ASI 2016: Called. Chosen. Committed.

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Personal Spiritual Enrichment

Pavel Goia

Part 1: The Real Prayer that Gets Results

Father in heaven, thank you so much for the privilege of opening your world.

Thank you for the privilege of prayer, to come before the God of the universe and have a relationship with you.

Father, we pray now that you come here, and we pray that you open the world and you touch the hearts, that we may understand your desire, your plan for our life and for this place.

I don't know how much I will manage to go through the presentation.

I don't even intend to finish the presentation.

Tomorrow is going to be very, very extremely crucial.

Something that our people talk about, but they really, I'm not sure if they know they struggle, and I will mention it in a few seconds.

Before we start, a couple of things, housekeeping items.

Number 1, I have a tendency to speak fast, really go fast.

I get excited and I go so fast that you need a gift of tongues to understand me.

So if I do that, please do me a big favor, wave, that would remind me to slow down because there is no benefit if I go so fast that you get nothing.

If you have a question, please interrupt me, because what I say is not as important as to answer your questions.

Those are more relevant for you than the seminar.

So interrupt me, ask the questions, I will do my best to answer them.

Ask questions related to prayer, ministry, evangelism, okay?

I'm going to challenge you with no intention to offend anybody.

So I don't talk about anybody specifically, but I want you to think deep and be honest.

Give me an example, couple of answers, quick.

I'm going to ask you a few questions with no intention to change your mind about our principles.

Many times I've been in risk of losing my freedom for our principles.

But let me ask you, is it good to keep Sabbath?

I put so much, I put 50 bushes of green beans in my garden.

It depends what to save you from, you know.

In fact, at the end of the seminar, just take whatever the Holy Spirit would inspire you to take.

Is it possible that we have become so used with what we do?

We keep Sabbath, we go to church, we teach Sabbath, we sing in the choir, we go to church, we eat healthy, we know the 2, 300 days a night, I could go on and on and on.

To be so used with what we do, that while we know that we should grow, we still feel we are okay better than the world, and we are not there.

And we never reach that point that God could use us the way he used the disciples up in the upper room after.

Can it be possible that we never get there?

Wes Peppers

Absolute Surrender

Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity to be here together.

Thank you for those, Lord, who have come to ASI to be revived and renewed.

We wanna ask, Lord, that your Spirit would guide and direct our steps, draw us close to you, we pray.

Open our eyes to the truth, open our eyes to our need, open our eyes to Jesus.

May the Holy Spirit today convict us and change us, challenge us, revive us, strengthen us, and Lord, call us to surrender.

So we ask, Lord Jesus, that your presence would be here stirring our hearts, and we come in Jesus' name, that all God's people say amen.

A person would have to be a fool not to know and understand that we are living in the final events of Earth's history.

But believe it or not, there are certainly fools upon this Earth, are there not?

And the Bible tells us in 2 Peter 1, verse 19, and so we have a prophetic word, what friends?

Confirmed, it says, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts." So Scripture says that prophecy was given to us as a confirmation.

As a confirmation that God is guiding His church, God is guiding His people, God is guiding us individually.

God doesn't leave us in the dark, He doesn't leave us blind.

So the Bible says that we have the prophetic word confirmed.

It confirms to us that the Scripture is true, that we're on the right track.

Now, I want to say this today, that the message which the Seventh-day Adventist church has proclaimed for the last 150 years are no longer prophecies for the future, but they are fulfillments in the present.

If you have watched, friends, in the last 10 years, we see that our message is being fulfilled just like we were told it was going to be.

You know, 20, 30 years ago, we had little flashes here and there of prophecy being fulfilled.

And prophecy was definitely fulfilled at the beginning of our movement.

But in the last 10 years, friends, we have seen the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation and specific prophecies in the book Great Controversy being fulfilled right before our very eyes.

We're going to look at some of those things.

So we are no longer waiting for the final prophecies to happen.

We are now watching them unfold in this generation.

And yet we find that so much of the church is asleep.

You may think I'm not asleep now, but you might be asleep by the end of this talk.

So I want to go through some very recent activity in the news, and that's going to lead us into our talk on surrender.

September 26, 2015, Time magazine puts out this issue called the New Roman Empire.

September 2015, Christianity Today wrote an article, Within a few centuries, the Pope has gone from Antichrist to Brother in Christ for a lot of Protestants.

Now friends, I have a whole slew of things that I won't share today, but I'm just picking some of the biggest ones.

You remember Last year, September, Pope Francis marched himself down the aisle of the United States Congress and stood and addressed Congress for the first time in our nation's history.

And he made this statement, I call for a courageous and responsible effort to redirect our steps.

I am convinced that we can make a difference and I have no doubt that the United States and this Congress have an important role to play.

Notice what he says, now is the time for courageous actions and what?

Compass Magazine wrote following that visit, it said, today, September 24, 2015, will go down in the annals of history as the day which the tide shifted.

Never in the history of the Republic has any other religious leader addressed a joint session of the US Congress.

In his approximately 50 minute speech Pope Francis moved many members of Congress to tears as he invoked the need to listen to the voice of faith while addressing many controversial issues.

So Compass Magazine made the point that prophetically in our nation, the tide did what, friends?

Reviewed Herald, 1886, this is the religion which Protestants are beginning to look upon with so much favor and which will eventually be united with Protestantism.

This union will not, however, be affected by a change in Catholicism, for Rome never changes.

The adoption of liberal ideas on its part will bring it where it can clasp the hand of Catholicism.

Have we began to see Protestantism look with favor, yes or no?

It says, Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, and she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, and when under the influence of this threefold, you and our country will repudiate every principle of its constitution as a Protestant and Republican government.

And shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions.

Then we shall know the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.

Do you suppose today that we're at that point?

Are we on the edge of the marvelous working of Satan?

I just saw an article yesterday, I think it was, that the Temple of Satan is launching after-school programs in multiple cities.

In fact, they already have 9 in major U.S.

Cities like Los Angeles and Atlanta and D.C.

They're launching after-school programs to actually counter the good news programs that Christianity has for kids who need an after-school program.

If you go to the internet, just Google that.

Just Google satanic after-school programs, and they pop up all over the news.

He's about ready to reveal himself in the flesh.

Now in 1948, Billy Graham said, the 3 greatest menaces faced by Orthodox Christianity are Communism, Roman Catholicism, and Muhammadism, or Islam.

That's what Billy Graham said in 1948, but guess what he says now?

He says, I found that my beliefs are essentially the same as those of Orthodox Roman Catholic.

Paul Crouch, who found Trinity Broadcasting, he said, I am eradicating the word Protestant from my vocabulary.

It's time for Catholics and non-Catholics to come together as 1.

Rick Warren said, Protestants as a people have a long history of heresy.

The time for reconciliation is now in order to ensure a full and dogmatic transition into the folds of the church.

July 5th, last month, 2016, 300 denominations met in Munich, Germany for an ecumenical gathering, trying to tear down those barriers.

German YMCA leader Gerhard Pross said, the division among Christians in Europe is a wound.

If you remember Tony Palmer, remember that?

He made comments like the Protestant Reformation is over.

The Protestantism is spiritual racism, he said.

I don't know if you remember that statement.

Part 2: Finding the Will of God Through Prayer

Father again, we come in your presence and thank you so much for the privilege of being able to pray and open the word and be filled with your presence today.

Father we pray that you will be the 1 to speak and to touch and to transform.

And we pray that we focus so much on you to the point that we allow you to work in us and through us for your glory.

So I give you about 10 minutes for questions and answers.

From yesterday, we talked a lot about prayer and about how to have a close relationship with Christ that would not be 1 day alone, but would be an ongoing lifestyle, a process.

I want to remind you prayer is not an event in a crisis.

Yesterday you told us that we shouldn't be praying for the same thing over and over and over.

But Jesus taught us that as the widow in front of the king went and didn't let go until the king solved his problem.

Let me repeat the question for everybody.

I said that we should not repeat again and again and again and again and again the same words, but she says in the same time, Jesus gave the example of the widow that because of her persistence got justice.

I want you to realize that when Jesus says, pray without ceasing, Jesus doesn't say, repeat the same request without ceasing, but he's referring to having a relationship, a connection with God that should be 24-7.

Based on John 15, Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches.

Based on that, we should be connected with God all the time.

But that doesn't mean, Lord, I want my son in Loma Linda.

And then you fast, and you do whatever to convince God to answer your prayer.

And you may want to say, like Jesus in the garden, Lord, I would like my son to be in Loma Linda, wonderful school.

You may want to accept God's plan that is better than your plan and that if you knew the end from the beginning you would choose the same path.

So many times in prayer We go to God and try to convince him to do our will, instead of going to God and ask him to make us available to his will.

Pray for what to pray before you pray for what to pray.

Pray for what to pray before you pray for what you pray Basically accord your prayer with God's will So when you say may your will be done mean it Don't use it as a formula, but mean it.

And instead of spending time to seek an answer that is a specific answer, and if God doesn't seem to answer what is an answer.

If you don't get what you want, you get discouraged and lose faith.

You rather seek God's presence to the point that you know that you are with God, and whatever he answers, you may not understand, but you have peace.

You'll never regret if you go that route.

Therefore going now to your question when Jesus gives an example talking about the widow Jesus refers to a judge that was how?

Corrupted Unjust thank you so much I appreciate that.

Corrupt, evil, no shame for people, no fear of God.

Well, when we say judge, we think it's talking about God.

And Jesus says even in that situation, because she was persistent, she got an answer.

Moreover Your father knows, if you remember the context, your father knows your needs.

He takes care of the flowers, he takes care of the animals, he will take care of you.

So, he says, I tell you that he will do justice and he will do it how?

And then Jesus says, do not repeat the same words as pagans do not bubble the word there the same words as pagans do Therefore Jesus doesn't say do like the widow But it's a lesson by contrast in that bad situation and she won in God's situation No need God is not corrupted.

He wants to answer before you want to pray.

Therefore you don't need to repeat the same words.

So pray without ceasing doesn't refer to pester God to death until you get what you want.

It means have a connection with God without ceasing.

On the same question in the Bible, it keeps on talking about prevailing prayer, persistent prayer.

The problem we have is that we just want to talk to God about needs.

And the more you talk about needs, and the more you focus on needs, and sins, and problems, the more disparate you get.

I don't see a place in the Bible where it says that we should focus on problems, but in fact we should focus on Christ.

Therefore, in prayer, don't spend time being prevailing, talking about needs, but after you present your needs and give them to God, give them to God.

Leave them there and then be prevailing in a way that you seek his will.

From Genesis to Revelation, all Bible people, all big characters, they have known God.

You need to have a relationship with God.

To the point that you allow God to transform you, that you surrender so God could use you, and you always are open to his leading.

I prayed and I said, Lord, I don't want to be so focused with my board that I am blind to people around me.

Therefore, I want you to please impress me and be in my mind and open my eyes, open my ears, that I could serve, I could be a blessing, I want to be used.

So as I was praying that way, my wife calls and my wife says, the puppy has diarrhea.

Excuse my expression but that's what happened.

We have a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, I mean just gorgeous King Charles Spaniel.

It's a little dog, very smart, he loves me a lot.

When I go to sleep, he puts a paw on my head.

As soon as I keep quiet for 10 seconds, he moves it back on my head.

My wife calls me and says, the puppy has diarrhea.

Dan Gabbert

Thriving Mentally: Assimilating the Mind of Christ

Heavenly Father, we're yours, we're grateful for the moments that you've given us together to consider what I believe to be 1 of the most vital, vital topics that any believer in Christ can actually address and personally assimilate to their own personal experience, the mind of Christ.

We're trusting you to lead in these moments together.

It kind of speaks for itself, thriving mentally, assimilating the mind of Christ.

I'm a firm believer that this is where it's at.

I can be the most wonderful evangelist, I can go evangelistic series, I can know all the doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and still be hurting.

I shared this simply because I want to be like Jesus and I love this statement.

In the heart of Christ where reigned perfect harmony with God, there was perfect peace.

He was never elated by applause, nor dejected by censor or disappointment.

Amid the greatest opposition and the most cruel treatment, he was still of good courage.

Patsy and I work at the Black Hills Health and Education Center.

Before that, we were in pastoral ministry.

And when we first started working as mental and spiritual health coaches there, the wellness guests, the people who were coming for a program, a wellness program, didn't really have any struggles.

They were kind of, you know, they just wanted to kind of get buff and improve their physical health and have a healthy vacation.

Since that time, we have seen a steady increase in mental and spiritual struggles to where now we are working with individuals who are actually physically ill because of what's going on here.

So in this presentation, it is all centered around Philippians 2.5.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

What does it mean to let Christ's mind be in you?

You can decide whether you want to accept this or not.

But to me it simply means a person is earnestly pursuing an intelligent, faith-filled love relationship with Christ Jesus, which includes the diligent practice of thinking Christ's thoughts concerning every situation that he or she faces.

The professed follower of Christ must not be led by the dictates of his own will.

His mind must be trained to think Christ's thoughts and enlightened to comprehend the will and the way of God, such a believer will be a follower of Christ's methods of work." Very interesting.

I love this from my character and personality.

I want this to be my experience continually.

He, Christ, died for me that I might be blessed and that his joy might remain in me.

Therefore, I keep my mind in that channel.

I train all that there is of me that I may of me that I may fasten it upon Jesus Christ." All of it.

Here's what we're going to be considering today.

Number 1, 2 vital reasons for assimilating the mind of Christ.

To acquire and maintain a thriving mental and spiritual experience, mental health.

Number 2, 2 key ingredients to this experience.

And then number 3, 3 spiritual components of Christ's experience that Jesus wants us to assimilate in order to actually thrive mentally and spiritually.

Reason number 1 for assimilating the mind of Christ.

Our thinking plays a major role in determining our destiny.

Romans 12 to you've probably got most of it memorized.

Verse 1 says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the what, everyone?

The renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Proverbs 23 7, as he thinks in his heart so is he.

You may not be what you think, but what you think you are.

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

The thoughts and feelings cherished give direction to the conduct and thus determine the character.

Never forget that thoughts work out actions, repeated actions form habits and habits form character.

And from education, the harvest of life is character.

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Series

Personal Spiritual Enrichment

Part 2: Finding the Will of God Through Prayer

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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Recorded

Attachments

Parts

Part 1: The Real Prayer that Gets Results

48m

Absolute Surrender

1h 21m

Part 2: Finding the Will of God Through Prayer

1h 5m

Thriving Mentally: Assimilating the Mind of Christ

1h 33m

Sound Doctrine