For What Shall We Pray?
By R. A. Underwood
December 12-19 has been set apart as a special season of prayer and consecration services for all the churches and Sabbath-keepers among Seventh-day Adventists in the United States. Shall we enter upon this season of solemn convocation with little or no sense of its importance? Shall we be satisfied with prayers that consist mainly in a form of words, with little or no faith to move the arm of omnipotent power? Can we be satisfied with our past experience while multitudes are going to ruin under the deceptions of Satan in these last days? If there ever was a time that called for effectual and fervent prayer, it is the present hour. This movement of the third angel’s message is not a cunningly devised fable. The fulfilment of prophecy in the advent message, beginning in weakness and obscurity more than fifty years ago, bearing in the forefront the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus as essential and fundamental in the preparation of a people to meet Christ with joy, rests upon ‘many infallible proofs.’ From its small beginning it is to go forth, gathering strength and power, till every nation, kindred, tongue, and people shall hear its warning voice as a witness (Matt. 24: 14), and ‘then shall the end come.’ The wrath of a long-suffering God must then be poured out in the seven last plagues immediately following the warning against the worship of the beast, his image, and the reception of the mark of the beast. Rev. 14: 9, 10; 16: 1. This last message of love and warning must immediately precede the close of probation. It must make known the impending anguish, despair, and utter destruction awaiting all who refuse to heed the warning and entreaties of the Spirit of God in the last call to men to repent and obey God. With a sense of the awful consequences that attend the rejection of this message, this people should pray to be clothed with light and power to go forth, beginning at Jerusalem (home), and extending to the uttermost parts of the earth, till the earth is lightened with the glory of this message. Acts 1: 8; Rev. 18: 1. God calls for believers, baptized with the Holy Spirit. Acts. 1: 5; 2: 41. From these Spirit-filled believers he calls for ministers of the word, for physicians who can relieve both soul and body, for Bible workers, for canvassers, for nurses, for teachers, for deacons, and leaders in every branch of church work. These workers are needed in all parts of the earth to give this message in this generation. Who will respond to the call? Some will surrender all—mind, body, means. ‘Yea, all to Christ I owe, and all to Christ I give,’ will be the response of Spirit-filled souls to heaven’s call. For this we should pray and believe. ‘This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us; and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.’ 1 John 5: 14, 15. Ministers and missionaries already in the field must be sustained, and many, many more must enter the field. Institutions must be established and sustained. Every talent entrusted to God’s people should now be used. We, our children, and our substance must be at the disposal and use of him who has bought us with an infinite price. Men of means will be called to do a work in this cause, with the ‘goods’ entrusted to them. Shall we pray for this class of God’s stewards? Many now unacquainted with this message must hear it, believe it, and bear responsibilities in carrying it to the world. The prayer of faith has power to shut heaven, that it rain not. It has power to bring the rain again. James 5: 17, 18; 1 Kings 18: 41-44. It brings angels clothed with mighty power to open prison doors by an earthquake. Acts 16: 25, 26. The prayer of faith has made the earth tremble, as well as men. Acts 4: 31. The prayer of faith has opened the lips of stammering men to speak the word with great power. Through prayer the channel of the soul is opened to accept light—and to give the heart, also means, to God for the advancement of the cause of Christ. Acts 4: 31-37; 10: 1-6. Shall this season of prayer be a Pentecost? ‘If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.’ Matt. 18: 19. Let the two become one, let them be agreed, and heaven will respond now as it did on the day of Pentecost, when all with one accord believed and prayed. For this blessing and power we must pray and believe, confessing our sins, and surrendering our all. Let the voice of a united church say: ‘Amen, amen; come, thou quickening, burning power, and lighten the earth with the glory of God’s name.’