2002-12-19-Prayer, Part 4

Session

Opening

Good evening, this is your friend and teacher, Welmek. I welcome you here this evening, and look forward to our time together spent in prayer. As we have been discussing the elements of effective prayer and the nature of being prayer-full, it is now time to put the instruction into practice. And I wish to lead you in an exercise in prayer fullness, as we have done so in recent weeks.

Dialogue

Do you recall from the previous instruction, where you were asked to pray for someone close to you, and to sense that connection you had with that individual? Do you recall this? (Students: Yes.)

I would like you to again revisit that experience by praying for this individual again, and this time what I would ask you to do is to ask Michael to give you a deeper appreciation for that other person - a snapshot, you might say, of what that other person is experiencing. And when you sense this, say the prayer that is in your heart for this person. And when you are finished, we will have our discussion. Are there any questions before we begin on what this exercise is about? Let us begin. (Long pause) Who is ready to share their experience? (Long pause)

Student: Welmek, the experience that I had was not much different from any experience I have when I pray for this particular individual. And that experience is I just feel a deeper appreciation for this man. I did have a conversation with him today, and he shared with me his feelings about his self-worth. And obviously that he doesn't feel that he has loved very much. So I asked Michael to shine his love upon him. But I do not experience any more than that. I know that through prayer Michael can show you the heart of another individual. This thing happened several times with other people, but I have yet to be able to accomplish that myself. And so that was my experience.

Welmek: What was it about this person that made you choose to pray for him in the first place?

Student: He is a good friend from times past, a college friend that has come down with a deep debilitating disease: multiple sclerosis. He has very little use of his arms and legs, and sometime ago I decided I wanted to heal this man through prayer. I had hoped to visit him this holiday season, but that didn't happen. I was hoping to actually attempt to heal him. So, I continue to pray for his healing, and to understand and help him understand possibly why his body is breaking down the way it is.

Welmek: Where in your desire to heal him would you say your feeling of affection for him is?

Student: I feel a love for this man. The friendship that we shared was always very enjoyable. I feel I can talk with this man. I've always enjoyed talking with him. I always enjoyed his company. So I feel the desire to bring healing to this man is just because of affection I have for him, the love I have for him.

Welmek: When you pray for him, are you in that place where you feel your bond of love?

Student: To the best of my realization I would say yes. I think about him, I think about my feelings for him, and the experience I have when I think about the times we had together.

Welmek: And would you say that in your prayer you open the door to allow the Father's love to flow through him?

Student: That is my intention. Whether that is taking place is just a matter of faith on my part.

Welmek: Do you sense within you any of the first faint impulses of the Father's love flowing in him?

Student: Just for an instant I did feel a sense of that, as you spoke of it - a faint impulse of a sense.

Welmek: That is a start. And when did you experience that, at what point?

Student: After you asked the question. This allowed my feelings to come into my mind, and I sensed it for an instant.

Welmek: That is the attitude. That is the feeling to be in as you pray for him, and to allow that feeling to expand and grow strong within him. This is the healing power of your prayer. The intention begins to set the tone, and it is a door opener. But it is your feeling - and then asking for the Father's love to flow into this person - that makes this prayer more effective; and thereby being the conduit through which you can administer the Father's love to this dear friend of yours.

Healing is a matter of bringing the Father's love into the lives, into the bodies, into the minds of those individuals who yearn for this depth and purity of love in their souls. Most people are not at their level of development able to access this reservoir of love within them. And so you are, through your prayer, opening the spigot so that a few drops can begin to flow into their lives.

And even though it is only a dropperful, it is a start. And as you pray, and as you open to feeling more of the Father's love, then you will allow more of that love to permeate into that individual as well. Being in the attitude of healing as your intention is best acknowledged by wishing for the Father's love to be so heightened in that person's being, that at some point they will consciously become aware of it. Do you have any comments or questions on this idea?

Student: Yes, when I pray for this individual, I call on Michael to go into his spirit and deliver or shine his love upon him. I guess my question is, should I direct my prayer to Michael, or should I direct my prayer to the Paradise Father, or does it matter?

Welmek: Prayer is a spiritual communication throughout the local universe, and it functions in this domain. It is a matter of appealing to your immediate divine parent as the means for the prayer. But the attitude within your heart of feeling the Father's love, and then sensing it coursing through your being into another person, is how you directionize that flow into an individual. So, it is a matter of engaging your intention and directing your emotions toward that individual as you 'pump' him, as it were, with the Father's love. Does this clarify your question?

Student: Yes, it does. I enjoy you using terms that are of a mechanical nature, since I have been a mechanic most of my life. It helps me. It deepens the lesson that you are teaching. Thank you. (You are most welcome, my friend.)

Student: Welmek, I have been praying for one friend for a while, because he keeps popping into my mind the first thing if I sit down to pray as the most needy of all my acquaintances. The insight I just got is that someone who is feeling very trapped, and is in so much pain, he is just kind of killing time, just a way of kind of getting through the day. The dangerous thing I've caught in the last year or so is this individual sees himself as a kind of cosmic sacrifice. He lost his mother when he was only a few years old, and now he gets into some kind of Western mystic jargon about sacrifice. And, to me, that's just the insight I got into the way he sees things.

And he is getting more and more isolated. He'll visit his brother's house, but when we are all sitting down to eat, he'll be very conspicuously absent. And his drunkenness is getting to where it's not only kind of sloppy but very vicious and angry and frustrated. So I pray mainly that Michael knows better than I, the Father knows, what he needs most in terms of an opening up - some rebirth of wonder, of curiosity, as to what this day might hold sober.

Welmek: When you prayed for him, were you at all able to tap into the pain he feels at being this sacrifice?

Student: I think so, Welmek. He's very rarely spoken directly about the loss his mother was, except that I think that without having a real woman around for a long time, the whole female sex for him is something kind of abstract, like an angel.

Welmek: I am not talking about what his concept or feelings of the sacrifice are. Were you able sense any of his pain?

Student: I don't think so, Welmek. I know the pain is there. But exactly sense it, no.

Welmek: Would you be willing to sense his pain, in order to administer Michael's love to him?

Student: Yes. I've done that when we were together - just acting like a sponge and not reacting sometimes when he gets kind of angry or mean-spirited.

Welmek: And when you have done that, what effect have you noticed?

Student: It will calm him down momentarily. He senses my love for him, and the fact I am acting out of love towards him.

Welmek: Exactly. And so, as you pray for him, as you sense now this idea of being the sacrifice and sensing how painful that must be for him, do you think you could as you pray go into that feeling and be there with him? And then asking for Michael's love to flow into him as you administer this most healing and nurturing of emotions to him? Do you think that would make your prayer more helpful to him?

Student: I really don't know, Welmek. The thing, the whole situation is so complicated with the concept of enabling, that I'm really not sure to what degree of kind of agreeing with him, supporting him, enables him to continue as he is.

Welmek: This is not a matter of, as you say, enabling him. This is a prayer that you issue on his behalf, doing this here and now, and being there with him in his emotional pain, and sensing that to the degree you can. And when you sense that, ask Michael to step in, and to give him the love that he needs. Do you think this is something you could try?

Student: Oh yes, Welmek. Thank you. I think you've clarified that very much in my mind - the difference between the prayer and my particular behavior with him. They are two distinct things. Thank you.

Welmek: Prayer is an attitude of your heart. And the more compassion, the more understanding, the more you are willing to go into the realm of what another person experiences, the more you will appreciate what that person is living and experiencing. The more understanding and compassion you will have, and the more your heart will open, with the intention to love, and to ask Michael and Mother to administer their love into this individual.

This is what makes your prayer effective. It is being with that person in their spiritual darkness, in being the comfort and solace, and allowing the greatest healing power to enter into them. This may be the only time in their life that this is allowed to happen for them, because you have opened the door. You have planted the seed. You have turned the spigot of the Father's love, for it to flow through them and to begin to nurture them - nurture this seed of love that you have planted within them as your intention to help them.

Do you have any comments or need for clarification on this idea, my friend?

Student: No, Welmek, I thank you for reminding me, from your point of view, what it is that really works. Thank you very much. (You are most welcome.)

Student: Welmek, I'd like to take advantage of this time, this opportunity, to deepen the quality of my prayer and its effectiveness. I'm praying for my former wife, who is the mother of my two younger children. I've not had much contact with her for the last 18 years. I am not able to have any communication with her because of her mental illness. And I've been sensing lately that she's been reaching out, and is isolated. So there's compassion welling up in me, and a willingness to take the risk that opening this door again will work out better because of the connection that I have now and am developing with Michael and this instruction on prayer and healing.

So I've been praying tonight, and the comments and discussion that we've just had are helping. I have yet to get a lot of feeling. But I do sense something. I guess compassion and some empathy is in there already now for this particular experience - and an uprising of courage to just go ahead and step into the situation and take the risks that there won't be any fun. That's as far as I've got at this point. I'd appreciate your communication on that.

Welmek: There are several components of the prayerful nature of your experience with her. One is the budding internal sense within you of what she is experiencing as an individual. And I encourage you, as you pray for her in the coming days, to allow yourself to become more amenable to sensing what she experiences. You can certainly ask Michael to reveal to you a different perspective of her than you have seen, and to ask for you to have deeper empathy and compassion for what she is experiencing. Know that if you ask this, and you are sincere and truly wishing to aid her through this prayerful intention, that you will begin to sense this new understanding of her, and give you a greater platform of forgiveness, mercy, tolerance and forbearance from which to go into a relationship at a more material level.

The other component of what you articulated is in asking for yourself to be imbued with this courage that you need to move forward in a deeper personal relationship with her. You sense the difficulty ahead of you, and so you do not need to enter this relationship alone. You have spiritual agencies behind you - and in front of you - who will act as the buffer when you spend your time in stillness and communing with them, and asking to be encircuited in their guidance and in all of the spiritual tools of courage and patience and understanding and forgiveness that you need.

So you are well-armed and well-protected, so that you can act as a true spiritual minister to her - and not be mindful that your own internal spiritual equilibrium will be disrupted by her mental instability. I will pause and ask if you understand this or need further clarification.

Student: There was one word that I wasn't sure that I heard clearly. I think I heard you say more 'mature' level, or maybe it sounded like more 'material' level. I think you were saying more mature level at the end of the first part of what you were saying.

Welmek: It was the 'material' level, and by that I meant being actually in the physical presence of this individual.

Student: I need or would value for you to give me a better idea of who are the buffers in front of me and behind me. That might be nice to identify.

Welmek: Well, would you consider me to be one of them?

Student: Wow, yes! Absolutely. I am very inspired by the manner by which you have been instructing on prayer, and I would consider it to be a great honor for that to be.

Welmek: You have your spiritual brothers and sisters surrounding you at any given moment. You have guardian angels assisting you. You are imbued with the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Truth from your immediate Divine Parents. So you see, my friend, you are encircuited if you connect with this, and the buffer around you is great, indeed. We understand that these are new ideas. But we are hoping that you will use them, so that you will become more familiar with the feeling of this softening of the hard edges of human interrelationships; so that you can be the very essence of love that will impinge on another person's heart and soften them, open them, make them more pliant and resilient.

So open yourself up, ask for your spiritual support network to [side one of tape ends] . ..... and a handle on ministering to this individual and other individuals in this manner. Does this clarify your concern?

Student: Well, it's opened me up to feeling. I'm feeling now more like what you were just describing. Or I'm feeling what you're just describing. So that's very pleasing and empowering to me. And I can build on that.

Welmek: And it will build, and it will bring to you a new enthusiasm for prayerful living. (Pause)

As you can see, tonight's lesson on effective prayer is all about feeling what another person experiences - and developing compassion, understanding, empathy, tolerance for that individual. And feeling that deeply within you, asking for the Father's love to flow from that center of understanding into that other individual. This is the heart of prayer. [unintelligible] Set the intention that is your feeling that delivers the prayer into the very soul of that needy individual. Are there any other comments on the experiences you had in your prayer?

Student: Yes, Welmek, what I was just thinking about is, and I've come to understand, is letting go of my own - what I feel the outcome should be or the results - in any prayer that I have, for any human being, and for myself. And in the case of the prayer for this one person, my roommate, is that I remember three weeks ago when we first started the idea of living prayer, and I was troubled. And I felt it physically. And when and during that session I came to understand that just letting go, and in a sense letting God take care of this human being, letting go of my own intention for this person, accept just the Father's love, and his own divine plan for this human being.

And since then certain things have been activated. And I feel a greater sense of peace with this relationship even though there are some unresolved issues. But I also get a sense that things are being put in motion that, in a sense the ball is in this person's court. And I said this to this person: The universe brought you into my life. The universe can take you out of my life. And so, it's like I just released my own intention how this person ought to be living his life; but allow the Father's love take care of him and guide him in the way that is best for him.

Welmek: Are you finding that this person responds to you better when he does not feel your agenda operating on him?

Student: Yes. And not only with him, but all my other relationships as well. But with him, yes. From the moment he moved in there has been that change.

Welmek: And so this is what the prayerful attitude is all about. When you sense that other individual's experience of life - and your heart swells with understanding and compassion - there is an immediate opening for you then to ask for the Father's love to enter this individual. And in the Father's love is the Father's will. And if you sense the Father's love, then do you not also sense that the Father's will for this individual is for this individual to learn and grow and to experience a depth of the Father's love heretofore unexperienced?

You cannot know what the Father's will is for any individual. But you can pray for the Father's will for that individual prevail in that person's life when you open the door and feel His love for this individual come through you and go right into the essence, the core, the hurting, the needful place in that person's soul.

And if you are in a prayerful attitude as you interact with this person, they will begin to respond to you, or they will sense that you are not threatening them in spirit, that you are not trying to coerce them, or judge them, or change them. You are simply loving them, and opening the place within them where love can then enter and proceed to take root and grow. What an exquisite pairing of heart to heart, of soul to soul, in this newly developing spirit relationship that you share with this brother or sister!

Each time you pray effectively in this attitude, this is what you are building: a new relationship with this individual. And even though you may not physically be in that individual's presence, you are nonetheless sharing a spiritual experience with this person if you can, as you are in the physical presence of this individual, bring this prayerful attitude to your interaction. Think of all of the potential for spiritual dynamism to occur! And perhaps we will discuss that at our next session.

For this is truly a new spiritual energy and bond that you are bringing forth into the universe. But we will not discuss this so much this evening, as it is still important for you to develop this prayerful attitude, this heartfelt connection, of being in that person's experience, and being compassionate and understanding. Are there any other comments or questions?

Student: I find it very difficult to pray for my daughter, when my own physical situation seems to be deteriorating rather rapidly. But I do hold her within the [ ]. And I hope that my prayers have gotten to her somehow, since I've been praying for her for a long time. I find it is very hard for me to read the Urantia material. I feel like an outsider in this community, that I haven't practiced enough the material that you have so wonderfully shared with us. My hearing is one obstacle. I can only read for a short stretch of time. So I feel like I'm so much out of it.

Welmek: It is important that you pray for your daughter. For I assure you there is great benefit to hold her in compassion and love, and to sense that within you and be a conduit for her to receive this love from Paradise, from her Paradise Father into her being. When you sense your compassion and love for her, make your appeal to Michael; and ask for him to flow his love into her. You may not sense this yourself. But just the mere intention and prayerful attitude of your heart is enough for that to be conveyed and added into her in time, over time.

Will you know the impact of your prayer? You may not. Will this impact your ability to pray for her? I pray it will not. So, as much as you can, and for as long as you can, be in that state of love and understanding and true spiritual empathy for her. And then open your heart and ask Michael's love - love from Paradise - to flow into her.

As for your other comments, you have many challenges in your life. Many people do not face what you face. And yet you are here, and you are willing, and you are desirous of an in-depth spiritual relationship. And for this you are admired greatly, as we who watch you draw close to you and applaud your efforts. You are encouraged to applaud your efforts, as well; and even though you may feel that you are not as advanced as you may like to be, you are advancing by your mere desire to grow.

Your physical debility is not impairing your spiritual growth. For it is your heart's desire to be in a more loving and inspirational relationship with the Father and with Michael. And as long as you carry this desire within you, this is how you grow your faith. And so we say to you: be proud of yourself. You are making progress in the midst of some very difficult adversity. And many of your fellows on Earth would not even dare to take on what you have chosen in your life. I would like to imbue you with my approval and my encouragement. Will you allow me to do this now, for a moment? (Certainly.) (Pause)

Not one ounce of spiritual growth is lost due to your physical debility. Everything that you are earning through your faith is adding to your soul. And this is the new body that you are growing within you. Your physical form, in time, will cease to be. But the real part of you is growing more beautiful and stronger each day - as you practice stilling your mind and communing with the Father, learning to love and to know Michael. This new body within you is becoming more real and more vibrant; and I ask you now to begin to, in your own mind, attach yourself to your soul as your true self, as the things of the physical change about you. Do you understand this?

Student: Yes, it is a great comfort to me. I am very grateful.

Welmek: Do you have any other questions about this?

Student: I'd like to know how to be better communing with the Father and the Mother Spirit.

Welmek: What do you do when you want to get to know another human being? Do you ask that other person to tell you about their life and who they are? (Oh, yes) Then bring this question into your stillness, and ask for them to show more of who they are to you, and then listen. The listening becomes difficult at first, because you may not hear a response. But, nevertheless, practice listening to the best of your ability. Ask to know who are these spirit people that we talk about all of the time. Ask them to reveal themselves to you. And after you have asked this, listen for a few moments. Does this help? (Very much, thank you.) You are most welcome, my dear friend.

Student: Welmek, I've been in a courtroom situation the last couple of days - just about praying for everybody, and then it dawned on me today to pray for the poor accused man, who didn't know English, who is in serious trouble. And suddenly I realized the downpouring of spirit help for this man. And it was what I was praying for, but it seemed to work because there was a tiny moment of the selfless element - just a pause to maybe stay open to the possible loneliness and suffering of this man, without any personal estimate. And that's when it seemed to work best, that pause and just a looking at that person: maybe feeling that he had some Christian background,- he's Spanish - but without any kind of estimating and analyzing. And there seemed to be an actual downpouring of spirit to this person. And he did seem to brighten up, almost like sober up, as the day went on. And I thought that was great.

Welmek: Where do you find your sensing focused on as you pray? In your emotional center of feeling the experience of another person? Or on the analyzing what a person needs?

Student: I find that this worked because I was more on an emotional level and I remember a long time ago with my lawyer watching a woman who was so depressed that she was ready to pee, and I linked the two today to realize that without me forcing the issue - just looking at somebody, maybe as though Jesus was right behind me, that's when I actually see what's actually there, and have the better compassion. I don't have to do any work.

Welmek: I would suggest that you go even deeper into this experience now, and imagine that it is not Michael behind you, but that it is Michael within you, and that you are not seeing another person, but you are experiencing what that person feels. This is the actual point of connectivity between Michael and that other person. Michael accompanies a person into their experience and thereby adds His Spirit into that person, and you are the link as you pray.

And so it is not just a matter of being able to see what a person needs - it is your ability to connect Michael's healing ministry into that person. And the way you do this is by sensing what that person needs through feeling, for the actual exposure of that individual's need or neediness, and bringing Michael into the essence of that need; and making it whole and filling it with what that person truly, desperately must have for their spiritual survival. Do you understand the distinction I am making here?

Student: I think I could feel it as you were describing it. It makes it more unified.

Welmek: This unification will make you a more effective pray-er and increase your prayer-fullness as well. And as I said earlier, the prayer is effective because of its intention and because of its heartfelt attitude. Are there any other comments or questions before we go into a collective prayer and conclude our meeting?

Student: Welmek, this ability to feel another's pain - to see into another's heart - to step into their shoes - to know what it is they most truly need; does this come in time through prayer? Does this come through asking Michael to expose us to me? How I can I grow stronger in this ability to feel another's pain so that I can bring Michael's love and healing, and the Father's love, into that person's spirit and the soul and heart?

Welmek: These are big shoes to fill, are they not? (laughter) And yet it is so admirable to want to fill them. You have asked an important question, and I am glad you raised this. For truly your ability to empathize and to feel this individual's need, their spiritual yearnings, their hunger will come in time the more you grow into your own ability to feel loved, and to be that love of the Father as it flows through you. And, as we have stated to you many times, the best way for you to feel the Father's love is to be in the state of Stillness - and communing in worship - in feeling the Father's embrace encircling you and immersing you, in your mind and in heart and in your cells, with the greatest energy and force in the universe - His love for you.

The more you open up to this, and the more you gain greater release from your own internal spiritual and mental struggles, will you be able to be a more effective prayer partner for your friends and family and acquaintances and world situations. And so, as we discussed in an earlier lesson on prayer, there is this interesting interplay between the spiritual attitudes of worship and prayer - that as you commune with the Father and feel more love, feel more celebration of spirit that comes in worship, the greater will your capacity be to release, to be released from your own spiritual deprivations.

Being filled with light, being filled with peace and joy and love, will make you want to share that with others. And going to that place of another person's spiritual neediness will not seem to be a chore or a burden. It will become a joy and a service. For you will be bringing into that person's life the very essence of joy and peace and love that you now feel deep within you. So, as you begin to adapt this prayerful attitude, know that it will grow in time. But to truly be as effective as you wish, you must be a more effective and dynamic and living embodiment of the Father's love. Does this answer your question?

Student: Yeah, there's always a catch. (Laughter) I hope I can accomplish this in my lifetime. I certainly have tried and will continue to try to feel the joy of worshiping the Father.

Welmek: And if you continue to try, you will eventually meet with success. Will it be on this planet in this lifetime? Will it matter so much, if it is or is not? For truly this is going to be your whole life, your eternal life! And so all you are doing now is beginning this beautiful habit that will be yours to enjoy, accompanying you all the way to Paradise and beyond.

Student: It does matter to me that it is in this lifetime. There is so much need for this love for my fellow man, through my brothers, my sisters, my family, my friends. And I would love to be able to accomplish at least some of this in this lifetime. So it does very much matter to me - because I can't see beyond this lifetime, other than what my faith allows me to see.

Welmek: But you are already accomplishing this, my friend. And continuing to do this will further your ability, your goal, one day at a time. And you have our encourage-ment, and you have our support, and you have our instruction to use as a focusing energy when you feel you have lost your own ability to stay connected or centered on this prayerful attitude.

Closing

Now I have given you much to consider tonight. But I sense within you all a deepening awareness of this idea of prayer - this service of prayer. And so, as we conclude, let us go into a prayer for your world, and for the peace that is the wish for your Christmas season to prevail upon this world. Let us join our hands. Let us all now focus on the instability and the turmoil of the world. And let us sense this within ourselves, to the degree that you can or you want to. (Pause)

Beloved Michael, Father Creator, Beloved Nebadonia, Creative Mother, we place before you this beloved planet Urantia. We feel within ourselves the turmoil and turbulence of this planet. We ask for your peace to flow through us and into this turbulence. And anchor this planet in your peace, your peace fullness, to cover the earth, to be instilled within the hearts and minds of men and women who carry within them the yearnings for peace - bringing peace into the very turmoil of their souls and into the very soul of this planet.

Now open your hearts and let their love and peace flow into this beautiful planet. (long pause) My friends, may our Creator's peace flow through your hearts this season of light as we celebrate our Master's birth. Let it connect you with all living things on this world, keeping the light of love alive on Urantia. May His light illuminate the celebration of His birth, and carry within it peace of the universe. We are the peace of Urantia. His peace is the hope of the world.