PRAYING FOR THE LOST
By Pastor Alan Mayton
UNDERSTANDING THE NECESSITY
The lost will not and indeed cannot be saved unless someone prays for them. This is a shocking statement that sounds unbelievable until we view the Biblical portrayal of the lost as being: children of the devil (John 8:44), under the authority of Satan (Acts 26:18), a strong man's house (Mark 3:27), prisoners of war (Isaiah 14:17) and blinded to the gospel (II Corinthians 4:3-4).
All of these are daunting reasons why we must pray for the lost if they are to have any hope of salvation. But let's focus just on the spiritual blindness for a moment. II Corinthians 4:3-4 says, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." This passage clearly teaches that Satan has blinded the minds of the lost specifically to keep them from understanding the gospel.
The blinding or veiling of the mind mentioned in II Corinthians 4:3-4, causes a universal incapacity to comprehend the way of salvation, and is imposed upon unregenerate man by the arch enemy of God in his attempts to hinder the purpose of God in redemption. It is a condition of mind against which man can have no power.
Sharing the gospel with those for whom no one has prayed is like encouraging a blind man to view a beautiful sunset with you. It is a hopeless case, for he is blind. He cannot see!
And unless the Holy Spirit removes the demonic blinders and opens his mind and heart to the gospel, he cannot be saved because the things of God are "foolishness to him" (I Corinthians 2:14). The Greek word for foolishness is "moria" from which moron is derived. Webster's defines moron as "the highest classification of mental deficiency, above imbecile and idiot." So, a lost person sees the gospel as moronic and stupid, but it is the "strong man" in his life that causes this negative attitude toward the gospel.
To try to share the gospel with someone in this condition (which includes every lost person for whom no one is praying) may even do more harm than good. Until we recognize the strong man "fully armed" at the back of all darkness of though and blindness to the Gospel, we shall not do much toward bringing men out of the power of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. And until we know how to take heed to the Lord's warning and first bind the strong man, the attempts we make to "spoil his goods" will only enrage him, and enable him to strengthen his armour, and guard his palace in peace.
Once we understand the importance of praying for souls to be saved, we must learn how to do it. Praying for the lost is an area about which much is said but little is known or understood. It is like trying to open a locked safe without knowing the combination; no matter how valuable are the contents, we eventually get frustrated and quit.
But eternal souls for which Christ died are much too valuable for us to quit. Therefore, we must learn how to pray effectively for them. As a matter of fact, it may be your prayer that keeps someone out of hell. In the case of an impenitent friend, the very condition on which he is to be saved from hell may be the fervency and importunity of your prayer for that individual.
Jesus did only what He saw the Father do (John 5:19). Likewise, we should do only what we see our Lord doing, and what is He doing--"He ever liveth to make intercession" (Hebrews 7:25). We make a grave mistake by labeling some Christians as intercessors. This tends to imply that the rest of us are relieved of the responsibility - NOT SO!!! All of us are to do what we see our Lord doing - praying for others.
So, let's learn how to pray effective for the lost and join our Lord in doing the main thing.
THE BIBLICAL BASIS
One of the most powerful means of praying effectively involves presenting strong reasons to God why our prayers must be answered. He even commands us to do this in Isaiah 41:21, "Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons..."
The strongest reasons concerning prayer for the lost. If we find a way to harness our puny plea for help to the great purposes of God in the proclamation of the gospel and the furtherance of Christ's Kingdom, then we begin to pray with the spirit and vigor of a Paul, and we must be heard and great things will be wrought.
One of the foremost reasons for praying for the lost is our love for them. Prayer has been described as "love on its knees." Certainly, it was God's love for mankind that brought Jesus to the cross; it was love for his five brothers that compelled the rich man in hell to pray for them "lest they also come to this place of torment" (Luke 16:27-28); and love will lead us to the place of intercession.
The historic Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago has been mightily used of God to rescue hundreds of souls tottering on the precipice of hell. And it is no surprise to me that the eighteen foot neon sing "PACIFIC GARDEN MISSION" included the reminder "MOTHER'S PRAYERS HAVE FOLLOWED YOU." Only eternity will reveal the number of souls that have been saved through the tears and prayers of a mother's love! Indeed, love is our greatest asset in the saving of souls.
Faith is another Biblical basis for praying for the lost. Jesus said, "All things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23). All things certainly include salvation of souls. If you can believe God for someone's salvation, you shall have it.
Four men brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus and, seeing their faith, he said, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee" (Mark 2:5). Though they brought him to be healed, he also received forgiveness of his sins. This is a wonderful display of the power of faith. Indeed, faith is the coin of the kingdom.
One of my favorite reasons for praying for the lost is the mighty power of the Bible ascribes to prayer. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," according to James 5:16. We can't even begin to understand how incredibly powerful prayer really is, for it exerts the most potent influence of any kind in all the universe.
Prayer is work of such a sublime order that it lies beyond the imagination of men. For when the Christian prays, his capacity to achieve and his power to do good are multiplied a thousand, yea, a hundred thousand fold. This is no exaggeration, the reason being that when man prays, God works.
When the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan during World War II, some 92,000 people were killed. But when Assyria besieged Jerusalem causing King Hezekiah to cry out to God on behalf of his people, He sent an angel that slew 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night. Hezekiah's prayer was twice as explosive as the atomic bomb!! If prayer is strong enough to destroy armies, how much more certain is its power to save souls!
If we had no Biblical basis for praying for the lost other than the fact that God expects us to, this would be enough. god was "stunned" when he could not find a single intercessor for Israel (Isaiah 59:16). This tells me that He was expecting to find some.
He often had to wonder and complain that there was no intercessor, no one to stir himself up to take hold of His strength. And He still waits and wonders in our day, that there are not more intercessors, that all His children do not give themselves to this highest and holiest work, that many of them who do so, do not engage in it more intensely and perseveringly.
THE PERSONAL FACTORS
There are two factors or conditions involved in every answered prayer -- righteousness and faith. The imputed righteousness of Christ, which comes through His shed blood, is what gives us boldness to approach His throne of grace. It is absolutely indispensable for effective prayer. But personal righteousness is also crucial, for Psalm 66:18 says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Perhaps Jesus summed it up best when He said, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7). In other words, obedient Christians get their prayers answered!!
The other necessary factor in all answered prayer is faith. This is an unbreakable law in the spiritual realm. It is always "according to your faith be it unto you" (Matthew 9:29). Unbelief is continually our besetting sin and it is more often than not the cause of unanswered prayer.
So when we pray for the lost, we need righteousness (imputed and personal) and faith. But there are eight other factors that are particularly important for this task. The first of these is brokenness. "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy" is the law of spiritual harvest. However, we want the harvest without the heartbreak. God does not answer many prayers - they are too locked-up in self pity or aimed at personal benefit. He does answer desperate prayer. And until we get desperate for souls, our prayers for them may remain unanswered. For just as Jesus wept over Jerusalem, so must we weep over our lost loved ones if we really want to see them saved.
On one occasion some Salvation Army workers wrote to General Booth decrying their ineffectiveness in winning souls and asking what they should do. He sent back a two-word message, "Try tears." Tears are so potent that when coupled with sharing the gospel, God guarantees a fruitful harvest (Psalm 126:5-6).
Another important factor is travail. This pictures the excruciating agony and pain of childbirth as seen Isaiah 66:8, "...as soon as Zion travailed she brought forth her children." Strong's dictionary defines travail "to writhe in pain; to fall grievously with pain." Luke 22 speaks of Jesus being in an agony and His sweat as great drops of blood. Most of us have never been here in our prayer life, which is why we don't see phenomenal results in winning the lost to Christ.
Jesus described the experience of salvation as being, "born again." Just as a mother experiences labor pains in giving her baby physical birth, the same is true in the spiritual realm. Paul speaks of "travailing in birth again" for the spiritually immature Galatians he had won to Christ. But even as a man cannot fully appreciate the severity of the labor pains his wife experiences because he does not give birth, neither do most Christians understand the necessity of travailing for souls since some ninety-five percent of professing Christians never win a single soul to Christ!!
There is a price to pay if we would join our precious Lord in agonizing for the deliverance of souls from the kingdom of darkness, but it will be worth it all!! Therefore, let us join that noble band that "loves not their lives unto the death" (Revelation 12:11) and victory will be ours.
Through the many vivid word pictures in the Bible concerning the plight of the lost, we can easily see why persistence in prayer becomes a necessary factor. Isaiah 14:17 describes the lost as being prisoners whom Satan refuses to release. Acts 26:18 tells us that they are under the authority or jurisdiction of Satan. Perhaps the most frightening description of all is that given by Jesus in Mark 3:27 as a strong man's house. He even tells us that "no man" can help those individuals until the strong man is bound.
THE SPECIFIC REQUESTS
Most of us encounter difficulty in praying for someone to be saved because all we know to do is say, "God, please save so-and-so." We feel foolish in praying that one statement over and over again, so we usually give up and quit. However, this kind of praying involves four areas: the individual, the soul-winner, the word of God, and revival. When we learn to pray for specifics in these areas, our intercession becomes challenging and effective.
To begin with, we pray of the individual by name, asking the Lord to do five things in his life. First of all, we ask the Lord to sanctify him. This may sound strange but this is how God begins His work of redemption in every individual's life. He always sanctifies or "sets apart" a person for salvation before He saves him.
The Bible clearly teaches this truth in I Peter 1:2, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ..." We see the same emphasis in II Thessalonians 2:13-14, "God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth..."
It is like God draws an invisible circle around the person and then begins to bring His influences to bear there. It is easy to see that whatever comes "inside" that circle directly and mostly affects the one already in it. When God Himself gets in that circle, incredible things begin to happen.
This wonderful truth is a great encouragement to those of us praying for others because we can rest assured that the Holy Spirit who is the Lord of the harvest always gets his man, once He sanctifies him!
Now we ask the Lord to bless him. When Jesus sent His disciples into "His harvest," He gave them specific instructions to "first say Peace be to this house" (Luke 10:1-5). Since it is always the goodness of God that leads individuals to repentance (Romans 2:4), it is imperative that we implore God to liberally bless them.
But sometimes when our prayers for the salvation of others do not bring speedy results, we tend to get frustrated and impatient, secretly desiring for god to "teach them a lesson with the rod of trouble." When a certain village of Samaritans rejected the Lord, His disciples wanted God to burn them to a crisp on the spot. He rebuked them saying, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them" (Luke 9:52-56). If we are to emulate our dear Savior, we must continually desire God's best for all people. We should especially ask His very best blessings upon those for whom we pray.
Thirdly, we ask the Lord to convict the individual, since conviction is absolutely necessary for salvation. Only the Holy Spirit can bring someone under conviction, so we would do well to plead John 16:8-11 in our prayers. Conviction basically means to convince of a fault. The fault or problem of the lost is in "not believing on Jesus" and this is THE SIN of which the Holy Spirit convicts (John 16:9).
People already know what their "sins" are, except for the sin of unbelief in Christ. Since this is the only sin that condemns one to hell, Satan keeps them blinded to it. Therefore, the Holy Spirit convicts or convinces the lost at this one and only point, revealing to them the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory, so they can be saved. However, we must know that conviction does not automatically guarantee salvation. As Paul "reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come, Felix trembled..." (Acts 24:25). But there is no Biblical indication that he ever got saved.
