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Speaker 1: Let us pray be careful for nothing, but in everything,

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Speaker 1: by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be

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Speaker 1: made known unto God Philippians four six. Dear God, there

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Speaker 1: are so many things that I want to accomplish to day.

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Speaker 1: I have to take care of my family, pay bills,

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Speaker 1: keep my house in order, and work on top of

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Speaker 1: it all. Remind me to pray to you instead of

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Speaker 1: worrying about what the day will hold. Grant me the

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Speaker 1: energy to complete my daily tasks. Help me to lean

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Speaker 1: on you instead of allowing feelings of anxiety to take over.

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Speaker 1: I cast all my cares and concerns on to you

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Speaker 1: so that my heart can be joyful and remain at

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Speaker 1: peace to day. Amen. Thank you for listening to to

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Speaker 1: day's daily prayer. For more inspiration and an incredible message

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Speaker 1: from our feature pastor, stay tuned to pray dot COM's

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Speaker 1: Sunday service, Schalem.

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Speaker 2: This is l Exstein. I'm President and CEO of the

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Speaker 2: International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, the largest nonprofit in

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Speaker 2: Israel providing humanitarian aid to those in need. I am

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Speaker 2: so glad to be speaking to you the prey dot

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Speaker 2: com community. As you can imagine with the current situation

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Speaker 2: here in Israel, the Jewish people certainly need our prayers

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Speaker 2: now more than ever, and in this spirit of coming

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Speaker 2: together in prayer, I would like to share with you

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Speaker 2: one of my teachings about how we can make our

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Speaker 2: prayers even more powerful, based on ancient biblical teachings. Join

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Speaker 2: me now. Most of us know that prayer is very powerful.

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Speaker 2: For me. Prayers how I I get through each day,

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Speaker 2: from the moment I wake up until I go to sleep.

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Speaker 2: On today's episode, we're going to talk about how we

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Speaker 2: can make our prayers even more powerful than they already are.

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Speaker 2: We'll get the first official prayer in the Bible, in

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Speaker 2: the Book of Genesis, and I'll share the hidden secret

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Speaker 2: to getting our prayers answered. We all want to get

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Speaker 2: our prayers answered, and on this episode you'll learn some

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Speaker 2: techniques from the Jewish tradition that have been used for

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Speaker 2: thousands of years and are available to all of us today.

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Speaker 2: With so much to pray for these days, I'm so

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Speaker 2: excited to explore these ideas with you. Genesis chapters eighteen

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Speaker 2: through twenty two full of some of the Bible's best

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Speaker 2: known stories. It begins with the three men who visited

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Speaker 2: Abraham and foretold the birth of Isaac and follows with

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Speaker 2: the destruction of the wicked city of Sidome. In the

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Speaker 2: next story, we learn that Abraham moved to a place

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Speaker 2: called Gharar and that the king of Abimelek took Sarah

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Speaker 2: to his palace because she was beautiful. Abraham had told

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Speaker 2: Abimeleik that Sarah was his sister, but God came to

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Speaker 2: Abimelek in a dream and warned him that he would

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Speaker 2: die unless Sarah was returned to her husband. When Abimelek

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Speaker 2: confronted Abraham for not telling him the truth, he explained

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Speaker 2: that he was afraid that he would have been killed

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Speaker 2: over Sarah's beauty had the king known that he was

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Speaker 2: Sarah's husband. Ultimately, Abimelek returned Sarah to Abraham along with

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Speaker 2: many gifts. The verse that I want to focus on

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Speaker 2: today records what happened next. They are the last verses

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Speaker 2: of Genesis twenty and the first verses of Genesis twenty one. First,

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Speaker 2: I'll read Genesis twenty verses seventeen and eighteen. Then Abraham

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Speaker 2: prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife, and

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Speaker 2: his female slaves so that they could have children again,

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Speaker 2: for the Lord had kept all the women in Abimelek's

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Speaker 2: household from conceiving because of Abraham's wife, Sarah. These verses

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Speaker 2: revealed that while Sarah was being held captive, God brought

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Speaker 2: an affliction on Abimelek and the members of his household,

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Speaker 2: which prevented them from having children. The verses also tell

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Speaker 2: us that Abraham prayed on their behalf and that God

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Speaker 2: healed them, making it possible for the people to have

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Speaker 2: children again. This is the first official prayer in the Bible,

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Speaker 2: the first time that we see the Hebrew word vait balel,

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Speaker 2: which means and he prayed. Now I'll read the first

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Speaker 2: three verses of Genesis twenty one. Now the Lord was

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Speaker 2: gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord

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Speaker 2: did for Sarah what he had promis. Miss Sarah became

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Speaker 2: pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old

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Speaker 2: age at the very time God had promised him. Abraham

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Speaker 2: gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.

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Speaker 2: These verses tell us that finally, after decades of waiting,

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Speaker 2: Sarah became pregnant in her old age and gave birth

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Speaker 2: to Isaac. According to Jewish tradition, when two events appear

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Speaker 2: in the Bible back to back, it means that there

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Speaker 2: is a connection between them, not just chronologically, but also

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Speaker 2: in a deeper way. In this case, the rabbis explained

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Speaker 2: that the fact that we read about Sarah's pregnancy immediately

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Speaker 2: after Abraham prayed for Abimelek's wife to conceive teaches us

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Speaker 2: a powerful secret about prayer. You might have guessed it.

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Speaker 2: When we pray for others, our own prayers our answer.

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Speaker 2: Judaism has a lot to say about prayer, and I

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Speaker 2: could easily fill ten podcast episodes on this specific topic,

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Speaker 2: but for now, I want to focus on three of

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Speaker 2: the most valuable and practical Jewish insights into how we

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Speaker 2: can get our prayers answered. One of the best ways

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Speaker 2: to get our own prayers answered is to pray for

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Speaker 2: someone else who has the very same need that we do.

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Speaker 2: This means that if I need a job, instead of

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Speaker 2: just praying that I get a job, I should pray

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Speaker 2: for someone I know who is also out of work.

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Speaker 2: Or if I need healing, instead of just praying for

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Speaker 2: God to heal me, I should pray, really pray with

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Speaker 2: all of my heart for someone else who is sick.

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Speaker 2: Can you imagine what the world would look like if

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Speaker 2: every time we needed something, we prayed for someone else

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Speaker 2: in need. Can you imagine how that might change our

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Speaker 2: relationship not only with God, but with each other and

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Speaker 2: connect us on a deeper level. I remember learning about

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Speaker 2: this idea when I was in high school and thinking

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Speaker 2: what a beautiful concept it is. But then one of

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Speaker 2: my classmates asked a really good question. She said, does

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Speaker 2: this work even if we pray for someone else only

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Speaker 2: for the sake of getting our own prayer? Answered, Abraham's

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Speaker 2: prayer was selfless, and sincere, what happens if we pray

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Speaker 2: for someone else only so that we can benefit ourselves?

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Speaker 2: Our teacher answered that yes, the concept still holds true

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Speaker 2: even if our motives are essentially selfish. He explained with

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Speaker 2: an analogy. He said, grass needs the blessing of water

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Speaker 2: in order to survive and grow. One way for grass

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Speaker 2: to receive water is for the water to trap from

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Speaker 2: a faucet through a hose to the garden where the

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Speaker 2: grass is. Since the hose is the channel for the

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Speaker 2: water to reach the grass, it inevitably gets wet from

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Speaker 2: the water too. In the same way, when we bring

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Speaker 2: blessings to someone else. Through our prayers, we are inevitably

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Speaker 2: touched by the blessing as well. God is the source

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Speaker 2: of all blessings, but through prayer, we can be the

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Speaker 2: channel that brings God's blessings into the world. When we

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Speaker 2: pray for ourselves, we connect ourselves to God. But when

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Speaker 2: we pray for others, we become the channel that connects

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Speaker 2: someone else to God. Then when God sends down the

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Speaker 2: blessings that we prayed for, we are filled with blessings too. Wow,

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Speaker 2: this is such a powerful way to give and receive.

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Speaker 2: By praying for others, we can serve as a conduit

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Speaker 2: of God's blessing for other people and to reap the

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Speaker 2: benefits ourselves too. When we become aware of someone in need,

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Speaker 2: it is a privilege to pray for that person. Our

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Speaker 2: prayers can bring countless blessings to people in need, and

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Speaker 2: you know what, it starts with ourselves. This prayer tip

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Speaker 2: is tried and true. There are countless stories of childless

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Speaker 2: couples that prayed for other childless couples and you know what,

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Speaker 2: they both ended up with children, or someone who wanted

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Speaker 2: to get married so bad and they prayed for someone

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Speaker 2: else trying to find a spouse, and you guessed it,

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Speaker 2: they both ended up finding their soulmates. But don't take

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Speaker 2: my word for it, try it out yourself. So my

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Speaker 2: first tip for getting your prayers answered is prayer for

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Speaker 2: other people, and my second prayer tip for you is

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Speaker 2: to pray with other people. Judaism has a really unique

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Speaker 2: concept called amnion, which is a prayer quorum made up

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Speaker 2: of ten men over the age of thirteen. This is

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Speaker 2: what biblically is looked at as the age of becoming

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Speaker 2: a man. Ideally, Jews pray together with Aminion a quorum,

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Speaker 2: three times a day. This practice isn't modern, it actually

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Speaker 2: goes back to Biblical times. But one of the amazing

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Speaker 2: things about the state of Israel today is seeing how

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Speaker 2: this practice plays out in modern times. It's not unusual

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Speaker 2: to witness a group of men gathering for afternoon prayer

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Speaker 2: services inside the halls of a cutting edge tech company

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Speaker 2: or in a designated room inside a mall built especially

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Speaker 2: for this purpose. And if you've ever flown to Israel,

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Speaker 2: you might have known group of Jews gathering in the

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Speaker 2: back of an airplane praying together. They do that in

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Speaker 2: order to pray with a minion with a group of

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Speaker 2: at least ten men, even when traveling. I remember being

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Speaker 2: in the Knesset, in the parliamentary government building in Israel

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Speaker 2: and seeing a mignon there ten men made up of

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Speaker 2: security officials, bodyguards, mks, congress people, everyone getting together to

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Speaker 2: pray in a quorum. The biblical source for the prayer

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Speaker 2: quorum is Leviticus twenty two thirty two, where God says

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Speaker 2: that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel.

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Speaker 2: This teaches us that God's name should be sanctified in

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Speaker 2: prayer among a group of people. Of course, we can

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Speaker 2: and should pray to God on our own all day long,

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Speaker 2: and some of our deepest prayer come out when we

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Speaker 2: are alone. But according to Jewish tradition, there is a

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Speaker 2: certain power that comes from praying together with a group

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Speaker 2: that you can't reach when you're praying alone. Have you

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Speaker 2: ever felt this before? Have you felt the holiness that

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Speaker 2: comes from a group of people all praising God at

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Speaker 2: the same time. Some of us only realize the power

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Speaker 2: of praying together when we couldn't do that. During the

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Speaker 2: coronavirus pandemic, Suddenly we realized what a privilege it is

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Speaker 2: to pray together in our church, or in our synagogue,

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Speaker 2: or even with just a group of friends. This is

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Speaker 2: why we started to hold monthly fellowship prayer calls in

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty. We realized that so many of us were

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Speaker 2: suffering by not being able to pray together with our communities,

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Speaker 2: and we recognize the tremendous power in coming together in prayer.

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Speaker 2: And these virtual prayer gatherings have been so successful, with

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Speaker 2: thousands of people joining each one, that we decided to

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Speaker 2: continue them even as things have returned back to normal.

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Speaker 2: There is so much power, my friends, in people coming

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Speaker 2: together to pray, both for each other and with each other.

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Speaker 2: Jewish tradition teaches that the benefits of praying with others

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Speaker 2: is so great that a person should make every effort

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Speaker 2: to do so. When we pray together, we strengthen each

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Speaker 2: other's prayers. One person might pray with an incredible amount

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Speaker 2: of love for God, another person might pray with an

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Speaker 2: extraordinary amount of faith, and another person might have tremendous

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Speaker 2: passion and prayer. And you know what, as a group,

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Speaker 2: each of our individual strengths benefit everyone else's prayers. Recently,

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Speaker 2: I witness the power of a group prayer firsthand. I

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Speaker 2: have a friend who waited a long time to find

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Speaker 2: a wife. He finally got married in his early forties,

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Speaker 2: and everyone was so happy for him, all of his

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Speaker 2: friends from his entire life, from the people he knew

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Speaker 2: in high school to the people he knew in college

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Speaker 2: to the workforce. Everyone was just so happy for him,

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Speaker 2: rejoicing that he finally got married. But just a year later,

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Speaker 2: my friend's wife became very sick from a rare allergic

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Speaker 2: reaction that was life threatening. At one point, the doctors

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Speaker 2: told my friend that this situation was just about hopeless.

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Speaker 2: His wife, who was by that time in a coma,

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Speaker 2: would never recover. She had one percent rate of survival.

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Speaker 2: When I heard the news, I just broke down. I

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Speaker 2: was crying. I was devastated, and so were hundreds of

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Speaker 2: people around the world who knew and loved this special couple.

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Speaker 2: I saw all over Facebook and Instagram. All my messages

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Speaker 2: were to pray for this amazing woman who had one

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Speaker 2: percent chance to live. We arranged prayer groups all over

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Speaker 2: the world and prayed together for miraculous healing. There were

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Speaker 2: online spiritual prayer groups, and groups of us went directly

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Speaker 2: to the hospital, standing outside together praying for not only

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Speaker 2: her survival, but her full recovery. We knew it didn't

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Speaker 2: matter what the doctor said. Nothing is too big for God.

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Speaker 2: And you know what, Praise God barru jassem. Our prayers

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Speaker 2: were answered. My friend's wife made a miraculous and full

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Speaker 2: recovery that the doctors couldn't even believe. And just a

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Speaker 2: few months later she became pregnant and had a beautiful,

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Speaker 2: healthy baby. Just recently, they were at my home for

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Speaker 2: a visit, and all I could think was, Wow, God

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Speaker 2: is great. Prayer is so powerful and no one should

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Speaker 2: ever give up hope. Anything is possible with God, and

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Speaker 2: when we pray together, miracles are even more likely to

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Speaker 2: manifest in our own lives. The third and final tip

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Speaker 2: that I want to share with you today is simply

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Speaker 2: to keep praying. To pray again and again and again,

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Speaker 2: never stop. In Deuterotomy, chapter three, scripture tells us how

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Speaker 2: Moses prayed to God to let him enter the Holy Land.

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Speaker 2: According to Jewish tradition, Moses begged God and prayed the

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Speaker 2: same prayer to let him enter the land of Israel

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Speaker 2: five hundred and fifteen times. But in verse twenty six,

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Speaker 2: God told Moses to stop praying. He said, that is enough.

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Speaker 2: Do not speak to me anymore this matter. The implication

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Speaker 2: is that if Moses continued praying, God would have relented.

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Speaker 2: Moses would have forced God's hand, so to speak. For

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Speaker 2: reasons we can't understand, God didn't want to answer Moses's prayer.

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Speaker 2: But the lesson for us is that if we haven't

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Speaker 2: received an answer to our prayer, we should keep praying.

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Speaker 2: Sometimes we pray for something and God answers us right away,

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Speaker 2: But other times we pray and what we asked for

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Speaker 2: doesn't happen. Sometimes we give up right then and there.

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Speaker 2: Other times we pray a second time or a third.

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Speaker 2: But how many of us have prayed five hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifteen times like Moses did. The Rabbis taught that prayer

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Speaker 2: is like digging a tunnel between us and what we

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Speaker 2: are praying for. Every prayer brings us closer to what

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Speaker 2: we are asking for. Some things take a few prayers,

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Speaker 2: and other things take a lifetime of prayer, But if

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Speaker 2: we keep praying, we will eventually see a breakthrough. This

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Speaker 2: is also something that I've witnessed in my own life. Recently.

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Speaker 2: Fifteen years ago, my amazing sister Talia was divorced, living

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Speaker 2: in Florida and bringing up two of the most incredible children.

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Speaker 2: I would pray to God that she would meet someone

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Speaker 2: in Israel, get married, and move here to Israel near me.

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Speaker 2: I wanted to just go out to coffee with her,

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Speaker 2: to see my niece and nephew, to have the cousins

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Speaker 2: get together, to be together for holidays and birthdays. Ah.

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Speaker 2: I envisioned this and it felt like a dream. I

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Speaker 2: prayed for it over and over and over again for

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Speaker 2: one year, for five years, for ten years, for twelve years,

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Speaker 2: I would pray non stop. And then, just when I

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Speaker 2: began to lose hope that my prayer would never be answered,

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Speaker 2: a wonderful man in Israel reached out to Talia seemingly

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Speaker 2: out of the blue. Somehow he came across Talia online

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Speaker 2: and the second he saw her picture, he thought to himself,

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Speaker 2: I'm going to marry her. And you know what, That's

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Speaker 2: exactly what happened. And just a few months ago, Talia

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Speaker 2: and her beautiful family moved to Israel. Wow, we suddenly

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Speaker 2: get to have the holidays together, celebrate birthdays together, go

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Speaker 2: out to coffee, all those things that I prayed about,

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Speaker 2: and I know that she prayed about as well. I

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Speaker 2: look at her living in Israel and she is so happy,

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Speaker 2: and I'm so grateful to God for answering our prayers.

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Speaker 2: It may have taken a while fifteen years, but eventually

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Speaker 2: our prayers, me and my sisters were answered in exactly

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Speaker 2: the right way at exactly the right time. If you

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Speaker 2: have been praying for something and it hasn't happened yet,

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Speaker 2: don't give up. Pray, pray, and pray again. You never

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Speaker 2: know the next prayer just might be the one that

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Speaker 2: changes everything. So these are my three tips from the

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Speaker 2: Jewish tradition forgetting your prayers answered. Pray for others, pray

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Speaker 2: with others, and pray yet another prayer. But before we

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Speaker 2: wrap up, I need to add an important disclaimer. God

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Speaker 2: is not a vending machine. We can press all of

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Speaker 2: the right buttons and do all of the right things,

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Speaker 2: and still we may not receive what we have asked for.

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Speaker 2: And you know what, God is not obligated to give

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Speaker 2: it to us. The topic of unanswered prayers is a

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Speaker 2: topic and to itself, and I hope to do an

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Speaker 2: episode on that in the future, but for now, I'll

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Speaker 2: say this ding to Jewish tradition, no prayer is ever wasted.

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Speaker 2: God hears all prayers and answers them all in the

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Speaker 2: right way and at the right time, and sometimes in

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Speaker 2: ways that we cannot see or understand, but know with

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Speaker 2: full confidence that every single prayer brings blessings to the world.

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Speaker 2: We can never give up or ever stop praying. Prayer

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Speaker 2: is our greatest source of power. It's our only real

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Speaker 2: source of power in life. It's up to us to

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Speaker 2: make the most of it. In Psalm seventeen six, we read,

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Speaker 2: I call on you, my God, for you will answer me.

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Speaker 2: Turn your ear to me and hear my prayer. The

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Speaker 2: fact that we can speak directly to the Master of

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Speaker 2: the universe, and that he hears every single one of

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Speaker 2: our words is truly amazing. Take time this week to

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Speaker 2: check in with your prayer life. Do you have enough

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Speaker 2: space and time in your daily schedule to really pray

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Speaker 2: and connect with God? Can you upgrade your prayers with

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Speaker 2: one of the tips that we mentioned today, like praying

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Speaker 2: for someone else or praying with a group. Is there

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Speaker 2: something that you've stopped praying about that you might consider

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Speaker 2: praying for again with renewed hope and confidence. What else

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Speaker 2: can you do to help bring your prayers to the

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Speaker 2: next level. I hope that the ideas that I shared

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Speaker 2: with you today inspire your prayers. And if you try

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Speaker 2: out any of these tips, I want to know, I

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Speaker 2: want to hear about it. Write to me. I pray

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Speaker 2: that God answers all of the prayers in your heart,

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Speaker 2: and may He answer our collective prayers for shaalom for peace,

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Speaker 2: for refua for healing, and forget oolah for redemption. Chevuetov,

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Speaker 2: my friends, have a wonderful week from here in the

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Speaker 2: Holy Land on behalf of the International Fellowship of Christians

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Speaker 2: and Jews. This is you, l x Stein saying thank

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Speaker 2: you Todarabah for listening to this podcast on behalf of

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Speaker 2: the Fellowship and the people of Israel. Thank you for

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Speaker 2: your prayers and support for God's people in our time

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Speaker 2: of need. Please join me from more ancient biblical teachings

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Speaker 2: that will surely uplift and enrich your faith and prayer

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Speaker 2: life by visiting my channel on pray dot com or

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Speaker 2: the Fellowship website at IFCJ dot org.

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Speaker 3: The podcast The Bible in a Year with Jack Graham

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Speaker 3: is a moving and inspiring biblical audio experience that will

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Speaker 3: help you master wisdom from the world's greatest book. In

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Speaker 3: each episode, you'll learn to apply Biblical principles to everyday life.

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Speaker 3: Each cinematic episode is a journey through the Bible's most

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Speaker 3: profound stories that will strengthen your appreciation of the word

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Speaker 3: and inspire you to keep learning. Listen to the Bible

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Speaker 3: in a Year with Jack Graham on the iHeartRadio app

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Speaker 3: or wherever you get your podcasts.