The High Priest

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Ten Days of Prayer 2018! We are so thankful that we can start this year with prayer. God has worked many miracles in past years as we sought
Him in prayer and fasting. The Holy Spirit has wrought revival, conversions, renewed passion for evangelism, and healed relationships. Truly, prayer is the
birthplace of revival!
We believe your life and the lives of those you pray for will be changed as you join fellow church members in praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father has promised to give to those who ask Him. Read the responses of those who participated in the last Ten Days of Prayer:
SHADRECK CHARUMBIRA were present every night after. Toward the end of Ten Days of Prayer,
“Thank you! Our congregation has been revived, and we have witnessed they spoke with the first elder about their plans to marry soon and follow
great unity where there was once division. We have seen Christ in the the Lord. Please keep them in prayer. Every night of these ten days was a
heavenly sanctuary, and our prayer is to continue to abide in Him. Unity is blessing. We followed the nightly outline supplied, with the addition of
the marked answer to prayer we’ve seen so far, and I will send other one item. We read episodes from the Scriptures from the life of Christ
individual testimonies as they come.” from the Last Supper to the Resurrection. Every night was Spirit-filled.
There were nights when we had a total of 40 in attendance, with 20 of
GWEN PAKUA, SARAKOLOK KIMBE, WEST NEW BRITAIN
them being visitors from the community. We felt the presence of God,
PROVINCE, PNG
“Thank you for the wonderful program. I was elected assistant prayer and I know people were praying for us during that time. May God
ministry leader in our little church. We started our program with a continue to pour out His Spirit on His church.”
Sabbath of fasting and prayer, then Ten Days of Prayer began on DORIS JOHNSON, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, USA
Wednesday. We had a good membership attendance. In answer to our “The Ten Days of Prayer was a blessing. We experienced the outpouring
prayers, our local mission appointed a pastor for our congregation, after of the Holy Spirit upon our speakers, participants, and all who called in on
several years of not having one. Please pray for me and our little church!” the prayer line. Callers were from five different states and varied
denominations. We thank God for using this ministry to reach many souls
DANNY MOONIE, DES BARRAS, ST. LUCIA
“Our church arranged for a bus to pick up church members nightly for for His kingdom.”
Ten Days of Prayer. This particular driver had often brought members to BEAULITY DUBE
our usual Sunday and Wednesday night services, then he would return to “What a wonderful experience I had during the Ten Days of Prayer. I
pick them up afterward. On the first night of our program, someone prayed for the Lord to provide my school fees—I had no idea where they
invited the driver to remain for the service. He did! That night he went would come from. We serve a living God! My request was answered the
home and shared his experience with his fiancée and encouraged her to second day, and I will forever praise the Lord for His faithfulness to His
attend the next night. They both attended the following evening and people.”

Our Prayer Theme: Our High Priest

During Ten Days of Prayer 2018, we will examine the apparel of the Old Testament high priest to see what we can learn for our lives.
We read in The Desire of Ages: “Everything worn by the priest was to be whole and without blemish. By those beautiful official garments was represented the
character of the great antitype, Jesus Christ. Nothing but perfection, in dress and attitude, in word and spirit, could be acceptable to God. He is holy, and His
glory and perfection must be represented by the earthly service. Nothing but perfection could properly represent the sacredness of the heavenly service” (The
Desire of Ages, p. 709).
Everything that the priest wore and did was intended to leave a certain impression upon the people: “Everything connected with the apparel and deportment
of the priests was to be such as to impress the beholder with a sense of the holiness of God, the sacredness of His worship, and the purity required of those
who came into His presence” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 351). During these days of prayer, we will discover some spiritual lessons symbolized by the priest’s
garments.

SUGGESTED GUIDELINES FOR THE PRAYER TIMES

• Keep your prayers short—just a sentence or two on one topic. Then give others a turn. You can pray as many times as you’d like, just as you talk in a
conversation.
• Do not be afraid of silence, as it gives everyone time to listen to the Holy Spirit.
• Singing songs together as the Spirit leads is also a huge blessing. You do not need a piano for this; singing acapella is fine.
• Rather than using up valuable prayer time talking about your prayer requests, simply pray them. Then others can also pray for your requests and claim
promises for your need.

Claiming the Promises

God has given us many promises in His Word. It is our privilege to claim them in our prayers. All His commandments and counsels are also promises. He would
never ask from us something that we could not do in His strength.
When we pray it is so easy to focus on our needs, our difficulties, our challenges—and to wail and whine about our situation. This is not the purpose of prayer.
Prayer is meant to strengthen our faith. That is why we encourage you to claim God’s promises in your prayer time. They will help you take your eyes off
yourself and your weaknesses and set them on Jesus. It is by beholding Him that we become changed into His image.
“Every promise in the Word of God is for us. In your prayers, present the pledged word of Jehovah and by faith claim His promises. His word is the assurance
that if you ask in faith, you will receive all spiritual blessings. Continue to ask, and you will receive exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think” (In
Heavenly Places, p. 71).
How can you claim His promises? For instance, when praying for peace, you can claim John 14:27 and say, “Lord, You have told us in Your Word, ‘Peace I leave
with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’ Give me the peace that You
promised to leave with us.” Thank the Lord that He is giving you peace, even though you may not feel it right then and there.
We have created a document, “Promises to Claim in Prayer,” with different promises that you can claim. Have the promises nearby when you pray. Claim
God’s promises in your private and public prayers.

Fasting
We encourage you to do a Daniel Fast during these ten days. Starting the year with prayer and fasting is a great way to consecrate our lives to God for the
upcoming year. Ellen White tells us, “Now and onward till the close of time the people of God should be more earnest, more wide-awake, not trusting in their
own wisdom, but in the wisdom of their Leader. They should set aside days for fasting and prayer. Entire abstinence from food may not be required, but they
should eat sparingly of the most simple food” (Counsels on Diet and Foods, pp. 188, 189).
We know about Daniel, who ate fruits and vegetables for 10 days. We likewise encourage you to adopt a very simple diet during these ten days. A simple diet
that leaves out sugar, processed and refined foods, and sodas can benefit us on different levels. First, eating simply means less time needed to prepare food
and more time available to spend with the Lord. Second, the simpler our diet, the easier it is for the stomach to digest it, and the clearer our minds will be. We
all know that sugar beclouds the frontal lobe, the center of our thinking. If we want clearer minds for hearing God’s voice, and if we want to draw closer to Him,
we need to make sure that our diet is not hindering us.
Fasting is not only about abstaining from food. We also encourage you to fast from TV, movies, computer games, and even Facebook and YouTube. Sometimes
things that are not bad in themselves, like Facebook and YouTube, can take so much of our time. Put aside everything possible so you can have more time to
spend with the Lord.
Fasting is not a fast way to obtain a miracle from God. Fasting is all about humbling ourselves so God can work in us and through us. “For certain things fasting
and prayer are recommended and appropriate. In the hand of God they are a means of cleansing the heart and promoting a receptive frame of mind. We
obtain answers to our prayers because we humble our souls before God” (Medical Ministry, p. 283).
Let’s humble ourselves before God and search for Him with all our heart, mind, and strength. Let’s draw closer to Him through prayer and fasting, and He will
draw closer to us.

Holy Spirit
Be sure to ask the Holy Spirit to show you how or what you should pray for in a person’s life or in a particular situation. The Bible tells us that we do not know
what to pray for and that the Holy Spirit is the One making intercession for us.

“We must not only pray in Christ’s name, but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This explains what is meant when it is said that the Spirit ‘maketh intercession
for us, with groanings which cannot be uttered.’ Romans 8:26. Such prayer God delights to answer. When with earnestness and intensity we breathe a prayer
in the name of Christ, there is in that very intensity a pledge from God that He is about to answer our prayer ‘exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or
think.’ Ephesians 3:20” (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 147).

Faith
We read in the Spirit of Prophecy that “prayer and faith will do what no power on earth can accomplish” (The Ministry of Healing, p. 509). We are also
encouraged to pray and have faith that God heard and will answer our prayer.
“Christ says, ‘Ask, and ye shall receive.’ In these words, Christ gives us direction as to how we should pray. We are to come to our heavenly Father with the
simplicity of a child, asking Him for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says again, ‘When ye pray, believe that ye receive the things ye ask for, and ye shall have
them.’ You are to come to the Father repenting and confessing your sins, emptying the soul of every sin and defilement, and it is your privilege to prove the
promises of the Lord. . . . We are to believe the word of God; for the test of character is found in the fact that you are building yourselves up in the most holy
faith. You are proved of God through the word of God. You are not to wait for wonderful emotions before you believe that God has heard you; feeling is not to
be your criterion, for emotions are as changeable as the clouds. . . . While on earth, we can have help from Heaven. . . . for I have tested God a thousand times. I
will walk out by faith, I will not dishonor my Saviour by unbelief” (Review and Herald, Oct. 11, 1892, par. 1, 3, 6).
We are also told that “for any gift He has promised, we may ask; then we are to believe that we receive, and return thanks to God that we have received”
(Education, p. 258). So make a habit of thanking God in advance through faith for what He is going to do and how He is going to answer your prayers.
Pray for Seven
We encourage you to pray during these ten days in a special way for seven people whom you would like to see experiencing a “life more abundant.” They can
be relatives, friends, coworkers, neighbors, or simply acquaintances. Take some time and ask God whom would He like you to pray for. Ask Him also to give you
a real burden for these people.

Unless otherwise noted, Bible texts are quoted from the New King James Version (NKJV). Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Text marked NIV is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Text marked ESV is taken from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights
reserved.

Text marked KJV is from the King James Version.