[soc.religion.christian] prayer for others

cole@maverick.uswest.com (Cole Keirsey) (06/22/91)

Barbara Wood wrote:

""""""""""""""""""""
There is no supernatural power or extra special annointing in anyone's hands;
the power is in the prayer that is backed up by the life of the one doing the
prayer. The most serious thing about this is, "what is in you, is transmitted
onto the person of whom you lay your hands on, whether faith or unbelief."
Take for instance a person who has a weak spiritual life who lays their hands
on a person who has a strong spiritual life; the weaker one is blessed and the
spiritual one is weakened as if he/she was drained of the spiritualality they
had built up. The woman with the issue of blood drained spiritual power 
(virtue) from Jesus. The woman was healed when her faith extracted healing 
power from Jesus. (Matt 9:20-22; Luke 8:43-48)
****Note***** One can build up their spirit by reading/study of the Bible,
prayer, fasting and obedient lifestyle which each are a Bible study of them-
selves.
""""""""""""""""""""

Thanks to Barbara for the citations she provided on this interesting
topic.  I agree in part with her comments, but I'd like to present a
different point of view for s.r.c readers to consider.  

Whenever we support someone else through prayer (with or without laying
on of hands), it is God's power that helps the other person, not our own.
God's power is infinite and inexhaustable.  Praying for God to help
someone else doesn't weaken or drain a person spiritually.  On the
contrary, it increases the spiritual strength of the person who is
praying.  When we pray for those in need, as Jesus and the apostles
encouraged us to do, the net result is a gain for the church, not a gain
and a loss that cancel one another out.

We're all familiar with laws of conservation in physics (conservation of
mass/energy, of charge, etc.), but I find no basis for thinking that
similar laws apply to the power of the Spirit.  Jesus said that virtue
went out from him when the woman who touched him was healed.  There is
no indication that Jesus was less virtuous afterwards.  On the other
side of the coin, the Bible says of Christians that if they touch any
evil thing, no harm will come to them.  

An analogy that helps me is to think of my life as a window that the
light of God can shine through.  Bible study and Christian living are
like cleaning the window so that God's light shines through more
clearly.  If someone else sees and benefits from the light, that doesn't
make my 'window' dirty again.  The only thing I have to loose in the
process is the opacity of sin.

C. C. Keirsey

tas@pegasus.com (Len Howard) (06/25/91)

The Dean of our cathedral in Honolulu preached a sermon likening us to
mirrors that shine the light into whereever it might not otherwise get
to.  I think that is a pretty good description of the life of a
Christian.

sasjzc@dev.sas.com (James Cox) (06/26/91)

This is the first time I have posted to this newsgroup, but I find the
discussions interesting (although sometimes it seems that people are
arguing points without making their assumptions clear, when people on
different sides may have very different assumptions).

I have some strong ideas about prayer, including what I see as common
misconceptions about it, but I also think it is extremely important in
any kind of spiritual relationship with the Lord.

First of all, I have a very rich and rewarding prayer life.  I find that
when I am down, I can talk to God and he will pull me up.  And when I
am arrogant, he points that out.  It seems to me that my prayer takes
the form of a two-way conversation --- and God never lets me gloss over
what is important.  He is my best friend.  I find that when my 
relationship with God is strongest, right-kind of thinking comes more
naturally.  If I am in a car, and feel angry at the car ahead of me
because it is going too slow, or waits until there are no cars in sight
before it will turn at a stop sign, and I am tempted to honk at them,
if my prayer relationship is strong, I will hear the gentle inner voice
saying, "But they may be elderly, and may need to drive the way they
do."  And I suddenly realize how harassed I would feel in their 
situation if someone honked at me. 

HOWEVER, I feel strongly that prayer is misused by many well-meaning
Christians.  I would not raise this point if I did not think it led
to a wrong-type of thinking.  Some people seem to look at prayer as
an attempt to get God to do something you want.  I personally do not
believe that God intercedes in our day-to-day life down here.  If God
did, he/she would be messing with our own free will. But, even
if he/she does, the idea that God is going to alter his plan just 
because someone asks him to is horribly self-righteous.  Some people 
seem to have the view that God has a fan-club, and he/she is impressed 
by fan mail.  God comes into the office and asks St. Peter, "Well, 
what kind of prayer requests do we have today?"  St. Peter responds, 
"Well, 5 people in Nantucket are praying that this little boy with AIDS
lives". God says disappointedly, "Oh, only five? Let us see if we can 
do better than that!".  St. Peter brightens. "But in OMiGosh, 
Wisconsin, we have a whole church praying that a three year old gets a 
kidney that his body will accept."  God says, graciously, "Well, let's 
see what we can do for that boy".

This example is clearly ridiculous, but it points out many 
misconceptions.  People pray that God will heal someone, or that he/she
will help them get the raise they need, or that he/she will help them 
get a date on Saturday night.  This has several unfortunate 
consequences:


1.  Their relationship with God becomes very self-centered, i.e. "God,
what can you do for me?", rather than directed at spiritual growth.
How would your friends react to you if your conversation with them was
dominated by requests?

2. When the prayed-for event does not occur, people blame God, or, even
worse, may blame themselves for not being spiritual enough.  This is
particularly bad if the event is something that the individual does have
control over (e.g. getting a date Friday night).  It is always a
temptation to blame someone else for your own failures.  It is much
more advantageous to say, "God, what can I do to help myself get a date
Friday night?"  (And be prepared for an answer to come to you).

3. People begin to believe that God plays favorites.  One thing that 
concerns me about the attitude of many Christians is that they seem to
believe that they belong to a select, special club that can get God's
"Ear" when they need to.  This club even has passwords that all the
faithful know, like "Are you SAVED??!"  "Have YOU accepted Jesus Christ
as your Lord and Savior???!"  By saying "YES", you magically become a
member of this special club.  If there is any type of attitude that
Jesus preached against, it was this one.  I think if Jesus came today,
he would speak of the born-again Christians much as he spoke of the
Pharisees then.



Does that mean I believe that intercessional (i.e. praying that God
will intervene in our affairs) prayer should not be done?  No.  
I think that when we are really praying unselfishly for someone else
to succeed, we are accomplishing several purposes:

1. We are demonstrating that we care about this person.  This is 
especially true when we include helping actions with our prayer.  I
definitely believe in self-healing, and a prime factor in this is 
wanting to get better, which is particularly easy when you know that
people care.

2. We are establishing right-kind of thinking with regard to that 
other person.  We are putting someone else's needs high enough on our
list to interrupt our very personal conversation with the creator to
talk about them.

3. We potentially can bolster the good in our relationship with them.
When you show true respect and caring for another, they are likely to
return that respect.


One caveat, however.  The phrase, "I will pray for you" is objectionable
to many people (partially because it can imply that you have a direct
link that is not available to them, or they may not even believe in
God).  I would ask that you remember Paul's admonishment not to eat
sacrificed meat (as a means of recognizing the recipient's needs).  
Sometimes a statement like, "I care.  What can I do to help" can be
just as (if not more) effective for such people.



                    With Love in Christ,
                       Jim Cox

daly@strawber.princeton.edu (John Daly) (06/27/91)

In article <Jun.26.00.20.34.1991.21743@athos.rutgers.edu>, sasjzc@dev.sas.com (James Cox) writes:
|> People pray that God will heal someone, or that he/she will help them
|> get the raise they need, or that he/she will help them get a date on
|> Saturday night. ...
|> Does that mean I believe that intercessional (i.e. praying that God
|> will intervene in our affairs) prayer should not be done?  No.  
|> I think that when we are really praying unselfishly for someone else
|> to succeed, we are accomplishing several purposes:

Good post.  I do not think that praying our own desires is necessarily
bad though.  Parents want to know what kind of Christmas presents their
children would like to have, and as long as the parents are interested
their children will be certainly comply.  This does not presuppose that
the parents will, or even should, get them everything they want.  When
such "desires of the heart" are shared, the whole family grows.

I believe that it is important to go to God in prayer with our troubles
AND our desires.  When we do this humbly, it draws us closer to Him.  It
is one of the ways in which we give him that which He really wants from
us anyway, our hearts.