About The Power Of Prayer:

[Campbell]

When I was born in 1934 the average life expectancy of a White male in the United States was 61. If someone survived their first heart attack they would mope around essentially disabled for a couple of years then die. Cancer was a death sentence. The only treatment was surgery and over half the time the tumor metasticized and spread. The afflicted usually lasted a year after that at the most.

Wednesday evening prayer meetings all over this country were crowded and prayer lists were a foot long. Every family either had a member or a close friend who was sick or dying. People prayed till their knees were bloody and the afflicted suffered and died anyway.

Now the average life expectancy of a White male at birth is 78. Thanks to the electronic spin offs from the moon landing in the late 60's we have sophisticated diagnostic systems, MRI, CT scans, ultrasound, echocardiogram, endoscopy, colonoscopy, heart catherization procedures, stents, bypasses, transplants, stem cell technology, chemo, radiation and limited invasive surgical procedures which produce much lower mortality statistics. What about the millions upon millions who died or suffered unmercifully before all this technology and research came about? Did anything the prayer group did have any effect at all?

 

[longknife]

I knew a man, Mr. Fox, who lived next door to us when I was a kid around 1947. He worked in his garden every day and every evening sat on his porch with a glass of whiskey, smoking a big, hand-rolled cigarette. Never had a sick day in his life and grew up in the mines and then construction.

I remember his granddaughter going to check on him one morning and finding him dead, having gone in his sleep at a bit over 100.

Doctors did an autopsy and found too many "fatal" illnesses to list. Cancer. Lungs shot. Kidneys not working properly. And on and on.

He went to church every Sunday and prayer meetings during the week.

Figure it for yourself.

 

[Avatar4321]

People said prayers and now we have been given knowledge on how to extend our lives. I don't think that's a coincidence

 

[longknife]

This may be a bit off topic but there's a new tv series dealing with what the mind could do if it were able to operate at 100%

What if prayer is a way of increasing how much of our brainpower we are able to harness?

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

There are conditions to answered prayer, Campbell. You may not like hearing this but you need to hear it anyway. I'll quote E.M. Bounds because disagreeing with him on the subject of prayer would be like disagreeing with the finest diamond expert in the world on the value of your wife's diamond ring. So let's see what E.M. Bounds has to say on the matter.

I'll quote from his book The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds page 224:

How great and manifold are the misconceptions of the true elements and functionings of prayer! There are many who earnestly desire to obtain an answer to their prayers but go unrewarded and unblest. They fix their minds on some promise of God and then endeavor by dint of dogged perseverance, to summon faith sufficient to lay hold upon and claim it. This fixing of the mind on some great promise may avail in strengthening faith, but to this holding on to the promise must be added the persistent and importunate prayer that expects, and waits till faith grows exceedingly. And who is there that is able and competent to do such praying save the man who readily, cheerfully and continually, obeys God?

Faith in its highest form, is the attitude as well as the act of a soul surrendered to God, in whom His Word and His Spirit dwells. It is true that faith must exist in some form, or another, in order to prompt praying, but in its strongest form, and in its largest results, faith is the fruit of prayer. That faith increases the ability and the efficiency of prayer is true, but it is likewise true that prayer increases the ability and efficiency of faith. Prayer and faith, work, act, and react, one upon the other.

Obedience to God helps faith as no other attribute possibly can. When obedience - implicit recognition of the validity, the paramountcy of the Divine command - faith ceases to be a superhuman task. It requires no straining to exercise it. Obedience to God makes it easy to believe and trust God. Where the spirit of obedience fully impregnates the soul, where the will is perfectly surrendered to God, where there is a fixed, unalterable purpose to obey God, faith almost believes itself. Faith then becomes almost involuntary. After obedience, it is naturally, the next step and it is to be easily and readily taken. - E. M. Bounds

________________
Let me add to this comment to what E.M. Bounds wrote - if anyone would be in need of answer to prayer and not living in obedience to the LORD? The LORD would hear their prayer on the basis of repentance and asking for restoration, pleading on the mercy of God which is very great. So all is not lost if you need answer to prayer and have not been abiding in Christ and His Words in you. The answer is to repent, return to the Lord and begin anew.

However, do not dare think that you can waltz into your prayer closet after having lived in open rebellion to God - compromising with the world, turning to the left and then to the right and then think that you can receive from God! That is the height of arrogance, ignorance, and the deceiving of one's own heart. Anyone can pray. But unless you are living in obedience to Christ? Those prayers won't break through the ceiling. It's an act of futility.

 

[longknife]

Perhaps some prayers are not answered for a very good reason.

 

[Avatar4321]

Prayer isn't like ordering a pizza where you ask for what you want and get it. Prayer is the way we communicate and build a relationship with our Heavenly Father. It's not done to change His will but to align our will with His.

Talk to your Father. He loves you.

 

[Taz]

Prayer isn't like ordering a pizza where you ask for what you want and get it. Prayer is the way we communicate and build a relationship with our Heavenly Father. It's not done to change His will but to align our will with His.

Talk to your Father. He loves you.

God doesn't answer prayers. Otherwise, you'd shut up.

 

[turzovka]

God doesn't answer prayers. Otherwise, you'd shut up.

He does not answer prayers of those who mock Him or are not sincere.

Ring a bell?

 

[Avatar4321]

Prayer isn't like ordering a pizza where you ask for what you want and get it. Prayer is the way we communicate and build a relationship with our Heavenly Father. It's not done to change His will but to align our will with His.

Talk to your Father. He loves you.

God doesn't answer prayers. Otherwise, you'd shut up.

Sure He does. Just because He tells you no doesn't mean thereby answered.

Besides, I have said a word to you.

 

[Spinster]

Perhaps some prayers are not answered for a very good reason.

The answer isn't always "yes" but sometimes it's "not yet". To determine a prayer has been unanswered can only be determined when your life is over, or is there an acceptable timeframe in which God must supply an answer and act upon it.

 

[Taz]

Prayer isn't like ordering a pizza where you ask for what you want and get it. Prayer is the way we communicate and build a relationship with our Heavenly Father. It's not done to change His will but to align our will with His.

Talk to your Father. He loves you.

God doesn't answer prayers. Otherwise, you'd shut up.

Sure He does. Just because He tells you no doesn't mean thereby answered.

Besides, I have said a word to you.

So god can hear me but he's just ignoring me?

 

[Taz]

God doesn't answer prayers. Otherwise, you'd shut up.

He does not answer prayers of those who mock Him or are not sincere.

Ring a bell?

I am sincere, God can contact me, then I won't mock him for hiding and being a fraidy cat

 

[the_human_being]

Prayer isn't like ordering a pizza where you ask for what you want and get it. Prayer is the way we communicate and build a relationship with our Heavenly Father. It's not done to change His will but to align our will with His.

Talk to your Father. He loves you.

God doesn't answer prayers. Otherwise, you'd shut up.

Sure He does. Just because He tells you no doesn't mean thereby answered.

Besides, I have said a word to you.

So god can hear me but he's just ignoring me?

Not only God but most others as well.

 

[the_human_being]

When I was born in 1934 the average life expectancy of a White male in the United States was 61. If someone survived their first heart attack they would mope around essentially disabled for a couple of years then die. Cancer was a death sentence. The only treatment was surgery and over half the time the tumor metasticized and spread. The afflicted usually lasted a year after that at the most.

Wednesday evening prayer meetings all over this country were crowded and prayer lists were a foot long. Every family either had a member or a close friend who was sick or dying. People prayed till their knees were bloody and the afflicted suffered and died anyway.

Now the average life expectancy of a White male at birth is 78. Thanks to the electronic spin offs from the moon landing in the late 60's we have sophisticated diagnostic systems, MRI, CT scans, ultrasound, echocardiogram, endoscopy, colonoscopy, heart catherization procedures, stents, bypasses, transplants, stem cell technology, chemo, radiation and limited invasive surgical procedures which produce much lower mortality statistics. What about the millions upon millions who died or suffered unmercifully before all this technology and research came about? Did anything the prayer group did have any effect at all?

There are some medical doctors who will disagree with you. I have read some articles where doctors have completely given up on a person recovering and then see that person recover. Many will tell you it was because of prayer. It is pretty much a lost thing now but there are passages in the Bible that through faith has stopped people from bleeding. Actually, there is a particular verse in Ezekiel that has been used for this purpose.

 

[Taz]

Prayer isn't like ordering a pizza where you ask for what you want and get it. Prayer is the way we communicate and build a relationship with our Heavenly Father. It's not done to change His will but to align our will with His.

Talk to your Father. He loves you.

God doesn't answer prayers. Otherwise, you'd shut up.

Sure He does. Just because He tells you no doesn't mean thereby answered.

Besides, I have said a word to you.

So god can hear me but he's just ignoring me?

Not only God but most others as well.

God ignores me why? I'm a pretty cool guy.

 

[the_human_being]

Prayer isn't like ordering a pizza where you ask for what you want and get it. Prayer is the way we communicate and build a relationship with our Heavenly Father. It's not done to change His will but to align our will with His.

Talk to your Father. He loves you.

God doesn't answer prayers. Otherwise, you'd shut up.

Sure He does. Just because He tells you no doesn't mean thereby answered.

Besides, I have said a word to you.

So god can hear me but he's just ignoring me?

Not only God but most others as well.

God ignores me why? I'm a pretty cool guy.

He tends His flock. Your shepherd tends you.

 

[Taz]

God doesn't answer prayers. Otherwise, you'd shut up.

Sure He does. Just because He tells you no doesn't mean thereby answered.

Besides, I have said a word to you.

So god can hear me but he's just ignoring me?

Not only God but most others as well.

God ignores me why? I'm a pretty cool guy.

He tends His flock. Your shepherd tends you.

lol, does that even mean anything?

 

[Avatar4321]

Prayer isn't like ordering a pizza where you ask for what you want and get it. Prayer is the way we communicate and build a relationship with our Heavenly Father. It's not done to change His will but to align our will with His.

Talk to your Father. He loves you.

God doesn't answer prayers. Otherwise, you'd shut up.

Sure He does. Just because He tells you no doesn't mean thereby answered.

Besides, I have said a word to you.

So god can hear me but he's just ignoring me?

Would you be quick to respond to someone who is mocking you?

 

[Avatar4321]

If we want to talk about how prayer helps those suffering from illness, I felt impressed to share this account from President Nelson from Church. For years he was was a gifted heart surgeon so this account seems appropriate.

Many of us have had experiences with the sweet power of prayer. One of mine was shared with a stake patriarch from southern Utah. I first met him in my medical office more than 40 years ago, during the early pioneering days of surgery of the heart. This saintly soul suffered much because of a failing heart. He pleaded for help, thinking that his condition resulted from a damaged but repairable valve in his heart.

Extensive evaluation revealed that he had two faulty valves. While one could be helped surgically, the other could not. Thus, an operation was not advised. He received this news with deep disappointment.

Subsequent visits ended with the same advice. Finally, in desperation, he spoke to me with considerable emotion: “Dr. Nelson, I have prayed for help and have been directed to you. The Lord will not reveal to me how to repair that second valve, but He can reveal it to you. Your mind is so prepared. If you will operate upon me, the Lord will make it known to you what to do. Please perform the operation that I need, and pray for the help that you need.” 21

His great faith had a profound effect upon me. How could I turn him away again? Following a fervent prayer together, I agreed to try. In preparing for that fateful day, I prayed over and over again, but still did not know what to do for his leaking tricuspid valve. Even as the operation commenced, my assistant asked, “What are you going to do for that?”

I said, “I do not know.”

We began the operation. After relieving the obstruction of the first valve, we exposed the second valve. We found it to be intact but so badly dilated that it could no longer function as it should. While examining this valve, a message was distinctly impressed upon my mind: Reduce the circumference of the ring. I announced that message to my assistant. “The valve tissue will be sufficient if we can effectively reduce the ring toward its normal size.”

But how? We could not apply a belt as one would use to tighten the waist of oversized trousers. We could not squeeze with a strap as one would cinch a saddle on a horse. Then a picture came vividly to my mind, showing how stitches could be placed—to make a pleat here and a tuck there—to accomplish the desired objective. I still remember that mental image—complete with dotted lines where sutures should be placed. The repair was completed as diagrammed in my mind. We tested the valve and found the leak to be reduced remarkably. My assistant said, “It’s a miracle.”

I responded, “It’s an answer to prayer.”

The patient’s recovery was rapid and his relief gratifying. Not only was he helped in a marvelous way, but surgical help for other people with similar problems had become a possibility. I take no credit. Praise goes to this faithful patriarch and to God, who answered our prayers. This faithful man lived for many more years and has since gone to his eternal glory.

Sweet Power of Prayer

The fact is prayers are answered. Sometimes we need to prepare ourselves for those answers.

"Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.

"But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind..." (D&C 9:7-8)
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I don't know if any of what I've shared here will matter to anyone. But I know from experience that God answers prayers. Sometimes in dramatic ways. But more often quietly and subtlety. Be humble, be sincere, and be willing to take counsel and not give it and He will reveal Himself to you in His own time and manner.