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| Praying for the Lost How frustrated do you get when after praying for, or witnessing, to an unsaved person you see no results? 2 Corinthians 10:3 - 5 tells us that our warfare is not human but spiritual. We war against principalities and powers. Yet so often when we come to witnessing to the Unsaved we approach it with human thinking or our own natural abilities. We will never win people on an intellectual basis nor will we do it through innovative techniques or methods alone. When we are praying for the unsaved we are coming against strongholds in people�s lives. Things that prevent people seeing the truth and one of the major strongholds is PRIDE. Therefore first we need to breakdown those strongholds. This is done through prayer. That is why 2 Corinthians 10:3 -5 says �to take captive every thought�. Dutch Sheets in his book �Intercessory Prayer� tells the story of Marlena and Patrick And how they prayed for their son Kevin, who was on the road to self destruction. �they specifically prayed the following; * That God would lift the veil over him. * For the Holy Spirit to hover over him and protect him. * For Godly people to be in his path every day; to cast down anything that would exalt itself against the knowledge of God, specifically pride and rebellion; * To Take down all known strongholds - thought patterns, opinions on religion, Materialism, fear; * To bind Satan from taking Kevin captive; to bind all wicked thoughts and lies Satan would try to place in Kevin�s mind; * That the armour of God would be placed on him. After two weeks Kevin overdosed on drugs and in his time of need cried out to God. The Lord met him in a powerful way. The unbeliever cannot war for himself. He cannot and will not overcome the strongholds of darkness and will not understand the gospel until the veil is lifted.� That is why it is important for us to take up the weapons of warfare and go into battle. Blessings Larry A PRAYER FOR THE LOST Matthew 28:19 "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". This is the Great Commission of the Church. As a congregation we take this call very seriously. However we usually only see this call as going and speaking to people about Jesus and neglect to understand that an important part of evangelism is prayer. It is essential that we pray for the lost. Last week we saw some specific prayer points used by a couple praying for their son. Dutch sheets in his book " Intercessory Prayer" says that when praying for the lost we need to take captive every thought to break down the strongholds in people's minds that keep them from hearing the truth. This is what Paul is referring to in 2 Cor 10: 3 - 5 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ Here is a prayer based upon those verses that may help you in praying for the lost. According to 2 Cor 10: 3 - 5, by the weapons God has given me and by the power of the Holy Spirit being released, in Jesus name I take authority over every belief system, high thing and thought which keeps __PERSON'S NAME______________blinded to the truth. I capture and demolish that in Jesus name. Amen Let us keep on praying. Blessings Larry |
| Pastors Corner |