Spiritual Dynamic

In John 15:18 to 16:16 Jesus gives a good outline for us of the role of the Holy Spirit in helping people come to faith. In essence, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would continue to be a witness to the person, teaching, and work of Jesus in the world, and that the disciples also would be such witnesses (cf John 15:26-27).

However, the role and work of the Holy Spirit varies depending on which type of person He is addressing. To the oppressed and those enslaved under the burden of sin, the Holy Spirit first plays a revelatory role, to make Christ 'clear' and to show that Christ is the 'way out'. It is only when a person refuses to listen to this revelation, and "doesn't hear", and makes wrong judgments about the person and work of Christ, that the Holy Spirit takes on a convicting role, being an advocate for Jesus against those wrong judgments. This is the context we find in John 16:8-11, where the "world" which needs convicting by the Holy Spirit is the Jewish leadership which rejected Christ.

So we can clearly see that apart from our own preaching and giving testimony to the truth concerning Jesus, the Holy Spirit is also at work along side us, even before us. But whilst we cannot predict the working of the Spirit - it is like the blowing of the wind (sometimes it is dead calm and other times it blows hard!) - we can pray for God to act by His Spirit to help people be set free. But how should we pray in order to be co-workers with God's Spirit?

Apart from ignorance, people may not be believing the truth about Jesus and the Gospel because of three things:

a) rebellion, stemming from pride and unbelief
b) false beliefs and thought structures (cf 2 Corinthians 10:4,5)
c) Satanic blinding (cf 2 Corinthians 4:3,4)

Therefore, we can pray that:

a) the Holy Spirit will convict them of their rebellious attitudes, unbelief, and pride
b) the Holy Spirit will tear down the false beliefs and thought structures
c) Satan will be bound and stopped from blinding their minds, in Jesus' name.

We also need to pray, as the apostle Paul requested, that:

d) the Holy Spirit will open a door for us to preach the message (Colossians 4:3)
e) we also may preach it clearly (Colossians 4:4)
f) the Holy Spirit would give us the very words to preach on each occasion (Ephesians 6:19).

It is also quite amazing to notice the power and effect of actually praying with a person who is not yet a believer, if they will allow you to do such, praying for them and also asking God to bless them. Apart from the fact that they sense you really do care, it allows the person to actually enter into your own personal relationship with God, thus bringing them into contact with God in a second-hand but very real way. I have personally noticed on a number of occasions how blessed and different the other person feels after I have prayed, with them often remarking that they felt different whilst I was praying for them. Perhaps it also relates to what Jesus said in John 6:63 " ... The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life".