Washington Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

By Tyler Long, Washington Conference evangelism coordinator

God reaches people through other people; That is His designed plan and He uses different kinds of people to bring souls into the kingdom. As you read this, there are people being prepared by the Holy Spirit in the very neighborhood that you live in.

It is not by accident that you live on your street. God wants to use your character, individual personality and influence to reach your neighbors. He wants and needs to work through you to bring these precious souls into His kingdom!

Every person has a distinct personality and traits that God can use in a special and mighty way. He will personally bring you into contact with these people, but you must pray for it to happen! Your contact with them may be the best chance they will ever have of hearing these life-changing truths about the mission of Christ to change their life for eternity!

Because God is a God of justice and offers every individual personal freedom, He is limited in what He can do through and for us based on our choices and decisions. This is why we must be in constant communion with Him to allow Him to fully manifest and reveal His power.

Prayer allows God to fully do what He wants to do because it permits Him to work through us to influence the lives of others. One of my favorite quotes on prayer can be found in The Great Controversy on page 525, “It is a part of God's plan to grant us, in answer to the prayer of faith, that which He would not bestow did we not thus ask.”

The apostle Paul believed in prayer. While in a Roman prison, Paul had an overwhelming desire to pray for the believer in Asia-minor. Paul had passed through the city of Colosse and ministered to those living there. Notice what Paul was praying for, “We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.” Colossians 1:3

“For this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” Colossians 1:9

“That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruited in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” Colossians 1:10

I recommend we follow the counsel of Paul and pray that our neighbors/communities:

• Be filled with the knowledge of God’s will.
• That the church would have wisdom and spiritual understanding.
• That you might walk worthy of the Lord.
• Being fruited in every good work.
• Increasing in the knowledge of God

Praying for people is powerful because in the Great Controversy, there are certain ground rules that both sides are following. When you pray, you invite God to work in a way that He would not have been able to work if you had not prayed.