The Power of Prayer and Fasting - Testimony

As someone who blogs not for the sake of blogging, but hoping that someone's heart will be touched and led closer to Jesus, I often ask myself if I am really making a difference, if it is worth taking my time to write.

Well, a couple of days ago God showed me that I am not writing in vain and that He can use an imperfect person like me and imperfect blog posts like mine to touch hearts.

A little over a month ago I received an email from a stranger. I will name her Laura to protect her identity. She read my blog posts for the 100 Days of Prayer and came across my personal blog (I have no clue how she did that!!!). Here are two excerpts of her email:

I have never told anyone about this, even now I don't know why am writing this, but one thing I do know: I need someone to pray for me and advise me on how to fast and pray.

Please pray for me. Our marriage has serious problems, which is leaving me emotionally broken. And because of that, I am struggling spiritually and I feel am going deeper and deeper in things which are not good. I can't pray, I can't read the Bible no matter how much I want to (I know its sound crazy!). I don't know who I am anymore and my life is falling apart.

I wrote back and promised her that I will be praying for her. I have told her how I usually fast, I have sent her a power point presentation and some stories about the power of prayer and fasting. I have sent her Martin Kim's sermon on fasting and I have also told her about my experiences with fasting and praying.

I wrote her name on my prayer list and prayed for her every day. I was wondering how are things going with her and I wished she wrote back to let me know what is going on. But I did not want to write to her and ask. I did not put my hopes up that she will ever get back to me since I knew that a lot of times people ask for prayer but forget to give a feed-back.

I was really surprised when a couple ago I saw another email from Laura. I opened it not knowing what to expect. Was she asking for more prayer? Did she have more issues she wanted me to pray for? I knew that Satan attacks even harder when people want to come closer to God. I read her email and I could not believe what I was reading. My heart was filled with joy. Her email showed me that we serve an all-powerful God and for Him there is nothing too difficult. He can change hearts and He can make someone a new person. If only we asked Him!

Here is her email. I asked her permission to share the story and her email so that others can be encouraged to draw closer to God through prayer and fasting.

Dear Raluca,

Hope this email finds you well. Thank you so much for your email. The power points were great! Thank you for encouraging me and praying for me.

No words can explain how much you mean to me. We haven't met but it's like I have known you for a long time because of reading your blogs! You saved my life. God used you to bring me back again into the right place. God used your messages to guide me and answer my prayers. I thank God for using people like you. Thank you for the wonderful messages you and husband are writing for the 100 Days of Prayers. They are so inspirational.

For 6 years my husband and I have been struggling with many issues in our marriage. We tried getting counseling from our Pastor. It didn't work. We went for marital counseling. It didn't work. Marriage seminars didn't work. Nothing was working.

From outside our marriage looked perfect. People could tell us how wonderful we are. But inside us we both knew that we were not connected. Our love had faded away, and this problem affected me seriously. Knowing that I was not loved by my husband made me feel empty, sad, very confused and very lost, to the point were I could not pray.

The more I was not praying, the more horrible I felt! I was becoming depressed! I was going down deep towards hell everyday!

In my 21 days of prayer my greatest request was "Lord change my life, I want to fall in love with Jesus again." I knew very well if I don't have the love of Jesus in my heart, the love of my husband that I was looking for could never fill my heart.

My husband is more spiritual than me. He has been my spiritual mentor since we met! Many things I know about God are from him. When I told him about praying and fasting for 21 days he was very skeptical about it. He gave me all the reason why I should not do it and he was 100 percent sure about it. But I was not convinced. I knew for sure I needed to do it right away even if it meant to do it alone.

It was a Sunday early in the morning that I told my husband to pray for me because I am starting 21 days of prayer and fasting. Guess what??? Without any hesitation he told me "I am doing it with you!" That was my first miracle!!! Before we got married we used to pray together but after our wedding everything faded away. One would hardly see us praying together! Now my husband and I we were going to do prayer and fasting for 21 days!!!! It was like a dream to me!!!

The bible says in Psalm 38: 4 "Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him."

Dear Raluca, God is so good and so merciful, his love endures forever. I can testify it. God healed my marriage and brought peace and happiness in our marriage. My husband is crazy in love with me more than you can imagine.

But the greatest miracle He did is the work He did in me spiritual life. God revealed to me many sins I needed to confess, many bad habits I needed to change. On my 14th day God gave me a second chance and strength to confess and repent a secret sin that I had been keeping to myself for 10 years. I was afraid to confess it. I thought I will loose everything I had, I will loose my husband. But that Friday God spoke to me that I needed to confess because I lied to my husband.

I prayed to God, I said "God I have decided to follow you anyway, no matter the cost, and if it means to loose everything, I will do it." Guess what? I confessed to my husband and he didn't even hesitate for a minute. He just told me "You are forgiven!" I thought maybe he wants to take time to think about it, but no, he meant what he said. It was like telling me there is nothing you can do to make me love you less. From that day peace like a river flooded my soul. I was free in Jesus. He forgave me all my sins and cleansed me white as snow.

He has been speaking to me through his word and many sermons from his people. Pr. Martin Kim, Pr. Ron Clouzet, Pr. Ivor Myers... Wow... I fell in love with the Word of God, and I love being in his presence.

If I wrote everything that happen I will not finish soon. Just know am not the same woman who wrote to you the first message!!! Jesus came to my heart and this time He came to stay. I have decided to follow Him and do His will even when no one goes with me. It is true if we seek Him and His righteousness He will take care of the other things in our lives (Matthew 6:33). Pray for me, and I will be praying for you too.

During our prayer time my husband felt God calling us to start prayer meetings in the campus where we work. Pray for us that God will open ways for us to do it.

Much love,

Laura

Friends, I hope that this testimony will encourage you to draw closer to Him in prayer and fasting. We have an awesome God for whom nothing is impossible. Let's go to Him with our problems and let's trust in His power. Let's trust that His strength can be made perfect in our weakness. He can do miracles for us, if only we surrendered to Him. If only if we trusted Him! If only we asked Him to come and live in our hearts!

Slight Turn in the Road

My husband and I started a new journey a little more than two weeks ago. And we are very excited about it. We prayed about it. We fasted for it. We ask the Lord to guide and supply for our needs and He has done it faithfully. Our hearts are overflowing with gratitude to Him.

It has been for a while that we felt called to become medical missionaries. So we prayed and fasted and asked God to lead and show us what to do, where to go to get medical missionary training. This is how we ended up coming to Centurion Ministries in Tennessee. We are 2.5 weeks into our training. We have 1.5 weeks left and we are so happy with everything we have learned here so far.

We started realising more and more the importance of the medical missionary work for around a year. And we also realise that the Medical Missionary work will be one of the last two works that will be done until Jesus comes. And it is the thing that will open the door to many hearts that will not open to the Gospel otherwise. Read this inspiring quotes:

"We have come to a time when every member of the church should take hold of medical missionary work." CME 10

When one thinks that this quote was written in 1902, how much more relevant it is for us today! And this is only one of the many quotes that speak about this.

"Medical missionary work is the pioneer work of the gospel, the door through which the truth for this time is to find entrance to many homes. God’s people are to be genuine medical missionaries, for they are to learn to minister to the needs of both soul and body... As they go from house to house they will find access to many hearts. Many will be reached who otherwise never would have heard the gospel message." CCh 308

"I wish to tell you that soon there will be no work done in ministerial lines but medical missionary work... You will never be ministers after the gospel order till you show a decided interest in medical missionary work, the gospel of healing and blessing and strengthening...." Ev 523

"Some utterly fail to realise the importance of missionaries being also medical missionaries. A gospel minister will be twice as successful in his work if he understands how to treat disease.... A minister of the gospel, who is also a medical missionary, who can cure physical ailments, is a much more efficient worker than one who cannot do this. His work as a minister of the gospel is much more complete." Ev 519

We have ministered to souls to far. We have done prayer ministry. We have been giving bible studies and teaching people about God. But we realised that we are missing the medical missionary training in order to be fully equipped. So we are happy that God opened this door for us.

We love the training that we are getting and we would recommend anybody to join the four weeks training that lays a very good foundation for further study. It may seem short, but it is very intense and one would learn things that are not usually taught in other medical missionary schools. We love that it not only teaches you to be a medical missionary in an institution, to be a leader and to do the work on your own, to assess and treat naturally even the most difficult diseases like cancer in advanced stages. 

Pray for us as we are starting this journey and waiting for the Lord's leading when we are done. Even though there are still many things to figure out about our future, we know that it is going to be exciting working for God as medical missionaries.

Physical Intimacy in Courtship - God's Way

Roman and I received some question from a few people related to our physical intimacy during our courtship and engagement. "Is it ok to hold hands during courtship? Are hugs OK? What about kisses?" So I decided I should write a blog post about that, just in case there are other people out there who have similar questions.

First of all, we do not believe in a one-size-fits-all set of rules. So we are not going to tell you, do this, don't do that. But we believe in some guidelines that have helped us to stay on the right track. 

1. Honour God through everything you do. Everything we do in a relationship will honour or dishonour God. Before taking the next step in the physical intimacy ask yourself: "Is it honouring God? Is it something that will draw me closer to Him? Can I do this with God standing next to me?" Roman kept telling me during our courtship that he wants God's full blessing, not only part of it. If we want God's full blessing, we need to honour Him through EVERYTHING, including our physical intimacy. 

2. Make haste slow. The get-to-know-each-other phase of the relationship is a wonderful one. It is the time when a couple explores each other's world and tries to decide whether or not they are compatible. But many times, if the physical intimacy starts too soon, it can interfere with this process. Once a couple has physical intimacy (holding hands, hugging, kissing), it is much difficult to make rational decisions because of all the hormones released into the body. It is said that once there is physical intimacy, the process of getting to know each other slows down a lot. And I can attest that this is true. Eleven years before I met Roman, I had one other relationship in which the physical intimacy started too soon. A few months later we started doing premarital counseling (we were pretty sure that we are heading to marriage) and our counselor asked us to write down a few things about each other (what we appreciate the most, what we dislike, what we would change in the other). I simply had a hard time writing all those things down. I realised that I did not know the guy. No wonder it took me 7 months to break up with him even though I knew he is not the one for me a month into our relationship. I just could not do it and I did not know why. Now I know. And I wish I did things differently. 

3. Take a step back when needed. There are things that once you do them, create impure thoughts and feelings and also desires that cannot be fulfilled at that stage of the relationship. If this happens, take a step back. Be true to yourself and admit it when something is not helping you to remain pure. Do not be afraid to admit that it is not good and to take a step back. A lot of books and people will tell you that this is not possible. But Roman and I are a proof that it is possible. It might not be big thing, as it was with us. It might not be a no-no for courtship or engagement. But if it is not helping you keep your purity, ask God for the strength to stop doing that specific thing. 

4. Be true to yourself. It is so easy to calm your conscience when you enjoy something that is not helping you to keep your purity. That is why you need to be very true to yourself and ask for God's help.

4. Respect each other. We are all different and we have different reactions to different things. Our bodies and minds react different to different stimuli. Our past experiences is one of the things that causes these differences. You might discover that something that is OK for you is not OK for your partner. Something that does not affect your purity, affects your partner's purity. This is the time when respect, consideration and self-control are needed. It happened with us, too. Things that I was OK with, did not help Roman. So talk about those things and stick to what is OK for both of you. 

5. Ask God for self-control. We all need to self-control. This is one of those things that most people struggle with. It is a battle that Eve lost and Jesus had to win in the wilderness. Having self-control is essential if we want to honour God and maintain our purity. Many times our feelings and the hormones rushing through our veins will push us to do things that we will regret later. That is why it is important that we ask God for self-control and that we watch and pray. 

6. Set clear boundaries from the beginning. It is important that both of you communicate your expectations and get to an agreement at the beginning of your journey. As I said, people coming from different environments, with different backgrounds and experiences might have different expectations. It will save you from a lot of mistakes and it will help both of you to respect each other and to honour God. It is said that if you want to overcome temptation, you should set your mind on what you want to do before the temptation comes. Same thing applies to the physical intimacy in a relationship. Decide the boundaries and help each other to stick to them. 

Let's Stop Treating the Symptomps

In the last few weeks I have had quite a few medical appointments for a few health issues that I am struggling with. On one occasion, I went to have an endoscopy done to find out if I am gluten intolerant or not. I have been struggling with digestive issues for quite some time and I decided that it is time I have some investigations done to find out what exactly is causing all my bloating and constipation. Upon entering the doctor's office, he proceeded to ask me the usual questions: What brought me there? What are my symptoms?

But I did not get to say too much, because as soon as he heard that I am constipated, he asked me what I have done for to help my constipation and he prescribed me some laxatives (which, of course, I am NOT going to take). I tried to tell him about some other symptoms that I have, but he insisted on the same thing: that I take a strong laxative that he is going to prescribe me for four weeks. Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated at the end of the visit. I kept telling myself: "Really? Is this what you do? Are you treating only the symptoms? What about the cause?" Not to say that his solution is only damaging the digestive tract.

The more I thought about it, the more it dawned on me that we are doing the very same thing in the relationship with others. What we see in them, their weaknesses, are only the symptoms. And this is what we are often trying to treat. We think that we are knowledgeable and we know what they must do. And so often we are offering them our own solutions that not only do not heal, but are doing more damage.

Treating the symptom might bring temporal relieve. But on long term there is no gain.

As Christians we should know better than treating the symptoms of sin. Trying to get someone do something by showing them Bible verses or E.G. White quotations might help for a while. But the question remains: What makes this person do this and that when the Bible speaks against it? Once we have the answer to this question, we know what actually needs to be treated. I believe that there is only one answer to this question no matter what the symptom may be.

Sin, regardless of its kind, is just a symptom. The sickness is our lack of love for Jesus. If we want a long term-change, we need to pull out the root of all evil. We need to get to know Jesus, and we will surely fall in love with Him in the process. If we want others to get well, we need to point them to Jesus, we need to encourage them to get to know Him and spend time with Him. And even more than that, we need to showcase them Jesus.

So let's stop treating the symptoms. Let's stop using our knowledge and wisdom. Let's stop using our Bible knowledge to fix people and to prove them wrong. Let's go to the root! Let's spend time on our knees asking God how can we show them Jesus? How can we point them to Him? How can we awaken in them the desire to know Jesus more? How can we help them fall in love with Him? And let's allow the great Healer to do His work in His own time, in His own way. He might choose to use us, or He might use someone else. This is His work, not ours. We have not been called to change people. We have been called to reflect Him and do what He is asking us to do. That's why we need to ask ourselves: Is it God who sends me to do this work, or is it my own desire?

Let's not forget that there is only one Great Healer. We are only tools in His hands. When we attempt to do the work that belongs only to Him or that He did not send us to do, we will only do more damage. But when we remain a tool in His hands, there will be no limit to our usefulness. 

"There is no limit to the usefulness of the one who, putting self aside, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, and lives a life wholly consecrated to God." —The Southern Watchman, August 1, 1905.

  

Ten Days of Prayer

Today is the first day of the 10 Days of Prayer, an initiative of the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It is such a blessing to start the year with these 10 days of prayer and to know that people all over the world are praying for the very same things. In the past Roman and I did not have a church to do the 10 days of prayer with, so we praise God that this year the Sendling Church from München is excited about praying together for these 10 days.

For Roman and I, these ten days of prayer are even more special. Why? Because we are the authors of the material for these 10 days of prayer.

It was last year around this time that we started praying that God will use us more than He had done until then. We had in mind certain things that we could do, certain places where we could talk about prayer. But God's plans were MUCH BIGGER than ours. We were pretty shocked when we received an email from the Ministerial Association of the General Conference asking if we were willing to write the material. It seemed such a big task for two people whose first language is not English. And simply to think that this will influence millions of lives all over the world made the task seem very daunting. But we were also excited, nevertheless. You know those mixed feelings: feeling joy that God wants to use you and answered your prayer and being overwhelmed of the enormity and importance of the task! That is exactly how we felt. But we decided to take on the task and trust in His power to accomplish this sacred job because we knew that His strength can be made perfect in our weakness. 

If you have not heard about the 10 Days of Prayer and are interested in the material and in doing it with a group of people, the material can be found here: http://www.tendaysofprayer.org/. The material has been translated into several languages that can be found on the same webpage.

Here is also an article that the Adventist Review wrote about the 10 Days of Prayer: Adventist Church to Begin 10 Days of Prayer.

We pray that God will use the material for His glory and that many lives will be touched and changed in these 10 days of prayer. Looking forward to eternity when we will be able to fully see how God used our weakness to impress precious truths upon hearts and change many lives.

  

Thoughts on Fasting

We are four days into our fasting and we love it. Fasting and praying together is such a blessing. I am so thankful for a husband who loves God and who is willing to pay any price just to come close to Him. 

I have read a few quotes on fasting that have really spoken to my heart, so I decided to share them with you.

The true fasting which should be recommended to all, is abstinence from every stimulating kind of food, and the proper use of wholesome, simple food, which God has provided in abundance. Men need to think less about what they shall eat and drink, of temporal food, and much more in regard to the food from heaven, that will give tone and vitality to the whole religious experience. — CD 90

Now and onward till the close of time the people of God should be more earnest, more wide-awake, not trusting in their own wisdom, but in the wisdom of their Leader. They should set aside days for fasting and prayer. Entire abstinence from food may not be required, but they should eat sparingly of the most simple food.—CD 188

Many who profess godliness do not inquire into the reason of Christ’s long period of fasting and suffering in the wilderness. His anguish was not so much from enduring the pangs of hunger as from His sense of the fearful result of the indulgence of appetite and passion upon the race. He knew that appetite would be man’s idol, and would lead him to forget God, and would stand directly in the way of his salvation. 1SM 284

The spirit of true fasting and prayer is the spirit which yields mind, heart, and will to God. 4BC 1148

For certain things fasting and prayer are recommended and appropriate. In the hand of God they are a means of cleansing the heart and promoting a receptive frame of mind. We obtain answers to our prayers because we humble our souls before God. MM 283

Humility... how much we need it. And this is the whole purpose of fasting. We do not soften God's heart to answer our prayers through fasting. Humbling our hearts should be the reason for fasting. When we humble our hearts before God, He knows that He can trust us to give us more because we would not take the glory to ourselves, but will give all the glory to Him.

Read this sobering quote about pride:

There is nothing so offensive to God or so dangerous to the human soul as pride and self-sufficiency. Of all sins it is the most hopeless, the most incurable. COL 154

As we fast at the beginning of this year, one of my heart's prayers is: Lord, teach me how to humble myself before You!

Seeking His Face through Fasting and Prayer

As I look behind at 2014, I can only be thankful for all of God's blessings. I have seen Him answering so many prayers. He's provided time and again. He has given me a wonderful, God-fearing, affectionate, sensitive, tactful and faithful husband. I am so thankful for his leadership, vision and determination to be true to God. I am so happy that we can travel together, pray together, minister together. It is such a blessing to have a ministry companion.

I am very excited to seeing how He will lead us in 2015. Though we are at a crossroad waiting on His leading, I am confident that our ears will soon hear behind us a voice telling which way to go.

So, since we believe that this year will bring many changes in our lives, we decided to start the year with 21 days of fasting and praying. We have been inspired some time ago to fast and pray by our friend Martin Kim. It is not the first time when we do a Daniel's fact. We fasted together for 10 days even before we started courting. And we have done it again  for 7 or 10 days several times in the last year and a half. But this is the first time we do it together at the beginning of the year for 21 days.

Why 21 days? In Daniel 10:2-3 we read: "In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled."

So we are following Daniel's example. Daniel's fast is not a fast where we totally abstain from food. Why? Because Daniel ate only certain foods during his fasting. So what do we eat?

In Daniel 1 the Prophet ate only vegetables (that would have included fruits) and drank only water. So we find in these scriptures two of the guidelines for the fast: only fruits and vegetables and only water for a beverage.

Then in Daniel 10 we read that the Prophet ate no meat nor any precious breads or foods and he drank no wine for 21 days. So from this chapter we get two other guidelines: no sweeteners and no breads.

In conclusion, we eat fruits and vegetables, raw or very simply cooked. No grains, no sugar, no artificial or processed foods, no chemicals are part of this fasting. I guess we can say that this fast is like a vegan diet but with even more restrictions.

The bottom line is to have a diet that will allow our mind to be more clear and more receptive to the voice of the Holy Spirit, to eat simple food that does not require a lot of preparation so we have more time for prayer and Bible study. We do not intend to only abstain from certain foods because that it is called a diet, not fasting. Our desire is to draw closer to our Saviour. We do not do this fast for Him, but for us. That is why we also do a media fast (fasting from Facebook, Youtube).

As we have done this in the past, we know that it has helped us tremendously. We have seen many answers to prayers. Last year I have started the year with 21 days of fasting and I have seen God working for us amazingly. He provided for our wedding though we did not have the money for it. We have prayer that He uses us to touch more people. As a result the General Conference has asked us to do the material for the 10 Days of Prayer. It has never crossed our minds that He can use us to put together a material for the worldwide church. But He showed us that He can trust us much more than we think and deserve. We've also heard many inspiring testimonies of what God can do when we seek for His face through fasting and praying. We have some friends who were facing many challenges in their marriage. After fasting and praying for 21 days they have told us that they have never been so close to God and to each other as they have been during this time. And I can go on...

My question for you, dear reader, is: Why don't you join us? You may want to think and pray about it. You might be reading this post after January 1. But it is never too late to start. You can start it later and finish it later. If you desire to come closer to God and to see Him working more than you do now, then I believe that fasting and praying is the answer to your pursuit. 

If you decide to join us in fasting and praying, or if you want more information about the Daniel's fast, you can leave a message below.