Much of the world believes in a God who hears our prayers and sometimes gives us what we ask for and sometimes does not. This conception of Deity holds that God has reasons for granting or denying our wishes on any particular occasion.

Sometimes (so it is said) what we want for ourselves is not what God knows is “good for us,” so we don’t get it.

Sometimes (so it is said) we have sinned so much that God does not find us “deserving” of having a prayer answered.

Sometimes (so we are told) God gives us all that we have asked for and more—presumably because it is good for us and we are deserving.

Now comes The Great What If . . .

What if God does not grant or deny the prayers of anyone?

What if a hoped-for event or condition manifests in our life for another reason entirely?

Would it make a difference? Does it matter? In the overall scheme of things, would it have any significant impact in our planetary experience?

Yes. This would, in fact, offer an opportunity for the biggest breakthrough in human history. We could at last discover, as a global species, the Process of Creation and the alchemy of the universe (a seemingly magical method of transformation or creation).

Why do hoped-for events or conditions manifest in our lives if it’s not God’s “mood” that determines whether our wishes are granted? How do miracles happen? What makes dreams come true? And what is at cause when they do not?

GOD’S MESSAGE TO THE WORLD

Humanity’s Ancient Cultural Story about God personally granting or denying the prayers of individual human beings is plainly and simply inaccurate. It is okay now to remove this ancient teaching from our current story, and to stop telling this to ourselves and to our children.

God’s role in our lives need not be reduced, however. Indeed, it would be well to increase it. Yet if God does not personally say “yes” or “no” to our prayers, why bother increasing God’s role in our lives?

Because it is God’s power, not God’s disposition that produces the manifestation of a human being’s desires.

That sentence is important enough to qualify as one to be highlighted.

It is God’s power, not God’s disposition, that produces the manifestation of a human being’s desires.

What this means is that it is not whether we are in God’s favor, or whether or not God thinks that granting a particular request would be “good” for us, that determines the outcome of our prayer. It is not God’s mood, it is God’s love which produces the astonishing circumstance of all of our prayers being granted all of the time.

The problem is not that God sometimes says yes and sometimes says no to our prayers, the problem is that we don’t know what “prayer” is.

If someone had told us when we were little children what prayer is, we would find that all of our prayers are answered all the time.

Prayer is an application, not a supplication . . . and most of us think it is the other way around.

Prayer is nothing more than God’s energy, focused. God’s energy is not made available to us only under certain conditions (as when God agrees with our prayer, or when we are in God’s “good graces”). God’s energy lives in us, as us, and manifests through us every hour of every day, whether we know it or not—and whether we want it to or not.

We don’t have any choice about this, because God’s energy—which is the power behind creation—is not turn-on-able and turn-off-able. It is always on, every single moment. It is, in fact, Who We Are.

We are, each of us, a manifestation of God’s energy, and how we use the energy that we are determines how we experience the life that we live.

Remember always . . .

We are a manifestation of God’s energy, and how we use the energy that we are determines how we experience the life that we live.

Desire vs. Want

Let me offer here what I explained in a passage from the book Happier Than God. The attracting aspect of energy responds not only to what we desire, but also to what we fear. Not only to what we wish to draw to us, but also to what we wish to push away. Not only to what we consciously choose, but also to what we unconsciously select.

“Selecting” from what my friend Deepak Chopra calls “the Field of Infinite Possibilities” is a delicate procedure. It is a matter of what we focus on, whether we do it consciously or not.

For instance, if your mind is focused on doubling your income within the next year, but if you have a later thought, the next hour or the next day, that it will be almost impossible for you to do this—if you say to yourself, “Oh, come on, be practical! Pick a goal that you can at least reach”—then you have selected the latest idea, whether you originally wanted to or not, because the switch on your power is always ON; personal creation is always working.

It not only works with your most recent thought or idea, but also with the one to which you give the most frequency and focus and emotional energy.

This explains why some people who seek to use the so-called Law of Attraction or traditional forms of prayer to get something they desperately want often meet up with what they call failure. Then they say, “See? This stuff doesn’t work!”

Actually, the process is working perfectly. If you experience yourself wanting something desperately, and if you keep saying to yourself I want that!, you are announcing to the universe that you do not now have it.

As long as you hold such a thought, you cannot have it, because you cannot experience on the one hand what you are confirming on the other that you do not.

To use one example, the statement, “I want more money” may not draw money to you, but may actually push it away. This is because the universe has only one response in its vocabulary: “Yes.”

It responds to your energy. It listens most of all to what you are feeling.

If you constantly say, “I want more money!”, God will say, “Yes, you do!” If you think, “I want more love in my life!”, God will say “Yes, you do!”

The universe “feels your energy” around the question of money or love, or anything else for that matter, and if it is a feeling of lack, this is what the universe will respond to. And it will produce more of that. The universe is a big copying machine. It duplicates what’s put into it.

The Power of God

We are talking about power here. We are talking about the power of prayer. But prayer is more than simply what we ask for. Prayer is our every thought, word, and deed. In fact, asking for something is actually the weakest path toward getting it, because asking for something is an affirmation that you do not now have it.

Putting all this another way, your energy has the power of a magnet. Remember that even feeling (actually, especially feeling) is energy, and in the matter of energy, Like Attracts Like.

The idea is to step into the application of the power of God, not a supplication to God that the power be used. God’s invitation is to utilize the confirmative power of prayer. How? How is this done? Well, here’s an example: “Thank you God for sending me my perfect mate.” Here’s another example: “All the money I need is coming to me now.” And here’s my favorite prayer: “Thank you, God, for helping me to understand that this problem has already been solved for me.”

This shift from supplication to application can be miraculous. These are not affirmations. These are confirmations. There is a huge difference. An affirmation seeks to produce an outcome or an experience. A confirmation announces that the outcome has already been produced.

How the Mechanism of Creation Works

This is a mechanism we are talking about here, not a Being in the sky who takes you literally or does not. This is a machine that runs based on the fuel that is put into it. It is a copying machine, and it has no preference as to what it duplicates. Nor does it try to interpret what its owner wants to make copies of. It simply duplicates the energy that is put into it. In this sense, it is like a computer. You’ve heard this acronym, I’m sure: GIGO. That stands for: Garbage In, Garbage Out.

In using God’s Energy, the word “I” is the ignition key of creation. What follows the word “I” turns the key and starts the engine of manifestation.

Thus, when it “looks as if” Personal Creation is not working it is only because the Primal Energy has brought you what you inadvertently selected rather than what you thought you chose.

If the power were not always ON, if the process was not always working, you could have a single very positive thought about something and that outcome would be made manifest in your reality without fail. But the process works all the time, not just part of the time, and is fed by that which you feel most deeply, most consistently. So a single very positive thought in a whirlwind of not-so-positive ideas and projections is not likely to produce the desired result.

The trick is to stay positive in a sea of negativity. The trick is to know that the process is working even when it looks as if it is not. The trick is to “judge not by appearances.” The trick is to stay in the space of gratitude for everyone outcome and experience, every circumstance and situation.

Gratitude eliminates negativity, disappointment, resentment, and anger. And when those emotions disappear, room is made for the energy of love for God, for life, and for yourself to reappear—now more fully than ever.

What a God we have! What a Deity is ours, to have created such a foolproof, magnificent, miraculous process, allowing each of us to announce and declare, express and fulfill, experience and become Who We Really Are.

Subtitles by InnerSelf.

©2014 by Neale Donald Walsch. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher: Rainbow Ridge Books.

Article Source:

God's Message to the World: You've Got Me All Wrong
by Neale Donald Walsch.

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About the Author

NEALE DONALD WALSCH is the author of nine books in the Conversations with God series, which have sold over ten million copies in 37 languages. He is one of the major authors in the new spirituality movement, having written 28 other books, with eight books on the New York Times bestseller's list. His life and work have helped to create and sustain a worldwide spiritual renaissance, and he travels globally to bring the uplifting message of the CwG  books to people everywhere.