Prayer Results

In yesterday’s blog, I discussed three principles to be used in praying for the unsaved. Today, I want to share from my own life an example of the effectiveness of praying this way.

While I was attending Bible School, I worked as night manager overseeing the crew that restocked a grocery store for the next day’s business. I began to pray for one of my workers. He would come to work under the influence of drugs and I knew his life would deteriorate if he didn’t change. I begin to pray for the Lord to draw him to Himself, and for a strong desire for spiritual things to come upon him. I prayed that he would think about his need for Jesus and for change in his life while he was reading the paper in the morning; when he woke up during his sleep during the day, and that he would have a desire for God and would feel out of place while he was in the bars that he frequented. I also commanded Satan to stop blinding his mind to the truth of God’s Word.

As the weeks went by he began to ask me about the Bible school I attended and began to pepper me with all sorts of questions about the Bible and my relationship with Jesus. I related to him how Jesus set me free from drug use and filled my life with indescribable peace. I continued to pray for spiritual desire to rise in him, and for the Father to use me and others as laborers in his life.

One day, in the back room of the store right in front of the cardboard bailing machine, I led this young man to Jesus. The next week I brought him to church with me and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. He’s been with Jesus ever since that day back in 1980, and presently attends my former church there in Tulsa.

After this young man was saved, he told me something that got my attention and showed me the awesome power of prayer. He told me that before he was saved, he began to feel dissatisfied with his life. He said he would leave work after talking to me and would think about his need for Jesus while he read the newspaper in the morning. He told me that he would wake up from sleep during the day (we worked nights) and would think about his need for Jesus. Things I would tell him about the Bible and Jesus would filter through his mind regularly.

He also told me that while he was in the bars drinking, he began to feel out of place and felt as though he should leave. These thoughts throughout the day and during his visits to the bars happened week after week. And what he said coincided exactly with how I prayed!

The Lord has used this episode in September of 1980 to stir prayer passion in me year after year. Prayer for the unsaved is very effective if you’ll be specific and not quit! I encourage you to begin to pray regularly for your unsaved friends and family members. Use these three principles of John 6:44 – asking the Father to place a yearning for Him in the person and to draw them to Himself; of 2 Corinthians 4:4 – commanding Satan to stop blinding the person’s mind from the truth of the Word; and of Matthew 9:37-38 – asking the Lord to send laborers across the path of the unsaved person every day. Watch as the Lord works miracles in the lives of those around you as they come to Christ through your prayers!