Question about praying for others salvation

[Riverwalker]

5 hours ago, Omegaman 3.0 said:

So true, but that does not mean you cannot feed him a little salt!

But the stubborn ones STILL won't drink, just to spite you 

 

[Riverwalker]

14 hours ago, AdHoc said:

. But let us start with another element that can be construed as predestination - God's foreknowledge.

Both foreknowledge and predestination are in the bible....

R0mans 8:. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

So the process to my mind is this

God knows who will choose Him (Foreknowledge)

So God orders our life to bring us to the point of that choice (predestines)

And then He  Calls Us ( Calls)

And here is the moment of Our choice, where we freely and without coercion choose God

And if we do that  (which He already knows we will) He forgives us, gives us a new life and we are born again

And in the end when we have lived our life for him, daily making the same choice to follow Him we move on to glory (Glorified

 

[AdHoc]

1 hour ago, Riverwalker said:

So God orders our life to bring us to the point of that choice (predestines)

Thanks for your input. I don't think we are far apart. I understand predestination to have to do with a decision reached long before the circumstances are created. But there is no problem in Romans 8:29 because the predestination, as I said in my first posting, is a pre-decision, NOT TO BE SAVED, but to be conformed to Christ's image. As we can see from multiple scriptures these two phases (i) salvation, and (ii) being conformed to Christ's image are far apart in time. A man is saved by faith and then starts the process of transformation. Colossians 3:10-11 probably shows it best:

10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: 11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

"HAVE put on" is past tense, while "is renewed" is present continuous, and depends on Christ being (i) all resource, and (ii) working from inside a man.

[ayin jade]

9 hours ago, Rosie1jack2pauline3 said:

I must share this,my ex husband brother was born again, oh did he preach to me as anon believer, I wasn’t one bit interested, thought those happy clappy  lot were all mad.😂.

Well, God had other plans for me and that was to be saved by God...I was dumb struck,😂....sorry off topic...I pray for all of my family to be saved.🙏

Lol I know how that goes. I used to mock the street preachers on the college campus when I was in college. Then He saved me in spite of myself.

[Omegaman 3.0]

2 hours ago, ayin jade said:

Then He saved me in spite of myself.

That is true for all of the saved!

[Sower]

On 3/14/2022 at 12:42 PM, ayin jade said:

That said, I will pray for someone's salvation and by asking that their hearts/eyes/ears be opened. Sometimes I ask that the Lord send someone to show them the gospel message.

My role is to spread the gospel and pray for people regardless of calvinism or armenianism.

  Sow those seeds!!

Prayers work. Testimonies are good.  But it's the word of God that gives the faith for salvation.
 

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God"

"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed (the word), shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him"

As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

                 The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
"Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest"


 

 

 

[Marilyn C]

On 3/15/2022 at 12:47 AM, Riverwalker said:

I recently posted a prayer request and was reminded (shame on me) the prayer request site that worthy  has and going though and praying for some of all those prayer requests, (I will return) I was struck by how many people are asking for prayer lost love ones

How do you go about praying for someone's salvation

To my understanding,  Salvation is a issue that is strictly determined by the will of the person to be saved, and God will not violate that free will  to cause a person to believe (obviously I do not hold to Calvinistic thinking but lets please not turn this into THAT discussion)

To my mind we can pray for the person's environment

• To pray for the person to be surrounded by Godly conditions
• To pray for the person to have good and Godly people come into the their life
• For God to shape their course to bring them to the point of decision (predestination) Such as putting stumbling blocks down the wrong path, and making straight the path to the Lord

But in the end the person will choose to follow God or not....and there is nothing we can do, or God will do to change that moment of decision, for it it is the act of reaching out in faith our choice that brings the moment of salvation

I am interested in your take on this issue that effects SO many.  If you are of a Calvin mindset feel free to say so , lets just please not turn this into an Armenism Calvinism Hamster wheel argument (lots of action going no where)

Hi Riverwalker,

What a great discussion and so, so important.

Personally I believe, yes God will answer a prayer even if it is general, however I also believe that we need to grow to maturity and work with the Holy Spirit. This means that we seek what the Lord is revealing and then pray accordingly. Thus -

1. I pray for the blockage/s to be revealed to the person and for them to realise their condition.

2. Then if that person is responding I pray that they have the eyes of their understanding opened to Christ and what He has done for them.

3. After they receive Christ as their Saviour, I continue to pray that they will grow in knowing the Lord and hearing the Holy Spirit in their daily lives.

This develops in me a more personal caring for that person and appreciation of the Lord`s work through the Holy Spirit in people`s lives.