How to Pray

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hello, and welcome to Decide onJoy, a podcast coming to you
from Harmony Spiritual Center inFort Worth, Texas.
My name is Jim Kovalt.
And my name is Rev.
Dr.
P.
J.
Stanley.
Welcome.
Thank you for being here.
On this podcast we talk aboutbasic sort of new thought
principles and how they work indaily life and how they can help

(00:22):
you co create your own bestlife.
Yes.
Yes.
That's what they were talkingabout.
prayer.
And the, the first thing thatcomes to mind is a prayer in the
new thought context might be adifferent thing from what you
might be used to if you werecoming from a, like, traditional

(00:44):
Protestant or Catholic orwhatever background or Other
religions as well.
Correct.
Yeah, exactly.
And so I think that The firstthing does to talk about is how
we how we how we see God Wedon't see God as a And don't
necessarily have to call it God.
We can call it God or Spirit,and we call it Spirit actually,

(01:06):
and we call it God.
We call it a number of things.
I, I don't, I think a rose byany other name is still a rose.
It doesn't matter what you callit.
Whatever you're comfortablewith, but we, we, We don't
believe in a God or a spirit outthere outside of us, or so far
away in the sky somewhere.
We think it's very personal andvery close to us.
That's how we, we see it.
And we our idea of what prayeris is communing with that, that

(01:31):
what we call spirit.
And it's the recognition that ofthis Spirit's Omniscience,
Omnipotence, and Omnipresence.
Meaning, Omniscience, it's allknowing power in your life, and
in life in general.
It's Omnipotence, it's all, it'spower, the power that it has in
all, in all of our lives, ineverything.

(01:53):
And it's Omnipresence, it'severywhere, present.
present.
So there's nowhere.
We don't believe that you can beor go or do and God isn't there.
God is everywhere.
And so that is the realizationthat we have.
And also in addition, when wetalk about prayer and just our
thinking of God, we are alsounited with that spirit.

(02:14):
So it's not outside of us.
We are united and one with thatspirit.
And sometimes New thoughtprayers can sound more like what
you might think of as anaffirmation.
Yeah, true, true.
There's a whole process, and Icall it when we pray, it's
something, just a littleacronym.

(02:34):
To remember what we're doingwhen we pray, and it's called
RUCATT, is how you say it.
It's R U C A T T.
And the R stands for that wejust simply recognize, what I
just said earlier, that there isthis one power that's everything
and that we are you.
Rue, you, united with that.
So recognize that there's apower greater than ourselves,

(02:55):
that we are one with that, thatwe are united.
And when we pray, we're making achoice.
So the C for cat is choose.
What is it that you're prayingfor?
What is it that you want?
Health, wealth relationship,what is it you're, you're,
you're asking for?
So you choose, you recognize,you unite, you choose.
And once you choose it, there'sno begging or whatever, you just

(03:15):
state it.
Amen.
What is it you want?
And then you accept it.
You would think that youwouldn't have to do that because
you're asking for something thatyou want, but sometimes we don't
feel like we deserve what we'reasking for.
So we really have to ask forsomething and then accept that
it's possible that it's going tocome into our lives.
Once we do that, we just givethanks as if it's already done,

(03:37):
because it is.
Because the moment you pray forit, it's done.
You give thanks, and it's a 2T,so it's TT.
Give thanks.
and trust that it's done.
You don't have to revisit it.
It's done.
The thing is, and I'll come tothis, I was going to come to
this later, but I'll go aheadsince I'm here now people ask,
well, what happens if you prayagain, you know, for the same
thing?
Nothing happens.

(03:58):
You, you, you, the moment youpray for it, it's done.
If you feel Did you want tospeak with God about it again?
There's no punishment.
There's no penalty.
I said, well since you didn'ttrust me, I'm not going to.
It doesn't negate the first one.
It doesn't negate the first one.
It's just, it's for your comfortlevel.
You do whatever you want to do.
It's for your comfort level.
It doesn't change the prayer.
Yeah.
So why do we pray?
So, you know, The, the thingthat we're here about when we

(04:22):
talk about decide on joy isabout having the best life that
you can possibly have.
And we, and Spirit is involvedin that.
So we pray for guidance, becausesometimes we're confused about
what it, what's even the bestthing for us.
You know, is it, is it, andsometimes we don't get something

(04:45):
like when you ask for a job andwe think well, I want this
promotion.
You don't get it.
But maybe that's not really, itwasn't necessarily that
promotion that really washappening.
What you needed was happening.
There's something greater foryou.
And so you don't get thatbecause, because spirit is, is,
is seeing greater, is seeingwhat you're capable of doing.
And so so we, so we pray forguidance, to ask what, what is,

(05:07):
what's, and this is my favoritething to say, is what's mine to
do now?
What is mine to do?
I don't always know that.
Sometimes we're, we're ill andwe're praying for healing.
But this is all kinds of thingsthat, that, that our minds
cannot comprehend, that we reachout to something that's
omniscient, that knowseverything, and that is on your
side to ask for assistance inour lives.

(05:29):
Mm hmm.
Particularly in relationships.
Let me go back to that.
Oh! Yeah.
I pray all the time aboutrelationships with my kids, my,
you know, my family, friends,all the time.
Just, and, and not about megetting my way, I actually ask
for clarity.
What's happening here?
Mm hmm.
And what's mine to do?
Mm so, so does God answer someprayers of not others or is

(05:50):
he's, yeah.
That's a question that, thatpeople have all the time.
You know, it's like, well, thatyou didn't, that prayer didn't
get answered.
Or that person over there, or,you know, and the, the whole
favorite thing, you know, whyare there wars over here and not
over, not, not over there andnot over here.
First of all, all prayers areanswered.
Okay, all prayers are answered.

(06:11):
Here's the thing, and I'm goingto refer to the Bible on this
one.
Mark 24 says this, and I'm justgoing to say exactly what it
says from the new internationalversion.
That whosoever shall say untothis mountain, be thou removed,
And be thou cast into the sea,and shall not doubt in his

(06:32):
heart, but shall believe thatthose things which he has said
shall come to pass, he shallhave whatever he saith.
So it's not about the power ofGod, it's about whether you
believe it's actually possible.
Whether you believe, you'repraying for something and you
haven't, and it's not that youbelieve that you can do it, that
you believe that God will do itfor you.

(06:54):
And that, and so, so, so thewhole thing is to pray with
belief in God.
Not, not, not believe thatyou're good enough for it
because you already are.
Not believing that, oh, if Ihold my mouth right, if I, you
know, if I have enough, you knowwhat I mean?
There's all these littleconditions that we put on
prayer.
But if you know.

(07:14):
That God is omniscient on,present, everywhere, present and
loves you, and all that you haveto do is just pray and let it
go.
It's going to be done.
Now, it may not be done in thetime that you want it to be
done.
There's some things, and it maynot show up the way you think
it's supposed to show up.
It shows up the way it shows up,but there answer there.
What, what is the extent of whatcan you believe is possible?

(07:37):
Yeah.
Exactly.
And I think that comes back to,and that's part of, as we're
here Harmony Spiritual Center,and we are teachings, we're a
teaching center, and what youcan believe is possible has to
do with your background, it hasto do with how you were raised,
it has to do with what you weretold, that you were worth.

(07:58):
And a lot of things come back towhether we think we're worthy of
something or not.
Whether we are worthy of a goodrelationship.
Whether we whether, this, thisis a good one that wanting more
money because money is evil.
Money is the root of all,everybody uses that.
The, the money, money is theroot of all evil.
But that's not actually what itsays.
It says the love of money.

(08:20):
Money is the root of all evil,not money itself, because money
makes the world go round.
To me, money is love in action.
What do you do when you havemoney?
If you ask someone, what wouldyou do if you won the lottery?
I'm asking you guys out there,if you won the lottery, what is
the thing that you say?
What is the thing that you say,Jim, if you, if you won the

(08:42):
lottery, what's the thing thatyou would do if you with the
money that you got?
Yeah, I know, all the thingsthat you would buy for yourself
and pay off bills, but afterthat, what would you do?
I'd give a lot of it away.
Exactly.
To the people that you love.
Helping your family, you know,if your mom was still around,
helping her, whoever.
Helping those that you love.
That's so, to me, money is lovein action.

(09:03):
That's, that's what it is.
So, so sometimes you, you don'tbelieve it's possible because
you don't think you're worthy ofit.
That you, that, that it's wrongto want something and it is not.
Desire is not wrong.
It actually shows you what'sthere for you and what, what's
next for you.
This is a question that you'vegiven me here and I'm not sure,
but when is it answered?
Yeah.
So, so that goes back to thequestion about who, who, you

(09:25):
know, does it, does he answerfor you and does he answer for
someone else and, or he, he,she, whatever you want to call
that.
Does God answer, the spiritanswer?
And when is it answered?
It's answered when it's answeredbecause, and it sounds funny to
say that, because timing iseverything.
Right?
Timing is everything and youdon't really know what the
timing is.
So let's just say this so I'mwriting a book, right?
And how long have I been sayingthat?

(09:46):
Like for a year now?
For a year.
It's written, but it's taken mea while.
I also had, was talking aboutworking with my doctor, how long
does it take?
And I prayed about that.
I asked about it.
But it takes, things have tocome around to me.
Information, people that aregoing to help me, all that has
to come into place before it'sactually physically here.

(10:09):
So, because you prayed for it,it's on the way.
And everything that you need toknow to get it done and to keep
it going is coming to you.
So, What you want to do isrecognize that the prayer is
being answered as you're seeingthings that help you get it
done.
As things show up in your life,recognize it.
Oh, this is going to help me dothat.
Oh, this is going to help mewith that.

(10:30):
So, it's not like a, it's notlike a magic wand.
It's not like a genie.
Like you say, oh, I want adoctor.
Boop! There you go.
It's not that.
It's not that.
Well done.
It's not that.
That's all the prayer is.
So, it's, it's on the way.
It's on the way.
And to, for me, I just want tosay this, when you pray, know
that it's already done now.

(10:50):
It's done now.
There is no time.
Here's another thing.
There is no time in spirit.
We have, we've created time sothat we would know when to be
some place and all that.
But there actually is no time.
Time is irrelevant to spirit.
It's all the same time, right,for spirit.
So if he does it for us in 10days, he's done it right, or he,
she, it has done it already.
And it just takes 10 days toshow it physically And what

(11:13):
happens if others probably notThat sort of example, but if the
sort of thing where like if youindeed you said what's mine to
do?
Yeah And what happens if youdon't listen to the answer?
Yeah, because sometimes youdon't recognize it Sometimes you
don't recognize that's theanswer because it didn't come
the way you thought it was goingto come I'm trying to get an

(11:35):
example.
Oh, whoa So, I've talked aboutthis a lot.
I had a wonderful adventureoverseas, over in Asia, for 11
years.
11 years.
Do you know how long it took meto go?
And I was asked to go several,25 years.
Because in my mind, It was a wartorn country.

(11:56):
They hate Vietnam.
They hate us.
We were, we, we fought them.
We did not fight them.
We fought the North, with theSouth.
So we were friends with half thecountry.
Right?
And, and so I fought that.
So that, that was I'm justtrying to think, what, so that
was something that I, that was,once I went, my whole world was
opened up.

(12:16):
The things that I love to do,which is to meet people, to
travel, all of those things, Idenied myself, and it was there
and saying, let's go, let's go,let's go, and I kept saying no.
I kept saying no, and once I gotthere, I thought, oh my God,
this is what you've been tellingme all this time?
Right.
And so how do we know when,when, when it has been answered,

(12:38):
can we confirm that answer?
Yeah.
And I, and I guess you just haveto know, you have to, you, you,
we keep revisiting the question,the, the, the answer, the choice
that we made.
Like I'm going to go back to thebook.
I said, you know, I want towrite a book cause I want to do
some things.
I want to leave, I want to leavea legacy of things that I know.

(12:59):
So I want to write the book.
So, things were coming to me,like, you know, do a workshop,
okay, alright, fine take thisclass, okay, fine, teach this
class, okay, fine.
So all of those things werebuilding, building, building,
and once I had, in the lastworkshop that I did, I just
thought, oh, that's the book,that's, that's, these, what I

(13:24):
wrote for the workshop were allthe chapters for the book.
So, I recognized it once it wasthere, but the prayer that I
prayed a year ago was beinganswered as I was doing the
classes, reading the stuff, allthe things that were coming to
me.
I didn't realize it until I sawit.
I saw it in the workshop that Ihad done, oh, oh, there's a

(13:47):
book.
There's another I guess kind ofprayer or aspect of prayer,
whatever that, because sometimeswe pray for other people.
Yes, we do.
I mean, we have here, we have a,a prayer box where you can put a
prayer request in or, or you canask the chaplains after the
service to, to pray with youabout something.

(14:09):
And so what's happening whenwe're praying for someone else
or for something to Transpirewith someone else what's going
on there?
So I'm so glad you asked thatbecause there's a two things
that are going on one They askedfor prayer You cannot pray for

(14:29):
someone who didn't ask you tobecause they're not open to it.
They won't see it.
They won't recognize it.
It won't happen.
You can't do it.
Secondly, when someone asks youfor prayer, they're recognizing
that they are, they are being,they're, they're blocked.
Like they don't, they recognizethat, but they want it and
spirit recognizes it too.
So All the person is doing isbeing an intermediary for you

(14:52):
and God recognizes that.
That you're asking for prayerand you're using that person as
an intermediary.
God recognizes that.
And so, that's, that's what'sgoing on.
The person is not, all they'redoing is, all a person who's
praying for you from thisperspective, from New Thought
perspective, is going throughthe root cat with you.
That's all they're doing issaying, I recognize who you are.
I recognize that there's that weare, you are united.

(15:13):
So, they're just praying thatprayer with you.
And then, and we're choosingwhatever the person wants, you
don't have to even state it.
We're choosing what's on, whatthey need to have happen for
them.
That's what we're choosing,because God knows what that is.
You don't have to ever evenstate it.
And so that's, but, but it onlyworks because they have asked
for it.
They have come and they've puttheir prayer in the box.

(15:35):
They've come and said, Hey, Ineed some prayer.
And they don't ever have to eventell us what it's about.
It doesn't matter because whatwe just said he was omniscient
already knows before you go Butnot gonna interfere if you don't
ask if you don't ask and God'snot going to God's not going to
answer a prayer if you aren'tpraying because we have free

(15:55):
will so live your life But ifyou want help God's there for
you, right?
Right?
Yeah, and that's the answer thequestion about well How come the
good things happen or badthings?
I don't know happen to thosepeople that You We want, as
human beings, we want free will.
We want to be able to do what wewant to do, want to be able to

(16:16):
go where we want to go, exceptwhen it gets screwed up.
And then we want to know why,why, why God didn't jump in.
Well, free will or not.
What, it's not free will todayand not tomorrow.
And at the moment you mess itup, then no.
Because even if, even if it'smessed up, you can, you still
have the free will to ask forhelp.
We have that, and that, and thathelp will arrive.

(16:37):
So That's a part of the problem.
You have all these people on theplanet with free will.
Yeah, there is that problem.
There is that problem.
There's that issue.
Yeah.
So do you.
So do you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, and you can ask for help.
You can.
Whenever you.
Anytime.
You don't have to even speak itout.
You can just, your heart can sayit.
Like the pain in your heart saysit.

(17:00):
It's what we call here, whenyou, when you're ready for
prayer, when you're ready forspirit to speak or to assist
you, it's called surrender.
So you surrender the ego.
Like, I can figure this out.
I don't need your help.
It's like a little kid.
Like, no, I can tie my ownshoes.
Right.
Right.
That's kind of what we do withSpirit.
Like, I can figure this out.
Okay, well, go ahead.

(17:21):
Let me know.
No problems.
Just let me know.
And there's no, you're not introuble.
You're not going to get upset.
Because, you know, you waitedten, twenty five years before
you knew what the hell was goingon.
Would go and have this greattime?
Doesn't matter.
Doesn't matter.
God's not a vengeful God.
We were raised with, I wasraised, I don't know, I was

(17:41):
raised with the idea of avengeful God, which never worked
for me.
Because you can't say to me thatGod is love, and then turn
around and say that God isvengeful.
Is it love?
Or is it, Right.
What is it?
Right.
What is it?
Is it free will?
Or do you want God to controlthe whole thing?
What is it?

(18:01):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Good.
We'll stop this, this episode atthat point and thanks to
everyone for being with us andwe'll see you next time.
Yes.