Recently someone submitted a comment and asked for further information about travailing prayer.

In the scriptures we see several instances of travailing prayer. A few of them are:

  • Jesus travailing, pouring out His heart to His Father. Matt. 26:36-46
  • Nehemiah wept and mourned for days. “I sat down and mourned, wept, certain days.” (Nehemiah 1:4)
  • Apostle Paul experienced travail through his prayers. “My little children, for whom I am again suffering birth pangs until Christ is completely and permanently formed (molded) within you,” (Gal 4:19 AMP)

The Hebrew word for travail means to give birth or to bring forth. Through your prayers God will give birth to His will on this earth and the Holy Spirit will birth life into people and soften hard hearts. There is a battle going on for the souls of men and women. We must be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to pray through us.

When the Holy Spirit travails through you, you may experience groaning. At other times, it may be an ongoing burden deep in your spirit that you continue to pray for.

I experienced this ongoing travail for one of my children called into ministry and I knew that Satan wanted to steal it. As I prayed, God revealed Satan’s tactics. My heart was burdened heavily. The burden remained on my heart. I would awaken with it, and it remained with me all day; I went to sleep with it on my heart, I would awaken in the night and the first thing on my heart was this child. This lasted for several months. Finally, God broke through and gave me a word from the book of Isaiah, telling me that the battle was over. Shortly thereafter I saw the breakthrough in the physical realm. God birthed what He is trying to do. This was not a time of begging God but of praying in faith with all types of prayer as the Holy Spirit led me. I prayed God’s promises faithfully. I prayed in the Spirit, I prayed with thanksgiving and praise even before I saw it come to pass in the natural. I was appropriating Gods will into the natural through prayer. His answer did not come immediately. It is important to press in until the breakthrough comes.  

Sometimes travailing prayer comes with a deep burden and heaviness and sometimes even groaning in your spirit. When you sense this, go at once to the Lord and pray to see if He is calling you. When God gives you a burden to pray, or when He places someone on your heart, He is asking you to join Him in what He is doing. God may give you a burden that lasts for an hour or a day or even months at a time. Be prepared to pray until God gives you a breakthrough.

For example, God has given me a burden to pray for prodigals. I must continue to pray for this group of people, even if it takes years – until I sense the Holy Spirit releasing me from this prayer assignment.

If you are willing to be God’s vessel, the Holy Spirit will pray through you.

The battle is the Lords and we must allow Him to lead us however He chooses. If we follow Him, we are guaranteed  victory because He has already won it.

Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. (Z ech 4:6 NAS)

This battle is real and God is calling you to enforce His already accomplished victory upon this earth through prayer. Will you answer the call?