The Montana Conference family gathered Friday evening, Jan. 31, for the annual Prayer Conference and to listen to Pavel Goia, an Adventist pastor born in communist Romania. The story of Goia’s life is chronicled in the book One Miracle After Another, by Gregg Budd. Today he pastors the Adventist church in Lexington, Ky. His ministry has shown that God answers prayer, not only in places where there is persecution, but also in secular America.
Along with the miracle stories told, he taught that the center of prayer is God. It is to know God and to trust Him. The function of prayer is relationship, one that is intimate and real. The goal of prayer is to live in His presence, to the point that you forget yourself.
Goia’s presentations challenged the thinking and prayer lives of those attending:
Laryssa Barlow: “I learned a more effective way of praying.”
Teresa Kammerman: “I learned that I need to ‘throw’ my requests at God, leave them with Him and worship Him.”
Rudy Fallang: “I realized that most of my prayers were meaningless repetitions. I am going to look at the way I pray and make some changes.”
What blessings were experienced by all as they were led step by step to God’s throne. Late Sabbath afternoon people were saying, “It ended too quickly.”
For more information on Goia’s ministry, read One Miracle after Another, available at the Adventist Book Center. To hear a weekend excerpt go to www.montanaconference.org, click Departments and then click Prayer Ministries.
Pavel Goia shares how the center of prayer is God.
