Sunday morning I preached from Luke 1:39-45, where Elizabeth, six months into her pregnancy with John the Baptist, meets Mary.  One of the most remarkable things about this passage (which I didn't have time to mention in the sermon), probably the thing that causes those of us to read it as often as we do, is not so much what happens to Elizabeth in this passage but what happens to the baby she's carrying.  In verse 41, we read that this child – three months yet to be born – leaps for joy inside the womb when Elizabeth hears the voice of Mary. 

Even before he is born, John the Baptist is filled with the Holy Spirit himself (clearly stated in Luke 1:15) and given the unusual task of being a prophet in utereo.  John the Baptist, by leaping in Elizabeth's womb at the sound of Mary's voice, was bearing prophetic testimony regarding the identity of the Christ. 

What can we learn from this?  Not that this is a common way that God brings people to himself, through filling them with the Spirit before birth.  Rather, simply that God can if he chooses, in his own time and way, fill people with his Spirit. 

We all have someone – a child, a husband, a parent – that we desperately wish would turn from their sins and trust Christ.  And we don't see how it can happen.  But if God can fill an unborn child with his Spirit so that he prophesies from the womb, how much more can God fill with heart of someone we know?

We can take from this text that we must pray for them, because no one is beyond the power of the Holy Spirit.  If God chooses to fill someone with his Spirit, it will happen.  

James 5:16 (KJV): "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."  I love that verse and the stories of one man who exemplified effectual fervent prayer - George Mueller.  He wrote, "In November, 1844, I began to pray for the conversion of five individuals. I prayed every day without a single intermission, whether sick or in health, on land or at sea, and whatever the pressure of my engagements might be. Eighteen months elapsed before the first of the five was converted. I thanked God and prayed on for the others. Five years elapsed, and then the second was converted. I thanked God for the second, and prayed on for other three. Day by day I continued to pray for them, and six years passed before the third was converted. I thanked God for the three, and went on praying for the other two. These two remained unconverted . . . . The man (Mueller referring to himself) to whom God in the riches of his grace has given tens of thousands of answers to prayer in the self-same hour or day in which they were offered has been praying day by day for nearly thirty-six years for the conversion of these individuals, and yet they remain unconverted. But I hope in God, I pray on, and look yet for the answer. They are not converted yet, but they will be."

It was not until after Mueller's death that the last man accepted Christ as his Savior, but each one did. Such was Mueller's trust in God and tenacity in prayer.

God is sovereign in salvation, and he delights in answering the prayers of his people.  Prevail upon God for those you know who are lost, and expectantly wait for him to work in their lives.