Pastor Pavel Goia (YouTube video transcript “We Love Jesus or We Love Our Comfort?”

Prayer meetings in cold Wisconsin

Many years ago, right after Andrews, I started in my first district in the U.S. It was winter, in Wisconsin. Now, I don’t know if you know anything about it, but there are some cities and some places in the U.S. that are specific for something. For instance, if you say Chicago, you say wind—the wind blows only twice a year: six months from the east, six months from the west. When you say Wisconsin, you say cold.

When I went there, it was winter, it was January, it was minus 32. Did you hear it? You see it through the window—sunshine. But when you’d go out, instantly, a block—a block of ice. Your nostrils would just stick together. I mean, it was just cold.

I would go grocery shopping with my wife, and from the moment we exited the store until we got to the car, we were frozen. We were like, “Get in the car, leave the stuff in the cart, warm up, and then get out and put it in the trunk.” Just hold.

And I remember I go to church—brother and sister, that’s sacrifice when you get out in minus 32. I go to the church, and there are ten people, all of them between 72 and 92. And one Sabbath, it was so cold that there were nine people—for my family and another five. Sometimes on a good Sabbath, it was twenty. Praise the Lord, that was a crowd.

So, nine people. I looked at them and I said, “Why in the world am I here?” And I got a little discouraged. It’s easy to listen to the story, but if it were you or me, how would you feel, you know?

So I said to them, “Folks, there are only four of you—because it’s five of you” (it was my family, you know). And I said, “Should we give the sermon?” And the lady, 92 years old, says, “Pastor, we pay tithe—you better preach. We pay the tithe, better preach.” You know? So okay, I gave the sermon.

I go home and I tell my wife, “It’s very, very discouraging.” Molly says, “What are you talking about? Jesus says wherever two or three—you have more than that, you have a crowd.”

I said, “Honey, go to the pulpit and see how you feel when you see that church empty.”

She said, “You told them the Jesus promised, and Jesus keeps His word—not because of what we do, but because of who He is. And you told them that Jesus promised that if two or three get together and pray in one accord for something, and they agree to pray for something, He will do it.”

And I had specified this carefully: it’s not that if they agree to pray, “Lord, will you give each one of us a Mercedes?” You understand. “Lord, would you strike my boss because he gives me a hard time?” It’s not for when you pray for something selfish. But it is when you forget self.

Because if you remember the disciples, they didn’t pray for a blessing for themselves. What does He say? Remember the paragraph we read last night—they didn’t ask a blessing for themselves. They prayed for the Holy Spirit—am I right? When you forget yourself.

I have this experience—it’s funny. Every time I pray for myself, most of the time I don’t get an answer. When I pray for others, I get an answer. And not when I pray for others, “Lord, would you get my kids into Loma Linda to be a doctor or have a good salary”—not that it’s a good school, but I’m not… when I pray for something that is still for me, though it’s for my kid, you understand. But when I say, “Lord, we are ready to sacrifice self, please help us to reach a precious soul”—that’s when God answers.

And so my wife says to me, “You said that if we ask for the Holy Spirit, and if we ask for the church to grow, God will do it. Why don’t you do that?”

I said, “Honey, I need two or three, and I don’t have anybody. These people are dying tomorrow—we’ll have a funeral and then no more church. They can barely walk to the church, you know.”

And she said, “Well, God specified—whenever you have two or three, up to forty or fifty. He said whenever two or three.” And I just didn’t like it, but I knew she was right.

So I go next Sabbath and talk to the old ladies. “Would you want to come to prayer?” Hoping that they would say no. And they said yes.

I said, “Okay, tomorrow morning.”

And one of them says, “See you at 4 AM, Pastor.”

I said, “No, see you at 9 AM.”

She says, “See, Pastor, we cannot sleep too good anyway, so see you at 4.”

I said, “No, nine.”

She says, “Okay, 4:30.”

I said, “Well, she’s willing to negotiate. Let’s do that like Abraham—what if there were forty-five?” You know? So I said, “Okay, eight o’clock.”

She says, “Five.”

I say, “Seven.”

He says, “Six.”

I said, “6:30. Don’t push. See you at 6:30, Pastor.”

Five ladies came at 6:30. When I got in the car, it was so cold and there was ice on my windshield—that’s at 6 AM or 5:30, because I had to drive to the church. There was ice on my windshield, and I took a credit card because I wasn’t prepared with something. With the credit card, I started to scratch the ice. Have you ever done that? You don’t even know what ice means—look in the dictionary.

Anyway, I started to scratch the ice and my hands froze. I was barely able to move. And I got in the car, I started the car, and when I was breathing, the air from my lungs would get on the windshield and it was forming ice—right, the flowers of ice on the windshield. And I said, “Stop breathing,” you know, because otherwise I cannot drive.

Anyway, I started the car. By the time I got to the church, finally the car started to warm up. But then I had to turn it off, and when I finished praying, it was cold again. Anyway, it was not comfortable, trust me. It was sacrifice and commitment. And we like to go to church, but we don’t like to sacrifice and to commit.

The ladies looked at me and said, “You are a good pastor. You are ready to come in this weather.” And I thought to myself, these people need it, they desired it, they just don’t know how to do it. They were there waiting.

And I thought to myself, Jesus sacrificed His life, and we are not willing to sacrifice our comfort, and we say we love Jesus—or we love our comfort? Am I right? Yes, I am right.

And we prayed. And we prayed not for ourselves. Don’t you think that those ladies didn’t have needs? They did. Many needs. If you knew their lives and their families, many needs. But we didn’t pray for ourselves. We said, “Lord, put Your Spirit over our church. Bring the people who left back. Bring others. Help us to reach the whole community for You. Would You give us the Holy Spirit, because we don’t know how to do that?”

And we prayed a day, two days, three days. After a week, I said, “Done. We had a prayer week of prayer. Tomorrow I don’t see you again.”

And one of the ladies—92 years old again, she was the head elder—she says, “Pastor, the Bible doesn’t say a week.”

I said, “What do you mean?”

She says, “Let’s keep praying, Pastor. Let’s keep praying.”

I said, “Okay, a month.” We prayed for a month. It took forever; it was a long month. And after a month, I said, “Now let’s stop. It’s not comfortable,” you know.

And the lady said, “Pastor, you don’t know what’s going on, do you?”

I said, “What’s going on?”

And she said, “Our families would never even talk to us—our kids and grandkids never call, not for Christmas, not for birthday. They just don’t call. Since we started to pray, they started to visit and ask questions. Let’s keep praying, Pastor, because since we started to pray, we sensed that God’s presence is here and He started to work. If we stop praying, God cannot keep working. Let’s keep praying.”

So we kept praying. After three months, the church went from a handful of people to 120 in attendance every Sabbath. We didn’t do Bible studies—what we should have—but there were just a few ladies, and we didn’t do evangelism because I didn’t have anyone to do it with. But the church got packed to the degree that we had no more seats.

Who stops you to pray together? Nobody stops you if you really want to do it. And Jesus told us to do it, didn’t He?

Imagine if every church did that. The Spirit of Prophecy says, “Pray together,” and then she says, “Pray, plan, and work. Pray, plan, and work. Pray and plan, and pray and plan, and pray and work.”

And by the way, why work? Because if you want God’s blessing, you need to do something so God has something to bless, you know. Because if you do nothing, there is nothing to bless. And so pray, and don’t just make your plan and expect God to bless your plan. Pray that God would give you wisdom what to do, and then do it in faith.

And by the way, when you pray, ask God to give you opportunities. Because some people pray and then they go and approach everybody, and you know, we need wisdom. Like Jesus told the disciples, “I have many things to tell you, but you are not ready for it.” You’ve got to have wisdom to know what to tell, who to tell, and when to tell.

And some people never tell, and some people tell too much. They meet somebody and they say, “You should stop eating this and that, you need to…” You need to start with wisdom, because God knows where somebody is and you need to start from there. Don’t go ahead of God, don’t go behind God—go with God.

On the Plane

I was coming from California. They worked me to death, but I was still alive. So I flew to California—drove two hours to the airport, spent two hours in the airport, flew two or three hours to Salt Lake City, spent two hours in Salt Lake City, flew another two hours, got to California after about seven or eight plus driving to the airport and being in the airport. After a whole day, got to California. The moment I got from the airport, they drove me to the church. I started to speak. I spoke Friday night, Saturday morning nine o’clock, Saturday morning eleven o’clock, Saturday afternoon two o’clock, Saturday afternoon four o’clock, six o’clock, and then meeting with elders and deacons.

And then I ran to the airport. I mean, I drove to the airport at 10 PM, returned my rental, and at 11 PM I’m on the flight. And I fly the whole night Saturday night. And when you fly back to East Coast, you lose three hours. So I started at 12—the plane left at five minutes before 12—and five hours plus three hours that you lose, eight hours. At 8 AM I was in Atlanta, at 9:30 I was on my plane to Baltimore, at 11 I was in Baltimore, and finally at one o’clock at home—from Friday to Sunday. I lost the whole Friday and the whole Saturday night, and I was non-stop, no break, not even to breathe, you know. And I was dead tired, squeezed like a lemon.

And here I am, I get on the plane supposed to fly the whole night Saturday night, and I pray a good Adventist prayer: “Lord, please don’t let anybody sit next to me because I want to sleep.”

And it came into my mind what I just preached—that we need to forget ourselves, as Jesus forgot Himself. We need to be willing to sacrifice ourselves. A Christian is not about self; it’s about Jesus and it’s about service. Love God with all your mind, with all your heart, with all your strength—with how much? All you have. All your soul, no reservation. And love your neighbor just as yourself.

So I said “God, here I am, ready to go, send me. God, I am so busy and so focused on my plans that I never see people around. Do you know what I am talking about? I have to do this, I have to do that, and I have no time to see or to talk or to listen or to pray or to serve. Lord, help me stop my selfishness. And if you have somebody in need—there are so many people that if you knew what they go through—if you have somebody in need, open my ears, open my eyes, and give me the opportunities.”

As soon as I finished my prayer, a big—and I mean big—lady came next to me on my right. She took her chair and a third of my chair, so I had to sit like that. I said, “Here it is. I’m not going to sleep tonight.”

And then another lady, as big as the first one, came to my left. And I was like squished in the middle. I said, “This is going to be the worst flight of my life. Five hours and a half basically, plus three that you lose until morning. I’m going to be stuck. I’m going to be numb. I’ll not be able to move. This is terrible. Why in the world did I pray that God sends somebody to work with?”

And then the lady at the window starts crying. She was sobbing, she was breaking in tears.

I said, “Can I help you?”

She says, “No, leave me alone.”

I said, “Well, that’s easy.” Left her alone, you know.

She was crying, and the lady on the left says, “How can you help her?”

I said, “I don’t know. I can pray for her.”

She says, “Oh, you believe in prayer?”

I said, “Yes.”

She says, “Me too.”

I was so tempted to give her the theology of prayer and the translations and… but I prayed like Nehemiah before the king before opening my mouth. “Lord, you gave me the opportunity. You follow? I need to go with Him. Let me preach the gospel to you.” I said, “Lord, if you have somebody in need, you give me the opportunity. I am ready to listen, to watch. But when I have an opportunity, I’m ready to be used.”

You follow me? She says, “What? What are you going to do? How are you going to help her?”

“I pray for her.”

“Oh, you believe in prayer? Me too.”

I was ready to preach. I said, “Lord, give me wisdom.” You have no right to preach to anybody before you listen to them. You have no right to tell them anything before you listen to them.

So I said, “Tell me what you believe in prayer.” And I kept quiet, and I held my mouth.

She told me everything she knew about prayer. I said, “That’s wonderful.”

And then she says, “Tell me—because if you listen…” In fact, she said, “You know, you are a good listener.” (In my mind: “Tell my wife.” But anyway.) She says, “You are a good listener. Now tell me what you believe in prayer. You earned the right to talk.”

I was tempted again to give her a prayer seminar. But the Bible says that Jesus taught with theology? Or with stories and parables? And the Spirit of Prophecy says that theology goes like that and people don’t remember it, but she says a story remains. And she says, “God who created the human brain, the human mind, knows how it functions best.” And she says Jesus taught in stories, in parables, because people don’t forget stories. It sticks with them. And stories are non-threatening, and the Holy Spirit can take them and use whatever they need to teach and to touch and to change.

You follow me? So instead of giving her the theology of prayer, I gave her a story.

She said, “That’s wonderful.”

While we were talking, the other lady stopped crying, and she was listening. And after I finished, she says, “I guess you could pray for me.”

I said, “Tell me what to pray for.”

She said, “My husband left me.” I knew that I could not have helped her because I am married, you know. She said, “My husband left me. I am alone. And he texted me when I got on the plane that he’s divorcing me for a younger lady.” And she says, “I’m terminated. My life is terminated.”

How could I help her? I prayed for her. And after I said, “Amen,” she says, “It doesn’t help.”

I said, “What did you expect—that he’d text you, ‘Oh, I change my mind’?”

She says, “Well, I thought something was going to happen and it would solve the problem.”

I said, “No, it doesn’t work that way. God cannot force him to love you. You can force somebody to do something, but not to love somebody. You follow me? And it doesn’t work that way. God gave us freedom of choice.”

“Then why do you pray?”

“Because God said that when you go through the waters, He will be with you. We pray so God gives you comfort and strength and helps you.”

She says, “It doesn’t help.”

I say, “What do you want me to do?”

And she says, “What shall I do in this situation?” And we talked a little, and she said to me, “I cannot get rid of the thought. It’s all the time in my mind. I cannot. My life doesn’t make any sense. My life is terminated. What shall I do to get strength to go through this?”

I said, “Prayer and study of the Word.”

She says, “I don’t pray and I don’t study.”

So I had with me my book—the first one or the second one—and I gave it to her. I said, “Read.”

And she says, “I never read. I just watch TV.”

I said, “That’s another problem that you need to fix.”

And she said, “I never read.”

I said, “Read a chapter.”

She says, “No, I don’t read.”

I said, “Read a page. It’s going to take you two minutes.”

“No, I don’t.”

I said, “Read a paragraph.”

“No, I don’t read.”

I said, “Lady, you asked me for help. Now I am giving you help, and you refuse the help. It’s like you go to the doctor and then you refuse to do what the doctor says. Read a paragraph. It’s not going to kill you. If you don’t like it, stop reading. But if you like it, it may help you.”

“I just hate reading.”

“Take the book and read a paragraph. Do you know how to read?”

“Yes.”

“Then read it.”

She started to read. And she read the whole book. The whole page. Then she turned the page and she read. And she read and she read. Five hours, she finished the whole book until we got to Atlanta. She was done.

And she started to cry. And then she started to laugh. And then she jumped, gave me a hug. And then she kept reading and gave me another hug. I said, “That’s enough.” And she kept reading and she kept reading. And then she stops, she puts the book down, and says, “God put you next to me on this plane.” She said, “I was hopeless. I was terminated. I was destroyed. God gave me exactly what I needed in these moments. And should I have hope again?”

And then she says, “Can I have the book?”

I said, “Let me think about it.”

She says, “Please.”

I said, “Yes, I’m kidding. You can have the book.” I prayed again with her.

Three months later, she emailed me. And she says, “You don’t know the whole story, but let me tell you the story. When I got that text, I said, ‘I’ll go home, take a bunch of pills, kill myself, and that’s it.’ You saved my life.”

And not only that—she says, “I didn’t save your life, the Holy Spirit did, not me.”

And she said, “Not only that, but I started to pray. I started to study. I found a church. I started to go to church. I want you to know that He changed me. And not only that, but I gave that book to my kids, to my sister. Everybody is praying and studying. I want you to know you saved my family.”

By the way, we talked on the plane and I said to her, “Listen, maybe it’s not good that you pray that that man would come back to you. Maybe it’s not good for him to come back to you.” I said, “Let me ask you a question. Nobody loves you today and hates you tomorrow. It’s a process.”

“Let me explain to you what happened in your life. Two or three years ago, that man started stopped talking to you. You would come home and there was no communication. And then three months later, he started to raise his voice and scream at you. And then two or three months later, he started to call you names. And then the abuse continued. He has no respect for you, no love anymore. He didn’t care to share his money or his love or anything. Your life became a hell.”

She said, “How do you know? Are you a prophet?”

I said, “No, I just pray that God gives me wisdom to know what to tell you.”

And she said, “Does God to talk to you.”

I said, “Yes.”

“God talked to you?!”

I said, “Yes.”

She says, “Wow, you are a man of God.”

I said, “No, I’m not a man of God. But if you pray for wisdom, He promised to give you wisdom. So I do what He said.”

And I said, “That man stopped loving you long ago. And he started to cheat on you long ago. He just now got the courage to tell you. So I said, you really don’t want him back. What you want? Don’t marry next time somebody that looks good. Marry somebody that loves Jesus. Because if he loved Jesus, he’s going to love you. The Bible says love your wives to the degree that you are ready to die for them, as Jesus died for the church.”

I said, “Marry somebody who loves Jesus and is ready to die for you.”

And she says, “How do I find that?”

I said, “You don’t. You pray, and then you allow God to lead.” And I said, “The story is long. Keep reading and praying, and God is going to teach you. I don’t have time because our flight was over,” you know.

But anyway, when you pray, “God use me, give me your Holy Spirit, give me wisdom, give me opportunities,” God does that. The problem is that we are too selfish, too comfortable, too self-centered, too focused on me and my work and my family and what I have to do today, that we have no eyes and no ears to see and to hear people around us. And God put you where He put you to be a blessing, to be salt, to be a light, to be like Jesus—am I right?

And evangelism starts with you loving people and reaching people and then giving them a Bible study, and then you follow me to lead them to Jesus. You need to show Jesus. If you don’t have Jesus, how can you lead them to Jesus that you don’t have? You understand?

It starts with prayer, seeking God’s leading in your life, and looking for opportunities to serve. And we say, “Pastor, I don’t have time.” Now, you do have time. You just have other priorities, because you get time for what you need to do—am I right? That means that you love something else more than you love to serve Jesus. And then we say we are Christians.

Sandwich Story

Let me give you another example. I love food—you know that about me, don’t you? Food and Sabbath are holy. I never break them. I can eat forever, I never gain a pound. I just eat and eat. I know it’s not fair, I don’t care. But anyway, I mean, that’s the way I’m created. That’s how I am wired. You have to deal with it. I don’t know how to help you.

My wife says, “It’s not fair, honey. I look at food and I gain weight, and you eat and eat and never gain a pound.”

I said, “Honey, that’s the way I’m created. I don’t know how to help. I have a fast metabolism, so I eat, eat, eat, and I love it. And I can eat and I still love it,” you know.

So I get my sandwich or my whatever—banana, my apple or whatever—and I go to work. And I work, and then I stop and eat it, and then I work more and stop and eat it, and have a meeting and stop and eat it, and then I drive home and stop and eat it, and get home and eat again. And then in the middle of the night, I eat at 11 again, I eat at 2 AM again—I cannot sleep if I don’t eat—and then I eat at 6 AM.

So I was at work and I had my sandwich, my wife prepared my sandwich. And I looked at the sandwich—it looks amazing. I already have water in my mouth, and I pray, “Lord, please bless this food.”

And then I said—I had decided years ago that every morning I make myself available for service. Every morning I say, “Lord, use me today. I make myself available.” So I said, “Lord, use me today, but I got to eat now. Please open my eyes, my ears to hear your voice. Help me see people in need.”

And God spoke to me. And God impressed me and said, “Give your sandwich to your secretary.”

I said, “No, this is holy. This is mine. You can ask for my car, anything, but not my sandwich.” And we are not in a poor country. We are in America. I give her myself? She’ll be offended. She has food. She doesn’t need food. I mean, in America, everybody has food.

And God said, “You asked Me for opportunities. Go give her your sandwich.”

I said, “Lord, can I have half of it?”

And God said, “Go now.”

So I take my sandwich with terrible pain in my heart. I walk around the corner, around the corner, get to her—wonderful lady, wonderful, committed, humble, kind, hardworking, professional. Anyway, I get to her desk. I had never seen her sleeping at work. She always works. At 10 AM, she is with her head on her desk.

I said, “You sleeping at work? This is something new. How are you doing?” And she doesn’t answer. I move her, and she doesn’t answer. So, oops—I’m not a doctor, you know. So I said, “Are you okay?” I should just move her head, no, you know.

I said, “I came here to give you my sandwich,” hoping that she says, “No, I don’t need it.”

She got her hand, grabbed the sandwich, and pulled it. I said, “I lost the battle.”

And then she takes an eternity and has me tortured, watching how she holds the sandwich, but she doesn’t eat it. And then she finally takes the sandwich, takes a bite, and she doesn’t chew. And I have water in my mouth watching. And then she chews, and then she takes a second—it took forever.

And after I watch her forever, she finally gets her head up a little and says, “I cannot talk.”

I said, “Can I help you?”

She says, “Leave me alone.”

I said, “Okay.” And I am waiting there. Should I call 911? What should I do?

Then she gets up and she says, “I was born with diabetes.” She said, “I have a pump that drops insulin all the time. I was working and the pump broke, and I didn’t know, and my sugar got high. And I noticed that I don’t feel good, and I measured it. It got really high.” And she said, “I didn’t know how high because my pump doesn’t work. So I took a shot of insulin, and I did too much, and my sugar dropped: 300, 200, 100, 80, 70, 60, 40, 30. It got to 30. And it was dropping. When you get under 30, you know, we need a funeral. And it got to 30.”

And she said, “I fainted. And I dropped. And she said, I knew that I’m going to die, but I had no strength to get up or to scream or to call somebody.” So she said, “I prayed, ‘Lord, send somebody with some food so my sugar would go back up.'”

Isn’t that something? What if I had eaten the sandwich? When you give God opportunities and you make yourself available for service, God may not answer every day, but you need to make yourself available every day so when the need comes, He could lead you and use you. You follow me? What if we all did that every day? Wouldn’t that be amazing how God could use all of us? He’s waiting to use us.

George Mueller and his orphanage

George Mueller lived in England. He was an alcoholic. And when one day he was in a church, the pastor said, “Jesus died for you so you could be forgiven, and He could use you to save others.”

And he says, “Jesus died for me? Was the pastor talking to me?” And the pastor says, “Yes, I am talking to you.” And this man says, “Jesus died for me? Who am I that God Himself would die for me?” So he said, “If He died for me and forgives me and saves me, what can I do for Him and for others?” Because when you understand the cross, you want to serve. When you don’t serve, it’s because you don’t understand the cross.

And he prayed, “Lord, use me to serve You and to save others.” And God impressed him to save the kids from the streets, the orphans. But he had no money. So he goes with the little money he has, and he goes in prayer. “Lord, I need money to give the orphans a shelter and to give them food. You told me—You impressed me to do it. You need to help me.”

And God said, “Go and buy the biggest building in the city.” In Bristol, the biggest building was called Ashley Down. It is gigantic. He says, “Lord, this is expensive.” The value of the building, even in our time, is extreme. For that time, that amount was something impossible.

And he goes and he says, “I want to buy this building, but I have only a little pennies”—you know, a little, little, little money. The guy says, “You cannot do that. You need a lot of money to buy this building. What do you want the building for?”

And he says, “I want the building to take care of the orphans.”

And the guy says, “Okay, you can have the building for free.”

So, he started to collect children from the streets and pray with them. And then the time for the meal came. He says, “Lord, I have no food.” And they prayed. They got together, they put all the plates, all the silverware, and they prayed. And somebody knocks on the door—two trucks with food. And if you read his book, his story—every day he never had the food for them, God would bring trucks at the door.

In fact, Churchill, the Prime Minister of England from that time, said, “This man saved a whole generation.”

When the bombs from the German airplanes started to drop over the city, many people came to that building and they said, “Let us in.” He said, “Why? The bombs could drop on this building too.” And people said, “No, we know that God lives in this building. This is the only safe place in the city. We know that God lives in this building.”

Prayer meetings in secular Italy

In 2004 in Spain I was preaching to good people, but no emotions.  I said, “Breathe so I know that you are alive and you’re okay.” I prayed, “Lord, if I sacrifice my time away from my family, I pray that You’ll do some things that will produce results.” And nothing happened. And I don’t like when nothing happens. So I went back home.

Then in 2017, how many years later? Thirteen years later I went to Czech Republic. I didn’t even think about Spain. I forgot. Thirteen years later, I go to Czech Republic at the division meetings, and after I finish speaking, one of the division workers—the family coordinator and Sabbath School coordinator—comes to me and says, “Pavel, do you know what happened in Italy because of your preaching?” I said, “No, no idea.”

“This is what happened. When you preached, there was a lady from Italy, from Bergamo, that went to Spain to visit her children, and she recorded your sermon on a cell phone. And she went home and she listened. And she listened and she listened—three times. And then she listened four times because she had to understand your accent. So she listened a few times, and then she wrote down the principles. And then she went to the church—only about 40 members in the church, not all of them attending. And she talked to a few friends, a few ladies. And she said, “You need to listen to this. We need to get together and pray for the Holy Spirit.”

So they got together every morning at 6:30, and they prayed for the Holy Spirit. And they prayed for the Holy Spirit. And they prayed and they prayed and they prayed. And then she called me—and I didn’t know because I get a million phone calls a day. She says, “Pastor, we prayed together and nothing happened.” I said, “How long did you pray together?” “A whole week.” I said, “I went to a school for a week and they didn’t give me a degree!” She says, “What do you mean?”

“You don’t go to a medical school for a week and do a brain surgery on somebody! Why then you expect that when you go to prayer for a week the things instantly change? Answering to prayer in the Bible is a process. It’s not an event. Abraham prayed 25 years until he got the baby—am I right?”

“You want us to pray 25 years, Pastor?”

I said, “No, I want you to pray forever! Pray all the time and never stop because the Bible says pray without ceasing. Prayer is not an event. Prayer is a lifestyle.” The Spirit of Prophecy says, “Prayer is the breath of the soul.” Let me ask you: do you breathe for a week and that’s it? No, you breath all the time! And the same is with prayer. Keep praying and never stop.

And don’t pray for a miracle. Pray because that’s what God told you to do. Keep praying because prayer is what keeps you spiritually alive. Don’t look for a miracle. Look for God.”

Daniel was praying how many days later? Twenty-one days. Three weeks later, Angel Gabriel comes and says, “When you started—not when you finished, when you started to pray, while you were praying, when you started to pray—I started to work.” Can you imagine? And it took 21 days, and Daniel had no clue whether God was answering or not. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t work on it. “When you started to pray, God starts to work. But it took me 21 days to fight the kings of Persia, and now the angel is back to give an answer.”

That means that when you pray, God works. If you stop, God stops. So you need to keep praying so God could keep working. And then you keep working. You don’t see anything, but God is working. Because God doesn’t do construction—God works with people, and people are stubborn. You follow me? So you need to keep praying so God prepares you, prepares the church, prepares the community, prepares whoever you pray for, prepares the city. You follow me? You need to keep praying, and you need to keep planning, and to keep working, and praying, and so on and so forth.

So I told the lady, “You need to keep praying, lady, because God is big. And when He answers, the answer is big. And if you don’t pray, it’s going to be too big for you to grasp it.”

Think about Noah. God told him, “Build an ark.” And Noah says, “What is an ark?”

“It’s a boat.”

“What do you do with it?”

“You put it on water.”

“Where is the water?”

“It’s going to come from heaven.”

“What is that? Rain? Can you define rain?”

You understand what I’m talking about? When God talks, it’s big. Unless you pray enough to know Him, to trust Him, you’ll never obey. So God has to prepare you. God has to prepare the community. Keep praying. Don’t stop.

So I told the lady, “Keep praying.”

She says, “How long?”

I said, “Very simple—until He answers.”

She says, “Well, three months?”

I said, “Lady, you don’t know English? Until He answers! Period.”

“Ah, okay, Pastor. So you don’t want us to stop praying?”

“Yep. You get it now.”

After that, she didn’t call me back, but the man from the division told me the story when I was in the Check republic.

After she called you, she and her friends said, “You know what? We are not going to stop. Our church is going to be a church of prayer.” “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” And they kept praying.

And a few months later, in the morning, somebody knocks on the door of the church at 6:30. It’s the next neighbor, across the street close to the church. And he says, “What are you doing here every morning? You used to come one day a week, Saturday morning, and that’s it. I work night shifts. I don’t have a garage. When I come home, I park here. Now I cannot park because your cars are everywhere. Why are you here every morning?”

And the lady says, “We pray.”

“What do you pray for?”

“We pray for the community.”

He says, “Well, I don’t go to church because of so much politics. But would you pray for my wife? She has terminal cancer. The doctor gave her three months. Cancer has taken all her body. Would you pray for my wife?”

They said, “Yes.”

Next week, the man comes with his wife, hand in hand. That’s in Bergamo, Italy. So, the man comes with her and says, “We want to be baptized.”

And the sister says, “We don’t eat pork.”

“That’s okay. I’ll eat whatever you eat.”

“But we worship on Saturday.”

“I know. You are my neighbours”.

“But why do you want to be baptised?”

And he said, “Because I compared you to many other places, you don’t have only theory and doctrines and this and that and money raising. You have a God that is real. And I want that God.”

And they said, “Why do you say that?”

He said, “You prayed for my wife. We went two days later to the doctor for a checkup, and the doctor said, ‘What have you done?’ And he said, ‘Why?’ ‘Because she is cancer-free!’ And he said, ‘I need to find that God that is so real.'”

But that’s not the end of the story. The neighbor told  his neighbor,”My wife is cancer-free.” And that neighbor says, “Well, my kids are in prison because of drugs.” So he comes next morning: “Can you pray for my kids?”

And that neighbor talked to another, to another, and to another. A few months later, every morning there was a line—long, that would go around the block—of people from the community that would come to ask for prayers.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your church was a place of hope, where the community comes to be prayed for?

And then that church grew from 40 to 240 members. They had no more room. So they started more prayer, more Bible studies. They call it Bible Expo, Health Expo—that’s how they call it. And they started a lot of seminars to help people in need. And they planted a second church, and then a third one.

Is it possible, even in a secular society like Italy? Oh yes. God can do it.

Chinese Woman Sharing Bread

My time is up, but I managed to go except one slide, and I wanted to give you a little more. For instance, this lady—in China. In China, persecution. You cannot give a Bible study to a neighbor; you get arrested. Persecution. She prayed, “Lord, use me. I love You. You died for me. I want to do something for You too. Please use me.”

And God impressed her: “You are a great cook. Make a bread and share with the neighbor.” She made two breads. She goes to the neighbor and says, “Neighbor, I got this bread for you.” Now, if you give a freshly warm, homemade bread to a neighbor, don’t you think that’s really nice? You give it to me—I promise I’ll eat it. I’m not going to say no.

So she says, “Here is a bread. I just made it. I made two—one for me, one for you.” They never say, “Oh, thank you.” They say, “Can I pray for you?” It doesn’t hurt to ask.

Then he says, “Okay.”

She prayed for the neighbour. Next day? Next day. But next day, next day. But next day, every day of the week. And then she started again from the first one. Next week, she brought another loaf of bread. “Let me pray for you.” And again, every day. Another neighbour, second time. And then third week, third time again. And then fourth week.

Eventually, the neighbours started asking questions. “Who are you? What do you believe? Explain to us a little more. You keep praying for us, and we can see changes in our lives. What is going on?”

She says, “Well, let’s study together.” She invited them to her home. They started Bible studies. And it went from 4 to 11 to 20 to 80 people studying in her garage, because there was no room in her house.

And then she prayed, “Lord, we have no room. 80 people in my garage is so full that we have to keep the door open, and people are going to see us and we’ll get arrested. Please give me a bigger house.”

And God impressed her: “Sell the house.” She sold the house. She got the money. And God said, “Go and buy a big building.” She found a big building, but it was four times the money that she had. So she talked to the guy. And the guy says, “What do you need it for? It’s so big. How big is your family?”

She said, “Oh, it’s just me. I don’t have a family.”

He said, “Then why do you need such a big building?”

She says, “Well, I give bread to the neighbours and we pray together. And I have right now—you know—so many people. 80 people praying together. I have no room.”

And the guy says, “You can have the building for this money.” She got the building. And it went from 80 to 250. And then she got a second building. You follow me?

This lady—that I just told you about bread—this lady is from the biggest Adventist church in the world. She started with about six ladies every morning praying for the Holy Spirit and for the city. And in an interview, one of the pastors that I know asked her, “Why do you do that? And what is the secret of your success?”

“It is because I finally understood the cross. And it got to me to the degree that I cannot help but tell others. This is really good news. The gospel—Jesus died for me. I’ve got to tell others.”

“And why we have success? We pray together every morning for the Holy Spirit. And we pray big. We say, ‘Lord, give us the whole city. And not only that, give us the whole country.'”

And she said they started with about six, and then they went to about 10, 20, and then they were about 50 praying. And it kept growing. And they got—listen carefully, folks—they started to pray from 4:00 AM to 5:00. Is it comfortable to go to church at 4 AM? And then they prayed from 4 to 6. And the people came even more. And then they prayed from 4 to 7. And they got 7,000 new people baptized!

Then they said, “Let’s increase the prayer.” So they prayed from 4 to 8, from 4 to 9, from 4 to 2 PM, from 4 to 6 PM. But those people have jobs, so somebody would come, pray for half an hour, leave, and somebody else would come. And at any given moment, there were an average of 150 to 200 people praying day or night in the church. The people would come, pray, go, come—always you would go there, 100, 150, 200 people praying.

And the church went to 20,000 members. 20,000 members! Is it possible? Oh yes. The Holy Spirit can do a lot more than what you ask for, trust me. And then they kept praying, and they planted 380 new churches.

There are people that Jesus died for, and we are comfortable. Why don’t we get together and start praying?

Story from Vietnam

This is in Vietnam. Ten people, small group, no church. They would meet in this man’s house. Have you ever had a situation where you have so little group that it’s not a church, it’s a small group? You know what I’m talking about? And they meet in somebody’s house, or they rent a little room somewhere.

And they said, “We are a small group, and our kids are gone—150 kilometres (or miles, I don’t remember the story, I do have the details here—150 whatever, doesn’t matter). Actually, it’s 150 miles away in the big city.” Like if you think about a big city that is about 150 miles from here. They said, “Our children are not here in our little village or town. They work in the big city 150 miles away. And there is no church, no membership in that city. And our kids have no church to go to. And if you don’t go to church, what happens? You slowly cool down. You follow me? So all our kids are going to be lost.”

So this group of ten people started to pray: “Lord, plant a church in that city for our kids to go and worship.” And they kept praying together—a day, a month, two months, three months in unity. “Lord, we ask for the Holy Spirit. We ask for help. We ask for power.” And they didn’t pray for themselves there—that’s pretty strange. You pray for a place far away that you have no connection with. You follow me? “Lord, plant a church in that city so our kids have a church to go to.”

After six months of prayer, one old, cancer-sick lady gets baptized. But she’s so sick with cancer—she was in the last stage before dying. And they got very discouraged. They said, “Why would God baptize a lady that dies tomorrow? Why didn’t He baptize somebody young that could do Bible studies?” But they said, “You know, you don’t need to understand God. You need to trust God. Let’s keep praying.”

And they kept praying. And then they were impressed: “She’s our member, and she is already in bed, unable to walk, unable to eat. She’s dying. We need to take care of our member.”

So they called the neighbor: “Can you please take care of your neighbor? She is sick.”

“No, I am busy.”

“We are going to pay you.”

“How much do you pay me?”

“So much.”

“Okay. What do you want me to do?”

“We want you to shop, to clean, to cook, to change her, to feed her.”

“I can do that.”

“And we want you to read the Bible.”

She says, “I am an agnostic. I don’t believe in God. I don’t believe in all this stupid stuff—church and who, who God doesn’t exist. Who do you pray to? Why would you read the Bible? That’s old books with fables. No, nothing real. I mean, Jonah in the belly of the fish—come on. I don’t believe. I’m not going to read.”

“Hey, it’s a job. We pay you. Read for the lady, because she cannot read for herself. And she needs it. She is dying, and she needs it.”

“Oh, it’s a ritual that people do before they die? They read the Bible? Okay, what do you want me to read? Because the Bible is big.”

“We want you to read Bible promises to give her hope and comfort.”

“What are the Bible promises? In the Bible? Maybe Psalms? Most of them.”

“Psalms. It’s in the middle of the Bible.”

She goes to the neighbor, opens the Bible. “Psalms is big. Do you want me to read it all? What chapter do you want me to read?”

Watch this now. “Psalm 30.”

“Psalm 30? What is 30?”

And the guy says, “After 29.”

They call next week: “Have you been going to the neighbor?”

“Yes.”

“Do you cook? Do you shop? Do you feed her? Do you wash her?”

“Yes.”

“Did you read the Bible?”

“No, I don’t believe in this stupid stuff.”

“Hey, you are paid per hour. You are paid to read. She is dying. She needs it.”

“Okay.”

But she doesn’t read the Bible. And the lady died. She called the doctor. The doctor comes, checks her vitals. She’s dead. The doctor covers her, says, “We are going to take her to the morgue.”

She says, “No, wait. I forgot to do the ritual.”

And the doctor says, “What ritual?”

“Well, you know, Muslims do this, Catholics do Ave Maria or the mass before people die. The Adventists read Psalm 30. It’s a ritual before they die. They have to do this before people die. Let me read Psalm 30, and then you can take her.”

She starts reading Psalm 30: “What is the benefit if I die? Can I praise you? But you have raised me from the dead, and I will praise you for the rest of my life.” And while she’s reading Psalm 30, the dead lady gets up.

And the doctor: “Whoa!”

And the neighbor says, “The ritual has power.”

This is a real story, folks.

So the neighbor takes the Bible and goes from house to house, from street to street, the whole neighborhood, block by block, house by house, every single house. And she knocks on the door and she says, “Let me read you the ritual.”

And they said, “What ritual?”

And she tells them the story: “This has the power to change you. This has the power to transform you. This has the power to heal you, to even resurrect you. Let me read it for you. It’s going to be good for your family.”

And she reads the Bible. She reads Psalm 30 from house to house, from house to house. And 200 people get baptized, and they form a church. And this neighbor gets baptized. And she keeps going from house to house, reading Bible stories in the town. And the church starts growing.

Because a group of ten people were praying.

Isn’t that powerful? Who stops you to pray together and to say, “Lord, put Your Spirit over my family, over my church, over my community. Lord, You are big. Give us the latter rain. Lord, give us the city. Give us the community. Give us Australia. Lord, there are so many precious people that You died for. We want to serve, but we cannot do it in our power. It’s not by might, nor by power, but by Your Spirit. Give us the promised power. Lord, we are asking because You told us to ask. Give us Your Spirit, and give us wisdom, and give us the plan. And please, Lord, give us the community.”

A Call to Prayer

Can you imagine if we all did that in every church? Can you imagine the revival that would take place? And God is calling you. And God says, “You are My people. I came and died for you, and I send you to go. And I told you to pray until you receive the Holy Spirit. And when you receive the Holy Spirit, you go.” And God is going to make you responsible for the community. You know that, don’t you?

So will you make a decision? Start doing what God told us to do. Because Christian doesn’t mean that you go to church, period. “Oh, I went to church. I did my duty.” Christian means that you do what Christ told you to do. Amen.

And don’t say, “Pastor, we prayed for a week and nothing happened.” You understand what I’m saying? Make prayer a way of life. Don’t make prayer an event based on some needs. Make prayer a way of life. God told you to do it. Do it. Don’t be only listeners.

How many of you want to say, “Lord, I want to do this. Help me. I cannot do it in my power”?

Thank you. Praise the Lord.

Satan is not afraid when we eat healthy or know the doctrines or go to church. Don’t get me wrong—we should eat healthy, we should go to church. But Satan is afraid when we pray.

You remember the quotation: “Satan and his hosts tremble at the sound of fervent prayer.” Satan and his host tremble. Satan knows that when you pray, you connect with the source of all power. And that’s when he knows he’s in trouble. Not when we operate in our power, but when we receive the Holy Spirit—God’s power. That’s when he knows that he’s in trouble. His kingdom is losing the battle. And that’s where you, through God’s power, win the battle. It’s through His power.

Prayer

Father in heaven, please forgive us for being so comfortable. Jesus gave up all the glory and the comfort and came and died for me. And He said, “Get together and pray. Pray for the Comforter.” Help us, Lord, to be serious about prayer, to be serious about service, to be serious about mission.

We pray in Jesus’ precious name.

Amen.

Powerful Miracle stories: the Power of Surrender to God

Pastor Pavel Goia

(Transcript from YouTube Video by Pastor Pavel Goia)

Before We Begin

Good morning everyone! God bless you. I’m glad to be here. Yesterday I didn’t know if I would have a voice, but it comes back. Usually, I’ve had two surgeries on my vocal cords and I need a third one, but I’m good.

There were two questions: Are all prayers answered?

They are all answered—but not the way I pray. I want to clarify something. It’s a long subject, and I don’t intend to preach that entire sermon here. You can find it—I’ve had several series on prayer. If you go to Lexington SDA Church dot org, you can find them there and listen. It’s like seven years’ worth of sermons, so you’ll have material forever and ever.

But in my prayer series, I specify something that I want to be very clear:

“Ask, then; ask, and ye shall receive. Ask for humility, wisdom, courage, increase of faith. To every sincere prayer an answer will come. It may not come just as you desire, or at the time you look for it; but it will come in the way and at the time that will best meet your need. The prayers you offer in loneliness, in weariness, in trial, God answers, not always according to your expectations, but always for your good.” —(Gospel Workers, 258)

So every prayer gets an answer—but not always the way we want.

When God Is Silent

I want to give you some perspective. Between Daniel’s first vision and his second vision—I don’t know if you know this—there were 38 years in between. You think, “Oh, he had a vision today, he had a vision tomorrow, and another vision tomorrow night.” Uh-uh. There was quietness. God doesn’t talk every day. God doesn’t talk as we talk, just for the love of talking. We just like to talk, and sometimes we say nothing—like politicians. God talks when there is a need. You follow me?

So many times, I prayed and I didn’t sense God answering. I’m going to give you a long example about how God doesn’t answer prayers, and yet He answers—but you don’t know it until a few years later.

Business Years

My wife and I were in Romania. We wanted to do something—start a business. We looked into it and started a photo lab. In that time, a photo lab was wonderful. You wouldn’t go to Walmart. It was not like today when you take a photo with your cell phone. You took a photo with your camera—a film camera—and you would go to Walmart and they would develop them. Do you remember what that means? Develop the film. There was a film tank—that kind of camera.

And you would discover that half of them are bad because you didn’t use the right lenses, the right light—too much light, too little light. You didn’t focus properly. Do any of you know those cameras? I used to have them. I had the Zenit 5—you don’t know what that means, it’s a Russian camera—absolutely good. I used to have a Minolta. Anybody know Minolta? I used to have good cameras.

I would put the lenses, set the aperture. I used to do tricks. If you open the lenses wide, you have clarity in this plane, but everything behind is blurry and everything in front is blurry. If I want to get your face and your hair in picky, picky, picky detail, I would open the lenses. But then you would have to turn up the speed because it’s too much opening, and too much light comes in and burns the picture—it comes all black. So I would increase the speed, open the lenses, and get absolutely clear face, spotless, and the flowers behind were just blurry colors—beautiful, like a card.

But if I wanted depth—to get everything clear—then I would close the lenses and decrease the speed. Everything was clear, but there was no purity in the picture.

My wife and I would get in the lab and we would develop the pictures, watching them come to life. We would move from this tray to that tray, doing all this crazy stuff. We worked with filters—40 red, 55 blue. “The face is too red—change the filter!” We did all those tricks, developing photos by hand.

In that time, we made money—an average of five to eight thousand a Sunday. Every Sunday, they would call us to do pictures for weddings. But people at weddings got drunk, wanted many pictures, and when they woke up they said, “I don’t want so many pictures.” That bothered me. They were drunk, they wanted pictures, and then they didn’t want to pay. So I gave up my photo lab.

We started a sewing business. My wife knows how to sew. I have no clue—don’t ask me. I don’t even know how to fix a button. If I lose this button, I don’t know how to put it back. I don’t care.

But I had a nose for business. God gave me that nose—I can sense business and money, you know.

It was in Romania, in that time. You would have to give people bribes—we called them “gifts.” If you go to the doctor and you go empty-handed, he kicks you out. But if you open the door with your head—meaning your hands are full—then he wants to see you. So you have in this hand cheese, eggs, a chicken, and in this hand meat. Basically, a bunch of gifts. If you didn’t have money, you gave him five thousand in gifts, or a lot of gifts. Then the doctor says, “Come in,” and he takes care of you.

It was bribes.

The police would stop you for no reason—you’re not speeding—and you’d give them something, a chocolate or something, and you would go. If not, he would give you a fine for nothing. So it was bribes.

I purchased a lot of bribes—literally a lot. I spent thousands and thousands and thousands on bribes.

I went to Bucharest to the factories—fourteen factories that would sell raw cloth, rolls of fabric. It was a crisis in Romania. You would go to the store and there was nothing—empty shelves, literally nothing. The seller would be there with empty shelves, selling nothing. If you went to the grocery store, there was nothing.

People would wait in line for two or three days and nights because something was coming three days in the future. You’d say, “What is coming?” “We don’t know, but you don’t want to miss it.” Three days later, you sleep there, your grandpa sleeps there, you go home and sleep, and when the grandpa comes home, you go back and stay in line. After three days and three nights, they brought eggs, and everybody would get a carton of eggs. Then you stay in line for milk. Then you stay two or three days in line for bread. It was crazy. Anybody remember those times? Yeah, you know.

So I got my bribes. I go to Bucharest, to the first factory. I knock on the door and say, “I want to start a sewing business, and I need raw material.” They shook their heads. They had their people, their connections, their friends that they give material to—not me. I was a new guy. I could not get in. They didn’t trust me. They said, “We don’t have materials. Get out.”

It was winter.

I went to the second factory. I didn’t have a car, so I walked. “We don’t have materials. Get out.”

Third factory. “Get out.”

Fourth factory. I gave everybody a gift until I finished all my gifts.

Fourteen factories—all kicked me out.

I got so angry. When I got to the last one, the fourteenth, it was almost two months later. It took me day by day—Bucharest is big, I don’t know, two million people, 2.2 million, I don’t know—almost two months later. My shoes were broken, my feet were wet, I was frozen—end of winter—and I had nothing.

I go to the fourteenth factory. I knock on the door and I say, “I’m not going to talk to small people. Small people don’t respect me. I’m going to go to the director of the factory—the biggest one.”

I go to the biggest one—a lady. Instead of talking politely, I talk with a Southern accent. We call it “țoapă” in Romanian—that Southern accent, wrong grammar. Instead of proper speech, I used some words in Romanian that are funny. I started to talk in that Southern accent: “I did this and I did that, and nobody wants to give me material. Don’t send me from Anna to Caiaphas—you send me from this manager to that manager. After two days of coming to your factory, just say no!”

The lady looks at me and says, “You are from the south of the country, aren’t you?”

“It doesn’t matter. Do you give me material or not?”

She says, “Are you from? What city?”

I said, “Sebeș.”

She says, “I am from Sebeș. What is your name?”

“Goia.”

She says, “My name is Goia. Who is your father?”

“Pavel.”

“Oh, he’s my cousin!”

“Who is your grandpa?”

“John.”

“Oh, he is the brother of my grandpa! We are relatives! Come in! I am the director of the factory. Come in.”

Okay, I go in. Sit down.

“What do you want?”

“I just told you—I want raw material.”

She says, “Where did you go?”

“All fourteen factories in Bucharest, and they didn’t serve me.”

“No. Sit down.”

Prime Minister’s Connection

She takes the telephone. She was the girlfriend of the Prime Minister of the country. They were together. She calls him and says, “Hey, you don’t see me tonight or tomorrow or the next day or the next day if you don’t help my nephew.”

He says, “Send him with your car.”

She gives me her driver. He sends me to the government—we called it the Central Committee in the communist country. I get there. They open the gates. There are guards, police. I go inside the Central Committee—the communist government—and I go to the Prime Minister.

He invites me in. He says, “Do you want coffee?”

“No.”

“Do you want to smoke?”

“No.”

“Do you want to eat?”

“No.”

“What do you want?”

I said, “Didn’t she tell you?”

He says, “Well, you want cloth to start a factory?”

“Yes.”

“Where did you go?”

“All fourteen factories.”

“Sit down.”

He takes the telephone and calls the first factory: “I’m going to fire you. I’m going to put you in jail. I’ll ruin your life, your family. You give him the best you have. Bye.”

Second factory. Third. All fourteen—he called all fourteen.

Then he says to his driver, “Take the biggest eighteen-wheeler from the government garage—the biggest eighteen-wheeler. Take him with you. Go to all fourteen factories. Make sure that he gets the best.”

From Rejection to Royal Treatment

I go back now to the first factory. First time when I went there two months ago: “Get out!” Now they come to me and they kind of bend: “Mr. Goia, it’s good to see you. Please come in.”

They say, “This is for Romania, but we have good material for Holland, for Germany. Choose what you want—the best.”

I got the best. Went to the second factory. Collected the best they had from fourteen factories. I filled the eighteen-wheeler—55,000 square meters of cloth. Double cloth, rolls and rolls and rolls. The whole eighteen-wheeler was packed.

He drove the truck to our house in the west of the country, in Caransebeș—you don’t know the city.

We got all the machines. We purchased all the stuff. We started to produce products—t-shirts, pants, swimming suits, towels, bed sets, everything. We started to sell, and we started to make money—quite a lot. We got to the point that we could buy a new car every day. We would make 40, 50, 60, 70 thousand a day. And then more, and then more.

Then we got a contract with Germany—another 2.5 million Deutsche Mark a month. It was a lot of money. A lot, a lot, a lot. In that time, a lot. Yes, don’t open big eyes—a lot.

In that time, I was friends with the Prime Minister, the chief of police, the mayor of the city—everybody. Connections, power, influence, money.

When people get a lot of money, their head has a tendency to become a little bigger than normal. I don’t know if you know what I mean. I thought I was kind. I thought I helped people. I thought I was humble. But I was stubborn—worse than a donkey. I was angry. I was stressed. I was fast and short-fused. I would lose my temper in a fraction of a second over anything.

People were slow, and I was fast. I could not stop saying, “I hate stupid people.” I would say, “They are so slow. They never think. I tell them and they don’t get it. That’s the reason they are poor—they are stupid.” And I would go on and on and on.

The Call Returns

In that time, my wife and I started to think about the fact that when I was four years old, God called me to ministry. I’m not going to tell that story because it’s very long—just read my book, One Miracle After Another. Google it and you will see the story.

We remembered that God called me to be a pastor, to serve Him, when I was four. It was a clear call—literally clear. Literally, literally clear. God said, “I want you to be a pastor.”

When I was four, I prayed, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” My father said, “Pray.” So I prayed. I said, “He doesn’t talk.” My father said, “He talks through the Word.” I said, “Give me the Bible.” My father said, “You don’t know how to read.” “Just give me the Bible.”

I took the Bible. I said, “Lord, I’m just a child. Do you have a plan for me? I’m not sure you have a plan because you don’t have plans for four-year-old children.”

I opened the Bible, put my finger down, and said to my dad, “Read here.”

He read from Jeremiah 1:5: “Do not say, ‘I am a child,’ for I have a plan for you. You will speak for Me, and I will put My words in your mouth.”

I said, “Okay, I’ll be a pastor.” Closed the Bible and left.

The Decision

So my wife and I, when we had the business and money, said, “Hey, God called you to serve—not to serve self, but to serve Him.” So we started to build churches. We started to give, to help, to do evangelism, to do Bible studies, to help children in school. We started to invest.

In that time, the conference called me and said, “We want to call you to be a pastor. And we cannot give you so many millions a month. We’ll give you $64 a month.” That was the pastor’s salary. That was a joke—a bad joke. $64 a month.

Now, let me go to the subject.

I accepted. My wife and I talked. We gave the factory away to somebody who lost it in three months because they didn’t know how to run it. Literally. I mean, you need a gift for it—not everybody can do that.

So I went into ministry. Sure, I could not live on $64 a month. And I had times when I was arguing with the conference. Long story short, I’m not going to go there. I could not live on that. I could not agree with everything. I could not do everything they said.

During communism, the communist government would force you to do some things that I didn’t agree with. They said, “If you don’t do it, you go to prison.” I said, “I don’t care. Put me in prison.”

For instance, it was against the law to bring Bibles into the country. I would go to Yugoslavia, get Bibles, hide them under the car, bring them into the country, give them to people. There are many stories behind that.

I went to former Yugoslavia and sold gas during the embargo, during the war. In one day, I made two, three, four salaries. I still had a good life.

The Realization

So let’s go to the subject.

I was a pastor, but I was not trained. People would come to me and ask questions. I was a good politician because I would play around, and they never knew that I didn’t answer their question. They thought I answered, but I never answered. Like politicians—you talk a lot, but you talk around. When they don’t like the subject, they never give an answer. Have you noticed how politicians do it? I was really good.

People would ask me questions, and I would feel miserable that they asked. I would tell them everything except what they asked. And then I said, “You know what? That’s not a way to be a pastor.”

Because a pastor, unless he tells the words of the Lord, is a false prophet. Ezekiel says, “Cursed are the prophets who go before my people and say, ‘This is what the Lord says,’ when I didn’t tell them anything. They present their words as My words, and they are cursed.”

I said, “I cannot go before people to tell them God’s words when God didn’t give me any words. So I need to receive God’s words. I need training.”

The Prayer for School

We started to pray. Our life of prayer started. We prayed that God would send me to school to get educated—so I would know how to answer people’s questions, to learn Greek, to learn Hebrew, to translate from the Bible, to learn Adventist history, church history, all this crazy stuff.

We prayed. We put our car up for sale. We had a Nissan Datsun—anybody know Nissan Datsun? In that time, it was a very good car. Perfect shape. I used to go to Germany, take a car after an accident, fix it myself, use it two years, sell it for ten times the price. That Nissan I bought for 100 Deutsche Mark, used it two years, sold it for 5,000. Yeah, I would make money.

So I had a Nissan. I put it up for sale to go to school.

I applied to all schools in Europe. I don’t know if you know—Newbold in England, Collonges in France, Marienhöhe in Germany, Austria—Bogenhofen, do you know all these schools? I applied to all the seminaries in Europe.

Guess how many answers I got back?

Nobody liked me. I had a big mouth. I was not polite. I was not respectful. Nobody answered back. Even in my letters: “Hey, do you want me in school or not? Give me a straight answer. Don’t play around with me because I don’t like politics.” That was my letter. Nobody answered.

Silence of God

We prayed and we fasted—my wife, not me. We prayed and we prayed. Did it ever happen to you that you pray and get no answer? We prayed for school for one month, two months, three months, four months, five months, six months.

I put my car up for sale to have money to go to school. Nobody called.

I put my car in the newspaper. Nobody called.

I put my car on the internet. Nobody called.

I went to the market, put a big “For Sale” sign, and I dropped the price. Nobody came. “Come on! My car is better than the others. It’s an expensive car. It’s not Romanian junk—it’s a Nissan! Come on!” Nobody came.

In fact, a guy came to buy the car. When he came, he said, “Start the engine.” My car always started. I go to start it—it doesn’t start. The guy left. Then the car started.

He came back. I tried to start the car—it doesn’t start. He left. The car started.

I got angry. I started to hit the wheel of the car. My wife says, “Calm down! You are a pastor now. Calm down! People see you—they think that you lost your mind.”

I was angry with the car.

I came back. The car would not start. The guy left. The car started.

My wife says, “Did it occur to you that God may not want you to sell the car?”

“I want to sell the car.”

“But what if God doesn’t?”

I said, “Okay. I don’t sell the car. I don’t go to school. Let’s go home.”

She said, “You really need to learn patience to be a pastor.”

We went home and gave up on school. I got angry. I got frustrated with God. “I don’t go to school. I don’t care.” Gave up school. Didn’t pray for school anymore.

But God is patient. He shakes His head and says, “You are still stupid.”

The Unexpected Knock

I went home. Gave up selling the car. Gave up going to school. Just did ministry.

And listen to what happened.

Several months down the road—when I didn’t even think or pray for school—a guy knocks on my door. He’s from Timișoara. From Caransebeș to Timișoara—two different cities, 120 kilometers apart. It’s far.

He knocks on my door and says, “Do you still have the Nissan for sale?”

I said, “Are you crazy? It was for sale like eight months ago! How do you know about the car?”

“Well, my wife was starting the fire in the fireplace using old newspapers, and she saw the car ad. And she liked the color.”

That’s what women do—they like the color. You ask them what brand it is, they don’t know. But they know the color. Anyway. No offense.

So he says, “My wife liked the color.”

I said, “But that ad in the paper is eight months old.”

“But do you have the car?”

“Yes, I do. But it’s not for sale.”

“How much do you want?”

“I asked 4,500.”

“I’ll give you the money cash. Give me the car.”

“No. I don’t sell the car. Go away.”

He left.

I don’t know his name. I don’t know his address. I don’t know his telephone. I don’t know his email. Nothing. I don’t know who he is in a city of 1.5 million people in Timișoara. How can you find him?

The Letters Arrive

That day at 2 p.m., in the mail came a letter from Southern Adventist University.

That night, I get a phone call from a friend.

“Hey, Pav!”

“Yeah?”

“I’m Lauren.”

“I don’t know any Lauren. Bye.”

“Hey, Pav! I’m Lauren!”

“I don’t know you.”

“You do know me!”

“No, I don’t.”

“I’m Lauren.”

“I don’t know any Lauren.”

“I’m Laurențiu!”

“Ah, Laurențiu! So, man!”

He said, “Well, you remember we were together in the choir like 13, 14 years ago?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Well, I went to America. I married your cousin.”

I said, “I’m sorry for you. I will pray for you.”

“No, no, no, hold on—”

“I said, I’ll pray for you. I’m really sorry.”

He says, “No, no, no! Hold on a second. We have been impressed by God every day and every night this week that you should come to the seminary here—to school.”

I said, “How do you know that I want to go to seminary?”

He says, “Do you?”

“I didn’t know that God put it in your heart.”

I said, “Yeah, we prayed and we gave it up because God didn’t answer.”

He says, “Where did you want to go to school? In Europe? What if God wants you to go to America?”

I said, “Nah. I don’t like America.”

Yes, I said that.

“Why not?”

“Because on TV, I see that people take drugs, they shoot each other in the streets. I don’t want that.”

He says, “That’s in movies. It’s not real. It may happen one time in Chicago, one time in LA. But if you live in the countryside, you can leave the door open.”

I said, “You’re kidding me.”

Then I said, “It’s too far. Too expensive. It’s impossible to get a visa in our country. Nah.”

He says, “Pray about it.”

I said, “Okay.”

Jeremiah 29:11

So he talks to me. And then the mail comes—a letter from Southern Adventist University.

Now listen carefully.

When I was small, I asked God—when we gave up business a few years before I became a pastor, when I was young—I asked God, “Do you really want me to be a pastor?” And in that morning, the devotional came: Jeremiah 29:11. “I know the plans I have for you.”

My wife and I said, “Maybe God has a plan for you to be a pastor. Let’s give up business and go into ministry.” We gave up business. Went into ministry.

On the day when the letter came from Southern, the devotional in the morning was Jeremiah 29:11.

And in the letter from Southern, at the end of the letter that said, “You are accepted in our seminary,” it was a Bible promise. Guess which one? They didn’t know what I studied that morning. Jeremiah 29:11.

How did it happen that it came twice in the same day? God has a funny way to get your attention. Do you follow me?

In the letter from Southern was Jeremiah 29:11.

My wife says, “Can it be that God sent the man yesterday to buy the car so we have money for the trip to America?”

I said, “Well, it could be. But he left and we don’t know him.”

“Let’s pray.”

We said, “Lord, if you sent that man to buy the car, send him again.”

We finished praying. Somebody knocks on the door.

The guy says, “My wife sent me back. You wanted 4,500 and then you didn’t sell the car. I am offering you 5,000. Just give me the car.”

I said, “Okay. Take it.”

Sold the car.

The Journey Begins

We borrowed a car from my head elder—a junk. A Dacia. A Dacia is a car that has two qualities: goes slow and breaks fast. But anyway.

I got in that car from my head elder and drove the whole night to Bucharest. We got there at 3:00 a.m. at the American Embassy.

There were 967 people. I was 967. The order—they have you pull a number when you stay in line. 966 people ahead of me. I was 967.

By 9:00 a.m. when they opened the American Embassy, the line went around the block, around the block, around the block, around the block, back to the embassy gate. Over 3,000 people in line that day.

Five people got visas that day. My family—four—and another one.

The Interview

To enter the embassy, the fee was $120. The average salary was $60 a month. So it was two months’ salary just to enter. And all of them got negative. They lost the money. Do you follow me? Two months’ salary just to enter the American embassy. You go in, and there were like six windows. People would go and they would say, “No. Next.”

“Oh, please, let me go—”

“Next. No.”

Negative stamp.

“Next. Next. Next. Next.”

Everyone. Everyone. Everyone. Everyone.

My wife said to me—she was outside waiting for me—she said, “Honey, we gave up a powerful business to go to a poor life and be a pastor. But we paid off our house, our car. We have no debt. We have friends. We have power. We have influence. We have a good life. We don’t know English. Please. I really don’t want to move to America and not know English and be in a country that we know nobody.”

I said, “No worries. I’ll take care of it. We don’t go to America.” Like Jonah.

The Unlikely Approval

It was my turn to go to the window.

The American consul—whatever—says, “Where do you go?”

I said, “Uh?”

“What’s wrong with you? This is the American Embassy.”

“Sure.”

“To America?”

He says, “Why do you go?”

“School. Education. To be a good pastor.”

“Why don’t you go to school here?”

“Because our school is not qualified. It’s not good.”

He says, “How do I know that you come back?”

“You don’t know.”

“Do you promise that you come back?”

“No.”

“Then I don’t give you a visa. Thank you.”

I left.

He says—everybody begs for a visa—”Why don’t you beg?”

I said, “Well, I don’t want a visa. My wife doesn’t want a visa. I just came here because I don’t want to fight God. Bye.”

He says, “You are crazy.”

I said, “I know. Everybody tells me.”

He says, “Come back.”

“Why?”

“Tell me again. Where do you go?”

I said, “I told you once. I’m not going to tell you again.”

“Where do you go?”

I said, “The American Embassy. America.”

He says, “Why do you go?”

“School.”

“How do I know you come back?”

“You don’t.”

“No, do you promise?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“What if God wants me to stay?”

“I cannot give you a visa if you don’t promise.”

I said, “Good. Because I don’t want a visa.”

“But you paid $120 to enter.”

“I don’t care about money.”

He says, “Okay. How do I know that you don’t care about money? People go there to make money.”

I said, “Hey. I had a business. I could bury you in money. I gave it up to be a pastor. I don’t need your money.”

He says, “How do you prove that you had a business?”

“I don’t need to prove it. I don’t need you to believe me. I don’t care about you.”

He says, “Promise me that you come back.”

I said, “Nope.”

“I cannot give you a visa. Bye.”

“Come back. Let’s talk.”

“I don’t want to talk.”

He says, “Listen. You go there to go to school, to be a good pastor. You had money. You gave it up to be a good pastor. And you cannot promise that you come back. And you don’t want a visa. But you are here. I don’t get it.”

I said, “Well, God sent me here. I don’t want to fight God. But I really don’t want to move.”

He says, “Ah. I think I’m going to give you a visa.”

I said, “Oh, come on! I don’t want a visa.”

“Well, I give it to you—but not to your family. To make sure that you come back.”

I said, “Good. I’m not going to accept to go alone.”

He says, “Please. Come. Go alone and go to school and be a good pastor.”

I said, “No. Would you go without your children? No. I don’t go either. Bye.”

“Okay. Come back. I’m going to give it to the whole family.”

“You promise that you come back?”

“No.”

“Okay. Have a visa for the whole family.”

“Oh, come on!”

He gave us visas.

Leaving Everything Behind

We purchased plane tickets for everybody. Spent all the money. Had $140 left over. That’s it.

Our neighbors, friends, relatives came. They literally took everything. Everything.

“We don’t have a TV. You have a color TV. Can we have your TV?”

“Take it.”

“We don’t have a bedroom set. Can we take it?”

“Take it.”

“We don’t have a refrigerator.”

“Take it.”

“We don’t have a washer or dryer.”

“Take it.”

Everything—including clothing, including the car. It was just an empty house. They took everything. They said, “You go to America. We are poor.”

I said, “Take it.”

We gave everything. We came like this—no baggage, no money, $140. That’s the way we came.

The Tragedy

My friend Laurențiu said, “I have a business. I’ll pay school for you and rent. Great.”

He came, picked us up from the airport, took us to Southern, paid school for a month, paid rent for a month. He left to go to his business in Baltimore.

In front of the hotel, he had a heart attack. He fell down and died.

They came with the ambulance. They revived him with electric shocks, but he was dead for eight minutes. So he lost his memory. He was unable to walk, talk, or sign. He didn’t know his wife. He didn’t know me. He had to start like a baby, learning everything from the beginning. It took him more than two years to recover. He lost his business. He lost his house. He lost his boat. He lost everything.

Alone in a Strange Land

So I am in a new country. I gave up a big business to be a pastor. Gave up being a pastor in my country to go to America because God sent me to America. I didn’t want America. I get to America. My friend loses everything.

So I am in a new country without money, without English. All I knew was “yes,” “no,” “bye.” That’s it. All the English. In a new country, I know nobody. I eat every three hours, and I have no food.

What would you do if you were me?

Everybody drives cars to school. I walk to school and walk back.

I start going to classes. The teachers speak like Japanese. People in Southern America, when they speak, it’s like they bark. “He lo li ke th is.” You know? They swallow half the words. I understand nothing.

And I hated school. I hated education.

I have to say, I got angry with God. I got so stressed because I used to have money. I used to give, but never take a penny. I was too proud.

The Breaking

I got so much stress that I got allergies from head to toes. Spots on me. Itch. Full. Burning. Like Job. I was scratching, and I was in pain. I could not sleep at night.

I started to cry. I said, “Take my life. I don’t want to live. I don’t want to serve. I don’t want You. I don’t want life. I don’t care. Just take my life.”

I was angry with God.

I prayed, “Lord, please—I didn’t ask for America. You sent me here. Please answer my prayer.”

Nothing.

Why would God allow me to go through that? And two small babies—we came with one in first grade, one in fourth grade. Why would God allow that? Why would God do that to your life? Take your business, take your job, take your house, bring you to a foreign country, drop you there, and leave you to die? Why?

I started to fight God. I started to argue. I would not even pray. I would walk in the night and argue: “Why would you do that? I never asked you for America.”

No answer.

I would go to school. I would go home, open a laptop—first time I had a laptop in my life—and try to learn. “What is ‘b-e’?” It would take me four hours to type one page.

I would go to school, go home, try to learn. Take the first word, go to the dictionary, find the word. Take the second word. It took me four hours to read one page.

I learned literally on my knees by the bed: “Lord, help me learn this language.”

In three months, actually, I took the TOEFL test and passed with the highest possible grade. I was dreaming in English, speaking English, praying in English in three months. But those first three months, I was going crazy.

I went to the doctors. The doctor said, “There is nothing we can give you. All these things are allergies based on stress. We cannot help you. It’s stress.”

The Night of Surrender

One night, I was in bed. I could not sleep. I was itching all over my body. I said, “Lord, take my life or heal me.”

And it occurred to me that I am stubborn. That I am proud. That I make life difficult for everybody around me because I don’t give up. And God wants to humble me and break me in order to use me.

I will never understand people in pain. I will never understand people that are poor. I will never be able to help anybody because I have not been there. I have no feelings for them. God needs to bring me there so I can help people. And I have to give up my life and my health and say, “Do whatever You want. Kill me. I surrender.”

That night, I said, “Lord, I fully surrender. I don’t care if You break me. I don’t care if I don’t eat.”

By the way, it was five days and five nights of no food. Never in my life had I fasted more than three hours. It was five days and five nights without food. I was dizzy. I was unable to walk.

We slept on the floor. We had no furniture.

It was close to Christmas. We got a letter from the school: “We will evict you from the apartment because you didn’t pay.”

We got a letter: “We will expel you from school because you didn’t pay.”

We got a letter: “We will cut electricity because you didn’t pay.”

It was all coming together—bad.

The Garden of Prayer

That night, I said, “Lord, I have no money. I have no food. I didn’t pay the apartment. I didn’t pay school. I have no work. I don’t know English. I’m just broke.”

I started to cry. And I said, “I give up. Do what You want. I don’t care if I die. I just don’t care anymore. Do what You want. I surrender.”

That night, it was the first night I slept after several months.

I remember that morning, I walked to school. By the school, there was a Garden of Prayer, with the trunk of a cut tree and background music. I got by the tree. I put my head on the tree. I started to cry. I broke.

I said, “Lord, I don’t care about school. I don’t care about America. I don’t care about anything. You want me in Africa? I go to Africa. You want me in Yugoslavia? I go. You want me in America? I go to America. I don’t care. From now on, You decide.”

The Touch on the Shoulder

In that moment, somebody came and hit me on the back—a young man, pounding on my back.

It was Dr. Blaylock, the dean of the seminary. Yeah, you know the Clear Word, the Blaylock Bible? Yeah, he’s the guy.

“Young man, why are you crying?”

As a proud guy, I cleaned my eyes. I straightened up.

I said, “I never cry.”

He said, “You are crying, but you are proud.”

I said, “No, I don’t cry.”

He says, “Yes, you are crying. Why do you cry?”

I said, “You are not Catholic, please. So I’m not going to tell you my problems.”

He says, “You are struggling, aren’t you?”

I said, “Well, yeah. That’s my problem.”

He started to ask around. He learned that I didn’t pay school or rent.

The Sermon

That Sabbath, listen carefully. I go to church. Pastor Ed Wright, who is the Georgia-Cumberland president right now, was the pastor of the Collegedale Church. He started the sermon.

Guess what was the Scripture reading?

Jeremiah 29:11.

It was three months later. I knew some English. He started to preach. He said, “I know the plans I have for you.” God has a plan. But God cannot fulfill that plan before He will break you. Because as long as you rely on your wisdom and power, God will never be able to use you. You’ll accomplish nothing. Only when you learn to surrender can God do amazing things through you and make you a blessing.

He was talking to a 4,000-member church. But I felt like he was talking to me.

He said, “When God called Moses, Moses was somebody like Pharaoh’s son. He had a great future. God put him in the wilderness. He lost everything. And then God called him. And Moses said, ‘But I have nothing except a stick, and I don’t even know how to speak.’ And God said, ‘If I call you, I’ll provide. You don’t need to worry.'”

My wife and I looked at each other. We took hands. We said, “You know what? Let’s stop worrying. If God called us, He’ll provide. Let’s stop worrying.”

I got outside from the church. I shook the pastor’s hand. I said, “Thank you for the sermon. Bye.” I went home.

The Knock on the Door

Thursday night, somebody knocks on the door. I open the door. It’s Pastor Wright.

“Come in. Why did you come?”

“Well, you said, ‘Thank you for the sermon.’ I was wondering why. So I went to the school. I found out who you are. And Dr. Blaylock told me that he found you crying in the garden. You remember? And he dug a little around. He learned that you didn’t pay tuition or rent, and you are ready to be expelled.”

He says, “What do you want?”

I said, “Nothing.”

He says, “This is the deal. I’m going to talk to my church, and we will pay tuition for you for one year—if you get straight A’s. When you get a B, we stop paying. If you don’t finish your bachelor’s in one year, we stop paying. So you need to do your bachelor’s in one year.”

He said, “I talked to Dr. Blaylock. He’s going to pay rent and insurance for one year. When you get a B, he stops paying. You need to get straight A’s and finish your bachelor’s in one year.”

I said, “But I don’t know English.”

He said, “We don’t care.”

The Miracle of Provision

I got on my knees. I took 27 credits first semester, 24 credits second semester, 17 credits in the summer, plus the credits I had from Romania. I finished my bachelor’s in one year. Magna Cum Laude.

When the grades came and I saw all straight A’s, I got on my knees. I started to cry. I said, “Lord, I don’t know English. This cannot be my grades. These are Yours.”

Finished in one year. I said, “Lord, it’s Yours. You do what You want.”

Finished praying. I got a call from Andrews: “We want you to come to Andrews.”

I said, “I don’t know. I cannot. I don’t have an apartment. I don’t have money for tuition.”

I get a phone call: Dr. Blaylock says, “We are impressed that you finished in one year. I’m going to pay one year at Andrews—straight A’s, one year.”

Ed Wright calls: “I’m going to pay one year tuition.”

So we got rent and tuition for one year. Went to Andrews. Finished in one year. Praise the Lord.

The Pattern Continues

I could go on and on. Never applied for a green card. I got a letter from the government five days before we finished school: “You have been selected for a green card.” People pay lawyers and thousands of dollars, wait five, six, ten years. We got a green card. We went there, paid $400 for the medical exam, and that’s it. We got a green card.

I never applied to any conference. I finished school. Three days later, telephone from Wisconsin: “We want to hire you.”

I said, “I don’t speak English.”

“We don’t speak Romanian. And we talk on the phone. Come.”

The Lesson

Okay, folks, listen. God may seem not to answer. But He actually answers better than you pray. It’s just that you don’t like it. He’s working on you. And because we don’t surrender, because we have our vision and our plans, we think that because God doesn’t do what we want, He doesn’t answer. But only when we accept His will and surrender can He work.

He has a plan for everybody. If He could have a plan for me—I was crazy. I would stay at the balcony, cut a pen in half, put rice in my hand in the church, and shoot rice at the heads of people who were sleeping during the sermon. I was crazy.

I would take grease and put it on the doorknobs of all my teachers so they could not get into the class. I could not care less.

I would take the button from the doorbell and put a needle there so people would get their finger when they pushed it. I did all types of things.

I would put water in the chair. When the teacher would come, he would sit in the water and be wet.

I would go and put a rope—like a fishing line, thick, clear—around the seat of a bicycle, then unscrew the wheels, and put the other end around a tree. My friends would come from class, get on the bike, the wheels would go, and they would drop. I did all this type of crazy stuff. I never missed ideas.

We went to the mountains. I got jelly jam and put it in every shoe in the night. In the morning, they all had jam in their shoes. I never missed ideas.

If God could turn somebody crazy like me—you know, He can turn anybody. Do you follow me? I’m not going to tell you more what I did because you’d get too many ideas.

One More Story: The Miracle in Cuba

I’m going to give you one more story, short, and we finish.

We went to Cuba two years ago in October. Actually, we’ve gone many times, many trips—mission trips with my church, my former church. I am not there anymore.

We went to Cuba. I told my members: God never changes. He may not seem to answer prayers. There are prayers that you pray and no answer comes. But remember two things:

Number one: When He doesn’t answer—if you pray honestly and humbly—He is working on a better answer than you can envision or expect or pray for.

Number two: When you pray not for yourself but for His work, for saving people, He will always do something. If you really care for others and forget self.

I told my church members when we went to Cuba: You need to surrender and let God’s will happen for yourself. For others, you need to persist as you would pray for yourself and your family.

Three Teams, Three Locations

We went to Cuba. We divided into three teams.

Peter, he’s a doctor, took five people and went to a location where there is no Adventist church.

Randy, another doctor, took a group of five and went to another location where there is no Adventist church.

I took a group of five and went to a location where there is no Adventist church.

Our plan was to start three churches in Cuba—in three locations with no Adventist presence. We got donations from people. I gave everybody $2,500. You have $2,500, you have $2,500, and I have $2,500. This was money to pay the rent, the ads, the transportation, the food, the hotel—everything for evangelism.

I started evangelism. Randy started evangelism. There were three hours between me and Randy, and three hours between Randy and Peter—but six hours between me and Peter.

Peter goes there. Starts evangelism Friday night. I did well. Randy did well. Peter, the eye doctor, started Friday night. Sixteen people came.

Then the police came. They said, “You have no approval. We will arrest you.” They didn’t arrest him because he was an American citizen. But they said, “You cannot do evangelism anymore.”

He said, “We do have approval.” And he showed the papers.

They said, “This is government approval, but you don’t have city approval.”

Anyway, they took his money. He lost the money he paid for the room. They stopped him from doing evangelism.

What Would You Do?

What would you do if you were him?

You know what he did? He called me.

“Can I come and join you?”

I said, “No.”

“But they don’t let me do evangelism here.”

I said, “Didn’t we pray and decide that you go there and start a church?”

“Yes.”

“Stay there and start a church.”

“But it’s impossible.”

I said, “Yes, from a human perspective. But nothing is impossible with God. Pray.”

“We did pray last night.”

“How long?”

“Well, we prayed.”

“Go back and pray.”

He prayed. Then he called me back.

“Can you send me some money?”

I said, “No. If I send you, then I cannot finish. Ask God for money.”

“Well, I cannot pray for money.”

“Oh yes, you can. You don’t pray for yourself. You pray for evangelism. Pray for money.”

He calls me again: “We prayed for money. Nothing happened.”

“Keep praying.”

The Children Pray

While they were praying, the children from those sixteen families joined them in prayer. Then the Cubans joined them in prayer.

While they were praying, somebody comes and says, “You know, you cannot do evangelism without approval if you do it in a public building. But if you do it inside a church—in a different church—you can. You don’t need approval.”

He called me: “I can do it if I do it in a church.”

I said, “Okay. Go and find a church.”

He goes to the Baptist church. They say no.

He goes to the Lutheran church. They say no.

He goes to the Pentecostal church. They say no.

He goes to the Catholic church. He went to every church in the town. All of them said no.

He called me: “I cannot do it.”

I said, “Go back to the first church.”

“I did. Go again.”

“Three times. Go ten times. Go until they get tired and let you in. Go.”

He started again. Every church said no.

He called me. I said, “Go again.”

He goes again—third time—to every church.

The Deal

When he gets to the Baptist church, the Baptist pastor says, “Listen. I’ll make a deal. My roof is broken. It’s raining in the church. We have no money to fix the roof. If you pay for the roof—$2,500—we’ll let you do evangelism in our church.”

Peter calls me: “Hey, I don’t have $2,500.”

“You do. Pray.”

They pray. And he finds the envelope with the money.

He says, “I found them! It seems the police didn’t take them. I have the $2,500, as you gave me.”

In the beginning, I gave everyone an envelope with $2,500. He said, “I found the envelope.”

I said, “Give it to him.”

He gave it to the Baptist pastor. The guy took it. They started evangelism.

The Unexpected Harvest

Now listen.

The Baptist pastor came Saturday night to check him out—to see what he’s teaching. And he said, “I like it.”

So he goes to his church Sunday and says to the whole church—140 people—”You need to come Sunday night and Monday night, because this is something that I never heard before.”

So now he brings the whole Baptist church to listen to Peter.

Do you understand? Why they closed the building and took his building? God allowed it so that… you follow me? Instead of sixteen people, he got sixteen plus 140, plus the Baptist pastor and his family.

The Envelope That Wouldn’t Empty

Now he calls me and says, “Okay, I gave the $2,500 to the Baptist pastor to fix the roof. But I need to pay the Bible workers. I need to pay the hotel every night. I need to pay the food. I need to pay the bus that transports people to evangelism and back home. I need about $300 a day.”

I said, “I don’t have money. Pray.”

He says, “We gave it all.”

“Just leave me alone.”

They prayed. They checked their pockets.

And he finds the envelope—$2,500.

He calls the Baptist pastor: “I’m so sorry. I was supposed to give you the envelope, and I still have it.”

The pastor says, “Are you crazy? I have it! I have the $2,500 in my hand!”

Peter says, “No, I have it.”

The Baptist pastor says, “No, I have it!”

How do you explain that? Now they both have $2,500. How do you explain that?

He takes $300 out of his $2,500. Pays the bus, pays the food, pays the hotel. Then he counts the money. Guess how much? $2,500.

Next day, he pays $300. $2,500.

Next day, he pays $300. $2,000? No. All week—from Friday night to next Saturday night—every night he paid $300. At the end, he still had $2,500.

The Testimony

He called me: “Pastor, you will not believe. I still have $2,500.”

I said, “Can you give me that envelope, please?”

You can call him—Peter Blackburn. He’s a doctor in Lexington. You can ask him. You can ask the whole team of five people. The story is real. This is not made up.

When they finished evangelism, sixteen people got baptized. They started an Adventist church—in the Baptist church.

When he left that Sunday morning the following week and drove to meet us—we would do a little visiting Sunday and Monday, then fly back to America—when he put money in the van for gas, he took it from the $2,500. The money went down.

As long as he used it for evangelism, the money stayed there. When he started to use it for other things, the money started to go down.

When he got to Havana, he had already spent about $100 for sleep, food, gas, and so on.

The Final Gift

I took the leftover money from Randy—about $300. The leftover money from me—about $300. And the leftover money from Peter—$2,300. And I gave it to the Cuban Union. Their salary is about $18 a month. With that money, they hired several pastors for three years in advance—with Peter’s money.

Folks, when you pray and God doesn’t seem to answer, He does answer. But not always the way you pray.

Let’s Pray

Father in Heaven, You never change. You have amazing plans. But we just want answers right now. We want answers the way we want—instead of learning to be humble, to be patient, to be compassionate, to allow You to work Your way in Your time. Help us to learn to surrender and to trust.

Help us to know You, to experience You, to trust You more than we trust ourselves.

Help us all to learn to walk with You and depend entirely on You.

Father, I pray right now. I make an appeal for everybody here—and specifically for the young people. Please touch their hearts to understand that You have a plan for them. To understand that You want to use them—and You can use them in a powerful way. Help them commit themselves to You. Help them learn to pray and to wait and to trust—to trust in You, not themselves.

I pray in Jesus’ name. And thank You.

Amen.

 

 

 

 

One Miracle After Another: The Pavel Goia Story (Part 2)

A 3ABN Today Live Interview with C.A. Murray

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Opening: Viewer Responses

C.A. Murray: Amen! We are back, and we are getting some answers to our homework assignment. Thank you so very, very much.

We’ve got one—the person didn’t give us their name—and they are saying, “A miracle is a thing that is impossible for man to do. Only God can perform.” I think that’s pretty good.

The Bridge Story

C.A. Murray: Now, you didn’t kind of do this, but you’ve got to tell this story. You said that when you told your story of the glass, your father told you a story.

Pastor Goia: Yes. Recount that story, please.

Well, he was selling books—canvassing—and that was against the law. They would catch you, and you would go to prison for the rest of your life, probably. He was avoiding main roads. He and his friend Benjamin would go by the road through the forest. Instead of taking the main bridge where the police could catch them—because people from the previous village, some of them would say, “Hey, there are some people selling religious books”—they had to stay away from the road in order to avoid the police.

So they took a different bridge that was old and narrow, over a gorge, pretty deep, with rocks and water down below. The bridge had pieces of wood—wood boards—and some of them were missing, some of them rotten. Just right now, some of the boards are not totally missing, but you had to be very careful how you stepped.

It was evening. As they were talking, Benjamin, who was walking behind my father and going slow, said, “Pavel, don’t move!” So my father stopped and looked back. “What is it?”

He looked down, and there were like two meters of nothing. The boards were all gone. He had stepped one foot on air, the other foot on air, and now it was one foot on wood still, and the foot behind was still on air.

He told me the story and said, “Probably God told His angels to put their hands under my foot so it would be held.”

C.A. Murray: He said the same God put His angels to hold the glass for you.

Pastor Goia: Wow. Powerful, powerful stories.

The Army Stories

C.A. Murray: So this idea of God standing up for you and showing Himself powerful in your family was not a new thing with you. There was some history with that. But you went to the army, and we’re going to do some of the stuff in just a moment, but you ran into some problems with army service also.

Pastor Goia: Absolutely. There are many of them.

One of them: I remember asking God to wake me up early in the morning so I have enough time to pray. I didn’t want to start the day without prayer. I didn’t have a Bible, but my girlfriend—who is my wife now—would send me letters, and she would write paragraphs from the Spirit of Prophecy, Bible verses, and words of encouragement. I would pray, and God would wake me up early in the morning, like 5:00 or 4:30. I would stay under the blanket because I didn’t want anybody to see me, and with a small flashlight, I would read and pray, read and pray, and spend some time with God. Then I would slowly, under the blanket, get dressed slowly.

When the trumpet would call soldiers to wake up, they would have a short—extremely short—time to get dressed and be in front of the garrison in the front yard. I would always be the first one because I was already dressed.

I remember one specific time: I prayed and said, “God, please wake me up early enough so I can start the day with You.” And God woke me up at 2:30. I said, “Come on, this is too early!” And I wanted to go back to sleep. God spoke in my mind and said, “Didn’t you ask Me to wake you up?” So I said, “Okay then, I’m going to pray, study, and get dressed.” I got dressed, and then I wanted to go back to sleep.

When the trumpet started to sound, they had a drill—it was like a war alarm, just a drill, you know. Everybody was sleepy. Most of them got punished for being late. I was the first one there. They asked me, “What type of reward do you want? A picture with the flag? A few days at home? What do you prefer?” I said, “I’ll take the days at home.”

The Flood Story

Pastor Goia: A different time, there were floods. They called the army to go and pick up the corn because the corn was in the water. I remember that story.

I would wake up early every day, and they didn’t have a clock—an alarm clock. The lieutenant asked one soldier to wake everybody up, but he slept longer than anybody else. So they asked another, then another.

One of the soldiers, his name was Adrian, told the lieutenant, “Goia wakes up early because I asked him. He said God is waking him up to pray. So if you want somebody to wake us up, Goia can wake us up.”

The lieutenant said, “Goia, can you wake us up tomorrow?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What time?”

“5:30.”

“Okay.”

“How do you wake up?” he asked.

I said, “Well, I am praying, and God wakes me up.”

“Sure. Does He talk to you, or would He move your shoulder? How does He do it?”

I said, “Well, you pray, and you’ll see.”

I would wake them up every day. I told the lieutenant every day I worked. Some of the soldiers would get drunk, and some of them would not work. He would come and check, and he would find that on the row that I was on, the corn was picked up faithfully. He would give me as an example every day: “You see how he works? You’ve got to have the same.”

Well, Friday I went to him and said, “Tomorrow I cannot work. It’s my day. I worship God.”

He said, “Go, go away. There is no God in this country.”

I said, “I’m not going to work.”

“Yes, you will.”

“I’m not going to work.”

“Yes, you will.”

C.A. Murray: Now, you’re in the service. This is not like before. You’re under military orders. You’re under order. You don’t say no. You say, “Yes, sir. Yes, sir.”

Pastor Goia: I said, “I’m sorry. I’ve been obeying and respectful and do whatever you say. But tomorrow is God’s day, and He is above you. So tomorrow I cannot work.”

He said, “You will.”

I said, “Respectfully, but I will not.”

He said, “You go to prison.”

I said, “I will. I would rather go to prison.”

He said, “Are you crazy?”

I said, “Well, I don’t know if I’m crazy or not. But I want you to know: I will not work.”

He smiled. He said, “If I let you not work, I can lose my job and my freedom.”

I said, “Well, if you let me not work, the God that is going to take care of me, He’s going to take care of you too.”

He looked at me. He called me aside and said, “Don’t tell anybody. I’m going to let you not work tomorrow. I hope that your God is going to take care of me and my family.” Then he asked me to pray for him. His name was Barbarescu.

The New Commander

Pastor Goia: After a month—no, after two weeks, sorry—he was called back to the garrison. The new one that replaced him—in English it means “Fox”—was sent. That guy was a mean guy, a tough guy. He didn’t care for soldiers. He cared just for himself. He called us names. He would not even carry from work. He would make our life miserable.

He did see that I work. But when I went to him Friday and said, “I don’t work tomorrow,” he said, “What? I know you work every day, but I don’t care that you worked. You work tomorrow. And if you work or not, you’ll be in between the corn like everybody else.”

I said, “I will not.”

“Yes, you will. And I’m going to make you go. And if you go to prison, I’m going to make sure that you have a miserable life, that increases any work, if not, he will beat you to death and give you work. I’m going to make sure that you do that.”

He called me names. He took—I remember an apple—and threw it after me. I said, “I’m not going to work.”

“Get out! Get away!” He didn’t even want to talk to me.

I prayed the whole night. I remember I had in my mind that I would have to make a decision: I go to prison, or I work. I asked God for strength. It was not easy. I made up my mind that I’m not going to work.

Saturday morning, I went to him during breakfast and said, “I want to talk to you.”

“Get out!”

I said, “Whether you listen or not, I’m going to say it. You will ruin my life. I will go to prison. But even if you put a gun to my head and you showed me, I will not work because I love God more than my life.”

He said, “You are crazy.”

I said, “Probably. But you are going to ruin somebody’s life. I will not work. May God be with me.”

He said, “You are crazy, aren’t you? You are serious, aren’t you?”

I said, “Yes, I am.”

“So you are willing to go to prison?”

I said, “Yes, I am.”

He said, “What am I going to do with you?”

C.A. Murray: I need to interject something here. When you talk about prison in Romania in communist times, you’re not talking about lounge chairs and watching TV. Some of our prisons here in the States can be—I haven’t been in prison—it’s rough life. But depending on where you go, you talk about real prison. This is no cakewalk.

Pastor Goia: I have friends—relatives—that went to prison for hiding Bibles. They would be beaten every day. They stayed in prison until the revolution. I have friends that went to prison for not working Sabbath during the army. They stayed in prison 7, 10, 11 years. Beaten. Extremely, extremely difficult life. My cousin was in prison. He lost weight that you would not recognize him. He would wish to die. He would tell you stories you would not even believe.

C.A. Murray: So you knew that was waiting for you. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts. That’s what was going to be.

Pastor Goia: Yes.

He said, “You are serious?”

I said, “Yes, I am.”

He called me to come—it was something like a kitchen, not the cafeteria where everybody was eating. He said, “Listen. Tomorrow you’ll not work, but you’ll do what I’m asking you to do.”

I said, “Hey, don’t touch me either because I’m not going to work.”

He said, “Listen. If I let you not work, the others are going to tell on me, and I lose my job or my freedom. I’m not going to do that for you. But I’m going to find a way that they don’t know. When I call on you tomorrow, you better answer.”

I said, “Can I trust you?” Because I knew he didn’t care for anybody, and you could not count on his word. He didn’t have a word.

He called me names and said, “Get away! If you don’t trust me, then I don’t even talk to you.”

I said, “Well, it’s not that I don’t trust you. But I tell you: don’t tell me to work because I will not work.”

The Test

Pastor Goia: Saturday morning, he asked every soldier to take one row of corn. Then he asked me the last one. So I stood up right in front of the line like everybody else. Now he said, “Soldiers, go ahead straight forward. Start picking corn.” He was waiting to see what I do.

Everybody in line started to walk straight towards the corn to start working. I didn’t move. I stood still.

He looked at me, and after a few seconds, he said, “Go ahead. Come back. I want you to come here and start a fire for me. I’m cold. Pick up the wood and start a fire for me.”

I went to him and said, “I’m not going to start the fire for you.” But by this time, soldiers were already entering between the rows.

He called me names and then said, “Okay, so what are you going to do now? If you stay here, they see that you don’t work. Go. Evaporate. Disappear. I don’t want to see you. Come tonight.”

I walked into the forest, walked until I reached the next village. I asked, “Where is the Adventist Church?” I went to the church. After the church, some church members took me home and gave me good food. After sunset, after they had prayer and everything, I went back to the forest.

He asked, “So, how was your day?”

I said, “It was great.”

He said, “If you say something, I’ll make your life miserable. Don’t tell anybody anything.”

Soldiers would come to me: “He called you back? What did he ask you to do?”

I said, “I cannot tell you.”

“Was it bad?”

“I cannot tell you.”

The Next Commander

Pastor Goia: After a month or so, we went back to the garrison for more instruction. There was a different one that was in the Communist Party—Tofan was his name. He was a mean man. He was shameless, godless, and almost like demon-possessed. He was extremely, extremely bad.

He came to me and said, “I know who you are. I know what you do. I know what you talk. I know what you eat at home. I know every second of your life. I know what you talk in the house. I’ll make you eat pork. I’ll make you drink. I’ll make you work Saturdays. I’ll make you curse God. If not, I will terminate your life—not just your freedom. I’ll make sure that you don’t leave.”

C.A. Murray: Isn’t it interesting how the Lord allowed you to go over this ground again and again and again? How the devil put extremely belligerent, mean-spirited, anti-God people in your path, and yet God proved Himself faithful every time. When you read the book, you almost can’t wait to get through one miracle, one story, to get to the next one because there is this consistent God showing Himself powerful each and every time. So you go from one bad guy to a worse bad guy, now to a worse bad guy. Walk us through that story.

Pastor Goia: I remember my father saying, “The greater the challenge, the greater the miracle—as long as you are in God’s hands.”

Meanwhile, something happened. Soldiers used to steal from the storage room—compasses, shoes, tools—sell them to buy alcohol. They would ask one soldier to guard, to protect, and he himself would steal. Then they would ask a different one. Eventually, my friend Adrian went to them and said, “Goia is honest. Nothing is going to disappear.”

So they asked me to oversee the storage room. When the soldiers would return for fresh socks, I would say, “You bring back the ones that you stole in the morning, and I give you new ones.” So things started to come back, and nothing disappeared anymore.

Then something happened: the driveway was broken. It was paved with nice stones like squares—I don’t know how to call them, very nice. You see old cities—like cobblestones. They didn’t know how to fix it, and I fixed the driveway.

Then I remember the museum. It was a very old garrison built in the 1500s by one of the kings—hundreds of years before. Alexandru Ioan Cuza was the name of the garrison. They asked somebody to fix the museum, and they didn’t know how. So I did it. All the old weapons and swords and things—I covered them in glass, made kind of boxes of glass. I covered all the old inscriptions, and just by God’s grace, I made it beautiful.

Then the thing that holds the curtains over the commander—the chief of the whole garrison—over the door was broken and almost fell on his head, almost hit him. Nobody knew how to fix it, and I did it. There were several things that happened that God used me to help with.

The Final Test

Pastor Goia: Eventually, one Sabbath—during some Sabbaths I would hide in the bathroom; during some Sabbaths I would find a way to escape. One Sabbath, he specifically called me and put me in front of the other soldiers and ordered me to dig a hole in the ground.

I talked to him and said, “Listen, I’ll not do it. Please don’t ask me to do it.” Because if he would ask me privately, it would be a punishment. But he ordered me in front of the whole company—we call it that. That would be a lot worse punishment to disregard his commands.

He said, “I’m going to get you in front of everybody, make you do it. If not, I’m going to get the most difficult, the hardest punishment for you.”

So he asked me to step forward and to dig a hole in the ground and hide from the enemy. There was no enemy, but it was an order. When he said that I should dig a hole in the ground, I didn’t move.

He ordered me again because I didn’t move. He ordered me again. He started to lose his temper. He started to scream, to get foam at his mouth. Angry—extremely extreme anger. He screamed, he said, “You disobey and disregard me in front of the other soldiers! I’ll make you pay for it!”

Screaming, he left us there. He called all the officers of the garrison. He proposed the maximum punishment. During war, it would be capital punishment. However, during peace, it would be 7 to 14 years prison.

C.A. Murray: They just shoot you on the spot in wartime. You just obey an order.

Pastor Goia: Yes.

The Prayer

Pastor Goia: I left the training field, went to the storage room, locked myself inside, and started to pray. In the beginning, I was asking for help to protect me. But as I was praying, it came to my mind that God should be the priority—God’s honor, God’s name. I should ask that whatever happens, He’ll give me strength and peace and faith.

I was praying for faith, and somehow He gave me peace. I remember I started to read paragraphs that my girlfriend sent me and started to sing songs. As I was praying, somebody knocked on the door. It was a sergeant. His name was Ciocănel—I’m sorry, Ciocănel Mariana? It’s a long time. He was a short guy, funny guy.

I opened the door. He said, “Pavel, I want you to be honest with me. Do you know General Voiculescu?”

I said, “I don’t know the general.” He was one of the generals of the four armies of Romania. It was extremely big.

The General’s Visit

Pastor Goia: The general happened to come without announcing to inspect our garrison. When he came to inspect, he visited the museum, and he noticed that it’s all covered in glass. He visited that, and that, and that—all the work I had done. The general was seeing all of this stuff.

C.A. Murray: What you didn’t know—one of the top guys in the country, not just your little unit. One of the four big guys in the whole country.

Pastor Goia: Yes. Then they had a meeting.

The sergeant says to me, “You sure you don’t know the general?”

“No.”

“You don’t know anybody in the Central Committee? The Communist Party?”

“No.”

“You don’t know anybody?”

“No.”

He says, “Wow.”

I said, “Why?”

He says, “This is what happened. The general came from Bucharest. He inspected the garrison, and they wanted to have an emergency meeting to punish a guy. The general said, ‘Before we do that, let’s first get done with the inspection.’ He said, ‘I noticed that you did the museum. Who did the museum?’ They said, ‘Goia.’ ‘I noticed that you fixed the driveway. Who did the driveway?’ ‘Goia.’ ‘What about the storage room? It’s clean and in order. Before, all the shovels were dirty. Right now, they’re clean. Who did that?’ ‘Goia.'”

After they talked about everything, he said, “Okay, who is the guy that you want to punish?”

They said, “This Goia.”

“Why would you punish him? What did he do? Fighting? Getting drunk? Is he against the country? Against the Communist Party?”

They said, “No. He doesn’t get involved in politics. It’s just that he doesn’t work Saturdays. That’s all. The other days, he works pretty hard every day.”

“Is he honest?”

“Yes, he is.”

“Does he do proselytism? Propaganda?”

“Just now and then.”

“Then what do you have against him? Don’t you wish that you had everybody like him? If he’s ready to die for his God, don’t you think that he would be ready to die for his country too? These are the people that never betray us. We should have more people like him. You touch him, you lose your jobs. You touch him, you go against me. Don’t touch this guy.”

The Aftermath

Pastor Goia: The sergeant said, “So you don’t know him?”

I said, “No, I don’t.” It was hard for me to even believe.

After he left, Barbarescu—the guy that was in the first two weeks at the cornfield—came and said, “Pavel, do you know the general?”

I said, “No, I don’t know him.”

“You don’t like—you cannot like—you are an Adventist.”

I said, “No, I don’t know him.” The same story.

Basically after that, lieutenants and captains would come to me and say, “Hey Pavel, don’t you want to go to church?”

“Yes, I want.”

“You are free to go. Don’t you want to go home?”

“Yes.”

“You’re free to go. Just call the general and tell him that we take good care of you.” They didn’t believe that I don’t even know him.

So basically, from that day on, I had the best life among all the soldiers. I ate good food. I would go out anytime I wanted. I would go home anytime. Go to church every Sabbath. They never asked me to work Saturdays again. They would try to protect me so the general would be happy.

C.A. Murray: God answered the prayer of Solomon. He gave you what you wanted and what you didn’t even ask for. Someone took up your cause who you did not even know. That’s how powerful God is. That is an incredible story. I saw that in the book—one of the great miracles in the book.

Musical Interlude

C.A. Murray: I think we’ll stop here while we are catching our breath and go to some music. We’ve got some more of these stories. They are fabulous, and I want to—you just saw that the graphic of the book. Go to your ABC and get it. We don’t push books that much, but this is not just a book. This is the working of God in our life, and it will encourage. The Bible does say that a good report makes your bones fat. So we are fattening ourselves up tonight on some really wonderful stories.

Tim Hobart returns, and this sort of fits in with where we’re going, what we’re talking about—to ask the question, “Who Am I?” Well, we’re God’s children, and when we stand up for Him, He does indeed stand up for us. He does great things.

(Tim Hobart sings “Who Am I”)

Who am I, when I think of all You’ve done?
Who am I, that You would send Your Son?
To suffer shame and such disgrace
On Mount Calvary

Who am I, that You would love me so?
Who am I, that You would want to know?
The very depth of all my needs
And every thought I sow

And still I ask myself the same question
Who am I?

When I think of all the times
I’ve turned away
When I think of all the times
I’ve failed to pray
And still You’re there to take my hand
And lead me all the way

And I’m reminded of these words
That I have ever known
That I could never be alone
Because You love me so
You gave Your life
So I could live forever

Oh, I wonder who I am
That You would love me so
That You would give Your only Son
To fight my battles
Until the victory is won

Who am I?
Who am I?
The answer is
I am Yours

(Applause)

C.A. Murray: Well done, Tim Hobart. “Who Am I?” Very powerful question. We are children of the Most High God.

Free Offer Reminder

C.A. Murray: I want to take just a moment and remind you, as we are halfway through our second hour: “Reach Out for Life”—10 truths from the Bible that will change you forever. Lonnie Melashenko’s work. We would be glad to send this out to you. It is indeed our free offer for the evening. Call us at 618-627-4651. Email us at freeoffer@3abn.org.

The live@3abn.org is for your homework assignment. You can call us in—call us at 618-627-4651 or live@3abn.org for your little homework assignment.

More Viewer Responses

C.A. Murray: A number of you—Janet writes from Trinidad that she was in a coma, on a breathing machine. Doctors said 96% chance of brain failure, not going to live. Her miracle is that she’s alive and well. That’s a miracle from the Lord.

Mary says a miracle is out of the ordinary or unusual results. She says some people get miracles so that God’s purpose is fulfilled.

Rose answered the same questions: “Miracles are a divine work or gift from God. He knows the results will play out for the best. That’s why God does miracles in individuals’ lives.”

Sharon—this is local from Townsville—a miracle is anything that happens beyond logic or reason. Betty from Ohio, I think we looked at before. Jesse had a miracle in her life at a clothing center. Donna from Georgia has experienced miracles in her life.

Here’s another one that we didn’t get a name on, from New Jersey, says that God does these things so that those who do not know Christ will be influenced. And I dare say so that those who know Christ will also be encouraged.

Because these miracles—this series of God inserting Himself into your life—must have really strengthened your faith.

Pastor Goia: Amen.

C.A. Murray: Because you stand up for Him, and each time that He stands up for you, you know that God is there and He’s going to stand up for you again.

The Story of Many Many

C.A. Murray: Greg Budd said to me, “C.A., you’ve got to get Pavel to talk about the ‘Many Many’ story. It’s a chapter in the book.” Do you recall what that one was about? “Many Many”—tell us what that story is all about. That event is Greg’s favorite, or one of the most powerful ones. Walk us through that particular story.

Pastor Goia: Many Many—that’s not his real name. He was a child? No, he was not a child. He was nineteen years old, but he looked like a child because he was short. He had quite a few disabilities. He was handicapped. He was unable to speak well. He was unable to walk well. He would walk sideways, not using properly his right hand and his right leg. From an extremely poor family, he was begging on the streets.

He had many accidents. One time a car hit him by the marketplace. One time a bicycle hit him at the train station. He would not look left or right when he crossed the street—he would just run somehow.

I remember coming from my sister, driving the car to get home. I’m planning to get gas, and the next day morning to go to the conference for the pastoral meeting. It was a crisis in the country. There was no gas. You’d stay in long lines to get gas, and the gas was limited. It was rationed—you’d get so much gas a month. Basically, I knew that if I wait until the morning, I may never get in time to the pastoral meeting. So I’ll have to go now and get gas.

There was no gas station within the town. It would be outside the town limits.

The Dream

Pastor Goia: The night before, I had a dream. Usually, I thought I never dream. I thought just my mom dreams. I would sleep so hard that I probably would not remember the dreams. But that night, I woke up crying because in my dream I hit a child with my car, and he had blood all over, coming towards me. I woke up and I told my wife what I dreamed.

That day, after I got home, my wife was cooking, cleaning. I got in the car and went to the gas station. As I was exiting the city, there are two curves like an S on the road. You cannot see what is behind because of the trees. Everybody was driving extremely slow.

In front of all the cars, there was a horse-pulled wagon, and the wagon was filled up with wood for fire. The horse-pulled wagon was going so slow. No car could pass because they would not see what comes on the other side coming at them. So they would have to wait and after the two curves, finally pass when they had visibility.

I had a stick shift, so I put the car in first or second gear and go slow. I remember after the curves, cars started to pass. When I got to the next one behind the wagon, I passed—changed to second, changed to third gear. There were cars coming from the other direction on this two-lane road. It was a truck that came. When the truck was parallel with my car, from behind the truck, Many Many jumped right in front of my car.

C.A. Murray: So probably after the truck passed, he started to run. Never thought about the car coming directly. Never thought about it.

Pastor Goia: Yes. He didn’t jump two meters ahead or one meter—right in front of the bumper. I didn’t even have time to push the brake. I hit him full force—I never got on the brake at all. Then I pushed the brake, but it was after I hit him. He went up, he came down, and the car, while stopping, hit him again and threw him by the side of the road. He also hit the curb on the side of the road.

C.A. Murray: When you had your dream the night before, did it happen as you saw in your dream, or fairly close?

Pastor Goia: Pretty much as it happened. Exactly.

The Aftermath

Pastor Goia: I didn’t know what to do. I stopped there. A few cars stopped. In that time, if you’d wait for the ambulance—I’m sorry to say—but the pizza car would come faster than the ambulance. They never come. Usually what people did in that time, they would put him in the car and drag him—I mean, put him carefully—and run him to the hospital.

Somebody stopped—I remember an old red car—got him in the car, ran him to the hospital in that town called Reșița because it was a steel factory. From that town, it happened that one of the doctors, one of the physicians, was my neighbor. They looked at him and said, “We cannot deal with him. It’s too—how to say—the damage is too big. Too great.”

So they put him in an ambulance and rushed him to the next city that was bigger, to Caransebeș. There they said, “We should send him to Timișoara, to the biggest city.” However, they said, “It may be too late.”

They did the x-ray. I remember specifically when they put them on a—like a box that has glass and behind the glass some lights that you can see the x-ray. They put the x-ray, and I remember specifically the doctor saying: “Brain hemorrhage. Spine broken in two places. Right lung broken and hemorrhage in his lung. Arm broken. Shoulder and hip both broken. And leg broken in two places.”

C.A. Murray: How fast were you going when you impacted him? Do you have any idea?

Pastor Goia: Around 50 to 55 km/h. But the impact was so strong. I didn’t have time to slow down at all, and I hit him twice.

The other things—the hands, the shoulder, the leg, the hip—they would heal. The problem was the brain, the spine, and the lung—that was the worst. He could not breathe. It was blood in his lung. You could hear him gurgle in his own blood.

They put him on life support. Just a short time, he flatlined—they call it here. Yes, flatline came. They checked his pulse, and he had no blood pressure, no pulse. The heart stopped. They just covered him.

I remember the doctor declaring him dead.

C.A. Murray: Can I ask you at this moment—because I’ve read the end of the story—what were you feeling just now? You hit somebody. Wasn’t your fault, really. But that doesn’t free you from the trauma of having…

Pastor Goia: In the beginning, I was calm. But as time would go by, I started to shake. I started to think about it. I had in my mind that I would rather die myself than to know that I took somebody’s life. I could not bear it. I started to think about me being a pastor and people being so superstitious, you know, and sometimes so much prejudice around people saying, “The Adventist pastor killed that kid.”

I started to pray. I remember one of the doctors—some of them knew me there—and one of them coming and saying, “Pastor, it’s not your fault. Nobody’s going to do anything against you. It doesn’t help to pray anymore. You could have prayed while he was alive. Right now, it’s too late.” There were nurses, there were doctors, everybody trying to save his life. He says, “Right now, he’s dead. Nobody’s going to bring him back. Not even God can bring him back.”

C.A. Murray: Which I don’t agree, because God is the one who gives us life.

Pastor Goia: Yeah. Well, they asked me to leave. They said, “No reason to stay here anymore. He is dead.”

The Night of Prayer

Pastor Goia: I went home, and my wife and I prayed the whole night. We did not sleep a second. We prayed like never before, to the point that I said, “God, if You want, take my life and give it to him. Just please work for Your name’s sake. Don’t let the people who talk against the church blaspheme Your name.”

C.A. Murray: What was the burden of your prayer? Because he’s been declared dead. Are you praying for him? For yourself? That God’s name be glorified?

Pastor Goia: All night, you’re agonizing with God. What’s the focus? What are you praying for specifically?

I was struggling with all of them—all of the above. I was struggling with the fact that I killed somebody. I was struggling with the fact that the church is going to suffer because of me. God’s name is going to be—I don’t know how to say it in English—misrepresented. Dragged in the mud.

I prayed for all of the above. Basically, I said, “God, just find a way that the church is not going to be criticized in the news, in the papers. It’s not going to affect the church, and Your name will not be dragged in the mud. Work in this area.” I pleaded with God and prayed the whole night—literally, prayed hard.

In the morning, I went back to the hospital.

The Miracle

Pastor Goia: He was in the bed, sitting and eating. The doctors were talking that when the man came in the morgue in the morning, he found him sitting on that cold, concrete table. The guy started to run and called others.

They decided that he had clinical death or a very deep coma—I don’t know what you call it. I don’t know what that is. But anyway, he was not totally dead.

The problem they had was the x-ray. They would analyze yesterday’s x-ray and today’s x-ray. They would say, “You can see it here: brain damage and hemorrhage? There is no brain damage here. Broken spine? There is no broken spine here. Broken lung and hemorrhage? There is no broken lung and hemorrhage here.” Yet his bones were still broken—the hand, the hip, the shoulder, and the leg. The life-threatening serious stuff was gone.

Moreover, the big problem was that they could not explain this. He could never talk before. He was a mute. He could not speak. He was a stutterer—he would repeat sounds. You could not make sense. You could not understand him. He was speaking clearly. Nice.

C.A. Murray: So God made him better than before.

Pastor Goia: Glory to God. The Lord repaired him. He improved him for His glory.

The Result

Pastor Goia: The whole town—I mean, the news went so fast. We did evangelism. The church was packed. 44 people got baptized. The whole town was talking.

I remember it was a crisis—you could not find anything. I went to the grocery store looking for oil to cook—canola, vegetable oil. They had no oil. I remember the lady at the cashier called the manager and said, “Can you get for the Adventist pastor some oil from the back, from the storage that we have for ourselves? He can pray for you too, you know.”

C.A. Murray: God truly glorified Himself in that incident. That’s the kind of thing—the kind of empirical evidence that defies logic. That’s a miracle. You got a brain hemorrhage the night before; the next morning it is gone.

I cannot help but say this: The same God that split the sea before and did so many miracles in the Bible never changed. He is here to work for us, to use us, to help us. Many times we don’t even have the courage to ask more than we can do ourselves.

Pastor Goia: Very true. Many times we don’t trust Him enough. It’s like the psalm says—we should ask Him big things, not small things.

C.A. Murray: This is a big thing. I think the focus of your prayer was, “Lord, glorify Your name. Just glorify Your name. Show Yourself powerful in these things.” Of course, when you ask that, that’s the kind of prayer that God’s got to answer for His own glory. What a powerful story.

Everything I’ve read, sir—initially I ran across it again today in preparing for this show—and every time I read it, it sends chills up and down my spine. It makes you so humble that we serve a God who will go to those lengths. This kid was gone, and God brought him back and improved his speech. What a wonderful, powerful witness, testimony for the church and for the love of the Lord. And of course, for our baptisms. That’s proof enough.

A Story Not in the Book: The Grand Caravan

C.A. Murray: I’ve read this book twice—once quite a bit ago, and sort of skimmed through it today. Tell me a story that’s not in the book. Because I know things are happening even to this day, outside of it. This book is one point in your life. Your life goes on. You’re pastoring today, successfully pastoring. Something that’s not in the book?

Pastor Goia: There are several of them. I want to give one that’s a little funny—about our Grand Caravan, about our car.

I remember we decided we are not going to ask God for anything that we don’t use for Him. So if we would buy a car, we would pray that we would use that car primarily for God and then for ourselves. If we get a house, we’d use the house first for God. We would never ask for anything that we cannot use for Him.

For instance, we got our first furniture. Church members would come over, sit on it. Children would jump on the new couch. I would get my ears red. My wife would know when my ears are red, it means I’m tense. She would call me in the kitchen and say, “Calm down.” I would say, “Don’t you see the children? They jump with their shoes on our new couch!” My wife would say, “Don’t we pray that our primary use would be for God? Aren’t these children more important than our couch? Don’t you want to gain their friendship and to save them and their parents more than to save your couch?” I would say, “Honey, you are right.” So my ears would cool down. I’d go back to the living room and just pretend I don’t see it. Some of the parents mentioned it and said, “We cannot believe how much you love our children, how patient you are.” They didn’t know.

The Van Story

Pastor Goia: The same with the car. We got a Dodge Grand Caravan. We prayed that we would use it for God. We basically used it more for my wife’s job, not much for the church. Somehow, the transmission broke. We got a secondhand transmission, paid the labor, paid for the transmission, got it fixed. Just three months later, it broke again.

I hated the car. I mean, who wants to spend so much money? If I sold the car, I would not recover that money. We got a new transmission again—secondhand. Paid the labor again. Fixed it again. I said, “I’m not going to use the car again.” I put it up for sale, hoping somebody would buy it.

I started to pray, “God, help me sell the car. Help me sell the car.” Nobody called. Like everybody knew that my car has a bad transmission. After two months, I put it in the newspaper, put it on Craigslist, put even on the windshield a paper that it’s for sale. Lowered the price. Nobody called.

I got so upset. I remember coming to my mind what my father said: that whatever is not for God should not even exist in our life. That we have no reason to live if we only live for ourselves. It came to my mind: “You want to sell the van, but you do it for yourself.”

I was driving the van from Beloit to change the wipers or something. I started to pray a different prayer. I said, “God, I’m not going to ask You to sell the van. I’m going to ask You one of two things: if it sells, give it to somebody who is going to use it for You. If it doesn’t sell, help me from now on to use it for You first, and then for ourselves.”

I finished the prayer. 15, 20 seconds later, my cell phone rang.

It was one of my church members. She said, “Pastor, do you still have that van?”

I said, “Yes, I do.”

She said, “I want to buy the van.”

I said, “Well, you know that I had some transmission problems.”

“Yeah, I know. I know. Don’t worry about it.”

I said, “Why would you buy the van?”

She said, “I want to drive people to evangelism who don’t have transportation. I have a Dodge Neon that’s a small car. There’s no room in my car. I want to drive children to school. I want to use it for God. I need a van.”

She said, “How much do you want?”

I said, “Well, that’s the price.” But I said, “How much do you have?”

She had this money—about half of my price. I said, “Listen, pay whatever you have. That would be enough.” She was happy, and I trusted the Lord. I was happy with it.

Many years after, the car didn’t break again. In the Lord’s hands, it didn’t break down again.

C.A. Murray: Praise God. That is a fabulous story.

Meeting His Wife

C.A. Murray: I wanted, before our time gets away—because I’m looking at the clock and we’re slipping away—you have talked a number of times about your wife. Tell me a little about her. She must have been a woman of great faith. How did you meet her?

Pastor Goia: This is a long story. I put my eyes on her when she was 3 years old and I was 6. I said, “I like her, and I would like to marry her.” My sister would say, “You don’t know what you talk. You are going to change your mind.”

I kept watching her. When we were—I don’t remember—sophomore, whatever in high school, I started to talk to her. I remember one time I had a handkerchief that I used some spray like Giorgio Armani that I didn’t use. I kept it just for her. I noticed her crying, and I just gave her the handkerchief. Somehow, it got her attention. Smooth guy.

I would purposely, when she would go to school, make sure that I go the same time so we would walk together to school. I started to talk to her about my experience with God. I would say, “What do you study?” She would say, “I don’t study.” I would say, “Do you go to church?” I would tell her what I study—the books from the Spirit of Prophecy, the Bible—and what God is doing for me, how God works in my life and in my father’s life. She would listen.

We got closer and closer friends to the point that we started to meet and study and pray together. She started to study alone and would wake up at his house? No—we would study at the same time. We wake up at 5:30, praying the same time, studying the same time, same book, same chapters. Separately. Then we would meet in the garden of the school and share our thoughts.

C.A. Murray: Praise God.

Contact Information

C.A. Murray: Now, I want to stop you because as good as these stories are, I want to get your contact information up. Because again, you’ve heard this wonderful series of miracles. You may want him to come to speak to your group. You certainly will want to get information on how to get this book. Just a wonderful story, a wealth of information, and really something that will encourage you as you walk with the Lord and meet the struggles of each day, knowing that God is with you.

Should you want to make contact with Pastor Pavel Goia, here is how you can do precisely that:

If you would like to contact Pavel to invite him to your church to speak, you can write to:

Pavel Goia
385 Redding Road, Apt. 177
Lexington, Kentucky 40517

You can also email him at: pgoia777@gmail.com

That’s P G O I A 777 at gmail.com.

Call him or write to him today. He’d love to hear from you.

Homework Assignment Wrap-Up

C.A. Murray: My staff is wondering if I’m going to answer those four questions that we asked at the very beginning of the show. But I think you’ve done a very, very, very fine job with your homework.

I do give you an A. Valentine and Evangeline and Janet and Mary and Rose and Sharon and Betty and Bessie and Donna and No Name and Ann and No Name and No Name and Mary Ann—you all get an A on your homework assignment.

The answer is, of course, when God steps in and does something outside of time and space and the natural order of things—that’s a miracle. The good thing to know is that we serve a God who is as much in the miracle-working business today, tonight, right now, as He ever was. God still works miracles in the lives of men and women. Pavel Goia is case in point.

There are so many stories. He’s got a list here of miracles that is as long as your arm. We could spend hours talking about the miracles of God. But these are not just the miracles of one man. We serve a God who is interested in our salvation and in glorifying His name. When you surrender yourself to Him, I still think the greatest miracle is a person whose life turns from old to new, who puts his life in the hands of God and becomes a brand-new creature. That is a great miracle.

Closing

C.A. Murray: Our time has fast lifted into eternity. Allow me, please, in closing, to wish you grace and peace through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We’ll see you again soon. Bye-bye, and God bless.