A Little off topic ?? How prayer reaches God ???? Sorry it's a bit long

[ez4545]

I'm a believer in the power of prayer. I was thinking a while back and wondering how amazing it is and way beyond my understanding how many prayers are directed to God every day.

I am confident God is aware of each and every one of our prayers and answers them when and as He see fit.

I was wondering by what action, how do they actually reach from earth to the Lord.

My curiosity led me to watch a program on TV called "project afterlife". The episode I saw had to do with two cowboys at a rodeo. They had been arguing and the one fell off his horse dead, before he hit the ground.

The rodeo judge called on the crowd to pray for the cowboy he had been friends with for years before the arguments. The Rodeo judge was also an EMT with years of experience, He did CPR for over 30 mins until the ambulance arrived. The cowboy kept flat lining.His heart stopped.

It was a miracle the Lord restored him. The cowboy told about what had happened to him as he reported he had seen heaven before he came back.

The amazing thing is he said he could physically see the prayers rising from earth much like skyrockets or bolts of lightening actually rising through space up into heaven.

As the rodeo spectators prayed he actually saw prayers flying from earth to the Lord much like a stream of fireworks racing into the skies above to reach the Lord.

I then thought of the sheer numbers of prayers made everyday and how they must be like a beautiful "light show" for those that make it to heaven to look down on us and see the streaks of prayer reaching for the Lord.

At any rate is was a comforting thought to be able to visualize how prayer reaches heaven.

I believe heaven is a very real place and the Lord will be there to greet every one of us that truly seek it.

I didn't think I could be moved by a TV show but It happened

[DLCTEX]

Thanks for sharing this!

[Wayne Smith]

Since the Spirit of God is inside of me I don't need an external delivery system!

[Boaz]

I have no idea how GOD receives our prayers , I no longer even think about it . He has absolute power .

[w5pv]

I have had my prayers answered and I pray everyday for the blessings that God has bestowed upon us.I pray that this forum is blessed and protected from the evils of those that wish us harm.

[Blackwater]

Great post, ez. I too have always wondered about this. In our finite world, it seems to be such a mystery, just sheerly from the numbers involved and our concept of "listening," and other factors.

I doubt our mortal minds can really conceive just how it all works, but I found some real clues in some of Hugh Ross's writings from the Reasons To Believe organization. His book, "Why the Universe is the Way It Is" gives a few clues, and a couple of others give a concept from physics and philosophy that at least makes the concept more understandable how it could indeed be completely True just as God has given us instruction that it is.

Faith is a wondrous thing, probably the MOST wondrous thing we can know here on this side of the Great Veil. It's not entirely necessary that we understand it, but many of us WANT to, and it IS satisfying to at least have a few clues about how it might work. Truly, we all see through the glass darkly, but I think of it sort of like at night when you hear something significant. We may not know what's out there exactly, but we have an inkling of whether it's there or not, and whether it's something good for us or harmful. This is all we really NEED to know to be prapared for it, really. It's simply ENOUGH, and that's the important thing. The rest is just details, really.

Our ability to understand God is limited by our finite limitations in the realm of the universe in which we live, and I have a very strong belief that there's so very much more that we can't even have a clue about. However, we CAN understand more than we usually do, and the limitation is mostly in HOW we tend to think.

Ross and crew at RTB are some very astute and accomplished scientists of great faith, and they've turned their knowledge and training toward trying to understand more about how certain it is that there IS a real God that really DOES love us, and in trying to understand and explain to us laymen how it all very well may work, or at least give us concepts that COULD explain how it all could indeed be totally true. His explanation of how Christ could have actually entered the room where the deciples were hiding through a locked door, and materialize among them, was, to me at least, a very eye-opening concept. Simple physical science and physics like we were taught in high school won't do it, and is actually limiting our thinking. Get beyond that and into some of the more recent concepts, especially what's been and continues to be discovered in quantum physics, and things we thought were impossible at the high school level of understanding, suddenly become understandable, at least in concept. And Ross and crew do this for us laymen! He and the others make difficult to understand concepts MUCH more understandable at the layman level, and that in itself is a kind of small miracle, I think.

We think in terms of our finite universe, and the simple concepts that we usually know about how it works. When we get beyond the simpler concepts of science, though, we find in the wonders of what we now know some real and vital keys to understanding some of the concepts that the Bible tells us are indeed possible, exactly as stated, even if we'd not heretofore understaood just how it might have worked. That ain't no small thing, either! Anything that gives us a better understanding of HOW things work, gives us a greater understanding of just who and what God really is, how He thinks, and how He works among us. If there's any way to strengthen and solidify our faith than such an understanding, I don't know what it could be, but of course, the faith has to be there first for it to BE strengthened and solidified. And that too, is one of the wonders of it all.

People who've lost their sense of wonder and awe become agnostics or deniers. Those who are more fairly inclined, and who actually SEEK answers, are the only ones who CAN find the real answers. I guess that's how it should be. I'm certain that it's the way it IS, at least, and that's the main thing of importance. When we understand how things work better, we can better understand the Author of it all. If any of you haven't tried reading any of Ross's work, give "Why the Universe is the Way It Is" a try. If nothing else, it'll at least give you an inkling how science CAN, when applied properly, explain MUCH more than we have typically been taught to think. And it really takes a great expansion of our minds and concepts to even see a small portion of what God really IS, and how He chooses to work, and why He put things together as He did here in our finite universe. When you come to understand this, even minimally, it'll really "blow your mind" as the old 60's bunch used to say, but in this case, that's a GOOD thing!

[williamwaco]

Do a little homework on "omnipresence".

[Blackwater]

Oops! I think I erred on the book. I think it's this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Cosmos-...ords=hugh+ross

This kind of knowledge and understanding isn't really NEEDED, but those of us who are awed by it all, and really WANT to know more can really benefit from Ross and crew's books. You can find them at www.reasons.org. They're panned of course by skeptics and deniers, but what they say can't be poo pooed without the poo pooers revealing themselves for what they really are - simply people who don't WANT to believe, and refuse to accept anything related to belief. Even God won't interfere with their choice, but there IS a difference in how God handles us in the hereafter.

People have found and invented ways to be foolish for millenea, and it won't stop just because science really HAS found a lot of answers to the commonly asked questions from sincere inquisitors. And therefore, it's good to know stuff like this in order to bring rational people to belief. If we just pound the Bible and spout scriptures, even the serious inquisitors get turned off rather quickly. Quiet, sincere, honest answers draw them toward belief, IF again, they're really serious.

The determined doubters used to ask questions that science has now answered, in their attempt to "disprove" religion, or more specifically, Christianity. Now that science has proven, at least adequately, the existence of God and His good will towards us, and provided explanations for many miracles, and so many other questions, the doubters and deniers now have to resort to sarchasm as their only real "weapon" in the real debate about God, religion and Christianity. Deniers have never really reasoned. If they had, they wouldn't have become deniers in the first place. But that's a whole 'nother story.

Give Ross and crew a try and I think you'll be pleased, and I'm sure you won't begrudge yourself one minute of the reading time you'll spend with the above book or the one I originally cited. The first one is more about the creation of the universe, and how totally incredible its existence as it is, is so highly unlikely that it too is a literal miracle.

Ross and crew have answered so many old questions now, that they've come up with totally new questions, and answered most of them, too! As with all knowledge of all things, the more you know, the more you CAN know, and that's what makes books and info like Ross and crew provide so valuable. Once you understand the basics, the rest gets easier and easier to understand, and it all unifies into a solid and unbreakable body of knowledge and concepts that it can't NOT be useful to all of us.

[TXGunNut]

Medically the fallen cowboy's story in the OP is impossible. But as we know in God all things are possible. I was faced with a similar situation earlier this year, it was medically impossible for this loved one to live but we prayed and left it in God's hands. God called her home, and our faith helped us accept His decision.
On topic, the Scriptures teach us that God hears our prayers even before we conclude them. I've had more than a few prayers answered even though some were not answered in a way I was hoping for. Recognizing this I conclude prayers with "Your will be done" or something to that effect. It helps me remember that it ain't all about me; never was, never will be.

[Blackwater]

Amen! I don't think God even knows how to spell "impossible." And when I read something that makes me realize just how omniscient and omnipresent God really is, compared to us, I feel like a little kid again, which is good. I guess that's one of the many reasons Christ said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me?" Children haven't had their sense of awe and wonder despoiled by the willful world around them yet, and because they're full of awe and wonder, they can "see" things that older people, despoiled by the willfulness and cynicism that's all around us these days, just can't .... or won't even pay attention to. The older I get, the more I realize why us older folk so often return to childlike ways. It actually makes sense in a way.