Stand in the Gap and Believe

Is your heart heavy with a burden for your loved ones who don’t know the Lord?  Is it made that much harder by the fact that they have rebuffed every effort on your part to share Jesus?  Don’t lose hope.  In 1 Corinthians 3:6 Paul said, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” (NIV)

However, remember what Jesus said in Mark 4:15; “Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.” (NIV)  Satan is going to leave them alone as long as they are blissfully travelling the broad road, but let them even look down the narrow path and he is immediately on the attack.

Ten or so years ago when I was at the beginning of my journey to Jesus, I listened to a sermon by Dr. James MacDonald from Walk in the Word radio ministry entitled “Ten Things You Should Know About Satan.”  In it he gives a list that starts with, “You know it’s Satan when…”  One of those things is “You know it’s Satan when the opposition is outrageous.”  My husband was not a believer.  Oh, he believed there was a God, but he was not saved.  My good friend advised me to do something that I have passed on to other people and now want to pass to you because I know it works.  She told me to “claim him for the Kingdom” by “standing in the gap.”

Now, as a side note, I find there are a lot of Christian terms that we throw around that we think everyone knows, but that is not always the case, so in case you do not know what standing in the gap is, it is simply praying for someone, with perhaps that specific direction in mind.  Let me give an example.  I would go into my room and shut my door and say out loud, God, I claim my husband and my family for Your Kingdom.  Satan, you will not have my family.

As I followed more closely behind the Lord – as I read my Bible for the first time at forty years old, and listened to Christian music and teachings and really began to immerse myself in Jesus – things at home began to get crazy, to say the least!  Thank God He had led me to that sermon so I clearly knew Satan was on the attack when all Hell began to break loose, and the more he raged, the more I prayed!

No matter what was thrown at me, no matter how the battle raged, I would get alone and say, right out loud, No!  You still cannot have him!  You WILL NOT have my husband or my family.  I claim them for Almighty God.

I am happy to report that my husband is now saved and my daughter is following the Lord also.  Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.  You have the Word of God and you hold all the cards.  Never give up.