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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Genise Browne

Lance Hofer-Draper

Journey with God & God’s Faithfulness

See if I can walk over here without any feedback.

So title of my testimony is God's Faithfulness, and I'll just start with a word of prayer.

Dear Father, God, Lord, we come to hear your word, we come to see you glorified and you lifted up and you exalted, not to hear man's theories, ideas, opinions, or man glorified in any way.

You know this is our prayer, this is our desire.

May you speak through me, Lord, in spite of myself.

And once again, Lord, we pray, may your name be exalted.

All right, so just want to mention real quickly in the biography that I wrote, I didn't mention that I went to Weimar.

Okay, someone sent me a message this morning.

I was like, oh, well, I did, and it was good, so.

So we'll just start with opening remarks.

The Bible says in Revelation 12 verse 17, the dragon was wroth with the woman, which is the church, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.

In Revelation 19 11 it says that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

So the Bible says in the last days there will be a church that has the spirit of prophecy.

A lot of this message today is going to have quotes from an author named Ellen White, who the Seventh-day Adventist Church holds to be a prophet from God.

And if you are unfamiliar with her writings, This is some of the foundation of why I'm including her writings in this talk today.

Second Chronicles 20, 20, Jehoshaphat says, Believe the Lord God, so shall you be established, and believe His prophets, so shall you prosper." So it's important to heed not only what we have here in the Word of God, but also as God has revealed His Word through His prophets.

And a little disclaimer before I speak, not that I am anything, but the Bible says what not excuse me, not the Bible, Christ's object lesson says whenever man accomplishes anything, whether in spiritual or in temporal lines, he should bear in mind that he does it through cooperation with his maker.

So may God receive all the glory for what is said.

Here's an outline of what I'm going to be talking about, background, a little bit of where I come from, principles that I've applied through medical school, how God has spoken to me through his word in medical school, and then when I actually saw God work in medical school, and then some lessons learned.

So we're gonna go kind of quickly, we don't have a lot of time.

Background, growing up, I grew up in Colorado.

Unfortunately, I didn't really use the talents God had given me growing up.

And it led me to a really dark place in life and I didn't think there was any hope.

And I said, God, if you can heal my mind, if you can change my mind, I won't go back and do the things I was doing.

And slowly and surely, God started changing my life, putting people in my path, led me to Southern Adventist University, then after that to Weimar to study pre-med, opened the door for me to study at Weimar.

But nevertheless, if you're feeling like there's not hope for you the Bible says God is able to save to the uttermost those that come to him because he's ever able to make intercession for them.

So if God can do it for me, he can do it for you.

And don't be afraid to step out in faith.

Ellen White says, many whom God has qualified to do excellent work accomplish very little because they attempt little.

Thousands pass through life as if they had no definite object for which to live, no standard to reach.

So with God you can do all things if it's his will.

I thought when I thought of becoming a physician it would only be by God's grace that I could ever reach that and it has been only by God's grace.

Throughout his life on earth, Jesus was an earnest and constant worker.

He expected much, therefore he attempted much.

And then as I went to study medicine at pre-med, excuse me, at Weimar, you know, I told myself, I'm going to get this degree for God and I don't have time to spend with him in the morning because I'm so busy studying.

1 night I was on my knees and I was just praying and I said, God I don't know if I can do this anymore and the thought came to me, you know why don't you just get your sleep tonight, tomorrow instead of walking and studying just sit and study, you know because I was trying to exercise and study at the same time.

And I thought, you know, that's a really novel thought, but it worked.

If just spending time with God for 2 minutes could do so much for me that 1 day, because I had the most productive day as a result of that, what would spending time with God like that do every day?

So I started spending time with God every day.

So I really learned what Jesus said in John 15, 5.

He that abides in me and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit.

For without me you can do nothing." And just want to read this here, Ellen White says, and I'll just read the underlined portion for time's sake, these workers can never attain the highest success until they learn the secret of strength.

They must give themselves time to think, to pray, to wait upon God for a renewal of physical, mental, and spiritual power.

They need the uplifting influence of his spirit.

Receiving this, they will be quickened by fresh life.

The weary frame and tired brain will be refreshed.

So if you're looking for the secret of strength and to reach the highest success in your work, I would suggest that you need time to think, to pray, and to wait upon God for that renewal of physical, mental, and spiritual power.

So going into medical school, I really saw that in my undergraduate studies that as I did that, God blessed and I wanted to carry the same habit forward.

So this is where we're going to go into principles applied.

First principle is the devotional time in the morning.

There was a speaker who came to Weimar, Paul Ratsara, and he talked about prayer while I was there.

And he brought up this verse, Isaiah 54, The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.

Paul Razzara said Jesus didn't have an alarm clock and based on this quote he inspired me to ask God to wake me up every day.

And this quote says, We must look to Christ, we must resist as he resisted, we must pray as he prayed, we must agonize as he agonized, if we would conquer as he conquered.

So really, through this quote, I was inspired that I wanted to pray like Christ.

And so I asked God, God, please wake me up to spend time with you.

And through medical school, he's done that.

Every day he's been faithful to wake me up, to spend time with him, to get to where I need to be on time.

I've never overslept a class, never overslept a duty that I had to fulfill.

This is so, you know, spending time with God, 1 thing I realized was that as I was spending time with God in prayer in medical school, I thought, you know, God will understand.

My time with God surely should shorten and He'll understand.

As I wait upon God for that renewal of mental, spiritual, and physical strength, it will be shorter because I have more more duties.

But I really found that it was the opposite, that I needed more time with God.

And I wondered, you know, sometimes like, Lord, are you leading?

But you know, quotes like this really inspired me.

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Journey with God & God’s Faithfulness

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