First, please read the information on, Why do some prayers seem to go unanswered? and 7 Steps for Effective Prayer. State BRIEFLY your request for healing prayer. Keep this to a short paragraph or less. Include your name (first names only are OK) and your location. It's OK to ask for prayers for someone else. Please, however, DO NOT send us someone else's full name (first names only, please) as this can be a violation of another person's privacy. For the same reason, this prayer ministry will only pray for the "highest good," rather than for specific outcomes, when we receive third person requests.
If you prefer, you can phone in your prayer request by calling 651-641-9996.
This prayer ministry, founded by Lynn Woodland in 1999, is not connected to any particular religion or spiritual path. We endorse an approach to prayer that is aimed broadly at calling forth the highest good and, over the years, we've heard countless stories of physical and emotional healing as well as fortunate opportunities and events showing up for our prayer recipients. When you leave a prayer request, a group of people will pray for you every day and send you love. Even though we may never meet, know how important you are to us and how loved you are! We encourage you to repeat your prayer request every week until your healing needs feel resolved.
Do you have a few minutes a day to pray from your own home for people in need? Are you looking for a simple, regular spiritual practice that will promote personal healing, well-being and inner peace? If so, we'd love to have you join our ministry. We're looking for loving hearts and loving prayers to assist those who have left requests for healing and assistance. As one of our volunteers, you'll receive, via email, a list of these requests and we ask you to spend a bit of time in prayer each day in a way that is consistent with the suggested 7 Steps for Effective Prayer. If you'd like to join our ministry, email us with your name and address (we sometimes send things to our volunteers via snail mail).
Prayer is a powerful practice that invites grace and healing of all sorts into our life. Research is showing a powerful connection between prayer and physical healing, even when those being prayed for don't believe in prayer or know that prayer is being said on their behalf. Science is proving what many world religions and spiritual paths have taught through the ages, that with faith, love and clear intent anything is possible. (A compelling book on prayer research is Healing Words by Larry Dossey, MD.)
With so much evidence coming, not just from the spiritual community but from the medical community as well, that prayer really does have an effect, why does it seem that so many prayers go unanswered? If we believe in a God or Higher Power, why would it choose to answer some prayers and not others? Even if we believe it's the power of our own consciousness that makes prayer work, why would it work sometimes and not others?
I believe there's an art and science to prayer that make some more effective than others. For many of us prayer is something we don't even think to do until we're desperate and have exhausted all other resources. In this state, our prayers are less a reflection of our trust in a Higher Power and more an affirmation of our own powerlessness. These aren't the most effective prayers.
There's a Bible passage, Matthew 7:7, that says, "Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." It's easy to become cynical about this spiritual truth by the time we're old enough to learn Santa doesn't bring us everything on our list! Yet I believe "Ask and you shall receive" is spiritual law, not religious metaphor, and that if applied correctly, it works. Obviously there's a trick to it because we all could name things we asked and pleaded for but never got. I believe the secret lies in another spiritual law, which we've heard a distortion of in the familiar, "It's better to give than receive" but comes through more clearly in the modern day spiritual text, A Course in Miracles, as "Giving and receiving are the same."
If we combine "Ask and you shall receive" with "Giving and receiving are the same" it means our prayer request needs to offer up, to give, a bit of what we're asking for in order to be truly effective. A powerful prayer is one where we create first within ourselves a bit of the peace, joy, love, surrender, safety and fulfillment we want to grow in our lives and give it up to Spirit-like planting a seed.
When prayers don't work they're often a desperate plea of, "Pleeeaaassse God, rescue me!!" They may have an element of bartering: "Pleeaassse... I'll do anything!" Or we may be praying from our fear-based need for control. Instead of praying for the highest possible outcome, trusting God to show us what that is, we come to God with our grocery list of specific requests saying, in effect, "This, God, and only this will do." In so doing, we undermine the purpose and power of prayer: to give us what is truly for our highest good, not just the limit of what we can imagine our highest good to be.
Spirit gives us what we love and ask for, and we demonstrate what we love and ask for it by how we give our attention. Our state of mind is a powerful force and what we give attention to we magnify. So if we're praying (pleading) for healing, love and prosperity while we fill our attention with wishing (magnifying what we don't have), complaining (magnifying what's wrong), resenting (magnifying separateness and lack of love) and worrying (can you think of any time worrying helped?), is it any wonder that God answers our prayers by giving us is more of the same?
If our prayers aren't being answered in the way we hoped, we might need to ask differently. A 180 degree turnaround may be in order. Instead of a "pleading" prayer, try a "giving" prayer. Transform wishing into gratitude by giving thanks for what you have and even for unanswered prayers as though they have already been fulfilled. Turn complaining into creating by focusing on what you can create in your situation rather than what's wrong with it. Change resentment into forgiveness. If it's hard to forgive, start with yourself. If it's still difficult, ask yourself the question often: Would you rather have God answer your prayers by proving you right or by making you happy? And when your mind is crowded with worries, this is the time for faith. Reach up to a higher power. Recognize that your personal power may not be enough to get you through but Divine Power is.
Here are some steps for working with the practice of directed prayer (that is, praying for something as opposed to prayer simply as communication/communion with God) to help make the most of your prayer time:
God (Goddess, Creator, Higher Power, Universal Spirit),
I turn to You with all my heart.
I joyously realize Your absolute presence.
I see You everywhere-in all places, all people,
all that is.
You breathe life and light into my very soul,
YOU who are Infinite Love.
Yes, I feel Your Presence-You live in me!
Thank you for the Divine Spark within.
God, You have said "Ask and it shall be given."
I come to You now in gratitude and love
for Your assistance that is ever present.
Receive my prayer as an offering of faith that what I ask for has already been given and received.
(Take a moment to bring your prayer intention to mind. Speak it out loud or silently to yourself. Imagine handing all dis-ease and lack over to God, and God lovingly receiving it. Create a vivid inner experience of already having, doing and being your prayer request. And then hand this, too, over to God asking that Divine Will be done.)
Thank you, Divine Spirit!
I have faith in reality of Miracles!
I believe in the power of LOVE!
I release this intention into Your hands.
I surrender to Your will.
May the Divine Design now manifest!
I know I am whole and perfect as You made me.
There is nothing to be healed;
only DIVINE LOVE to be revealed.
Now I join with my brothers and sisters
as we speak to You in unity.
Our hearts join and overflow with Divine Love,
And we become a powerful channel for
Your Healing Work:
By the Grace of God, Divine Love now heals and guides
all those who have prayed for Your help!
By the Grace of God, Divine Love now heals and guides
every member of our personal communities!
By the Grace of God, Divine Love now heals and guides
all life on our earth!
Divine Spirit, spark our faith, hope and love into new action this day.
Our lives fill with gratitude, wonder and awe. Miracles happen.
We receive the blessing of Your perfect love and wisdom.
And with this prayer we now embrace the call
You gave us-to be spiritual beings,
in service to each other
and to You.
Amen