The Power of Prayer

            When I was eight years old, I went to my parent’s bedroom and took the family bible from their bed stand and placed it on the end table next to my single bed, tucked against a window draped with just blue shears. It was a summer night. My mother had just left my father, and I needed answers. More than that, I needed to know that God or someone was protecting me.

            That warm night my window was open. I couldn’t sleep. The sounds from outside were amplified. Crickets sounded like cymbals. Wind betrayed me like a hurricane blowing through my window with frightening sounds. I sat up in my bed and turned on the light by my simple bed.

            As a Catholic, I was taught that the symbol of the bible was generally more important than reading it. So, I touched it for security. The blue shears flew to the ceiling with the wind. At the same time the entire back yard lit up. It wasn’t lightning; it was a amber glow that frightened me. I knew something was there, and it pinned me to the bed.

            By my bed was also a deck of cards. I picked up the deck and prayed, “God, if this is you, make the first card I turn over be a king of hearts.” I turned over the first card, and it was, indeed, a king of hearts.

            Still, not convinced that I was speaking to God, I asked again, “If this is you, God, make the next card be a jack of diamonds.” I turned over the card with trepidation. It was a jack of diamonds.

            I tried the test one more time before I settled under my covers in a seated position and began talking to God. This was my first real prayer. Just God and me.

            I know not everyone has a powerful experience like that to help them believe. But if you needed one bad enough, I bed you that God could muster one up. I didn’t feel alone again for the rest of my life, not as long as I kept the power of the Spirit with me in my heart.

            Now, I have to tell you that there was no one in my world or family was all that religious. It wasn’t as if I came from a Pentecostal family and Daddy was preaching every Sunday to pray. I came from a practically godless family that used to go to church on holidays when they could get all six kids dressed in time for mass, but not every week. And we certainly never talked about God and prayer…

            This was God teaching me personally about itself. I use the impersonal pronoun because I’m sure God doesn’t have just masculine or feminine traits. God is probably both, if anything. Even in the bible, God is called El Shaddai, the many breasted one, among many other names that could be considered masculine. But because of tradition, the word “he” has been substituted in the bible for what could never be attributed as human.

            But I digress… Prayer is communication between spirit God and you. It is not supplication, which is the asking for things in a list. That is more for Santa than for God.

            I believe that God expects that you understand the idea that what you ask for in spirit and believe you have, you can certainly create in your life. It is a law, and therefore permanent in the structure of creation. God really doesn’t have to help. It’s all you. God already did its work when the law was constructed.

            And if you work the law, then you know that you are also a creator, made in the image of the creator. So, if you want something, use your creative mind to think it, believe it, and manifest it.

            This, too, can also be called prayer, but it’s not conversation with God. It’s basically conversation with your self. You are trying to convince yourself, basically, that you deserve whatever you are dreaming. Then after you do that, you ask the angels in heaven to help manifest the opportunities around creating it.

            And please, please, please, don’t think you don’t have to do any work. If you are creating it, you must do all the work in the inward and outward manifestation with any vision you try to procure. I believe most prayer stops at the idea that “you” have to do anything. So called prayerful people can sometimes be lazy people. Don’t be that person who thinks that prayer isn’t a yoking between you and God, balanced to do equal work.

            When asked about getting a publishing deal, the first thing I did was write the book. If I expected God and angels to help me find an agent and a publisher, I was going to have to manifest a product to be sold.

            If you are looking for a job, you have to write a terrific resume. You have to get the right education. You have to have the correct experience. If you are not doing that, the perfect job will probably not find you.

            If you are looking for prosperity and sitting on your butt all day watching television, don’t think that the universe is going to reward you with money. Even if you can’t find a job, go out and volunteer.

            I had a friend who was looking for a job in the public sector around recycling. At that time, Nashville had volunteer recycling. She volunteered and became the head of a huge project that put her first in line for the job of Recycling Coordinator when Nashville opened its doors to hiring. This is creation at its best.  

            Prayer is powerful. Having a one on one with God is amazing. But sometimes it only happens a few times in your life. But prayer as manifesting good in your life is completely different. You have to understand that the power of prayer is already in the fabric of humanity, in the laws of the universe. You must take that law and use it to create what you need in your life.

            See it in your mind.

            Believe it can be so.

            Then begin to build as you listen to your heart and spirit for guidance.