EXERCISING FAITH IN PRAYING FOR YOUR LOVED ONES

[FAITH]

"Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb?" saith thy God. Isaiah 66:7-9

Travailing for Souls

Soul travail is an impassioned, deep level of intercession (prayer) that affects the spiritual atmosphere so that the lost can hear the Gospel and make a decision to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. We literally push back the blinding, oppressing power of the enemy so that the Gospel penetrates the heart. Effective evangelism can never be done without a burden, anguish, and true weeping for souls in prayer first! (Photo via Freeimages)

We need to be wrestlers with God for souls. We need to become like Jacob (see Genesis 32:24-30) and say, "I'm going to get a hold of You, Lord God. I am going to wrestle with You, O God. I am going to labor right here in the spirit until You bless me. I want You to bless me with souls: the lost and dying world getting saved, healed, and delivered. I am going to wrestle with You, O God, until my household gets saved."

The apostle Paul talks about travail: "My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you" (Galatians 4:19). Paul had already labored and travailed for their spiritual birth and once again he is in labor until Christ is formed in them.

There is a fire, there is an anointing, that can fall on us so that we are literally overcome with the heart of God. There is grace available from the Lord to bow before Him on our face, weeping, crying out, and there is grace for us to be touched by the Holy Spirit to labor and travail for souls.

And God can take us out of our comfort zone and compel us by His Spirit to go into the streets to share the Gospel with the lost. We'll be moved into evangelism.

 

We Have a Great Promise of Household Salvation and Revival!

And they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Acts 16:31

There is a place where we stop asking God to give us what He told us to take. There is a place where we recognize that we have an enemy to the harvest God wants to give us.

We need to rise up in the spirit and say, "Joe, or Sue, I set you free in Jesus' name. Come forth, you who sit in darkness. I command you, devil, binding Joe, to loose him to see. I lay hold of Joe in the spirit and I open his eyes to see. Lazarus come forth!" When we begin to take authority and become pregnant with God's heart for souls, and travail through weeping and warfare prayer, we can see a great harvest.

 

Key: What You See is What You Get!

The song "Open The Eyes of My Heart" is actually a reality for the believers that  see the harvest with the eyes of their heart and now they get a revival. Are you provoked to jealousy? Are the eyes of your heart opened? Do you see the harvest?

 

Key: Birthing

We need to be burdened with his heart in our spirit for souls and pray until we see a breakthrough. That is true travail and birthing God's purposes in the earth. We need to sense God's plan in our spirit, too, and then move into that place of relentless intercession and prayer until we see a manifestation of His promise.

 

Key: Identify With the Lost

Jesus gave up His glory in Heaven and became God in the flesh and took on a human body. What a drastic change! He gave up the glory and power in the heavenly realm and came down to earth as the Son of God, with no reputation. When He took on human flesh just like ours, He was tempted as we are tempted, yet without sin (see Hebrews 4:15). He knew then, and He knows now, what we're going through. He identified with our human condition and He saw first-hand how needy and lost we are. In fact, because of His personal identification, He could become our High Priest and Intercessor (see Hebrews 4:13-16, 5:1-10).

You know, we need to be able to identify with the lost, too. Perhaps we need to remember what our lives were like before, when we were blind and walking in darkness. Because afterwards we'll have more passion and feel the urgency to see that lost souls find Jesus Christ. God wants us to be moved with a burning heart for the lost to be saved!

When we allow the Holy Spirit to take us into a place of identification, we will actually identify with the plight of the lost to the point that our heart and emotions become involved. At this point we need to persevere and allow ourselves to move into prayer in a deeper and deeper way, travailing for the salvation of souls.

 

The Key to Growing and Sustaining Revival

There is no growing in or sustaining revival without travailing prayer. As persecution mounted against the early Church, some of the apostles were beaten and jailed but later escaped when the angel of the Lord opened the gates of their prison during the night in Acts 5:17-20. It was a time of miracles and conversions! The Church was growing, and in the middle of all the excitement, there arose a legitimate complaint (see Acts 6:1).

The apostles decided not to involve themselves in the problem, but they suggested a remedy (see Acts 6:2-3). Here's the reason why they didn't want to become involved: "but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word" (Acts 6:4). The apostles knew they had to be in that place of prayer, birthing souls into the Kingdom of God.

Their wise choice to devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word helped the Word of God to spread to the point that the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and even many of the priests were obedient to the faith. The number of disciples went from "multiplying" to "multiplied greatly" (Acts 6:1, 7).

They realized that the key to the continuation of the harvest and the fuel to the revival with mighty signs and wonders was the Word of God and prayer. Prayer was first and foremost! They placed such importance on that and we need to come back to that place of prayer for the lost, too.

 

ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

http://afministry.ning.com/

ZZ – 2418      DRE422       DW83       01-01-2024