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Prayer of the Lord’s Messenger
April 1, 1903 (Ms 16, 1903)
This prayer by Ellen G. White is from a morning meeting held at the 1903 General Conference Session in Oakland, California, USA. Major issues at the session were approving adjustments to the General Conference reorganization of 1901, denominational ownership of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, and the future location of the Review and Herald Publishing House.
Both institutions had burned to the ground. First the main building of the sanitarium on February 18, 1902, and then the central publishing building on December 30, 1902.
The old English “Thees” and “Thous” of this prayer have been updated to current English style and the Bible references changed to NKJV.
Heavenly Father, You have said, “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be
opened to you.”
[Matthew 7:7.] Heavenly Father, we need Your Holy Spirit. We do not want to work ourselves, only as we
work in unity with God. We want to be in a position where the Holy Spirit of God shall be upon us with its reviving,
sanctifying power. Will You manifest Yourself to us this very morning! Will You sweep away every mist and every
cloud of darkness!
We come to You, our compassionate Redeemer; and we ask You, for Christ’s sake—for Your own Son’s sake, my Father, that You will manifest Your power to Your people here. We want wisdom, we want righteousness, we want truth, we want the Holy Spirit to be with us.
You have presented before us a great work that must be carried forward in behalf of those that are in the truth and in behalf of those that are in ignorance of our faith; and O Lord, as You have given to every man his work, we beseech of You that the Holy Spirit may impress the human mind in regard to the burden of work that shall rest upon every individual soul, according to Your appointment. We want to be proved; we want to be sanctified through and through; we want to be fitted up for the work; and here, right here in this session of the Conference, we want to see a revelation of the Holy Spirit of God. We want light, Lord—You are the Light. We want truth, Lord—You are the Truth. We want the right way—You are the Way.
Lord, I beseech of You that we may all be wise enough to discern that we must individually open the heart to Jesus Christ, that through the Holy Spirit He may come in to mold and fashion us anew, in accordance with the divine image. O my Father, my Father! melt and subdue our hearts. We desire this morning to make an entire surrender to You; we desire to give up our will, our way, our course of action that has not been in harmony with the way and the will of God; we desire to accept the Lord’s way, the Lord’s will, the Lord’s counsel. Come, O come into the midst of us this very morning, and move upon hearts, young and old. In a special manner move upon the hearts of those who are handling gospel truths, that they may all be lighted up with the bright beams which You permit to shine upon Your Word, in order that Your instruction may come to the human understanding with the power and the Spirit of the living God.
We acknowledge before You that we have not honored Your name as we should. We acknowledge before You that we need to
be broken in heart. We desire just now to be reconverted; we desire just now to realize what Christ is to us, and
what we are and can be to Him as His co-workers—“God’s fellow workers.”
[1 Corinthians 3:9.]
O my Father, let every soul that is confused, every soul that cannot understand and see the way, have the way presented before him so clearly that the mist will be removed, and that the cloud will pass, so that the Sun of righteousness may shine into the chambers of the mind and into the soul temple. Wash us, and we shall be clean, Lord. Let melting mercy, mercy from You, come into every heart; and then, when we realize the melting mercy of a compassionate and loving Saviour, our hearts, once more united, will beat in unison, and all will stand shoulder to shoulder in advancing this great work.
We cannot afford to be indifferent, Lord; we cannot afford to work contrary to one another. We must trust in You; and we ask, this very morning, that You shall let the Holy Spirit descend upon us. We are ready to receive the Comforter; we open the door of the heart, and invite the Saviour in. We love You, dear Saviour; You know that we love You. We see in You matchless charms, and we desire that every soul shall constantly look to You, You who are the Author and the Finisher of our faith.
Come, Lord Jesus, come and take us as we are, and put upon us the robe of Your righteousness. Take away our sins. Our Saviour, You came to the earth to do this. We repent of wrongdoing; we are sorry for every departure from You; and we ask You to pardon our transgressions, that we may show to the world that we have a Saviour who is able to take away our sins and to impute to us His own righteousness.
Lord, we accept You now; we receive You now; we believe in You now; and we ask You to let Your Holy Spirit rest upon us just now. Just now walk through this house, we pray You; and may the angels accompanying You go around to every seat and to every heart; and may every person have a realization of what “I” should do. May every one look not to man, but to Christ—to Him who has died to save us. We are saved by You, Lord; we look to You, Lord. O let Your power come upon us, to tell us that our sins are pardoned. You have promised, “I will give you a new heart.”
[Ezekiel 36:26.] We desire to have our hearts renewed, Lord; we long for this.
Bless our ministering brethren. Bless all those who are in office in our institutions. We do not want You to destroy these institutions; we do not want to see their influence wiped away. We want that You should simply take away everything that is wrong in the heart, the life, the character of each worker, so that You can use every institution of Your own planting to glorify Your name. We need every one of them.
O my Saviour, You who has shown compassion to us all, again we ask You to grant to us a rich portion of Your mercy, Your fulness, Your compassion, Your everlasting love. Come, Lord Jesus, and make us partakers of Your divine nature, that we may overcome the corruption that is in the world through lust. O may the Spirit of Christ, the love of God, comfort every heart this morning! Banish darkness, turn away the deceptive powers of the enemy, and let Your voice and Your Spirit and Your love come into our souls, that we may sit together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus; and Your name shall have all the glory. Amen.