? That is what Stephen did in Acts 7:60 and we see the result in Acts 8:1-8 when Jesus came Himself to witness to Saul, who later became one of the greatest Apostles of his time. Pray for those doing evil too, for them to encounter God and they may be some of the greatest vessels of the Lord in their time.
Open Heaven For Today 8 August 2023 Prayer Point
Spend some time praying for your country, your state, and the people you know in the different categories discussed in today’s message.