Praying:  Different hearts speak to the Lord in various ways.  Some pour out their heart to God, others speak the prayers they memorized as a child.  Prayer is talking to God or asking others to talk to God for us.  Over the years my relationship with the Lord has expanded as He has taught me many things about prayer.  As we use our freewill to ask help for ourselves and others, we are following the command of Jesus to proclaim the Kingdom of God and the barriers caused by pain, by ignorance, by pride, by sin are broken.

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Different hearts speak to the Lord in various ways.  Some pour out their heart to God, others speak the prayers they memorized as a child.  Prayer is the personal conversation with God —whether alone or with a group. Prayer is talking to God or asking others to talk to God for us.  Over the years my relationship with the Lord has expanded as He has taught me many things about prayer. 

You’re listening to Truth of the Spirit and I’m Patti Brunner.  Today I am going to share with you some of the suggestions the Lord has given me towards the goal of efficacious prayer. 

Our relationship with the Lord can be ever deepening.  Prayer is not just asking for favors but even in this God has a suggestion.

 If you were to ask your natural father for a favor, would you not ask for a specific, such as to stay out late or to borrow the car?  Does this not seem acceptable to your understanding?  Try to think of how you ask others for favor.  Should you not be as gracious to your heavenly Father?

We live in a time of busy noise and constant motion.  Adoration chapels bid us to come spend an hour in quiet contemplative prayer.  We look at Jesus and He looks at us.  We can speak to him in our hearts and be quiet enough to hear his reply.  We can journal our thoughts, our prayers, our dreams and accept God’s response.

Secondly, remember that the Lord wants goodness for you.  Do not ask for anything that has darkness attached to it.  He will not grant this favor.  What does that mean?

God wants to give us the desires of our heart but sometimes people look into the darkness and only the things of this world for their happiness. 

Our lack of complete trust in God binds the effectiveness of our lives including our prayers.  Usually we want things our way rather than seeking God’s way.  God wants everyone healed, but He will not sacrifice our soul for the sake of our body.  When our freewill contradicts the Father’s perfect will, we experience the consequences– then we turn to God for the remedy.  Jesus taught us to pray “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  If we do not know God, we have a distorted view of God’s will. 

Ask the Lord to inspire you to pray.  Tell him you want to pray according to His perfect will.  Talk to him about your life.  God is interested in the smallest details of his creation.  Get personal and intimate with your prayer. Speak to him from your heart. Prayers of adoration, meditation and contemplation will help you to know God and his goodness.  The Lord calls us to pray with others and for others.  We use our freewill to ask God to step into our lives and the lives of those for whom we pray.

Third, ask in faith.  The great I Am is all powerful and His power is unlimited.  Do not limit Him.

Jesus tells us that whatever we ask for in prayer with faith we will receive.  How can we communicate with an all-powerful creator of the universe who lives in infinity?  The simplest way to pray to God is to talk with God.  He knows our needs, yet because He has given us the gift of freewill, we must express those needs, wants and desires to him and ask for help.   Praying with faith requires inner confidence that God will act. Perhaps our first prayer should be like the man in Mark 9: 24 “The boy’s father cried out, “I do believe, help my unbelief!””

Fourth, hearts must be open to divine Grace.  I shared with you about being open to Divine Mercy in the previous podcast.  This advice is about when we pray for others who have closed hearts—when barriers exist.  Your love and the lovers of God can join together, band together, to penetrate the barriers.  This is more difficult and so the Holy Spirit showers you with special gifts of grace – knowledge, wisdom, faith, and so on.  Use them.

Continue to seek aide for those of God’s Children who need His help—especially those who forget to ask.  The Lord longs to heal all His children, but, alas, they choose not to ask for it nor are they each open to receive it with contrite hearts.

By His Mercy, the Lord allows a few to suffer, for now, because it is only in their pain that they turn to Him.  In their good health, they look to their wealth for their satisfaction to make their life meaningful.

It is part of our Christian duty to imitate Christ as an intercessor.  Intercessory prayer allows us to break or penetrate the barriers of others through prayer.  Have you ever seen a plant grow in a crack of cement?  Soaking prayer can penetrate layers of barrier.  God gives us special gifts of grace through the power of the Holy Spirit, such as wisdom, counsel, and words of knowledge, to help us identify problems so that they can be remedied by specific prayer.  Barriers or blocks to healing include unforgiveness and occult practices which are choosing, placing or seeking something other than God. 

As we use our freewill to ask help for others, we are following the command of Jesus to proclaim the Kingdom of God.  We call upon the saints, angels and Mary, the mother of God, who we know to be in the presence of God, to be intercessors for us.  We ask friends and relatives to use the strength of their love and concern to pray for us.  And the barriers caused by pain, by ignorance, by pride, by sin are broken.

Perfect Prayer: The Holy Spirit leads you in perfect prayer. Did you think that was possible? It is!

Perfect prayer is the one that matches the Father’s will.  What is the Father’s perfect will?  No matter how many times we pray to be twenty feet tall, the Lord will not grant our petition because it is contrary to the goodness and perfection of our creation.  Nor can we expect God to inflict harm on people that we are angry with.  God treats our enemies with justice and love.  Father knows best.

When we, trusting in the Lord, ask for the fulfillment of the commands of Jesus:  such as “heal the sick” or “cast out demons”;  He shall grant them.   For those times, we want others to hear  our prayer, to verbalize what is in our heart.  The divine Holy Spirit dwells there. 

Words are as healing as touch at times for they feed the soul and the spirit.  Rely on God’s wisdom and grace.  Always be obedient to the instruction from the Lord God Almighty and be within his confines for your guidance on the Way.  You will see the results with time.

You may always ask for healing.  Jesus healed all the time!  It is the Father’s will, that we ask for healing. 

One of the “major” commands of Jesus is that we love one another.   Allow the love to shine through.  Let an abundance of love ooze out of your heart through your mouth, as you pray for others.  Much of the time that we pray for others, we are actually praying out of disgust.  Does that surprise you?  “Change them, O Lord, and I can be happy!”  The Lord calls us to transform our attitude about others to one of love.  Love calls us to pray without judgement.

When you pray out loud for others, as you witness your love for the Lord and for those for whom you petition, the example will be given to those who can hear.  Pray for ears to be opened.  Pray for eyes to be clear.  It is vision and prophecy that will set these children free.  It will set them free from fear and doubt.  It will set them free from anger and violence.  It will set them free from fear.  As they trust in the Lord God, His kingdom will come upon them as it has so many.  And in the Lord we will be One.

Pray for others with love as Jesus loved and see miracles.  The Holy Spirit gives us the gifts of “mighty deeds” a.k.a. miracles!  Think about the words you use to pray.  When we do not know how to pray we can surrender our prayer to the Holy Spirit.  In the bible and the catechism, the gift of tongues is explained as Spirit directed prayer.   You can check out one of my earlier podcasts on the Truth of the Spirit   on the Charism of Tongues as well as other Extraordinary Gifts of Grace given by the Holy Spirit. 

By opening to the Holy Spirit, you open yourself to the fruits of the kingdom.  Those fruits are gained by living your life on the path of righteousness.  You must be strengthened by God’s Grace and Wisdom for the journey. 

Be comforted.  Be free.  Let the Word of God give you freedom.

Together we shall set the prisoners free. 

Continue to reach out to all.  Help those who will let you.  Continue to pray for those who won’t.

Remember, God tells us in Scripture, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

Ask as if you had already received! …  

Now, isn’t that an interesting way to pray! Ask as if you had already received!

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells us to pray with faith and receive whatever we ask for in prayer.  Jesus tells us that with faith we can move a mountain, and that if two on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done by the Father in heaven.  Jesus healed everyone who asked for healing.  The only place Jesus didn’t do many miracles was the town that lacked faith, his home town.  James writes an explanation for lack of answered prayer: he says it’s asking with doubt or asking with wrong motives. 

Pray with faith.  When you ask in complete faith it is done.  Pray that each one allows faith to be increased within themselves. 

Many people are unobservant in the words they speak and even in their prayers.  As you pray, the words carry an authority.  In the name of Jesus, you can do the many things He has commanded to you.

Jesus gave us his name to use.  It is like having an engraved invitation or God’s private password.  His name, the name of Jesus, is above all names.  Through it, we have direct access to the Father when we use the name of Jesus.  We have his power of attorney to use against evil spirits, disease and infirmities.  We can place spiritual chains on demons and expel them to the foot of the cross of Jesus or to send them to the Father to deal with them.

When we pray with faith all other comments out of our mouth should agree with our prayer.  That is, we shouldn’t make comments like, “I’m going to pray for my back to be healed but I’ll never get over this back injury.” You see?  We’ve already decided that God is not going to answer our prayer!  Or “the doctor said that the only relief is from surgery, so I need surgery.  You can pray for my back but you know, I need surgery.” See?  What’s coming out of your mouth?  Do you have faith in the Lord Jesus?  Nor should we be complaining about how bad our situation is –if we have just asked God for relief.  Jesus does use the medical profession to heal by His compassion, but are we too quick to deny the healing of the Divine Physician?  The answer to prayer takes place in the supernatural before it is obvious in the natural. Give it some time.  Confirm God’s answer with your words, attitude and thanksgiving—even before you see it manifest. 

Center your prayer on praising the Lord for He is good!

A lot of people are reluctant to ask for their own needs when they have a friend that is more “needy” as if God can only answer one prayer.  We must depart from this line of thinking.  The God who created the universe, thousands of species of plants and animals, and who has promised to give a more abundant life can multitask.  We must not limit his grace by our lack of trust and understanding.

Whenever you come before the Lord, seeking His Face with all your heart you will find Him. God is found among the flowers of the dale. God is found in the hearts of children full of glee.  God is found in your devotion of heart, He is found in His Body and in His Blood.  He lists these all so that you might seek Him in all places and in all things and people. Jesus came to set the world free and He penetrates the heart to break loose the chains that bind and torment them.

Share the good news of the kingdom to the weak and thus the Body of Christ will grow in strength as they love and honor the Lord in all things in this life, in this world, and in the tomorrow promised in the ages of yesterday.

I can tell you this—the love that you have for your fellow man, magnifies in the glory of the Lord and the angels will draw back the curtain that has caused barriers.

It is for all that the Word of the Lord is given, is spoken, is written. 

The Lord does not exclude; the people themselves turn their backs to Him, ignoring the grace and love He sends, He pours out.

The average Christian has not yet received the Lord’s fullness.  They know that Jesus is their Savior and they trust in the Father’s mercy.  Yet the veil of the world keeps many from knowing him fully.

In time, at the appointed time, the Lord will reveal to all His people- those who turn from death and sin toward the Light of Christ—The Lord will reveal the glory of the Lord.  Towards that day-  spread the light of Christ, which is the flame of the Spirit.

As your mind is renewed and opened to the Lord, more and more will Truth be made clear.  The Holy Spirit is upon you, teaching you in wisdom and in faith so you may go into the world and teach others. 

Continue to walk in His ways; if you do not know the Way, learn it; if you cannot find the Way, ask for help; if you cannot follow the Way, repent.  Turn your face to the Lord.  Seek his presence in your lives.  Reach out to him in prayer and supplication.  And He will give you the desires of your heart, because they are his desires too.  Amen.

You’ve been listening to Truth of the Spirit.  I’m Patti Brunner.  Much of Today’s podcast is taken from my book Lenten Logos which shared things the Lord shared with me in prayer.  I invite you to subscribe—it’s free!  And come back for more. With the Holy Spirit there is always more! 

Amen.