Breaking down and destroying strongholds.
Chapter 3 Cont’d
8 Vital principles
Yet, there are eight other vital principles that further empower prayer for the salvation of souls:
#1. Brokenness
“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.‖ Psalm 126:5
Brokenness is the first law of spiritual harvest. True intercessory prayer begins with a heart that feels the weight of eternal souls. God cannot bless prayers motivated by self-interest or pride. But when we pray with tears for Lost souls—like Christ who wept over Jerusalem—then we sow into a harvest guaranteed by God’s promise.
“He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Psalm 126:6
#2. Travail
Just as no child is born without labor, no sinner is born again without spiritual travail. Isaiah described this viv-
idly: “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.
Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Isaiah 66:7–10
Spiritual rebirth demands laboring in prayer. God responds to the cry of Zion, His people, when they rise up in intercession with holy urgency. As God Himself says: “Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth?… Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her. Isaiah 66:7-10
Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines Travail as: “Labor with pain; severe toil. To labor with pain; to toil.
) חול – Strong’s Concordance – H2342 (chuwl/chiyl A primitive root; properly to twist or whirl … to writhe in pain (especially of childbirth), or fear; figuratively to wait, to pervert—bear, bring forth, grieve, hope, make, sorrow, travail, tremble, be wounded. We must allow our hearts to be wounded for the salvation of others—just as Jesus’ heart was. Luke 22:44 “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Yes, so much in agony that he sweat until blood came from his pores. This is the soul-travail that breaks open heaven’s gates and unlocks hardened hearts. Sadly, very few have ever agonized this deeply in prayer for the salvation of another soul. Yet this is precisely what Jesus did. He travailed for us. He bled in prayer. He bore the weight of the Lost before they even asked for it. Christ described salvation as being “Born Again—a spiritual birth requiring the same kind of pain and intensity a mother experiences in physical birth. The apostle Paul echoed this when he said: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. Galatians 4:19
Like a father observing the labor pains of his wife, many Christians today fail to comprehend the cost required to bring a soul to new life. Most professing believers have never travailed for the lost—indeed, statistics suggest that 97% never lead even one soul to Jesus. This is a tragic reality. But it also reveals the crisis of comfortable Christianity. There is a price to pay for souls—and that price is brokenness, earnest intercession, and time spent in warfare prayer. Our tears. Our labor. Our spiritual agony.
These are the tools heaven uses to break chains and bring the new birth unto eternal life.