How to Pray

Paul Werner
November 1984

None of us are newcomers to prayer life. We have been praying more or less intensely since we began a spiritual life. Yet what have we found? Perhaps the one thing we have discovered is that we fluctuate in intensity and power during prayer. Fluctuations occur because we do not prepare our hearts before we pray. Become calm inside. Cut off the influences of the world and leave them behind. Feel more spiritual and let God know that you would like to meet Him. Prayer Preparation

You breathe best when you are most relaxed. Spiritually it is the same. Don't tense up spiritually when you pray.

When you come before God you come before incredible spiritual heat. To feel love you must relax, have faith and know that you are going to meet God. Have no fear.

Think of preparing to pray in scientific terms. A rocket filled with fuel has incredible thrust to go far into the atmosphere. The amount of fuel injected discerns the speed, length of flight, and height a rocket will go. If you were to launch a toy rocket, it may go 500 meters into the air but would soon come down; it does not have a large capacity for fuel and would run out quickly. According to the dynamics of jet propulsion, it is much easier to fly after ten minutes. After half an hour, you have quite a bit of thrust and by that time you have gained speed.

The same is true with player. God's heart is in the highest spiritual realm; you need quite a bit of fuel to project yourself there.

Think of the spirit world as a pyramid. You are at the bottom but desire to project yourself to God who resides at the top. You will need tremendous thrust to get there. If you have only a little fuel, you will only reach a certain stage. More fuel will allow you to go further, faster. Once you reach the higher stage, you will have the response of the angelic world and the saints in the spirit world. But if you are able to make it to God Himself, you will land directly in His heart. You have to make the initial connection. If God is at the top of the pyramid, prepare yourself first and then project yourself straight through or you will not reach Him. In the beginning of your prayer you should start off with repentance.

Repentance and Tears

Repentance is an inner process. When we are confronted with the mighty love of God, we repent because we are deeply touched in our heart. We do it not out of fear but out of hope, to be free of our burdens and our guilt. We realize and recognize that we are sinners. In the light of God, all is exposed -- all the tragedy of mankind.

Repentance is a heartistic process. Our hearts want to be cleansed. We are deeply longing for salvation and we come to meet God in His love -- not as a God of judgment or fear. Tears flow in repentance, first of sorrow, then of joy as the hope of freedom and salvation comes. Tears bring freedom and peace. It is the unloading of a heavy heart. They are like a relief valve. Talking to God and crying tears are a great relief. God takes us in His bosom where our burden becomes unloaded. We feel the longing and forgiving heart of love. God's love is unconditional. He provides for us and respects us unconditionally.

When you shed tears of repentance, you meet God. The way to connect to God is through tears. We should shed tears each time we pray. We have been away from God for so long. Now that we have started praying and have connected with God, we should feel that we never want to go away from Him again.

We have been called to shed tears for humanity, for the past, present and future. We offer our heart and tears for God and humankind. This is the age of tears. This is the ' requirement to meet God -- shedding tears.

Throughout human history countless tears were shed in prayer. Rivers of tears flowed from the eyes and hearts of millions of people for a multitude of reasons. Some felt the heart of God and cried. Others needed God because they were in turmoil. Still others had a deep yearning for God after hearing that He is the homestead of all humankind. Many have a great longing to reach home. There are hundreds of millions of people praying at this moment. People have been praying throughout history to someone they have never seen and never heard. Yet they keep praying anyway. The unseen world must be a reality.

We are not merely concerned with our own personal sins when we repent but also of the sins of humankind, our ancestors, and of our rebellion against God. Don't merely center on yourself in repentance but think of the whole world, of the whole of history. We must take responsibility for all humankind. That means many tears need to be shed. We must shed public tears. Shedding tears for yourself is selfish and accomplishes nothing. For the first time we can recognize the sin of man against God through the Principle revealed to us.

We should repent to all of creation for our lack of respect and wrong views towards it. Repentance covers a wide scope. It means a change of direction. We have to turn away from following Satan and go back to God.

If we are blocked in prayer and cannot break through, we need to repent. Repentance and fear together are impossible. When you recognize your sin against God and repent it is because you have been touched by God's heart, by His love. Once we are free in heart we will have no problem praying, seeing from God's point of view or perceiving the spirit world.

Repentance is something which cannot be forced. We've got to get rid of the stone in our heart which holds us back from God. Get rid of it through repentance.

Why do we have problems opening our heart to God? Why do we come up against spiritual bottlenecks? It is because of fear. Why are we afraid? People go to psychiatrists to become mentally unblocked. Through prayer and a life of faith we can become unblocked spiritually. Begin by surrendering to God. Doing so allows you to perceive God's love. You feel embraced and secure. Insecurity comes from the thought that no one loves you. If you are confident that God loves you, you have no fears. We still have fears because we don't trust God enough.

Even though we have committed ourselves to follow the way of God for so many years why are we still so tense and unfree? Compromise. It is because of compromise that we waver. Why is it that as a group we can build up a certain power in prayer but when we go to pray as individuals we don't have the same momentum? If we really knew that spirit world was with us, it wouldn't make any difference whether we were praying by ourselves or with a group of people. We would not hold back. Only if we continuously pray will we be successful. Anyone who really walks and talks with God has miracles happen. If you are reluctant, it is no use doing your mission. You must be free inside in order to go forward.

If we don't act upon something we receive from God, we will be accused by spirit world. If we constantly pray, there is no possibility for Satan to invade. Check whether you are compromising even in small ways. We cannot compromise. If we do, God will not be with us. Make sure your heart is pure.

How can we open up and overcome? We have to unload our heart, our burden, and find out why we became blocked in the first place. By unloading our burdens we eventually become free. How do we do this in our life of faith? Through daily repentance. When we repent from the depths of our heart we feel free.

Before God's blessing can come upon anyone he must repent. When we first talk to God we should repent that we are not more adequate. Pray that you wish you could do more but ask God to take you as you are. Repentance comes when one is on the brink of changing his life.

God is different than what we sometimes think He is. We cannot fathom the depth of His love, His longing for us. He begs us to accept Him and His love. He forgets all of our past. He cancels it and treats us as if we had never sinned. He longs for us to be close to Him. He wants to pick us up and bring us joy. Each one of us has to reach out to God on our own. We have to step over the threshold ourselves.

We have dedicated our lives to God for so many years already. By law God has to be with us. Even if we don't feel Him or know it, He is there. It is a matter of fine- tuning ourselves to become aware of Him. We have to come to an awareness of His presence. If we don't make ourselves aware of Him then we are blocking Him and His potential workings through us. Don't obstruct God from working through you. Repent if you do.

We are not merely ourselves but part of a great chain linking our past generations and our present and future generations to God, through the Messiah. We have no right to shy away from God or responsibility. We must fulfill our part otherwise our ancestors will accuse us. We have to link the past to the future.

We have to think in unselfish terms. We don't do things merely for ourselves but for the sake of all humanity, even for those who lived in the past. We are here to pay the price for history and for missions to be accomplished. We are the final link in history, hooking all our ancestors onto God. We should repent if we do not see how we are the linkage to all of human history, if we do not see our role and responsibility.

Get your engines tuned up spiritually so you can run smoothly. There is no way out. We must go forward. If we don't, Satan will overpower us. If we fail in our responsibility and duty then the chain linking us to our ancestors will break and they will all fall back down again to the lower realms. It is our duty to bring our past generations into heaven, to be good, to be loving. We must pull our ancestors into heaven. We don't live for ourselves anymore but for the public purpose. When we repent and receive forgiveness we must become obedient from that point on.

Excerpts from a booklet: "How to Pray" by Reverend Paul Werner