The background for The Council's quote: Recently my wife had a very serious illness. So serious that she was not expected to survive. Her condition was not only critical but extremely complicated. She was on two life support machines and 11 different medications. The doctors told us that some difficult decisions could be required of us at any moment. We were shocked! When we brought her to the hospital we had no thought that this was serious let alone life threatening.

We immediately notified all of our family and friends to inform them and request prayers that she would have the strength to see this situation through and that the doctors and nurses would make the proper decisions as they attempted to help her survive and improve. I am pleased to say that after 19 days with many ups and only a few downs she came home to her family. There is still much for us to do as she slowly improves but as one person wrote to me, "It is nice to pray for someone and actually have the outcome be as you had hoped."

As most of you know, we lost our very good friend and spiritual mentor, William LePar, earlier last year. During his illness prayers were given by friends and family from all over the world and yet in this case the results were not as WE had hoped. One of the very last words of wisdom that we received from Bill was this: "All prayers are answered. They may not be answered in the manner that you wanted but they are answered." I hope that what is presented next will give insight into why that is often the case.

Questioner:  "… particularly in dealing with prayers for others, when we believe that we consciously believe that a particular prayer will be answered, that we have done what we have felt with the conscious knowledge that we had at the time, that we had gone through those steps, and we really consciously believe that the prayer would be answered with almost a kind of a sense of joy, maybe a bouncing step, and then the prayer is not answered in the way it was asked. What is really taking place there?

The Council:  "Again, you must remember there are things that exist that are beyond your ability to know about, and even though you are absolutely sure that the prayer will be answered and in time it appears as though it hasn't been, does not indicate that the prayer was not answered. The prayer could very easily have been answered but in an area that you are not aware of or are not capable of seeing. In praying, one must keep in mind that you are praying for the wellness, the wholeness, of a situation and not just a segment that you are aware of. You are praying for a wholeness. So, therefore, when a prayer is sent out and it appears as though it has not been answered, if the intentions were sincere, the prayer is answered; it is just your inability to see it. Does that answer the question?

Questioner:  "Yes, I can follow what you are saying, but in what areas would the prayer be answered? Do you want me to be specific, in an instance?

The Council:  "There are many levels or conditions that exist in any situation that may need prayer. Some of them are surface areas that can be easily recognized; they relate to the material manifestation itself or the material situation. There are those areas that will stem off into the future from that condition as it is now, but there are also conditions that have brought that situation about. An example, an individual is very sick. The individual just did not get sick. There were conditions that brought this sickness about, either emotions or lessons or what have you, that cannot really be classified as something solid or physical. Because of that condition of ailment or sickness, there are things in the future that are directly related to that sickness that will exist because of that state of sickness or will not exist if that state of sickness is removed. Now, since none of you are isolated individuals where you exist in your own universe but are part of a far greater state of existence the common denominator from which you all perceive your state of existence must be served in order to provide a consistency of creation. In this situation then it is necessary to consider this, that when a prayer is not answered, regardless of how firm you felt it would be, it is answered but it may have been answered to heal a condition that would be affected by that illness in the future that you were not aware of or it may go back to a time previous to that illness in order to effect a condition to prevent that illness from becoming serious or more serious in the future. Remember, you do not exist in a sixty second per minute state or a sixty minute per hour state. You actually exist in a state of no time but in a state of observation. In that true state then healings take place from point A to point B. In the physical manifestation you cannot see either point A or point B but only see the point or the position between those points that you are presently at now."

Thank you for taking the time to read this article and I sincerely hope that this quote will bring a degree of comfort for those whose prayers appear to have not been answered.