"Prayer is a contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view. It is the soliloquy of a beholding and jubilant soul. It is the Spirit of God pronouncing His works good. But prayer as a means to effect a private end is meanness and theft. It supposes dualism and not unity in nature and consciousness. As soon as the man is at one with God, he will not beg". These words of Ralph Waldo Emerson are the basic framework of what I do believe about an effective prayer.

In essence, we may say that there are two ways people can pray. They can pray either from consciousness of lack, or from consciousness of abundance. Answers that we receive are mostly determined not by what we pray for, but what we pray from.

Most Christians would agree that prayers of Jesus were effective. When we observe His prayer life as it is described in gospels, we notice that He was fully aware of presence of the Father in Him, and God's unlimited abundance all around Him. He never doubted that enough loaves and fishes to feed the hungry multitude can be brought into existence. He never doubted that apostles will catch enough fish. He never doubted that a coin to pay a tax will be found. He knew that invisible divine substance, under the direction of positive and affirmative faith, can be brought into visible manifestation as abundance of all things that He and people around Him needed and wanted.

The same laws that Jesus used to produce marvelous results are available for us even today - if we will find a way to get hold on them and to use them. Abundance of God's creative life can be released as wholeness in our bodies. Abundance of God's substance can be manifested as lavish provision for all our needs. Abundance of God's intelligence can be made available for our minds as wisdom and guidance. All these things are our rightful inheritance in God's kingdom, but we need to stretch out in faith to receive them. It is done to us according to our faith - faith in invisible reality of all good we hope for.

The biggest human problem is mental and spiritual sleep. In greater or lesser degree, people are ignorant of who they are, and what is their inheritance in God. Being mentally unaware of their Great Source of all good, they maintain beliefs in lack and separation. When they have needs and they ask God to meet those needs, they pray from consciousness of lack and separation. No wonder their prayers so often remain not answered, which only reinforces in their mind image of a capricious Deity.

Somewhere, somehow, this mental sleep has to come to an end. "Awake, sleeping ones! And arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light" (Ephesians 5:14), writes Paul. God loves us and wants to help us, but He cannot reward ignorance.

The most effective prayer, therefore, is the prayer for enlightenment. "Lord, let there be Your light in my mind. Let there be Your light in my heart. Let there be Your light in my whole life. Here and now, I am transferred from the darkness of ignorance into the light of true understanding." As we call for divine light, it will become a tangible reality for us. Our prayers will become different, and, since they will be lifted up from an understanding heart, they will produce different results.

Paul gave a beautiful pattern of prayer four ourselves and for others in Ephesians 1:15-19:

Therefore I also, hearing of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love to all the saints,
do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers,
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us".

Before we analyze his words, let us notice that Ephesians were mature believers. They were not a group of stumbling and falling sinners that required some sort of fixing. They grew in faith and love. And yet, there was something more for them - just like there is something more for us.

The goal of God in our lives is not just to lead us to moral perfection. It is good, but it is not the best. We are destined to be transformed into the image of Christ, to be channels of His expression in our world. This goal is achieved only through realization of our true nature, our innate potential, or "inheritance". This is what Paul prayed for.

When we know who we are, our prayers, even for ourselves and our needs, are not "private". They are not circumscribed by our self-centeredness or by sense of lack. Our eyes are wide open to contemplate reality from the highest point of view, and to pronounce it good. Being aware that we are divine sons and daughters, living in abundant word, we boldly claim our inheritance, which was given not only for us, but for the benefit of the whole world.