Episode:Prayer—Petitions and Answers (Part 2)
The sincerity of any prayer is the assurance of its being heard; the spiritual wisdom and universe consistency of any petition is the determiner of the time, manner, and degree of the answer. What the true son desires and the infinite Father wills is.
Keywords: Urantia, Effective Prayer, Sincere, Enlightened, Wholehearted
Summary by Kermit
146:2. At Jotapata
To set the stage for this teaching by the Master, this takes place during the first preaching tour of Galilee, and it was the first time his associates were allowed to preach without restraint.
In this section the midwayers summarize in modern phraseology a lengthy response by Jesus to a question from a confused Nathaniel concerning prayer, thanksgiving, and worship. He is addressing his twelve apostles and twelve former apostles of John the Baptist. The summary is compiled into sixteen points, nine of which we covered during this broadcast. In these teachings the midwayers have left behind the evolutionary developmental aspects of prayer and are speaking to an elevated destiny point in our prayer life, true worship, underscoring the consequences of our failure to progress and grow. For as we’ve learned in this SoS arc, prayer is designed to connect the child with spirit energy. Increasing contact with this spirit energy without the concomitant cosmic growth that leads to true worship is dangerous.
These twenty-four men are the core group of the ambassadors of the new kingdom, and Jesus is issuing a strong challenge to them, as adults of God, to move up from their childish, ignorant and primitive prayer practices to the more mature levels of true prayer which leads to true worship. Jesus employs, and the midwayers include, numerous citations from the Hebrew scriptures of a somewhat frightening nature to stimulate an upward movement in their prayer practices in their inner lives. And, of course, we students of the fifth epochal revelation are here being given Jesus’ instruction without the filter of the first century perspective of the twenty-four.
Point 1. The midwayers begin with the strong medicine of iniquity and the dire effects thereof in destroying the prayer connection of the human soul with the spirit circuits of communication between the creature and creator. This is literal cosmic physics. It’s clear that God hears our prayers naturally through the literal encircuitment in the cosmos by grace, but when conscious and persistent regard for iniquity degenerates into deliberate and persistent harboring of these concepts of iniquity, personal communion between the earth child and the heavenly Father is lost.
Point 2. The word “abomination” is used in this point twice; once by the midwayers and once in a citation of Hebrew scripture. Again such strong medicine is invoked to underscore the dangers of remaining in the lower end of the practice of prayer and the necessity of moving upward to an increasing awareness and observance of the divine laws of spirit, mind and matter.
Point 3. The God-man communication channel exhibits a synchrony wherein man, by opening the human end of this channel and accessing the ever-flowing stream of divine ministry, hears God’s spirit speak within his heart, thereby signaling the fact that God simultaneously hears that man’s prayer. This synchrony is further illustrated in the mechanism of the creature’s experience of God’s forgiveness of sin. The Father, being existential and infinite, forgives the sinner before the sinner asks. However, the sinner only experiences this forgiveness when he himself forgives his fellows’ transgressions. Recall the Believer’s Prayer lines:
“And forgive us every one our debts
As we also have forgiven our debtors.”
Point 4. Here, the perils of selfishness are discussed. Selfishness in man’s early evolutionary beginnings is essential to continued survival. God’s abundant mercy carries us over these primitive periods, but eventually selfishness must give way to the demands of justice, which even love and mercy cannot abrogate. Eventually a person reaches a final choice of self or God. Even God cannot force survival upon any mortal creature who does not choose to survive.
Point 5. We discussed the admonition, “Judge not that you be not judged.” We are judged in the spirit with which we judge others. Sincerity ensures the answer to prayer, and the spiritual wisdom and universe consistency of our petitions determines the time, manner, and degree of our answer. We discussed some of the contemporary issues around the use to the terms “judgment” and “discrimination” as well as the meaning of the word “ignorance.” Discriminating is used here in connection with the three cosmic intuitions being discriminations. The revelators here use “ignorant” to signify a lack of discriminating recognition, and discriminating absolutely means “judgment”.
Point 6. When one is wholly dedicated to doing God’s will, all his prayers are so aligned with God’s will that all such petitions are forthcoming. And no other sort of petition can be fully answered. What the true son desires and the Father wills IS. The Father being existential and infinite is not contactable in time space terms. Therefore the true son, the adult of God, relates to a God of eternity and would not think to seek changing Him or His universe.
Point 7. It is the cry of the righteous, the faith act of a child of God, which opens the door to the only answer God gives to prayer: the increased revelation of truth, enhanced appreciation of beauty, and augmented concept of goodness. Again, the Father-God of eternity and infinity holds these treasures in waiting for the son’s approach and personal appropriation. Prayer only changes man’s attitude toward the changeless Father.
Point 8. It is futile to pray to the existential, infinite, and eternal Father in hopes of avoiding delays of time or handicaps of space. Nor is it a technique for aggrandizing self or gaining unfair advantage over one’s fellows. The selfish element of our prayer invariably keeps us in the lower primitive developmental animal-origin domain of our existence.
Point 9. Again, we are reminded of the great dangers of self-centered and materialistic praying. Instead we are enjoined to pray for the spiritual progress of our brethren. And the midwayers remind us that if we are ever in doubt as to what we would ask of the Father, Jesus has promised to present our petitions to the Father in accordance with our real needs and desires and in accordance with the Father’s will.
