Prayer is yet another simple endeavor that has been misunderstood, misconstrued, misinterpreted, and basically just missed. All over the world, people talk to their God concerned with a multitude of problems they are unable to solve. God is expected to take note of the asking, beseeching, pleading, wailing, advising, and the like, then work some favorable manipulation of the scene. This method of persuading God is qualified by the single scripture, "ask and you shall receive,". However, we could just as easily find enlightenment from the verse, "you receive not because you ask amiss.". Requests have filled the heavens for thousands of years. Cries for peace, prosperity, health, and every other human desire, still rise from the earth, yet all these problems have not abated, they have worsened.

When a football team has poor results during the first half of a game, the coach may decide at halftime to throw away the current plan and start over. The legendary Vince Lombardi, at a Monday morning session with his team, held up an oblong leather object and said, "We are going back to basics...THIS is a football!" This tack may be profitable in the issue of prayer . Let’s forget what we assumed was correct and sit with coach Jesus in the locker room. I can see the Lord holding up the book and saying, "We are going back to basics...THIS is a Bible!"

If you will, clear your mind of traditional thoughts regarding prayer, and consider these principles:

Mat 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Examine your last prayer session and subtract all the thoughts that you took. Jesus said take NO thought so, if you initiate thoughts, they don’t count as prayer. (Surely, He didn’t mean no thoughts . . . ) Stop that! You’re thinking again!

Mat 6:27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? Now from that same session, subtract the ideas you had which you hoped would improve your life or the lives of others, and the attempts you made to persuade God to add anything to your circumstances. These vain attempts were not prayer either.

Mat 6:32 For after all these things do the Gentiles (nonbelievers) seek: for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

Now subtract all the advice you gave God, all the counseling you gave Him to bring Him up to speed on current events, and any other pagan (Gentile) custom of coercing God to do something He is not already doing. Now, if you’re like most pray-ers, the only thing left from that prayer session is, "Dear God." Perhaps we would have been better off to stop right there. Much more has been wrought by those two words than the vain petitions that followed. Here is the plain and simple way to pray according to the Master:

Mat 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Are we petitioning God for anything that is supposed to be added as a result of seeking the kingdom of God? If we must ask for food, clothing and such, then they must not have been added to us. That can only be because we have failed to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

We must know what Jesus meant by that command or we will not know how to pray. The kingdom of God...the dominion of God...the authority of God...and the omnipotence of God are all synonymous. If we are seeking the kingdom, then we are seeking God’s total control over our lives. There is nothing we need but obedience to God’s dominion and authority, and the omnipotence of God assures us that there is no other force in the universe to overturn the effect of God’s power over us, except our own stubborn rejection of His will.

Seeking God’s righteousness is an automatic followup to seeking the kingdom. When we lay our lives down before Him in recognition that He knows our needs before we ask of Him, and we trust that all things will be fulfilled if we but submit to His total authority, then His righteousness becomes our righteousness. As we live, move and have our being in the perfect righteousness of God, His righteousness becomes our experience. This is what we call "Grace". Seeking God’s kingdom, dominion, authority omnipotence, is our access to grace and "all these things" are added by the power of grace.

This is more of a relief than you might imagine. You no longer have to read God your list of needs."... for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." Mat 6:8 You can stop worrying that you forgot to pray for someone or something and because of your negligence the world is going to hell. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Mat 6:7 Finally, we can rest in the knowledge that whatever we may be seeking, we already have. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. Luke (15:31)... ...According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue: (2 Pet 1:3) I want to emphasize the phrase through the knowledge of him. This is the sum of all we are seeking in this life on earth. Knowing God aright will fulfill every expectation we could possibly hope for. Without it, we have no hope. If knowing Him is the only focus of our prayers, then our devotional times will be a beholding and a listening, instead of a thought-inspired speech.

If true prayer is not the religious torture that it’s come to be known as,then what is it? Elijah provides some insight when the Lord appears to him at Mt. Sinai (Horeb) after a forty day run to his prayer closet. And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the

LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. 1 Ki 19:11, 12 

Our God is an awesome God, and when He appears we expect to see shaking, breaking, and baking. That was the God of immature children, the God of Mt. Sinai. Once you’ve grown up you don’t find your Father in the great wind, the earthquake or the fire. He is in the still small voice. That voice will lead you away from the mount of desolation (Horeb) and back to Mt. Zion. You don’t need to jump through hoops to get God’s attention. Get into a beautiful mountain, a restful mountain and meet with God in the comfort of His living room. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that (the blood) of Abel. Heb 12:18-24

Jesus is known by many names. One of them is Emmanuel, (God is with us). God wants us to come near so He can love on us. Zion is not a place to approach God in fear. Sinai is symbolic of the outer court of the temple where bloody animal carcasses were burned. It was where sin-consciousness was dealt with. In the innermost court (Zion), sweet incense was burned. This is the picture of the innermost heart, where communion with God takes place. It is a place to come boldly before the throne of grace to obtain mercy. It is a place to offer ourselves to Him just as we are, without fear that our performance was inadequate. In times past I struggled to have a prayer life. I worked at it, I moaned, groaned, sweated and cried. I was told that prayer must be the most important aspect of the spiritual walk because the flesh was so against it. In spite of all manner of exhortation, my prayers dwindled to nothing as my guilt rose to new heights. Then I was delivered in a day . . . by the still small voice.

Had I not stopped what I was doing, I would not have heard it. You can’t hear it over the noise of pleading, counseling and rebuking God. You have to shut your mouth to hear God speak. You even have to shut down your thoughts to be given inspiration. There are times when you have to stop asking and seeking. There are times when God is asking and seeking you! You must stop knocking when the He is knocking on the other side of the door expecting you to let Him in. Before He becomes the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, we must first come to Him in reverent silence and know that He is! (Heb. 11:6)

It happened one day when I had shifted into neutral. I didn’t want to pray, I didn’t desire a word from God, I didn’t desire anything . . . when He said, "Walk with Me in the cool of the day." There it was! The answer to every prayer. It sparked in me a Great Nostalgia for Eden as if I had personally walked with the Lord in Eden beyond my memory. No place could be paradise without God, but being with Him, or in Him is paradise. Had I been hiding from the Lord for thousands of years because of unnecessary guilt, unworthyness or illusion of separateness? Could I have, at any time, thrown down my wants and needs, took His hand and stepped into a place where want and need don’t exist? He looked for Adam at an appointed time - in the cool of the day. Can I once again keep my appointment with Him, meet Him in that certain place where we can walk through His garden and tend it together?

It didn’t take me long to figure out that that certain place was the quiet expanse of my own heart where He spoke to me, filled me with His thoughts, and shared His vision with me. In walks we’ve had since then, I’ve had a few things to say, but mostly, I listen. Where did I get the idea that I was going to learn God’s plan by talking? The time for talking is after you know the plan and He sends you out into creation, as He did Adam, to name everything. Whatever you call it . . . that’s what it is. Examining the way I used to pray, I called most things "Lacking, Diseased, Disfunctional, Evil or Broken". My life resembled a junkyard in the slums. I was always asking God to fix it, too. God probably answered,"You broke it, you fix it", but, of course, I wasn’t listening.

I wasn’t the only one looking for solutions in all the wrong places. Talk to fools or talk to sages...nobody has a clue. The source of the error is the unrenewed mind. But we’ll get the best unrenewed minds on the planet working on a solution. The mind can’t solve this one any more than a vaccuum cleaner can suck dirt out it’s own bag. When we empty the mind of desire, opinion, ambition and judgment, it leaves room for a solution. That solution comes from the still, small voice. When the mind is in an inactive state, it is as if a movie projector is turned off, and immediately the images on the screen disappear. When we close our eyes, we lose the visual distractions. Then we take the next step and become indifferent or unattached to our thoughts. Without physical or mental noise, we can open up to the spirit realm where thoughts come to us, not from us. In a relaxed state, with a single focus on God the Father (or perhaps on a scripture verse), we are in position to hear the still, small voice of God. The five-sense world we are surrounded by isn’t reliable. It is a mental projection. I have no way of describing to you what I see, hear or smell. If I saw the color blue as red and red as blue, you would not be aware of it. I would still say that the sky was blue, even though it appeared to me as red, because I would call all reds blue. For me, red would be blue.

There is no truth to be found in this world, except as a reflected image. All Truth is in the invisible realm of the kingdom of our God and of His Christ, of His anointed. You have heard that you must live the life of the Christ that’s in you, not the life of he who is in the world. This one is not the devil, it’s mortal man. The Christ in you isn’t Jesus, It’s the Anointed One who was also in Jesus. The Christ is the presence of the invisible Father within a man. Jesus was the full expression of that presence, but we are also destined to grow up into the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ! We are not going to grow up by (physical) might nor by (mental) power, but by His (the Father’s) Spirit. We will have to let go of our many physical and intellectual attachments and rest in the apparent emptiness of the invisible before we will find ourselves on the Spiritual Way which leads to the top of His holy mountain. Believe me, this apparent emptiness is filled with all spirituals, just as surely as the apparent fullness of the body and mind realm is an utter wasteland.

Now concerning spirituals, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. 1 Cor 12:1. The human is so lifted up in his own mind that he would take spirituality, and give it physical restraints. He makes unenlightened statements such as, "Of course God is a real person", as if giving God human attributes is some form of praise. Wisdom would take the "things" of the spirit and keep them well above physical things. Think of Spiritual Principle as the mold that the Creative Word was poured into, and out of which came Form. To focus on the forms of creation keeps one on the level of a creature. If we are to rise to the level of co-creator with the Father, we’ve got to focus on the Father. That means shutting down the images of the creation in our mind, and beholding the Creator in our heart. The distinction is, what’s in our mind is just an image, what’s in our heart is a Presence that’s real. You aren’t just some "thing" that dropped out of a mold. Your destiny is to take the mold in your own hands and do the work you see your Father doing. The time to watch the Father at work is when you’re praying...silently!

Psa 143:5 I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.

Psa 77:12 I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. Psa 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

Psa 19:14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. Psa 49:3 My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.

Psa 63:6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.

Psa 104:34 My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.

Psa 119:15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. Psa 119:78 Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: but I will meditate in thy precepts. Psa 119:99 I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.

These renderings of the prophet, priest, king David indicate why he was a man after God’s own heart. He was molded by meditating on the works of God, ignoring the deeds of men, and then by becoming a living testimony himself. He became an extention of God’s voice and hands....as we are to become. The word declares:

In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: Amos 9:11. This is that day he is referring to and we are that tabernacle. In the heart of every son of God is the desire to praise the Father day and night. We can do this right where we are if we learn, through meditation, to look past the people, the places and the things which were created and see the Creator within all that appears. We can do it while we’re working, playing, or doing neither. This is meditation, pure and simple - to focus all of our awareness on God alone. To realize that He is the only truth, the only law, the only spiritual principle.

A vital truth we will need to lay hold of is the Omnipresence of God. We say we believe that, but a minute later we are looking at an image we call poverty, disease, or sin. How can we believe both? Isn’t it time we stopped eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? Isn’t that the cause of our mortal belief system? Isn’t the belief in two powers just a branch of that same forbidden tree? What then is the Tree of Life? It’s the belief in one power...God! He who is Omnipresent cannot have poverty, disease, or sin in Him. Taking the next brave step, include yourself within the omnipresent One.

Do not feed this to your mind. You will be casting pearls before swine. Take it into meditation and let it fill your heart with illumination. Don’t think about it...become it! As you close your eyes and dwell with God, consider His omnipresence..."Father, where could I go that I would not find You there? You are in every height, depth and expanse within me and without me. I will see you in every person, place and thing that drifts through my awareness. I will stand at the gate of the temple and watch You come in and go out, then realize You are the temple, the gate, and the one who stands watching as well. I will have no other god beside You. What would You share of Yourself today, Lord. Speak, Your servant is listening...I am a vessel made in Your honor. What would You have me do? These are Your hands and feet, the mind of Your Anointed One. Command and I will obey, as the body obeys the mind."

Don’t expect to hear any audible voices, although you might. If you hear no instruction at all, know that all quiet time spent focused on God will fill you with instruction, direction, and purpose. Rise from your communion with the Lord fully confident that what He has begun in you, He will see to completion. Divine connections will be made that will taylor your walk to conform to His perfect will for you and all men. This is the easy yoke the Master spoke of. Why do you work to make garments for yourself? Who told you you were naked? Who told you you were sick? Who told you you were poor? Consider the lilies! Consider Jesus! He never made His temple a marketplace. There is no record of Him buying or selling or doing any business at any time. When He had a tax to pay, a fish paid it for Him. Really, His Father paid it for Him.

Now, do you think Jesus spent those long sessions alone in the wilderness asking the Father to please give him enough money to pay his bills, buy food, build his church? The thoughts never crossed his mind. It never occurred to him that all these things wouldn’t be there. No, he redeemed that time in the wilderness beholding the Father and thereby becoming a pure expression of him. He had all of God within him because he made room for God. The Father was able to work through him because he emptied himself of any work of his own. He could represent the Father because he had no self of his own. He always spoke the words of the Father because he himself had nothing to say. The words of the Christ and the words of Jesus are often confused. The Christ had much to say, Jesus said little more than, "I am nothing, I do nothing, I have no thoughts or will of my own." This isn’t the one we’re supposed to crown king. We’re Christians, not Jeshuians. Focusing on the Christ, the presence of God, we discover the real savior: the invisible, almighty Father within the man from Galilee. When we follow the Master’s example, the omnipresent God will be uncovered in us as well.

There are many aspects of God to meditate on, but God is not any one of those aspects. Father is an aspect, so is Mother...Creator...The I Am... and countless other qualities of God. Remember that when we dwell on a quality, it is not all that God is. The danger of a mental image of God is the temptation to confine God to that image. Meditation is a means of beholding God beyond any thought of God. Even refering to God as "He" is confining. The voice that spoke out of the burning bush knew It was addressing a man steeped in Egyptian paganism. Any specifically descriptive name would have sent Moses on a wild god chase. So He uttered the only description large enough for all that God is - I AM THAT I AM.

Imagine now that you are Moses returning to the slaves saying, "I AM has sent me to lead you out of bondage.". What mental image would the people have of this God? It isn’t a person, it isn’t even a noun! It’s a verb. This God is not a thing, It’s an action, a power. Then It demonstrated that power to the subduing of all powers of nature, which were not powers, but actually effects of the power of I AM.

I AM THAT I AM! What about...THAT? THAT is what we want to behold in prayer or meditation. I AM THAT. You must now leave the gods of Egypt. Forsake your thinking, and your images, and your words, and your concepts. Take off the chains from your hands and feet that tied you to the building of monuments to all the gods that had form and limitation. Walk away from worship of person, place or thing. Realize that no pharoah, no law, no chain has any power over you. Stand on the brink of the sea and go down into it! The sea is the Living God, the sea is THAT. Yes, you are being led into a wilderness. The Spirit is a wilderness to the mind and body. Only after the bodies and minds fall in the desert and die can we enter into the Holy Land. No thought can hold THAT. No form can contain THAT. Only in the desolation of silent, formless, thoughtless I AM, can THAT manifest. To contemplate THAT, all else must be let go. Take no thought, the Master says. THAT will do exceedingly more than you could ever think. What has all the great thinking of humanity wrought? Not one encounter with God. He is only to be found beyond any thought that we could think. Beyond any imagining we can imagine. More than any dream we could dream. . . yet summed up in the invisible, eternal, unthinkably infinite . . . THAT. Does this sound like foolishness? Good!

...God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

That no flesh should glory in his presence. 1 Cor 1:27-29

Yes, the things which are not are chosen by God. THAT which is not, is above that which is. That which does appear came from THAT which is invisible, intangible, indescribable and incomprehensible. THAT is the parent, that which appears is the child. The foolishness is in believing that all Truth all Power all Wisdom and all Life is somehow contained within THAT, while all the knowledge in all the world amounts to nothing.

When you seek God’s presence, abide in the things He has chosen: emptyness, weakness, nothingness, for these non-things are God’s very environment.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 Cor 12:9

... sown in dishonour; ... raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 1 Cor 15:43

And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will show to you to day . . . The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

Exodus 14:13-16