Supersize Your Life: How Prayer Unlocks God's Power to Reach the Lost

Most Christians want to make a difference in the lives of people around them, but fear and feelings of inadequacy often get in the way. The good news is that reaching spiritually lost people was never meant to depend on your personality, your words, or your ability. It depends on prayer. Here is a closer look at what it means to pray with real power for the people in your life who need Jesus.

Why Do So Many Christians Feel Like Their Faith Isn't Making a Difference?

Jesus said in John 10:10, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." Yet many followers of Christ look around and find their lives look a lot like everyone else's. The joy, the purpose, the abundance seem distant.

Part of the reason is that Jesus calls us to join Him in His mission of rescuing spiritually dying people. Luke 19:10 tells us, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." If we want to be like Jesus, that mission has to become our mission too.

Ephesians 3:20 reminds us that God "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us." He is waiting for us to pursue that calling. Our hearts will never be fully satisfied until we do.

What Stops Christians From Sharing Their Faith?

When we begin to see the spiritual need around us, fear quickly follows. What will people think of me? What if I say the wrong thing? How do I even bring it up?

Notice that all of those questions start with "I" or "me." That is the problem. When we focus on ourselves, we underestimate God. And when we underestimate God, we under-pray. The result is that many believers miss their God-given purpose entirely.

Reaching lost people is supernatural work. It cannot be done through clever approaches or winning personalities. Philippians 2:13 says, "It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose." Since it is God who does the work, prayer becomes the most powerful tool we have.

Why Is Prayer the Starting Point for Reaching Lost People?

Paul, one of the greatest evangelists who ever lived, constantly asked others to pray for his outreach efforts. He wrote in Colossians 4:3-4, "Pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ... Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should." In 2 Thessalonians 3:1 he asked, "Pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly." And simply in 1 Thessalonians 5:25, "Brothers and sisters, pray for us."

You do not start by talking to the person. You start by talking to God about the person. Prayer is not preparation for the real work. Prayer is the real work.

Think of it like a magnifying glass and the sun. The sun shines on a board all day and nothing happens. But focus that sunlight through a magnifying glass on one spot, and the board catches fire. The same principle applies to prayer. When you focus the power of God on a specific person or need, things change.

Five Specific Targets for Rescue Praying

1. Pray for Natural Opportunities

Colossians 4:3 encourages us to pray "that God may open a door for our message." When you pray this way, you begin asking God to place you in conversations and situations where it is natural to bring up Jesus. You stop waiting for the perfect moment and start trusting God to create it.

Avoid the habit of adding "if it be your will" to prayers like this. If you are praying for an opportunity to share the gospel, God's will is already clear. Adding "if" gives you an easy out and drains the confidence from your prayer.

2. Pray for Prepared Hearts

God is extraordinarily skilled at softening and preparing hearts. When Paul met the first European woman he would lead to Christ, Acts 16:14 tells us, "The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message."

Proverbs 21:1 says, "In the Lord's hand the king's heart is a stream of water that He channels toward all who please Him." No heart is beyond His reach. Pray specifically that God would soften the heart of the person you are burdened for and make them ready to receive the gospel.

3. Pray for Your Own Heart

It is not natural to deeply care about spiritually dying people. It is supernatural. That is why you must regularly ask Jesus to give you His heart for the people around you.

Matthew 9:36 says, "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." But in the very next verse, Jesus points out the tragedy: "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few." People are not spiritually lost because they are not ready for the gospel. Often they are lost because God's people are not ready to bring it to them.

Without regular prayer for a broken heart toward the lost, your concern will grow cold. Ask God to keep renewing that compassion in you.

4. Pray for God's Words

Paul asked His friends to pray "that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel." (Ephesians 6:19)

You may feel like you do not know what to say. That is actually the right starting point. When you rely on God for the words, He can take over in ways that go far beyond your natural ability. God wants to display His power through you. He wants to give you the words, break down the walls, and then receive the glory.

5. Pray for a Paralyzed Enemy

Every person without Jesus is, in a spiritual sense, a prisoner. Jesus described it this way in Matthew 12:29: "How can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off His possessions unless He first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house."

The enemy has no intention of releasing his prisoners without a fight. Before you try to reach someone who has been held captive for a long time, pray that God would bind the enemy's hold on them. We do not have the authority to bind Satan ourselves, but we can call upon the Lord to do it. That is where the authority lies, and that is where the power is.

What Does Powerful Prayer Actually Look Like?

Powerful prayer is focused prayer. It is not a soft, general request. It is the kind of prayer where you hurt for the person, where you are specific, where you do not quit.

Hudson Taylor, the pioneer missionary to China, said we must learn to "move men through God by prayer alone." D.L. Moody, who saw more people come to Christ in the 19th century than perhaps any other person, said, "Every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure."

And if you feel like you are too old, too sick, or too limited to go out and share the gospel yourself, you can still pray. If you are breathing, you can pray. There are people who cannot do much else except power the kingdom of God through intercession, and that is no small thing.

Ezekiel 47:9 says, "Where the river flows, everything will live." When you pray for those outside the lifeboat and for your own readiness to reach them, you are diving into the redemptive river of God. And as you do, your fears begin to shrink and your confidence begins to grow. Proverbs 3:26 promises, "The Lord will be your confidence."

Life Application

This week, choose one person in your life who does not know Jesus. Write their name down. Then commit to praying for them every single day using the five targets covered here: an open door, a prepared heart, your own heart, God's words, and a paralyzed enemy. Do not pray soft, vague prayers. Pray specifically, persistently, and with confidence that God hears you and is already at work.

Ask yourself these questions as you begin:

• Am I spending more time worrying about what to say to this person than I am actually praying for them?
• Have I asked God to give me His compassion for the spiritually lost people in my life, or have I let my heart grow cold toward them?
• Do I truly believe that God can change the heart of the person I am praying for, or am I praying with doubt?
• Am I willing to be available when God opens the door, even when it is inconvenient?

The battle for every soul is won in prayer. The people around you are waiting, whether they know it or not. Start praying, and watch what God does