Good Morning FBF. Please Read & Then Pray.....Stay Blessed. Praying Effectively for the Lost. 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 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. Lewis Sperry Chafer says, “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” (Chafer 57). One of the greatest preachers of all time was Charles H. Spurgeon. Listen as he shares the testimony of his conversion: “I confess that I had been tutored in piety, put into my cradle by prayerful hands, and lulled to sleep by songs about Jesus. I had heard the Gospel continually. Yet, when the Word of the Lord came to me with power, it was as new as if I had lived among the unvisited tribes of Central Africa and had never heard the tidings of the cleansing foundation filled with blood, drawn from the Savior’s veins. When for the first time I received the Gospel and my soul was saved, I thought that I had never really heard it before. I began to think that the preachers to whom I had listened had not truly preached it. But, on looking back, I am inclined to believe that I had heard the Gospel fully preached many hundreds of times before. This was the difference: I then heard it as though I did not hear it. When I did hear it, the message may not have been any clearer in itself than it had been at former times, but the power of the Holy Spirit was present to open my ears and to guide the message to my heart. Then I thought I had never heard the truth preached before. Now I am persuaded that the light shone often on my eyes, but I was blind; therefore, I thought that the light had never come there. The light was shining all the while, but there was no power to receive it. The eyeball of the soul was not sensitive to the divine beams” (Spurgeon 26-28). Spurgeon’s testimony is a powerful illustration of how ineffective the gospel is to a mind that is blinded to it. 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. Jessie Penn-Lewis says, “Until we recognize the strong man ‘fully armed’ at the back of all darkness of thought, and blindness to the Gospel, we shall not do much towards 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” (Penn-Lewis 42-3). Once we understand the importance of praying for souls to be saved, we must learn how to do it. In the January, 1979 issue of Fullness Magazine, Manley Beasley wrote an article entitled “Praying for the Lost.” This is his opening statement: “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 whom 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. The well-known revivalist Charles G. Finney said, “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” (Finney 54). 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.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 14:38:46 +0000
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