What Experiences Lie Ahead of Us?

SPEAKER B Jesus promised his disciples in Acts One eight, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all here and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Welcome to. You shall receive power. And here are your hosts, Ettienne McClintock and Colin Hone. SPEAKER B Dear listener, greetings and a warm welcome. Thank you for tuning in again today. Colin and myself delighted to have your company, but this is a real milestone for us because this is episode 70, which is also the last episode for the series of programs. And you shall receive power. Now, sometimes people feel sad when something ends, but advice from the wise man in Ecclesiastes, chapter seven and verse eight tells us that the end of a thing is better than its beginning. SPEAKER C Praise the Lord. SPEAKER B Yes. So we're going to share some testimonies of people who've been impacted significantly by going through the 40 Days of Prayer books or the 50 Days of Prayer or the steps to personal revival. All those series of books that calls for people to open their hearts through repentance and conversion and to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and what change it's made in their life. SPEAKER C We're also going to share our testimonies as well. Yeah, it was reading the 40 Days by Dennis Smith that changed my life in 2009 when I read about being filled with the Holy Spirit and I started putting in the practice and asking for the Holy Spirit. And my life has completely changed in the last nine years compared to the first sort of 1213 years of my walk with Jesus. So we've got some testimonies we're going to share from all around the world. SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER C From different testimonies of people who have done the 40 days prayers and devotions to prepare for the second coming of Jesus by Dennis Smith and Dennis Smith 50 days preparing for the latter rain of the Holy Spirit and also helmut haubeil's steps to person revival. Just some amazing experiences that's happening all around the world. And we really want to encourage you if you haven't read The Steps to Personal Revival or the 40 Days by Dennis Smith. Or the 50 Days by Dennis Smith, we really encourage you to get in pairs or individually, pairs or a small group, or even as a church go through together, and you'll see what a wonderful blessing. Just as many other churches and conferences all around the world have done this and have been experiencing revival individually and also as a church. SPEAKER B That's true. And one of the things that cannot be argued against is the testimony of someone because you can't tell someone they didn't experience something. You might be able to have a disagreement regarding ideologies or thoughts or even theology, but a changed life is a testimony that's hard to argue against. You can't no, people's lives are different when the Lord impacts them. And there's dramatic changes, I mean, to the point of calling them supernatural changes, because we are dealing with spiritual things. SPEAKER C And these men who have wrote these books, steps to Personal Revival and 40 Days Prayers and Devotions dennis Smith they're not perfect. They're human beings. And as you read their books, we've seen people who didn't like it, but majority have loved it. SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER C And you know what? I don't think there's an author apart from the God's Word and from the spirit of prophecy where you're going to find something that you're going to find something wrong with it. Do you know what I mean? But what you can do is you can judge it by its fruits and the fruits of this majority of people who have done the steps, the person revival, or have done the 40 days prayers and devotions. When you're spending time for 40 days with God, praying to be filled with the Holy Spirit and claiming the promises, the majority of people who have done this, lives have been completely changed. Completely changed. Their walk with Jesus is just so much better. They're having victory over sin. They're seeing Jesus in their life more. They're witnessing and doing evangelism and Bible studies and leading people to Jesus. That's what Jesus says. Don't judge it by the fruits of the Holy Spirit. SPEAKER B That's right. Yeah. It's not the occasional misdeed or the occasional misstatement or they might have something slightly wrong on a particular point. It's about the tendency and also their devotion to the Lord and the work that they do for Him. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER B But faithfulness, obviously, is important. And you're saying judged it by the fruit. SPEAKER C Let's pray. SPEAKER B Yeah, let's pray. SPEAKER C All right. SPEAKER B Gracious Father in Heaven, we're so grateful now that at the end of this road, with you shall receive power. We can now have the 70th program recorded, Father, and we can celebrate the changes You've made in people's lives. By following this process of accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, and through repentance and confession, Father, we've been able to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And You've also given the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who have asked you, those who have believed in you and have claimed Your promises. And Father, some who are listening may still be going through this journey. And Father, we just pray for a rich blessing on them that they will also ultimately come to that oneness, that unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. By having Christ living within them, they hope of glory. Bless our listener, Father, bless Colin, myself, as we read through some testimonies and as we share our own testimonies as well, may we bring all honor and glory to you because you are alone, the One who's made differences in the lives of people who are dead in trespasses and sins. We praise you and we thank you and we love you. And this is our prayer in Jesus name, amen. SPEAKER C Amen. SPEAKER B Now, in the Bible, there's a lot of miraculous things that happens, a lot of great things. And when you read the stories in the Bible, you can think that these people are supernatural beings almost. They have like abilities that you wouldn't see in anybody else. It's like almost they have a different nature. But we can read in the Book of James, for example, where James mentions the prayer of Elijah. And in James chapter five and verse 17, it says that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, that is at the end of the three years and six months. And the heavens gave rain and the earth produced its fruit. Now, Elijah wasn't the one that stopped it raining. Elijah wasn't the one who got it to start raining. He was a person just like you and me, with a fallen human nature. He is very much emphasizing the fact that he had a nature like ours. But he was a man of faith, claimed the promises of God, and he had a prayer of faith. And God performed some mighty deeds through Elijah. We also read in the Book of Acts. Now this is an interesting story, acts, chapter 14. This is the first missionary journey that Paul and Barnabas go on. And they're in Listra. And Paul is seeing a man who is crippled from his mother's womb. He's sitting there and he looks at him and it says paul looks at intently at him to see if he had faith to be healed. And when Paul recognizes faith in this man, he says with a loud voice, stand up straight on your feet. And this man leaped and walked. Now unfortunately, they are amongst the Gentiles. These are people who are heathens and they heathens practices and they worship Zeus and Hermes and so on. And then they recognize the supernatural event performed by ordinary people such as yourselves, but spiritful people, people of faith. And they want to sacrifice to them, saying that the gods have come down from heaven. Here is Zeus and here is Hermes, or which another word for them would be Jupiter and Mercury, if you're talking from a Roman perspective. And interesting, they're trying to stop these people from worshiping them and from sacrificing to them. And Paul runs in amongst them and says, what are you guys doing? He said, we are people with the same nature as you, and we preach to you that you should turn from these useless things and turn to the living God. But here again, the emphasis, they are people with the same nature as us. So, dear listener, these books are only to help connect us to divine power. It is not our power it is not the power of the Books. Of the Books and the apostles and the prophets themselves were people with the same nature as us. Yes, but God did some miraculous things in them, and he can do miraculous things in your life as well. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER B So we're going to share some testimonies on that. I'm really excited about it. SPEAKER C We are. We're going to talk about some experiences that's happening around the world. And we can only got a short time, so we can only share a few of them. SPEAKER B Sure. SPEAKER C But here's the first one experience of a brother, and he says, for the past two years, I've been praying daily for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in my life. My request is that Jesus would thus live in me in greater abundance each day. My walk with God, and this is during this time, has been unbelievable. The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians Five has become more visible in my life. Since I asked Jesus to live in me, to do his will in me, and to daily renew me with the Holy Spirit. I have a greater joy in reading the Bible, sharing Christ with others, and I have a strong desire to pray for others. Furthermore, my lifestyle has changed dramatically. I see this all as a confirmation of my daily search for God and my daily request for the Holy Spirit. This is from a person, Ch. He further shared this. I challenge you to pray daily, to be filled with the Holy Spirit for six weeks and see what happens. SPEAKER B Six weeks? That's 40 days, basically, yeah. SPEAKER C I've got hundreds of testimonies of people doing that 40 days by Dennis Smith who have experienced the same thing and even complete whole churches have been revived by doing the 40 days together. So you've got one now here from 40 days. This is in Serbia, the country of Serbia where the 40 days went to. SPEAKER B So they must have translated into Serbian. Okay, well, here's the story. It says In September 2010, we translated and published the book 40 Days prayers and Devotionals to prepare for the Second Coming. We made it available to all church members in Yahunion. And then we organized a weekly and daily prayer meeting during and following the 40 days in local churches and in members homes where people fasted and prayed for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And as this happened, a completely new climate began to develop in the local congregations. Inactive church members have become active and most interested in serving others. Those who fought with each other for years over different issues and had even stopped talking with each other, reconciled, and began making plans for community outreach together. That's incredible that the Elijah message actually brings the hearts of the fathers to the children and vice versa, and even between brother and brother and brother and sister. SPEAKER C It's a message of reconciliation. Wasn't it just like in the upper room, it says, before they're arguing, weren't they the apostles? SPEAKER B That's right. Who's going to be the greatest? Who's going to sit at the left and who's going to sit at the right of Jesus when his kingdom comes? SPEAKER C But they find they put their differences aside and pray together. It says they are one accord. And this is what's happening here in the churches in Serbia. SPEAKER B Yeah. So this was in September 2010. Now this is then in October 2010, during the annual Council, the Revival and Reformation Initiative was introduced. We gladly accepted it, seeing it as a continuation of what God has already started in our union. We have seen closer fellowship, greater unity, and better common understanding among the union officials as immediate results of these prayer meetings. SPEAKER C You notice it's always prayer connected. You look at Dennis Smith books, 40 Days, it's all about 40 days of prayer yes. And devotion to prepare for the Second Coming Jesus. So this is just a whole union. Exciting things are happening in union because the people are coming together like in the Book of Acts. They're praying together, reconciling together, and God pours out His Holy Spirit in abundant. SPEAKER B It's incredible. I've always seen the importance of prayer, especially when I start looking at the Bible a little bit, looking at the example of Jesus, it says that he prayed entire nights or to get up early in the morning before the sun was even rising, and he was spending time in prayer with His Father. I mean, the Son of God, our Savior, praying that much. What a great example for us. And I was thinking, well, I can't really pray beyond two or three minutes. What am I going to say to the Lord? And as my testimony unfolds, you'll probably hear a little bit more about it later. But I started noticing that I had more to say and more to praise God for and thank God for, and more people to pray for, because God was laying things on my heart that typically before I hadn't even considered. And my wife, even at times would say to me when I was praying, kneeling beside the bed, she goes, I thought you fell asleep because you were praying so long. But just what happens is all of a sudden, from not knowing what to say, you've got a lot to share. SPEAKER C With the Lord pouring out on your heart, isn't he? SPEAKER B That's right. SPEAKER C Yeah. A spirit of intercession and prayer. SPEAKER B Yeah. And that's not natural to myself, because I know I didn't have that before. That's only because of the Holy Spirit. SPEAKER C Praise God. And so here's another testimony from 40 Days of Prayer in Zurich, Switzerland. It says here, our pastor and I received independently from each other a book which contents thrilled us. Its title is 40 Days of Prayers and Devotions prepare for the Second Coming by Dennis Smith, by the Review and Herald Publishing Association. This book can't be read and then just set aside the contents changed my life since our church in Zurich. I can't even say the second part, but Wolf Zinkle Swinkle, with about 100 members, sensed a great need of revival and prayer. We planned a 40 Days of Prayer for the fall of 2011. The book gave detailed, valuable information for this. In addition, 40 appropriate daily worships. The topics deal with being filled with the Holy Spirit, prayer, preaching the life of Jesus, and spiritual fellowship. We started our 40 days on October 1, 2011, and with great anticipation and expectation. Fortunately, most of the church members took part. Prayer partners met to pray daily, text messages were sent daily, and people prayed over the phone every day. One group met every morning at 06:00 a.m. For worship and prayer. Our 40 days were an unforgettable experience. God answered many of our prayers, especially in connection with a series of lectures on Biblical prophecy which took place at the same time. These lectures were a great blessing. We had many visitors and 20 people register for the following prophecy seminar which we followed up in March 2013. Between 50 and 60 guests came, which hasn't happened in Zurich in 20 years. SPEAKER B Wow. SPEAKER C God's Spirit has made ongoing changes in our church, and it's a joy to see how our small groups are starting to grow and how church members who are willing and eager to give Bible studies find interested people. Those who participated now have a deep desire for a continuation of the work of God's Spirit. We want to thank Him from our whole hearts and give glory to Him. This is from Beatrice Eger from the Adventist Church in Zurich. Wolf Zwinkel. SPEAKER B Wow. What a great testimony of a change and transformation. Especially in first world countries in Europe, the church there is actually declining. But to see a turnaround where there's now people coming to the church and people are interested in soul winning, that is actually going from something that's really dead spiritually to seeing that life quickening. And this sounds like it's only but the beginning. SPEAKER C Well, we know a revival will only come in answer to prayer. SPEAKER B That's right. SPEAKER C And so what are they doing? They're coming together, just like in the Book of Acts. They are praying. They're praying. Reconciling one accord and spending time in God's word every day praying. And you notice also small groups is coming out of it. There was a lot of small groups that were planted out of that. SPEAKER B That's right. SPEAKER C And then souls were being saved. It turns into evangelism. That's true revival there. Yeah. SPEAKER B That is a great biblical model. That is really the axe model, isn't it? SPEAKER C That's right. Now, Eden, there's also some people in Germany and Cologne. SPEAKER B In Cologne? Yeah. Cologne is a beautiful city. I have visited it there once before, and I remember the big cathedral they have the column dome, the Cologne Cathedral. And this pastor that's writing here is a German Brazilian and his name is Hawaii Lotse and he worked for 38 years in churches and hospitals in Brazil as well as in the Union in the South American division. He retired in March 2010. He and his wife agreed to come to Cologne as his hands missionaries and work in the Portuguese and Spanish speaking churches. He says. We started in Cologne with a small care group to encourage the church members and to invite guests. Based on our experiences in Brazil, we carried out 40 Days of Prayer in Cologne. The material we were available in Portuguese. The churches with Portuguese, Spanish and German speaking members joyfully starred at the 40 Days of Prayer. We prayed daily for 100 friends and acquaintances. These people's names were written on a blackboard in the church. Not until we had reached the 30th to 30th 5th Day of Prayer do we let these people know that we were praying for them and at the same time invited them to a special Sabbath service for guests. 120 people came to this special church service. Christian Badorek, the director of personal ministries for that area, held the sermon. Some of the guests cried with joy when they saw their names on the board afterwards. Antonio Gongalves, an evangelist from Brazil, had an evangelistic series for 15 days. Each evening he spoke for one and a half hours with translation. The title of the series was Let the Bible Surprise You. The topics had to do with the Second Coming, as well as topics from Daniel and Revelation. The lectures and the songs were translated from Portuguese into German. There were small choirs and good music each evening. Every evening closed with an altar call. We are thankful for the good reactions. The church members prayed intensively, especially the people from the 40 Days of Prayer. Our church sanctuary seats 80 people, but more than 100 people came. On the weekend the church was full and during the week there were about 60 people, 32 guests attending regularly. This led to eight baptisms and 14 people joining the baptismal class. By the end of the year, 13 people were baptized. We had many surprising experiences. It was difficult to find a translator. A Catholic teacher helped offer to help. Offer to help, right? But she didn't have much experience in the Bible. When we prayed for a Protestant translator, well, soon afterwards we got to know a lady in a restaurant who explained that she translated and with great joy she would do that from Portuguese to German in the Pentecostal churches. She was our translator for the evangelistic series and she was also baptized. SPEAKER C So the translator ended up being baptized themselves. SPEAKER B Wow. Praise the Lord. Well, I mean, if you're translating something, you got to think about it. And of course that will seep in So. The word of God will transform. SPEAKER C No question about so. SPEAKER B Maria, the translator, asked if she could invite her friend Elizabeth to come. She is the leader of a small Colombian church in Cologne with 13 members. She came and brought members from a church with her. Since then, two of these people have also been baptized. Elizabeth and her family are now receiving Bible studies. SPEAKER C Amen. SPEAKER B Now, another experience is connected with the Hope Channel. A German woman found the Hope Channel by coincidence and was impressed by what she heard, including what was said about the Sabbath. She invited her husband to listen with her. He also enjoyed the messages. One day, when they went to visit her mother, they were impressed to drive along another route. Along the way, they saw a sign for a 7th day Venice church. They realized they were the Adventists from Hope Channel. On Sabbath, they went to the church service. Then she invited her husband and then her mother to join her. Since then, all three of them have been baptized. SPEAKER C That's amazing. And then there's another experience involves a Russian German sister. SPEAKER B Yeah. SPEAKER C She took part in the 40 days of worship and started to pray for her Russian speaking neighbors. When she told one of her neighbors that she was praying for her, the neighbor was very surprised and said that she was looking for a church that kept the biblical Sabbath. She and other neighbors came to the evangelistic series, and two of them had been baptized. SPEAKER B Another baptism. Wow. And here's another experience as well. This involves a woman named Jean, and she had been a member of the Baptist church in Brazil, and now she was searching in Cologne for a Portuguese speaking church. She got in touch with the Adventist church, received Bible studies, and was baptized. And after a conversion, she called her relatives in Brazil and told her uncle, who is an Adventist, that she is also an Adventist. Now, it was a big surprise for her mother, her siblings, and the Baptist church in Brazil, which she had been a member of. Her family in Brazil subsequently visited an Adventist church to inform themselves about the Sabbath. This has led to five people being baptized in Brazil her mother, two of her sisters, and other relatives. Now she is praying for the conversion of her other sister, who lives in Argentina. She wants to be together with them in God's kingdom and under God's leading. We have had many other experiences. At the first baptism, eight people were baptized on each from Italy, Germany, Peru, Brazil, Ukraine, Venezuela, Colombia, and Russia. SPEAKER C Wow. SPEAKER B God knows no boundaries. The Holy Spirit knows no boundaries, does it arm real? SPEAKER C And then so again she goes in the four where Gain had another evangelist series in connection with the 40 days of worship. Here's what they were doing. So what they were doing is they were spending 40 days in prayer in pairs and groups, more groups, and they were praying for five people each for 40 days. And then they would go and then tell the people who they were praying for that they were praying from after about 30 days. SPEAKER B Okay. SPEAKER C And then the other people would know that, and then they would then invite them to evangelistic meetings. This is amazing. SPEAKER B That is incredible. So they tell them some time into the prayer to see if anything has changed in their lives. SPEAKER C God's working on their heart. SPEAKER B Yeah. Wow. SPEAKER C Again, she goes. In the fall, we again had an evangelist series in connection with the 40 Days of worship. Jimmy Cadasso and his wife, who were originally from Brazil but now live in the US. Held the evangelistic series. Although the series only lasted a week, we were able to baptize four dear people at the end. They'd been having Bible studies. Previously, there were three Germans and one Italian. Both of the baptisms were held in the main church of Cologne, which had 400 members and a beautiful baptism facility. We thank God that he surprised us in such a great way. I'm convinced that he still has even great experiences waiting for us. Please keep us in your prayers. Jealous Lotz, Cologne, Germany. SPEAKER B Wow. And here's another one this one calls Vital Intercession. I first just simply read the book that's the 40 Days book through. From the first page on, I was very impressed. We shouldn't only pray for someone, but also affectionately care for them. This makes intercession come alive. Unfortunately, I'd never seen intercession in this way before. Living out your faith, I'm convinced that it is just as important for the person who is praying as it is for the person who is being prayed for. Likewise, it convinced me from the start that the fellowship in the church should be strengthened. Oh, I hope that such fellowship will happen as it is described in the last chapter of the book. To be honest, I had to cry because I have yearned for such fellowship for a long time. I'm convinced that the book Christ in Me nurtures us and frees us from our own accomplishments. I have read several books about Christ in Me, but this book seems to be the most helpful. I believe that your prayer life will be strengthened by this book and that the fellowship in the church will be nurtured and that it will make Intercession more alive. This book gives me hope for myself and for the Church and for the world. I thank God for this book. Next, I plan to study the 40 Days Guidebook, pray over it, and then take in whatever God shows me. So this is someone that's on a journey, who started reading one book, and now they've been encouraged to read a second book, and they're saying this answers the desires of their own heart that the Lord has placed on their hearts for some time. SPEAKER C It's fantastic, isn't it? What's happening? And I can tell you this is happening all around the world. I mean, there's thousands and thousands of the book 40 Days probably over 600,000 copies and the steps to person revival worldwide translated in many different languages. I've seen the 40 days in Ethiopia, in Kenya, throughout Africa, throughout Europe, in North America, in Australia. Many churches have done the 40 days here. SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER C And it goes on to say a few weeks later, I received another email from this sister. As you know, I simply read the book through at first talking about the steps to person arrival. But since I've started studying the worship with my prayer partner, I've discovered they are even more valuable than I thought at first. Well, I've gotten answers to things which I hadn't been able to on my own. Thank God, my prayer partner, who is participating intensely and actively. Initials HK. SPEAKER B Beautiful. So there's another one here with a heading not sure anymore. The booklet steps to personal revival has touched me extraordinarily. Having been born in an Adventist family, I believed I was taking the right path. The chapter on the ten Virgins and especially Romans, chapter eight, verse nine, the second half of the of the verse. Now if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his. Really shocked me. I suddenly wasn't sure anymore if I had the Holy Ghost and if he was working in me because I was sorely missing the corresponding fruit in my life. This Sabbath afternoon I finished reading the booked and I profound and fathomed. The sadness came over me. Then I read the prayer near the end of the book and a deep desire rose within me to receive the Holy Ghost, to let him change my heart and that God would form within me his Son according to his will. SPEAKER C Wow. That's just amazing. I've been involved in Holy Spirit Ministries for now for 910 years and been all around the world promoting the 40 Days and the steps to personal Revival in many countries all around the world. And I can just tell you that this is the same thing happens over and over and over again. People are hungering and thirsting for a deeper relationship with Jesus. And to have that, they need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And this book's really encourage you to pray not only for yourself to be filled the Holy Spirit, but pray for others. And we're going to tell you a few stories after the break of some stories. What else is happening around the world with the 40 days prayers and devotions and the steps to personal revival? SPEAKER B Wonderful. So dear listener, stay with us. We're just going to take a short break and we'll be right back after this message. SPEAKER D Eric Weiss was born in Hungary, but he became famous in the United States and the world over as Harry Houdini. Houdini was known as an escape artist, getting out of handcuffs, challenging police to keep him locked up they couldn't, escaping from straitjackets while underwater and so on. It seemed he could always escape the Bible. Speaks of an escape that even Houdini couldn't make in Hebrews two and verse three. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? The point is, if we neglect salvation, we simply cannot escape. We're trapped in sin. We live in a world of sin. The only way out is Jesus. We cannot free ourselves. Skill and trickery won't help. There's just one escape from sin, only one, and that's Jesus Christ. I'm John Bradshaw. For it is written, let's live today by every word. SPEAKER B Dear listener, welcome back. We are sharing testimonies at the moment, which is found in the back of this beautiful little book, steps to personal Revival, written by Helmut Hawbell. So this is our last program, program number 70, or episode 70. And we've just been sharing how people's lives have been impact some people at the beginning of their journey just as they're starting to get into the book, some people who've implemented the principles out of this book and also the 40 days books that have been written by dennis smith and how their lives have been transformed, where they now are soul winners, where people who have had conflict and strife and disagreements, even within church groups, have been able to put that aside. And harmony and the unity of the faith has been manifested under the power of the Holy spirit. Now, you may be able to share a testimony as well. And if you have one, we would love to hear from you. You're welcome to send it to us at the email. You can send it to [email protected]. So that's org au. So radio at threeabnaustralia, one word au. And if we have your permission, and just tell us if we have your permission or not, we would love to share that with people on another program at some stage in the future. SPEAKER C So I want to tell you a story in Ethiopia. In 2012, I was invited to go to Ethiopia by a lady called Janet. Janet was she was a housewife from Ethiopia living in Canada, and she had done the 40 days devotional. And she just changed her life. She said, it just changed my life completely. I had a desire to read God's word, the spirit of prophecy, to witness. And so she started seeking out Lukewarm people in the church, and she would go and do the 40 days with them, and everyone would be complaining. I don't want to do 40 days. And the first few days they'd be complaining. She says after one week, they were loving it. Their lives were changed. SPEAKER B Wow. SPEAKER C By the end of the 40 days, they were crying. She said that it had finished, and she continued seeking out Lukewarm people in the church to do the 40 days with. She then said, I need to take this back to my home country of ethiopia. And she's part of ethiopian cyber ministries, which was a ministry that works in ethiopia with the seven day venice church. And so she contacted us and got permission to translate the 40 days. And they took the book to Ethiopia and launched it and invited me to come out and do revival meetings there. SPEAKER B Wow. SPEAKER C So I went to Ethiopia and I thought, okay, well, one morning I go to a church and they said, no, this is not where we're doing the revival. We're doing it in a stadium with 5000 people. So we turn up a stadium with 5000 people and just of all different denominations and different people. And hundreds and hundreds of people were baptized because of that. Hundreds of people. All those people were praying. And the 40 days went right through the whole country for the Venice Church. There's about over 100,000 Adventists in Ethiopia. Seven day Venice. And it was incredible. Revival started happening in Ethiopia. I went to another city in the capital where again, another 5000 people, again, hundreds of people made decisions for Christ. Hundreds of citizens prayed for the outro in the Holy Spirit. Hundreds of people. And thousands of people prayed for God to write his laws on their mind and hearts through the Holy Spirit. And then they told me about one story where this church right in some town in the middle of Ethiopia, they decided to come together and do the 40 days, and they met every morning at like five in the morning. And a thousand people turned up every day at 05:00 in the morning to do the 40 days and pray for five others. And the thousand. Yep. SPEAKER B It is incredible. SPEAKER C And let me just tell you what happened. There was miracles that started happening there. What happening is people who had left the church started coming to the revival meetings, prayer meetings every morning. That's all it was, was just an hour or hour or so of prayer meetings. A couple of hours of prayer meeting every morning. They told me that the pubs in the town, all the taverns on that closed down, drunkards were coming to the meetings and were being cleaned up. SPEAKER B Wow. SPEAKER C People hadn't been church for years, started coming back and giving their lives to Jesus. Miracles were what? People who were sick were coming and being healed. They were praying for healing and the sick were healed. This is amazing. I couldn't believe it when they were telling, well, I can believe it. SPEAKER B You know what I mean? SPEAKER C They were praying for it. And so they just said and then there were people who were drunks giving their lives to Jesus. People backsliders, giving their lives back to Jesus. And at the end of the 40 days they were crying because they said, what are we going to do now? After they can pray for 40 days? And there's more stories. I went to Zambia preaching there, and this Bible worker over there got hold of it, and he started taking it right across Zambia, doing Ten Days Devotionals by Dennis Smith and doing revival meetings. And he just said, It's amazing what's happening. Colin so we've got this story here, Etienne, as well, just some individual stories about Know Him, where it says some time ago, this person read an article on revival by Helmet Horbill, and it says, I've been preoccupied with this topic for about three years now. I just started to read steps to Personal Revival. I can only say amen to that. I'm glad that in these pages I found many of my own thoughts. I am under the impression that in our church we are missing the goal by an inch. I can't shake off the feeling that we have lost sight of the essentials. Often it has to do with what is the truth, how we should live, or how important prophecy is. And I'm not saying this is wrong, sure, but we overlook why God gave us these things. Doesn't the truth aim for complete fellowship with God? Instead, shouldn't these areas help us really get to know God? Isn't the aim of prophecy that we acknowledge God's greatness and omnipotence, that we understand that he holds the whole world in his hands and directs it, and that in the same way he can lead and shape our lives? SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER C What is eternal life? John 17 three and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you've sent in the parallel of the bridegroom, simply says to the five foolish Virgins, I know you not. The aim of our faith is simply to know God, to have fellowship with Him so that he can fill us as he filled the temple back then. In two Chronicles, chapter five, verse 13 to 14, when he filled the temple with his glory, his Shakina glory, and when he flows through us, fills our whole being, then aren't we living, but rather Christ is living in us. What an incredible testimony that is. SPEAKER B Ethian that is wonderful testimony. SPEAKER C I think you've got another one here about people doing the 40 Days of Denis Smith. SPEAKER B Okay, so the second book by Pastor Dennis Smith, the 40 Days Book, is an unbelievable blessing to me. Some of the people I've prayed for have experienced 180 degree turnabouts in their lives. During the 40 days, I've had a deep spiritual conversation with a friend. He told me that his life had taken a different course in the last few weeks. He had a greater need to pray and was reflecting more of God's Word and was able to let things go that had been valuable and desirable to him previously. I got up my courage and told him about the 40 Days Book and also told him that he was one of five people that I had been praying for. Then he responded in positive surprise. So you are responsible for this whole thing. Wow. So a girl made the decision to dedicate her life 100% to God. Although she had been a believer since she was a child, she had been living without God. She had no interest in faith and was completely ensnared in a worldly life. She was completely changed. Now everybody that knew her and saw her was amazed. She's studying the Bible with this lady who's writing here and she's now taking part in the 40 day program at the church where this lady is attending and wants to encourage others to have a more serious faith life. SPEAKER C Wow. And it says and he talks continues on. He says, another girl who I prayed for had to take part in a week long training course and had to stay in accommodations together with other participants. She was worried about spending this time with all these strangers. One day before she left, I encouraged her in prayer and told that I'd been praying for her for quite some time. So we prayed that God would give her peace in this situation, that he would make this experience an answer to prayer. During the training course, she called me and excitedly told me that God had done something unbelievable with her. He had not only given her perfect peace, but he also given her the courage not to take part in the evening amusements, which consisted of discos and alcohol and night stuff. Right after the 40 days I continue praying for these people, since I've heard and seen this great ways in which God answers prayer. That's from Am. A short ended version. I just think this is amazing ethy and what's going on here. SPEAKER B Powerful, powerful testimonies. I remember my own life, I've sometimes heard about the statement that you had to shut yourself in with the Lord. And I know in the beginning when I was struggling to pray, I knew it was my duty to pray. And typically I would pray when I need help. I've got to go and write an exam or there's something difficult lying ahead or I'm in trouble. Then I normally pray, please Lord, get me out of this mess I got myself into. But apart from that, I couldn't say. I had an active prayer life. And as I gave my heart to the Lord and started spending time in prayer and study, and I started realizing how important it was to pray every time when I opened the word of God. This is not just a natural book, this is a supernatural book. It was given by the Holy Spirit. Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. I started praying and there'd be times when I've prayed, even when I'm with friends praying. For example, we'd just go in to do some street witnessing. And we were in Melbourne, for example, one day, and I remember sitting in the car just before we were going to go out into Berke Street Mall and do some witnessing for the Lord there, just closing my eyes and started praying. And by the time I finished my prayer I opened my eyes and I was surprised to see where I was because I'd lost sight of where I was, the situation I found myself in. And we had a wonderful, wonderful experience. We caught up with some people who were Satanists, who were starting to ask questions, we were able to help some people who were destitute and we were able to hand out many, many tracks. So that particular day was probably one of our better days because often we would have a lot of opposition. But that particular day, as far as the opposition was concerned against people who were trying to oppose our message, than that there was hardly any people who typically would oppose us, even Satanists were now more open minded and more receptive to hear the message of God. And that was definitely not our ability because, I mean, what a change, we were still the same people, but it was the Holy Spirit able to work and speak through us in answer to our prayer of faith. SPEAKER C Wow, that's amazing. Here's another testimony. Here how God works through intercession. This person writes in the last five years I've gotten completely out of touch with an important person. To me he seemed to ignore my messages. I had heard that he hadn't been going to church anymore. Over the past three years he had grown up in the church and that he was in a relationship with a nonchristian woman. I put this young man on my prayer list, even though I didn't think it would be possible to get back in touch with him, since he lived 600 km away and never answered me. Nevertheless, I prayed for a sign of life. On short notice. I heard about the upcoming baptism of his brother, which just happened to be taking place near me and was on the date during the 40 days of prayer. It had been originally been planned for another date. I decided to attend and met him, were able to have a very deep discussion and he told me that for some time he had had an increasing great need to come back to God, but that he didn't have the strength to change his lifestyle. I told him that for the past 20 days I'd been praying intensively for him, that even before that he had been on my prayer list. He was speechless. That exactly during this time he felt God working on him. During the very spiritual baptismal service. He was very moved and when the pastor made an appeal, I could feel the battle that was taking place in him. And after a long strung or, he finally fell on his knees and started to cry. He surrendered himself to God again. And at the end of the evening he told me that he had decided to attend church regularly again. And to change his lifestyle. He never expected this weekend to end this way. A few weeks later, I met him at a youth mission conference, which again strengthened him and built him up. I thank God for the repentance of a beloved person. This is from MH. That's amazing. SPEAKER B That is absolutely incredible. Our faith can do a lot with God intervening in the lives of others. I think of the paralytic man who was taken on a stretcher on a bed to Jesus. The house was so full, they couldn't get to Jesus. The place was so crowded with Jesus inside preaching. So they decide to break through the roof of the house and let this man down by ropes in the bed right before Jesus. And it says that when Jesus saw their faith, he responded to this man and then he made him whole. And the man was able to walk away from there being fully healed, but it was the faith of his friends that had caused him to be healed. So also our prayer of faith will be able to make a huge difference in the life of other people. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER B I remember years ago praying for family members of mine who were struggling in their marriage, really, really having a difficult time, and they'd been married for a few years. And this has come into a crucial point now where they're saying, look, we can't live together anymore, we're going to have to split up, therefore ever arguing. So the Lord just placed it on my heart that I should pray for them. So in the morning, first thing, I would pray for them as part of my morning prayers. Whenever I thought of them would pray, I was probably praying for them 510, 15 times a day me. But I'd have the formal prayers at least three times a day. And in between, whenever they just pop in my mind, I would say prayer for them. Within a matter of seven days, I hadn't even told them I was praying for them within a matter of seven days. A week later, I had a conversation with one of the parties in this marriage and they said, we are having the sweetest relationship we have ever had in our marriage. Better even than the honeymoon. SPEAKER C Wow. SPEAKER B They said, sometimes in the morning we'll just wake up at 04:00 and then we'll find out the other one's awake as well, and then just lie in bed and talk and discuss. And they even started getting more into Bible study and prayer. And the Lord was able to turn their whole marriage relationship around, talk about. SPEAKER C The importance of intercession and prayer, how it releases God's power upon people as we intercede for them on their behalf, and it gives Him permission to say, Satan, get out of the way. Even though they're not even asking for God, but we're asking for God to move on their hearts. SPEAKER B That's right. SPEAKER C Here's a great story too. From a church in Baden Wootenberg in Germany. It says this at first we studied the 40 days book as a couple and experienced great personal benefit and blessing during this time of prayer. Afterwards, we organized a prayer meeting twice a week in the church and read the book with the church members. We distinctly experienced God's blessing and leading and experienced many miracles during the 40 days as a church, God refreshed and revived us. Church members who had never had the courage to speak with strangers suddenly spoke up with strangers by their own initiative. See, this is like Peter and the apostles who were timid. SPEAKER B That's right. SPEAKER C Now they spoke boldly in the temple. SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER C God is binding us as a church closer together through prayer. Together we had the privilege of having special experience in the intercession and support of five people that we prayed for during the 40 days. God worked in a special way in these people's lives. Again and again, people from the streets suddenly appear on the Sabbath and church service people started turning up a church. We are giving Bible studies to one of these families. They had gotten acquainted with the Sabbath through videos in the Internet and the book The Great Controversy and had been searching for a church for some time. Catcher and christian schindler seven day adventist church in lutwitzburg. And that's the shortened version. Okay, have you got another story here about the steps to personal revival? SPEAKER B Yes. So this person is saying that everything started with a seminar on steps to personal revival. And at that time a desire grew within me to experience God in my life daily. Then I heard about the 40 days of prayer and worship. It was immediately clear to me I wanted to experience this adventure. Actually, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Finding a suitable prayer partner, which is part of the program, wasn't difficult. The challenge for me was to find time for each other every day. During the 40 days as a nurse, I have very irregular working hours. I hadn't even thought about that. Nonetheless, God blessed my decision from the very start. And with longing I waited for those precious minutes of the day in which we could share with each other about the topic and plead for the Holy Ghost. We discovered that the prayers changed something in our lives and we couldn't keep it to ourselves. With every opportunity that came, we felt impressed to share something. It was important to me to motivate other people to have the same experience. The effect didn't fail to appear. Some church members were infected with enthusiasm. Quickly, new worship pairs got together. We looked forward to sharing every week what we had experienced. This virus was also caught by quite a few of our youth. The 40 days ended much too quickly. We didn't want to and simply couldn't stop. So we continued our worship time with the book Maranatha the Lord Is Coming by Alan White and God didn't make us wait for it too long. Still, during the 40 days he gave us many wonderful answers to prayer. Someone who we had prayed for during this time came into contact with the church again after a long absence. We were so happy. The people around me became more important to me. My desire to share God's love with other people grew stronger. My life changed. Many of us got to know and to understand each other better. Many take part in each other's lives and are there for each other. Fellowship has a completely new meaning. The 40 Days of Prayer and Worship by Dennis Smith was a great help to me. It is easier than it seems to find a prayer partner and to experience God. The people dear to us will thank us for it. And this is from Hildegard Welker, who wrote from the 7th Day Venice Church there and is a nurse on the surgical ward there. SPEAKER C Well, and we could tell you many, many stories. I mean, I've got like a log of hundreds of them. Of people have emailed me about the 40 days and the steps to personal revival. I just want to quickly just go through before we do our final comments. It was back in 2019. SPEAKER B That 2009. SPEAKER C 2009, sorry, not back. We haven't even got there. It was back in 2009. A crisis came in my life in 2005 and I went through this crisis and I left the church, but I came back. You know, when you know that something's true and you can't run away, I was like Jonah, I was running away from something that I knew was true. And so I came back and committed my life to Jesus. And then I went to a revival weekend which was conducted by Dennis Smith, the author of 40 Days, Prayers and Devotions. And he challenged me about praying and asking for the Holy Spirit every day. Pray for the daily baptism of the Holy Spirit, Colin. So I went and did the 40 days and I read the books and I started praying daily for the baptism holy Spirit. Now, you got to realize I became an Adventist in 1991, and in my first twelve years as a seven day Venice Christian, I never led anyone to Jesus that I was aware of. Yes, I sporadically read the Bible and sometimes I prayed, but it wasn't much, it was just a minute prayer here and there and nothing happened. And then when I started praying for the daily Baptist and the Holy Spirit, everything changed. I had a greater desire to read God's word, I had a greater desire to pray, I had a greater desire to witness and started getting involved in witnessing and evangelism. I even went on a Share Him evangelistic program in Borneo, where I went and preached evangelistic series. And there was 38 people, approximately 38 people were baptized and when I came back from that, I started doing revival meetings. And then God has led me to over 25 countries since that time, encouraging other churches and people to pray and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And it's been a growth, seen the Lord work and work. You know what? There are dimes that I fall and keep getting back up. And I've seen this message go right around the world, especially in the 7th Day Adventist Church, this message of praying for revival, praying for the Holy Spirit. And it always leads to the fruits in your life, fruits of the Spirit being seen more in your life. It always leads to reading God's word more the spirit of prophecy, more Bible studies, and a greater joy in the Lord. And so it's been an amazing journey for me, and I've been sort of been part of seeing this 40 Days and Steps to Personal Revival going all around the world. It's now gone crazy over in America where Dwight Nelson read The Steps to Personal Revival and he started promoting it. And now thousands and thousands of copies are starting to go right around the United States. We've taken to countries all out through Asia, india and Borneo and Thailand and just places all around the world. And I really see God is just working upon his people. I believe he's preparing us for the latter reign of the Holy Spirit. SPEAKER B I agree with you. That's powerful to hear what God has done in your life and even in crises. I've had the same experience where at times I've given my life to the Lord and things that I struggled with in the past. Now, I'll just give you a simple example. I love food. I enjoy eating it. Matter of fact, I eat it at least three times a day. And sometimes when I feel a little bit more gutsy, I eat a little bit more. SPEAKER C But that's not healthy snacks here and. SPEAKER B There, but I know that the snacks aren't healthy, so I've been able to sort of get rid of that. But I remember years ago thinking, I think it'd be healthier not only for myself, but also for the environment if I go vegetarian. And my wife had started reading this book called Councils on Diets and Foods, and she had gone back to being vegetarian to my disgust, because she no longer wanted to cook me my meat dishes that I used to like, right? So I thought, okay, well, look, there's an element of conviction there. I'm pretty sure that I've got to get my diet in order and get a little bit fitter and healthier. So I went and became a vegetarian. I decided the one day, so the next evening, so this is 24 hours later, after I became vegetarian, we went out for a meal and I ordered something, and unfortunately, it was very bland. So that was the end of my vegetarian stern that lasted a whole 24 hours. Then I was convicted again a little bit later that this is something I need to do. And that time I lasted a whole week. But again, I went out for a meal and we were at a restaurant, and one of my favorite dishes, a friend of mine right beside me ordered this favorite dish, beef masima. It was actually a hot plate with chicken fajitas. SPEAKER C There you go. So again, you fell again. SPEAKER B And I fell again. So what happened is, instead of focusing on my diet, this time when my mum was diagnosed with cancer and not being well, she was praying for me a lot. I didn't realize, not only was she praying for herself, for healing, but for me as well. And the Lord changed my life. And all of a sudden, the things that I was struggling with became natural for me to do. I gave up the meat. I stopped eating it. And I didn't even have to look back. I didn't even miss it. SPEAKER C God took the desire away from you. SPEAKER B God took the desire away from me. And it wasn't something that I was attempting to do. God actually was answering the prayer of my mother at that time, who was praying a lot and spending time in the Word and praying for herself and for myself. So I can actually attest to the fact that someone else was spending, like, the 40 days of prayer, going through a whole series of things. And their prayers changed my life. SPEAKER C Praise God. Ettienne so we're both sitting here doing radio today, taking people through. You shall receive power when you receive the Holy Spirit. We've Gone Through the 50 Days by Dennis Smith. We've gone through the steps to Personal revival. And really what we're doing this for is we want to encourage people out there. If you're listening on Facebook or watching or you're listening on radio or on demand on demand with all these 70 programs that we've done on the Holy Spirit, is that what we really want? Ettienne is we just want people to go to God and spend time in prayer with him. Spend time on your Word and pray and ask him to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's what we're asking. Ask Him and do the 40 days. Do the 50 days. Do the steps of personal. We've got thousands of testimonies all around the world that will testify of how it's changed their lives and not only their own lives, but the lives of the people they've been praying for. Ettienne that's right. SPEAKER B It reminds me that the Gospel of John, where Jesus talks about those, if you do what I command you, then you are my friends indeed. And then Jesus says about the fact that you are my servants, but if you allow the Holy Spirit to come and dwell within you, because I am now telling you what will take place, you know exactly what I'm doing. The work that I'm doing for you, interceding for you in heaven, then you will actually not be considered only as servants anymore, but you'll be considered as friends. And dear listener, God wants you and us to be his close friends. He wants to live within us. He wants to dwell within our hearts. And he is offering us this incredible relationship. So we're just going to take a short break here, give you our contact details, and please send us your testimonies as well. You'll have all the contact details. You can ring us and tell us about it, or you can send it to us via email and we'll be right back after these short messages. Thank you for joining us on You Shall Receive Power. If you would like more information about today's program or if you have any questions, please contact 3ABN Australia Radio by Phoning 024-973-3456. Or you can send an email to [email protected]. You can also contact us on our 3ABN Australia radio Facebook page. We look forward to hearing from you SPEAKER B So dear listener, welcome back. We look forward to hearing from you. If you can send any requests or petitions through, even if you have prayer requests, please send them through to us via email or get in touch via the phone. And we've just got some closing remarks, Colin, to make as we wrap up this series of programs. SPEAKER C You know, Jesus is our example. Yes, Jesus is our greatest example in all things. We read in Luke, chapter three, verse 21 and 22. We read that when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized. And while he prayed, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him. And Ellen White said following about this event, in response to prayer to His Father, heaven was opened and the Spirit descended like a dove and abode upon him. It is amazing what happened during his ministry. Morning by morning, Ellen White tells us that he communicated with his Father in heaven, receiving from Him daily a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit. And if Jesus needed a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit daily, then how much more do we need it? SPEAKER B That's true. SPEAKER C And so our closing thoughts is this through the Holy Spirit we have a wonderful leader in its all life situations and strength according to the riches of his glory. Thus, our characters can be changed and we can become valuable tools in God's work. We are transformed into the image of God. We become partakers of his nature. Our daily surrender and baptism of the Holy Spirit will lead to a real breakthrough in our lives. The Lord wants us to prepare us for the greatest time in the world's history. He wants us to be personally ready for his coming. And in that in the power of the Holy Spirit, we work together. In completing the work of the Gospel. He wants to lead us victorious through the difficult times. Let God give you personal revival and reformation through daily surrender and daily baptism in the Holy Spirit. And I want to close with a Bible text and a prayer for revival. It's found in two Chronicles, chapter seven, verse 14. If you could read that. SPEAKER B Sure. It says if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. SPEAKER C And so we pray this now. Father in heaven, please give us humility found in Micah 68. Put in our hearts a great desire to pray and seek your face. Make us willing and help us to turn from our wicked ways. Please fulfill the prerequisites in us, and as a result of your promise, let us hear your answer. Forgive us for our sins and heal us from our lukewarmness and apostasy. Please help us to surrender ourselves to Jesus daily and by faith receive the Holy Spirit. And as Ellen White says, a revival need expected only in answers to prayer. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is on the day of pentecost will lead to a revival of true religion and the performance of many wonderful works. SPEAKER B So this is our prayer, dear listener, in Jesus name. Our prayer for you and for ourselves. May God continue to guide you, lead you and bless you until that day when Jesus comes. Amen. SPEAKER C Amen. SPEAKER C You'Ve been listening to a production of three ABN Australia radio.