• Prayers Of The Heart Are Answered

    From course zealot@21:1/5 to All on Wed Apr 29 12:49:53 2020
    11. Prayer is the medium of miracles. It is a means of communication of the created with the Creator. Through prayer love is received, and through
    miracles love is expressed.


    Prayer is a way of asking for something. It is the medium of miracles. But
    the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have been forgiven have everything. Once forgiveness has been accepted, prayer in the usual sense becomes utterly meaningless. The prayer for forgiveness is
    nothing more than a request that you may be able to recognize what you
    already have. In electing perception instead of knowledge, you placed
    yourself in a position where you could resemble your Father only by
    perceiving miraculously. You have lost the knowledge that you yourself are
    a miracle of God. Creation is your Source and your only real function.


    As long as perception lasts prayer has a place. Since perception rests on
    lack, those who perceive have not totally accepted the Atonement and given themselves over to truth. Perception is based on a separated state, so that anyone who perceives at all needs healing. Communion, not prayer, is the natural state of those who know. God and His miracle are inseparable. How beautiful indeed are the Thoughts of God who live in His light! Your worth
    is beyond perception because it is beyond doubt. Do not perceive yourself
    in different lights. Know yourself in the One Light where the miracle that is you is perfectly clear.


    Strictly speaking, words play no part at all in healing. The motivating factor is prayer, or asking. What you ask for you receive. But this refers to the prayer of the heart, not to the words you use in praying. Sometimes the
    words and the prayer are contradictory; sometimes they agree. It does not matter. God does not understand words, for they were made by separated
    minds to keep them in the illusion of separation. Words can be helpful, particularly for the beginner, in helping concentration and facilitating the exclusion, or at least the control, of extraneous thoughts. Let us not forget, however, that words are but symbols of symbols. They are thus twice
    removed from reality.
    As symbols, words have quite specific references. Even when they seem
    most abstract, the picture that comes to mind is apt to be very concrete. Unless a specific referent does occur to the mind in conjunction with the
    word, the word has little or no practical meaning, and thus cannot help the healing process. The prayer of the heart does not really ask for concrete things. It always requests some kind of experience, the specific things asked for being the bringers of the desired experience in the opinion of the asker. The words, then, are symbols for the things asked for, but the things themselves but stand for the experiences that are hoped for.
    The prayer for things of this world will bring experiences of this world. If the prayer of the heart asks for this, this will be given because this will be received. It is impossible that the prayer of the heart remain unanswered in the perception of the one who asks. If he asks for the impossible, if he wants what does not exist or seeks for illusions in his heart, all this becomes his own. The power of his decision offers it to him as he requests. Herein lie
    hell and Heaven. The sleeping Son of God has but this power left to him. It
    is enough. His words do not matter. Only the Word of God has any
    meaning, because it symbolizes that which has no human symbols at all.
    The Holy Spirit alone understands what this Word stands for. And this, too,
    is enough.


    Never forget that the Holy Spirit does not depend on your words. He
    understands the requests of your heart, and answers them. Does this mean
    that, while attack remains attractive to you, He will respond with evil? Hardly! For God has given Him the power to translate your prayers of the
    heart into His language. He understands that an attack is a call for help. And He responds with help accordingly. God would be cruel if He let your
    words replace His Own. A loving father does not let his child harm himself,
    or choose his own destruction. He may ask for injury, but his father will protect him still. And how much more than this does your Father love His
    Son?
    Remember you are His completion and His Love.


    Turn to the Name of God for your release, and it is given you. No prayer but this is necessary, for it holds them all within it. Words are insignificant, and
    all requests unneeded when God's Son calls on his Father's Name. His
    Father's Thoughts become his own. He makes his claim to all his Father
    gave, is giving still, and will forever give. He calls on Him to let all things he thought he made be nameless now, and in their place the holy Name of
    God becomes his judgment of their worthlessness.


    in this final section, we will
    come to understand that we need only call to God, and all temptations disappear. Instead of words, we need but feel His Love. Instead of prayers,
    we need but call His Name. Instead of judging, we need but be still and let
    all things be healed. We will accept the way God's plan will end, as we received the way it started. Now it is complete. This year has brought us to eternity.


    Let every voice but God's be still in me.
    Father, today I would but hear Your Voice. In deepest silence I would come
    to You, to hear Your Voice and to receive Your Word. I have no prayer but
    this: I come to You to ask You for the truth. And truth is but Your Will,
    which I would share with You today.


    I am surrounded by the Love of God.
    Father, You stand before me and behind, beside me, in the place I see
    myself, and everywhere I go. You are in all the things I look upon, the
    sounds I hear, and every hand that reaches for my own. In You time
    disappears, and place becomes a meaningless belief. For what surrounds
    Your Son and keeps him safe is Love Itself. There is no Source but this, and nothing is that does not share Its Holiness; that stands beyond Your one creation, or without the Love which holds all things within Itself. Father, Your Son is like Yourself. We come to You in Your Own Name today, to
    be at peace within Your everlasting Love.
    My brothers, join with me in this today. This is salvation's prayer. Must we not join in what will save the world, along with us?


    Conflicting wishes cannot be my will.
    Father, Your Will is mine, and only that. There is no other will for me to have. Let me not try to make another will, for it is senseless and will cause me pain. Your Will alone can bring me happiness, and only Yours exists. If
    I would have what only You can give, I must accept Your Will for me, and
    enter into peace where conflict is impossible, Your Son is one with You in being and in will, and nothing contradicts the holy truth that I remain as
    You created me.
    And with this prayer we enter silently into a state where conflict cannot
    come, because we join our holy will with God's, in recognition that they are the same.

    the healer's prayer is:
    Let me know this brother as I know myself.


    Everyone who ever tried to use prayer to ask for something has experienced
    what appears to be failure. This is not only true in connection with specific things that might be harmful, but also in connection with requests that are strictly in line with this course. The latter in particular might be incorrectly
    interpreted as "proof" that the course does not mean what it says. You must remember, however, that the course states, and repeatedly, that its purpose
    is the escape from fear.
    Let us suppose, then, that what you ask of the Holy Spirit is what you really want, but you are still afraid of it. Should this be the case, your attainment of it would no longer be what you want. This is why certain specific forms
    of healing are not achieved, even when the state of healing is. An individual may ask for physical healing because he is fearful of bodily harm. At the
    same time, if he were healed physically, the threat to his thought system
    might be considerably more fearful to him than its physical expression. In
    this case he is not really asking for release from fear, but for the removal of a symptom that he himself selected. This request is, therefore, not for
    healing at all.
    The Bible emphasizes that all prayer is answered, and this is indeed true.
    The very fact that the Holy Spirit has been asked for anything will ensure a response. Yet it is equally certain that no response given by him will ever be one that would increase fear. It is possible that his answer will not be heard. It is impossible, however, that it will be lost. There are many answers you have already received but have not yet heard. I assure you that they are waiting for you.
    If you would know your prayers are answered, never doubt a Son of God.
    Do not question him and do not confound him, for your faith in him is your faith in yourself. If you would know God and his Answer, believe in me
    whose faith in you cannot be shaken. Can you ask of the Holy Spirit truly,
    and doubt your brother? Believe his words are true because of the truth that
    is in him. You will unite with the truth in him, and his words will be true.
    As you hear him you will hear me. Listening to truth is the only way you
    can hear it now, and finally know it.
    The message your brother gives you is up to you. What does he say to you?
    What would you have him say? Your decision about him determines the
    message you receive. Remember that the Holy Spirit is in him, and his
    voice speaks to you through him. What can so holy a brother tell you except truth? But are you listening to it? Your brother may not know who he is, but there is a light in his mind that does know. This light can shine into yours, giving truth to his words and making you able to hear them. His words are
    the Holy Spirit's answer to you. Is your faith in him strong enough to let you hear?
    You can no more pray for yourself alone than you can find joy for yourself alone. Prayer is the restatement of inclusion, directed by the Holy Spirit under the laws of God. Salvation is of your brother. The Holy Spirit extends from your mind to his, and answers you. You cannot hear the Voice for God
    in yourself alone, because you are not alone. And his answer is only for
    what you are. You will not know the trust I have in you unless you extend
    it. You will not trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit, or believe that it is for
    you unless you hear it in others. It must be for your brother because it is for you. Would God have created a Voice for you alone? Could you hear his
    answer except as he answers all of God's Sons? Hear of your brother what
    you would have me hear of you, for you would not want me to be deceived.

    I love you for the truth in you, as God does. Your deceptions may deceive
    you, but they cannot deceive me. Knowing what you are, I cannot doubt
    you. I hear only the Holy Spirit in you, Who speaks to me through you. If
    you would hear me, hear my brothers in whom God's Voice speaks. The
    answer to all prayers lies in them. You will be answered as you hear the
    answer in everyone. Do not listen to anything else or you will not hear truly.

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