These prayer points were originally offered by a woman dealing with her unbelieving spouse, however you can obviously pray God’s Word over any loved one, friend, coworker, etc., struggling with (against) their Kingdom identity. We are all called to intercede on behalf of others. Pray these Scriptures in love over the unbelievers in your life. Remember, these prayers are not techniques for manipulating God into correcting the struggling or lost, but an outpouring of faith in His goodness and promises of deliverance and freedom through Christ.
P.S. – You’ll be pleased to know the woman with the unbelieving husband saw her husband eventually turn to Jesus. God is faithful to respond to His Word. Hallelujah!
“Lord, may Your wise and knowing Spirit rest on ________. Be his/her counselor, Father. May ________ delight in You and obey Your commands. Convict ________ of sin, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and of the coming judgment.”
And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;
And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: (Isaiah 11:2-3)
“God, You will fulfill the purpose in each of our lives. Your love endures forever—do not abandon the works of Your hands. Do not abandon ________. Draw him/her to You.”
The Lord will perfect that which concerns me: thy mercy, O Lord, endures forever: forsake not the works of thine own hands. (Psalm 138:8)
“Bring ________ to the end of himself/herself and into a living, vital, intimate, overpowering relationship with Jesus Christ. Open his/her eyes that he/she may see wonderful things in Your law.”
Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. (Psalm 119:18)
“Your hands made ________ and formed him/her; give ________ understanding that he/she may learn Your commandments and will.”
Your hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments. (Psalm 119:73)
“Bless ________. Your Word says that Your kindness leads to repentance. Don’t allow ________ to continue to store up wrath for himself/herself.”
Or despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
But after your hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds: (Romans 2:4-6)
“________’s heart is in Your hand; You direct it like a watercourse where You please. I can trust You.”
The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turns it wherever he will. (Proverbs 21:1)
“Give ________ singleness of heart and action so that he/she will always fear You for his/her own good and the good of our children.”
And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: (Jeremiah 32:39)
“Instruct ________ and teach him/her in the way he/she should go. Counsel ________ and watch over him/her. Your unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in You.”
I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go: I will guide you with my eye. […] Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusts in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. (Psalm 32:8, 10)
“Help ________ to humble himself/herself under Your mighty hand, that You may lift him/her up in due time.”
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: (1 Peter 5:6)
“I pray a hedge of thorns around ________, that those with wrong influence will lose interest and leave him/her alone. I pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the power of His blood.”
Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. (Hosea 2:6)
Are we missing some Scriptures you’ve used to pray over those struggling with their spiritual identity? Let us know and we’ll add them to this list!
References
10 Ideas: Prayers for an Unbelieving Spouse. FamilyLife. Retrieved from https://www.familylife.com/articles/topics/marriage/marriage-challenges/spiritually-mismatched/10-ideas-prayers-for-an-unbelieving-spouse
When we first tried bringing prayer to our church’s junior-high youth ministry, we constructed a prayer wall. Built by placing plastic letter clings on a wall in our classroom, the prayer wall was simple enough. Our wall was divided into two sections, with one section labeled “Prayer Requests” and one section labeled “Answered Prayers”.
The students were encouraged to write their prayer requests on sticky notes and place them under the “Prayer Requests” heading. Our intention was to eventually move requests to the “Answered Prayers” and build a visible testimony to God’s faithfulness. We adults modeled what it might look like to pray over the notes publicly and then turned for child volunteers, hoping they would jump at the chance.
Well, it seemed 7th-9th graders were a little shyer than we thought.
After several weeks of modeling or selecting our more confident kids to reluctantly try their hand at public prayer, we realized something had to change. Even with the repeated encouragement to take time to quietly pray over the list before or after class, the prayer wall was languishing.
What Worked in the Past?
We recalled the younger grades, where the Sunday school curriculum was set by a weekly subscription. There was always a rhythm established to keep the children’s attention:
Open play >
Quick introduction to the lesson >
Leave the classroom join other classes in “large group” to
worship,
receive a spoken message,
view a video lesson,
review the lesson,
rehearse the day’s complimentary memory verse >
Return to your classroom and break into small groups for an activity with group leaders >
Read the memory verse and close in prayer >
Open play.
See? Never a dull moment allowed for shorter attention spans. Since this early-teen class was a new level of youth ministry for our church and there was no template, we were drawing our own map. Here is the early rhythm we established for our kids:
Open play >
Attend worship in adult service for the first 20 minutes, until message began >
Return to classroom and grab snacks (a cheap bribe to encourage attendance?) >
Squeak out some prayers around the prayer wall >
Review prior week’s lesson >
Discuss the day’s lesson and supporting scriptures until adult service lets out.
A little dry, right?
Bring Back Video
We began experimenting with video and the kids said they appreciated it so we added short 5-7 minute video lessons to compound the learning. (Finally, a good use for YouTube. Thank you, Bible Project!)
Next, I sought advice from a colleague who regularly volunteers to work with early teens.
Youth Ministry Strategies for Teaching Prayer
Set the Tone
Before you do anything else, make sure you’re welcoming the children to the class. You’re aiming for laughter and light-heartedness. Be playful. Growing closer to God is a joyful experience. You’re there to grow in fun, faith and friendship.
Modeling and Volunteering
Now, about that prayer wall. Some of the tactics my friend mentioned we were already using. Those were:
Modeling prayer
Volunteering them for a turn
Of course, public speaking ranks slightly above the fear of death in adults, so we recognized volunteering them too soon or too often could be scary enough to drive our children away for good. And modeling wasn’t really having the encouraging effect we were hoping for. What else could we do?
Break into Smaller Groups
My friend also suggested breaking them into groups of two or three to pray. Here, my wife added her own touch to suggest having them share one thing they’re thankful for and one area where they need help. (Variation: Share best and worst experiences from the week and pray over that.)
When we piloted this in class, it worked wonderfully. We had the children self-select into pairs and then we modeled for them and set them to it. They took turns sharing and then prayed over each other. After a few minutes we gave them a one-minute warning to wrap up. Once the exercise was over, we asked them if they liked that approach and found nodding heads. Success!
If this were a workshop, we might ask our participants to share their experiences with the larger group; what they liked about it, what they might change, etc. Still, the smiles around the table were evidence they appreciated the more intimate format.
Conclusion: Smaller prayer teams needs to stay a fixture for a while. Maybe permanently.
Prayer Stations
We almost had this one. After all, we already had a prayer wall (prayer station #1.) Still, we can push the concept further by developing prayer stations. These prayer stations might focus on:
A religious season, say Christmas or Easter (giving to others, prophesy fulfilled, God’s love for us, etc.)
A local situation or people group that needs divine assistance (election results, refugee families, emergency workers, teachers, etc.)
Their school (pray for safety, Holy Spirit to guide faculty, clear teaching, integrity in friendships, etc.)
Their families (unity, health and safety, love, relationship with God, etc.)
Using prayer stations gets the kids praying on their own (or within a small team) and it gives them guided experience with prayer; something they may not be getting at home.
Form Your Own Prayer Team Online
This is kind of like moving your prayer wall to the Internet without having to stand up a website. You can accomplish this through a Facebook group or you can use the popular group messaging application, GroupMe. You may want to get parental permission before moving forward on this one. Still, if all your kids have phones, these channels may be a good way to solidify your youth group and continue the conversation outside the walls of your church.
Reminders for Your Students
As you establish prayer in your youth ministry, be sure to remind your students the most important thing they can do is to make time for daily fellowship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We must acknowledge God’s love for us. As God’s children, we have a right to approach Him, no matter what we’ve seen, done or experienced.
When praying, ensure your motivation is founded in faith (believing for what you want to see and the truth of the Gospel) as opposed to fear, loneliness, pain, discomfort (fruits of the Fall.) This is a focus on a covenant solution rather than a worldly problem.
We speak destiny and purpose over others; never doom or gloom. Prayer must flow out of love and compassion.
When praying, remember ACTS! Here is how to pray the ACTS prayer method:
ADORATION
Regardless of what we’re going through, we can always remember our God is a BIG GOD. He is outside time, space and matter and yet He is also by our side at all times. He created all things great, including a very organized universe full of planets and stars hung in beautiful alignment. He created all things small, like every living plant, animal and human and the earth’s wondrous ecosystem to sustain them. All this and He has set his sight upon you. He loves you and wants to have a personal relationship with you!
CONFESSION
We’ve all made mistakes. We might lose our temper or say words out of contempt. We might struggle with pride and think about ourselves too much. We might be spiritually passive, never caring to grow in our relationship toward God, preferring instead to chase the temporary thrills of this world. Anger, unforgiveness, rejection, shame, fear, pride, and a rebellious, unteachable heart can all lead to a broken life. If we don’t see it in Jesus, we’re not to see it in us. Turning away from these missteps and confessing them to God is the first step toward freedom from them.
THANKSGIVING
What are you thankful for? How has God blessed you? Sometimes we fall into the trap of focusing on what we don’t have or how we’ve failed. We might even focus on past or present hurts so much we give our power over to them. That’s when we allow those wrongs to become a part of us; part of our identity. The Enemy would love for you to be weighed down by those injustices your entire life. Life in relationship with Jesus shatters these chains, leading to freedom and peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4). What has God given you that you can be thankful for? Let Him know.
SUPPLICATION
Supplication is a fancy word that means the act of asking for something with a humble heart. You’ll notice it comes last in this list. After adoration, confession and thanksgiving, your heart will be better positioned for supplication. Too often, people turn to God only when they want something, reducing Him to a cosmic Santa Claus. Yet Jesus clearly taught us to pray “thy will be done,” not “my will be done.” Psalm 37:4 says “Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.” Though many use this passage to pray that God gives them what they want, it truly means you will come to desire what God desires.
Growing up Catholic, I never understood the value of proclaiming life over a situation, yet we see this time and time again in Scripture. Therefore, I would like to offer a second version to this document: PACTS (where the P stands for “Proclamation”.) Enjoy!
Thank you to those of you who have been asking questions, both in private messages, emails, and folks who have been responding to the blogs and responding to the YouTube channel. I appreciate all the comments and all the thoughtful questions.
One of the things I found myself struggling with just this weekend was finding the time to respond to folks and while working on everything else. I think it was on both Saturday and Sunday, I found myself during my evening prayer just wrecked, frankly, kind of in a doldrum, down-in-the-dumps depression over my inadequacy to get it all done, to be effective in all arenas at the same time.
For instance, I’ve got some client sites that I should be doing as a form of ministry. I have my own studies (I’ve gone back to school and I’m currently pursuing a Bachelor’s in Religious Ministry) and I don’t feel like I’m making great ground with that. Then, to have these comments rolling in—it’s good, it’s great, it’s exactly one of the things I’m encouraging; for folks to comment and to have that dialogue. That’s why we put ourselves out there; to engage others in the conversation.
In this case, we as finite beings are trying to wrap our arms and our heads around God, the Infinite, and so that in and of itself is an exercise in vanity, but still we have to try. We still try to gain a deeper understanding of God. I’ve heard it put that, “The more we come to know God, the more humble we should be growing.” Intellectually, when I heard that, I’m like, “Oh, yeah. That makes sense.” As we begin to know God’s nature a little more, we should be growing more humble. We won’t necessarily grow more humble until we know God more, so it’s a relationship; a deep ratio there.
I don’t want to presume that that’s what I’m experiencing in my depression during the evening prayers, but certainly there’s some mortification going on when I look at how pathetic my efforts are in the world. All I can do is plant these seeds in the form of videos, in the form of discussion or blog posts or responses… and then it’s up to God to really bring fruit to that. There’s nothing I can do that doesn’t have God’s hand on it if it brings success, if it flourishes to success. I can be banging on whatever efforts I want to, but it’s God that brings the growth. It’s God that brings the fruit.
It’s just like when we plant a seed in the garden. Some of those seeds will bear bruit, some will not, but none of it has much to do with us. We can bring water. We can bring plant food or fertilizer. We can bring some of these other things to it, but ultimately it’s God that says whether or not these seeds bring forth any life.
I think that I was stewing in my own inadequacy. Just producing a post or producing a video—so what? At the end of the day, so what? I can only do so much, and I think that’s where I was getting stuck, as in, “Lord, look at how inadequate this is!” For me to be able to produce a blog post (that takes me hours to stamp out) or for me to produce a video (that may take me one take, or maybe should take me more than one take…) but to even come up with this stuff and put it out online to share it—not as a guru (definitely not as a guru)—more as a student or a reporter on my position or my journey. I hope that it helps people and I hope that God can use me to move the multitudes.
That’s my prayer—and it’s a big prayer—but it’s a prayer that I say gently and with caution because I don’t think that I am deserving in any way to be used as such a vehicle. Exactly the opposite is what I’ve been feeling. I even cracked up during my prayer. I laughed a bit. I had to say, “All right. Lord, I’m not laughing at your ability to use this mess that is me. I’m laughing at this mess being used for anything good in the world, is really what it boils down to. This mess of a human being. I find it laughable that you would use this smallness, this pathetic story to your own glory, but if that is your will, I will be subjecting myself to that. If that’s your will. If it’s your will that I do nothing, that I spend the rest of my life doing menial labor or nothing. If I die tomorrow, it is your will. Let your will be done. That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to subject myself, my will, my ego, my intentions for my own life, to you, Lord.”
I think that ultimately, when I sit in that space and I think of how ridiculous it is that God would even use me knowing where I’ve been and the dumb stuff that I’ve done and how infantile I am in my faith. I think some of this might even be coming from watching some of these great Christian apologetic teachers, like Greg Bahnsen, like Ravi Zacharias—some of these folks out there who are doing some fantastic teaching. Then, I compared it to where I’m at in my own apologetic study and my own walk in the faith, and I think these guys have decades on me— decades on me. I feel like I’m trying to crush 40 years into 3.
Like I said in my last video, God’s been working in my life something fierce.
So, following our first meeting, Scott and I have a couple more conversations. We made a commitment to keep the energy going, and so we started talking on the phone every Monday. I call him, we talk for an hour or more, and even those conversations were just awesome.
This man knows Scripture really well. Scott’s been a Christian for 25 years, and he’s been really active in his faith for the past 8 years. He’s had supernatural experiences in spirit. (Not that that’s any kind of benchmark, but… it is. In the Bible, it even says to seek the gifts. He’s actually experienced the gifts unlike most folks I know.)
We’re having these conversations and I eventually set up a time to go out and meet with him at his place. Again, it’s about 25-minute drive from me, so I head out there after the kids are in bed, and I arrive at his place about 9:00 p.m. Initially, we only thought I was going to be out there for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half.
I get to his place at 9:00 on the spot, and I don’t end up leaving there until 1:00 a.m. We just sat in his living room and talked the entire time. Really, it was him telling me more about his story and me telling him more about my journey. I had brought four books along just so I could show him all that I had been uncovering. I brought a Kriya yoga book, one of the books he had recommended to me (Jeanne Guyon,) a Saint Teresa of Avila book (Interior Castle,) and then a daily devotional that came to me as a Christmas gift through my wife. I presented my stuff, he presented his stuff, and it was just this awesome feast of sharing our spiritual journeys together.
One of the things that came out near the end of that conversation was this big question mark over me, however. He had told of his spiritual awakening, where somebody had witnessed to him during a party phase of his life, where he was killing lots of time splashing around the gutter. I had also had a splashing-around-the-gutter time in my life; pretty much my entire 20’s. That entire decade was just… yeah, a lot of going crazy. Having a good time, but going crazy and making a lot of dumb mistakes and bad choices. More on that later.
So, Scott was also in that low place in his life when he had somebody at work witness to him, and the witnessing… did something to him. He had said, “Oh, yeah, yeah. I’ll say the Salvation Prayer. Yeah, no problem. I’ll do it,” and then he hung up on the guy. Just being a turkey.
Over that next week, though, something began eating at him. And eating at him. And eating at him. Until finally—about a week or two later—he just melted down, went through the Salvation Prayer, renounced his sin-filled ways and he ended up committing his life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Right as soon as he finished with that prayer, Scott felt this massive unburdening; this big, uplifting, full of tears and elation, with these waves of love and light and…POW!
That’s when Scott turns to me and asks if I had ever experienced anything like that, and my answer was, “Well, not quite.” I’ve had a couple Christ experiences (which I haven’t shared with you yet,) but I hadn’t had that kind of dramatic awakening.
So, I left there with this big question mark like, “Shouldn’t I have this? Shouldn’t this be part of my journey? I would love to have a supernatural awakening.”
I’ve had some supernatural experiences in my past, but I never really… it wasn’t around salvation. I definitely hadn’t experienced what he had. I didn’t have the big “woosh.”
I went home and did a quick Google search on “salvation prayer”. Scott had already given me the recipe on the way out the door, but I wanted to see the recipe in print, compare notes and get a better sense for it. That night, I ended up going through the Salvation Prayer. I guess I was hoping there would be some sort of supernatural affirmation I had done it right.
One of the things that was different for me on the Salvation Prayer was the notion of turning my life over to Christ. Now, I had done pretty much everything BUT that, even with the Kriya yoga work. I had sought out Kriya yoga because I thought Christ meditated, and absolutely, I still believe he meditated, but the Kriya yoga path doesn’t involve Christ really. You can do the whole thing without Christ. Christ says, “The path is wide, but the way to the Father is through me. It’s a narrow gate.” (Actually, he said:
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Matthew 7: 13-14
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6)
My experience of Kriya yoga said you can climb the wall to God without going through the gate, but the Bible teaches you’re not going to reach God without going through the narrow gate of Jesus Christ. I realized this was exactly what I had been doing. Through my meditative practice, I was trying to climb the wall to God, and I certainly wasn’t attempting that crossing through Jesus Christ.
So, why wasn’t I trying to cross through Jesus Christ?
I was born and raised Catholic. You’d think I would have this wonderful spiritual foundation. I did have a personal love for God; that’s true. Growing up, I was the only child I knew who would occasionally skip recess to go sit in the still silence of our empty cathedral and pray. But before I even graduated, I had a Jehovah’s Witness friend at work blow me out with some very good questions. She asked questions like, “If God is unconditional love, how could he let any of his children burn in eternal damnation? Why are their no women priests? Did you know the Catholic Church supports the pill? Why is it you have to go through the church to have a relationship with God?”
I was ill-prepared. I couldn’t answer. I wasn’t equipped to answer that barrage even after 12 years of Catholic schooling. Problem.
So, after that I pretty much went agnostic. I knew there was a God and I still talked with him, but Jesus eventually was reduced to a “good teacher” and that’s the way he stayed for over 20 years. To me, he became one of the master teachers the planet had seen. Yes, I believed in his resurrection. I believed in his miracles. I believed he was raised from the dead, but in my mind, we can do this too if we were to ever attain that spiritual height.
I don’t know how I had it all figured out my mind, but Jesus was not Lord.
I went through the Salvation Prayer. Where the Salvation Prayer says, “Jesus is Lord,” you take Jesus as your savior. You renounce all other paths, all other ways, and you zero in on Christ as that narrow gate through which you go.
It took a day or two for that to really sink in. I said the words the first night—and I meant it—but it was alien to me; the acceptance of Jesus Christ as God. I grew up around the Trinity, and I grew up around Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but somehow I hadn’t quite 100% agreed to it internally.
So I did the Salvation Prayer that night. Didn’t get the whoosh. There was no dramatic, “POW! You just entered some spiritual doorway.”
No woosh.
Yet there are experiences on YouTube where folks are talking about it, so I was feeling like, “Well, my guy had it. People on YouTube are having it. I didn’t get it. Hmm.”
Now, as it would just so happen, God had also placed another witness by me at my office. He’s a pastor, by trade. I went and talked with Tony. I said, “Tony, hey, have you ever had this salvation experience?” Tony said, “Yes.” (Everybody’s had this experience but me, apparently!)
Tony had a similar kind of story. Only instead of walking around with a really big grin on his face for a week and being filled with Christ’s love and affirmation, Tony was stricken by his sinful nature. He experienced that love, but a lot of his experience was anguish through the new awareness of his own sinful past. For the week after he answered an alter-call, he was wrecked emotionally. Sobbing every day, as he said.
So here I had two examples over the course of two days, and I still wasn’t getting the whoosh—the big emotional release. There was no spiritual release for me, so I did what you’re not supposed to do.
Now, I didn’t know this until it came to me later, but once you do the Salvation Prayer, you really should only do it once because—to do it two or three times like I did—it means you’re not having faith that God’s taken things over. You’ve renounced your past ways, you’ve confessed your sins, and you’ve given things over to Jesus, and now, you should be able to relax and rest for just a moment and let the Holy Spirit do his work. I wasn’t relaxing. Yeah, that’s not me, really, and I didn’t know that this was what I should’ve been doing.
Day two, I didn’t get my whoosh, but had received more validation that others have gotten the whoosh, and so I end up doing the Salvation Prayer again. I’m confessing more sins this time, and trying to give more of my heart, which that in and of itself is interesting. Through the past year’s meditation, I’ve been trying to remove myself, but bringing love—bringing myself up into a state of love for God—I was very weak at.
So day two comes and goes. No big whoosh. I’m a little crestfallen. I’m getting a little disappointed at this point. I’m like, “Lord, am I doing it right?”
The next day, Scott says, “Man, you should be… I’ve not really ran into a case where they haven’t had a big whoosh.” He said, “Well, maybe you need to witness to somebody else.” I said, “Alright, yeah, I’ll do that.” So I witnessed to a couple more people that day.
By the end of day three, I’m getting more resolve. I say, “Lord, I’m going to do this Salvation Prayer every day until you confirm that I’ve crossed over the door (that I’ve been accepted into the club essentially.)”
Right about then was when the message came to me (Did I read it? Or maybe Scott said something?) that you only say the Salvation Prayer once. The point is that you really need to have faith on the first pass and start diving into God’s Word, so I did more of that. I started diving into the Bible, which I had already started doing naturally.
Over the next couple weeks, I began to be consumed with a renewed starvation for God’s Word. I just needed to dig into the Bible more. I learned later the word is “regeneration.”
(By the way, by the third day I had renounced yoga. I had even renounced my Catholicism. I had renounced every other means possible where I had tried to climb the wall to God instead of going through the narrow gate of Jesus Christ.)
I didn’t get the whoosh, but it certainly was helping me get around to accepting the deity of Jesus Christ because that’s one place where I was super weak. I hadn’t done that yet. It was still a big question in my mind. I had spent so many years wondering if truly that was the case or if Jesus was human just like us and just had grown and evolved to the heights that he achieved. As I got deeper into God’s Word, I began accepting Jesus as the narrow gate, as the Lord and Savior, as the Triune God—not a created being, but as God.
Since then, things have been taking off, spiritually. I won’t go into everything here, but man, I’m on a track, kids. I’m on a track, and I’m looking forward to it. 2016 is going to be amazing. I’m already making plans to go out and start doing some street-side witnessing. That’s new to me. I’ve never done that before. I’ve never witnessed to anybody before, and now, I’m starting to do it on a weekly basis, and it’s really just me telling my story and sounding off where I’m at spiritually.
Yeah. This has been a big time for me, guys. I’ve got plenty more to talk about. I’m re-shifting my entire web practice to serve only Christian churches and faith-based organizations who point others towards God. If you don’t face others towards God, I’m not helping you with your web work anymore unless you are an existing client.
I can’t repay him enough. There’s nothing I can do. My best deeds are as filthy rags before of his holiness. There’s nothing I can do to repay him enough for the sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ. There’s nothing I can do.
Hope this is helping somebody out there. Let me know. Sound off in the comments. More soon.
P.S. A couple weeks later I was sitting in church when I would have my question about my salvation experience answered. The pastor said that sometimes our salvation experiences are dramatic, yes, but oftentimes the experience is tender. Regardless of how God brings you in, you will know if you have genuinely converted if you enter a period of regeneration following your confession and commitment.
Ever heard of the Salvation Prayer? How do we become “saved” or “born again?” The answer starts here:
“That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'” (John 3:3)
What is the Salvation Prayer?
We have all sinned and deserve God’s judgment. God, the Father, sent His only Son to satisfy that judgment for those who believe in Him. Jesus, the creator and eternal Son of God, who lived a sinless life, loves us so much that He died for our sins, taking the punishment that we deserve, was buried, and rose from the dead according to the Bible.
The Salvation Prayer is an important step along the road toward your rebirth in Jesus Christ. To be born again you must confess Jesus as Lord and believe that He is. When you ask Him into your heart, you are allowing Him to be the Lord of your life. Salvation takes place when we listen to the salvation message, believe it, renounce our sins and decide to receive Jesus into our hearts.
Salvation Prayer – 4 Simple Steps
Acknowledge in your heart that Jesus is Lord.
Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.
Believe that Jesus died for your sins and was raised three days later.
Repent of your sins and get baptized in the name of Jesus.
Salvation Prayer – An Example
The Salvation Prayer is not a ritual based on specific words. This is not the power of a prayer, but the power of truly committing our lives to Christ as Savior and Lord. The following is merely a guideline for our sincere step of faith:
“God, I recognize that I have not lived my life for You up until now. I have been living for myself and that is wrong. I need You in my life; I want You in my life. I acknowledge the completed work of Your Son Jesus Christ in giving His life for me on the cross at Calvary, and I long to receive the forgiveness you have made freely available to me through this sacrifice. Come into my life now, Lord. Take up residence in my heart and be my king, my Lord, and my Savior. From this day forward, I will no longer be controlled by sin, or the desire to please myself, but I will follow You all the days of my life. Those days are in Your hands. I ask this in Jesus’ precious and holy name. Amen.”
If you decided to repent of your sins and receive Christ today, welcome to God’s family. Now, as a way to grow closer to Him, the Bible tells us to follow up on our commitment.
Get baptized as commanded by Christ.
Tell someone else about your new faith in Christ.
Spend time with God each day. It does not have to be a long period of time. Just develop the daily habit of praying to Him and reading His Word. Ask God to increase your faith and your understanding of the Bible.
Seek fellowship with other followers of Jesus. Develop a group of believing friends to answer your questions and support you.
Find a local church where you can worship God.
What Do You Think?
Different people will have different experiences upon the heart-felt completion of this prayer. If you’ve truly come to the end of yourselves, you may experience a deeply emotional impact after saying this prayer. I know folks who have felt elated, as if the weight of the world was taken off them all at once. I know others who have been so broken by realizing the gravity of their sinful pasts, they’ve gone into an emotional meltdown for a week following their moment. These are what we consider dramatic salvation experiences.
My salvation experience was not dramatic. In fact, I didn’t feel anything. Then I did what you’re not supposed to do; I said the prayer again the next day–and the next day after that. Let me correct that notion now: You only say the Salvation Prayer once and you trust that the Holy Spirit has begun your regeneration as a child in Christ. What I did experience following the Salvation Prayer was a renewed starvation for God’s Word. I began to dive into Scripture more than I already had been. I was physically repelled from the living room during a violent television show. There were other signs as well, but know there are two ways you may have a salvation experience: dramatic or tender. I received the tender experience. What about you?
Would you be willing to share your own salvation experience? Leave a comment below!
References
This post was largely copied from http://www.allaboutgod.com/salvation-prayer.htm so the All About GOD Ministries team gets all the credit for this one. I took liberty with some editing to tighten things up, but left the original prayer and directions intact. I wanted a copy here at the Levaire site in case they should ever pull their site down. Want to learn more about their ministry? Check them out!
