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At the age of sixty-nine, I witness to you that I could not have written about prayer before. Even though prayer was a daily exercise for me, there were so many lessons on prayer that were revealed to me this past year as I wrote the book Prayer: My Soul's Adventure With God.

This book started out as a regular biography. As I began to share the important experiences in my life, I recognized them as spiritual highlights centering on my adventures with God in prayer. So my newest book is really two books in one - an autobiography and a book on the seven levels of prayer that I have experienced in my lifetime.

In my writing these past months, I have been given new insights into prayer and the single Bible verse that captivated me throughout the writing of this book was and is:

Jeremiah 33:3 "Call on Me and I will answer and show you many wonderful things you do not know."

This past week the publishers arranged for me to meet thousands of people on tour in different cities of America. It was an enjoyable week as I signed books in places like a big store called Sam's. It's a huge mega supermarket, where I sat at a table with my books stacked up in between Hamburger Helper on one side and soap suds on the other. I joked with the store manager, "Do you want me to clean up my act? Or is it full of baloney?" I had fun there, laughing and meeting all kings of people.

More than one person was one hundred years old. They were beautiful people of all ages, all races, all cultures, all religious backgrounds. There were the little children who stood on tip toes and called me by name. I looked into the eyes of all who came. I touched their hands. I gave them a smile and, yes, a prayer.

Then the publisher scheduled me on a 24-hour live television program, called QVC. It's a home shopping kind of a system. Callers were responding to autographed copies of my book. A few weeks earlier, in a weak moment, I had agreed to autograph all of the books. Would you believe there were ten thousand copies? It took me 15 hours to autograph them. What an experience. When I arrived at QVC, it was unbelievable. They had 8,000 telephone lines with computers instantly transacting the action. Anyone who telephoned from the 50 states of America were immediately connected with the QVC staff. It's a whole new world of marketing.

I was also on Online where I met a cross section of people through a computer screen. Who were they? What religions? What races? What cultures? And what national origins?... I don't know, but they were intelligent and stimulating and the responses were so positive.

Of course, I met all kinds of Christians on this tour. There was one lady who came to my table, and as I looked at her, I impulsively asked the question, "Are you a Christian?"

Hesitating she replied, "Well, I guess you can call me a tea bag Christian."

I said, "A tea bag Christian? What's that?

She replied, "I only call out when I'm in hot water!"

We laughed and I quoted to her my text of today, Jeremiah 33:3: Call on me and I will answer and show you many wonderful things you do not know."

As I wrote my book this past year, I asked myself the question; What are some of the new lessons I've learned about prayer?

PRAYER LESSON 1

All prayers are heard by God...

My guest this morning, Dr. Hugh Ross, an astrophysicist, in his book, "Creation and Time", tells that he was very skeptical of the idea that "the God who created a hundred billion trillion stars would be interested in human affairs on this insignificant speck of dust we call planet Earth."

So for the sake of intellectual honesty Dr. Ross decided to check out the different "holy" books and religions of the world and prove to his satisfaction that they were humanly crafted frauds.

As Dr. Ross shared with our congregation this morning, "One thing I noticed about the record of nature, there are no contradictions, only total harmony. I looked for harmony in the holy books, but I found them sadly lacking except for the Bible.

"When I picked up the Bible for the first time, at the age of 17, I was immediately struck with the tremendous quantity of scientific and historical material that could be put to the test. And so I began to check out all the scientific and historical evidence I could.

"After twenty-two months I became convinced that the Bible indeed was harmonious, free of error or contradiction, beyond human capacity. It had to come from God and that's when I committed my life to Jesus Christ."

Dr. Ross and I discussed the text of today from Jeremiah, "Call on Me and I will answer and show you many wonderful things you do not know."

Is there scientific proof that God can really answer all the prayers of all the people on planet Earth?

Dr. Ross explained to me that our astrophysicists have proven God has a capacity to move and operate in a minimum of eleven dimensions of space and time. The physics of the cosmos tells us, that in the first 10-43, it had ten or more dimensions which split into two pieces. The piece on which we live today is a four-dimensional piece and the extra dimensions are still there compacted like they were for the first split second.

The Creator that brought all of these dimensions into existence, of course, must have a capacity to operate in at least those dimensions. The holy books of the world's religions confine their descriptions of God and His attributes to only four dimensions.

But......the Bible is the only one that speaks of at least six dimensions of space, and three dimensions of time. God can listen to all of our prayers, and give us individual attention. Physicists have proven there are two dimensions of time or more. Since God is infinite every second, He can give individual attention to six billion simultaneous prayers.

Jeremiah 33:3 "Call on Me and I will answer and show you many wonderful things you do not know."

Yes! The signal gets through! The short ones, the long ones, the repetitive ones, the good ones! Even the bad ones. Yes, all prayers are heard by God. They are received. They enter God's infinite computer system.

PRAYER LESSON 2

God answers all prayers...Prayer is not like a phone ringing, ringing, ringing, and all you get is a machine at the other end. Nor does God put you on hold. He will communicate somehow, someway. He doesn't say that he will give you what you ask for, nor when you want it. But, God does promise that He will answer. Know that! Even the simple little prayer! What an awesome, incomprehensible, spiritual computer system!

PRAYER LESSON 3

The life span of a prayer...I have no doubt at all that I have a successful life and ministry because of the millions of prayers that have been prayed for me. They include a prayer prayed by my mother who died twenty years ago. When she died she had some things that her children inherited. What about all of her prayers? All of the prayers she prayed made a collection of spiritual assets, deposits, and investments in God's computer - still bearing dividends today!

What is the life span of these prayers?

If you could get a print out of your file in the mind of God, of all the prayers prayed that you are benefiting from today it would be awesome. The life span of a prayer continues for hundreds and thousands of years.

PRAYER LESSON 4

God does not discriminate...He does not discriminate culturally, racially or religiously. If you could look into the eyes of the people I've looked into this past week, you would get a glimpse of God's love for all people: "God so loved the world..." That includes people of all faiths. God does not discriminate. I don't believe God sits in Heaven and says: "Unless you are this kind of a religious person I won't listen to your prayers, goodbye." But that leads me quickly to the next point.

PRAYER LESSON 5

Prayers prayed in the name of Jesus Christ are special...God's spirit comes in the power and personality of the risen Christ that transcends all other powers of human personalities in human history. When you pray in the name of Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, His Holy Spirit lives in you. A Christian who prays with Jesus in his heart and life receives an extra dimension of spiritual power. With this power, you are given the strength to overcome and live victoriously. With Jesus Christ as your Savior, you can enjoy eternity with Him!

PRAYER LESSON 6

God answers every prayer with a "yes"...Now that's shocking to me. I have often said that God answers with "no," or "grow," or "slow," but even when God answers "no" that's not His last word. His last word is going to be a "yes;" "yes...when" "yes...if" "yes...after" "yes...but."

If you ask for something in prayer that is not right, God follows up with a better idea. He closes one door to attract you to another door that you have not noticed before and it is much better than ever for you.

God is a positive God, not a negative God. I think in every religion, in Judaism, in Roman Catholicism, in Buddhism, in the Muslim faith, yes even in Christianity, there are the teachers and leaders who teach a negative, oppressive faith emphasizing the no's and the "don'ts."

What attracts me to Jesus Christ are the positive teachings of Jesus Himself. Read His words. Look at His life. Jesus is so positive. How does God Answer "yes?" He gives you a new dream. A new passion. A new opportunity. A new possibility.

PRAYER LESSON 7

We are surprised by answers to prayer every day...A woman said to me this week, "Dr. Schuller, I don't think I've ever seen an answer to my prayers."

And I said, "You've never seen an answer to your prayers? I'm looking into an answered prayer right now. Tomorrow when you get up, go to your bathroom and look at yourself for a long time. You will be looking at an answered prayer. You didn't have an accident. You didn't die during the night. You are alive! You are not in the grave! You are an answer to prayer - your own or someone else's prayer. Never forget that!"

We are totally surrounded by answered prayers. Look around you.

Every day in life, you and I, are being blessed. But too often we are distracted... by the mail, E-mail, computer messages, junk mail. You and I are distracted, but God isn't. He is busy answering prayers.

Prayer: Lord, we thank You that we are all part of Your infinite computer system of prayer. In the Holy Bible You promised: "Call on Me and I will answer and show you many wonderful things that you do not know." Hallelujah! Thank You that we are all answers to prayer! Amen.