Prayer Saves
“Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.”
The Apostle Paul is confident of his deliverance, but what does he mean by deliverance. The term for deliverance in Greek is ‘soteria’, which means salvation. So, does he mean he is confident of his salvation from prison? Or that he is confident of his ultimate salvation? Does he mean he is confident of his vindication before an earthly judge, or his vindication before the throne of the ultimate Judge?
I believe it’s the latter because of the flow of his thought, he is confident of his deliverance whatever the earthly court rules. If the judge rules ‘guilty’, and Paul is sentenced to death, he is still confident of his deliverance in the heavenly court. So, Paul is as free as a bird in his chains, because he has the promise of eternal life even whilst knowing that he might soon face capital punishment.
Now because I’ve stated deliverance probably means ultimate deliverance, this means that this passage has massive implications for the role of prayer, and the work of the Spirit in salvation.
“through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance”
Paul is saying to the Philippians, ‘it’s your prayers that are keeping me going in this journey of salvation, it’s through your prayers that I will reach my reward in eternity’. And it’s through the help of the Holy Spirit that he will be supplied with all the strength he needs to get there. So, through their prayers and the supplication of the Holy Spirit, he will be sanctified, his salvation will be completed.
Do you see the tremendous importance of intercessory prayer, God uses it to bring about salvation? God’s sovereignty and prayer work wonderfully together to bring about revival, whether that be on the individual level, or in the masses. I remember hearing Glen Scrivener say at the general assembly in 2019, “the world runs on prayer”, That is certainly true, and it could be said, ‘revival runs on prayer’ as well.
Here is a quote from Charles Spurgeon in his book, ‘lectures to my Students’, he’s writing about a legend in a book written by Father Faber, about how God’s Spirit moved because of intercessory prayer.
“A certain preacher, whose sermons converted men by scores, received a revelation from heaven that not one of the conversions was owing to his talents or eloquence, but all to the prayers of an illiterate lay- brother, who sat on the pulpit steps, pleading all the time for the success of the sermon.”
God uses prayer to bring about salvation. I remember when interviewing Ivor Trimble - an elder in 2nd and 3rd - about his testimony, he said the following, “I have no doubt that it was through my family’s prayers that I came to faith”. I think the same is true for my own testimony. The world runs on prayer, and so does salvation. We must continue to intercede for each other, so that the Spirit of God would move powerfully, supplying every one of us with the strength and faith to continue toward the finish line.
Through prayer, God sanctifies. We need to pray for each other.
