H.M.S. Richards on Ellen White and Her Prayers

I had to post these quotes written by H.M.S.Richards about Ellen White. An Elder shared them with me last Friday, after I preached for vespers about prayer. I found the quotes really powerful and inspiring. 

"You can give me a lot of proof of the Spirit of Prophecy, and I accept and believe it. But if I didn't have one of those proofs, I would believe in her [Ellen White] because I heard her pray. That, to me, was the greatest proof of her prophetic office. Within thirty seconds after she began to pray, we were all in the presence of God. I was afraid to look up, lest I should see God standing there by her side. She was talking with Him, and she was completely oblivious of others around her. Within a minute you could hear sobs all over the building. That great congregation was in tears. There was one mind, one conviction of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of the Holy Fire, the Spirit of God, as she prayed.

I'll tell you, my friends, it made many changes in lives. People were surprised by the power and presence of God. They have never expected that. They came to see a prophet, something strange - but God took hold of them. They were weeping and crying out. Talk about psychology if you want, there wasn't any of that there. She was quiet until she started to pray, and then, just like that, it was there - a tongue of fire. She had it when she prayed. I was there, and I know. When she got up, she was just a dear old lady again." H.M.S. Richards, Feed My Sheep, 407 *

I want to have that power! And I know that God can give it to us, if we ask for it! Let's all press forward and ask the Lord to give us that tongue of fire. Because it is then that we will be able to finish the work! We need the Holy Spirit more than ever! And God is ready to give it to us if we ask Him to.

 "There is nothing that Satan fears so much as that the people of God shall clear the way by removing every hindrance, so that the Lord can pour His Spirit upon a languishing church and an impenitent congregation." Messengers to young people, p.133

May we all seek Him with all our hearts and may our lives be a testimony of the transforming power of the Almighty One!

*For those who want to read the book, you can find it here: Feed My Sheep.

Generation of Youth for Christ and the Blessings of the Prayer Room

It's been almost a month since I came back from GYC (the Romainan version of GYC, of course) and I wanted to take the time and write about the things that the Lord has done there, but I had to catch up on my work and had no time for it. So, here I am, to testify again that we serve an amzing God! 

Who would have thought what the consequences would be when, less than 4 months ago (to be exact on  May, 10), I offered to fast and pray with a girl I barely knew and who grew to be on of my best friends since then? Who would have thought that the difficult times that she was facing would bring such a blessing upon each of us and upon God's work from Romania? Who would have thought that God could change those difficult times in one of the greatest blessings we have ever received? 

In order words, if I am a new person, if I have finally found what I have missed all along, if God has taken be deeper and deeper in my walk with Him and has drawn me closer and closer to Him, if He has impacted other lives since then, it is because he allowed trials in the life of a girl whom I did not really know, because she chose to take them to Him in prayer, and because I was inspired to tell her that I want to fast and pray with her for 10 days (I ended up fasting only 5 days because of a headache that was hindering me from being able to work). We "met" (online, of course, since we were separated by the ocean) and prayed for an hour, an hour and a half for 10 days... And we did not stop there... From time to time, whenever she is not traveling, we like to get together and pray again! What a blessing this is to both of us! Thank you, Melody! You are more than a prayer partener, you are one of my best friends and I am sure that only eternity will fully reveal the impact that your friendship and faithfulness to God had on me and, through me, on other people. 

GYC has been an amazing experience for all of us who have been there. God worked more than I expected Him to. There were two things I asked Him for. The first one was that I could feel His presence and see Him at work and the second one was that He will give me a burden for these people even though I did not know them, that He would keep me on my knees to interceed for them. And He was more than faithful in granting me what I have asked for. If for the first two days I could not really feel that He is present, on the third day I was simply aware of His presence. And so were other people I talked to.

The GYC leadership was really supportive of the prayer room, even more than I expected.  In fact, they confessed that we were an answer to their prayers. Since I went there earlier to help them finish the preparations for the camp, we had time to get together as a team and pray! What a blessing this was for all of us! One time, we got together to pray for an hour and we ended up praying for an hour and a half. I simply could not stop them. Whenever I wanted to make the transition to another section, there were people starting to pray. The prayer room was also a blessing! I had someone share with us that the Holy Spirit kept sending him to the prayer room but he resisted the voice of the Holy Spirit. Finally, he gave in, and obeyed. What a blessing the prayer room was for him! He said that God showed him who he really is and how deceitful his heart is. We had some other people who came over and over again to the prayer room, people who confessed that they could feel God's presence there and who where so happy to be in His presence. 

We had two prayer rooms opened for 5 hours on Thursday (one in Hungarian language that was hosted by Rita and one in Romanian language which I led) while everybody was doing outreach. I have to admit that I did not believe that God will bring too many people to the prayer room because most of the people wanted to go for the outreach. But God was good and not only He sent around 16 people to each prayer room but people also could feel His power and presence while doing outreach. I had several people come to me and tell me that they could feel God's presence working on their behalf, that they have never experienced something like that before and they knew that it was because of our intercessory prayers. Praise God that He is poweful and more than faithful!!!

I cannot help but be amazed more and more at the power of united prayer! And I know that this is only the begining... God has already started to open doors here in Romania and Europe for united prayer! And remember how it all started??? With God allowing difficult times in the live of someone who trusted Him and wanted to take her problems to Him in prayer. And though I am so happy to see united prayer spreading in Romania and Europe, I am scared at the dimensions of the work! But I am glad that I am scared because this will keep my on my knees and will make me depend only on Him.

I once thought that the 5 years spent in the mission field were the best years ever and that nothing would ever change me more than these years did. Now, after experiencing the power of united prayer for the last few months I believe that experiencing united prayer is the best life-changing experience ever. Sometimes I wonder how would my mission service have looked like, had I known and experienced the power of united prayer while I was there. But, I guess that God is taking me deeper and deeper and this is what brings tremendous joy to my heart.

So I praise God for faithful friends, for being so faithful and for doing wonderful things in my life, many more and more beautiful than I have ever dreamed.