In travailing prayer we intercede deeply for the salvation of souls, and for various needs in the lives of Christians, public officials, and even for nations. There is identification and a compassion for the one for whom we are praying! Such travailing prayer can be just you or it can be corporate involving two or more Christians.
Travail can be fairly easy or it can be so deep that it becomes even physically painful. Travail can be silent but usually includes crying, sobbing, groaning, screaming or at times deep laughter in the Spirit and sometimes a combination of laughing and crying!
There are often contractions of the stomach muscles similar to childbirth, sometimes with physical pain. When one has prayed through to victory and the burden lifts, there is a feeling of peace or joy. See Isaiah 21:3 and Galatians 4:19.
Before a crisis or tragedy happens in a family, to a close friend, or in a nation, the Holy Spirit will usually give intercessors a burden, a desire to pray, so the tragedy can be prevented! Often the Spirit will have us pray for an unknown person or situation. God sometimes lets us feel His intense grief, His pain, and His love for the other person. Sometimes He warns us of the need to intercede in a dream or vision. Through such prayers tragedies are prevented, or lessened.
When a "burden" to pray comes, we must drop what we are doing and pray, praise, or travail until we know we have the answer, until we know we have faith in our heart for the miracle. It may take seconds, minutes, hours, or longer to pray through. Even fasting might be necessary. But God will enable us to pray through to get the miracle! Such prayer enables us to walk in the presence of God. It brings a deeper dimension of joy into our lives. Your life, your family, and others will be immensely blessed.
Self-travail is travailing or crying deeply (or laughing deeply) for oneself, particularly for our hurts, trauma or rejections of the past. And it can include areas in which we have sinned against others, including our marriage partners, our children, and our friends. It will help release us from guilt, resentment, bitterness, and self-pity. It will free our true personalities to come forth.
If you ask Him, the Holy Spirit will bring such self-travail upon you often in the areas of your deepest woundings. It may be heavy sobbing (crying), or it may be Holy Laughter or even a mixture of both! It is the key to quick, deep inner healing, deliverance, and inner sanctification, as well as miracles of various types. You may even feel screams coming. Let them come. If need be, use a pillow to muffle the screams! God is doing a deep work within you. . . Loud praying in tongues, even shouting in tongues helps travail to come. Sometimes the travail will turn into Holy travailing laughter, and back to crying, or a mixture of laughter and crying!
Travail often for yourself—until the emotional pain of your deepest hurts are removed. Then work on the smaller woundings. You will experience one exciting change after another in your life. Your life will be transformed. The Holy Spirit will show you what to travail for and how to do so until a deep change takes place.