A question about Faith?

[CallMeMustang]

I was wondering, it says to have faith behind everything you pray for so I have a question. When you are praying for someone elses salvation, especially if you know for a fact God had put you in their life to pray for them, how do your faith help them? How does your faith show God that they need salvation, wouldn't they need the faith? God can't work in them unless they believe, so how does the person praying having faith, make a difference at all. I hope this makes sense. I just don't see how the one in need of salvation doesn't have faith, how the person praying having faith would make a difference.

 

[jehoiakim]

you can have faith that if you ask God to call out to someone that God will call out to them in the most effective ways possible. You can have faith that God will put the right people and circumstances in front of them. John 6 is clear that no one can come to Christ unless the father draws him, if the person has any faith at all it was given to them by God, it is not something that is of themselves, this concept is called total depravity

 

[spr]

I don't think that praying for another person's salvation is really the thing to be praying for. Praying for their healing or their general good seems in line with scripture. Salvation isn't possible unless they pursue God of their own free will.

 

[Pal Handy]

I was wondering, it says to have faith behind everything you pray for so I have a question. When you are praying for someone elses salvation, especially if you know for a fact God had put you in their life to pray for them, how do your faith help them? How does your faith show God that they need salvation, wouldn't they need the faith? God can't work in them unless they believe, so how does the person praying having faith, make a difference at all. I hope this makes sense. I just don't see how the one in need of salvation doesn't have faith, how the person praying having faith would make a difference.

Your faith comes in to play in that you KNOW that God can do
anything if someone trusts in Him as they pray for others.

God can move on the behalf of others when we pray.

Here is an example....
By the way, the servant had no part in this healing.
The servant had no faith involved in his own healing.
The servant did not ask for this healing.

Matthew 8:8
The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof.
But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.

This centurion was the one who brought the request for healing.

And what did Jesus say when the centurion said: "speak a word
and my servant will be healed"

Matthew
10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed,
“Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!

So from this one example we can see that the prayers of concerned people
can affect the lives of those who are not even aware of our prayer.

How does this work for salvation?

The same as it did for a physical healing.

Physical or spiritual supernatural healing can only be performed by God.

God can heal a body and God can heal a man's soul and give a man
a heart that is no longer hardened and God can open a man's spiritual
eyes and ears.

When we pray for others we initiate a God response to our pleas
to help those who are blind and deaf to God's love and gospel.

God will send people to these people we pray for to witness of Him.
God will remind them of His words spoken to them.
God will persue them because we have faith in Him to do what we cannot do.

Many a saint has been prayed into the kingdom by a loved one's
impassioned plea to God on behalf of their unaware loved ones.

Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

If the desire of your heart is to see your loved ones saved,
God will do what you can not do if you trust, delight, believe,
have faith in, put your loved ones in the hands of God who can
do anything, even the opening of a blind man's eyes and ears.

Why do you suppose God asks us to pray for our enemies?

I will tell you why, so He can work in their lives and bring them to
salvation. God needs our prayers, permission and or invitations to
affect change in the lives of others that we pray for.

This world is still ruled by the god of this world.
Christ had to invade this world as the devil fought Him at every turn.

We are still strangers in this foreign land but we do have a valid citizenship
in Heaven so that we can appeal to the King of our
Heavenly country and ask Him to help us while we are in this foreign land.

How did Jesus put it?
"Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven"

We have a right to call on our King because we have changed allegiance
from the kingdom of this world to the Kingdom of our God.

God will act on our behalf and the behalf of others as we request
of Him to help those who have been oppressed, blinded and held
in bondage by the god of this world.

We have the right to ask God to affect this world because...
JESUS CHRIST HAS WON THIS RIGHT FOR US BECAUSE
HE WAS PERFECT AND BLAMELESS AND BY HIS DEATH IN OUR
PLACE, WE ARE NO LONGER UNDER THE god OF THIS WORLD'S AUTHORITY.

We are still at war and the devil will contest our rights but if we have faith
and do not believe the lies of the enemy and have faith that God has given
us the right to ask Him for our hearts desire (people) God's
hands are set loose and to affect change in this fallen world
and in the lives of those we pray for.


I am excited...
I am cranked...

God has given us so much more than we realize.

Pray.....

Ask God for the desire of your heart that loved ones, family members,
aquaintences, co workers, stangers and yes, even your enemies would
have their eyes and ears opened to the love and salvation of God.

God is able to so much more than we can think, hope or even ask for
if we would just have the faith of a mustard seed..........

 

[paul1149]

Our faith can work in many ways. It can do battle in the heavenlies against dark forces, it can make us the example the other person needs to see, it can plead directly in the Throne Room. If Holy Spirit has given you faith for this thing, then pursue it and stand your ground, knowing that you are the Lord's agent in the matter.

 

[spr]

Your prayer can't save another from the lake of fire, the only thing that can is their knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ, belief in him, and confession of him.

 

[BFine]

1 Timothy 2:1-4
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

We pray for those in darkness because we believe only God can lift the dark mist/veil that covers their eyes and save them. They cannot save themselves. We pray for God to illumine their darkened and convoluted understanding so that they would believe.

 

[lutherangerman]

I think in our day and age many people try to find believe in their "head", but not in their heart. But the bible is explicit that faith leading to salvation must begin in the heart. Our hearts open up when we recognize our needs, when we face up to suffering and realize we need help. In the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus blesses those who are suffering. That is probably why the rich and wealthy people don't want Jesus, they think they have all they need and don't need God. If you pray for someone's salvation, I think it is a good idea to ask for God's will in this prayer. Asking God for a provision, for a help, for love and peace and such is one part of prayer, sure, but another is to find out what God's will is, to get opportunities from Him to be obedient to God. As for that person you pray for, I would ask that he or she understands their situation in their life. That God has SO MUCH to offer, that it is silly to think of God as a beggar on the street who craves our attention. Have you seen the movie Avatar? The beauty of its visuals? Having God is our means to such beauty and excitement and fulfillment. Everything else on this world which offers us something is just a fake promise, but God's promises are real. He is the only one who can do something about us having to die. That is really an existential heavyweight that none of us can get around, because all of us fear death. It forces all of us to be serious and wise. And in that there is an opportunity for God, and for us, to speak the truth to these people. That is when the urgency of the situation bypasses our sinful heads and pushes our heart into faith. And then comes, eventually, a wanting God, and in this wanting the faith. It is shining and blazing and warming. It is opening a lighted door in a world so dark. Explain to these people the human condition, if you do that right they quickly see it is true. Show these people their sins. Show them biblical truth and always ask God to lead you the right way. You can't just act without prayer, or pray without acting. Show love and compassion and wisdom. And lot's of patience.

 

[aiki]

I was wondering, it says to have faith behind everything you pray for so I have a question. When you are praying for someone elses salvation, especially if you know for a fact God had put you in their life to pray for them, how do your faith help them?

I don't know that your faith helps them directly. Will God save whom He will whether we pray or not? The doctrines of predestination and election seem to suggest so.

How does your faith show God that they need salvation, wouldn't they need the faith?

I don't think your faith shows God that someone needs salvation. God has known from eternity past who would and would not be saved.

God can't work in them unless they believe, so how does the person praying having faith, make a difference at all.

Why should we preach the Gospel or do anything to witness to the lost? Because God has commanded us to do so. What God will or will not do is up to Him, not us.

I hope this makes sense. I just don't see how the one in need of salvation doesn't have faith, how the person praying having faith would make a difference.

God promises us that if we ask anything according to His will He will do it.

1 John 5:14-15
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

God has made it clear in His Word that He is "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Pe. 3:9) His will is that people would be saved, not lost. So, pray away and trust that God will keep His promises!

Selah.

 

[briareos]

I was wondering, it says to have faith behind everything you pray for so I have a question. When you are praying for someone elses salvation, especially if you know for a fact God had put you in their life to pray for them, how do your faith help them? How does your faith show God that they need salvation, wouldn't they need the faith? God can't work in them unless they believe, so how does the person praying having faith, make a difference at all. I hope this makes sense. I just don't see how the one in need of salvation doesn't have faith, how the person praying having faith would make a difference.

When you pray, you need faith so that God can answer your prayers. If you do not believe, God your prayer may not be answered because you do not believe. It is same when what you are asking for is for God to save your friend.

Your faith does not replace their faith or become their faith... it is that for God to answer your prayer, no matter what it is, you need to believe.

When you are asking God to save someone you are asking God to move on that persons heart or in that persons life, to speak to them, to send people across their path to witness to them, your asking God to draw them to him, touch them, talk to them, work with them and for God to do those things that you are asking him to do... you must have faith.

Asking God to save someone is not asking God to write their name in the book of life, it is asking God to do a work in that persons life so that they find God, see him and choose to give their life to him. Does that help?

God will not simply make them saved because you asked, he will begin to do miracles in their life, talk to them, meet them, and help them find him so that they begin to believe in him and choose to give their life to him. You are praying that God do those things, and all your prayers require that you believe.

 

[briareos]

You can absolutely pray for the lost, you can pray that God move in their life and draw them to him so that they can be saved. The bible says that God can stir up peoples hearts to do certain things, like he stirred up peoples hearts to build temples and stuff in the old testament. God can move on a persons heart to draw them to him, and he can help them choose. Your prayers can also cause God to people across their path to minister to them. and you can pray for another persons faith, Jesus prayed for Peters faith, that it would not fail.

The bible says in Ephesians ch 1-2 that sinners are dead in sin, lost in the course of this world (that means the natural course of this world actually takes people to hell, not heaven) and that the devil is working in them. They are completely doomed unless heaven intervenes. They need the gospel and they need prayer. Otherwise they do not have a hope at all. Yes you should pray. Jesus told his disciples to pray that the Lord send laborers out into the field to work, to save the lost.

 

[Emmy]

Dear CallMeMustang. Every prayer we bring to God, He will answer with: Yes my child, or No my child, or Wait and keep praying. The person who prays, must have Faith that God answers prayers. If it is straightforward and good for the person prayed for, God will answer Yes. If it will not be good, or even do harm, God will answer No. If it concerns somebody else, as in your case, God will say "Wait and keep praying". We know that God does not force, or coerce in any way, God will use His Love to bring about what we pray for. Sometimes this may take years, it depends on the person you pray for. There always is a chance that the prayed for person is ready for God and His Love, to enter his, or her heart. God has given us free will, we choose to follow His Commandments, ( loving advice ) or we pretend we do not hear, or even ignore God`s Still Small Voice to us. Prayer is our God-given help, and we can use it day or night. I say this with love, Mustang. Greetings from Emmy, sister in Christ.

 

[kimmyh51]

there are passages in the bible where god promises to answer our prayers - one talks about the fact that if he gave his only son for us - imagine what else is possible if we just ask

I have/am also praying for salvation for some people, and I do think its reasonable and ok and good to do this

One of those people, my father, I had been praying for and was travelling to see him and my family, and on the plane i was starting to get scared of the plane crashing - I used to be TERRIFIED of flying but had well and truly gotten over that

I remember on the plane in the past when i got scared Id 'argue with god (this is pre being reborn) and say 'you cant let me die on thisplane cos im not a christian yet so you have to make the plane not crash (LOL)
So this flight was real bumpy and i started thinking oh god dont let it crash - then thought - oh heck, im a christian now, so does that mean it might crash (logic = ridiculous when being phobic)

Anyway I said calm my fear and tell me im not going to die on this plane god
and looked down at the magazine (airline one) in my hands

on the pagethe title of one of the 3 or 4 articles struck my eye it was"

'calm down, its ok, just keep going'

beside it was an article entitled 'let there be light'

This was a travel magazine

No idea what the articles were about, but anyway I flicked thru and saw another couple of reassuring titles so then I said in my head - ok god - if we are doing this, Id really like it if you can tell me if you will save my parents as Ive been praying for, and will you show me any clues about if you are working on them now - and if they will ask me about you on this triup (parents very much athiests - the 'thats cool if you are into that but im not interested dont push it on me' types

So next thing I look at the magazine and see something about fathers
then an article with the name of a small town in my country (I assume a travel blurb about there) the town name is my fathers first/christian name)

I get off the plane and into the car with my parents and afer a few mintes my father tells me how Id like where he is going in the morning - to a mens breakfast at the local church
my dad does NOT go to that sort of thing - ever - that would have been his first

since then he has asked me about it once or twice, while sort of trying to give the impression that its just fatherly polite interest, I am pretty sure I can see that there is an interest there - a desire, or seeking of something that he didnt have previously.

So I am going to keep on praying and praying and praying for him and others, and say to everyone else who is wondering about this, yes, ask, ask and ask some more! I have also had god 'tell' me on more than one occasion that he wants me/us his children to ask him for things- he likes to be acknowledged for the things he does and gives us, and he is here for the big and the small

so many times I have been drawn to verse or had my android app with the daily bible verse come up with a verse which says that god wants to bless us and wants us to ask him for stuff