Jesus ministered by doing as Father showed him and told him. We really can do the same. Here’s how.
A first key that so many of us have been missing is this: ask Father how to pray. How to pray for whatever situation, need, concern, worry, fear, or ministry opportunity we have.
A second key many of us miss is this: notice what happens, what you see, hear or otherwise what you experience. Especially when this is not what you expected.
What you experience is either Still Small Voice – or more likely what is a Word of Knowledge and a Word of Wisdom, or what is very much like one.
What you will experience is not directions for what you were likely expecting in how to pray.
What you will experience is literally the answer to the need or issue that you are praying about. How to have the answer you were seeking; what to be, what to do, or both.
You are responsible to pray for, steward and enforce that answer about to how to pray.
Some examples:
- If pain in a muscle has been an issue, you may experience subtle shifts or subtle movements in that muscle. That’s the target. That’s what to pray for. What to do. It’s also the answer to how to pray – pray for that. Do that. See your ministry recipient doing that. Enforce what you have been shown or told or otherwise experienced. Those subtle movements and how they are made: pray for them and see that they are done.
- If you have a chronic issue or problem, you may be given a memory of when another person demonstrated how to be and what sort of thing to do – and be a person without that problem. You may have a flash of memory when you acted in such a way. That’s your answer to your prayer, that’s what to pray for, that’s what to do and to enforce in prayer on earth as it is in heaven.
- If you have a relationship problem, you may be given a thought, memory, idea, feeling, way of being, things to do — that are literally an answer to such an issue. So you are to pray for that, do those things or see that they are done. Enforce that answer to prayer, and pray that such is done.
What we too often miss is this: an answer to how to pray is often us being shown the solution to what we are praying about.
The solution we are to pray for, act upon, see that it is done. To pray for and to enforce, on earth as it is in heaven and to see that it is done.
We are expecting something that looks to us like how to pray: maybe a picture or set of directions of us praying – and how.
What we are getting is an answer to what we are praying about.
An answer to the prayer-need that we are to pray for! To enforce, to do, to act upon, and to see that it is done on earth as it already is in heaven.
God is faster and more generous than we expect.
And we can too easily miss such answers, because it is not what we were expecting. Such answers can be quick and can be subtle, as well as not what we expect to see or hear – which can make the answers we receive all too easy to miss.
A Word of Knowledge may be you experiencing something in your body. Having a feeling, a knowing, a memory of you or someone else doing something. Not what we usually expect.
A Word of Wisdom is an answer and how to apply knowledge well.
A request about how to pray results in us being shown a solution which is an answer to the need or problem – including what to pray for – that solution.
Praise be to our Lord and Christ for Wisdom, Knowledge, love and faith. Rejoice in such love and kindness shown and told to us. Receive with joy, and rejoice!
P.S. – See below:
So K. asked for more examples, and the back and forth of the conversation went something like this:
K: I like that David. Asking how to pray sounds like a good question. I wonder, and maybe this just me being slow right now, but I wonder if you could tell me a couple of more concrete examples of what you might see in a particular situation so I can see it better? It could be made up, but it helps me understand if you say, supposed you prayed for help with having arguments with a person and you received this (example of what you might receive) as a response, then this is what you would do.
By the way, also posted the post on MeWe.
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David: A memory such as a family friend who refused to take arguments seriously. Who refused to acknowledge anger. Who just laughed in a warm and loving way.
Which teaches me how to be and how to act.
Which gives me a model, exemplar, to learn from. To have a sense of the kind of energy to be applying.
Of someone just refusing to believe in or take seriously or real something less than another persons best self.
Which teaches me to apply these attitudes and behaviors to the situation and person I was praying about.
Or I might have a memory or image of someone who listens deeply and well, with love. To find, with good intent, what the other person is experiencing. How they understand things to be. To understand what they really need from me.
I might remember a story of a saint or someone interceding for someone with a determined and loving intention, while being shown being full of Holy Spirit.
Or just someone who is loving, paying attention, and who reacts without any defensiveness. Just listening deeply and knowing the person who is angry.
Does this help?
These show me how to be, and also how to pray. To pray that such attitudes and actions take place.
Questions? Comments or thoughts?
I might have an image of the sun shining on chilly people. And realize that this is how God shines on us all, and of what I am called to do.
Just shine, warmly.
And pray that I do that, or that it gets done.
Or a warm breeze doing the same.
Or an image of the Dalai Lama or Bishop Desmond Tutu, smiling in the way they do, with understanding, complete acceptance and love.
And realize I am to do that, to be that way, and to pray that I do, until it happens.
Or see or remember a mother cat, licking and loving her kittens.
Or see a leaf, growing happily among many other leaves on a tree, feeling what that’s like and what it means.
Does this make any sense?
You see, having the answer is not always enough.
So we asked how to pray. We’re shown the answer as what to pray for.
And praying for that may be needed until it is done because knowledge alone is not enough.
Knowing an answer can fall short of living out that answer – so prayer is still needed.
We asked how to pray, and are shown how to pray.
Even though it looks like an answer or that it looks like something we have not yet seen as an answer.
In either case, prayer is needed until the thing is done.
We asked to be shown how to pray, and we are being shown how to pray for that answer to happen.
