10/03/2026
INTERCEDING FOR THE LOST - Kenneth E Hagin
Let me share one experience I once had in interceding for the lost. I was holding a meeting one time and was praying in the Spirit for my service. For a long time I groaned and prayed in tongues and then began to cry out, “Lost! Lost!” I felt inside like a lost soul in hell. Then as I continued to pray this way, I had a spiritual vision.
In this vision I saw men and women and it looked like they were floating down a river. There were thousands of them. Some were happy and were singing as they just glided down this river, unaware of what awaited them.
Suddenly they came to a place like a cliff, and they just plunged off into the depths below. Down, down, down they went into the eternal fires of hell. I could see smoke and fire coming up from that fiery cavern below. I saw those people going down into that eternal fire. I saw them screaming and crying out for mercy as they plunged into those flames.
I was praying in the parsonage when this vision occurred, and some others were also praying in the room with me. I would cry out, “Lost! Lost!” And I would cry out for water, as if my tongue were parched from the intense heat of that flame.
It was like that rich man in hell who cried out for Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool his tongue (Luke 16:24). It felt like I was in flames. I was interceding for the lost. This vision happened many years ago, but it is still just as real to me now as it was then. Spiritual things never grow old.
That evening I only preached about fifteen minutes, and every unsaved person in that service came to the Lord! No one invited them to come. No one talked to anyone, but every single lost and backslidden person in that building came as one man to the altar and was saved. Praise the Lord!
In another case, I was praying several days before my Sunday night service and in a vision, I saw a man come to one of my services. I saw how he was dressed. I saw him come to the altar and be saved. When the Sunday night service came, it happened just as I saw it. He was about seventy years of age and had never been to church in his life. No one in that church knew him to pray for him, so no one even knew he would be in the service, but the Holy Spirit did. And that man was gloriously saved!
At one church I pastored during World War II, I went out to the church while it was still light outside to pray for my Saturday night service. I had a sermon; I had been reading the Bible and praying, and I had something in my spirit. I had outlined this sermon and thought I’d preach it that night. But somehow, I didn’t feel it was exactly what the Lord wanted for that particular service, so I felt I should spend some extra time there praying.
So I began to pray in tongues, and as I walked up and down the aisle praying I noticed a change in the tongues. I wasn’t praying in tongues, I was “preaching” in tongues. I went to the pulpit, not knowing a word I was saying, but I preached a sermon, making gestures with my hands. I knew when I came to the end of my sermon. It was all in tongues. I knew when I gave the invitation, because I held my hand out as if I were inviting people to come forward to the altar. But I was there by myself in the church preparing for my service.
Then I had a vision. In the vision, all the people were sitting in place in the church, when I suddenly saw a young woman step out into the aisle. She came down front, knelt at the end of the altar, and was saved. Then I saw a man leave another section and kneel at the altar and he was also saved. I stepped off the platform and it was as if I was laying my hands on the woman’s head. I was seeing all of this in a vision. I prayed over the young woman and then I prayed over the man. Then the vision ended.
Suddenly I realized that it had gotten just about dark outside. This was still wintertime and it was before we went to daylight saving time, so it got dark earlier than usual.
I thought to myself, “This can’t be right. This man I saw in the vision lives just outside of town, and he could already be saved, for all I know. He does come to church sometimes. But that young woman, she doesn’t even live around here. Her parents come to church, but she doesn’t live in this town. She doesn’t even live at home.”
So I said to myself, “What I saw in that vision can never come to pass because that young woman isn’t even in this area anymore! How could she even come to church? Why am I seeing all this?”
About that time someone drove up to the church, so I turned the lights on in the church and opened the doors. This young woman drove up to the church with her father! It was the very young woman I’d seen in the vision! I thought, “Well, the Lord knew more than I did, didn’t He?”
Now I wouldn’t have thought to pray for her because her father had said she didn’t live in the area anymore, but the Holy Spirit knew she would be at that service.
I went home to get ready for the evening service, and then I came back to church. When I walked in, I saw the fellow I had seen in the vision sitting right over where I had seen him sitting in the vision. And the young woman was sitting right where I had seen her sitting. I preached my sermon that night, and I held my hand out to give the invitation, just as I had done when I was praying, and they both came forward to be saved. It happened just like I had seen it in the vision.
Intercession and supplication in the Spirit doesn’t just belong to the preacher. It belongs to all of us. It is for every single one of us. Thank God for the results that have been accomplished, but can you see the results that could be accomplished if there were more of us praying that way?
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