Partnering with the Holy Spirit in Prayer for the Lost

“The Holy Spirit wants to share His strength, power, wisdom and information with us. He is desirous of participating with us in life’s endeavors. He certainly wants to participate with us in our prayer lives... The Amplified Bible uses no less than seven terms to describe or translate the concept of the Holy Spirit, our paraclete: 'Comforter, Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby.' The point is simple yet broad. The Holy Spirit has been sent to help us in every aspect of our life and ministry. He is the key to success!” - Dutch Sheets
 
Dear intercessors,
 
The harvest is ripe! Multitudes throughout the world are opening their hearts to God. We have the wonderful privilege and responsibility in these end times to pray in the harvest. This is a kairos moment (an opportune time, a moment of indeterminate time in which everything happens). Let us not miss this tremendous opportunity to partner with the Holy Spirit at harvest time. 
 
As you pray for the lost, keep in mind that you have a supernatural prayer partner who is helping you. You are never alone when you pray. Many of you have been praying for years regarding lost family members. My husband and I have personally seen several come to Christ through prayer, but it sometimes took years. God worked in some very hard cases as we watched the Holy Spirit remove spiritual blindness one by one. The lost cannot be reached without the dynamic working of the Holy Spirit in a life. We cannot pray without the help of the Holy Spirit, because He helps us to hit the mark as we intercede for the lost! 

Jack Hayford gives the following definition of intercession:

“Lexicons show the root idea of this word to be, ‘to light upon by chance, to meet accidentally.’ So it expresses a fortuitous and unplanned encounter of two parties. That definition seems pointless unless we take into consideration God’s (strategy) for prayer... The Holy Spirit is active in 1) bringing to mind people or circumstances we ought to pray for, and 2) giving rise to prayer that exactly hits the mark. That is, God Himself knows where hearts cry for His intervention, and the Holy Spirit prompts prayer to release the workings of His hand for them.”

Light is Released as We Partner with the Holy Spirit in Prayer

Satan’s strategy is to bring confusion, blindness, doubt, and deception into the hearts of the lost. He wants to kill and destroy. He does everything he can to keep people in darkness. As we travel to other nations, intercession is one of our main strategies to remove this darkness and prepare the area for salvation. It is pointless to try to evangelize a city or region without first bathing that area in intensive intercession. The Holy Spirit is our partner. Notice how He is deeply involved in reaching the lost as we pray: 

• The Holy Spirit convicts - John 16:8 - “When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.”
   
• The Holy Spirit witnesses to Christ - John 15:26 - “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.”
   
• The Holy Spirit invites individuals to salvation - Revelation 22:17 - “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”
   
• The Holy Spirit regenerates - John 3:3-6 - “In reply Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’ ‘How can a man be born when he is old?’ Nicodemus asked... Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.’”

Light is released as we pray for the lost. The unbeliever cannot see the light until the darkness is removed on a supernatural level through prayer. Dick Eastman, the International President of Every Home for Christ, had a vision several years ago that shows forth this truth. He saw a big arena with thousands of people of all ages and races standing before a judge’s bench. An angel had a gigantic book - the Book of Life (Revelation 20:12-15). Each person had a list that they brought to the judge. They were intercessors. One older intercessor presented her list with many names. Dick asked the Lord how she could get so many names on her list and he showed him why. 

In this vision he suddenly saw the elderly intercessor on her knees in a village in India near a small hut. A man brought a gospel booklet to the lost man in that dark hut, but he immediately threw it on the table. The intercessor began to fervently pray. As she prayed, the darkness in the hut began to move upward. Instantly the man picked up the booklet, read it and accepted the Lord into his life! A beam of light suddenly entered the hut and flowed into the man’s heart. The darkness vanished! The intercessor then put his name on her list and then went to another hut to pray.

What a tremendous visual example of how we can partner with the Holy Spirit in prayer for the salvation of souls.

In the last 5 years alone, Every Home for Christ has reached over 400 million homes and followed-up to disciple over 70 million people around the world who have responded to the Gospel. God is at work in the hearts of the lost as we partner with the Holy Spirit in prayer. The whole world is in spiritual darkness but as we pray and partner with the Holy Spirit, that spiritual darkness is lifted. 

How to Partner in Prayer with the Holy Spirit
 
“True prayer is prayer in the Spirit; that is, the prayer the Spirit inspires and directs. When we come into God’s presence we should recognize ‘our infirmity,’ our ignorance of what we should pray for or how we should pray for it, and in the consciousness of our utter inability to pray aright we should look up to the Holy Spirit, casting ourselves utterly upon Him to direct our prayers, to lead out our desires and to guide our utterance of them.” R. A. Torrey

I encourage you to come before God in silent prayer. Expect the Holy Spirit to speak to you and help you to pray for the lost. He teaches us how to pray. Ask Him to bring the names of individuals you know who do not know Christ. He will bring them to your mind as you wait on Him. Then take a piece of paper or your prayer journal, and write down these names. Begin to partner with the Holy Spirit and pray the following for each one of them. You may want to pray this for your city as well. The Holy Spirit will guide and direct you as you pray. He will help you to pray on target prayers.

• Pray that He will soften the hearts of the unsaved - Many have hard hearts but the Holy Spirit is able to soften them through prayer. 
  
  “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…” (Psalm 95:7-8). 
   
• Pray that the spiritual blindness will be removed -Satan has blinded the minds of the lost, but the Holy Spirit can lift that blindness. 
  
  “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God”
  (2 Corinthians 4:4).    
   
• Pray that their minds will understand truth - The Holy Spirit is able to open their eyes to see, remove the darkness, and cause them to understand. 
  
  “They are darkened in their understanding and separate from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts” (Ephesians 4:18).  
   
• Pray that they will repent and turn to God - The Holy Spirit is able to bring men and women to repentance.
  
  “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19).
   
• Pray for workers to be sent to the harvest field - The Holy Spirit is able to touch the hearts of workers, causing them to go into the harvest to share the good news of the gospel.
  
  “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:38).   

The Intercessors Arise International and Nations House of Prayer Equipping Center websites are designed to help you in prayer. Included are dozens of motivational teachings on prayer and intercession, along with resources and worship music to help you in intercession and in your daily walk with God. 

“Could it be that our prayers are essential to gathering in the harvest?... Nothing should motivate us to pray for the harvest more than the knowledge that multitudes may receive Christ because we prayed. What greater joy could there be than knowing that our prayers helped lift the darkness so the lost might see the Light? Someday we may find, indeed, that heaven is populated with multitudes of our answered prayers.” Dick Eastman

Together in the Harvest,
 
Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC)
deb@intercessorsarise.org
www.intercessorsarise.org

Read our Prayer to the Holy Spirit to help guide and direct your thoughts in prayer and recognize his work in your life.