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a sports event. Even when all humans are in agreement that something should be done to alleviate a disastrous condition, their request may be but a shortsighted solution and counterproductive in the long run, in the whole scheme of things in time and space.
We have been given a body, a mind, a spirit, an evolving soul, and many supportive personalities to enable us to lead a fulfilling life. We have been given sufficient tools for the task and one of the values of living this existence is in learning how to use those tools wisely and efficiently in our ascension career. God will not change his plans for creation just because a perfecting mortal who cannot see the big picture is dissatisfied with the way things are going in his small circle of perception. Prayer is not a substitute for clear thinking, work, imagination, and productive effort, nor a way to escape reality. However, prayer does work and prayer has immense value in our lives.
There is a spiritual current that ascends toward God and prayer is a way to stretch out our spiritual wings so that we can catch these updrafts to higher levels. By praying with heartfelt sincerity, we can enhance spiritual growth, change our attitudes, and feel the satisfaction of communing with God.
Our prayers are answered when we receive a better comprehension of truth, an appreciation of the beauty of our lives, and a heightened awareness of goodness. Prayer is a highly potent stimulus for spiritual growth because it must deal with concrete objective realities by reaching out on spiritual levels. Through prayer we transcend human values in search of spiritual values.
The soul's attitude is paramount, not the words themselves. Words are just the conduit in which our spiritual yearnings flow. However, there are psychological values of using certain words that may be important to individuals. Other words may have similar impact during group worship.
It is better to pray for values and not for things. But sometimes we pray for things that are needed for growth and spiritual gratification. To pray to have a house and material wealth for solely selfish purposes would be self-gratification. To pray to have those things in order to raise a family and to contribute to society would be for values that would support growth. The priority should be on the health, happiness and well being of the family and the bigger whole, rather than in the selfish desires of the individual, for sometimes material wealth is not necessary to achieve those worthy values, but can be an impediment when it becomes an obsession.
Understanding this is vital in exploring the statement that prayer mobilizes our unified human vehicle in the performance range of depth. Depth, meaning the process of going deep within ourselves to upgrade our organismal drives, our levels of self-realization and our general reaction to our environment.
Our organismal drives, what drives us as organisms, can be separated into drives stemming from our biology, from our intellect, and from our spirit. Our levels of self-realization is our awareness of our progression from the consciousness of our human self to the realization of our divine self. The reactions to our environment range from animalistic reactions to human reactions and then to spiritual reactions.
In praying for values and growth and not for things and material gratification, we must go to ever deeper levels within so that we can transcend the external biologic and animal drives to focus on making the inner spiritual drives come to the fore. We pray to expand our consciousness from the human to the divine and we pray that our actions and reactions to our environment are more and more spiritual, filled with love, faith, positive thoughts, selflessness, order and the ability to return good for evil. When people pray to have a problem resolved, it is often answered through our perception becoming more centered in the deepest aspect of ourselves, so that we can bring out the deepest and most spiritual part within. Issues that are a result of a conflict between biological and intellectual drives are resolved by centering on and bringing up our spiritual drives. Issues that stem from animalistic and human reactions are resolved by bringing up our spiritual reactions. So prayer is a very handy and powerful device that enables our unified human vehicle to move into our depths - a dimension in which our personality is well equipped to traverse.
Prayer as in sending out mental energy to others, such as when we pray for individuals who are ill, has also shown to be efficacious in some circumstances. It is said that it works better when that person knows that they are being prayed for, but some say that it works regardless of their knowledge. But it is not the same as asking God for interceding in your behalf, whether it's for your benefit or others.
Prayer, as in asking God for personal intercession, is an ambitious task. What reasons could you possibly give the Creator of the universe to change his plans just for you? Sometimes prayers work, not because God granted your personal request but because, by praying, you opened up your connection to him so that the blockage which caused the problem in the first place was cleared up. In other words, God's plan had been in line with yours all along, but because of not connecting with him previously, you had caused or imagined the difficulty yourself, which prayer alleviated. So prayer works, even if it is for the purpose of clearing away the rubbish that clogged your line to him. But what if your line to him is clear but you still have some issues in your life with which you need his help? In what circumstances would God personally help you? Death and disease is not an issue with God, after all eternal life and eternal health is available to all, once we are done with this phase of existence. Suffering? Maybe, but since suffering is so much a part of living life as a mortal and since it is often necessary for learning our lessons, there would have to be great extenuating circumstances for the Creator himself or even
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