Before we get to the master's prayer, there are a few loose ends to tie up.
First, we need to remember the qualities of God:
--- Omnipresence
--- Omni powerful
--- Omnipotence
--- Omniscience
We need to remember a simple truth – God always provide the best, nothing less. Anything that occurs that is not the best either is not from God or was distorted in the transmission.
Following are a few common examples of inappropriate prayers, examples of how NOT to pray. It should be noted, these prayers will be answered, but the answers will definitely NOT be the desired answer. As you read these examples take a moment and imagine how the answers to these prayers might manifest.
Maybe you asked, but you did not receive because you asked
with evil intentions, just to satisfy your own desires.
(James 4:3 victor alexander translation from aramaic)
HOW NOT TO PRAY –
common examples of prayers with “evil intentions”:
CASTING A SPELL
(say the magic words and God will have to do what I tell him to it)
--- Many people believe that God has to do what they tell Him to if
--- they say the prayer in just the right way, using the right words
--- EX: "I pray by the blood of Jesus that God will ...."
--- EX: "In Jesus Name I pray that God will ..."
--- Notice: the manipulative nature of this behavior
LETS MAKE A DEAL
(bargaining, trying to buy God off)
--- Many people believe that they can make deals with God to get
--- what they want these usually sound like “God if you will get me
--- out of this, I will …”
--- Notice the “IF” – if is always a sign of a lack of faith
PROVE IT
(lack of faith)
--- some variation on "God if you are really listening, then give me a sign"
“I NEED A SPECIAL MIRACLE BLESSING”
(desperation, lack of faith)
--- Many people believe that there is a hierarchy of prayer,
--- that some prayer is more effective than others
--- They don’t want the ordinary prayer, they want the special prayer
--- Frequently sounds like: if I don’t get the answer I WANT to this
--- prayer right away, something really bad will happen to me
GOD WILL GET YOU FOR THAT
(anger, hate, revenge)
--- praying that God will cause some type of harm to befall another
--- This one usually has really nasty backfire ju-ju
MY NEEDS COME FIRST, THEIRS DON’T MATTER
(selfishness)
--- praying that God will make someone else do what they want,
--- regardless of whether or not it is in their highest good
--- EX: make my boyfriend come back to me
--- EX: make them not evict me for not paying my rent for 6 months
--- EX: my son is guilty, but pray that he will not get convicted
--- This one also has nasty backfire ju-ju
IF I NAG GOD EVENTUALLY HE WILL GIVE ME WHAT I WANT
--- constantly repeating the same request over and over and over
--- this is actually an affirmation of lack of faith
--- DO NOT CONFUSE THIS WITH REPETION PRAYERS
--- SUCH AS THE ROSARY
I KNOW WHATS BEST FOR ME, GOD DOESN’T
(arrogance)
--- unwilling to accept that God's Best for us really is the BEST
--- they usually go to great lengths and into great detail telling
--- God what they want and how they want God to give it to them
BEGGING and PLEADING -
--- usually sounds like "if I sound pathetic enough, God will feel
--- sorry for me and answer the prayer"
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How to pray the master's prayer:
1. self-check - be clear about the intention
2. self-check - reaffirm faith is in God
3. Remember: ....
--- THERE IS NEVER ANYTHING WE NEED TO TELL GOD
--- THERE IS NEVER ANYTHING WE NEED TO ASK FOR
--- GOD ALREADY KNOWS EVERY NEED AND EVERY DESIRE
--- BEFORE WE ASK, GOD HAS ALREADY ANSWERED
--- THE REASON WE PRAY IS TO ALIGN WITH GOD
--- --- NOT TO GET SOMETHING
--- ALL OF OUR BLESSINGS FLOW THROUGH THE ALIGNMENT
--- ---THERE IS NOTHING TO GET
4. Pray the masters prayer from the heart with sincere heartfelt gratitude:
--- Thank you God, for helping me understand that this situation
--- has already been resolved and thank you for revealing
--- the answer to me.
(yes, it really is this simple)
5. Take time to be still and listen for God to reveal the answer
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The Master's Prayer has been used successfully by hundreds of thousands of people for a very long time. It is easy, powerful, and extremely effective. When used properly, it covers everything, is always answered with the best outcome and really is the only prayer that anyone ever needs.
This is not meant to imply that other prayer formats such as the Rosary, the Apostles Creed, etc. are not effective. The truth is, that any prayer format when used with the proper intention and used with proper reverence and faith will be effective. However, it should be remembered, less is more.
This is not intended to be the be all end-all do-all answer to effective prayer, this is one way out of many. What I have attempted to do is to distill out the essential elements and to simplify it into something that is easy to do and easy to understand. I do not believe that God ever intended for it to be hard to connect to Him in prayer and to receive His blessings. Quite the contrary, I believe that the reason God gave us the Holy Spirit was so that the process of alignment could be simple and easy, and natural.
Men have cluttered up the process. We needed go betweens before Christ’s resurrection. With the Holy Spirit, we have all we need within us every minute of every day.
Blessings
Carl
