2004-01-22. More About Prayer
Rio Rancho #81
Topic: More About Prayer
Group: Rio Rancho TeaM
Teacher: Tomas, Anatolia
TR: Gerdean, Matthew
February 22, 2004
Opening
PRAYER: Matthew: Let us place ourselves in the presence of Jesus, the Christ Master Teacher, with Lent on its way, and with the growing enthusiasm and excitement, as well as controversy, surrounding the movie “The Passion” that is introduced this Lenten season, we pray that an understanding of you and a better understanding of what you encountered — which apparently is the focus and impact of the movie — may that happen without more division and without more derision (which the world does not need). Perhaps the movie can be an enabler for bringing us to better under-standing, and thus less secularism and the “my belief is better than your belief” syndrome.
For that we place before you and before Our Father as a topic of expansion for our hearts and minds. For the lessons we receive today we are grateful. We are appreciative to be a part of this process that has been enabled through you because of what you have done for us in your visit to our world — as well as what you continue to do in our eternal growth.
For all of the concerns, issues, or health-related priorities that we have, individual or concern for others that we know and love, we place in your hands at this time as well. And for those issues that are in our hearts, we know they will be addressed. Our faith is in you and in our Paradise Father, now and forever. Amen.
TOMAS: Greetings.
Group: Greetings.
TOMAS: Thank you for your prayer, Matthew, and thank you all for being here this afternoon to attend this hour of prayer. What do I mean by “this hour of prayer”? When and as Matthew invited us all to place ourselves in the presence of Jesus the Christ, he opened the door for us to be in a state of conscious prayer. The other side of that coin is to perceive of yourself in a state of prayer as you go about your daily duties and affairs of life, conscious of the way you involve yourself with it, without particularly placing on your life the mantle of a walking prayer. Thus, with Jesus being here we are assuming association with divinity.
Lesson
We had embarked upon a discussion of prayer and wanted to return to the topic to help you better understand the process of prayer, such that you would be able to learn to be able to pray more effectively. What does it mean to pray “effectively”?
I have a number of methods by which we might individually garner greater appreciation for the process of prayer:
(1) One of which might cut down on my verbiage considerably, but that would involve your gaining a perspective on prayer such as is presented in the text, the Urantia text. There are several pages devoted to the practice of prayer that can benefit you and those pages are readily accessible if you should opt to read essential information about prayer before we commence.
(2) Another method would be, and I would enjoy, hearing from each of you as to how you pray, or even a topic you might chose to pray about, in order to elicit from you your conditioning regarding prayer and the practice of your praying as you understand it in the context of our studies.
(3) Finally, I could just, as I usually do, talk incessantly for an hour in an attempt to convey to you all that I can to help you appreciate the process of prayer as a viable means toward spirit progression in your life and in the lives of those for whom you pray.
You will notice that you are being called upon to invest yourself in some way or another in this discussion, even it if is only to decide how we shall proceed. And for that purpose I will now pause for your consideration, taking the T/R off-line so that she, too, can engage in this course of action. [long silence]
[Deciding what to do, then doing all three, and including a discussion about “The Passion” consumed the entire Side A of the tape. It is transcribed and available if anybody is interested, but for practicality, it is from the transcript]
TOMAS: I am in admiration of your exchanges and how you have, by the mere act of inviting deity into your arena, elevated your discourse, meanings and values to a level of prayer, exalting creation as prepared by God himself and given to you as a gift, orchestrated for your learning, provided for your growth and comfort. I have seen and heard you testify to those events and feelings that support your perspectives.
Much of your perception of prayer is actually worship. Prayer is an attitude. And the attitude of prayer may speak to a full range of aspects inside yourself, which makes your relationship with deity personal. Sadness, happiness, fear, confusion, anger, rejoicing, lassitude, ambition – all of these senses that are a part of your humanness and your consciousness are real for you. And thus when and as you are able to approach yourself in such a way as to understand your attitude and lift it up to a power that can provide for you the necessary adjustments or changes or enhancements, in order for you to prevail, maintain, persevere and succeed in your ascent to supreme value, is worthy prayer. It is, as well, a turning of those same suppositions in the direction of those for whom you might pray.
Attitude is the key to prayer, and sincerity. The childlike sincerity of the faith son (or daughter, child of divinity) is that attitude which is most effective. Whether, as Paula indicated, she is praying for her own understanding and growth or for a divine comprehension of the ways and means of others, asking God to intervene on behalf of truth, beauty, and goodness is a prayer that can be sent up through your heartfelt yearning to be heard by God, and these prayers are responded to when and as the Divine Distributor reroutes your prayers to those agencies throughout the universe, which will then help bring your desires into being.
(Sometimes I think of God as you might think of Federal Express. Even though you may be sending a package next door, it will go to the Central Station for processing. Therefore, your attitude is seen, registered On High, and the reality of your attitude is dealt with effectively from On High, and so the only true prayer is that His will be done, for it is the only prayer that can possibly be answered! Anything else has “insufficient postage”.)
Your project then is to observe the attitude that you maintain as you go about your life, confronting and abutting and caressing those around you whose attitudes are contributory to the divine will, asserting itself against universe harmony, or somehow undecided or skirting the issue or on the fence about that which will be necessary in order for all advancement. Thus, even your prayers are made more effective by and through the attitude you carry with you, in and through all you do.
To rail against the vagaries of life is unworthy of you who have knowledge of the aspects of creation such that you know the difference between the various realms of reality, the differing levels of universe reality. If a pint cannot hold a quart, it is also true that one who has not been touched by the spirit is unable to respond as spirit.
As such, it is possible for you to not only pray that God’s will be done, but that you might contribute to the process by opening up the mortal understanding of how even simple acts of kindness are admissions of faith. It is not necessary for you children to have a sophisticated concept of God in order to love God. In fact, the more pure and direct your appreciation for that Element of pure love, as it is defined for you in this new appreciation for the loving God that Jesus taught, the more possible it is for you to plant those seeds and encourage that growth, thereby putting asunder the doubts and fears of non-faith.
Give yourself an assignment in the days ahead to be mindful of your attitude — in particular as it is influenced by the attitudes of those around you, perhaps those who have no appreciation for sincerity, or those who have no faith in the reality of the trusting attitude. Knowing that your reality is secure in the foundations of faith established by your own relationship to divinity, you will be able to remain unmoved, except as you choose to lend your own power through your consecrated will to the enhancement of the will of God and subsequently, even unconsciously, diminishing that which undermines or takes away from the radiant reality which is sonship, as you understand it from the privacy of your “closet” — where you have prayed, given thanks, humbled yourself and been exalted before God – the God of your understanding.
This puts the ball in your court, and the power in your hands, even while it may be limited to what you can do, one individual at a time, one instance at a time, one moment at a time. This is how eternity is created. And the fact remains, if you are faithful in these little things, then more will be given to you.
This concludes my direct discussion on the topic of prayer, but it is certainly not the end of our appreciation for and frame of reference toward this essential state of being. Let us pause now as we reconfigure our group energy and allow Sister Anatolia to embrace you and greet you in her fashion for the afternoon. Thank you.
Group: Thank you, Tomas.
ANATOLIA: Welcome, friends, family and all who are here. It sounds as if I am speaking beyond your immediate quarters to a throng beyond the immediate participants. I address you by all of the above descriptions because of your all- inclusive role that you are to me, as to us. As you know, a son or a daughter is also a brother or a sister, oftentimes an aunt, an uncle, a grandson, a granddaughter, on and on in the many roles that an individual plays. It somewhat adds description to the depth of our perception but also the extent of our relationships, both here and beyond.
While you are all of these descriptions and more – whether it be included — boss, subject, taxpayer, on and on, you are also at the same time Child of God, emissary of peace, ambassador of the kingdom, representative of truth, beholder of knowledge and bestower of beauty. These are mere descriptions of the depth of your being, which is not evident as are your earthly titles and descriptions. But like a tooth that shines and has strength, body and function, so too does that tooth have a root to enable it to be what it is by function, design and nature. So too are you representative and demonstrative of your role in the Father’s house.
I wish for each of you to be encouraged and to understand your role in Our Father’s House, for there are none that sit higher or lower. All are welcome to the table, and all have adequate seating. There is no limit. There is no admission for what is the ability to enter into the kingdom hall—and I say this in the loose sense, not in a denominational sense, but if you want that to be a denominational meaning, you may have that as well – into the kingdom hall, for all are welcome and all are invited.
In like mind, since we happened upon the discussion of denominational meaning or value, let me just shed light on the subject further, if I may, like seeing light bulbs on the runway on the approach at night in the airplane, so too is each of our roles as being beacons of light that line the way for others to land and to seek security in knowledge of who they are in the ethereal or supernatural way.
It is my perspective to try to reinforce with you the dual nature and more of your role here in this world as it is rooted in what is behind the scenes, not at all evidence. I wish you could see and understand what it is I am speaking of, but it is one of the things I try to address and reinforce you with regularity, to have you understand the divine nature of your beings at the same time you are preoccupied with being alert to and concerned with your physical wellbeing.
It is only natural, of course, that your preoccupation would be upon the mundane and daily routine and activity, but your awareness of what is beyond is great as well, or you would not be participants in this weekly, even temporal in your perspective, so it is much like preaching to the choir, if you will. Nevertheless I wish to reinforce your role as a dual natured being.
As you are aware, the Master, too, was a dual nature being much as you are, enlightened in your ways prior to inhabiting your physical garment. This is not exactly a perfect alignment, meaning that the Son of the All-Encompassing One-Who-Is had greater insight and awareness, more so than each of us who would be engraced with embodiment. Nevertheless, as beads are on a rosary or the feathers are on the sparrow, so too are each of us a part of that eternal plan and existence.
So it is my desire to reinforce within you the desire to have you be more aware of your earth-bearing life, but it has meaning and value beyond what it has represented, and this is … my friends, colleagues, children … the truth behind what prayer is. As you say it, wish it, and send it forth, so goes you in the process. You release within yourself and within the universe of your being that wish, desire or statement of truth, beauty, and goodness. Therefore it has no limit, no bounds, and only unites with its destination, the Source of all being, the Enabler of All-That-Is.
So, in your prayerful moments, which hopefully are constant, as you are aware of your eternal nature and destination, that you participate in creation each and every day by your existence, which is well-rooted in reality of spirit as it is in the world of matter, I wish for you to know that you are truly empowered within our Heavenly Father’s realm to participate in that which is good for all and that can be generated by your hearts and minds.
Welcome to the eternal dimension, which you have been, you are and you will remain. Let us rejoice and be glad, for the resurrection that has occurred, is occurring. As you need not focus on the depth of despair which brought about the resurrection. It is mindful to know that it was through choice or allowance of the worst imaginable to prove and indicate the grandest imaginable. For in desperation and despair eternity was burst forth. As it is too within your beings. And as it is within all of our hearts, let us rejoice and be glad. Have a most beneficial week and pray that all that you touch may be graced by eternal life. Peace be with you, now and always.
Group: Thank you.
TOMAS: I feel inspired and invigorated and hope that you, too are renewed and challenged to take steps into the dimensions of consciousness that will contribute to your growth and the growth of others in those ways which will better reflect the light. Before we go, are there questions? Are there comments?
Dialogue
MYRA: I don’t have a question, but Tomas, my daughter is in labor!
Group: Oh! Oh! Oh, dear. Oh, great!
MYRA: Gather around her.
Group: Ahhhh.
TOMAS: That is, indeed, cause for prayer and celebration! Let us pray that the pangs of childbirth will be light and quickly forgotten in the flawless delivery of a perfect child to enhance the lives of those she touches, even beginning with those of us here today who hear of her arrival and rejoice in her being registered as a personality in the Universe of Nebadon, 606 Urantia of Satania.
Closing
The discussions regarding further learning will continue when we meet again. Be of good cheer. Farewell.
Group: Farewell. God bless! Thank you.
