RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

Prayer and Evangelism: Praying for Others
I want to welcome you to week 2 and day 2 of our study on revival and evangelism.
In this study we’re going to talk about intercessory prayer. We’ve been seeing all through this study last week, that prayer plays a vital role in evangelism – and it plays a vital role in revival.
There’s a particular kind of prayer that God blesses and that is intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer is when we pray for other people. Not just for ourselves but we’re praying for others to come to know Christ. Now, there’s a promise from the scriptures and this is why it’s so powerful because I’ve discovered that if you pray according to the Bible – according to the scripture – God will do extraordinary things.
And the scripture says in first John – and this is the confidence that we have in Him – that if we ask anything according to His will we know that He hears us and if we know that He hears us we know that we have the petitions we’ve desired of Him. In other words, if you pray according to what’s on God’s heart, you can pray with great confidence .. that God will hear and God will answer.
Now what is on God’s heart? It’s God’s will that none would perish but that all would come to repentance. And so when you begin to pray for people to come to Christ God will do extraordinary things .. He will open doors – He will .. there’s no limit to what God will do because God’s love is for people. So as you pray – according to His will He will do extraordinary things.
I’ve mentioned to you about Romania on a number of occasions.
For many years during the days of persecution – and by the way, in Romania, Christians were persecuted more severely than perhaps any other country in Eastern Europe. And, in fact, Ambassador Funderberg, who was a US ambassador to Romania during those days, resigned his position because of the persecution of the believers. He resigned in protest of how they were being treated and so it was a very, very difficult thing .. in fact the only people who were going in there were people who were smuggling Bibles.
But God put it on my heart to go in and preach the gospel. And for many years I would go in .. go in and preach – and people kept saying, how do you get in? Why don’t they keep you out?
In fact, I had friends who were kept out of the country. But one thing I discovered .. when you would pray and when I would pray, God was concerned and God would open doors .. we got into places that nobody thought we could ever get into.
Why? Because God’s heart was for those people. And in fact, we ended up preaching after the revolution took place in Romania in stadiums all across that country because God moved and worked and God was concerned about people. When you pray for people, God will do extraordinary things.
Now I know that probably some of you have friends – you have family members .. you say that, “oh man, those guys are lost causes .. you know, there’s no hope for those guys.” It would be impossible. But I want to tell you what, that’s the very people that God wants you praying for. I know in my own
family – I know in my own ministry – I know among the people that I love and cared about .. the ones that were most difficult .. yes, it took years many times. But I prayed and kept praying and God answered my prayer.
So I want to say to you, find the impossible people .. think about the people that nobody would even pray for or try to reach out to. There may be a group of people in your community .. there may be some people that have just moved into your community. There may be people who are relatives of yours that you think are impossible and begin to pray for them. Don’t – stop – praying – until they’ve come to Christ.
Let me just share this with you as I close out this session, I prayed for my mother for 25 years. My mother said to me, “Sammy, I’m not a Christian – I’ll never become a Christian – Don’t talk to me about God.” What do you do when you can’t talk to your mother about God? I’ll tell you what I did .. I talked to God about my mother and God saved her. It took 25 years but God did it, So don’t give up .. pray for those difficult cases .. pray for people that need – Jesus – Christ.
That’s the beginning of God sending revival to your own personal life, to your family and to your community.