I have a confession to make. I did not come with great willingness to live in the United States of America.

Carried Away Captive

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I joke that if you go to the Thousand Islands border crossing from Canada to the U.S. you will see my heel marks in the dirt where I was dragged across! The call to move to the States came at a time in my life, and the life of my family, when relocation was both emotionally painful and costly. I did ‘feel’ like I was being carried away captive.

Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace (Jer. 29:5-7).

But God.

In late 2003 my husband announced that he was being transferred to Pennsylvania from Toronto. By March of 2004, we had sold our house and begun the process of packing and goodbyes. I was a 42-year-old homeschooling mother of three children, ages 8, 5 and 3. I lived in a town close to family, houses of prayer, believing friends, nestled in a spot where others went on vacation. I was comfortable and well supported.

But God.

God’s Word Settles Us

There is much that I could write about God’s faithfulness to our family, and me personally, during that transitional time. Two things stand out and relate to how I pray for the United States.

The night before we moved, I attended a home group and just lay in the presence of the Lord. I was emotionally numb, knowing that this move was in God’s providence yet desiring nothing more than to find that it was all a mistake. As I rested in Him, He spoke three things to my wounded heart.

First, He told me that He was raising up a standard in the U.S. and that I was to be one of His standard bearers. I had a vision of myself carrying a large Canadian flag (red and white with a large maple leaf). I questioned the Lord about this image. I told him that the Americans had their own flag and did not need ours! He then said, “The leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations” (Rev. 22:3). Then I understood that somehow the Canadian flag with the large maple leaf in the middle would be somehow bound up with me bringing healing to the nations — certainly not alone but as part of God’s healing plan.

Second, He told me that Philadelphia, my new home, was the birthplace of the United States and that from there the nation would be reborn in revival. He asked me to be a part of praying for that rebirth.

Third, and last, and to my heart the most poignant, He reminded me that the largest number of Jewish people in the world outside of Israel live in the New York/New Jersey region, and my assignment was to pray them home to Israel.

I cannot pretend that even now I have full understanding of all that He showed me that night, but with each revelation my heart became more settled. It was up to me to believe and obey.

Psalm 16

The second standout happened after we moved. The early months were painfully lonely and disorienting. I had believed much that was simply untrue about the area into which we moved and, while my husband knew people from his work, I was utterly alone.

But God.

My good Shepherd then gave me a scripture which became an anchor to my soul, and further shaped my prayer for myself and the U.S.. He brought me to Psalm 16, and very specifically verses 2, 3, 5, and 6:

I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.’ I say of the holy people who are in the land, ‘They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.’  

Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely, I have a delightful inheritance. 

As I meditated on these verses, chewing on them daily (Jer. 15:16), I began to meet people who to this day are my dearest friends. They became my delight, a gift from the Lord. He supernaturally found us a church where I saw people that I had encountered in Toronto during the outpouring of the Father’s heart at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. My prayers now included God’s boundary lines which had indeed fallen in pleasant places — He had chosen exactly where we would go (Ps. 16:6)! I began to pray more earnestly for the peace of this new land to which he had brought me, knowing that my peace was wrapped up in its peace (Jer. 29:7). I now have a daughter and son who have married and settled here, and three grandchildren who know no home but the United States.

But God.

Early Prayers and now

In those revelatory and directional words He gave me before I left Canada were the seeds of prayers for this nation. I prayed for the standard of healing that God was raising up in the United Sates, a healing for the nation as a whole and for individuals. God then led me to become involved in our church’s inner healing and deliverance ministry, helping to bring people out of brokenness and into their God-given identity.

I pray for revival, specifically coming out of Philadelphia, the womb of the nation. I became involved with the Philadelphia Tabernacle of David, a multicultural house of prayer and worship in the center city. I contend for the healing and restoration of this City of Brotherly Love to fulfill its destiny.

And I pray earnestly that the Jewish people, the exiles of Israel, would hear the roar of the Lion of Judah and come trembling from the West (Hos.11:10). God connected me with an Aliyah ministry, Operation Exodus USA, whose sole focus in prayer and action is Aliyah from North America.

But God.

Citizenship

Then, in 2020, I became an American citizen in one of the last cohorts to be sworn in under Donald Trump’s presidency before Covid halted the process. As I sat in that room awaiting my turn to say the oath of allegiance, I was incredibly emotional. I love Canada. It is my birthplace and the home of many friends, family, and rich memories. But my tender fierce God whispered to my heart, “People are dying to get in here” and I felt the privilege of becoming a citizen and the responsibility upon me to pray for her welfare and to be daily grateful. My friends cheered and clapped as I was welcomed into the fabric of this nation.

My prayers shifted. This nation is no longer my exiled place. It is my home. I am an American. So with gratitude and humility I pray:

Father, I come as one who You called here, even with a heart still anchored in her homeland. I bow low in thanksgiving for all that You have done in me, my family, and my marriage as You separated us from all that was familiar. You have caused us to cleave more fully to You, trusting You in every circumstance (Ps. 16:7-8).

You have given us a deeper love for foreigners who come to this land seeking refuge and freedom and hope and healing. May we know how, as a nation and the church, to love these ones well and bring them into a relationship with the Healer, Jesus Christ (Lev. 19:33-34).

You, oh God, have deepened our appreciation of both the richness of the history of the U.S. and its sin. We can now stand in the gap and repent for the sins of our fathers and forefathers as You show them to us (Neh. 1:5-7). And we can worship You fully in Spirit and Truth for the legacy of liberty and innovation and pioneering zeal that is found here. I declare boldly Lev. 25:10, the scripture on the Liberty Bell, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto the inhabitants thereof.” Let this nation once again be the beacon of Liberty that You intended from its conception and birth.

Bring revival from the birthplace of the nation! Raise up Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, to fulfill its destiny from Rev.3:8. Redeem and restore her original intent.

God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I thank You for allowing this nation to be a refuge for Your people Israel, the Jewish exiles, as they fulfilled Jer. 29:5-7. I thank You for this nation’s history of friendship with Israel and ask that You will keep us as a sheep nation (Joel 3:1-3), blessing and not cursing Israel or her people (Gen. 12:3). I decree over the U.S., “Let My people go that they may serve and worship me!”

 I ask that the Jewish people in the land would recognize their exile and return to the land that their God has given them as their inheritance (1 Chron. 16:11-8; 34-35). Awaken us, Your church, to fulfill Jer. 31:10, “Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, And declare it in the isles afar off, and say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, And keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’ “ Awaken us both to boldly announce what God is doing – regathering Israel – and to help them return home (Is. 49:22)!

Finally, I pray and agree with Robert Hunt’s prayer of 1607, “We do hereby dedicate this Land, and ourselves, to reach the People within these shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to raise up Godly generations after us, and with these generations take the Kingdom of God to all the earth. May this Covenant of Dedication remain to all generations, as long as this earth remains and may this land, along with England, be evangelists to the world. May all who see this cross remember what we have done here, and may those who come here to inhabit join us in this Covenant and this most noble work, that the Holy Scriptures may be fulfilled. From these very shores the gospel shall go forth, not only to this new world, but the entire world. “

Amen.

Lori Meed is a leader on IFA’s Headline Prayer Live and an IFA Contributing Writer. In 2004, God moved her family from Canada to the U.S., imparting to them His heart for this country and for revival. Having walked out her own journey of freedom after being radically born again in 1992, Lori has a heart to see others set free to walk fully in their destiny. She is also passionate about teaching on aliyah (“going up,” the return of the Jews to the land of Israel), the feasts of the Lord, and the rich connections of the gentile churches to Israel. Photo credit: blackrancho via Canva Pro.