Good morning. This morning you've brought up some important questions about prayer that need clarification. As you know, prayer, especially in Western religion, has been emphasized down through history. Prayer is not like meditation in that it is more active, words are spoken, and the heart is expressed; whereas in Eastern meditation there is a passivity, a receiving. When you ask about the effects of prayer, what prayer can do, as opposed to the idea that God knows everything and will be fully on top of every situation whether you pray or not, that represents an incomplete understanding of our relationship.

To parallel the level of family living, there is nothing that warms or moves the heart of a parent more than the heart of concern that a son or daughter brings to the parent for another son or daughter. Of course, if a son or daughter comes to the parent with a desire to use the parent to exact revenge on their sibling, the parent doesn't like that. The parent's heart can usually pick up on the motivation right away.

I want to remind you at the outset that there are those who have prayed with a sense of revenge toward another person who has wronged them or is doing something they consider evil or against Me or against themselves, and the prayer is almost colored with a sense of using Me to get back at the other person. Well, as any parent, I feel distasteful when I see this. My first concern is how to go beyond that person's desire for revenge and help them get in touch with a whole different mentality in themselves. Truly, this kind of prayer is not the kind that can move Me; on the contrary. Sometimes lower forces can take this kind of prayer and use it to the extreme where people have terrible hatred and then focus that hatred--as in some of the practices that you know of as voodoo or witchcraft of a very low sort. Then, spiritual forces that have nothing to do with Me or My heart can be projected, and this is very destructive. So, I don't want to listen to any kind of revengeful or voodoo prayers.

To look at the other side, when a child will come to Me with a deep and sincere heart of concern for a brother or a sister, wanting so much for that person to understand something or to be healed in spirit or body, this moves Me deeply. You know, in your study of the Principle you learn that you are co-creator with Me, that we are co-creators together, that I gave you the same kind of creative force within you that I have within Me.

That is part of your inheritance. So, when you bring to Me sincerely in prayer your sense of concern for the completion or re-creation of another person or situation outside of yourself, then we can work together. It's not so much that you called Me up on the prayer phone and said, "Heavenly Father, I wanted to call your attention to so-and-so because they need help." It's not as if I don't know that person's need, because, as you know, I live intimately with each and every person. But when I have felt the true heart of one of you for another person through your prayer, this is a very strong trinital relationship--Me and you and that object of your prayer. And that mobilizes a very powerful force.

This was the key to Jesus' healing power. He didn't just focus on some wonderful ability he had, but he petitioned Me with the deepest of hearts, with the deepest of sincere concern for the object of healing, the object of his prayer. And in that way the trinital relationship could be born. Even if that other person was not highly educated in what Jesus understood or highly developed in the spiritual sense, all that Jesus asked was, "Do you believe that this can be done, and in this moment is your heart open?" And if that was so and if that person could be open, even in that moment, simply, like a child, then that great power and that great link between Jesus, Myself, and that person could have a tremendous impact on that life, whether it be physical or spiritual healing. So, you see the means for the prayer power that was there.

In the case of Lazarus, the dead man that Jesus raised, you might ask, "How can a dead body be open-hearted when Jesus calls out, `Lazarus'?" No, he wasn't speaking to the body; he was speaking to Lazarus' spirit. As you know, the spirit of a person who has passed away will many times hover near the body or in a place that is not so far removed. And so, Jesus called out to Lazarus' spirit, and Lazarus was open and heard the voice of Jesus; and Jesus' deep prayer and his petition was that Lazarus could come back from physical death and be resurrected. And Lazarus' spirit was open. That was an amazing thing, but not impossible to understand, if you see the way that prayer works and that faith works.

Your heart of sincerity is so important when you pray for the other person and as you come to Me. As you know, prayer doesn't always seem to work immediately. It's not something that is instant in every case. But if you think of the benefits that can come when your prayer is diligent and when you pray daily, then there is no reason to lose hope after a few days, a week, a month, or even a year if something doesn't seem to happen, because I want to remind you that in all three areas of that trinity, there is development as your prayer continues.

As you sincerely pour your heart out to Me and for that person or object of your prayer, your own heart becomes purer and purer. For example, if a child comes to the parent once or twice and asks that the parent please pay attention to another child who is suffering, and then the parent doesn't seem to act right away or to act in a way that the child can understand, then the child just gives up and walks away and something is broken. But if that child is coming to the parent day after day, petitioning and petitioning, that will form a bond, and the parent and the child can work together to help that object of the child's concern. Bit by bit the healing can come. So, it's really creating a powerful force for My work when you pray to Me. Remember again this word "co-creator." We are co-creators and I really do listen to your prayers, and I especially listen not just to the words but to your heart. I can hear your heart as you pray.

There are many religious people who have been lost in the words and who, through a sense of duty, pray many things with much repetition. But if their hearts aren't in it, and if they rely only on the words, then it is like those who just follow the doctrine but who never involve their inner selves in their faithful path. So, it doesn't mean much, although I have to give them credit for diligence. Still, it is the prayer of the true and faithful and sincere heart that touches Me most deeply.

Sincerity is not proven in one day. You can feel very sincere for a day, but then the next day maybe you don't feel like that and then you just skip your prayer. It is over the long course of time and growth and our communication together that that sincerity builds.

It's like our talks together; can't you feel the growth of our relationship? Your trust is growing for Me, and My ability to communicate with you is becoming stronger and stronger. So, as you respect that time during the week when we can meet like this and make sure that your other schedule is cleared out of the way for you to do this, then this has so much meaning.

Last year I felt quite disappointed because you were doing it whenever you felt like it, and that was sort of painful for Me because it was based on your subjective feeling. And, in that sense, you don't bring the heart and develop the heart in terms of our relationship. When you make that time each week and bring your heart, then there has to be growth. Sometimes there's resistance. There may sometimes be a feeling of, "Oh, here comes Friday morning, but I have this and that to do." But if you make our time together important, you feel the rewards of setting that time aside and then our relationship grows. It's like meeting a very special friend for lunch every Tuesday afternoon over many years; don't you think that friendship is going to become very precious? Not just when you feel like it or every few months when you have time; that friendship doesn't grow so much. But when people make it important, it becomes important. It's the same thing with your prayer. When you make it important and you take that time with Me, beyond your physical feelings or your physical schedule, then our relationship can grow and become very clear and close.

If you think of those words that I shared with you about Jesus; that intensity of reaching out and the co-creatorship; son or daughter and parent, then you will recognize that that quality of heart and the process of diligence day by day will build our relationship and build our unity, which can have a powerful impact on the object of our relationship or our prayer together. Again I remind you of that phrase in the Bible, "The prayer of a righteous person availeth much." What I have shared with you in the last few minutes is indeed the life of a righteous person who loves that truth and that real substance between us.

This is what I wanted to share with you this morning, and, W, [wife] please pray.