HOW TO PRAY FOR UNBELIEVERS Over the years I have been asked many, many times how to pray for unbelievers.Well, there's no absolute right or wrong way to pray for them, although it is helpful to have some 'pointers', eg 'Whack him Lord!', 'Zap him Jesus!','Bop him God!' I'm joking of course. I've only done that a few times!! No, seriously, I'm going to go through some of these pointers with you on this page. I always try to pray using the Bible as a guide, as I believe it is the inspired Word of God for all people, so you can look up the verses as we go along. You'll also notice that the image I have chosen for this page shows hands with open palms facing upwards. That's because I believe prayer to be a two-way thing. Open handed we can offer up our prayers to God. By keeping them open ( in a spiritual sense) we can be ready to receive any words of wisdom, discernment or guidance God may have for us regarding the person we are praying for. 1. PRAY THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL OVERSHADOW THEM If you go to Luke chapter 1 verses 26 to 38 you will read of how Mary was visited by an angel who told her she had been chosen by God to give birth to a son, whose name would be Jesus. Mary asked the angel how this could be, as she was still a virgin. The angel told her that the Holy Spirit would descend on her and the power of Almighty God would overshadow her and Christ the Son of God would be formed in her! You have to read that a couple of times to really grasp how powerful that is. An angel, a messenger of God, arrives at the side of Mary, a young virgin, and tells her, in just a few words, that something miraculous is going to take place Wouldn't you be scared? And just in case the angel hasn't got her attention with that she goes on to tell he that her relative Elizabeth, who's old and 'said to be barren' is actually by now six months pregnant! By this time I'm feeling sorry for Mary because I can imagine she's afraid to even think about women in case she sees babies popping out all over the place! But I'll come back to that in just a moment. There are three things I want us to notice here and I think they're important if we are to pray believing that God can change and inhabit the lives of the people we pray for. First of all, TRUST THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD. Why is it that sometimes when we pray for somebody we just refuse to leave them to God's hand and wisdom. We are tempted to 'overdo the underdone'! It's great to be concerned with the life and soul of someone. It's good to show Christian love to them. It's vital we try to let them see that being a Christian is a great, happy, fulfilling, exciting life to live! ( Honest, it is! )But let's not smother them and try to be their prop! They don't need a prop, they need a new and God-centred life! And the life they need can never be supplied by our frantic efforts to make them believe. Look back at those verses we read. See the picture in your mind's eye. The angel visited Mary, told her The Holy Spirit would overshadow her and Christ would be formed in her, AND THEN SHE LEFT HER! Suddenly the angel became surplus to requirements! She didn't need to be around Mary any longer. She had spoken the word, prepared Mary as best she could for her life-changing experience and nothing more was required of her. But so often we give people the Word, we pray for them but we don't take our hands off them. In other words, we still try to act like an angel. That's good, in a way, but an earthly angel hovering over someone's head like a rescue helicopter will NEVER get someone into the Kingdom of God! It is only by THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD that Christ enters the inner man of mankind and gives him a brand new life. Secondly, I want us to think about THE FRUIT that comes to life by way of the Holy Spirit of God. To be continued