When It’s Too Late to Pray: A Prayer from Hell

In this gripping episode of the Press Movement Podcast, Taquoya Porter walks us through one of the most sobering passages in all of Scripture — Luke 16, the account of the rich man and Lazarus. Unlike the parables surrounding it, this narrative is intentionally left vague, leaving listeners to wrestle with whether Jesus is telling a story… or exposing a true glimpse into eternity.

Paula explores the rich man’s haunting reality: in hell, his memory is intact, his desires still burn, and his regret becomes part of his torment. He prays — not for forgiveness, not for salvation — but for relief and for his family. And yet Scripture makes it clear: prayer from hell is too late. Eternity is sealed on this side of life.

This episode confronts us with an urgent truth: heaven or hell is determined now, not later. Earthly comfort does not equal spiritual safety, and earthly suffering does not equal spiritual loss. God honors the choices we make in the temporary, but those choices echo forever.

Be encouraged to choose surrender today. Because while breath remains, grace remains — and prayer reaches every single situation.

#PressMovement #Luke16 #EternalLife #PrayerPodcast #ChooseChrist #FaithOverFear #PressToPray #ChristianPodcast #HeavenAndHell #BiblicalTeaching

Transcript

Press means “apply force.” When God said “press,” prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through. And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what’s applying pressure to us.

Thank you for joining me today. Today we’re going to talk about a prayer from hell. You heard me right—we’re going to talk about a prayer from hell.

Let’s go to Luke, the 16th chapter. I’ll read the prayer first, give a little context around it, and then we’ll dive in.

The Bible says in Luke 16:19:

“There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen,and fared sumptuously every day:And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus,which was laid at his gate, full of sores,and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table:moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

And it came to pass, that the beggar died,and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom:the rich man also died, and was buried;and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments,and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me,and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water,and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetimereceivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things:but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed:so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot;neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father,that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them,lest they also come into this place of torment.

Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets;let them hear them.

And he said, Nay, father Abraham:but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets,neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”

As we look at this story, first of all, one thing that’s very unclear in the scripture—and I think it’s intentional—is whether this is a parable or this is an account of a true story. And the reason I think that’s true, that it’s meant to be intentional, meant to be somewhat open-ended as to whether or not this is a parable or an account of a story that happened, is that the Pharisees are who Jesus was talking to when He’s telling this story.

He’s talking to the Pharisees. He’s talking to the ones who are always trying to accuse Him of something. And so it makes sense to me that He would leave this with a little bit of confusion for them. For in the prior chapter and in the beginning of this chapter, Jesus was speaking in parables.

Parables are stories that are used for teaching purposes. So they’re not accounts necessarily of real people or actual events, but they are stories with a moral, or an objective, or something that Jesus wanted them to learn. The parables are often symbolic as well.

And the reason it’s relevant here is, like I said, prior to this actual story starting, Jesus had shared the parable of the lost sheep, the lost silver, the lost son, and the unjust steward. In all of these parables something is being lost—whether you’re talking about the sheep who just wanders, the silver that is misplaced or the coin that is misplaced, the son who walks off intentionally, or the loss of investment for the boss because he invested in somebody who didn’t handle his investment well, the unjust steward.

All of these parables, however, point to some form of recovery, some form of finding or getting back what is lost—except this final story, or perhaps parable, that we are reading today.

Now, the reason I don’t know if it’s a story or a parable is because it does flow with the other four parables, but one thing that makes it different is that in all the other parables I can remember, and in the little research I did, it appears there’s never a name given to the people in the parable.

Also, when Jesus speaks in parables in other scenarios, He does tend to say, “This is the parable of…” and make it very clear that He’s using a parable. It is not so here. And yet the vagueness I can see, because you could see this group of people saying, “Is He saying He went to hell and talked to people? Or is He saying He has power to remove somebody from hell?” The inference of authority in this scripture that He would have if He’s listening to a conversation in hell would be so big that the group He’s talking to would find fault with Him.

And yet, if it’s a story or a parable, they’d have to be slightly more hesitant to confront Him based on that. Like I said, it’s kind of vague. But either way, it follows the theme that is with the other four parables preceding it: the theme of something being lost. And yet this one ends with what was lost being eternally lost.

So we see here there’s a beggar, and his name is Lazarus. And his life is full of troubles. His life is full of evil. He doesn’t get the good things—that’s what the scripture literally says. He had a hard life. And yet in his hard life, he somehow managed to choose the right things. Even in choosing the right things though, you don’t even see where he’s buried. Like everybody else, he just dies.

With that said, in the temporal time, the short time on earth where it was extremely hard for him, he made right choices to the extent that his eternity would be easy. For all of us, that is goals—meaning no matter what life looks like here, if we make the right choices, it will be eternity where we reap our reward.

Sometimes we get caught up on the temporal things— the riches, the jobs, the families, all of that, wanting to have this and that, or wanting to have this fairy tale we imagine. But all of those things will fade away. And so it’s really important that we understand what’s temporary is actually only temporary, and what’s eternal is where our investment has to be.

And the rich man, though he could probably invest in this world and have purple, which would have been a costly apparel—everybody would have known, “Oh, he’s got money. He looks like he’s got money.” It was not a secret. He’s dressed right. He’s got those expensive clothes. He had the comfort of this life, but he had the torture of hell waiting for him.

And so you see them in Abraham’s bosom, and in researching that, Abraham’s bosom is symbolic. In looking at Abraham’s bosom, it appears to be a type of paradise. Again, if you read it as a parable, you read this one way; if you read it as literal, you read it another. But either way, we now know that things have transitioned to heaven and hell versus Abraham’s bosom.

So you see here in the scripture, as this man is praying for help because he is trapped in hell, in hell you learn a few things. One, you learn that his memory is intact. You learn that his cravings and natural desires are intact. He’s still going to want to be satisfied, but he’ll never be satisfied. He’s still going to remember his friends and family, but he’ll never be able to reach them again.

You see the torment of not being able to forget, even in hell, even as he’s enduring the torture of that place. You know it’s hot, and the other scriptures tend to describe it more—whether you’re talking about the worms eating the flesh or that kind of thing. But this place, on every level—emotionally, mentally, physically if you would, spiritually—is tormenting.

And I say “physically if you would” because your physical body disappears, but you still have the fights of what was a physical body. So you still have the fights of wanting to eat, wanting to rest, your natural cravings, feeling the heat. You still have those fights that we associate with the physical body.

But part of the torture had to be, at least in this scenario, looking over and seeing there’s another way—I just can’t get to it now. The Bible describes here a great gulf between hell and paradise, which is also known as Abraham’s bosom. And between hell and paradise, you can see on the other side somebody over there is just fine. But I have no chance of getting there, no way of getting there, and yet all of my desires say, “I wish I was there.” That is also a form of torment: to see what you want and it be just forever out of reach. But this is the picture of hell at this time, at least for this story.

One thing this teaches us is that heaven or hell is earned in life, but enforced and not changed in death. You don’t get to buy your way out of hell. You don’t get to pray your way out of hell. You don’t get to wish somebody else couldn’t come there or to fight so they don’t. Our time of praying, of fighting, of seeking God, of giving Him what we have, is on this side of eternity—this side before there’s judgment, before there’s a final decision made.

There’s no such thing as a makeup exam. You have to pass this test of life here and now. This is the first of the five accounts—stories, maybe parables—that Jesus shares in this particular dissertation or talk He’s having with the Pharisees where “lost” means eternally lost.

And I see the necessity of it, because so many times we emphasize the lost and “He’ll find you,” lost and “He’ll come for you,” the lost and “He won’t quit on you,” as these parables do. But there are other times where “lost” just means lost, and you have to make a decision because there’s a timer running on your life. There’s a timer running on your “yes.” There’s a timer running on your surrender, and you don’t know when time is up for you.

And every time that time is up does not necessarily mean somebody’s going to die in that moment. Sometimes it just means this is your one shot. But with your time, you have to make a decision on this side of eternity: Will I give God my “yes”? Will I follow Him? It’s too late to pray your way out of hell when you get there.

The other thing this passage covers is how he prays for his family, and he wants one of the prophets to come. He wants miracles to be done. He wants them to believe based on what they see. And the scriptures are very, very clear here that the answer is: if he won’t hear the prophets, he’s not going to hear anybody.

And it’s not “the prophets” as in somebody walking in their face saying, “Do this, do that, do this, do that.” No. But he’s talking about the written word or the word that was passed down from generation to generation. In this case, talking about what they had, they had the law of Moses. They knew what he had said. If they won’t hear that, they’re not going to hear anything. If they won’t hear this Bible, this gospel of Jesus Christ, if they won’t hear the scriptures, miracles, signs, and wonders will not win them either.

The Bible says in Psalm 138:2, “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” God has made His word to grow, to become great or important, to be brought up, to be promoted above all His name. That’s what it means by “magnified.” That’s why He esteems His word so.

John 1:1 lets you know He is His Word. He’s saying, “If you won’t hear the Word, the Word of God, you’re never going to follow anything else,” because ultimately it is the Word of God that has to save you. And if you won’t follow that to Him, you’re not going to follow anything to Him.

Sometimes we’re like, “God, just show a sign, show a wonder.” But I can understand why He said even an adulterous generation seeketh a sign. He wants us to believe in who He is even above what He does. His Word tells you who He is. And by “what He does,” I mean the things you see in your life, because your vision is limited. This may look like the miracle you think you need or the thing you want Him to do, and you say, “Oh, that’s what God does.” But you don’t see the behind-the-scenes of all that God is doing and all that God is. He’s saying, “Dive in. Believe who I am. Believe what I said about Myself, no matter what it looks like, no matter what you think I’m doing or not doing. Believe Me, because if they can’t believe what I say I am, they’ll never believe the works they see.”

And Jesus closes out this portion of the story and says, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” You have to wonder if He’s actually talking about Himself and the people that will never turn, even when they see Him get up.

Somebody is going to heaven. Somebody else is going to hell. Their indicators of which one you are going to have nothing to do with riches, or the way people look, or the things they have. But God knows how to judge who has truly surrendered everything to Him and who has not.

Today I invite you to surrender to God. We surrender through believing in God and then allowing our belief to cause us to repent, or truly turn from our sin, and letting that turning be testified of in baptism—that now we’re ready to have our sins washed away in the name of Jesus Christ, with the name of Jesus Christ called over us. And when we’ve believed and we’ve turned and He’s cleansed us from the inside out, then He will also fill us with the Holy Ghost, which is His Spirit— the Spirit of Jesus Christ that stays on the inside of us—and His power to keep us from falling and to present us faultless to Himself again.

Today, while you can still hear this, know that there’s no prayer you ever have to pray from hell. Know that you can give God everything today. Know that just because it looks like you may have the hard life or hard times right now, that is not an indicator of how good God’s going to be to you forever. But keep following, keep trusting Him, keep believing in His Word, keep believing He is who He said He is, and keep praying, because prayer reaches every single situation.

Join the movement. Join the community. Like, share, and subscribe to this podcast. Visit us at presstopray.com or find us on Instagram or Facebook.

Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God’s ears? I know some of us have prayed, and we’re wondering: How long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like God’s not listening?

But God is listening for your voice. It’s too quiet in this world for the troubles we have. You have to raise your voice, and God wants to hear from you.

“It’s Too Quiet,” a book about prayer, is designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith. Visit presstopray.com.