Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn and welcome again to 00:00:31.24\00:00:33.87 Issues and Answers. Today the issue is prayer and 00:00:33.91\00:00:36.47 we've got some answers for you because we have invited back 00:00:36.51\00:00:39.55 Pastor Pavel Goia. Pastor it is so wonderful to have you return. 00:00:39.59\00:00:45.78 Thank you much for inviting me. 00:00:45.81\00:00:47.87 You know I was so impressed the very first time I met you when 00:00:47.90\00:00:52.37 we talked on the Today program. I was so impressed by the many 00:00:52.41\00:00:56.82 answers to prayer that you've had and God has really trained 00:00:56.86\00:01:02.87 you up to teach you how to pray his will and his way. Now what I 00:01:02.90\00:01:08.09 would like for you to do in this program is share the story of 00:01:08.12\00:01:13.28 how you and your wife came from Romania. 00:01:13.31\00:01:16.78 We used own a business in Romania. It is a different story 00:01:16.82\00:01:24.32 a very profitable business when God opened the door for me to be 00:01:24.36\00:01:29.37 called in ministry. That was a call that God gave me since I 00:01:29.40\00:01:35.68 was five years old. So I was hired as a pastor. I went to the 00:01:35.72\00:01:40.82 seminary in Romania but I felt that I am not trained enough. 00:01:40.85\00:01:46.38 Our seminary was not accredited. I was praying that God would 00:01:46.42\00:01:51.49 give me the opportunity to get good training to know how to do 00:01:51.52\00:01:56.40 a good work, a good job for God. So my wife and I started to pray 00:01:56.44\00:02:01.28 for a school. We sent applications to several schools 00:02:01.32\00:02:04.80 in Europe, Colognes, Newbold, and so on and so forth but with 00:02:04.84\00:02:11.77 no answer. So eventually we placed it before God and we said 00:02:11.80\00:02:17.19 if you want us to go somewhere to be trained in ministry, you 00:02:17.22\00:02:22.19 will open the door for us. We determined a week of prayer for 00:02:22.22\00:02:26.40 school and to let God work the way he wants and we will accept 00:02:26.43\00:02:30.57 his will. After a week of prayer, Saturday night, around 00:02:30.60\00:02:36.92 11:30 I got a phone call from America. Now America never 00:02:36.95\00:02:42.41 crossed my mind. In fact, in Romania they educated us 00:02:42.45\00:02:46.69 through the TV to believe that in America it is horrible. 00:02:46.73\00:02:50.94 You will get your kids taking drugs every day and if you go on 00:02:50.97\00:02:54.23 the streets in the night they will shoot you and it just is 00:02:54.26\00:02:57.75 not safe. it's horrible; it is the worst country. So it never 00:02:57.79\00:03:02.35 crossed my mind to come here. Well when my friend called me 00:03:02.38\00:03:06.91 and said, Paul how are you doing? I said, Who are you? 00:03:06.94\00:03:09.57 and he said, I am Loren. I said, I don't know any Loren. He said, 00:03:09.61\00:03:14.37 why don't you remember? We used to be in the choir together. 00:03:14.40\00:03:18.30 He used to be my friend and 13 years before he called me 00:03:18.34\00:03:22.29 we used to sing in the same choir in the church. So 13 years 00:03:22.33\00:03:26.61 later he called me from America and he says, I'm here. I am 00:03:26.64\00:03:30.13 married with your cousin. I have a powerful business in 00:03:30.17\00:03:34.04 construction and this week we could not sleep every night 00:03:34.08\00:03:37.82 after prayer. You would come in our mind and God impressed us 00:03:37.86\00:03:42.62 to call you. We thought since you are a pastor, what about 00:03:42.65\00:03:47.26 you come here to attend a school? And I said, You know I 00:03:47.29\00:03:51.82 was praying for a school. How did you know? He said, I didn't 00:03:51.86\00:03:55.21 know. God just impressed me to call you here. And I said, I'm 00:03:55.25\00:03:58.66 afraid to come there. They say that if you come there it is not 00:03:58.70\00:04:02.08 safe. He said, Oh those are movies and stories. It is very 00:04:02.11\00:04:05.08 safe, it's very nice. So he said You pray and if God wants you 00:04:05.11\00:04:09.94 here, God will solve all the other problems and provide 00:04:09.98\00:04:14.73 everything. Well we started to pray. Meanwhile he went to 00:04:14.76\00:04:19.79 Southern Adventist University, put in the papers, applied for 00:04:19.82\00:04:24.82 me and in our previous meeting last time we talked about 00:04:24.85\00:04:30.63 Jeremiah 29:11- I know the plans I have for you. Well I 00:04:30.66\00:04:36.37 remember one morning my wife and I were studying the Bible and 00:04:36.40\00:04:40.97 our study was right from Jeremiah 29. We finished our 00:04:41.00\00:04:45.47 study and that day we got in the mail a letter from Southern 00:04:45.51\00:04:51.12 Adventist University. They said you have been approved to come 00:04:51.16\00:04:56.69 this fall and start here in the school of religion. At the end 00:04:56.72\00:05:00.98 of the letter, I still have the letter, they put the Bible 00:05:01.02\00:05:06.72 promise, it was Jeremiah 29:11. So we knew that it would be 00:05:06.75\00:05:11.38 almost close to impossible or almost impossible to get a visa 00:05:11.42\00:05:16.54 to come to America. I remember we went to the embassy, drove 00:05:16.58\00:05:21.10 about seven hours that night, and went there early in the 00:05:21.14\00:05:25.59 morning; it was around 3 A.M., when the line was already going 00:05:25.63\00:05:29.01 around the block and then again around the block and then again 00:05:29.04\00:05:33.98 around the block. I was number 956 in line. I mean that morning 00:05:34.02\00:05:38.93 five people got visas, my family four and another one. 00:05:38.96\00:05:42.81 I remember that morning before leaving... 00:05:42.84\00:05:46.78 Now wait a minute. I almost missed that point. Out of 956 00:05:46.81\00:05:50.57 people there were five who got a visa and it was you and three 00:05:50.60\00:05:55.13 members of your family, that made up four, and only one 00:05:55.17\00:05:58.11 other person. I don't know how many got a visa 00:05:58.15\00:06:01.10 after me but so far before me. And it was very nice that 00:06:01.13\00:06:08.75 morning, every day we would read from a devotional book, a Bible 00:06:08.79\00:06:13.64 verse and then a short paragraph with a story or an explanation. 00:06:13.67\00:06:17.71 And since the day that we got the letter to the day we sent to 00:06:17.75\00:06:21.75 the embassy was, I don't remember, more or less two 00:06:21.79\00:06:25.22 months, that morning the devotional was based on 00:06:25.25\00:06:28.61 Jeremiah 29:11 again. And my wife said, I bet you get the 00:06:28.65\00:06:33.03 visa. And she said, I don't want to move and start life all over 00:06:33.07\00:06:36.97 again and I don't know English. We should not move. We have all 00:06:37.01\00:06:40.88 we need here. Well we got to the embassy, and this is the 00:06:40.92\00:06:45.88 nice part. I got inside and people were pleading with them, 00:06:45.91\00:06:50.61 please let me go and visit my children, or please let me go 00:06:50.64\00:06:54.78 and visit America. And they would say No, next one in line. 00:06:54.82\00:07:00.19 I got to the window and the consul, I don't know how you 00:07:00.23\00:07:05.53 call him, he says, Why do you go to America? And I said, I want 00:07:05.56\00:07:10.02 to go to school. Why do you need school. Well I want to be a good 00:07:10.06\00:07:14.49 pastor. Well you can go here to school. I have been already 00:07:14.52\00:07:18.47 here to school. And he says, How do I know that you don't go 00:07:18.51\00:07:22.25 there to get a good life. Well I had a powerful business. I had 00:07:22.29\00:07:26.47 a good life and I gave it up to be a pastor. And he says, How 00:07:26.51\00:07:30.13 do I know that you come back. I said, You don't know. But can 00:07:30.17\00:07:33.72 you prove. I cannot prove. But can you promise. I cannot 00:07:33.75\00:07:37.27 promise. Then I don't give you a visa. Then I don't need it. 00:07:37.31\00:07:40.80 I'm sure he wasn't used to hearing that. 00:07:40.83\00:07:45.17 And he said, don't you beg me? And I said, No, if God wants me 00:07:45.20\00:07:48.97 to go, I will get a visa. If God doesn't want me to go, I really 00:07:49.00\00:07:52.74 don't want to be there. He stopped for a while and he said 00:07:52.77\00:07:57.92 So you go to school to be a good pastor and you don't know if you 00:07:57.95\00:08:01.26 come back. Listen if you promise me that you come back, I give 00:08:01.30\00:08:04.58 you visa. I said, I cannot promise you. Then I don't give 00:08:04.61\00:08:07.81 you visa. Then I don't need visa. So I turned around. 00:08:07.84\00:08:10.96 He said, No, no, no, wait, don't leave, come back. He says, 00:08:11.00\00:08:13.94 aren't you sorry that you don't go? I said, Well I just 00:08:13.98\00:08:16.85 explained to you. I want to go where God wants me to, I want 00:08:16.88\00:08:20.87 to do what God wants me to do. And he says, Promise me that 00:08:20.91\00:08:24.87 you come back. I said, Listen, if God wants me to go, at that 00:08:24.90\00:08:28.82 time there was war in Yugoslavia, if God wants me to 00:08:28.86\00:08:31.26 go to Yugoslavia, I go there. If God wants me to stay in Romania, 00:08:31.30\00:08:34.53 I stay here. If God has a work for me in America, I stay there. 00:08:34.57\00:08:38.00 How could I promise you before I know God's plan. I said, just 00:08:38.04\00:08:40.94 God knows his plan for me and he didn't show me all the plan. 00:08:40.98\00:08:44.55 He just showed me what to do today. And he said, I give you 00:08:44.58\00:08:48.31 visa for you. Go alone. I'm not going to go without my family. 00:08:48.35\00:08:51.91 So he finally said, Listen, I'm going to do something that I 00:08:51.94\00:08:55.47 don't usually do. I give you visas for all your family. 00:08:55.50\00:08:58.22 Go and serve God as you say. So I got outside. I told my wife 00:08:58.26\00:09:02.35 we got visas. And she says, No way. I don't want to leave. 00:09:02.39\00:09:06.83 Now what happened, I'm going to tell you how God usually 00:09:06.86\00:09:11.24 sometimes confuses us. You know that sounds a little strange but 00:09:11.27\00:09:16.89 it's not strange. When God called Moses to serve him, Moses 00:09:16.93\00:09:22.76 actually had to go in the wilderness first. When God 00:09:22.79\00:09:25.38 called Joseph to serve him, Joseph had to go to prison 00:09:25.42\00:09:27.94 first. So God says you will be the head of your family and in 00:09:27.98\00:09:33.05 fact he becomes a slave and then goes to prison. We got here and 00:09:33.08\00:09:37.98 my friend Loren had a cardiac arrest and he was dead for seven 00:09:38.01\00:09:42.31 minutes. They brought him back with electric shocks, but he 00:09:42.35\00:09:47.29 lost his memory, his home, his boat, his business, everything. 00:09:47.33\00:09:52.16 So he who promised that he would be the sponsor could not provide 00:09:52.20\00:09:57.00 anymore. So here we are in America. We don't know English. 00:09:57.03\00:10:01.96 We don't have a sponsor and we get a letter from the apartment 00:10:01.99\00:10:06.55 that if we don't pay we have to move out. So I started to cry 00:10:06.58\00:10:11.33 and pray. God did I ever ask you to bring me here. I said, Why 00:10:11.36\00:10:15.82 would you do that. So my wife and I started to really pray 00:10:15.85\00:10:20.95 and say, God we place our lives and our future in your hands. 00:10:20.98\00:10:25.11 If you can use us now you got to do it because we don't know what 00:10:25.15\00:10:29.24 to do. I went to church and Pastor Ed Wright, Dr. Ed Wright, 00:10:29.28\00:10:36.06 he was preaching, and the scripture reading was from 00:10:36.10\00:10:39.10 Jeremiah 29:11. My wife took my hand and she just squeezed my 00:10:39.14\00:10:44.13 hand. She said, This is for us. He spoke about Moses, when God 00:10:44.16\00:10:48.04 called Moses and Moses said I don't know the language and God 00:10:48.08\00:10:51.42 said, Who made the tongue? And Moses said, I have nothing 00:10:51.45\00:10:54.72 except this stick. And God said if I send you I will take care 00:10:54.76\00:11:00.03 of you. So my wife said, God will provide for us. I remember 00:11:00.06\00:11:05.30 we left home that Thursday. Pastor Ed Wright visited us 00:11:05.34\00:11:10.19 and also that week Dr. Blanco, the dean of the religion 00:11:10.23\00:11:14.25 department at that time, he found me praying and claiming 00:11:14.28\00:11:18.23 in the garden of prayer in front of the school. He said, Young 00:11:18.27\00:11:22.31 man why are you crying, and I said, I am not crying. He said, 00:11:22.35\00:11:28.25 Oh you are crying but you are to proud to accept it. So I tried 00:11:28.29\00:11:34.16 not to complain. So I said, well we can go through some 00:11:34.19\00:11:36.73 challenges. And I told the same to Pastor Ed Wright. I said we 00:11:36.76\00:11:40.13 go through some challenges. It took me about one hour to 00:11:40.17\00:11:42.68 explain to him because I refused to explain. I didn't want to 00:11:42.72\00:11:45.75 complain and I didn't know much English so I talked more with 00:11:45.78\00:11:49.37 my hands than my mouth. But I told him, Hey, my sponsor had an 00:11:49.41\00:11:54.34 accident and we just try to find out how to work and how to 00:11:54.38\00:11:59.81 survive. Well, God provided to the point that we finished 00:11:59.85\00:12:05.75 school debt free and with a lot of miracles, a lot, many 00:12:05.79\00:12:11.62 miracles. So that's the story of how we got here through God's 00:12:11.65\00:12:15.60 will and power and help. 00:12:15.63\00:12:17.37 You know, I'm thinking, in Jeremiah 29 and verse 11 the 00:12:17.41\00:12:22.72 Lord says, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper 00:12:22.75\00:12:25.92 you, to give you a hope and a future. But let me read, and I 00:12:25.96\00:12:29.36 know you're aware of this, but I want to read verses 12 and 13. 00:12:29.40\00:12:32.77 He says in Jeremiah 29 and verse 12: Then you will call upon me. 00:12:33.77\00:12:38.71 When? Here God says I know the plans I have for you, then you 00:12:38.74\00:12:43.65 will call upon me. That seems like a reverse order to me 00:12:43.68\00:12:47.30 somehow. And as I was studying this I realized when we know 00:12:47.34\00:12:50.62 that God has a plan for our life and it's better than the one 00:12:50.65\00:12:54.36 we're living, then we call upon him. That's what you were doing. 00:12:54.39\00:12:58.30 Whatever your plan is. He says, Then you will come and pray to 00:12:58.34\00:13:02.79 me. I will hear you. Then you will seek me and you will find 00:13:02.82\00:13:07.57 me when you seek me with all of your heart. That's what you and 00:13:07.61\00:13:12.01 your wife with this promise from the time you were five years old 00:13:12.05\00:13:16.42 when you heard that pastor in church say that God had a plan 00:13:16.46\00:13:20.55 for your life, when your father told you it was even for little 00:13:20.58\00:13:24.52 children, you knew God had a plan for your life and there was 00:13:24.55\00:13:28.82 a call on your life to be a pastor. So God really did teach 00:13:28.86\00:13:34.33 you from early childhood on how to seek his will. Now with this 00:13:34.36\00:13:39.89 beautiful story, Pavel, let me ask you this question. I look 00:13:39.93\00:13:45.43 and I am talking with so many people. There are so many 00:13:45.46\00:13:49.88 problems with the way most people pray. Can we discuss some 00:13:49.92\00:13:54.48 of that? When you see how many people pray what are some of the 00:13:54.52\00:13:59.04 things that we have backwards in the way we're praying? 00:13:59.08\00:14:02.36 There are several points that we usually emphasize in prayer 00:14:02.39\00:14:09.19 and usually the Bible prayers have a different common point. 00:14:09.22\00:14:16.20 We could go through them one by one. The first on is we usually 00:14:16.23\00:14:23.24 go to God and in a lazy way we ask God to do our job; the job 00:14:23.27\00:14:29.11 that God specifically gave us to do. This is an important 00:14:29.14\00:14:34.02 point for me because I used to, for instance, say please 00:14:34.06\00:14:38.86 help the poor, be with the sick and help the gospel go forward. 00:14:38.90\00:14:44.52 God gave us the poor, asked us to visit the sick and to preach 00:14:44.55\00:14:48.98 the gospel. Why would I ask him to do it instead of asking him 00:14:49.02\00:14:53.41 to give me the power and strength to do the job he gave 00:14:53.45\00:14:57.34 me? Amen, to equip and not only to 00:14:57.38\00:14:59.25 give us but to pray. Jesus said pray for the harvesters to go 00:14:59.28\00:15:02.93 into the fields. So we need to pray for our self to be equipped 00:15:02.96\00:15:06.26 by God and that he will equip others and send them into the 00:15:06.30\00:15:09.56 fields. That's good. For instance, I went on a 00:15:09.60\00:15:13.62 mission trip to Romania and I was giving the prayer seminar 00:15:13.65\00:15:18.88 in the west of the country, in two places, two cities where I 00:15:18.91\00:15:23.88 gave in the west of the country the prayer seminar. After I 00:15:23.91\00:15:28.65 specified this first point, we should not ask God to do what 00:15:28.69\00:15:33.39 he has asked us to do. The pastor comes and says so you 00:15:33.42\00:15:38.16 mean that we need to go out and help. I said, absolutely. 00:15:38.20\00:15:42.77 We are channels of blessings. We need to let those blessings 00:15:42.81\00:15:47.55 go to others too. And he said well let's go in the community 00:15:47.59\00:15:51.86 and bless people. So he got the youth, a team of about 20 or 00:15:51.90\00:15:56.14 more youth and they went into that neighborhood, those 00:15:56.17\00:16:00.39 apartments and they started to visit people, pray with them 00:16:00.42\00:16:04.87 and share some food, some boxes of food. They got in an 00:16:04.91\00:16:09.28 apartment where a lady, and it was January, it was cold, a lady 00:16:09.32\00:16:14.72 that was in an apartment without heat, without a couch, without a 00:16:14.76\00:16:20.13 mattress, without blankets and three small kids. They were 00:16:20.16\00:16:25.57 sleeping together to warm each other, freezing and no food. 00:16:25.61\00:16:29.93 He came back and he said we could give them food but we 00:16:29.97\00:16:34.12 don't have the money to give them a couch and blankets and 00:16:34.15\00:16:39.23 a stove and wood and everything. Now $100 goes a long way in 00:16:39.26\00:16:43.88 Romania. I had with me some money and God inspired me to 00:16:43.91\00:16:48.46 get my hand into my pocket and instead of buying some souvenirs 00:16:48.49\00:16:52.75 for my friends here now to help that lady. So I gave them the 00:16:52.78\00:16:56.85 money. I said, Let's go and buy a stove, buy some wood. They 00:16:56.88\00:17:01.54 split the wood and then I said let's get a bed and a mattress 00:17:01.58\00:17:06.19 and some blankets and then the food. That lady was crying, 00:17:06.23\00:17:10.53 hugging them endlessly. I mean she would not stop hugging and 00:17:10.57\00:17:14.81 crying and thank you, thank you, thank you, and this is what is 00:17:14.84\00:17:19.34 the miracle. Next day the lady called all eight apartments from 00:17:19.38\00:17:23.59 that building in her room and said, These young men are going 00:17:23.63\00:17:28.05 come again to teach me how to pray. I want you to come to see 00:17:28.08\00:17:32.12 somebody who helped me. So all eight families came into her 00:17:32.15\00:17:36.23 small living room and when the young men from our church went 00:17:36.26\00:17:40.03 there they started to give them Bible studies actually. I don't 00:17:40.06\00:17:43.79 know, I didn't follow up the study how many got baptized. 00:17:43.82\00:17:45.89 God gave us a work. It reminds me of what John said 00:17:45.92\00:17:52.57 in 1 John. He said, Let us not just love in tongue but in 00:17:52.61\00:17:57.11 action. It's going out and meeting the needs of the people 00:17:57.15\00:18:01.01 letting them see the Jesus in you. Because Jesus healed the 00:18:01.05\00:18:05.72 sick, he ministered to the poor. When we go out and share and 00:18:05.75\00:18:10.18 people see the love of God being reflected through us, that's 00:18:10.21\00:18:14.58 what draws men to Jesus isn't it? Absolutely. So that's a 00:18:14.62\00:18:18.12 wonderful first point. What's another point about prayer? 00:18:18.16\00:18:23.21 Another point, we usually when we pray, we complain a lot. 00:18:23.24\00:18:28.12 This is my problem, please God help me and we just keep 00:18:28.16\00:18:32.20 focusing on the problems and the more we focus on the 00:18:32.23\00:18:36.20 problems the more problems we have. The more we focus on the 00:18:36.23\00:18:39.79 problems the more desperate and discouraged and depressed we get 00:18:39.82\00:18:43.34 and we have a wonderful God. We have an amazing God. If we 00:18:43.38\00:18:48.54 would know just a drop of how God is, we would present our 00:18:48.57\00:18:53.70 problems and then focus on promises and repeat those 00:18:53.74\00:18:58.73 promises back to God. And get to know who God is and praise 00:18:58.76\00:19:03.19 him for his love, because God knows how to help us, God can 00:19:03.22\00:19:07.55 help us and he wants to help us. So we should just praise for 00:19:07.59\00:19:11.47 what he is about to do, for what he promises he will do, for the 00:19:11.51\00:19:15.36 fact that we trust his love and his power and spend time 00:19:15.40\00:19:18.94 praising him. You know, this is something that 00:19:18.98\00:19:21.30 I teach, Pavel, and I don't know if you've seen Exalting His Word 00:19:21.33\00:19:25.68 but Isaiah 55 verse 11 the Lord says actually, My word will not 00:19:25.71\00:19:30.21 return to me void but will accomplish every, every purpose 00:19:30.25\00:19:34.68 for which I sent it. And he says in Jeremiah 1:12, I am watching 00:19:34.71\00:19:38.83 over my word to perform it. So I believe so much that as we 00:19:38.87\00:19:43.11 get into the word, let the Lord speak to us, because he tells 00:19:43.15\00:19:47.15 us 2 Corinthians 1:20, All of his promises are ours, yes and 00:19:47.18\00:19:51.06 amen in Christ Jesus. So when we come back and say Lord you said 00:19:51.10\00:19:54.94 this promise was mine and I trust you. I believe what you 00:19:54.98\00:19:58.34 have said. So Lord, here's the problem but here's the promise. 00:19:58.38\00:20:01.83 So I'm just praying this promise to you and I thank you for it. 00:20:01.87\00:20:05.95 It's amazing. It builds your faith because you're trusting, 00:20:05.98\00:20:10.02 leaning not on your own understanding but on what the 00:20:10.06\00:20:13.77 Word says and as you trust in God and that faith, he honors 00:20:13.81\00:20:18.63 that faith. You know it says Hebrews 11:6, Without faith it 00:20:18.67\00:20:23.46 is impossible to please God. So Amen. 00:20:23.49\00:20:27.19 God honors our faith and we honor him by trusting his love 00:20:27.23\00:20:31.49 and wisdom. For instance, and I'm going to give a nice story 00:20:31.52\00:20:36.10 here. I love that story, it's an amazing story. I wanted to buy 00:20:36.14\00:20:40.69 a motorcycle. I was in high school. So my father said, I'm 00:20:40.72\00:20:44.47 going to put half of the money if you work and you come with 00:20:44.50\00:20:48.48 the other half. He taught me how to cut glass. I had a glass 00:20:48.52\00:20:52.58 cutter than my father bought for me and I started a small 00:20:52.61\00:20:56.63 business. But in Romania I was not allowed to own a business. 00:20:56.66\00:21:01.02 It belonged mostly to the state being communist. So I would go 00:21:01.05\00:21:05.37 to the work, however, after the expenses, the state would 00:21:05.41\00:21:09.72 take more than half of the profit. They got a lot of money 00:21:09.75\00:21:13.98 from my business. But they wanted me to go Saturday to work 00:21:14.01\00:21:18.17 and they said if you'll work not just during the week and Sunday 00:21:18.20\00:21:22.20 but you'll go Saturday, we'll get a lot more profit. 00:21:22.24\00:21:24.86 Now for some of our viewers they may not understand; why were you 00:21:24.89\00:21:28.73 not working on Saturday? 00:21:28.76\00:21:30.15 Well, because I believe that Saturday is the date, I call it 00:21:30.19\00:21:36.79 date, I don't call it day. For me when I date my wife, I was 00:21:36.83\00:21:42.72 dating my wife, that was my best time. Saturday is when God is 00:21:42.76\00:21:48.39 dating me. When I got this time he sets time aside to meet with 00:21:48.42\00:21:53.79 me and I'm not going to miss that meeting. It's my time when 00:21:53.82\00:21:59.15 I meet with God and spend time with him. 00:21:59.18\00:22:01.05 So you were honoring the fourth commandment of the ten 00:22:01.08\00:22:05.07 commandments; Remember the Sabbath, which was the day that 00:22:05.10\00:22:08.85 God blessed and sanctified the seventh day and set it apart 00:22:08.88\00:22:13.53 for worship with him. So for this purpose you weren't working 00:22:13.57\00:22:18.18 on Saturdays but not the Romanian government who owns 00:22:18.22\00:22:21.61 more than half of your business or takes more than half of your 00:22:21.64\00:22:24.61 business, they are coming to you and even though your business 00:22:24.65\00:22:27.70 they're earning a lot of money on you they're saying hey you're 00:22:27.74\00:22:30.80 you're not working on Saturday. That's one of our high traffic 00:22:30.84\00:22:33.48 business days and they're trying to force you to do that. 00:22:33.51\00:22:36.12 What happened? So I used to go to the storage 00:22:36.15\00:22:39.62 house to get more glass boxes. One Saturday and back up for 00:22:39.66\00:22:47.38 a second, that Friday the president of all business in 00:22:47.41\00:22:50.55 that county came to me. He was a communist party member and he 00:22:50.58\00:22:54.62 said if you don't come this Saturday to work, I'm going to 00:22:54.66\00:22:58.73 put you in prison. That Saturday he went to the storage house 00:22:58.76\00:23:02.88 and he got three boxes of glass that were in the rain for more 00:23:02.91\00:23:07.58 that two years and the glass was all destroyed. It was like all 00:23:07.61\00:23:11.26 the sheets were like welded together that you could not use 00:23:11.29\00:23:14.87 them and cracked. The wood frame was totally rotten. He placed it 00:23:14.91\00:23:21.06 in front of my store and he said since you are not here I placed 00:23:21.09\00:23:26.33 it there but you are not here to work and to cover it, so look 00:23:26.37\00:23:31.07 how its ruined. So he pretended that I ruined the glass that was 00:23:31.10\00:23:36.26 already ruined from before. The law said that if you miss more 00:23:36.29\00:23:41.42 than 10,000 value in your account, you go to prison and 00:23:41.45\00:23:46.59 that glass was worth 14,000 and I did not have 14,000 to pay. 00:23:46.62\00:23:51.41 So he knew that I am just a kid and I will not be able to pay 00:23:51.45\00:23:55.21 the money so I will go to prison and instead of going to prison 00:23:55.25\00:23:59.02 I will just work Saturdays. And he came to me and he said, I got 00:23:59.06\00:24:02.80 you now. You choose between freedom or work Saturdays. 00:24:02.84\00:24:06.56 Well I went home and spent a lot of time praying and asking 00:24:06.60\00:24:11.76 God to actually help me and give me the freedom. The more I 00:24:11.79\00:24:16.12 prayed the more worried I was. Go to prison or pay the money. 00:24:16.15\00:24:21.83 How do I get that type of money? I was still young. I talked to 00:24:21.87\00:24:26.50 my father and my father said listen, the subject is not you 00:24:26.53\00:24:31.13 going to prison. The mark is last day life for God. 00:24:31.17\00:24:34.48 The subject is how is God going to be honored through this 00:24:34.52\00:24:38.55 story? Focus on God, don't focus on yourself. 00:24:39.55\00:24:43.22 What a wise father you had. Yes, yes, wonderful. 00:24:43.25\00:24:46.85 He said don't put your problem in the center. This problem is 00:24:46.89\00:24:50.77 nothing in the great conflict. Put God's glory in the center. 00:24:50.80\00:24:54.64 Try to focus on his promises. Try to trust what he is about 00:24:54.67\00:25:01.00 to do for you. So I didn't get much of what he said, but okay. 00:25:01.03\00:25:07.13 So I prayed different. I said, God, I know you know, I know you 00:25:07.16\00:25:12.98 care, I know you can. So I just trust you and I praise you. 00:25:13.01\00:25:18.06 And I started to read the Bible promises from Psalms and from 00:25:18.09\00:25:22.97 Isaiah. And sure enough, the more I would read Bible promises 00:25:23.00\00:25:27.85 the more joy I would have and before I was like almost 00:25:27.88\00:25:30.82 depressed. What am I going to do? I will go to prison. Now I 00:25:30.85\00:25:33.73 had joy like things were already solved. 00:25:33.76\00:25:36.04 Exactly. Romans 4:17 is what it reminds me of and I always 00:25:37.04\00:25:41.89 connect that with the promises. Romans 4:17 says, God is the God 00:25:41.93\00:25:47.17 who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as 00:25:47.21\00:25:50.04 though they already were. So that faith was building up in 00:25:50.07\00:25:52.78 you. You had joy because you knew God was going to fulfill 00:25:52.81\00:25:55.49 his word. And I had no clue how. I assumed 00:25:55.52\00:25:58.41 in my mind that we will to court and I will win but I had 00:25:58.44\00:26:02.35 no clue what God was about to do. So Monday I went to work. 00:26:02.38\00:26:06.70 When I went to work I begged him, I said please don't ruin 00:26:06.73\00:26:10.42 my future. Let's find a way. I will work harder during the 00:26:10.45\00:26:13.89 week. And he says, No! You come Saturdays. And then he said 00:26:13.93\00:26:19.61 listen I allow you to transport them back to the storage and if 00:26:19.65\00:26:24.98 you manage to do that you are free. He knew that the boxes are 00:26:25.02\00:26:29.89 rotten and they would break and I would have to pay. So I got 00:26:29.93\00:26:35.24 the crane and a driver. When he put the cables around the boxes 00:26:35.27\00:26:40.27 and he started to lift up the boxes and then to rotate to put 00:26:40.30\00:26:44.18 them in the truck. When they were in the air, three boxes of 00:26:44.22\00:26:48.38 glass, seven tons of glass, seven tons, the bottom of the 00:26:48.41\00:26:53.19 boxes broke and the glass slid out, swoosh, just went out. 00:26:53.22\00:26:57.30 I didn't have time to say anything, not even please God 00:26:57.33\00:27:01.34 help me. The glass stopped in the air, hanging that you could 00:27:01.38\00:27:07.73 literally do that under or above The president of the businesses 00:27:07.77\00:27:14.09 was there, the secretary was there, the driver, myself and 00:27:14.12\00:27:17.56 many other people. We were shocked. So he lowers the glass 00:27:17.59\00:27:21.94 back in the boxes and he said you are free to go; just don't 00:27:21.98\00:27:26.30 curse me. Glory to God! You know some 00:27:26.33\00:27:29.87 people who are listening to this may think that is a miracle. 00:27:29.90\00:27:33.37 Indeed it was a miracle. Pavel, our time is already gone and I 00:27:33.40\00:27:36.43 know you could tell stories all day. But thank you so much for 00:27:36.47\00:27:39.46 being here today and you're going to be back. 00:27:39.50\00:27:41.50 Thank you for inviting me. 00:27:41.53\00:27:42.90 Amen, Amen. For those of you at home I hope this is doing to you 00:27:42.93\00:27:47.91 what it is doing to me and that's inspiring me and building 00:27:47.94\00:27:50.59 my faith. May the Lord multiply his mercy, love and grace to you 00:27:50.62\00:27:55.69