Language of Prayer

The effect of prayer comes from something more than words. Indeed, the language of prayer is beyond words, including the words of praise, chants and incantations to a “Higher Power”. The intent of our prayer is important. Also, the power of prayer is in the feelings that the words evoke in us. The feeling essentially is the prayer, not just a factor in the prayer. In its purest form, prayer has no outward expression. Thought and feeling may be focused to effect change in the conditions of our bodies, the world and beyond. This then is the language of prayer. This article explores prayer from a different perspective than traditionally thought.

As an example, peace is more than the absence or end of conflict. The underlying thinking has to change to create a true and lasting peace. It needs to start with body, thoughts and then feelings. To change the outer world, we need to reflect within the condition of our desires. To bring peace, we must first become peace in our bodies, thoughts and feelings.

Thought is a guidance system that directs our emotion. The image created by our thoughts determines where our emotion and attention are directed. Thought is closely associated with imagination which creates thought.

Emotion is the source of power that drives us forward to our goals. It fuels our thoughts, giving them life and energy, to make them real. The extremes of emotion are love and fear.

Feeling only exists in the presence of thoughts and emotion and is the union of the two. The desire of our emotions merges with the imagination of our thoughts. Feeling is the key to prayer as it is our feeling world to which the creation responds. Our feelings are the key to the law of attraction working. The key to personal mastery is to recognize what thoughts and emotions are represented as our feelings.

How do inside feelings influence the outside world? The “soup of creation” exists as a state of possibilities. A catalyst is needed to trigger one of the possibilities into materializing. Through prayer with a strong element of feeling, we place a “feeling picture” into the possibilities of creation giving it enough energy to allow for a new possibility. The key is that the creation gives back what our picture has shown. The picture tells the soup of creation where we have placed our attention.

If prayer is thought, emotion and feeling, why doesn’t it always work? The potential of thought in the absence of the energy of emotion to fuel it is a wish. The basic emotion that fuels our thoughts is love or fear. Often our perceived needs, or what we claim we don’t want, are fueled by fear. We create negative feelings of lack and therefore attract negative circumstances. Prayers for healing pain and supplying of needs may not be answered if the focus is on the needs. Energy follows attention, so if we focus on avoidance or lack, we actually attract what we want to avoid. It is better to focus on what we want in our lives, such as in affirmations.

Fifth Mode of Prayer

There are four categories of prayer as viewed in the West – colloquial, petitionary, ritualistic and meditative.  Indigenous and esoteric traditions add a fifth mode of prayer, which is different, and had been lost to us. Its secret is to shift our perspective of life by feeling that the “miracle” had already happened and our prayer has been answered. The prayer then becomes a prayer of gratitude for what already exists rather than asking for our prayers to be answered out of a position of need.

Gratitude is a powerful part of this kind of prayer. First feeling in the heart gratitude for what is and has come to pass without judging it as good or bad. Then choosing a new outcome by deeply feeling it in the body, mind and soul. The prayer becomes a prayer of thanks, but not for what we have created, since creation is complete, but for the opportunity to choose what from the creation we experience. Through thanks we honor all possibilities and bring the ones we choose into the world.

The lost mode of prayer, and the language of prayer, is a consciousness that we embody rather than an occasional action we take. Our feelings are to be involved as we perceive ourselves “surrounded by the answer” and “enveloped by our desire”.

So to create in our world, we must first have the feelings of our creation already fulfilled. Our prayers than become thanks for what we have potentially created. This then introduces a new concept of faith. The fifth mode of prayer involves no expectations, time frame, or judgment of the outcome. It involves sharing a sacred moment with the divine, plants a seed of possibility, and gives thanks for the opportunity to choose a new outcome. It involves an unwavering faith of the prayer having accomplished something.

Our world expects a quick gratification and rapid response. The ancients understood that their prayers had invited the presence of a new possibility, the effect of which may not be immediately visible. They had confidence in the outcome, i.e., faith. For the ancients, faith was the acceptance of their power as a directive force in creation. This kind of faith allows one to rest assured that their prayers are effective, and so prayers become the expression of thanks, giving life to our choices as they blossom in the world.

So to sum up, the language of prayer goes beyond words and involves thoughts, emotions, feelings, gratitude and faith. The strong feeling of the outcome is accompanied by faith that we have planted it among the possibilities, and gratitude for being able to choose a desired outcome to come to fruition at the right time.

 

Reference: Gregg Braden, The Isaiah Effect, Chapter 7.

Photo Credit: Jess Hall

 

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