Prayer Part 4 – Prayer of Salvation

We truly hope and pray you are enjoying the teachings on prayer and that it is encouraging you to pray more. We are teaching on prayer of Salvation this week.

Salvation, believe it or not, is one of the most misunderstood subjects. People stray from the word of God and put their own ideas and interpretations of what God actually said so we have ended up with many misunderstandings and cults. That is why it is so important to build our relationship with God through His Word not our ideas and thoughts but His Word and prayer.

Remember - Each time a scripture is mentioned turn to it in your Bible and speak it out loud, take ownership of it, it is yours. Put your name in there. Even if you have turned to it before and you know it, it doesn’t matter, get your bible out and turn to the scriptures. Just reading the blog isn’t good enough.

Believe in Your heart And Confess With Your Mouth (Romans 10:9-10)

What is salvation?

Salvation is - When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. We are then set free from the consequences of sin. Who’s sin? Adam’s sin (Romans 5:12,18,19).

What was Adam’s sin? Adam disobeyed God’s command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That is how sin, sickness, disease, poverty and death (second death, hell) all came into the world (Genesis 3:6,7).

We are all descended from Adam and born into Adam’s family of sin. However, we are delivered from Adam’s sin, sickness, disease, poverty and death (second death, hell) because of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. He took our place and our punishment, when he came to the earth as a baby, born of a virgin and lived a sinless life, died on the cross and rose again (Revelation 2:11; 20:14). He became the sacrifice so we wouldn't have to.

Does this mean that we can sin and do whatever we like because God forgives us? No! If we sin, we may well have consequences. Some minor consequences and some major consequences.

What are consequences?

If we steal, lie, cheat on our spouses, are rude and rebellious at work and in life we will get into serious trouble at home, at work and in life in general.

If we steal we will go to prison. If we lie, no-one will believe us, even when we tell the truth. If we cheat on our spouse, we bring terrible trouble and heartache which could be far reaching to our own home and family and the home and family of the person we have cheated with. If we are rude and rebellious no-one will employ us. These are but just a few to mention. These consequences are not God punishing us, they are us being foolish and not listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Does God love and forgive us if we sin? YES!! Does God love and forgive us if we steal? YES!! Does God love and forgive us if we are rebellious? YES!! Does God love and forgive us if we commit adultery? YES, if we ask Him to (1 John 1:9) but our consequences will still stand.

However, God is faithful. If we have sinned, He can help us through the consequences if we repent (turn away from our sin not just say 'sorry'), obey Him and His Word and listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit. He can wipe the slate clean. Such can be our recovery that it can be like we never sinned. However, it is far better to not have sinned in the first place because it opens up the door to the devil to condemn us and even though God has forgiven us, we can still suffer with guilt and condemnation.

How do I get saved?

We get saved by praying the prayer of salvation. That is, believing in our heart that Jesus came to earth as a baby, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, was crucified, died and rose again three days later. We ask God to forgive us OUR sins and commit ourselves to live for Him (Romans 10:9-10).

We then have to build a relationship with God through His Word and prayer, but this relationship is to help us get to know God intimately and to live a holy life, not to get us saved. We are saved only through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 10:9-10).

Salvation is a free gift. We do not have to do anything to earn it. All we have to do is receive it.

Salvation is something you must receive personally, no-one can pray the prayer of salvation for you, they can pray with you but not for you.

Unfortunately, some people will try to tell you different and have added bits onto salvation saying that we must not eat a certain food, never seek medical help, door knock, never drink coffee and countless other rules and regulations, all to gain extra brownie points with God and maybe work our way to being saved and getting into Heaven. This is not true! Jesus did all the hard work for salvation. If we try to add to that we are saying Jesus sacrifice was not enough. We are slapping Him in the face and calling Him and His Father and the Holy Spirit liars!

If a person wants to be a vegetarian, only wear white, never drink coffee, never seek medical advice, never marry etc., that is completely fine, that is their lifestyle choice. We each must live our lives as best suits us, as long as we don’t sin or hurt anyone, but if they then say that in order to be saved we must be a vegetarian, only wear white, only meet on a Saturday, never drink coffee etc., or whatever additional requirements they would try to impose, that is completely wrong. Jesus never said that. He said 'I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father EXCEPT THROUGH ME' (John 14:6).

I remember when God called me and shook me to my boots and I got on fire for God. There was a presence of God in my room. I had dabbled in so many things I didn’t know what was going on, so I called on the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. I called on Jesus Christ and made a commitment that I would serve God and that I would read my Bible and do what it said. I told God that when I came across a scripture telling me to do something I would do my best to do it. I also said that I would only believe what I read in the Bible not what people told me. If someone told me God said something I wasn’t going to believe it unless I could find it in the Bible. I was fed up hearing what people thought about God, I wanted to know God for myself. I said I wanted to see proof in the bible. I didn’t want some obscure scriptures but I expected God to show me that Jesus Christ was real and that He was the son of God and that He was God and so I started studying the Bible.

Now I started out with preconceived ideas that in order to be a Christian I could not have pretty clothes, wear makeup or nail polish. So in my keenness to please God I put all of my pretty clothes, makeup and nail polishes into black bags and gave them all away. My neighbours thought all their Christmases had come at once!

I should not have done that, but at that time I did not understand Salvation. I was doing my best to please God on my terms. Doing what I THOUGHT would please Him.

As I continued to study the Bible and spend time with God I did complain to Him about some of the things the traditional/evangelical churches were saying was necessary to be a Christian, but I didn’t mind really, as I would do whatever I needed to do to get closer to Him.

God spoke very clearly to me and said “When are you going to stop blaming me for things that men say and do. I never said any of that!” That was when the light came on. My religious eyes were opened, the scales of religious tradition fell off my eyes and I could see the Truth that Salvation was a free gift given to mankind by God. That I could do nothing to make God love me any more than He already did and that JESUS paid the price, NOT ME LIVING A HOLY LIFE, not what I wear don’t wear, eat don’t eat, but JESUS did it all on the cross.

However, living a holy life (spending time with God, studying the Word, praying and obeying the Bible) is a good thing to do. It will have a positive effect on our lifestyle, our physical health, our mental health and our welfare. If we don’t live a holy life (spend time with God, study the Word, pray and obey the Bible) it can negatively affect our lifestyle, our physical health, our mental health and maybe even send us to heaven way before our time. God gave us a choice of life and death and He recommended that we choose life (Deuteronomy 30:15,19).

So, make that commitment. Choose life. Make that effort. Study your Bible, pray and spend time with God, understand your Salvation so that no man or devil can fool you or lead you astray with clever words, stories and self-righteousness (Galatians 3:1-3).

Prayer of Salvation

If you have never prayed the prayer of Salvation or received Jesus into your heart but you do believe that He is the Son of God and that He has paid the price for your sins, pray this prayer:

Dear Father, I am sorry for my sins. I believe that Jesus died to forgive my sins and I receive that forgiveness. I understand that I cannot do anything to earn this forgiveness but I must simply believe it and receive it. Jesus, I make you Lord of my life, not just my Saviour. I believe that you are alive and I invite you to come live in me. Take my life and use it Lord to your Glory. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for forgiving me. Thank you Jesus!

If you said that prayer and believed that in your heart you are now saved (born again)! Cultivate your relationship with God by going to church, reading your Bible and praying. Prayer doen't have to be complicated. To find out how to pray read Prayer Part 1 - What is Prayer? and Part 2 - How Do I Pray?

Have a great week and catch part 5 “Prayer for Baptism in the Holy Spirit/Tongues” next week.