Discovering the Spirit of Prophecy
The Prayers of the Lord’s Messenger Drawing deep from the well of living water
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he Bible faithfully records the prayers of such patriarchs and prophets as Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, Jeremiah, Peter, Paul, and especially Jesus. We see an example of this in the beautiful and personal prayer of Jesus in John 17. Ellen White was also a person of prayer. It was a vital part of her Christian experience. While still a teenager, Ellen found courage to pray publicly with others at her uncle’s home in Portland, Maine. She recalled this transformational experience with these words: “As I prayed, the burden and agony of soul that I had so long endured left me, and the blessing of the Lord descended upon me like the gentle dew. I praised God from the depths of my heart.”1 She was filled with assurance and confidence in God. This led her to share her testimony with other Adventists looking forward to the soon coming of Jesus. AN IMPRESSIVE TESTIMONY
In her later years prayer remained an indispensable component of both her public and private experience. 18
May 2022 AdventistWorld.org
H.M.S. Richards, Sr., founder of the radio broadcast ministry Voice of Prophecy, vividly remembered a prayer offered by Ellen White at a meeting in Boulder, Colorado, when he was only 15 years old: “I was sitting at her left hand about, oh, 15 feet from her. The platform was about a foot . . . high, and she had the big thick Bible, and she was preaching, faithfully giving God’s message.” After concluding her message, she and the audience knelt in prayer. “I can hear her now. She said not “Our Father” but “Oh, my Father.” And from that moment on, it was a personal communion between her and her heavenly Father. In just a minute or two there seemed to be such a mighty power come over that meeting. I felt it. I was just a boy . . . and I could feel that power, until finally I was afraid to look up for fear I would see God standing right there by her. She was talking with Him. She had forgotten all about us, and she was in the presence of the Lord. . . . A minute or two more went by and that whole crowd, you could hear them weeping, crying, over their sin. A tremendous revival—spiritual revival— the mighty power of God.”2
