What is prayer?

The anatomy of a complete prayer has these elements:

• Effective prayers must be genuine and sincere. Because you are connected to the spiritual realm, what you seek must be genuine and sincere, since these higher beings can see your inner thoughts and feelings, and you cannot trick them.
• Specify what or who you pray to. Higher spiritual beings do not interfere with human will, so unless you say what you want, they will not interfere in your struggles and help you. So, it is imperative that you ask yourself what you want. Specifically, you should know who will do this for you. Remember that there are so many spiritual beings around you, and it is imperative to address specific beings that you wish to help.
• Faith that it will happen. Having confidence and faith that you will get what you want is as important. These spiritual beings are wiser than humans. Sometimes they will test you to see what you are willing to do to get what you want. They might test you to see if you can still hold onto your request. When trouble arrives you must maintain your faith that it will be given to you.
• Offerings refer to what you give to bring your request into manifestation. It can be money, energy, or anything of value to you. In earthly and traditional spiritual practices, you offer a living thing such as a chicken, a goat, a lamb, or even a cow. An offering acts as the energy required for your needs to manifest. This type of offering is not practical in the modern lifestyle anymore, because no one keeps livestock anymore. However, there are other ways as we will see below.
• Gratitude includes adoration, worship, forgiveness, respect, humbleness, and all other pleasant things.
• Sacrifice refers to what you are willing to give in exchange for something. The difference between an offering and a sacrifice is that a sacrifice requires you to make a personal sacrifice. This means even if you make an offering, sometimes you might need to personally let go of some habits or things you hold dear in your heart. And most likely these things prevent you from getting what you need.

How to pray effectively?

The conditions listed above are essential for successful prayer. So, what are the steps for effective prayer?

1. Set your intention, what you want to pray about, do you want to improve your social communication skills? Do you want to open a successful business? Do you want a good relationship? Do you want physical healing? You have to be clear as to what you want and create an environment where you are going to say a prayer specific to this one’s need.
2. Set your place and time. The recommended places for prayer are mostly places of silence, positive energy, and cleanliness. You can create a dedicated room for spiritual activities. The recommended time for prayer is at dawn, for many reasons such as silence, a lot of people are still asleep, and the rising energies of the earth. It is worth noting that depending on the type of prayer, the location and time might change.
3. Choose your offerings. Your offering should be something from you personally. It can be anything of value. You could offer it in different ways, for example, you can go to church and give it as an offering, you can donate to those in need, you can also volunteer in a certain cause for a couple of days, there are people who donate blood for those in need and so on. 
   The point is to give something out so that you get something else in return. A good offering is that which comes from the heart and try to give your offering which is related to your needs; for example, if you want a good relationship, give something to those who are suffering in an abusive relationship, if you want wealth, help those who are struggling financially.
4. State your prayer; here is a simple sample of a short prayer; “Dear [Addressee], I come to you with respect, humbleness, and peace, asking you to [state your need]. For my need, I am offering [your offering] as an exchange for my need. Thank you.” 
   The addressee is left blank for a very good reason because different prayers are addressed to different spiritual beings for effective answers, if you have ancestral problems you would address it to them and non-others, remember God is such a broad term, if you say you are going to America, this is such a broad and general information, where exactly, North or South America, which state, and to be more precise you also need to know the address.
5. Receiving; after praying, the interesting and most neglected part is waiting and receiving. At this stage, you have to pay attention to how the prayer will be answered. And this is significant because there might be a sacrifice where you will be tested. These tests will transform you and change your attitude to receive what you have asked. It might come as a suggestion from a friend, something said on TV, the internet, or even in movies. This would be up to you to follow. On the other hand, if you are of a higher vibration, answers to your prayers will be readily available to you.