Morris Cerullo - Praying Your Loved Ones Into the Kingdom

Contents

Chapter One:

Chapter Two:

Chapter Three:

Chapter Four:

Chapter Five:

Chapter One:

Great Love Brings Great Salvation

In all my years of being a Christianfrom the time I was a teenager until nowI have NEVER met a Christian who does not long for the salvation of a lost loved one who has either never met Jesus or has turned away from Him having once met Him.

This longing, as far as I know, is UNIVERSAL in the Church. The reason is simple: When you have good news, you want to share it with everyoneand Christians are no different. We have the BEST news ever presented on the planet, and it pains us to see our loved ones living under the bondage that ignorance of God's Good News brings.

The first thing you must understand is you are NOT ALONE. If you've met a Christian, you've met someone who is longing for the salvation of a lost loved one.

Don't fear, friend. God has plans for your lost loved one, and He has plans for you. Everyone has a destiny.

Understand that the first step to effectively bringing your family into the Kingdom of God is one you have already taken! By virtue of reading this book, you are exhibiting the first quality that is necessary in effective intercession for lost loved oneslove.

Since you are reading this book, you must really love the person you want to see saved. That's a good thing.

You see, the Bible is full of examples of dysfunctional familiesfamilies that bicker and fight, war between each other, let pride-filled arguments divide them and who seek supremacy over each other.

But there are also some incredible examples of God's kind of family in action in the Bible.

And, as I said before, the first step is simple: it's love.

Love can overcome any enemy it encounters.

Love can tear down mountains, build up plains, heal the sick, restore sight to the blind and raise the dead...

Love forgets petty arguments, past wrongdoings and other "injustices" that generally tend to tear families and friendships apart for the express purpose of thwarting God's purposes of salvation.

But it doesn't have to be that way, and it certainly hasn't always been that way.

Think about the story of Joseph for a second.

Joseph was the favorite son of Jacobthe man who later was named Israel, from whom the entire nation of Hebrews descended.

Jacob showed his abiding love for his son at every opportunity, shielding him from the worst labor and giving him extravagant gifts, like a long coat that was the envy of all Joseph's brothers.

After all, Joseph was one of only two sons from Jacob's most favorite wifeall the other sons were from Leah or servant girls.

His brother's jealousies were obvious.

But Joseph was not fazed; he didn't try to conceal his love for his brothers, and when he had a dream about them in the future, he thought nothing about sharing that dream, even though in the dream, Joseph ended up ruling over his brothers as they bowed down to him.

But his great love was tested when his jealous brothers seized him, ripped off his treasured coat and sold him into slavery (after they had been convinced not to kill him).

Now, some of us might get bitter after that kind of thing.

But Joseph was a different kind of person.

We all know the story: Joseph was highly favored in Egypt, but eventually thrown into prison for a crime he didn't commit. Because he accurately told Pharaoh his dream, Joseph was promoted to Prime Minister of Egypt, in charge of everything that went on.

When a famine struck in Canaan, Joseph was right there because of His God-given foresight to feed the nations of the world with grain he had stored up for the famine that came.

In the midst of that period, Joseph's family came to him, begging him to sell them food so they and their father wouldn't die.

Joseph almost immediately recognized his family, and began to deal with them according to the salvation he had been presented; he gave them enough food to see them through the immediate period of drought, but he also took steps to ensure they would be saved completely from the dearth that doubtlessly was killing many people.

"Hereby ye shall be proved: By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither. Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison..."

Genesis 42:15-16

Now, on the surface, this might not seem to be love at all. But Joseph knew what he was doing. He was planting in his brothers the idea that they had to return to Egypt and specifically to him. He was doing that because he knew how long the drought would be, and he knew that his father would spend all of his fortune on food and when the drought was over, he would be ruined.

But if Joseph's father came to Egypt under the protection of Joseph, the Prime Minister of Egypt, he would be saved.

Remember, partner, all truth is parallel. Though we are talking about a physical salvation here, don't forget that

God often represents His spiritual truths in physical manifestations.

Joseph later released his brothers to go back and fetch their father, knowing that Jacob would come to Egypt and be saved from the drought along with his children.

Though his brothers had treated him unrighteously , Joseph responded with a righteous attitude toward them: he responded with the love that brings salvation. And though he had the power to bring his vengeance on them because of the way they had earlier treated him, instead, he reached out to them and brought salvation to those who had so hated him before that they had desired him dead.

But Joseph is not the only example of this incredible, salvation kind of love.

He had a previous example that came from one of his forefathers.

Abraham had been promised many things by God, one of which was that through his line would come a Redeemer to save mankind from sin.

"And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed... "

Genesis 22:18

Now, when God uses the word "nations," He is saying the Hebrew word "goy- eem ," which means Gentiles. He is speaking about how the Gentiles will be blessed through the Seed of Abrahamthe Son of the living God, Jesus Christ!

Abraham received that promise, and the New Testament says he at least had a rudimentary understanding of the deep implications of it:

"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ."

Galatians 3:16

So with that promise in hand, it must have come as quite a surprise when God told Abraham that He expected him to offer up his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice to God. After all, it was through Isaac that the Messiah was to come. It was through Isaac that Abraham would receive the promise of the inheritance he had been promised so many years before.

But Hebrews says that, because Abraham had been as good as dead when Isaac was conceived, he understood that God was able to raise the dead.

"By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. "

Hebrews 11:17-19

Abraham, understanding that Isaac was the heir of the same promise Abraham himself was an heir of, and not wanting to shortchange that son by putting the promise ahead of the One who had promised, moved forward for his son's salvation by obeying the Lord, even when it seemed that his obedience to the Lord might destroy the very promise God had given him.

But Abraham was not worriedhe understood that God is in control of every matter and if He was able to give Abraham and Sarah a child in their old age, He was able to do anything.