How do You Pray for Someone Whose Soul is Dead?
I grew up going to church, and believed that following the 10 Commandments and being a good person was all I really needed to do to get to heaven. It wasn’t until a friend told me some years back that that’s not what being a Christian is all about. I then realized I had spiritual work to do. I, however, continued on my merry way because it was way easier than thinking about Jesus. Over the years, I went to a few different churches, but I never felt that I belonged . . . . So writes Stephanie M. of Austin, in the testimony she shared at her baptism.
When you first meet Stephanie, it’s easy to be impressed. She’s a tall, willowy beauty with a gentle way about her. She has a smile that can light up a dark room. Stephanie is married to a great man and is raising three wonderful boys. If you looked at her, you would be tempted to think that she had it all. From an earthly standpoint, she did. She was alive and vibrant and happy. But Stephanie, along with many others just like her, still had a great spiritual need. Her soul was asleep. The most beautiful thing about her–her human spirit–had yet to be made fully alive by God. She was in a perpetual state of spiritual slumber. Stephanie knew she had a need, but she wasn’t able to articulate it. What she ultimately needed was a spiritual Prince Charming to come and rouse her sleeping soul. Specifically, she needed Jesus to awaken her into a relationship him.
Stephanie showed up at a Bible study our church was offering for spiritual skeptics. She shared some of her religious and church experiences growing up and expressed more doubts about Christianity than anything else. But she was open and willing to do the due diligence required to reach her own conclusions about Christ. I immediately began praying for Stephanie. I wrote her name in my Bible and made a point to pray for her just about every day. I know that many others, including her husband and some close friends, were praying for her as well.
The New Testament teaches that people without Christ have a spiritual condition that is more serious that most of us realize. Their souls aren’t just asleep before God, they’re dead. Ephesians 2:1 says that all of us in our pre-Christ existence were dead in our trespasses and sins. That’s true for every person today who is currently living without Christ. They have existence—they eat, breathe, sleep, work, feel, and procreate—but they’re not living eternally. They are not enjoying a relationship with God, and there is no way they can experience the abundant life that Christ offers. The curse of sin and death has full control over them. The Bible’s summary of their spiritual condition may not be pretty, but it’s accurate: they’re dead.
How do you pray for a lost person? How do you pray for someone whose soul is dead? With so much at stake, and with the eternal condition of the unbeliever on the line, shouldn’t we be as strategic and biblical as possible when praying for spiritually dead people? We need to pray with absolute pinpoint accuracy and spiritual authority when seeking salvation for another person.
