The Prayer of Travail. Part 8 of the 8 Different Types of Prayers

In today's episode we will be going into the prayer of travail. So this is the 8th type of prayer that we've gone over in our 8 part series. If you haven't checked out my last 8 episodes, make sure you check those out. The first one was an introduction on prayer. I went over when to pray and all of the good things about prayer. The second week we went into the prayer of faith. The third week we went into the prayer of consecration. The forth week we went into the prayer of agreement. The fifth week we went into the prayer of binding and loosing. The sixth week we went into the prayer of casting cares. The 7th week we went into the prayer of praise and worship. Last week we went into the prayer of intercession. So today we're going to be going all into the prayer of travail. I'm going to get into the definition of it and I'm going to pair it with scripture.

First, I want to say a quick prayer: "LORD, I pray that you lift up every single person reading this right now. I pray that you open up our ears, hearts, and minds to you. Open up our hearts to be receptive to this message. Holy Spirit consume me, move me to do the will of God the Father. Work through me to make an impact in other people's lives. LORD. I pray that whatever it is that each person is supposed to receive from this episode, that they receive it and they implement in in their daily lives. I love You with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen."

What is the prayer of travail?

According to Google, the prayer of travail: "Isn't one specific prayer, but a type of intense spirit-led intercession, likened to a woman in childbirth, characterized by deep spiritual struggle, groaning in agony until a divine purpose like revival or breakthrough is born on earth.."

So last week we went into the prayer of intercession. So this is similar-ish to the prayer of intercession, but this is an intense spirit led prayer of intercession that is filled with groanings and just something that just persist until you know that whatever it is that you're praying for has come to completion or that it is going to be fulfilled and God has heard your prayer. This type of prayer is especially effective for praying for the lost. This is weeping, praying, and crying out to God through the Holy Spirit.

Let's get into some scripture:

"In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings." -Romans 8:26

So this type of prayer is groanings that cannot be expressed through the spoken word, but it's a heart's cry to God. So in this prayer of travail, this is literally crying out to God with tears, without speaking, without any type of words being said. Just being in a state of groaning and crying out to the Lord with your tears and letting the Holy Spirit intercede for you. This type of prayer is best whenever it's done in private and not in a public setting. So it's really important to carve out time in your secret place with the Lord and just sit and cry out to the Lord.

"Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy. Though one goes along weeping, carrying the bag of seed, he will surely come back with shouts of joy, carrying his sheaves." -Psalms 126:5-6

I'm going to give you some references in the book of Lamentations, but I'm not going to read all the verses in here. So Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah and he was known as the weeping prophet. So in all throughout Lamentations, it's basically just Jeremiah's cries to God for Israel and for his people. So here are some scripture in Lamentations that you can go and read. There is Lamentations 3:48-50, 8:20, 9:1. So those are specific ones that show this prayer of travail, but I highly recommend if you haven't to just read all of the book of Lamentations. If you don't read all of Lamentations, at least read chapter three.

"My children, I am again suffering labor pains for you until Christ is formed in you." -Galatians 4:19

NOW I WANT TO GET INTO SCRIPTURE ABOUT JESUS TRAVAILING IN PRAYER:

"During his earthly life, he offered prayers and appeals with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence." -Hebrews 5:7

So when you are praying in travail the Holy Spirit is carrying you. So this is more of a place of prayer than a type of prayer. Whenever you enter in praying in travail, you are allowing the Holy Spirit to work through you with inexpressible groanings for a specific thing or person. You may not know what it is that you are crying or praying about, but you're just letting the Holy Spirit work through you and interceding for that person or that thing, whatever it is that you are praying for.

Okay, real quick, I need to interrupt this episode because I have a huge announcement. Thanks to a lot of your support and generosity, we have reached 65% of the goal before the deadline of January 31st for the South America Combo trip. So that is my mission projects to Brazil and Paraguay. I'm just overwhelmed by the generosity of some of you, and I just love you guys so much. I'm so grateful and appreciative. As of now, I am well on my way for the 65% for the Thailand trip. We have raised $900 so far for that, but we still do need 1,375. The deadline for the 65% for Thailand is January 31st as well. So just until the end of this month, if you feel led to partner with me in this, I always need prayer warriors. So if you're a prayer warrior and all you can do is pray, thank you so much. Please pray for me

- If you feel led to give financially, you can go to https://give.globalventures.tv/ and type in my name (Lorena Espy) in the search bar. Then click on "donate on Pushpay," and then you'll go fill out the form and make sure in the memo line that you put my name.

- Thank you guys so much in advance if you chose to partner with me financially. I am so grateful for you guys. I truly could not do these mission projects without you guys. So I just want to thank you again so much for your generosity and all your prayers, love, and support. I just love you guys so much.

Okay now let's get back into the prayer of travail..

"The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law." -Deuteronomy 29:29

So with this prayer of travail, you want to always pray until you reach a victory. So this could be hours. There's no time limit on this type of prayer. It's just something that you are just going to completely allow the Holy Spirit to work through you to pray to the Lord, being in complete submission to the Lord and just cry out to Him with inexpressible groanings that are not expressed through spoken words. Then whenever you feel in your spirit that whatever it is that you're praying for has been completed or the victory has been won, that is when you stop travailing. The way that you'll know whenever you have a victory is whenever you start laughing or dancing or there's just this joy that overcomes you. Also with this type of prayer, it could take days or weeks, months, or even years. Now, of course, I'm not saying to constantly pray all day every day for years, but this may be something that you don't get a victory the first day. Maybe you pray a couple hours and you just don't feel a victory. This may be something that you have to continue to pray for over and over until you get the victory.

So that is the prayer of Travail. With all of these prayers, this is really something you need to work with the Holy Spirit. Ask him what to pray for and always keep in step with the Holy Spirit through every aspect of your life, especially in prayer. But with this one in particular, you may not know what you're travailing over. You may not understand it at all, but just invite the Holy Spirit in and let Him work through you to plea to the Father on your behalf or on behalf of others. Just being in that state of travail until you get a victory and you know that whatever it is that you have been praying over has been done or that God will do it.

So that is it for all of our episodes on the eight different types of prayers. I truly have enjoyed doing this series with you guys. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have. I also hope that you have been implementing these prayers because I'm telling you, if you implement each of these prayers in your daily prayer life, it will transform your prayer life completely. It'll transform your life and the lives of others because with your prayers God can do wondrous and miraculous things. He can do all things, but He wants to answer our prayers. He wants to partner with us, He wants us to partner with Him and to do His will on earth. So each of these types of prayers that we've gone over have been so important and so powerful, and I hope that you have been implementing them in your life. Let me know in the comments below if you have been implementing the prayers, let me know what types of prayers you've been implementing. If you have any stories, you can email me if you don't want to put it all in the comments. I want to hear from you guys. I want your feedback, and I want to know the transformation that God has been doing in your lives because of having a prayer life with Him and just praying these specific types of prayers. So that is it for today's episode. Make sure you stay tuned for next week because we're going to be going into the harvest. We're going to be going into reaching the unreached and Jesus's heart and compassion for seeking the lost and what our part should be in the harvest. So make sure you stay tuned for that. You won't want to miss it.

I love you guys so much.

Never forget to choose faith over fear.

-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)

p.s. If you'd rather listen to Faith-based, spiritual growth, mindset, and mental health tips, then check out my podcast. There I will share my personal experiences, stories I've never told before, and bring you along with this hot mess life of mine. New episodes every week.

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Scripture taken from The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.