I believe it is safe to assume that most of us as christians have family and friends that we desire to come to the knowledge of the truth about God and be saved. If this is you and you are not sure how to pray for those you love to be saved, then this time together, God’s word will help you to learn how to pray effectively where you will have confidence that your prayer will be answered.
Let us begin in God’s word by reading over a list of things that we must know about praying for others.
1. We must know God’s will in the matter that you are praying to be accomplished in another.
2. We must know that God will answer your prayer.
3. We must have patience knowing that when praying for others that their will is involved, which can slow the progress of your prayer.
We must also know the weapons our enemy uses, and how to effectively over come them.
When we embrace the truth of knowing that Almighty God himself desires our loved ones to be saved more than we do, then it takes the focus off the question why Lord have you not saved my sister and puts the focus on what do I need to do differently. Lord for my sister to come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved?
In other words, there is more to an unanswered prayer than just the matter of it not being God’s will. Many of us question why our prayers are not answered and rather than going to God and asking for understanding some lay all the blame on unanswered prayer for not being God’s will.
Gods’ Will
Let me just say that if you do not know God’s Will, then how can you have Faith?
Everything we receive from God requires us to have faith. Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot be saved without faith. In other words, we must first Believe that it is God’s will to save us before we can be saved. The same is true with everything that we ask of God. We must first know that it is God’s will. Then once we have eliminated the possibility of your request not being God’s will we will have confidence knowing that God not only hears our prayer, but also that he will answer our prayer as well.
This brings us to another point, which is that we have a need for patience when praying for others, because their own will and desires sometimes will hinder our prayers. It is kind of like alcoholics need to see for themselves that they are indeed alcoholics. In other words, those who are lost must first recognize that they are indeed lost and need a savior. There are many obstacles to our prayers.
So then, the first point of our prayer after we have cleansed ourself by asking forgiveness of any sin that may be in our life is to ask God to open the eyes of understanding of those we love so that they will recognize that they are sinners and that they need to be saved.
For example we might pray something like:
“Heavenly Father search my heart and if there be any wicked way in me cleanse me of my sins. Father I come boldly to your throne of grace in the name of your Son Jesus to ask that you open the eyes of understanding of my brother/sister (say the name of the person for whom you are praying). “
Also it is good to write down our prayer and date it so that we can refer back to it that he/she may see that he/she needs to turn from his/her wicked ways and call upon you to be saved.
Now after we have prayed, know that God has heard our prayer and that he is answering our prayer. Be patient, sometimes it takes time for the person for whom we are praying to respond to the drawing of God’s Holy Spirit.
Thanksgiving
We need to add to our prayer thanksgiving. Please read (Philippians 4:6,7), which teaches us that we should give thanks not only when we first pray, but also continue to give thanks until we see receive the answer to our prayer.
Adding thanksgiving to our prayer can be expanded to include another form of prayer that I call our everyday confession of our mouth, which is probably the number one hindrance to the prayers of many of us.
What I mean by this is that I have heard some brothers and sisters pray the most sound biblical prayer that I have ever hear and then turn right around and cancel their prayer by the negative words of their everyday speech. In other words, after praying a prayer of Faith they prove that they do not Believe the word of God nor their own prayer, because when they are asked by another Christian, “How is your sister?”, they respond with something like, “It seems the more I pray the worse she get. I don’t know if God even hears my prayers”.
This is not a name it and claim it type study, but rather it is an in depth study in God Word that covers the many, many verses of scripture that clearly teach us that we form our our future by the words of our mouth. Satan has mocked and ridiculed us who teach this Truth about God’s word, because he knows the power of the spoken word. There is a very good chance that the reason your prayers are not being answered in because you are undoing your own prayers by your everyday speech. However this is not the only thing stopping your prayer from being answered.
First we find scripture so that we know that it is God’s will. Then we pray the word of God putting God in remembrance of his word. After we have prayer this scriptural prayer, then we given God thanks for doing what he said that he would do in his word. Try not to continually ask or pray this same prayer over and over, but instead just give God thanks in a positive confession of faith over and over until you have perfect peace or until you have received that answer to your prayer. This does not mean that you must stop thanking God for answering your prayer after you receive what you have requested, because continued thanksgiving only reinforces and strengthens the situation and gives Glory to our Father in Heaven.
Let me see if I can explain what I just said so that you can understand what I mean. First you must find it in the word of God, so that you will know that you are praying God’s will. Please read (Romans 2:4), which teaches us that it is the goodness of our Almighty God that leads us to repentance.
We might pray something like:
“Heaven Father I thank you for opening the eyes of understanding of my brother or sister. He/she has heard your word of truth spoken to he/she by me and I know that you word will not return to you void, but you will precipitate to perform your word and it will do what you sent it to do. I thank you Father for your goodness is leading my brother/sister to the knowledge of the truth to repent of his/her sins. I ask that you send forth other laborers to witness to my brother/sister. You know what he/she has a need for right now that will further cause her eyes of understanding to be opened to the truth of your word.
I thank you now Father for all those who are reaching out to preach the gospel to my bother/sister. I thank you for all the radio, television and Internet gospel messages that you are bringing before him/her to hear. I thank you Father for other believers that you are bringing into his/her life to witness to him/her by your word and by your deed. In Jesus name we pray, Amen”
It is when we give thanks to God for saving the ones we love that God can honor and perform his word, because our sincere heartfelt prayer of thanksgiving shows our FAITH and confidence in God and his word. Ask God to reveal to you some more positive confessions of Faith for the ones you love, to be saved. Again please remember the Prayer without Faith is not what God wants from us. We have a good understanding on how to pray for yourself and others and what hinders our prayers.
God Bless,
MyBibleQuestions
