The Lord is to be the efficiency of every physician. If in the operating room the physician feels that he is working only as the Lord's visible helping hand, the Great Physician is present to hold with His invisible hand the hand of the human agent and to guide in the movements made. The Lord knows with what trembling and terror many patients come to the point of undergoing an operation as the only chance for saving life. He knows that they are in greater peril than they ever have been in before. They feel as if their life were in the hands of one whom they believe to be a skillful physician. But when they see their physician on his knees, asking God to make the critical operations a success, the prayer inspires them, as well as the physician, with strong hope and confidence. This confidence, even in the most critical cases, is a means of making operations successful. Impressions are made upon minds that God designed should be made.... MM 34.5
Although such a prayer may be offered before unbelievers and even infidels, yet it sweeps away the shadow by which Satan has darkened the mind, and when the sufferer is brought through the crisis, truth takes the place of doubt and unbelief. The mist of skepticism that beclouded the mind is dispelled.—Manuscript 26, 1902. MM 35.1