How does prayer work?

Question

I hear so many people stating that prayer works. I'd like to know how you think it works. What exactly do you have to do to make it work?

And how do you know if a prayer that you thought was "answered" was not just fate or luck?

Answer 1

Prayer is answered by the subconscious mind, not God persay. You already have all the answers to your prayers. whatever you impress upon the subconscious mind will manifest whether you did it consciuosly or not. So if you havent recieved what you consciously want then you need to spend more time thinking about the things you want and less time on the things you don't want. Affirmations are a form of prayer. Your body believes everything you say. If you don't believe me then start telling everyone you have cancer and are going to die. See what happens. Hypocondriacs are perfect examples. They always talk about how sick they are and eventually develop sickness to meet their needs. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Well that's a really good question.

Scripture says that prayer is talking to Yeshua Jesus,
Prayer isn't magic or anything like that it's basically talking.

Yeshua gives an awsome example of prayer in the latter part of the book of John.

Nothing is fate or luck my friend. Scripture also gives countless examples that prayers are not always answered how we want either. Sometimes the answer is, No, or wait.
Scripture tells us that God will give us the desire of our hearts, It also tells us that if we are active in our relationship with God, being serious that He will make His desires our desires, so a good way to pray is that if it is in the will of God to let it happen.

Because sometimes what we want or even obviously seems like we need is not.

Prayer works like talking to someone, sometimes the answer is yes, no or wait.

I hope this has helped,

Rambo.

Answer 3

Prayer "works" by talking to God. That is it. That is all that is involved. It helps immediately on the psychological level because you have shared your problems with someone and have often cast your cares onto someone else.

God answers all prayers but remember He does not always give you the answer you would like. Sometimes He makes you wait for the answer.

If you get to know God, it becomes easier to see when God has answered your prayers. Sometimes we only see a long time afterwards that God answered our prayers. I wish I could give you an algorithm to determine if God has answered your prayers but I cannot. I struggled with this too even after I had entered into a relationship with God. It just takes time to get to know someone. Be careful of those people who tell you that there is always something wrong with you if you cannot see that God has answered your prayer or if you still have the same problems you had. Of course, we do need to pray in the Spirit and pray for things that God is happy to grant us. One of the things we should not pray for is to become rich so we can lead a life of luxury. I prayed many times years ago for God to put to death millions of people. Thankfully, He did not. Instead He helped me through the hell I was going through to become a better, stronger person and to draw closer to Him, to have empathy and to forgive more things. As a result of this and because of other things God continues to do, sometimes in response to my prayers and sometimes just because He loves me, I am able to be more financially successful than I had ever planned so that I can help not only myself but other people, and at the same time the lessons I have learnt help me to reach out to other people who need it on an emotional level. I thank God for such a great gift (and responsibility).

Answer 4

Prayers are heard by the Holy Ghost, but Jesus is the judge for determining if the prayers are sent on to God by the Holy Ghost. If they are worthy then the Holy Ghost takes them to God, the Father "who art in heaven" and God tells the Holy Ghost to grant the prayer.

However, the Holy Ghost grant only those prayers which are found worthy by Jesus.

A prayer to heal sickness of the body will not be answered, because Jesus told us not to fear the death of the body, but to fear death of the soul.

Therefore if you prayed to overcome let's say Lust of women, Jesus may take the physical urge to have sex from you. Let's say you pray to overcome your drinking habit, Jesus may make you become sick every time you take a drink.

The prayer concerning cutting of your hand or plucking out your eye, may also be done by Jesus to stop you from stealing and or lusting after thing that are not yours, Jesus can even make you feel extreme guilt when you just think about stealing or lusting.

But the more you ask the more will be given, and this causes a big problem, if you prayed and received, when you are tempted if you hesitated even for a second think about what you should do, an evil spirit can enter into you, or the other 7 spirit can take over your body.

But most important when you pray, only pray to the Father, who is in heaven, and in the name of Jesus, but when you pray, pray in secret, where no one can see you or hear you, do not pray with your mouth, but from your heart. Praise God the Father, for all His Works, and tell Him from your heart how much you love Him.

Answer 5

Of course it doesn't. You could use a wishing well and probably get about the same, maybe even better results than prayer. Wishing well would take less time also.

Answer 6

It is a matter of faith. When you pray you are exercising faith in the being you are praying to. You trust that He knows better than you and has the power to make things happen for your benefit. so if you faith is such that you are willing to pray then fate and luck are just others words for answers to prays. It becomes a matter of semantics

Answer 7

You pray to God, you never ask for something materialistically personal. If you pray for yourself you normally ask to be delivered from temptation, to be looked on kindly and kept out of trouble, or some help to be a better person. Same things goes for praying for other people; you should never pray for worldly goods. Although I suppose praying for an end to third world hunger would necessetate a sudden influx of food, but you get my point.

God will take your heart into consideration and respond with YES, NO or WAIT. In this manner, God is capable of answering all prayers, even if he exists or not. Remarkable.

Answer 8

The drama of prayer is fully revealed to us in the Word who became flesh and dwells among us. To seek to understand his prayer through what his witnesses proclaim to us in the Gospel is to approach the holy Lord Jesus as Moses approached the burning bush: first to contemplate him in prayer, then to hear how he teaches us to pray, in order to know how he hears our prayer.

When Jesus prays he is already teaching us how to pray. His prayer to his Father is the theological path (the path of faith, hope, and charity) of our prayer to God. But the Gospel also gives us Jesus' explicit teaching on prayer. Like a wise teacher he takes hold of us where we are and leads us progressively toward the Father. Addressing the crowds following him, Jesus builds on what they already know of prayer from the Old Covenant and opens to them the newness of the coming Kingdom. Then he reveals this newness to them in parables. Finally, he will speak openly of the Father and the Holy Spirit to his disciples who will be the teachers of prayer in his Church.

Answer 9

It doesn't work. All the so-called "studies" that try to prove it does have so far proven only that the people conducting them are biased in favor of proving it does.

I never had a prayer even partially answered, not even the vaguest suggestion that it was answered, and I prayed a LOT when I was a kid and still believed in that garbage.

Answer 10

No, people just want to believe it was an answered prayer, not just random luck.