How to Pray Effectively
Posted by: ChewYokeChing <ChewYokeChing@...>
By Andrei Yashurin
"Prayer is a contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point
of view. It is the soliloquy of a beholding and jubilant soul. It is the
Spirit of God pronouncing His works good. But prayer as a means to
effect a private end is meanness and theft. It supposes dualism and not
unity in nature and consciousness. As soon as the man is at one with
God, he will not beg". These words of Ralph Waldo Emerson are the basic
framework of what I do believe about an effective prayer.
In essence, we may say that there are two ways people can pray. They can
pray either from consciousness of lack, or from consciousness of
abundance. Answers that we receive are mostly determined not by what we
pray for, but what we pray from.
Most Christians would agree that prayers of Jesus were effective. When
we observe His prayer life as it is described in gospels, we notice that
He was fully aware of presence of the Father in Him, and God's unlimited
abundance all around Him. He never doubted that enough loaves and fishes
to feed the hungry multitude can be brought into existence. He never
doubted that apostles will catch enough fish. He never doubted that a
coin to pay a tax will be found. He knew that invisible divine
substance, under the direction of positive and affirmative faith, can be
brought into visible manifestation as abundance of all things that He
and people around Him needed and wanted.
The same laws that Jesus used to produce marvelous results are available
for us even today - if we will find a way to get hold on them and to use
them. Abundance of God's creative life can be released as wholeness in
our bodies. Abundance of God's substance can be manifested as lavish
provision for all our needs. Abundance of God's intelligence can be made
available for our minds as wisdom and guidance. All these things are our
rightful inheritance in God's kingdom, but we need to stretch out in
faith to receive them. It is done to us according to our faith - faith
in invisible reality of all good we hope for.
The biggest human problem is mental and spiritual sleep. In greater or
lesser degree, people are ignorant of who they are, and what is their
inheritance in God. Being mentally unaware of their Great Source of all
good, they maintain beliefs in lack and separation. When they have needs
and they ask God to meet those needs, they pray from consciousness of
lack and separation. No wonder their prayers so often remain not
answered, which only reinforces in their mind image of a capricious
Deity.
Somewhere, somehow, this mental sleep has to come to an end. "Awake,
sleeping ones! And arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light"
(Ephesians 5:14), writes Paul. God loves us and wants to help us, but He
cannot reward ignorance.
The most effective prayer, therefore, is the prayer for enlightenment.
"Lord, let there be Your light in my mind. Let there be Your light in my
heart. Let there be Your light in my whole life. Here and now, I am
transferred from the darkness of ignorance into the light of true
understanding." As we call for divine light, it will become a tangible
reality for us. Our prayers will become different, and, since they will
be lifted up from an understanding heart, they will produce different
results.
Paul gave a beautiful pattern of prayer four ourselves and for others in
Ephesians 1:15-19:
Therefore I also, hearing of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love to
all the saints,
do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers,
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what
is the hope of His calling, and what is the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His
power toward us".
Before we analyze his words, let us notice that Ephesians were mature
believers. They were not a group of stumbling and falling sinners that
required some sort of fixing. They grew in faith and love. And yet,
there was something more for them - just like there is something more
for us.
The goal of God in our lives is not just to lead us to moral perfection.
It is good, but it is not the best. We are destined to be transformed
into the image of Christ, to be channels of His expression in our world.
This goal is achieved only through realization of our true nature, our
innate potential, or "inheritance". This is what Paul prayed for.
When we know who we are, our prayers, even for ourselves and our needs,
are not "private". They are not circumscribed by our self-centeredness
or by sense of lack. Our eyes are wide open to contemplate reality from
the highest point of view, and to pronounce it good. Being aware that we
are divine sons and daughters, living in abundant word, we boldly claim
our inheritance, which was given not only for us, but for the benefit of
the whole world.
(From Positive Christianity)
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