The Power of Prayer – Part One
As we have seen, there are two requirements demanded of anyone who wishes to change his or her world in “miraculous” ways. The first requirement is “belief”. The second is “personal power”.
When we use the word “miracle”, we need to be very clear in our minds exactly what it is we mean by this word. In the world of common understanding, dominated as it is today by the paradigm of science, a “miracle” is something that defies the laws of nature or the accepted laws of science.
Because science teaches that the entire universe operates according to the dictates of the established laws of science, it follows that nothing can occur outside of these laws. It is for this reason that scientists today routinely dismiss the very idea of a “miraculous” event as being scientifically impossible.
But this was not what Jesus taught. Nor was it what Jesus demonstrated by means of his miraculous works. For Jesus, nothing was impossible to a person who had the necessary “faith”, and who possessed the necessary power.
For those who had the capacity to believe, but who lacked the necessary power, Jesus offered a unique remedy. It was the power of prayer. According to Jesus, anyone could accomplish miraculous feats simply by means of the power of prayer.
Through the power of prayer, even those with limited education and little personal power could achieve results that defied common understanding. Or, as the English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote: “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of”. (Morte D’Arthur)
What Jesus meant by prayer was not a simple recitation of words. Although prayer is usually understood to mean a personal appeal to God, Jesus made it clear that what he was referring to was something far more intense than mere words. It was necessary to believe.
“Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatever he saith.”
“Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them”. (Mark 11:22-24)
This is the essence of the power of prayer. If you truly believe that God has the power to answer your prayer, and that what you pray for “will actually happen”, and you “do not doubt in your heart”, then, as Jesus assures us, you will have whatever you desire.
The key here once again is “belief”. Even though we ourselves may lack the power, we must truly believe that God has the power to answer our prayer, and that it will be answered. We will then find, as Jesus said to the Roman centurion, “As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.” (Matthew 8:13)
As Jesus demonstrated, and those Rishis who lived before him also understood, the “scientific laws” that are taught today in our schools and universities do not in fact set limits on what can or cannot be experienced in life.
For if something occurs in life that demonstrates something that scientists deem to be impossible, and is in direct conflict with “the accepted laws of science”, this can mean only one thing. It means that the accepted laws of science have no ultimate validity.
The evidence provided by Jesus, as well as numberless other Rishis before him, shows conclusively that the universe is not bound by these so-called “laws”. And nature is not limited by those rules that scientists like to call the “laws of nature”.
All it needs is one single event to occur that defies these accepted laws of science to bring down the entire pack of cards. For as the American physicist Henry Margenau once observed: “A completely consistent cosmos cannot be inconsistent in one area. One exception collapses it all”.
Just how incredible the results of prayer can be, and how much they defy the accepted world-view of science, will be shown in the examples described in the following instalments.
