January 30, 2010
We’ve all heard the phrase, “doing things in vain.” It implies wasting time doing something and not getting the desired outcome. Lots of times it’s because we didn’t do things the right way. Webster’s Dictionary© defines the word vain this way: “Marked by futility or ineffectualness; worthless; unsuccessful; useless.” We’ve seen the warning God gives us regarding the focus for our families. “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in VAIN that build it” (Psalm 127:1). And we all know of examples of this truth coming true. To build your family on core values other than the Bible proves to be useless, ineffective, worthless, and unsuccessful in the eyes of God. Because God does say, “And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto ALL THAT I COMMAND thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee” (1 Kings 11:38). In this case He was describing the formula for King Jeroboam to have a successful kingdom. But the principle is that God promises results if done the right way…His way.
But look at this warning that Jesus gave to the people of His day. “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their MUCH SPEAKING” (Matthew 6:7). Make no mistake, you can pray all you want and your praying can still be in vain. It will be useless. It will be ineffective. It will be unsuccessful. So if praying for something or someone is extremely important to you, you better pray the way God suggests in the Bible. Specifically, I want to tie this in to the last two weeks about witnessing to our families with the overall goal of their salvation. I hope this is a help to you, as it was when it was taught to me.
Praying for your loved ones to be saved consists of four areas to focus on while praying. First, we need to pray for the lost individual. Then, we need to pray for the one who will be bringing the gospel message to that loved one. Third, we need to pray for the Word of God that will be presented to this loved one. Lastly, it’s important to pray for revival. These are the four basic areas in which to pray. Each of these has about five or six Scriptural truths that you’ll find are essential to getting someone to accept the Lord.
We need to implore the Lord to do five things in the individual’s life. First is that God would sanctify them: “Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied” (1Peter 1:2). God will set someone apart and begin bringing influences into their lives. Then we must ask the Lord to do good for our loved one. This is because in Romans 2:4 we see that the “goodness of God leadeath thee to repentance.” In Luke 10:1-5 we find Jesus instructing his disciples to witness to people by first saying, “Peace unto this house.” Thirdly, we must pray that the Lord would convict the hearts of our loved one. According to John 16:9, it is the very sin of not believing on Jesus that the Holy Spirit will convict a person of. It is also this very sin of not believing on Jesus that will send a person to Hell. The fourth point to remember to include in our prayers is for God to illuminate their mind to the truth. It is God who will do this for the person: “For God, WHO COMMANDED THE LIGHT to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2Corinthians 4:6). Lastly, we must be willing to pray that the Lord uses whatever it takes to bring this loved one to salvation. Once God has sanctified the individual, and showered goodness and blessing upon them, and once He has convicted then of their need for salvation and illuminated their mind to the truth, only God knows the depths He needs to take that person to accept their need for salvation. Some hit “rock bottom” in their sinful lifestyle. Others may suffer a devastating tragedy. Still others may need to be brought to the brink of death. Ultimately, it’s God’s decision how to proceed.
The soul winner must be prayed for. Whether the individual is you or not, there are several areas of focus needed for our prayers to effectively help the eventual soul winner. For instance, we need them to be filled with the Holy Spirit: “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The reason we need to have the Holy Spirit fill those who will take the gospel to someone is because the Holy Spirit will equip the witness with many necessary attributes. Boldness: “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word with boldness” (Acts 4:31). Wisdom: “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise” (Proverbs 11:30). Zeal: “For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis” (Colossians 4:13). Compassion: “And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (Jude 22-23). Divine Insight: “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3). OK! So at this point we are half way through the formula for praying for our unsaved loved ones.
I know it sounds funny to pray for the Word of God, but there are two reasons to pray for it. First of all, no one will get saved apart form hearing the Word of God. Whether it’s written or verbal, the Word of God is essential to the salvation of anyone. The second reason is that Satan attacks the Word of God and tries hard to prevent people from delivering it or receiving it. Of course, there are specific things we need to pray about regarding the Scriptures as they relate to the salvation of our loved ones. First, we have to pray that God’s Word would be unhindered. “Finally brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you” (2 Thessalonians 3:1). Secondly, God word must be glorified (2 Thessalonians 3:1). God’s word also needs to be multiplied. “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” (2 Corinthians 9:6). It may take more than one time witnessing to somebody, or it may take several people witnessing over time. The point is, sowing God’s word into the hearts of our loved ones sparingly will yield sparse numbers. Next, we must pray that God’s Word would prevail. “So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed” (Acts 19:20). In this verse, prevail means to be strong and powerful, which we know it can be…if it’s not hindered. Lastly, we need to pray that God’s Word would be effective. “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). As the old preacher Lee Thomas writes: “God intends for His word to be effective; ask Him to make it so and you will be praying in His divine will and your prayers will be answered.”
Revival must begin in our individual hearts. A couple of definitions of revival help us understand why it is so important. One definition is that revival is a renewed attention to or interest in something. Another definition is that of a restoration of force, validity, or effect. There was a time in all of our lives after we got saved and began growing and learning, that we wanted to tell everyone who would listen about salvation. Over time, we got lazy, or worse…apathetic. We lost the compassion for people, which drives our passion for sharing our faith. That’s what needs to be revived in our hearts. We need God to renew our interest in the fate of our loved ones. We need God to get us interested in souls again.
Once we are revived, we must begin praying intercessory prayer again. We must begin praying almost exclusively for others. Putting others’ needs before our own interests is what will move God to not only work in their lives, but also for God to work in our lives as well. After all the suffering Job endured throughout his lifetime, it was at a moment that Job was praying for others that God restored and blessed him: “And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: Also, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10).
Charles Finney put it this way about revival and intercessory prayer: “Not only were prayer meetings greatly multiplied and fully attended [during times of revival]…but there was a mighty spirit of secret prayer. Christians prayed a great deal, many of them spending hours in private prayer. It was also the case that two, or more, would take the promise: “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven” (Matthew 18:19) and make some particular person a subject of prayer; and it was wonderful to what extent they prevailed. Answers to prayer were so manifestly multiplied on every side, that no one could escape the conviction that God was daily and hourly answering prayer.” That doesn’t sound much like us today, collectively, as a whole Church.
A single match can scorch tens of thousands of acres of forest. That single small flame will give its power to the nearest entity to it, maybe a branch or a pine cone, and that will catch fire and continue to spread the flames to the next item it comes into contact with. The fire will spread outward from a single point. It’s always local in the beginning before reaching to points farther away. So don’t wait for revival to come to you…let God start it in your heart and let someone you’re in contact with catch fire too. Then, watch it spread over the local church and the neighboring communities and regions. Centuries ago the revivals burned so strong that they spread across the Atlantic Ocean!
Let’s put this all together in a neat little vignette. You want desperately for God to work in your brother Jim’s life so that Jim would be saved. Begin praying that God would put a hedge of protection (sanctify) around Jim and that God would begin sending influences into Jim’s life. Pray that God would fill his life with good things. Examples of this could be that God would protect him from harm if he were drug addict. Or maybe he has a terminal illness, but God will minister to him by maintaining his mental capacities long enough to be witnessed to. There are different ways we can ask God’s to express His goodness on a person that are specific to that individual. Now that God has set apart Jim and has preserved him to this point, you begin praying for God to give Jim unrest about his life and where it’s taken him. You want God to make Jim understand he is lacking something (conviction). Of course, conviction is not a guarantee of impending salvation, so not only do we pray that Jim would have an open heart to the gospel, but that he would have an open mind (illumination) as well. With all that in place, we can’t forget to ask the Lord to convert (save) Jim.
Whether we will be the one, or one of the ones witnessing to Jim, that person, or persons, must be filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. This power will yield boldness to fight the fears. The Holy Spirit’s power will grant us wisdom to know what to say…how much to say…and when to say it. We need to pray the Holy Spirit gives us zeal to be excited about sharing the gospel and let that enthusiasm be contagious. We must not forget the role compassion plays, and as the Holy Spirit gives this compassion to us, it will create the passion for soul winning that needs to be revived in us. Lastly, the Holy Spirit can give us divine insight to know when to go…who to go to…when to leave…and who to avoid.
Even before we are there ready to witness, we must ask that God would remove all distractions and that His Word would be unhindered. Imagine meeting Jim at his office during business hours with phones and pagers going off all the time. That’s not a good environment. Pray that God will show you a quiet place and a quiet time to allow for the undivided attention that gospel needs. We have to pray that Jim will at least appreciate God’s Word for what it is and at the very least respect it with the reverence it deserves. Then, pray that God will not only use this one time of witnessing to Jim, but that Jim would have the gospel multiplied, that is, that Jim would hear the gospel message many times from many other witnesses. Then, we want to pray that God would exercise the force of His Word on the heart and mind of Jim that it might be effective in bringing the desired outcome…the salvation of Jim.
But it all starts with praying for a revival in our hearts. That’s the only prayer we can pray for ourselves that is actually not a selfish prayer. Revival in our hearts only stands to benefit the loved ones in our lives who need us. There was a fire and passion for others that burned bright at one time. Now, it’s just an ember. However, God can breathe new life into that ember and get it burning strong again. Then, we can’t help but continue to pray for Jim, until one day, Satan releases the hold he has on Jim and he finally gets saved. Now you praise God for the answered prayer and you begin on another person, and then praise God when they get saved, and soon, others will see God working in a very real way and they’ll want to be in on all that…and revival spreads.
So that’s the formula. Revival may be the starting point, but once you begin yearning for God to save your loved ones, there’s a formula that will yield the greatest results. After all, you don’t want to be praying in vain for something as important as salvation for a loved one.
