Praying For Others – Radio Classic – Dr. Charles Stanley – How To Talk To God Vol 2 Pt 5

How Can We Pray For You? Have you signed up yet?

Praying For Others – Radio Classic – Dr. Charles Stanley – How To Talk To God Vol 2 Pt 5

Believers are commanded to pray for all people — the lost, church leaders, those in authority, the persecutors and persecuted — because nothing is more powerful than prayer, and no one is beyond its reach.

When interceding on someone else’s behalf, do you know the most effective way to pray? In this message, Dr. Stanley describes the six attitudes we must adopt in order to see God move in the lives of those around us.

This message is Part 5 of the series: How to Talk With God – Volume 2

With a message from god’s word, here’s Charles Stanley.
Paul writes to Timothy by saying, I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority that we may lead quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty or reverence.
But this is good and acceptable in the sight of god, our savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come under the knowledge of the truth.
For there is one god and one mediated between god and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself a ransom role to be to be testified in due time.
Whereunto, I am ordained a preacher and an apostle.
I speak the truth in Christ and law not a teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth.
I will therefore that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
Now, all of us have prayed for other people, and while all of us have had the experience at times, of praying for the people and expecting something to happen and nothing happened.
And we’ve asked, well, did I read the scriptures Do I understand prayer? Was god’s list was god listening?
And all the questions that we went through.
But I wanna share with you this morning, some principles that I feel are very essential if you and I are gonna pray for someone else and pray effectively and see either god meet their need or change their or whatever the situation might be.
But I want us to look first of all here at, um, the people that Paul says, uh, we ought to pray for.
And I want us to look at that, and then I want us to check the principles and then 2 other, uh, areas that I want us to know.
First of all, who the people that Paul says we ought to be praying for?
Well, if you’ll notice, he has the category he I exalt therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, and assessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men.
Now that’s sort of like lord, just bless everybody, but then He gives us a category here, and then I want to expand upon that category so that you and I may see that we do have a definite responsibility to pray for different types of categories of people.
So he says, first of all, in verse 2 for kings and for all that are in authority.
And in our day and time, that would be for, uh, presidents, for Dick tetas for emperors or whoever they may be.
And he says that we are to pray in their behalf.
He speaks of supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving all of which means, uh, to meet, uh, to note their needs and to intercede in their behalf, to make petition for them, and then to give thanksgiving to god.
Now when god’s people began to pray for those in places of leadership, something begins to happen.
Now we need to pray that every man who runs for office will have a fear for god, will have a reverence for god.
Will acknowledge that god is sovereign, that god is supreme, and that every man needs to bow his head in his heart before almighty god and acknowledge that god is god, and he needs to do it, not only in privately, but publicly that the whole world may know that he has a reverence for god.
Now that’s exactly what Paul is saying here.
I encourage you strongly, Paul says, to pray for these men in authority over you.
And if we pray for these men, god’s gonna begin to change their minds.
He’s gonna begin to change their perspective. But that’s just one category. Because there’s some other categories.
For example, he says in evasions turned out, if you will, for a moment, and let’s look at a few other categories of people who for whom we need to pray.
In ephesians chapter 6, and if you’ll recall, uh, this is where Paul is telling us what the armor of the believer is.
He says in verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereon too with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
We need to pray for the whole body of Christ. That is the church.
You say, well, how are you gonna pray for the church?
Because we can divide the church if today, listen, not by denominations, but by me.
There is the part of the body of Christ today that is under great persecution.
There is the part of the body of Christ today that is very lukewarm.
There is the part of the body of Christ today that is very cold.
There is the part of the body of Christ today that has that have set aside the word of god, and they have turned away from the teaching of the word of god, and they aren’t just cold they have begun to doubt the authenticity of the word of god.
There’s a part of the body of Christ today that’s in material need.
The body of praise is different in every locality, and every single church has its own personality and the people are different.
But you see, he says we are to pray for all the saints.
Galashians chapter 1, philippians chapter 1, uh, uh, uh, ephesians chapter 1, In all of these first chapters of these books, Paul, continue it, reminds us to pray for the body of Christ.
So we have a responsibility to pray for the church.
There’s the 3rd category and stay right here in divisions, if you will, for which we need to pray.
That is we need to pray for god’s servants. Pastors and teachers and preachers and missionaries.
Listen to what he says now.
In verse 18, he says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, watching thereon too with all perseverance and supplication for all saints, pray for the body of praise, verse 19.
And for me, Paul says, and for himself.
Now listen, people say, well, I’d like to pray for my past, and I don’t know what to pray for.
Alright. Here we go right here.
Here’s what you pray for if you don’t know how to pray for your pastor because he tells us.
He says, and pray for me, first of all, that utterance may be given me.
People need to pray that for their pastor, that god would teach him and show him revealed to him clarify to him what he ought to say.
What do you ought to preach about? How are you ought to say it?
So he ought to be here to pray people ought to pray that god would give their pastor’s utterance.
Lord, you show him what to say.
Second thing he says here, Not only that utterance may be given me, but that I may open my mouth boldly that god’s men that pastors would speak boldly the word of god, not compromisingly, not ashamedly, not weekly, but very boldly, thus sayeth the lord god almighty.
The third thing he says here is not only give him utterance, not only speak boldly, but thirdly, to make known the mystery of the gospel.
That is to make the message clear.
So if you don’t know how to pray anything else for a pastor or a preacher, you pray that god will show him what to say.
You pray that god will give him the boldness to say it.
And thirdly, You pray that god would make the message very clear so that as he says in 2nd thessalonian chapter 3 verse 1, that the that the gospel of Jesus Christ, which he preaches, may have free run, as Paul says, or there would be no hindrance to the preaching of the gospel as he shares it.
And I could wish every preacher in America had somebody to get up before daylight every morning praying that god would do what, teach him what to say.
Give him the boldness to say it. Make the message clear. Me his own personal needs. Deepen his life.
Keep his focus upon god. I could spend the rest of the message telling you how to pray for preachers.
And one of the problems with this nation is that people criticize their pastors and they’re always looking for something to shoot at, but they never take time to ask god, how shall I pray for this man?
And I wanna say to some of you who may go to churches and you’re, Displeased maybe with, uh, what you hear, maybe you ought to get on your face before god and tell god you’re gonna lift that man’s name before him until god changes him.
And I’m here to tell you he’ll do it.
And sometimes people may pray for their past and the past don’t wanna change.
There’s some folks who prayed for me.
And I didn’t wanna change about some things, but after god changed me, I said, praise the lord.
Just keep it up because I don’t wanna miss anything god’s got. Do you?
Then he says we ought to pray for laborers, the people who yet to be called, for example, in the 9th chapter of, uh, Matthew, Uh, he tells us in that last verse.
He says, pray therefore in verse 38.
Pray therefore the lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers unto his harvest.
We need to pray for the people who yet to be called, people to be preached the gospel, teach the word of god, people to sing, people to take place of leadership, people who work in the nursery, we have a responsibility for praying for god to speak to people, for people to listen to god speak to them who’ve never even thought about serving the lord.
Then the scripture says, we likewise ought to pray for the lost.
Now if the average person picked up the Bible back to First Timothy, If the average person picked up the Bible and said, now why does it say pray for the lost?
Well, I would have to say to you that the vast majority of times in the Bible The Bible is always admonishing us to pray for the saints, not the lost.
But the scripture does wanna god does want us to pray for the lost because listen to how he couches his admonition to pray here in First Timothy chapter 2.
He says he’s exhorting us or strongly encouraging us to pray for all men.
That he names kings and so forth.
And listen to what he says, he says when we pray for these people, something’s going to happen.
And then he departs in verse 4, speaking of Christ.
And he says, who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth?
Now why would he spend verse 4, 5, and 6 talking about? God’s willingness to save, man.
Christ dang on the cross not to save us if he did not intend for us to pray for lost people.
He does want us to pray for lost people. He says it’s not my will that an immense should perish.
He said, who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
We’re to pray for god to deal with the hearts of these people.
Then if you’ll turn to Matthew chapter 5, and this is where The rubber hits the road, and sometimes it makes some real rubber marks on the road at this point because I want you to notice the last category that I wanna mention here, verse 44 of chapter five the sermon on the Mount.
One of the group of people that we need to pray for, and I’m sure there are others.
But he says, verse 44, but I say unto you, love your enemies.
Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully resentfully, bitterly criticize you and do what?
And persecute you. He says we’re to pray for. Now you say, well, now wait a minute now.
I can take care of the president and pastors and saints and laborers, and I can take care of, uh, of, uh, you know, all these people, but now, wait a minute.
Praying for my enemies. And you see what I want you to see in just a few moments because I wanna share the principles that I feel are a essential to making anybody’s praying for anyone else, these principles are essential to make that praying profitable.
And you see, it’s very difficult for us to pray for our people that we don’t like.
Are people who don’t like us, maybe?
Are people who persecute but I want you to go back to First Timothy for a moment. Notice something here.
What he says about kings or presidents and people in places of authority is also true among our enemies in the home, in the school, in the government, in our society, in your office, or wherever it may be.
Well, it’s your enemies, your friends, your loved ones. Listen to what he says.
He says in verse 2 with a pray for these people, In all of that, we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honest.
You begin to pray for that person? What hap God begins to work on you.
You say, oh, and that’s not it. I’m praying for that person. God says yes, but I’m starting with you.
You say, but lord, that’s where the need is god says yes. I see that.
And so he begins to work on you and then before long, what?
The gap between you and that person is changed and what was the gap between you have brought the 2 of you together.
And then what are you doing? You are able to relate to that person.
And when you see that person or you interrelate to them, there is a sense of quietness and peaceable. Listen.
Wonderful. You began to pray, god began to work on you, then he began to work on the other person, and what is true of the government is true in the home, in the office, in the school, God closes the gap through prayer and peaceableness and quietness and godliness and reverence and respect for one another is the end result.
That’s what god wants to do in this nation.
That’s what god wants to do in this world, and it makes no difference how bad things are today.
I’m totally convinced. If god’s people will start doing what god says do, we’ll watch god work a miracle in America, and there’ll be a quietness a peaceableness, and we’ll begin to see that god has leveled out the revolutionary forces in the society and that god is doing a miraculous thing in America.
But if we fail to pray, I’ll tell you exactly what’ll happen.
There’ll be no more quietness, and there’ll be no more peace. And we will get what’s coming to us.
And the only people we can blame is the body of Christ because the word of god says, There is in the power of the grass that is available to the people of god that inexhaustible supernatural resource of prayer that can penetrate every area of society and bring about a revolutionary, marvelous, miraculous, spiritual change in all of our society.
Do you realize what we have in our capacity?
God has given you and me the privilege and it’s his power, I know, and the power to change the world.
And you don’t have to make that one decision.
Will I use it, or will I not?
That’s all the decision you have to use. Well, what are the principles?
If you’ll jot these down, if you will, and let me just give you about 6 principles that I feel are very essential, absolutely essential if you’re praying for someone else is gonna making a real decided difference now.
We say our largest, bless everybody. He doesn’t hear that. How do how how would he answer that?
Some folks don’t need a blessing. They need a weapon.
They used to ask, that’s a blessing in disguise.
Well, you ask your kids if they think that. Alright? Alright.
The first principle, let me put it this way so you can follow me.
In order to make your prayers for others effective so and so and so and so and so.
So I won’t just keep repeating that, and you don’t have to keep writing that down.
Number 1, If my prayers for others are gonna be effective, my prayers must come from a heart of love and compassion for the people I’m praying for.
You will not pray for people you resent. You will not pray for people that you’re bitter toward.
You say, oh, yes. I have. Well, I can tell you, you may do it.
But you will pray 2 or 3 little time. You’ll send that Lord.
And more and your prayers are gonna be so prejudice that god’s not gonna hear it anyway.
God, I don’t understand what’s wrong with that sneaking attitude toward me. God’s not gonna answer that.
And I’ll tell you what I’ve told you before.
When when I have a problem with somebody else, the lord’s already taught me this.
I I have to learn it over and over and over again, but I think I’m making some progress.
And that is I have to start with me.
And god has to give me a sense of love and compassion for the other person because it may be it may be that they don’t know any better than I do.
So first of all, if my prayers for other people are gonna be effective, they’ve gotta start with the heart of love and compassion.
Secondly, I’ve got to recognize that I that my prayer is the link between between their need and god’s inexhaustible resource.
How do how do I help that person get god’s inexhaustible resource into their life to meet their need?
If I’m willing to pray for that person.
And to bring their name and their need before the lord god almighty, my prayer is the link.
Because as as I begin to speak to god about their need and what does god do?
God hears my prayer, and what does he do?
He goes down to meet their needs so that you and I must recognize if we if our prayers are gonna be effective, that our prayer is the link between almighty god and his resources and that person’s need, whether it’s an emotional need, a physical need, a material need, a financial need, whatever it might be.
And we have to see that we’re not just praying disconnected to the whole idea.
As we’ve said before, it’s like a triangle. It’s like this. Here’s god. Here’s the need, and here you are.
God sees their need. He burdens your heart. You pray for them. God answers your prayer needs their need.
Now he could leave you out. But god isn’t gonna isolate his people like this.
He doesn’t want his church living like that. He wants his church living like this.
Depending upon one another, looking to each other, meeting each other’s needs.
That’s the way god intended for the family to work.
The local family, the small family, and the whole body of Christ is to work in that way.
So if you and I are gonna pray effectively, we’ve got to see that we’re the link.
The third thing, if my prayers for someone else is really gonna be effective, I’ve got to be able to identify with their need.
That is I’ve gotta be able to get a grasp on what their need is and feel what they feel.
The year, a call when Jesus was watching the multitudes, he says he looked upon them and had compassion for them.
And you recall he says that he was tempted and tried in all points such as we so that Jesus Christ when he came to earth.
Literally, this is what happened. God, the father, seeing the need of mankind, came in the form of Jesus Christ, and he got under the burden with all of us and he lifted that burden.
And when you and I talked to the lord Jesus Christ, he can identify with it.
He lived in a home for 30 years. He knows all about fuss and fighting going on the home.
He knows all about brothers and sisters fighting with each other because he was one of them.
I didn’t say a fault with him, but I said he was one of them.
He knew all about that. He knew all about temptations. He all knew all trials.
He says he was tempted in every point such as his week. So then what did he do?
He came in order to be able to reach them into your life and my life and say, I understand.
I’ve been there. And you see, not in every single instance of circumstance, but in circumstances that are so alike what you and I go through, there is anything that we face that he has not faced more intentionally because he was perfect.
More intentionally because he was perfect, Satan worked on him.
He’s experienced every temptation, every heartache, every bird that will ever be able to face in one form of the other.
So he could identify with us. That’s why we said, lord, I know you understand.
If he had not come to earth, If he had never been tipped and tried like we would say, lord, now I know you don’t understand it, but this is the way I feel.
You won’t pour your heart out. Somebody doesn’t understand. So we’re gonna pray for others.
We’ve gotta ask the lord to help us to see what they’re feeling and feel what they’re feeling and understand the hurts and feel the hurts.
We’ve got to get up under the burden with that person until we’re able to feel a little bit of what they’re feeling.
Then my friend, it isn’t just lord bless so and so and so and so.
Then we begin to pray, oh, god. Lift that burden off their heart. Meet their need.
You know what motivates us to pray with earnestness because we feel the hurt that somebody else feels.
And until you feel the hurt, you’ll never be able to pray effective, unless it’s praying for joy or something else you want in someone else’s life.
Number 4. For my prayers for someone else to be effective, I must always desire their highest good.
I must always desire their highest good. Let me give an He’s the galmer and a fellow who is dating.
And this fellow says, lord, I want the best for her. I love her god with all of my heart.
I want the highest good for her life. God says, find out when her to marry somebody else.
Well, the only married people can laugh at that.
Let me tell you something.
That’s sort of a radical thing, but it’s very true and it’s happening all the time.
But what I’m saying is simply this.
When you say lord, I want what’s best for the other person, then you can’t say lord, I want what’s best for them, but we don’t wanna change this.
We wanna keep this, this one. You can’t do that.
When you’re asking, when you’re praying for someone else, you know what you have to do?
Here’s what you have to do.
When you’re praying for someone else, you have to take your hands off the bat and let god deal with it.
Anyway, he won’t to, and it may not come out the way you want it.
But, see, I can’t pray for someone else.
Honestly, sincerely, with all of my heart, have got here and answer my prayer unless I’m gonna say that, lord, I’m gonna take my hands off the whole matter.
If I say gunner, I want you to answer my prayer.
And I’ve got a tight grip on it because I’m not gonna let him do, but just so much.
God says, if I’m gonna answer your prayer, you’ve gotta trust me to do with it exactly what I wanna do and get yourself totally out of the picture except to pray.
And sometimes that’s very difficult for for parents to do that and praying for their children.
The next thing, the 5th thing is this.
Listen, if I’m gonna pray for someone else effectively, I must be willing to be part of the answer if god chooses to make it so.
I must be willing to be part of the answer.
If you’re praying for someone else and you’re not willing to be part of the answer, you’re not willing to cooperate with god and helping meet that person’s need.
Now I’m here to tell you God’s not answering your prayer because it is the prayer of hypocrisy.
Listen, It is the prayer of separation. It’s the prayer of isolation. Listen to this.
You’re saying, god, here’s a tremendous need in this family over here, but count me up.
I don’t wanna get mixed up in that. Don’t bet on me for that.
I don’t have any money for that, and I shoulda wanna get mixed up in anybody else’s problems, but you take care of that.
Can you imagine Jesus Christ doing that? He didn’t say to the leper. Somebody else touch him.
I don’t want to get my pure holy hands dirty with somebody’s leper stinking buddy?
The reason god does not answer most of our prayers.
We pray for other people is because we’re not willing to get involved.
Brother, if you’re gonna pray for somebody else, you know what you’ve got to be willing to do, you’ve got to be willing to step right over in the middle of the mess and say, alright.
God, I’m willing to intercede, to bear their burden, to lift their heartache, and whatever you wanna do with me, god, here I am just doing with me.
Until you’re willing to do that, all your prayers for others are a waste of your bread.
Because what you’re saying is, god, I’m I’m lifting a cheap prayer.
It’s not gonna cost me anything.
That’s just a lot of stuff because god doesn’t hear that.
The last principle, very essential, the one that trips us up.
If we’re gonna pray for someone else effectively, we must be willing to persevere.
That is we must be willing to hang in there and keep on praying.
I’m blessed and blessed and blessed and blessed and blessed and blessed by folks who will surround me and pray for me and hold me up and get right in the middle of my life and be willing to say, god, let me bear some of that burden.
Let me bear some of that hurt. Let me bear some of that ache.
And I’m gonna tell you you’ve not prayed with anybody until somebody tells you and tells god lord you just push that over me, whatever it takes, god, use me to be a blessing to this fellow.
You talking about bonding the body of Christ together, brother.
That’d be better than the most powerful glue man could ever create. Because you know what happens?
God’s meshing spirits together.
And when you have been on your knees with somebody else and you’ve prayed them through something, friend, that’s what you are for lifetime.
That’s real genuine friendship glue. It never comes apart at the scene.
But how many times you and I pray?
Somebody says, somebody shares the deed says, will you pray for me? I sure will.
And that night, you asked the lord, and please bless so.
And so, you know, they have a need, father.
And I just wanna ask you to do that in Jesus’ name. Amen the next day.
That’s the end of that. And, you know, and then there’s some they may say, did you pray? Oh, yeah.
I prayed for you. I’m just about to tell when somebody tells me they’re gonna pray for me the way they say it, whether they really and truly intend to pray for me or not.
I want to challenge you to do one thing.
Ask god to show you three people for whom you need to pray.
3 people that have a burden. 3 people that have a heartache.
3 people that you know really need a change.
Whatever it may be, or need something or experience, whatever it might be.
Ask god to give you 3, three people that you’re willing to be a part of the answer.
3 people that you’re willing to get on that burden, 3 people that you can love, start off with somebody that you love, and tell god that you want him to teach you how to pray and to intercede and to get under and to get with and to get into somebody else’s life and that you will pray for them until god answers your prayer.
Just three people. Do you know what would happen if all of us were to start praying for each other?
Boy, I’ll tell you all heaven at break loose all over this place.
Holmes mended kids come back home, parents getting straight with their children, finances getting straightened out, people begin to love each other, There is absolutely no human way to describe what god would do.
If you and I would just take those simple principles and apply our everyday life.
Heavenly father, we thank you for loving us.
All of us have been prayed for by somebody.
In fact, probably many people who’ve prayed for as they We’ve not even known about it.
People prayed for us to be safe, and people have prayed for us down through the years.
And we wanna thank you for that this this morning.
And now, lord, we wanna ask you in the name of the lord Jesus Christ, the great intercessor.
Father, would you help us to be as absolutely quiet as we can be for just a few moments?
And then I want to ask you, father, in Jesus’ name, that first of all, I wanna start fresh with me, And for each one of us, would you place three people?
On our heart, Let 3 names come to our mind.
3 people that we can love now We may have to learn to love some folks, love, but we want to love these people now.
Three people whom we can love now. 3 people under whose burden we are willing to get now.
3 people whose hurts and heartaches and needs we’re willing to share now.
Three people we’re willing to keep on praying for until we see the answer come.
Heavenly father?
We want to v we want to pledge to you as many of us as will, that we’re willing to take these principles and apply them to those 3 people.
And, father, we wanna thank you right now in advance But what you’re gonna do in those three people’s lives?
We praise you already for what you’re going to do. We bless your name, though.
And ask that our own hearts may be kept so clean and so pure and so righteous before you, that not one prayer would fall to the earth and shatter in brokenness and uselessness and waste.
But that every petition we lift in their behalf, would reach your holy ears and move your omnipotent hand.
To pour out your abundance in that life, whether it’s knowledge to know your will, an emotional experience.
Of security or strength or some physical or material need.
We wanna thank you for that right now in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Back to top button