In our current message series, we’re talking about salvation. We want to understand what salvation is all about, so that we can comprehend it for ourselves and so that we can explain it to others. I believe that God has destined each believer to bring others to salvation, by praying for them and witnessing to them. Yet, oftentimes, we count ourselves out. We think, Oh, I could never lead someone to Jesus. I could never tell someone else how to be saved. Yet, that’s God’s plan for you and me. To lead others to Jesus.
In the Bible, we read about believers who led others to a faith in Jesus Christ. God highlights those people as examples to us of the kind of faith we can have as well. But oftentimes, we think of the people in the Bible as saints, who lived on a completely different level than we do. However, that view is not correct. The Bible teaches that all believers are saints. All believers have access to the power of prayer, all believers, including you and I can believe for another person’s salvation.
James 5:17 (NIV) Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
Notice the first phrase. Elijah was a man just like us, just like you and me. With faith, you could do the same things that Elijah did through prayer.
Today, I’d like to talk about three spheres of exercising your faith for others. The first sphere of faith encompasses yourself, your family and your relatives. God wants your faith to grow in the personal sphere of faith, believing God for all those people to be saved. The second sphere of faith is in your Life Group. Here God wants your faith to expand to believe God for others to become saved beyond your family. The third sphere of faith is faith for your entire church family. God wants you to believe and pray for your church family and its mission in the St Louis area. Every believer should be exercising their faith and prayers in each of those three spheres: personal, small group and church family for the salvation of others.
Today, my message is entitled “Believing for Other’s Salvation.” We’re going to be talking about how to move with God in faith in these three spheres of life so that our relatives and friends may be saved. Faith is required for powerful and effective prayer that gets results.
Matthew 21:22 (NIV) If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
Circle the word “believe.” Without faith, your prayers will be ineffective. However, believing is not just something that happens in your mind. When you truly believe in God’s plan for your life, you will not only pray, you will take action.
James 2:17 (NIV) In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
James is telling us that a living faith, a faith that is a world-changing faith, will guide our actions as well as our thoughts. It is faith with action that brings God’s plans for your life into reality. It is faith with action that moves others closer to salvation. God wants us to move with Him in faith. The most famous chapter on faith in the Bible is Hebrews 11 which begins with this verse.
Hebrews 11:1 (NIV) Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Faith is the substance of dreams. It is being sure of God’s plans and being certain that what we have seen in the spiritual world will come into reality in the physical world. God’s will is for many people to be saved and He wants our faith to grow to believe for that plan to come into reality.
Today, we’re going to look at an example from the life of Abraham, which the author of Hebrews 11 uses to explain faith. Abraham lived by faith and we can learn from him.
Listen to or watch my October 21, 2012 message Believing for Others’ Salvation.
, I have often been amazed at the btesernits of many Christians of all denominations who are so willing to trade here and now for the idea that meaning only begins in the “next life”. Its isn’t a “next life” that we can only have when we get there, it is the continuation of the one we live NOW…and if we don’t invest it with all the joy and sorrow, and doubts and hopes and getting banged up and picking ourselves up and experiencing every moment of it, we are not living. We are not invested in the “Kingdom of God”. Jesus said we must have the faith of a little child – and for a child every day is precious unto itself, for every butterfly, every tear, every drop of sunlight or taste of raindrop on their tongue, skinned knees and nap times and all. They know they are alive NOW…they don’t suddenly become alive at the magical moment of becoming legal adults. (although teenagers certainly arrive at that belief many times! LOL!) We are children in the dwelling place of God and we are alive and there is meaning in the here and now. And there are many who do not share our beliefs, but have that same joy and meaning…perhaps they are the “sheep not of this fold”. Just some thoughts…Thanks for your blog, it is beautiful!