PRAYING FOR THE SALVATION OF OUR LOST LOVED ONES
“Lessons from Esther and The Orders Of Mordecai”
A Testimony by Deborah B. Harrell

In 2006, at the age 59, my doctors diagnosed me with an incurable lung condition called Pulmonary Fibrosis. I ingested second-hand smoke more than half my life and suffered repeated bouts of persistent pneumonia and inflammation that severely scarred my lungs.

Life expectancy for someone with this condition is 3 to 5 years.  Because of my age, I was told my life expectancy would probably fall on the shorter end of the scale.

Hmmmmm……..something in me (you might call it denial…some who know me well would call it stubbornness) refused to accept the diagnosis.  The diagnosis just did not line up with what God was communicating to me in my Bible study and prayer life.  So I came home and immediately dispatched an urgent request for prayer on my behalf against this diagnosis. 

I wonder sometimes…are we way too quick to accept the edict of a doctor or some other authority figure just because they SEE evidence of something we do not want to accept as truth?  Do we HAVE TO BELIEVE a doctor just because he sees something on an x-ray or result of medical tests that is contrary to what we are convicted God is doing in our lives?  Are we too quick to alter our conviction and make excuses for our faith by giving God some wiggle room to change His mind about what we believing just a moment before the doctor’s declaration?

My logic may sound contrary and inconsistent, but bear with me.  The Bible defines faith as… the (A)assurance of things (B)hoped for, the (C)conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 (New American Standard Bible)

I do not deny that the doctors SAW evidence, proof of Pulmonary Fibrosis in my lungs.  It was right there on the x-rays and scans.  I SAW it too when they showed them to me.  The first two doctors heard the evidence of the crackles and “Velcro” sound even before they did the other tests.  Everything in their training and experience confirmed the diagnosis.  They had no choice other than to convey the “truth” of their tests and convictions. It would have been foolish of them and dangerous to me NOT to tell me “their truth,” even if it meant they had to inform me of the inevitable reality of a shortened life span which might be slightly extended with a lung transplant or other major procedures, but at the present time, there is no CURE for Pulmonary Fibrosis and the progression would result in slowly suffocating to death.

But something in my spirit just would not attach itself to their “evidence” because God had been in the process of “convicting” me of something else…a different truth…one that was contrary to all the concrete physical evidence of brilliant doctors.

MY DILEMMA: Which truth was I to connect with…the doctors’ truth…or God’s truth, which defied the physical and was absolutely invisible to anyone but me…and Him?  It really did drive me to examine Paul’s definition of faith in his letter to the Hebrews about… the (A)assurance of things (B)hoped for, the (C)conviction of things not seen.

And here is the part that seems contrary to believing Paul’s definition.  What do you do when proof is SEEN…when it is right there in your face?  Do you twist the scriptures to build and defend your “denial” or your faith?  How do you wiggle out of your convictions that God has invited you to join Him in His work that extends beyond the “deadline”? No pun intended. 

Do you make excuses for your misunderstanding of what God was speaking to your heart…or maybe let Him off the hook, by explaining that God can do anything He chooses anytime He chooses in the life of His children?  He can…but if our faith and conviction conflicts with the physical evidence and we accept and excuse such a wishy- washy God, how in the world could we EVER “rest” in Him?  We would always be waiting for the other shoe to drop and always wonder even though God gives us promises and direction, that we as human beings are vulnerable to misunderstand and therefore He is not accountable to keep His word and promises to us…like there is a little disclaimer attached to all of His promises.  We accept the invisible disclaimer by agreeing that “God did say this or that and He promised to do this or that…but I am not sure He will really do it for……..ME!”

Certainly, issues concerning our physical health and healing comes with the biggest disclaimer of all.   You know it…when you pray for healing for a loved one and they die despite all the sincere prayers and petitions and declarations that we believe in miracles.  We excuse their death by acknowledging that…they got their healing, their perfect healing and they now have their new and perfect body in Heaven and they are no longer suffering. 

Well, it is true…when a Christian dies, they do wake up with a perfect and whole body in Heaven.  Hallelujah!  I praise God for that.  I look forward to that myself.  We are all going to die sooner or later…and it takes NO faith whatsoever once I enter the perfect Kingdom of Heaven to receive my new and perfect body.  I don’t pray for it.  I don’t even spend much time thinking about it because Faith will not be necessary in Heaven. There we will see the complete “evidence” of things not seen on earth…we will be rewarded for hoping for things we cannot see on earth.

Faith is only necessary HERE…NOW…and it is contrary to human evidence. 

So my test of faith, my crisis of belief was to choose the truth I would accept.  An invitation to join God in His work for a while longer on this earth, work that He may only reveal one day at a time…or the evidence seen by doctors that came with medical assurance that a deadline was evident and fairly imminent?

The doctor’s truth and evidence just never attached itself to me…and I cannot explain it.  It was like your ears getting stopped up on an airplane and you have to swallow to clear them.  The words entered my ears, but I could not swallow them.  If I did, they would be ingested and every cell in my body would obediently respond to them and the diagnosis would become a prophecy fulfilled.

I did not set out to prove the doctors wrong.  I was not in denial of my fate.  Hey…my fate is earthly death…but there was something intrinsically out of order in the timing.  God was giving me an outline of new ministry and even though He never specifically gave me a time-frame…something in my spirit just knew it would not fit the prognosis of death within three years from Pulmonary Fibrosis. 

Frankly I cannot take credit for struggling to exercise faith to believe this.  It was just something that did not fit and I never had to struggle to deny or defy the diagnosis or prognosis.  In fact, three months later more tests were completed and a different doctor shook her head in confusion while comparing previous and current x-rays…and stated that she could not put down in writing on my medical records that I have Pulmonary Fibrosis, but that I do have interstitial lung disease, which is just a step below Pulmonary Fibrosis.  That time, strangely, my heart, mind and body accepted her words. 

She said it could progress to Pulmonary Fibrosis...or it might not. 
It might never get any better...or may never get any worse. 
But she specifically stated that if I take care to protect my lungs and if it gets no worse then it would not significantly shorten my normal lifespan.  I ingested that.

It has been five years and the interstitial lung disease is no better… slightly, but not significantly worse than that day.  I have daily evidence of the disease manifested in shortness of breath, a chronic cough and some limitations in physical activities that I used to enjoy.  But other activities have replaced those.  And bit by bit over these five years, the work God was inviting me to join Him in is manifesting in ways I did not expect or have any experience or skills for at that time.

I had a limited vision of praying for the salvation of lost loved ones, expecting to survive to see the answer to some of those prayers and I have.

I had a limited vision and outline of sharing stories of people who have experienced life-shattering circumstances and lived through the potter’s fire, emerging as new and beautiful vessels of service for God’s purpose in this life.  That is how the idea of Shattered Pots Ministry was birthed, but it took waiting out the three years of the doctors’ death sentence before God revealed HOW to share those stories.  It took three years of losing my breath and teaching voice to receive a new voice through writing and via the website, ShatteredPots.com. 

It was as if God had to let me outlive the three year death sentence before the new work began to manifest.

As for the prayers for lost loved ones…that, too, is being confirmed.  I maintain an on-going list of the Lost Loved Ones of our Sunday School Class to pray for their salvation and spiritual growth. The list grows by adding new names…and it diminishes by removing names as the prayers are answered.  It changes like the seasons of plowing, planting, growing and harvest. At times, the list appears to be stagnant for a long time, but there is fruit…slowly and surely, there is fruit.

I wondered why praying for lost loved ones seems to be such a stagnant and slow process.  I will not presume to fully know the answer or try to second guess God’s timetable but while my Sunday School class was studying the book of Esther five years ago, I believe God gave me a brief insight to the reason.

We pray each other through sickness, jobs, weddings, travel mercies...even through the loss of so many family members through death, so why is this list still so stagnant?   Why are our prayers for the salvation of our loved ones not being answered? 

That question began to pierce my heart and I tried to work my way up to asking God...or rather work my way up to being willing to hear His answer because it might be a little hard to swallow comfortably.

What is lacking in our prayers for the salvation of our loved ones?  Is it something we or I am not doing?   Are we letting daily problems get in the way and just..."trusting" that God is working in their lives to bring them closer to Him?  WHAT IS THE STRONGHOLD HERE?

As we worked our way through the book of Esther, I was thinking……you know...Haman was given free rein to destroy the Jews.  Unlike our Heavenly King, King Xerxes really was not paying attention to what Haman was requesting and gave him permission to destroy an entire group of people because one man would not bow down to Haman.

It is an unpleasant truth...we have examples in the Bible...of how Satan was given permission...BY GOD...to test, sift, torment, kill, steal and destroy GOD's PEOPLE.  I don't like to think about that.  Do you?  But go back and pay attention to the reason and the results and the way God reacted to obedience and devotion. 

In light of this, would it be a real stretch to consider that Satan, like Haman, is really ticked off because WE won't bow down to him, so he has sought permission...FROM GOD...to TRY to kill, steal and destroy our families?

If so...WHAT SHOULD BE OUR RESPONSE? 

Understand… I am not asking you specifically for an answer to that question, but I want you to consider it... seriously consider it.

I love the good feeling we get when someone in our class brings a good report back for something we have prayed for.  It relieves me of that matter of prayer and I can move on to another one...all relating, it seems to the problems of our "Daily Lives".

But we do not often get back good reports for prayers for the "Eternal" matters.

Understand, I was talking to myself, too.  I was caught up myself for months praying for relief of "earthly" concerns, illness, pains, even my own death sentence from this lung thing.  And I was actually even getting answers and relief from some of them.

But as I prayed for salvation of lost loved ones, I began to see that my attitude about their death sentence was not as urgent and threatening to me as my own diagnosis and death sentence, which, if confirmed, would only be an “earthly” death sentence.  After all…my “eternal” sentence is HEAVEN.

In the book of Esther, her uncle, Mordecai, by the grace of God got hold of a document that contained a death sentence for his people.

We have such a document, too.  It is called the BIBLE. It is a document of love, forgiveness, redemption and restoration, but it also clearly outlines the consequence of not trusting God for our salvation.

As soon as he got it, Mordecai put aside all daily concerns and took action.  He also made Esther aware of her own fate, position, responsibility, proximity and relationship to the only one who could intervene in this death sentence of their people.

We stand to be reminded of our own relationship to the only one who can intervene in the death sentence of our loved ones.  Who knows but that God's plan was that we be positioned and related to both Him and these lost loved ones for the very purpose of being that link from Him to them?

Stopping Haman and removing him from power was only part of the problem.  Once Haman's fate was sealed (as is Satan's already), Esther STILL had to petition the king to issue a new decree to stop the destruction and killing of her...FAMILY... just as we have to now. 

She threw herself at the feet of the King (she did not bow or stand on ceremony)... she defied protocol and once again, she risked her life to THROW herself at his feet in total and urgent desperation and said to the king... "For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?"

It is amazing to me…I had always missed this part…She had already risked her life to stop Haman…BUT THE DANGER STILL EXISTED!!!

Didn't it even dawn on the king that the danger still existed..... that an edict he endorsed still existed that would cause the destruction of Esther and Mordecai, whom he LOVED?...not to mention the rest of their family and all the Jewish people?

Christ has already GIVEN HIS LIFE ON THE CROSS…God endorsed the death of His son…gave permission for His suffering and the blood was shed and the sacrifice was executed in order that all could be saved…BUT an eternal death sentence still exists for those who do not believe.. 

What are we to do?

So Esther reminded the king that the original edict still existed…like the edict to Adam and Eve when they were evicted from the Garden of Eden.  Sin results in death and eternal separation from God.  Sin and death entered the world through one man (Adam) and salvation with eternal life entered through one man (Jesus).

What could the king do?  His original orders by law and by virtue of his position and character could not be rescinded, so He turned right around and put the responsibility back on Mordecai to issue a new edict (a new provision) that gave all Jews the right to defend their lives and families from any enemy that would attack them. 

And he did it...URGENTLY...using all the power and resources given to him by the king to get the message out IMMEDIATELY to all the Jews in Susa.

Likewise, our God does not…cannot…change. 

He does not lie and He will not let sin enter His heaven, so He made a provision for our salvation that requires an URGENT response when we each become aware of our own “eternal” death sentence. 

But what about our loved ones who are not yet aware of their death sentence?  Like many of the Jews in Susa, they were not even aware of the plot, much less prepared to defend themselves.

Mordecai’s decree should remind us of our orders and PERMISSION to arm ourselves in order to inform, protect and defend them from the inevitable attack of the enemy.

So, it started dawning on me as I reviewed that stagnant list...Satan must be pretty ticked at me for not bowing down to him under my own death sentence…so ticked that he got permission from God to sift me to try to destroy almost every area of my daily life so that I would be too distracted and overwhelmed to remember to dispatch all the power and resources given to me by God to defend the ETERNAL life of my loved ones.

And I have to confess that if I became lax in urgently defending the Eternal salvation of my own loved ones...was any other prayer I ever uttered on the behalf of others anything more than lip service?

Not that the prayer requests we share each week are not important and need our attention.  They are very important and they do need our attention.  But, we have a document in our hands, the Bible, that in no uncertain terms, contains a death sentence for our lost loved ones.  I was really disturbed about what to do in my own life to change that. 

So, I searched our weekly prayers lists for requests for prayers for salvation for the lost loved ones of our class and department and organized them into a prayer list to begin intentionally praying for in addition to our regular weekly prayer list.

I had to come to grips that this list was a REAL list of death sentences. 

I never quite grasped that before while I gave the regular prayer list lip service during my prayers.  Understanding that these friends, family and loved ones ARE sentenced to death…eternal death and separation from God…that we could never be reunited with them in Heaven pierced my heart with new urgency. 

The truth is as certain as if all these good people whom we love all committed such heinous crimes that they were sentenced by a judge and jury to death row.  A real death sentence, a permanent eternal death sentence hangs over their heads.  They are sitting on Death Row and may not even know it.

I cannot soften the truth of this no matter how much I want to spare your shock and discomfort at hearing this. 

They are in danger!  An edict has been dispatched and Satan has permission to try to kill, steal and destroy them.

But, WE have an additional edict and PERMISSION to use all the resources of our Heavenly King to inform, protect and defend them. 

In the book of Esther, when the Jews in Susa were notified of their death sentence and also of their permission to defend themselves, it is encouraging to learn that NOT A SINGLE JEW was killed.  In fact, their urgent and immediate response totally obliterated the plot of the enemy.

How should we respond to this?  And even as I ask this question... I constantly have to prepare myself for an answer that might be inconvenient and risky to my own comfortable and safe daily existence.

WE, LIKE MORDECAI, CAN WRITE, SEAL AND DISPATCH THE ORDERS!!!

As I reviewed our last lesson in Esther, I got to thinking about what orders I would write to be dispatched by the King's army if I was Mordecai... or more specifically for the protection and defense of my loved ones, if I had the signet ring of the King.

And, actually... I DO have the signet ring of the King.  Jesus Christ is my signet ring and His Blood is proof of my authority to seal and dispatch orders against any enemy of God and my family that would attack them to kill, steal or destroy them.

So, I have written, sealed and dispatched my orders, and this is how I pray for the salvation of lost loved ones.  I encourage you to dispatch your orders as well.

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MY PRAYER FOR LOST LOVED ONES
(based on the orders of Mordecai)

TO all the powers, forces and influences of evil that attack or attempt to kill, steal or destroy my family, let it be known that my life has been spared for this time and purpose,  to declare to you that the Word of God has been written and sealed with the Blood of Jesus Christ, that I have the obligation, right, privilege and POWER of God to defend my family. 

I am, right now, dispatching all the resources of Heaven to rally against you in defense of my family.  Any orders given to you by your authority, is hereby, now and forever  revoked by His Seal of Blood and their death sentences commuted.

God, Himself, has given me this power and sealed my rights by the Blood of Jesus Christ, to command you to release them to LIVE, RECEIVE and CELEBRATE the Joy and Salvation of Jesus Christ.

By virtue of their relationship to me, I am empowered to defend them and my relationship to Jesus Christ sets them apart to be informed of, instructed in and sanctified by the Word and Blood of Jesus Christ and I claim that right and privilege given to me by the King of Heaven and Earth to defend their lives for the sake of and Glory and purpose of my King.

By this Authority, Sealed by the Blood of Christ, I dispatch all the armies of the King of Heaven who have already defeated you. Any enemy of the King of Heaven IS defeated.  So, release them NOW, in the Name of, by the Power of and by the Blood of Jesus Christ.
AMEN!


IN PLAIN ENGLISH: 

Heavenly Father,
Thank you for saving me.
Bless all those who entered into Your work of salvation to intervene on my behalf.
You saved me for a purpose, including intervening on the behalf of my own family and friends.
How can I bear for them to be lost to the enemy of this world who wants to kill, steal and destroy them?
Your Son has already paid the price by shedding His Blood for their salvation, even though they do not fully understand that yet.
I claim them for Your Glory and I join Your Spirit and Your army of other Believers to pray for them and to intervene with Your Word, love and actions to help them hear and receive the same Salvation you have given me.
Help me to be persistent in prayer and give me the wisdom and courage to speak when they are ready to listen and please send forth others to intervene in all areas of their life to draw them to Yourself.
Thank you for saving my loved one.
AMEN!

©2007 Deborah B. Harrell