Perfecting Me

Character and Secret Prayer

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Wintley Phipps (Host), Adly Campos, Dr E.T. Stoddart, Ruthie Jacobson

Home

Series Code: PFM

Program Code: PFM000009A


00:27 Hi, I'm Wintley Phipps.
00:29 And welcome to our program,
00:31 Perfecting Me, Becoming More Like Jesus.
00:35 I'm so glad you joined us.
00:37 My guest today on our program are Ruthie Jacobsen,
00:41 Head of Prayer Ministry of the North American division
00:44 of Seventh-day Adventist.
00:46 Pastor Georges Fleurimond,
00:48 Pastor of the West Park Seventh-day Adventist Church.
00:51 And Mrs. Adly Campos, Speaker and President
00:54 of Family Well-Being International.
00:56 You'll hear from them a little later.
01:00 I believe that there is nothing more important
01:03 or exciting you can do with your life
01:06 than becoming every day more like Jesus.
01:11 Sanctification should be full of joy.
01:15 In the Book of Genesis 6:5, the Word of God says,
01:19 "And God saw that the wickedness of man
01:22 was great in the earth,
01:23 and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
01:26 was only evil continually."
01:28 Can you imagine an age
01:30 in which people did whatever the evil imaginations
01:33 can conceive?
01:35 Someone says, "We're living in certain time right now."
01:38 The Prophet Enoch was living in a time
01:41 when Christ like character was not easy to find.
01:45 The people of Enoch's, they were doing evil
01:48 on a scale which could not be imagined.
01:51 And it was into this darkness that God shown a light.
01:56 Enoch was an example of how you live out
01:59 and preserve Christ like character
02:03 in an immoral age and in a decadent age.
02:06 He was an example of how you live out
02:09 Christ like character surrounded by sin,
02:13 yet without being affected, and influenced,
02:16 and seduced by it.
02:18 Enoch was an example
02:20 of how you walk among ungodly people
02:23 and remain pure in Christ like character.
02:27 In spite of the corruption of that age,
02:29 Enoch perfected a Christian character.
02:35 He perfected a Christ like character.
02:39 Today, we're going to examine
02:40 how you live in a profane and vulgar world
02:44 and still grow more every day
02:47 to resemble, reflect, and reveal
02:50 the character of God.
02:53 Stay with us.
02:59 For 300 years,
03:02 Enoch lived in daily, hourly,
03:07 and constant secret communion with God.
03:12 And this life of hourly secret prayer
03:16 shaped his character, molded his character.
03:21 Enoch understood
03:22 what most Christians never will,
03:26 that through hourly prayer, we behold Him.
03:32 And by beholding,
03:34 we are changed into His righteous character.
03:39 Enoch understood that after conversion
03:44 comes character growth and character development.
03:48 He understood that after surrendering to God,
03:53 the work of growing in character
03:56 to be like the character of God has only just begun.
04:02 And nothing strengthens the character
04:05 like a life of secret hourly prayer
04:10 and communion with God.
04:13 My journey to understanding the power of secret prayer
04:17 began with a great man, a great evangelist.
04:22 I learned from him that secret prayer.
04:26 I learned the secret of hourly prayer.
04:30 The importance of hourly secret prayer.
04:36 It has to be continual, it has to be regular,
04:39 it has to be fervent, it has to be powerful.
04:44 I learned the power of hourly secret prayer
04:48 and I recommend it to you.
04:51 If we're going to walk like Enoch walked,
04:53 if we're going to live like Enoch lived,
04:57 we're going to have to learn
04:59 the power of secret hourly prayer.
05:04 Well, secret prayers are silent expressions
05:09 of adulation, exultation, and praise.
05:15 And they are just that really secret.
05:19 Yes, secret prayer does not rely on vocabulary,
05:24 it does not rely on eloquence.
05:28 It was D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who reminded us
05:31 that secret prayer demands no special dress,
05:36 no special place, no special scholarship.
05:41 Secret prayer seeks no notice, no applause.
05:46 God's heart is not moved by our eloquence
05:50 or even our lengthy prayers,
05:54 but rather His heart is moved by our humility
05:58 and our sincerity.
06:01 The Apostle Paul understood
06:02 the power of hourly secret prayer.
06:07 That's why he exhorted us
06:10 to pray without ceasing hourly secret prayer
06:17 and dependence upon God
06:20 is the only cure I know for secret sin.
06:25 Secret prayer is the only cure I know
06:31 for secret sin.
06:34 Hourly secret prayer
06:37 is the greatest power we have in this world.
06:43 Because in secret prayer,
06:44 the soul is free from surrounding influence,
06:50 it is free from excitement.
06:53 In secret prayer,
06:55 you're free from the need to impress other people.
06:59 You're free to express to God your frailty.
07:03 You don't have to shout in secret prayer
07:06 because God can hear you.
07:10 But you can if you want to shout in secret.
07:16 Either way, your secret prayer should reveal
07:19 a calm, quiet trust, and faith in God.
07:25 Every secret prayer you pray says to the devil,
07:29 "In the name of Jesus,
07:31 stay away from my house, my family."
07:35 The devil hates secret prayer.
07:39 I want you to see this video sent to us by our friends
07:43 at the 700 Club.
07:50 Sandy Winger was six weeks into her first pregnancy
07:53 when she says, she heard God tell her,
07:55 her baby was a girl and to name her Zoey,
07:58 which means life.
08:00 And at that moment I thought she is just going to have
08:03 that God kind of life, you know, joyful
08:06 and I had no idea at that time what would unfold, you know,
08:11 the following months.
08:13 Sandy's husband, Shane remembers
08:15 at their 20 week ultrasound, the doctor said
08:17 there was a problem.
08:19 Zoey's skull had not closed
08:21 and 40% of her brain was outside the skull.
08:25 They call it posterior encephalocele
08:27 and he could see her skull, and where it was open,
08:29 and where her brain began to grow outside of her head,
08:34 and 80% of it was outside.
08:36 Our heart sank.
08:38 And so I remember...
08:42 the tears just started to trickle, you know,
08:45 down my face.
08:47 And the same day, you're so excited
08:50 and then you just get hit,
08:53 and I remember my husband saying them all,
08:57 "What are the chances of her surviving?
08:59 What are the chances that
09:01 she is going to make it through this?"
09:02 And he said, "In my 30 year profession,
09:04 I've never seen a case like this make it to birth."
09:09 And I think I asked again like okay,
09:11 so there is a percentage, give me a percentage
09:13 and he is like, "None."
09:14 The doctor recommended they abort Zoey.
09:18 Sandy and Shane decided otherwise.
09:21 We're not going to do it, we serve too big of a God.
09:24 Life whether it's in the womb
09:27 for nine months or eight months, it's life.
09:31 And it's life that it's not ours to take away.
09:35 And so we began to talk
09:36 and we began just to share scriptures.
09:38 We really believed that Zoey means life.
09:42 And we believe the enemy come to try to steal
09:44 and try to take her potential, to take her life,
09:47 and we're going to believe what God's word says that,
09:49 "The children are a blessing of the Lord."
09:50 We've to have faith that God loves her
09:53 even more than me and my wife combined,
09:55 that He loves her more than we do.
09:57 And so we put our faith and confidence in Him,
10:00 despite of what we felt,
10:02 despite of what the doctor's opinion was
10:04 or what his thoughts were.
10:06 And so that to us
10:07 was the most critical time I believe
10:09 because that was the time we came together
10:11 and just made a decision.
10:13 For months, they held on to hope
10:15 and prayed for a miracle.
10:17 Faith is the one thing that pleases God,
10:20 and so our part is just simply to believe.
10:22 Our part isn't performing the miracle.
10:25 There is nothing that we could do,
10:27 there is nothing that the doctors could do.
10:29 I remember what God spoke to me, six weeks along,
10:34 He knew her name would be a Zoey for a reason.
10:37 He knew that she would have life.
10:39 He knew the outcome
10:41 before we even knew the diagnosis or the problem,
10:45 He knew everything that was going to happen.
10:47 And so we clung on to the fact that we knew
10:53 what God had spoke that, He said,
10:55 she would have the God kind of life
10:57 and the God kind of life is joy, and peace, and life.
11:02 And so I hung on to that word very tightly.
11:07 Despite all odds, Zoey made it to term.
11:10 During delivery,
11:11 once more their faith was put to the test.
11:14 The first thing that I saw of Zoey was,
11:16 I saw it was her brain, it was...
11:19 I mean there was no skull on the back of her head...
11:21 And so for me, that was really hard.
11:28 I didn't know if she would make it.
11:33 I just remember...
11:40 Looking in that little incubator
11:43 and she lifted her little head
11:46 and I just knew you're going to be fine.
11:51 And I didn't question in that moment
11:56 whether she would continue to live, what would happen.
12:01 Just lifting up her little head,
12:03 and she was so perfect to me, and so tiny,
12:08 and they had everything bandaged, and covered
12:13 but I just knew God has huge plans for you.
12:19 And I didn't know what it would be,
12:21 everything that would happen in her life
12:24 but I knew she was the most beautiful baby
12:29 I had ever laid my eyes on,
12:31 and I couldn't wait to just pick her up
12:34 and to hold her.
12:37 Two days later,
12:38 Zoey had surgery to remove brain matter
12:40 and close the hole in her skull.
12:43 And just five days later,
12:45 she was released from the hospital.
12:47 Shane and Sandy say,
12:49 "God continued to answer prayers
12:50 and provide healing in life
12:52 beyond what anyone thought possible."
12:55 Zoey absolutely is a blessing.
12:57 She is one of the biggest joys of my life.
13:00 She is nine years old today, she is full of life,
13:03 she is full of energy.
13:06 I thank God that we chose to believe
13:09 and the people that we had surrounding us
13:11 were people of faith.
13:13 What a miracle she is
13:15 and a testament of God's faithfulness
13:18 and His goodness.
13:19 What He says is true and His word is true,
13:22 and He is not going to set you up for failure.
13:26 Everyday I'm healed and that's all my story.
13:30 He is a good God,
13:31 He wants to show His self big,
13:35 He wants to do huge things.
13:38 He is just looking for people who are willing to say,
13:41 "I trust you."
13:46 Joining us again are my guests Ruthie Jacobsen, Adly Campos,
13:50 and Pastor Georges Fleurimond.
13:53 I want to ask you all
13:55 just to use your imagination a little bit.
13:58 And imagine what you think it must have been like
14:03 the prayer life that Enoch carried on.
14:08 What do you think was a part of that prayer life?
14:13 Sister Ruthie, can you dream a little bit and say,
14:16 well, it was probably like this?
14:21 Well, I think that it was a happy relationship.
14:25 I'm sure there was connection,
14:27 I'm sure there was, you know, just communion.
14:31 But I heard a pastor say one time
14:35 because God and Enoch were such good friends.
14:40 That finally God said to Enoch,
14:43 "I don't want to leave you here.
14:44 I want you to come and be in heaven with me."
14:48 And that's the result of that happy friendship
14:52 because there was an obedient heart,
14:54 he was listening, you know,
14:57 he just wanted to be with the Lord.
15:00 He wanted to hear His voice
15:01 and he wanted to walk in that obedience
15:03 and it must have been a joy, constant joy.
15:07 And there's probably a direct connection
15:11 between his constant hourly communion with God
15:16 and the fact that God took him.
15:20 They are connected.
15:23 There was something about
15:25 what that experience of communing with God did
15:29 for his character.
15:31 Because remember, when God looks down at us,
15:34 He is not just looking to see how often we pray.
15:39 He is looking to see
15:41 what that prayer life is doing for our character.
15:45 And... So go ahead.
15:49 I want to share one more thing. Yes.
15:51 One of the perks of a friendship is that
15:54 you trust one another.
15:56 I know, I believe that Enoch came to trust God,
16:00 but God came to trust Enoch too.
16:02 Yes, absolutely.
16:03 He showed it first somebody like to trust.
16:06 Absolutely. I love it.
16:08 Sister Campos,
16:09 what do you think about when you dream of
16:12 what Enoch's prayer life must have been like?
16:14 What comes to your mind?
16:17 I see him out in nature.
16:21 Yes.
16:22 In order to have that peacefulness
16:25 that he wanted to have,
16:27 to be able to be with his Lord and Master, his Maker.
16:32 He wanted so much to be with Him
16:34 that he separated himself
16:37 from everyone and everything else,
16:40 in order to be with his Lord, with his God.
16:44 He had such hunger of being with Him
16:50 that he spent every moment with Him.
16:54 He was like breathing to Him. Yes.
16:57 The moments that he spent with his Father, with God,
17:01 he was like breathing...
17:02 We cannot survive without breathing.
17:04 For him, for Enoch, he could not live
17:09 without that constant communion with the Father
17:12 and therefore he had to separate himself,
17:15 come apart, come aside
17:17 in order to have that communion with his Father.
17:21 You know, there is a scripture that says us,
17:22 "The hart panteth after the water brook."
17:26 A thirsty deer, you know,
17:29 that's how my soul pants after the Lord.
17:33 And again, it's not just panting now and then,
17:37 or it's not just panting on Sabbath.
17:40 It's panting that way for Him from the moment you get up,
17:46 everyday, I tell people 24/7 if it's possible
17:52 and so, Pastor Fleurimond, when you think of
17:56 or dream about what went into Enoch's prayer life
18:00 that helped him to perfect a Christian character.
18:04 What comes to your mind?
18:07 In my mind, I see a transparent Enoch,
18:11 I see Enoch
18:13 that is in a culture that is,
18:18 may not be pro-prayer or pro-God.
18:21 Yeah, yeah.
18:23 But his prayer life is of such that,
18:27 that the contact they are in is real,
18:29 it is not wrote, it is not a functuary,
18:33 it is not something that is ritual,
18:37 it is something that is earnest.
18:39 And I believe that God looks at an honest constant prayer
18:45 and He shines on that.
18:48 And then the text,
18:49 the text talks about how they walked together.
18:52 And so in my imagination, I can see, you know,
18:54 two friends who are together,
18:57 and they are able to have real conversation.
19:00 They're having a good time,
19:01 and to share with one another the contents of their hearts,
19:05 and to pour into each other, you know, guidance,
19:09 and blessings, and things of that sort.
19:12 Yeah.
19:13 Can you think of a better way to live?
19:14 I can't think of a better way to live.
19:16 I can't think of a more exciting,
19:19 fulfilling way to live
19:21 than in constant communion with God.
19:25 Amen.
19:27 I wanted to ask both of you, all of you
19:29 about your thoughts and your experience.
19:34 Can you remember a time when you were walking
19:38 with the Lord so closely that when you prayed,
19:42 maybe you prayed out loud
19:44 or maybe you prayed a secret prayer,
19:48 that you are absolutely sure God heard your prayer
19:53 and answered that prayer.
19:55 It wasn't as though, when you prayed,
19:59 the Lord had to ask the angel, "Who was that again?"
20:03 You know, the Lord knew who you were
20:06 because you were so close
20:08 that you've kept in such close contact with Him.
20:11 Can you remember an experience where you prayed out loud
20:14 and because of your walk with God,
20:16 you know God answered that prayer?
20:18 Sister Campos?
20:21 I can think of the time
20:22 when my oldest son was about two years old.
20:27 And we had gone to swimming pool
20:30 to spend the day swimming with other members of the family.
20:34 Yeah.
20:36 We were all dressed, ready to depart,
20:38 when all of a sudden I noticed that he was not around.
20:42 And I started looking for him, and calling him,
20:46 and he was nowhere to be found.
20:49 Immediately, I prayed because he liked water so much
20:54 that I thought for sure
20:56 he went back to the swimming pool.
20:59 There were five swimming pools.
21:01 So I went looking for him at the lowest level one,
21:05 he wasn't there.
21:06 Nor the second, not the third, and not the fourth,
21:09 again, I said Lord, please,
21:12 just save him from wherever he is.
21:15 I know you'll answer my prayer, Lord.
21:18 Thank you. Yes.
21:19 I went to the deepest pool
21:22 and what I saw I could not believe,
21:25 he was floating,
21:26 he only had a little stick on his hand
21:29 about this big, very slim.
21:32 But he was floating.
21:34 How was he floating, I know to this day
21:39 that the Lord answered my prayer
21:42 and He saved him from drowning.
21:44 Two years old, he didn't know how to swim,
21:46 he didn't know any better.
21:48 But the Lord answered my prayer instantly
21:52 at that very moment when I prayed.
21:54 Praise the Lord. Pastor Fleurimond?
21:59 There are so many,
22:00 I think that the one that I would like
22:02 to actually speak about.
22:04 I think one of the questions you asked was,
22:06 whether it was an audible prayer
22:08 or a silent, a secretive prayer.
22:11 This was actually a secretive prayer.
22:15 This takes me back to my days in undergrad
22:18 and I wanted to graduate on time with my class.
22:24 I didn't want to be one of these guys
22:25 who had to wait an additional year
22:27 or additional summer.
22:28 And so we were getting down
22:32 to the final days of the last semester
22:35 and I knew that there was one class that I needed to take
22:40 that I hadn't taken.
22:41 And so I went and I applied for graduation anyways,
22:45 with the intention of taking that class in the summer.
22:49 But I had been told by others
22:52 who had attempted the same thing
22:54 that their situation had not worked to their favor.
22:57 But anyhow, I prayed about it in silence.
23:01 And before I even received conformation,
23:05 you know, I knew God was going to answer in my favor.
23:07 In fact, my parents were already on their way,
23:10 they were traveling from Florida
23:12 to Huntsville, Alabama, in faith.
23:14 And the reality of it all is,
23:16 on a Sabbath evening after I came home from church,
23:21 I went to the mailbox after Sabbath
23:23 and there were two envelopes from the registrar's office.
23:27 One that said, it could not aqueous,
23:29 and then the one that said congratulations.
23:32 And I of course chose the one that said congratulations,
23:35 and I checked that.
23:37 And, you know, I was able to go into the summer
23:39 and finish my course, and by God's grace
23:41 able to graduate from undergrad.
23:43 And so for me that has always been a mark of power
23:48 of the secret prayer,
23:49 even if you don't say it out loud or, you know,
23:52 ask others to pray with you,
23:54 it was my personal private prayer
23:57 between me and God, and He answered for me.
24:00 Well, Ruthie, we've got another moment,
24:01 we got one minute to go,
24:03 but can you tell us about an experience you had
24:07 when you were so close to the Lord,
24:08 and you were praying,
24:10 and you know God answered your prayer?
24:14 Well, I'll try to make this quick
24:16 but I believe that the Lord likes to answer
24:19 our tangible prayers
24:20 to give us faith to ask for really big things.
24:23 You know, faith, endurance, and trust.
24:26 And so I pray everyday for money for Prayer Ministries
24:30 for the North American division.
24:33 One day I had a man come up to me after church
24:36 and he said,
24:37 "If you ever need any money, just contact me."
24:40 And he had given hundreds of thousands of dollars.
24:45 That was a direct answer to prayer.
24:48 I believe the Lord loves to provide for His work.
24:50 Yes. Well, I'll tell you... Amen.
24:53 I've had an answer to prayer.
24:55 I've been in only one plane crash in my life.
24:59 And we were coming over the Casket Mountains
25:03 and I was talking to the Lord, that was a silent prayer
25:06 'cause, you know, when the plane is shaking
25:08 you don't want to have audible prayers,
25:10 not at that time, you're praying silently.
25:13 And I remember saying, Lord, why are you so good to me?
25:17 And I kept hearing God say to me,
25:19 "My son, no matter what happens,
25:21 I'm going to take care of you."
25:23 And as we went in,
25:24 the pilot forgot to put the wheels down on the plane
25:28 and we crashed.
25:29 But I want you to know, God is faithful,
25:32 I'm still here.
25:33 We praise His name. Amen.
25:35 I want to thank you all so much for this beautiful program
25:40 to encourage people in their life of secret prayer.
25:48 Secret prayer means you have a daily,
25:51 hourly, constant surrender,
25:53 and yes, an unbroken connection with God.
25:58 When I come home and turn my computer on,
26:01 do you know that it automatically connects
26:04 to the internet?
26:05 And as long as the computer stays on,
26:10 it stays connected.
26:12 Even when I'm not using it, it stays connected.
26:18 A missionary had a car one day that would never start,
26:20 he had to push it to get it started.
26:23 So he would either park on a hill
26:25 or leave the engine running.
26:27 He did this for two years.
26:31 When a new missionary came to replace him,
26:34 he explained his arrangement for getting the car started
26:36 and the new man began looking under the hood.
26:41 Before the explanation was complete,
26:43 the new missionary interrupted, "Dr. Jackson,
26:46 I believe the only trouble with this car
26:49 is this loose cable."
26:51 And he gave the cable a twist,
26:53 stepped into the car, turned the engine,
26:56 and to the missionary's astonishment
26:59 the engine roared into life.
27:02 For two years, he had been trying
27:04 to get this car to run properly.
27:08 What he didn't realize was
27:10 the power was there all the time.
27:15 The only problem was a loose connection
27:20 that kept him from putting that power to work.
27:24 Secret prayer is your connection with God.
27:29 It will keep you powerful and turned on.
27:35 I'm Wintley Phipps, thank you for joining us.
27:39 I want you to know that to be a Christian
27:45 means, yes, to be Christ like.


Home

Revised 2018-02-14