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Friday, July 13, 2012

How to pray for unsaved people

Acts 26:18 "to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me."

Yesterday we discovered why it is that the Christian cannot fail in their sharing of the gospel.  All attempts to share the gospel are successful, due to the fact that we are extending the external call of the Gospel to all people.  Those who respond and believe in Christ do so because of the Spirit's convincing inward call to the inward ears of their heart.  As we pray for the Holy Spirit to accompany our witnessing with His inward call, we can pray for the following:

1. "Lord, Open the Heart." That the Lord would do for them what he did in Acts 16:14 "A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul."

2. "Lord, take the Gospel from the mind to the heart." Romans 10:8-10 - "what does it say? 'THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART'—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

3. "Lord Remove the darkness." 2 Corinthians 4:4,6 "4in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." (6) "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."

4. "Lord, grant ears to hear, eyes to see and a heart to embrace you." Ephesians 1:16 "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,". This is a good prayer to pray for the person after their conversion, since it is addressed to believers who need a greater understanding of who they are in Christ, and who Christ is in them.

When unbelievers are  given "ears to hear", they will turn to Christ by  grace through faith. By faith the new convert will run to the cross of safety!  If you have been sharing the Gospel with an unconverted family member or co-worker, don't give up!  Keep doing what your doing.  Prayer and evangelism are the sail and the mast of missions that are hoisted by faith by the people of God.  We pray that the Spirit would blow forth His breath on what we do to move forward the Gospel of Jesus Christ.