Prayer has been the tool used by millions of people in all cultures to bring about success in their chosen field of endeavour. Regardless of the belief of the individual great gain is made from a psychological viewpoint certainly in bringing clarity and directing a persons ideas, and in the development of stimulating internal forces towards the fulfilment of those ideas.

Van Morrison says it like this in the song “Have I told you Lately that I Love You”

“There’s a love that’s divine
And it’s yours and it’s mine
Like the sun
At the end of the day
We should give thanks and pray to the One”

I don’t think an attitude of gratitude and a few words to express it has ever done anyone any harm no matter what the ‘One’ looks like for them. I am sure most people could tell of a time when they were helped out of a fix as a result of prayer even if only emotionally.

We all experience hard times and most people, when they finally come to the end of themselves, find the only thing left to do is pray: and they are rewarded with an unlikely deliverance even though even the source of their deliverance knows they will soon forget once the disaster is averted. Who things of phoning the fire brigade to say thinks for watching over us once the fire is out?…But if we want success in life why do we need to wait for the hard times to pray? What’s wrong with a bit of a leg up and some good guidance while we are enjoying the good times?

Miracles do happen I suppose, or at least that’s what we choose to call them, but as we have progressed through the Masterkey together I have become less convinced that they are actually miracles but more likely the kind of thing that an all-powerful God can and would like to do as normal part of everyday living if we will only stay plugged in to His frequency and draw on His power. Look what God can do when cry out to Him in desperation.

In 1940 the British Expeditionary Forces were broken and desperately fleeing under heavy Nazi fire towards Dunkirk beach. PM Winston Churchill expected that only twenty to thirty thousand at best would be able to make it back across the English Channel to safety. England was on the brink of defeat.

King George VI called the nation to prayer on Sunday the 26th of May…That did not trouble the German high command who the following day boldly announced ‘The British army is encircled and our troops are proceeding to its annihilation.”

History records three events, each one unlikely in itself, but all three together must surely convince even the most sceptical observer of the intervention of a powerful and good God.

First Hitler went against the advice of his High Command and halted the German advance only ten miles short of the fleeing British army…he believed his beloved Luftwaffe was capable of doing the job before the British could reach the coast.  His arrogance and his desire to showcase his airforce to the whole world as a sign of German might is thought to be the reason why he halted the ground forces, though nobody can ever really know his reason for sure.

But then came the second miracle and at just the perfect time. A storm of unprecedented fury broke over Flanders on Tuesday, 28 May, grounding most of the Luftwaffe squadrons.  The British soldiers, now only eight to twelve miles from Dunkirk, were able to move on foot to the coast under cover of the darkness and violence of the storm. Hitler had obviously not taken the weather into his reckoning, or the One who can control it!

Miracle three, most amazingly despite the incredible storm in Flanders, a great calm such as has rarely been experienced settled over the English Channel, and its waters became as still as a mill pond.

It was this quite extraordinary calm which during the days following, enabled a vast armada of little ships, big ships, warships, fishing boats, privately owned pleasure boats from English rivers and estuaries to ferry back and forth in a desperate rescue operation that saved over 300,000 men who would not die on the beaches of Dunkirk but live to fight another day.

So if we come together in desperation, join our minds, our thoughts and our prayers, God can whip up a storm, calm a sea, halt an army, ground an airforce and rescue a third of a million men….

So can God only operate in times of great disaster or would a people who are desperate for peace, unity, prosperity and equity be able to move Him in better times?  I think the Master Key agrees with the Bible in telling us they would be able and He would be willing.

One way I think Haanel’s Masterkey differs from the bible is in suggesting there is only one mind when clearly as proved by our illustration that cannot be the case. All the mind and will of the Axis forces was dedicated to the annihilation of the British Army, the Allied Forces and eventually mankind as we knew it.

One man, King George VI called a nation together to pray in unity and that engaged the mind of God and invoked His saving power.

Paul in the epistle to the Romans 15:4-6 saysFor everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had,  so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Great is the nation whose God is the Lord. Those who ask anything according to His will, know that He hears and that they already have the answer no matter how difficult or even impossible the outcome may seem. Nothing is impossible with the God who created the Universe with the words of His mouth and holds it together for His own glory.