LEE THOMAS ON PRAYING FOR THE LOST
Prayer is really the starting place for all of our evangelistic efforts. We need to be like Paul in Romans 10:1, when he said: "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved."
*Lee Thomas is a great teacher on praying for the lost. Here's part of a testimony from his book: When we begin to pray for someone's salvation, God seems to draw a circle around that individual and then gets in the circle with him. -- That is what happened to Ricky Gresham when his wife Helen and her pastor Mickey Hudnall began to pray for him.
*Ricky explained, "It was during the months of February and March of 1990 that I spent some of the most miserable days and nights of my life. Though I did not understand at that time, I was under the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God. Everywhere I turned during those two months I saw or heard something that pertained to God. It was as though every day when I awoke, -- there was God. People I had known for years were now telling me about the Lord. I just could not seem to hide anywhere!"
*Ricky told about riding in the truck of his best friend, when a friend of that man pulled them over and started talking about Jesus. Ricky said it seemed like he talked for an hour. Then in parentheses he wrote, "It was 5 minutes."
*And Ricky said: "At that time I was self-employed in a machine shop. There was a black gentleman that would come by and talk with me from time to time. In my pride I wasn't going to ask someone I knew about the Lord. Finally, I got up the courage to ask him about the Lord.
*Though I wasn't ready for his answer -- He was! He said, 'Just a minute,' and went to this truck coming back with a Bible that looked to be a hundred years old. He began to turn the pages of that Bible, reading the scriptures to me. I didn't really understand what he was sharing but there is one thing with me today that I have never forgotten: 'Ye must be born again!' He repeated that statement over and over and over -- it never left my mind!
*During this time, something was drawing me to God's word. I was too proud to ask someone for a Bible, so I looked up 'Christ' in the encyclopedia. And there was a picture of Christ hanging on the cross. Something just kept drawing me to that picture of the Lord. Night after night I would sneak around looking at that picture.
*During the next few weeks, I began to try to change myself. I had come to a point in my life that I could not stop cursing -- every other word was a curse word. I desperately wanted to stop but it seemed as though I could not control it. It controlled me. Finally, one day at work, when I was by myself, I just spoke out to God, 'Lord, I can't take this anymore, help me God. I don't understand all of what Jesus did for me on that cross, but just show me and I will follow you.'
*And from that day, something in me changed. I not only quit cussing, I even lost the desire -- it was as if the language had never been there. I had to tell someone what was happening to me, so I asked the pastor if I could say something to the church. All I knew to say was that God had brought me to the place of loving the Lord Jesus and being willing to follow Him for the rest of my life.
*What I did not know during those two months of conviction was that my wife and her pastor had committed themselves to pray every day for my salvation. What I was experiencing was God answering those prayers. I am now the pastor of a church, and I am continually experiencing more and more of God's grace."
(Source: Adapted from "Praying Effectively for the Lost" by Lee E. Thomas - p. 40-41. From a sermon by Rick Crandall, Christ's Strategy for a Soul Winning Church, 3/15/2010)