Sister White Offers an Earnest Prayer at the General Conference of 1903

“Heavenly Father, Thou has said, ‘Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’ Heavenly Father, we need Thy Holy Spirit. We do not want to work ourselves, only as we work in unity with God. We want to be in a position where the Holy Spirit of God shall be upon us with its reviving, sanctifying power. Wilt Thou manifest Thyself unto us this very morning! Wilt thou sweep away every mist and every cloud of darkness!

“We come to Thee, our compassionate Redeemer; and we ask Thee, for Christ’s sake,--for Thine own Son’s sake, my Father, that Thou wilt manifest Thy power unto Thy people here. We want wisdom; we want righteousness; we want truth; we want the Holy Spirit to be with us.

“Thou hast presented before us a great work that must be carried forward in behalf of those that are in the truth, and in behalf of those that are in ignorance of our faith; and O Lord, as Thou hast given to every man his work, we beseech of Thee that the Holy Spirit may impress the human mind in regard to the burden of work that should rest upon every individual soul, according to Thine appointment. We want to be proved; we want to be sanctified through and through; we want to be fitted up for the work; and here, right here in this session of the conference, we want to see a revelation of the Holy Spirit of God. We want light, Lord,--Thou are the Light. We want truth, Lord,--Thou art the Truth. We want the right way,--Thou art the Way.

“Lord, I beseech of Thee that we may all be wise enough to discern that we must individually open the heart to Jesus Christ, that through the Holy Spirit He may come in to mold and fashion us anew, in accordance with the divine image. O my Father, my Father! Melt and subdue our hearts. We desire this morning to make an entire surrender to Thee; we desire to give up our will, our way, our course of action that hast not been in harmony with the way and the will of God; we desire to accept the Lord’s way, the Lord’s will, the Lord’s counsel. Come, oh, come into the midst of us this very morning, and move upon hearts young and old. In a special manner move upon the heart of those who are handling gospel truths, that they may all be lighted up with the bright beams which Thou dost permit to shine upon Thy Word, in order that Thy instruction may come to the human understanding with the power and the Spirit of the living God.

“We acknowledge before Thee that we have not honored Thy name as we should. We acknowledge before Thee that we need to be broken in heart. We desire just now to be reconverted; we desire just now to realize what Christ is to us, and what we are and can be to Him as His coworkers,--‘laborers together with God.’

“O my Father¸ let every soul that is confused, every soul that cannot understand and see the way, have the way presented before him so clearly that the mist will be removed, and that the cloud will pass, so that the Sun of righteousness may shine into the chambers of the mind and into the soul-temple. Wash us, and we shall be clean, Lord. Let melting mercy, mercy from Thee, come into every heart; and then, when we realize the melting mercy of a compassionate and loving Saviour, our hearts once more united, will beat in unison, and all will stand shoulder to shoulder in advancing the great work.

“We cannot afford to be indifferent, Lord; we cannot afford to work contrary to one another. We must trust in Thee; and we ask, this very morning, that Thou shalt let the Holy Spirit descend upon us. We are ready to receive the Comforter; we open the door of the heart, and invite the Saviour in. We love Thee dear Saviour; Thou knowest that we love Thee. We see in Thee matchless charms, and we desire that every soul shall constantly look unto Thee,--Thou who art the Author and the Finisher of our faith.

“Come, Lord Jesus, and come and take us as we are, and put upon us the robe of Thy  righteousness. Take away our sins. Our Saviour, Thou didst come to the earth to do this. We repent of wrongdoing; we are sorry from every departure from Thee; and we ask Thee to pardon our transgressions, that we may show to the world that we have a Saviour who is able to take away our sins, and to impute unto us His own righteousness.

“Lord, we accept Thee now; we receive Thee now; we believe in Thee now; and we ask Thee to let Thy Holy Spirit rest upon us just now. …O my Saviour, Thou who hast shown compassion to us all, again we ask Thee to grant unto us a rich portion of Thy mercy, Thy fullness, Thy compassion, Thy everlasting love. Come Lord Jesus, and make us partakers of Thy divine nature, that we may overcome the corruption that is in the world through lust. Oh, may the Spirit of Christ, the love of God, comfort every heart this morning! Banish darkness, turn away the deceptive powers of the enemy, and let Thy voice and Thy Spirit and Thy love come into our souls, that we may sit together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus; and Thy name shall have all the glory. Amen.”—General Conference Bulletin, April 2, 1903. (Emphasis mine).