CHURCH OF THE GREAT SPIRIT a.k.a. GOD's CHURCH

A Gathering Place for Spiritual Sharing and Healing

Prayer

Welcome to God's Church, a universal, non-denominational, inter-faith gathering of God's children to worship God and promote spiritual healing and growth regardless of any religious affiliation or background. We use non-exclusionary language in our services and read from the Great World Scriptures of difference religious or philosophical traditions. God's Church does not ask anyone to give up their religion as there are many paths that lead to God. However, we do advocate the Law of Oneness, recognizing and accepting the holiness and interconnectedness of all life. We view all living beings as manifestations of God.

1. Prelude: "God is a Spirit and They that worship must worship Spirit and Truth. God is Sat, Chitt, and Ananda (Truth, Knowledge, and Bliss)."

2. Call to Worship: "O come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before our maker-sustainer-changer, our Mother-Father God. We are the beings of God's pasture and the sheep of God's hand.

3. Invocation: "Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for Mother-Father God will be your everlasting light." (Isa. 60:20)

4. Doxology: "Glory be to the Mother-Father Creator, the Daughter-Son Sustainer, and the Holy Spirit Changer as it was in the beginning, is now and ever will be world without end. Amen."

5. Dedication (Sankalpa): May the fruits of this worship service which belong to God give enlightenment to all living beings and alleviate the pain, misery, and suffering of the myriad sentient/feeling beings throughout the universe.

6. Special Messages or Service Theme: Prayer

7. Hymn 1 - We Give Thee But Thine Own

8. Offertory and Three Homages: We offer the merits of today's scripture readings to All so that they may be able to obtain the Truth.

"Homage to all the Buddhas in all the Worlds. Homage to all the Bodhisattvas in all the Worlds. Homage to the Scriptures of Great Wisdom."

8. Introductions/Readings from the Great Scriptures of the World:

Passage 1: John 17:1-26 

9. Pastoral Message: Effective Prayer

• What is Prayer? A mental/physical act, asking God/Godess for spiritual or material things.
• If God/Godess is omnipotent, omnipresent, & omniscient, why do we need to pray? Because, at the spiritual plane, we can bring change.
• How do we know that God/Goddess will answer our prayers? Through our faith or belief and actual life experiences or lessons.
• What hinders God/Goddess from answering our prayers? We are dictating the results as opposed to seeking spiritual strength/change.
• When is it best to pray? When it is urgently needed, at any time, any circumstance or place.
• Is faith crucial to prayer? Yes. It is the believer's responsibility to ask. It is God's/Goddess's responsibility to do in accordance with Divine Plan.
• How should be pray? Either alone or in public, depending upon the situation or need. Public prayer is normally used to convey instruction on prayer. Private prayer is used to elicit God's spiritual support in a time of urgency. Public prayer is used to affect the hearers for some reason: educational, motivational, psychological effects, etc.
• How do we know that our prayer request is the "will" of God/Goddess? By not dictating the outcome or results. We do not know what the Divine Plan is or what God's/Goddess's way may be in this or any situation.
• Is it best to pray alone or in a group? Depends upon the purpose behind the prayer. An effective prayer is marked by urgency, sincerity, and intimacy.
• How does prayer work? Prayer is an invocation of the divine as opposed to a convocation of the divine. In meditation, a convocation, we go up to the divine (raise/expand our consciousness). In prayer, we are invoking the divine, bringing the divine (God/Goddess) down to our plane. It is our responsibility to pray/ask while it is God's/Goddess's to do/accomplish in accordance with the divine plan, not ours.
• What are the essential elements of prayer? "What" and "Why" are the essential elements. Prayer is an urgent, sincere, and intimate conversation with the Divine on a specific, significant matter for an immediate and ultimate purpose. Effective prayer is marked by -
  • an explicit request (spiritual or material in nature) on a significant matter (explicit request)an explanation as to why the request is being made (the reason)
  • clarification of the request, its requirements and limitations (specificity)
  • elucidation of the ultimate purpose of the prayer (motive) - to sanctify/glorify God
  • persistence in the prayer over time (meaningful/heart felt repetition)
• What are the different types of prayer? Petition for Self, Intercession for Others, Thanksgiving, Adoration, Praise, Decisions, forgiveness/Confession
• What are the different types of prayer? Petition for Self, Intercession for Others, Thanksgiving, Adoration, Praise, Decisions, forgiveness/Confession
• What makes a prayer effective? Desperate need, urgency, earnestness, intensity, emotional involvement (from the heart).
• What makes prayers ineffective? Feigned, insincere, ambiguous, too general, rote, ritual, dictating.
• What is the difference between a prayers, thoughts, and an affirmations? None. In fact, everyone one of our thoughts is a mini-prayer. And every time we repeat a thought or a prayer, it acts as an affirmation. The end results is that we program ourselves to take action on the prayer/affirmation. We bring God down to this plane through ourselves.
• What is meant by God/Goddess's will? Furthering the God/Goddess's glory by accomplishing the Divine's purpose/plan on earth which only God/Goddess knows. Therefore, we surrender to Divine will.
• What are the conditions for prayer? Faith, abiding and prayer in God's name (to glorify God).
• How does the praying process work? When we pray, we bring God down to us in a manner of speaking. In actuality, we are invoking or expanding our own God consciousness to answer a petition or intercede, to perform a "miracle". But we are the miracle, as God/Goddess expresses through us, through our doing, our actions.
• For example, most missionaries enter the field after a long period of praying to God to intercede and alleviate the pain, misery or suffering of others. They become God's answer to their own prayers. Their actions become God's response.
• Like affirmations, through persistent prayer, we re-program ourselves, and as a result, through our actions, we become God's answer to our prayer. Thus, we are co-creators with God because we create our won reality with our thoughts, affirmations and prayers.
• Does effective prayer require a certain attitude? Prayer is an action performed with an attitude of:
  • privacy - "where we enter a closet" through either physical or motional seclusion
  • humility - where we put our pride, sense of self-righteousness and ego aside;
  • watchfulness - where we perform our prayer act in a conscious, mentally alert/vigilant manner
  • worthiness - where the prayer act is performed without selfishness or as an act of vengeance or as a sham (acting) .

10. Affirmation: "I am free of attachments, expectations, and negative desires. I am Love; I am Peace; I am Joy; I am Gentleness; I am Courage; I am Creativity; I am Wisdom; I am Kindness; and I am Compassion from the Mind and Heart of God. I am a child of God. God is manifest in me."

11. Call to/for Those needing Healing: We invite you to offer the names of those who are in need of healing, to include yourselves, family, significant others, friends, members of our group and anyone else in need of healing. Let us channel healing energies to them to be used by their Higher Selves as they deem fit for their highest good (be it to stay with us or to leave this world). We will channel energy first by centering ourselves and praying. In keeping with God's will, may the fruits of our prayers be directed to those we have named and anyone else in need.

12. Silent Meditation: Let us center ourselves & focus on the God within, the inner Sadguru, the Higher Self. Realize that that God is within each of us & that we are all part of the same One. Know that we are each droplets in the Divine Ocean of God. Let us experience the Ocean. Let us be one. Let us meditate and pray to that purpose. Let us merge into the One for Eternity. Visualize it; feel it; live it; and be it.

13. Prayer and Commendation: "Our Mother-Father God, take our bodies and our minds and make them wholly yours. Let your will, not our will or desires, be done. Help us to free ourselves of attachments to people and things of this material world so that we may better love and serve you and our fellow living beings. To those who need healing at any level of their being, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically, let them receive that healing now, at this moment, and in keeping with thy will. Let those we have named this morning receive the merits of this prayer as well as the homeless, the starving, the sick, the dying, the disabled, the abused, those mourning the loss of loved ones, and the victims of aggression in all nations, the earth, and throughout the universe. Let them know and feel your mercy and love. Let peace prevail. May they be healed as we channel light, God's energy, to them. Into thy hands, our Mother-Father God, we commend our mind, body, emotions, and spirit. We are totally yours and we submit to your will. That we may suffer no more, free us from our attachments, expectations, and negative desires. Lead us from darkness to light, from unreality to reality, from death to immortality. As your humble servants, we seek to be one with you and all living beings, now and forever. Love and guide us to that end."

"Om Kara Sat Nam Sri Wahe Guru" - One sound, essence of Truth, Mother-Father Creator of the Universe, awesome knowledge that dispels ignorance, we bow to thee.

14. Universal Seal: "HUM, OM, AUM, AMIN, AMEN"

15. Offering (Love Donation): "Hear the words of the Great Prophets and Scriptures of the World. Freely ye have received, freely give.

16. Offering Dedication: "All things come of thee, O Mother-Father God, and of thine own have we given thee. God has given us the right to use things in external reality or the material world while we are here, but true ownership belongs to God. Blessed be God who daily gives us benefits and leads us to our salvation, to freedom, to eternal life."

17. Announcements and Invitation to New Members: If you would like to joint our Church of the Great Spirit or merely wish to give us feedback on our worship service, we invite you to send an e-mail message to me. Thank you. Rev. Holly A. Heinz

18. Benediction: "May you all be blessed with health, abundance, knowledge, and opportunities for spiritual growth. May the almighty omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient Mother-Father God bless and keep you."

19. Sign of Peace - Namaste!

Created 6-4-95 by One Spirit Ministries aka God's Church , Rev. H. Heinz © Copyright , All Rights Reserved, December 26, 1995 by God's Church.  Last updated  06/15/2006.  We are an IRS approved 501(c)(3) church.  We are also affiliated with the World Federation of Practical Christianity (aka World Federation of Independent Unity Churches), Association of Inner and Interfaith Ministries, and friends with Association of Unity Churches, and other New Thought and Religious Science Churches, and other Metaphysics Ministries.