I’ve talked before about my concerns for those in the body of Christ whom I believe have been deceived. For years I’ve wrestled with how to pray for these individuals. I can’t pray for them to be saved because they professed faith in Jesus Christ many years ago and continue to profess their love for Him.

Last fall I discovered the Intercessors for America organization and have been greatly blessed by the articles and prayer points they share. At the beginning of this year, they posted an article titled New Year, A New Focus with prayer points that I found extremely helpful. I’d like to share some of those with you.

• Pray for repentance and a deep conviction of sin. As this new year begins to unfold, there are many IN the body of Christ who will find that they were deceived, aligning with false doctrine and/or allowing something other than God to determine their identity and direction. Pray for ears to hear and hearts that are willing to submit and obey…Pray that the body of Christ would be kind, gentle and forgiving towards those who turn and repent.
• Pray for holiness over the Bride. We have allowed the waters to become quite murky. Many have determined their own truth, based upon their own experiences…They have allowed culture to speak false “truth” into those places [in the Bible] they can’t and don’t want to decipher. They have determined the Bible to be inaccurate, simply a book of stories and dead. They have not allowed the Word to be what it is–living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword, able to demolish strongholds, set captives free and bring LIFE to those that find it! Pray for the Church to return to its first love and once again allow the Word to determine Truth, rather than the world. Pray for teachability and a holy fear of the Lord. Pray for a hunger and thirst for righteousness.

One of the strongholds we need to demolish as we pray for the religious left is deception, placing worldly theology above the Bible. II Corinthians 10:4-5 is a powerful Scripture to stand on. “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

I read that many years ago, the Mennonite Church closed its seminaries due to liberal theology. Sadly, it has a way of creeping back and many seminaries today are hot beds of liberal theology. Under these conditions, we shouldn’t be surprised that many churches have strayed from the truth.  Mario Murillo says, Intimidated by modern thought, many of our pulpits abandoned the counsel of God and started passing off a lethal mixture of human philosophy and misquoted Scriptures…When we soft-pedal God’s demand for holiness, we lie about Him and us. We imply He has no right to ask for it… If we could see clearly what the Scriptures teach, we would conclude that holiness and righteousness are the highest pleasures the human spirit can contain.  (Critical Mass)

Recently, I came across II Timothy 2:26 when I was crying out to God about how to pray for deceived loved ones. I’ve adapted it for my prayers: “Will you grant ____________ grace to repent, leading him/her to a knowledge of the truth so that he/she will come to her/his senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken him/her captive to do his will.” This reminds me of Luke 15:17 which says of the prodigal son, “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself…” I’m praying that our deceived loves ones will “come to their senses” and return to a firm knowledge of the truth.

A friend of mine told me she never received the heartfelt apology she’d hoped for when her husband ended an affair and came home. However, seated beside her and their two children in church one day, he shook his head and said, “I must have been out of my mind.” I’m praying that one day our loved ones will look back on their journey down the road of deception and say, “I must have been out of my mind.”

Heavenly Father, who loves those dear to us even more than we do, grant that those who are deceived would “come to their senses” and return to the knowledge of the truth. Amen