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PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT SERIES
ASKING FOR SOULS IN PRAYER
We
touch on interceding for the lost and look at one of the peculiarities of God
on asking for the souls of sinners.
What many people don’t realize is that
believing God for lost souls is also developed. We don’t simply grow into it.
Some people would not have done it in the natural life what they would be doing
in the spiritual life. By that we mean that nobody in the natural mind would
suddenly go out and take upon themselves a project
which is financially beyond them. Nobody would go out and spend money on
something they cannot afford and later get into debt. In the natural, that
would be a bad financial practice and poor stewardship. So in the natural
people who are good steward grow in the Lord and handle bigger and bigger sums
of money. We learn to be faithful to God with $10, then $100 and then $1000
etc. We learn to be faithful to God as stewards with small amounts first. And
as you are faithful in small amounts we become faithful in more.
Another reason for that is the faith and
the wisdom to handle money grows. As we grow in faith we have more faith to
give more and we have more faith to receive more. So we grow in faith. We don’t
straight away jump and believe God for a million dollars without training and
exercising our faith. In the natural if we have not gone through weight lifting
and training in sports, we will never straight away enter a game without any
practice into an Olympic event. So it’s
something we won’t do in the natural.
Yet in the spirit realm when we talk about
praying for the lost, we need to realize that our faith to believe God for the
lost is also developed. People don’t realize that you don’t just believe God
for a million souls if you have not believed God for one soul. If you have not believe God for 5 souls, 10 souls, if we don’t see the
results for believing God for 10, don’t try 20. If we don’t see the results of
our faith, we should not go on from there. For example if you are believing God for $500 and the $500 doesn’t show up,
your faith has not been developed yet. It is developing. Developed faith and
developing faith are different.
Yet in believing God for souls, people
just take it generally. How many people actually believe God for a specific
number of souls? Yet we have to believe in God for a specific number of souls.
Smith Wigglesworth is one of the prime examples of a good strong ministry.
There are some men of God who have lived and died, and really can be our
spiritual examples of modern day Christianity. When he started in the ministry,
before he even went full time, he was a plumber. It is written in his
biography. It says that in his early Christian life, he used to believe God for
one soul a day. He was just a plumber. Sometimes he missed it but soon he grew
until everyday he won one soul for the Lord.
Some of us may have to start somewhere to
believe God for one soul a month. Some others one soul a
year. Because we have no teaching in that area, we never grow in that
area. Remember to have faith in one area does not automatically mean you have
faith in another area. I know men of God who have faith for healing but have no
faith for finances. And some people have faith for finances but no faith for
healing. So to have faith in one area in the spiritual realm does not
automatically mean that we have faith in another area. So we may have faith in
finances but we don’t develop faith for souls.
Faith for souls also needs to be
developed. We need to grow in it. As we develop in faith for souls, we have to
be specific about it. For example none of us will pray for finances and say,
`Father God thank You for finances.’ As we grow and there are needs that come and confront us. We say, `God, we exercise faith
for this amount of finances.’ We have to be specific. We are talking about
Let’s be realistic. Let’s not go beyond
our level of faith and live and die frustrated because we set goals that are not
ordained of God. We got to get into the boardroom and know what God's will is
in our lives. There is no point to believe God to be an evangelist if you are
not called to be an evangelist. No point
to believe God to pastor a large church when you are not called to be a pastor.
Generally in God's will whether you stand in whatever 5-fold
ministry or as a ministry in the church, we all still need to win souls.
We need to learn to exercise faith for souls.
In Ps. 2:3, `Ask of Me
and I will give you the nation for your inheritance and the end of the earth
for your possession.’ God says, `Ask from Me and I
will give you the nation. I will give you the heathen for your inheritance and
the nation for your possession.’ There is one of the peculiar laws of God where
He gives those who are in His covenant the right to ask for souls of those who
are not in the covenant yet to get them in. That is the peculiarity in
interceding for the lost. He seems to give those who walk with Him a certain
legal right and authority, a spiritual right and authority to receive souls.
Remember this there is not a single person who
is born again without prayer. Every single one of you was prayed in. Somebody
somewhere prayed for you. Nobody comes into the kingdom without prayer. Somebody
prayed you in whether you know that somebody or not. It takes somebody else's
prayer to pray you in and we need to pray in others to continue the cycle. In
the
If
you examine your own life, perhaps you could name some friends who prayed for you
before you were born again. It takes prayer to birth in souls and it needs to
be done. It must be done. And God says we must ask for the heathen as an inheritance.
This is a peculiarity of God that God gives those who walk with Him the right
to ask. He seems to give souls into the hand of those who live close to Him.
Do you realize that when God told Moses in
the book of Exodus to get aside, `I want to consume the whole of
Acts 27 Paul on his way in a ship as a
prisoner being taken to
So here Paul is on his way to
Acts 27:18, `and because we were
exceedingly tempest tossed, the next day they lightened the ship.’ On the 3rd
day we threw the ship tackle overboard with our own hands. Now when neither sun
nor stars appeared for many days and that storm tempest beat on us. All hope
that we can be saved was finally given up.
Notice the state of depression they were in. But after long abstinence
from food, Paul stood in the midst of them and said, `Men, you should have
listened to me and not sail from
Paul was actually a prisoner in the natural
sense the Roman Centurion was in charge. But natural people can only be in
charge when natural even goes all right. When they start facing contrary wind
that’s when the spiritual man starts taking over. Here the angel said to Paul,
`all these have been granted to you.’ To put it in plain English, `all those
who sail with you are given to you.’ That tells me that Paul must have asked
for them. What will happen if Paul didn’t ask for them? Every one of them would
have died except Paul. I mean Paul’s ministry has not ended yet. He still got some more years for God. If Paul
did not ask for all those people in that ship, the ship would have wrecked and
everyone would have died except Paul. If you sit on a plane and even if the
plane becomes dangerous and the plane won’t crash if you are unselfish.
A lot of Christians who know their right
and authority in Christ don’t learn to exercise faith for other people but only
exercise for themselves. They could be sitting on a plane and the plane is in
danger. They say, "Father God thank You that I am all right." They
don’t bother to ask for those around them. The plane still may crash but praise
God I am the only survivor. If that man had asked for the souls of all the rest
in the plane, it may never have crashed. At least your prayers may begin to
work and you may see the results in eternity. You may never know what is going
to happen to them after that. But your prayers are going to start the ball
rolling. In spiritual language it means that your prayers will start the angel
working.
So it is important for us to ask for the
heathen and God will begin working. God gave them to Paul. It’s what I call a
peculiarity that those in the covenant of God have a very powerful right to ask
and intercede for the lost, to make claims and demands for the lost. Why does
the Bible use such a word? It is because the devil is the one holding them
tightly. And you actually have to snatch them out for those people who are lost
under the subjugation by the enemy. We are going to make demand on their lives.
We got to ask for them. If we don’t ask for them Satan has already claimed
them.
In John17: 6, `I have manifested Your name to the men you have given me out of the world.
They were Yours. You gave them to Me
and they have kept Your word.’ Notice he says they were Yours.
You gave them to Me. See there is a certain ownership
He exercises over His disciples. In acknowledging that God
gave them to Him. And He asked for them. How did we now He asked for
them? In Luke 6, ` Jesus prayed the whole night before he came down and select
his 12 disciples. Later on when some of them were in trouble, Jesus prayed for
them. Like in Luke 22, Peter says that he will not deny Jesus.’ And Jesus said,
`Simon, Satan has decided to shift you as wheat but I have prayed for you.’
But the peculiar thing in the gospel of
Luke is that the devil also asks but the devil makes the reverse. While we ask
for the devil's kids to come into the
Lk.22: 31 this is the
reverse thing. Although at that time they were not born again yet but they were
considered part of the covenant. They had called Him into His fellowship and
His discipleship. They were in a sense now a part and parcel of Jesus because
in Luke 9: 1 Jesus sent them 2 by 2. And they did mighty work in His name. So
in Luke 22: 31 Jesus said, "Simon. Simon, indeed Satan has asked for
you."
This is what I call a peculiarity.
Satan makes demands. But of course this is Satan before Jesus was resurrected.
After Jesus was resurrected he has completely lost his authority. But yet even
if he doesn’t ask from God, the devil will still make demand on what is his.
Satan will make a claim on anything that you accept. Otherwise how come after
the resurrection Paul says in Eph.4, `Give no place to
the devil.’ The Greek word, `give no place ‘ gives us
a picture of someone who when you give an inch that person takes a foot. When
you open your door a little bit that fellow sticks a foot in. Then you can’t
close the door. That’s the way the devil is. And he will grab any ground you
surrender to him. Give him no place. Stand your ground.
Every time you retreat you lose ground. Every
time you march forward he lost ground so Satan will make demand. He is making
demands on people’s life based on the grounds that people surrender to him.
See, if you surrender your right, then he has the right over you. So he makes
demands on the right that is surrendered to him. If you accept a temptation
from him, you have bought his goods. So he will come and collect payment. And
his payment is you surrender your right.
How did Adam and Eve
loose their rights? Just by yielding. They did not
even see Satan because Satan tempted them through the serpent. All they have to
do is to yield to his offer and that’s it. Just like today’s marketing, they
love to give you credit. They try to get you into debt and then they own
everything you have. Satan in comparison puts a temptation on you and all you
have to do is to yield to what he wants and straight away you give up your
right. That is the same thing that happened to Adam and Eve. They didn’t even
have to sign any contract. Just by accepting the way he wants things to be done
and yielding is already counted as an offer. The payment is the surrender of
your spiritual right.
So Satan makes demands
and claims on God’s people. Satan is working that hard with his entire cohort.
How much are the children of God going out to make claim on his territory? See
the church should go on an offensive and not on the defensive. People are so
fearful of Satan. They forget that we should be the one making him scared. See
it’s either you flee or he flee. We should be advancing and that the enemy is
just defending. And one day the church will be like that according to Matt. 16,
`where the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.’ So it’s
important for us to go forth in our prayer life.
Remember prayer and
evangelism goes hand in hand. You take one out; you loose the whole thing. If
you pray and you don’t listen to God how to evangelize and what method to use,
you would not be able to win the lost. In the body of Christ there could be
specialists. There could be some praying. Some does the evangelizing. Yet what
we are talking about is the combination of things that are done.
If you have evangelism
without prayer, that is disastrous. All you have is a good program. After the
program end, everything ends. It’s not revival; it’s just a program. So what we
need is a life breathed in to that. We need a life of prayer. Snatching of
souls, going out into enemy’s territory, making claims
on the enemy. Taking authority over all the people in the
office. Taking authority, claiming souls of everybody
in your office. Sometimes people talk about their boss like their boss
is a devil. One day we asked them. Have you ever asked for the person's
salvation? No, how can that evil guy be saved? You
will never know Paul was such an evil guy and yet he got saved. They are so
busy defending their side that they forgot to ask for the person’s salvation.
The devil turns the whole bunch of sinners against you.
Instead of coming
against the sinners, receive them and say, `Father God thank You for saving
each one of them.’ See the devil persecute the church through sinners. Instead
of the church reacting in the wrong way, the church should react in the right
way and say, `Father God thank You for sending these sinners. We pray for the
salvation of these sinners.’ And the sinners never get back to the devil
because they became a saint.
Then the sinners go
back and start harvesting on the devil’s field. That’s what happened to Apostle
Paul. He starts going back to the Jews. He starts going back to all the places
he had been to. So it’s important for us to ask for the soul. Don’t judge
people and say, `this can be saved and this cannot be saved.’ Your judgments
are always incorrect. We must learn to be people who withhold judgment. Leave
the judgment to God. Our job is just to win souls. Always remember this, the only job of the church is to win souls and to love
people. Let’s just keep praying for souls. Keep winning souls. That’s the thing
that God has asked us to do. Jesus said `You have given them to
In this life we can never become what we
visualized and asked for whether it be your financial
situation or your ministry can never come forth if you do not allow the bubble
of desire to develop. Neither will being soul winners
just come forth naturally. Disciples are made. They are not just born. We are
trained into that area. We grow into that are. People who are great soul
winners do not just suddenly become that way. They exercise faith and growth.
We
still need to ask for the heathen and God will give them to you for your
inheritance. What does God mean by inheritance? Some people who have gone to
heaven have seen the mansions that were there. And on the roof of the mansion
were stars. And one of those ladies who had gone to heaven said, “Lord what are
those stars on the mansion?” The Lord says, “Each star on the mansion
represents the number of souls that the person has won on earth.” Is your
mansion full of stars? That is your inheritance in heaven.
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