Alpha-video05-transcript
The Alpha Course is called the “Inspiration Course” (启发 qifa 课程) on the Chinese language video.
Title: Why pray? How do you Pray
12 May, 2008- Televised images of an 8.0 magnitude earthquake in Sichuan Province….
0.43 (Hosts traveling in the same area, Liao Zhi gets out of a taxi with artificial legs.)
1:22 (LZ’s Testimony) TR asks LZ as they view the earthquake: Walking along this road isn’t easy for you, is it? LZ: Thats right, the number of killed and injured was catastrophic. Tens of thousands of people lost family members and homes. I was buried under rubble almost 30 hours. I was also terrified that I would die. But when someone is despairing and helpless, they hope for a greater one with power and authority that can help them. Me also. ( they walk to a park) 1:59 - When the earthquake happened I was relaxing in my house. At that time I had a 10 month old daughter. That day everything was quiet. I had absolutely no idea what was happening. Then I suddenly saw across from me half a building collapsing. The people there were falling off. When I finally reacted to the danger, the door out was stuck. Then, I and my daughter and mother in law fell along with the collapsing building into the blackness of the rubble. I was calling out my daughter’s name, but couldn’t hear any reply. I knew she was gone for sure. I was in deep, deep despair. I had no more hope of living. I didn’t even want to cry for help. If my daughter was dead, why would I want to go on living? There were many people outside calling out that they couldn’t rescue me, because I was in the middle of the rubble. Also because it was very dangerous outside. There were still aftershocks going on. I also thought I would die there. But later on, I heard my Dad’s voice. Then I wanted to go see him and give him a big hug. But I did not know if I would ever have that opportunity.
It was very unusual for me, but I started to pray. I thought, if the universe really had some kind of Supreme Being, he would be very kind, he would know everything, and could hear everything, he would certainly hear my prayer. And he would certainly be willing to help me. So I prayed over and over to him. (一遍一遍的) It was only by the next morning that a group of soldiers arrived. They were willing to stay with me, to try every possible way to rescue me. That evening I finally got out. When I was being lifted from the rubble, I saw my Dad’s face, the soldiers faces, and the sky above, I kept saying thank you over and over. I’m deeply grateful for those who gave of themselves to rescue me, and this Supreme Lord, who I did not know, but who heard my prayer. Later I found out that this Lord was God. This disaster completely changed the way I lived, but God changed my life. Actually, I had been living in confusion, with no sense of direction.活得很迷茫, 没有方向感 I was also quite self centered. But going through this great transformation, I had a stronger sense of purpose, a sense of mission. I was willing to help and encourage others. I also understood that I should cherish the people around me. So I am very thankful that in my great difficulty God answered my prayer.
5:42- (Teacher) When people are in great difficulty, we all have the instinct to call on the Supreme Ruler of the universe for help. Perhaps someone would say: “I don’t know how to pray.” Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know
what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. As soon as we ask Jesus to come into our life, from that time on he lives within us. When we want to pray, the Spirit of Jesus will help us, to enable you to have fellowship with Jesus. Prayer is according to the Holy Spirit’s leading, through Jesus, to the Father.
6:36: Question | If you could pray and ask for one thing, what would it be?
(misc. answers)...only one thing?...for my mother’s health...Aladdin’s lamp阿拉丁神灯...wishing that everyone would be happy is enough, humanity has too much misery… Immortality, always young...I want to become a writer...a lot of money...I probably wouldn’t pray, I don’t like giving offering money 施舍….give me a pair of wings to fly….I want to have a look at heaven...to wipe away 删掉 allmy painful memories...for the one I love to be healthy and happy...I want to be bigger and stronger, because I think there are many people to protect...that our country become stronger and more prosperous and my family and friends be healthy…
7:35 (Teacher) Prayer is a very important part of the Christian life. Moreover, prayer adds many amazing stories to our lives. After marrying, I went overseas to study. During those years my wife accompanied me. Our living expenses came from my internship.
Once the finance director forgot my salary for 3 or 4 months. Our available cash was almost gone and we didn’t know where living expenses would come from. We could only pray to God. At that time our church met at the place I interned. On Monday I would return to the city where I studied. One Sunday morning, when the offering bag came around, I was struggling because I only had 8 dollars on me. So I gave it as an offering to God. Do you think our faith was great? No, I expected that only after I declared my expenses would I have money. Then we went with everybody to an activity held at an orphanage. That afternoon, I asked Zhu Ling, did you turn in our receipts? She cried out, “Oh no, I was so busy, I forgot!” I thought: “We’ll go hungry at dinner”…. But when we returned home we saw a bag of baked goods on the table which someone had donated to us. That was our dinner. But how could I pay for my return ticket? We could only keep praying.
Then, right when we were getting worried, the finance director called and right away said 他劈头就说, “it seems like I have forgotten to pay your salary for a long time right? Then she sent a messenger to deliver it in middle of the night. God is amazing. Just when we are at ”the end of our rope’ 山穷水尽的时候, he answers our prayer.
Of course during the process of waiting for God to fulfill requests, my heart can be panicked and worried.慌乱焦急 Then, when I’m praying, I don’t look so committed and earnest.很投入, 很迫切 Sometimes my prayers could become a bit more formalized, 形式化. But, no
matter what, Prayer is still an integral part of every day life. 祷告仍然是每一天生活的不可少的一环Why?
10:45 Prayer is the most important part of human life. God’s intent 用意 for creating you is for you to enjoy intimate relationship with him. In this relationship, The main way we connect with God is through prayer. It is the pipeline through which we maintain 维系 relationship with him.
It is also something like married life. Even though we have a document saying that we are legally married, it cannot guarantee that we have a close relationship. Husband and wife must regularly share heart to heart 交心 to achieve this. Jesus taught us when praying to say: “Our father who is in heaven…”, In the Jesus’s Aramaic language 雅兰语 the word for father is “Abba”, a term children use for ‘daddy’. The most intimate form. Our earthly fathers and our own fathering can be limited and sometimes we are too busy to be with our children. But our heavenly father is not like that. He said in the Bible “ I have loved you with everlasting love.” Whenever we pray, he is always there to listen carefully to our requests. When we are hurt, we can cry together with him. We we are aggravated we can pour out our feelings to him. When we encounter good things we can also share this with him. He cares for all of our needs.
12:21 - (Hosts walking outdoors). TR God wants us to pray to him. Our heavenly father is the creator of the universe. The universe is vast and boundless 浩瀚无边 The earth is around 148 million kilometers from the Sun. It is so huge that it could hold 960,000 Earth’s within it. The sun is only one among 300 billion stars 三千亿颗恒星里的 in the Milky Way galaxy 银河星系。The universe has over 100 billion other galaxies like the Milky way. So how may stars does the universe actually have? It could be compared to the number of grains of sand on the earth, if each grain represented one million stars! The universe God created is so vast and great 浩瀚伟大. And this Creator is our heavenly Father. He loves us and he wants to come near to him and talk with him. He is beyond everything, and exists outside of time, but is close at hand 近在咫尺. This is a hugely amazing!
13:39 Question | Have you ever experienced Prayer?
Misc answers: ...I pray...tried it...no…. regularly, every day I pray….I can...I pray and sometimes can feel that there is someone there with me, close to me...I can always pray...When eating I need to pray, before sleeping I need to pray...but to be honest I don’t always pray at the correct time...I can also pray when walking and also laying on the bed...I pray when I’m running and when I have to do something...during fragments of time...When something happens at night I sleep even better and am not afraid...nothing special happens but I could never stop praying...strangely, after praying I feel things will go in the opposite
direction...when I pray I feel that Jesus is with me, afterwards I think, wow that was wonderful…
14:29 Small Group Discussion | Have you ever experienced Prayer?
14:46 (Hosts Walking in Mountainous Area) When we pray, the first reward God gives is peace. LZ: Yes, every time I finish praying, I feel that my worries are gone and I can also be filled with a deep peace.
15:09 Scripture Verse “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6 )
In other words: When we are worried, then pray. After that God will give us a peace that transcends all understanding. This will guard our heart. LZ We cannot avoid challenges and difficulties in life. But when we do if can feel like a dark tunnel where we cannot see the way ahead. However the peace Jesus gives when facing problems can keep us peacefully secure. TR The second reward that prayer gives is a change in our outlook. When we faithfully spend time praying, no matter what we encounter, good or bad, we can still thank God. Maybe the situation your prayed about did not change, but your attitude did. What originally annoyed you does so no longer. We also have more courage to face it. Strength is the third benefit of prayer.
16:13 (Teacher) When things improve after prayer, it does not prove that God exists. Good things can also be coincidences. But are they really? We often have similar things in our Qifa Course. During the meetings we pray for each other. Once my friend A Hai wrote down everything that was prayed for. One person prayed to find a job. Another for health. Still another for progress with his thesis. One person hoped to find a good driving instructor. Two months later at another meeting, A Hai pulled out his notebook. Wow, most of the prayers were answered! God is amazing. Maybe you would like to write down your prayer requests, and then review them later. I believe you would be surprised. Prayer is how we establish relationship with God. However, we don’t always get what we pray for. A traffic light is a good metaphor. If we ask God and he immediately agrees, then that is like a green light. But if a six year old asks for a razor to shave, or a 16 year old asks for a car, the Father might wait until they are at a more suitable stage in their life. This is like a yellow light. Other times God just doesn’t say yes. This is a red light.
18:10 (Huang Zhuling testimony 2) When I was thirteen something very big happened. My mother had an asthma attack 哮喘 病发作 and was hospitalized. I was praying continuously. So were all the brothers and sisters. We all went to the family and saw my mother with a machine next to her chest, helping her breathe. She seemed to be suffering. At that time we didn’t know what to do except pray. The doctor came and told us that Mother had already lost 80 per cent of her brain cells. If she woke up she would be in a vegetative state. So at that time we kept hoping and praying for God to heal her. I even prayed a foolish prayer: “God if you don’t save my mother I won’t believe in you.” Six days
later, my mother had not awakened. She passed away like that. That was very hard for me to take. “Why does the God we trust in, not listen to our prayers? I was very, very sad. Then I was angry with God. I blamed God for not answering prayer. Then I refused to go to church. After some time had passed, I realized that actually my mother passing away was good for both her and us. Why, because if my mom was vegetative, all four of us would have to care for her. She would also have no awareness and not recognize us. For us, because of our Mother’s death, we all learned how to care for the family and became independent. So I think that God still had good things to give us in a bad situation. Even though I did not understand then, and was sad and angry, as I grew older I realized that God had showed his kindness in that situation.
20:49 (Teacher) God knows what is best and what method and timing is most appropriate. Of course having our request refused is not easy to take. We don’t understand why he doesn’t answer our prayer. But after a period of time when we look back we will thank God for what he planned. God’s timing is perfect.
21:19 - Question | Do you think every prayer request will be granted?
(Misc Answers)...No way, many times God has not granted my prayer...it is not certain that every request will be granted...I believe it will, I’m certain...honestly I don’t much believe that, because many times we don’t know what we are asking for...God does listen to our prayers, I believe this, but the time it comes may not necessarily be when we want….If we look long range, we see that it often takes a long time before it appears...God will do it in his own way, maybe not in the way I want...Whether it is granted or not God certainly has a reason...I remember when I was young I saw how busy my mom was in her shop and I prayed for God to close it. He did close it, bit it was when he had something better prepared.
22:28 - Small Group discussion | Do you think every prayer request will be granted?
22:44 - (LZ Testimony 3) Will God grant our prayers? Yes, I think so, but his way of granting is always greater than our way of thinking. After the earthquake, I wanted more understanding of this God who saved me. At that time I knew a few Christians. They spent time with me, encouraging me, helping me to feel loved. Through the Bible that they gave me, I understood that goodness and love all come from God. Later when I attended the Qifa course, I learned that God loved me, in a completely unselfish way. I have experienced God’s healing and restoration. My life gives evidence for this. Before the earthquake, I was a dancer. When I was onstage, it was only to show myself. I lost both of my legs in the earthquake. Now I use prosthetic legs. I still could dance onstage. But now I want to witness to God’s grace and mercy. Now I have two lovely children. I still think of my daughter who passed away, but I feel that I have truly received God’s blessing. He also healed many of my inner scars and fears. Now my life is really fulfilling and meaningful. I not only have the love of family but also God’s full, full love. I think that in every stage of life me may have some trauma and suffering, but I have already learned, it is no use to shoulder the burdens of
everything yourself. Because, there is a God who loves us. He is always willing to be with us, to listen and to unconditionally love us.
25:06 (LR) Don’t feel pressured in prayer, whatever you want to say, just say it. Our heavenly Father is happy to talk with us. I would like to give you a few simple suggestions. I hope everyone will memorize three words: thank you, sorry and please. RT - Number one is Thank-you: We can thank God for everything he has given us. Thankfulness changes our attitude, especially when we are facing challenges. We can still thank God. Then we can experience amazing joy. Number two is “I’m Sorry” which is asking for forgiveness. It is difficult to avoid doing wrong. We can ask God to forgive our weakness. God loves us and will certainly pardon us. Number 3 is “Please Give”. When Jesus taught his disciples to ask for their daily food, he was saying to ask him for our needs and for our surroundings. We can also ask for God to supply the needs of other people. Prayer needs to be sincere. You don’t need to put on a show, because God will not judge you. You don’t need flowery speech or deep religious vocabulary. God loves simple and honest words from your heart. If your prayer request is not granted don’t lose heart, keep persevering in prayer. This is like when we go through tunnels on a train, even though we are sitting in complete darkness, we don’t throw away our tickets and jump off the train. Moreover we can sit peacefully because we trust the driver. When we keep faith and perseverance in prayer is two way communication. God not only listens but he speaks to us. Prayer needs regular practice. You can pray before bed, after waking, during work breaks, any time or place. That’s right. No matter who you are, God is waiting for you to talk to him. Just like the time I was buried in the rubble. I didn’t know God, but he still listened to my prayer. Many years after I have personally experienced how amazing prayer is. God has granted many of my prayers. I also have established a close relationship with God. Right now you can also begin to pray. Let’s pray together.
“Lord, I thank you that you are our heavenly Father. You love me. You hope that through prayer I will get to know you better. Please help me to pray. In Jesus’s name we pray, Amen.
28:11 SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION | If God was right now listening to you, what would you say to him?