The Power of Prayer

Eat, Pray, Love

Besides being the name of a soul opening movie, Eat, Pray, Love can be a guide to our lives, a lamp to our feet and a light on our path in life. Is prayer and meditation the same? A lot of people think the words prayer and meditation are synonymous, although they are very different. Prayer can be thought of as sending your requests, desires or pleas for assistance to a higher source (God or the universe).

Meditation can be thought of as actually listening for the answer!  Both are necessary because if you don't ask (prayer) then you will probably not receive (meditation).  “Ask and ye shall receive!”

Miracle Prayer

Does the Power of Prayer really work for miracles?  Scientific studies demonstrate a 700% reduction in mortality rates in people using inspirational prayer to heal sickness! No conventional medical treatment can even come close.  Some may think of it as a Miracle Prayer, and it is!  Although you can achieve the same miracles if you begin to use the power of prayer in your own life.  It is most effective when you actually pray for someone else.  The good thing about this type of prayer called intercessory prayer, is that your own brain responds as the recipient of the prayer, even though you are the giver of the prayer.  I know that the parable “Give and it Shall Be Given” is really true!  Science even proves it.

Conscious Awareness is the space between prayer and meditation. It is the routine everyday space when flashes of creative genius, answers to challenges you’ve been pondering or new desires and passions come into your experience. You may receive Déjà vu, Synchronicity or Serendipity. When you become aware, and give attention to these signposts, the miraculous has a space to surface in.  God is in the details as well.

New research by Dr. Daniel G. Amen using live brain scans and SPECT imaging, show highly beneficial changes in brain tissue and synaptic connections in people who pray and meditate. The effect is much greater in those who practice these disciplines regularly, but all benefit. Dr. Amen is a clinical neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and brain-imaging expert and has received numerous awards for writing and research. He has a few bestsellers including “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life.” Patients that have had various neurological disorders get routine brain scans and they frequently testify that the patient's multiple prescription medications can be the cause most, if not all, of their difficulties.

Let’s examine prayer from a scientific perspective. Scientists believe that the most accurate studies of prayer focus on intercessory prayer—that is, prayer offered by one person for the well-being of another person. This is due to the fact that the validity of prayer power on the individual who prays is easily argued; scientists can, and often do, attribute any health benefits to the placebo effect—that is, to the fact that the person believed prayer would work, and as a result, unconsciously willed the effect to take place.

No one argues the power of the mind. It can certainly trigger physical events. But when it comes to intercessory prayer, we can’t point to the individual’s mind-over-body mechanism. The person being prayed for often does not even know that he is the beneficiary of another’s prayers. As a result, the most widely respected studies on prayer have examined intercessory prayer.

Does Prayer Really Work?

In the late 1980s, Dr. Randolph Byrd was a practicing cardiologist at San Francisco General Hospital. He decided to conduct what has been called the first serious study of the medical effects of intercessory prayer. The controlled ten-month study—published in The Southern Medical Journal in 1988—was performed on 393 cardiac-care-unit patients. The general outcome gave reason to believe that patients for whom prayers are said fare better than other patients In fact, some analysis of the study estimated a 10-percent difference between the groups.

The subjects of the study were randomly assigned, by computer, to one of two groups: 192 patients would be prayed for by a designated group of people, while 201 patients would not have prayers said for them. This was a double-blind study, meaning that the patients, the nurses, and the doctors were not aware of the group to which any patient belonged. Meanwhile, the individuals who prayed came from Roman Catholic and Protestant prayer groups, and were given the names of the patients and a small amount of data on their conditions.

They were then asked to pray every day for the patients, but were not provided with any specific guidelines on how to conduct their prayers. The study was designed so that each patient in the “prayer group” had from five to seven people praying for him, and each person who prayed had a number of patients for whom he had to say prayers.

Healing Prayers

The results showed that the patients who were prayed for with healing prayers were five times less likely to need antibiotic treatments than those in the control group; only three patients in the prayed-for group needed antibiotics, as compared with sixteen patients in the control group. The prayed-for patients were also three times less likely to develop a condition called pulmonary edema; six patients in the prayed-for group suffered from pulmonary edema, while eighteen control-group patients did. None of the patients who were prayed for needed breathing assistance, whereas twelve of the control-group members required mechanical respiratory support.

This study not only shows the effectiveness of prayer, but also demonstrates that space and distance do not seem to affect the potency of prayer. There was no difference in effectiveness between the prayers of those who lived close by and the prayers of those who resided on the other side of the country. So the power from which prayer stems does not seem to be confined by our notions of time and space.

I highly recommend Gregg Braden's book – Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer: The Hidden Power of Beauty, Blessings, Wisdom, and Hurt as it can show you from an Essene perspective how they used prayer for specific results. You can also visit: Spiritual Healing Prayer.

Online Prayer Guide

Recite the following prayers anytime you need inspiration and want to attract more of the divine wisdom and power into your physical body and daily life. They are all wonderful prayers that will nourish your soul and make your spirit lighter and more free!

Prayer of Jabez

You also can learn the secrets of effective and powerful prayer by reciting The Prayer of Jabez . The Prayer of Jabez comes from the Bible. In 1 Chronicles 4:10, we read:

“And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that Thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that Thine hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.”

The prayer is composed of four parts. First, Jabez asks God to bless him. Second, he asks God to enlarge his territory or increase his responsibility. Third, he prays that God will be with him and stay close. Lastly, Jabez asks that God keep him from harm so that he will be free from pain.

You can get the actual book here: The Prayer of Jabez.

Our Father Prayer

(The Lord's Prayer)

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come;
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

 

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

If you focus your intention when you pray, it can be many times more effective, because you make your request very clear to God and it can be easily and quickly answered!  Learn how to pray and meditate and you will unlock your natural birthright to be prosperous, healthy and happy.