Bob and I shared a room with two double beds at a ministers’ meeting in Colorado some years ago. In the middle of the night, I dreamed that my wife, Janet, was in the other bed. Still sleeping, I got up and walked across the room to the other bed and stood looking down at Bob in the darkness of the night.
Sensing my presence, he awoke, and so did I. Bob has a great sense of humor and, with a smirk, he said, “Jerry, I won’t tell a soul!”
Looking back, I realize how often in life I have thought I was awake when I was really asleep. Romans 13:11, 12 has become deeply meaningful to me: “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.”1
Over the years, I have discovered that God is constantly trying to awaken me. And whenever I start spiritually “sleepwalking,” He plans spiritual awakenings. I believe this is also true for all Christians and the church as a whole.
This past summer, Janet and I were enjoying our ministries of leadership with the Central California Conference. While attending the General Conference session of the world church in Atlanta, Georgia, Pastor Ted Wilson, the newly elected president, sent word that his team wanted to call both of us to join the Ministerial Association.
This certainly was a wake-up call for our lives and ministries. Through an intense process of seeking the Lord, He made it clear we were to accept the challenges that lay ahead.
But this was not my first wake-up call.
First wake-up call
I grew up in the home of an ordained Adventist minister and an Adventist school teacher. Both of my parents loved serving the Lord, but somehow I did not come to know Jesus or have assurance of salvation when I was younger. While they were doing their ministries, I chose to stay home and watch television.
My activities were rebellious and destructive. Soon I was kicked out of three Adventist academies, was involved in using and selling drugs, and just wanted to be completely free of anything that had to do with church or religion.
As a young adult, I attended a state college in Denver, Colorado, hanging out with other rebels, studying pre-law, and doing whatever I wanted to do.
But God had a huge awakening planned! My parents realized I was in big trouble and called everyone they knew to pray for their lost son.
One Saturday night, after an all-day drug experience, my girlfriend and I talked of how much we hated people and why we were not happy. But during that conversation, somehow we came to realize that the only people who had cared for us unconditionally were Adventist Christians.
Our parents sent a young pastor—himself a recovering alcoholic— to talk to us. We slammed the door in his face; but he left his card, saying, “You will need me some day, and when you do, call me.”
That night we remembered what we had been taught growing up and reasoned that the way to real joy was love. We decided to give Jesus a chance. What a life-changing wakeup call that proved to be!
Six months later, after the love and acceptance of a wonderful group of members in a small church, I enrolled in Andrews University to study for the ministry. While studying, I became deeply involved in working for others.
At Andrews, the Lord awakened me to the power of small group ministry, outreach activities, claiming His promises, praising God, and the true assurance of salvation that comes with the gospel in Jesus.
Second wake-up call
Another awakening came in southern Illinois, while serving in my first pastoral district. I was assigned two small churches about 100 miles apart. In a town halfway between them stood a church building but no organized congregation. The conference leadership wanted to plant a new church.
Young and aggressive, I set out to try and do it all. Preaching, visiting, Bible studies, starting a church school, being present at as many church activities as possible, found me asleep at the wheel on many occasions.
By the time I received a call to another conference, those two churches were growing and a new church was organized. But I realized I had not pastored according to biblical principles. I had not been training or discipling the members.
In Colorado, I determined to follow the “priesthood of all believers” model and train and equip the members for ministry. Understanding, then teaching about spiritual gifts, was a huge awakening in that church and in my ministry.
When the conference asked me to train members in various kinds of ministries, I gladly agreed. For the next five years, God continued to open my eyes to new insights and directions.
Third wake-up call
One of Jesus ’ greatest awakenings for me happened in Pennsylvania. I first served as the conference’s ministerial and personal ministries director and executive secretary, then as president.
Janet and I knew people were praying for us because wherever we went, they kept telling us. The members had been challenged at a camp meeting to pray at 6:15 for leaders to have the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We would politely say, “Thank you,” not realizing the true power of united prayer for leaders.
It took a while. First, Janet was sensing the joy of the Holy Spirit moving in her heart. I was resisting and feeling I did not need a call to a deeper prayer life. I was the president and thought I was already a very spiritual leader. I did not need help from others.
The reality was that over the previous several months, Janet’s new love and prayer experience with the Lord was beginning to irritate me and cause some guilt.
During a prayer conference elsewhere, God finally grabbed my attention. Janet was responding to the Holy Spirit’s call in her heart and moving forward in her new experience. In a quiet moment, I silently asked God, “If she is so spiritual why does she have such bitterness towards this woman who has treated her badly?”
The next morning, the Lord impressed Janet of this lingering sin. Afraid but determined to obey, Janet called the woman. God gave Janet the grace and words to ask the woman for forgiveness for how Janet had mistreated her. Then she came back to our room and asked my forgiveness for some things as well.
When I realized what the Lord had just done, my walls of resistance came tumbling down like the walls of Jericho!
Prayer, both alone and united with others, is life changing. I learned to take much more time alone for prayer in the morning. God showed both of us new and wonderful ways to praise and pray as we grew closer and enjoyed our time with Him more and more. This profound and challenging quote from Ellen White has guided me to some of the most meaningful and productive times in my Christian and pastoral journey:
In the midst of this maddening rush, God is speaking. He bids us come apart and commune with Him. “Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10.
Many, even in their seasons of devotion, fail of receiving the blessing of real communion with God. . . . With hurried steps they press through the circle of Christ’s loving presence, pausing perhaps a moment within the sacred precincts, but not waiting for counsel. . . . With their burdens they return to their work. These workers can never attain the highest success until they learn the secret of strength. They must give themselves time to think, to pray, to wait upon God for a renewal of physical, mental, and spiritual power.2
Our General Conference president, Ted Wilson, reminds us that Ellen G. White says that a revival of true godliness is our greatest and most urgent need, and it will come only in answer to prayer.3
Revival and reformation are only possible for me when I spend personal time with Jesus, and allow Him to abide in me constantly throughout the day. He promises each of us the Holy Spirit, that we can ask anything in His name, He will cause us to bear fruit to the Father’s glory, and our joy will be full (cf. John 15:7, 11).
Revival and reformation in our churches begin the same way—connecting with Jesus together. As in Acts 6, when you and I focus on prayer and the ministry of the Word, the church will flourish. In the past 20 years, I have witnessed and experienced the power released when God’s people unite and pray together in one accord.
Looking ahead
Our ministerial team is dynamic. We deeply appreciate the foundations laid by Nikolaus Satelmajer, Peter Prime, and James and Sharon Cress. Now, as Derek Morris, Robert Costa, and Janet and I join the team, we long to really understand the Lord’s heart for the future.
Certainly, we want to do practical training in the areas of ministry and develop many resources to help ministers in their work. However, our first priority is to connect with Jesus ourselves and seek His counsel because His vision is so much bigger and better than ours alone could ever be!
We are already taking time individually and as a team to pray for God’s leading, asking to experience where He is working and join Him in His work. We also plan to hold a three day spiritual and planning retreat soon, to listen to Him, study, pray together, and seek His vision priorities for us in our work. From personal experiences, we know this will lead to ministries and powerful leadership we could never plan or dream up through talk and time spent searching in our own human ways.
In the 777 initiative, we ask you to join us in a call for all Ministry readers to pray seven days a week, at 7:00 a.m. or p.m., to pray for the Holy Spirit to fill us, our families, our leaders, and our churches. Uniting together, around the world in every time zone, to seek the outpouring of the latter rain is amazing!
As you pray at any hour on the hour, you will be joining in unity with thousands of others around the globe that have committed to pray at 7:00 in their time zone. As Jesus said, “ ‘Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven’ ” (Matt. 18:19).
Janet and I look forward to meeting you in the coming months and years. Please pray for us and we will pray for you. Also, please send in ideas and suggestions you feel would be of help to you and our friends in ministry around the world. We hope some of you will send stories of God’s answers to prayer and His work in your life and ministry.
When you are tempted to wonder if your ministry is doing any good or if you will make it, remember the words of encouragement from the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:57, 58: “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
1. All scripture references are from the New King James Version.
2. Ellen G. White, Education (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1952), 260, 261.
3. Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, vol. 1 (Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1958), 121.
