Power of Praying in God's Will

‌The Scripture teaches us that there are certain things, without a shadow of a doubt, that is within the will of God to pray for.

We're going to look at a couple of these things, and I honestly would love for us to start praying specifically for certain things.

I want us to start to pray;

For this church to see an amazing harvest of souls saved…

I want us to specifically be praying for the people of this church who are not entirely sanctified to become entirely sanctified…

I want us to pray for the discipleship of young Christians.

Church, I believe if we start praying specifically for these things that we know are the will of God, then I believe we're going to see a move of God on a godly scale!

So #1 - It Is Always Within the Will of God to Pray for Someone's Salvation…

2 Peter 3:9

2 Peter 3:9 CSB

The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

So, what is the promise Peter is talking about here? Peter is talking about the Promise That Jesus Is Coming Back. People we don't talk about it a whole, whole lot, but let's make no mistakes about it, God honors every promise He has ever made and He told us that Jesus is coming back, that He will split the eastern sky and just like He went into heaven, He will come back landing on the Mount of Olives.

So, He's telling us that God the father hasn't forgotten about His promise and it's not delayed, but our loving heavenly Father is long-suffering giving us hard-headed humans as much time to repent as He can possibly allow.

And then Peter says “not wanting any to perish but for all to come to repentance”. Peter here reveals some of God’s glorious heart. The reason why Jesus’ return isn’t sooner is so that all should come to repentance, because God is not willing that any should perish.

We understand that God is not willing that any should perish not in the sense of a divine decree, as if God has declared that no sinners will perish. Rather, Peter’s statement reflects God’s heart of love for the world (John 3:16), and His compassionate sorrow even in the righteous judgment of the wicked.

God does not delight in His job of judging the wicked, but He is sovereign and his judgment is just. It is the same thought as expressed in Ezekiel 33:11

Ezekiel 33:11 CSB

Tell them, ‘As I live—this is the declaration of the Lord God—I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked person should turn from his way and live. Repent, repent of your evil ways! Why will you die, house of Israel?’

“Tell them, ‘As I live—this is the declaration of the Lord God—I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked person should turn from his way and live. Repent, repent of your evil ways! Why will you die, house of Israel?’

So over and over the Old Testament and the New Testament tells us that God is wanting all to repent, so we can look at this and know that it's His will for us to pray for the salvation and the repentance of lost souls!

If you aren't praying for someone specifically that you know to be saved, find someone. I promise you will not have a problem finding someone to pray for their salvation. Ask the Lord to give you a burden for someone! So it's always the will of God to pray for someone's salvation.

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#2. Praying Not to Fall Into Temptation

Luke 22:40 CSB

When he reached the place, he told them, “Pray that you may not fall into temptation.”

When he reached the place, he told them, “Pray that you may not fall into temptation.”

We see in Luke that Jesus is telling the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane to pray so they wouldn't fall into temptation. To me this prayer combats temptation, it repels temptation, it gives us the power to reject temptation, and not to fall into it. Temptation is not from God.

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James 1:13–14 CSB

No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.

“No one undergoing a trial should say, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ since God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself doesn’t tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.”

It is God's will for us to pray against temptation. We are going to face temptation, but our prayer life can determine whether or not we can overcome it, and that will determine how frequently we are tempted, and it also will dictate what the enemy uses as temptations.

If we are tempted and dragged away by our own evil desire and enticed. That word entice is very interesting. It means to attract artfully by arousing hope or desire. Other words that have the same or a similar meaning are: decoy, lure, seduce, and tempt.

So when we pray against temptation we are growing in our relationship with Jesus… which transforms us into a person of God… which then begins to help us grow out of the evil desires that entice us…when we figure out that these evil desires that drag us away from Jesus are something that is nothing like it appears to be.

Entice means decoy - something that is not as it seems and it's painting a facade. So, we're drawn away so that we're not around anyone who would speak truth into the situation or would see the falsehoods of what's going on.

See the love of God that's in us gives us the love for our fellow believers so the devil is always trying to drag us away and separate us from our brothers and sisters who love us.

Once he gets us away, then he entices us with our own evil desire and we just learned that entice is the same word as a decoy, as a lure, so our evil desires are things that are luring us away from God. They are things that we have a desire for the facade but once we pursue this desire, we figure out that it's the decoy for sin and sin always leads to separation from God and to death.

So just like

1 John 2:10-11

1 John 2:10–11 CSB

The one who loves his brother or sister remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

“10The one who loves his brother or sister remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” So this verse is saying that we are blinded by the very darkness that we're walking in.

When Satan separates us from our loved ones, we then enter into this temptation which entices us with evil desires and the whole time we're walking around blinded by the very evil desires and darkness that we're pursuing… but when we pray against temptation, when we seek God and we allow His Word to renew our mind, now all of a sudden our desires are changing, and when our desires change, we begin to seek the things of God, and seeking the things of God brings us out of the darkness, and when we walk out of the darkness, the blindfold comes off… and when the blindfold comes off, we are now walking in the light as He is in the light, and we are loving our brother, and we're loving God and we're walking without stumbling, because God is with us… because we have prayed against the very temptation and against the very enticement that the enemy has tried to trap us in, but he can't do it because God has given us power and authority over all of those things.