Tony Stubbs author of, "An Ascension Handbook" , has written some powerful insights on the subject of Grace:  Grace it and get on with it!   Grace is a divine force that allows a complete break with the past and a fresh start in each now-moment.  Grace Elohim holds energies of divine joy, forgiveness, gratitude and celebration.  She looks like irridescent snow and immediately intercedes if you ask her to.  Because of the Universal Law that the universe rearranges itself according to your pictures of reality, we encourage people not to "process" but to "Grace it and get on with it."  "The Law of Grace" erases any and all Karma."  

Effort vs. Grace

Excerpted from: Awaken to Super-Consciousness, by Nayaswami Kriyananda

"Your religion is tested in the cold light of day."  So said a great woman saint.  Every step inward on the spiritual path must be secured by some outward reassurance that we are on the right track. We cannot, for example, be truly growing in divine love if we are uncharitable toward others. We cannot honestly claim to be receiving intuitive inner guidance if in our outer lives we generate confusion. And if we find we can't cope with the practical demands of life, we can't very well make daily meditation the excuse for our woolly-mindedness.  It is not a rule that every gain in the material world must indicate a gain in the spiritual. Nor is it a rule that material losses indicate comparable spiritual losses. Illness, for example, may occur even among people who are highly advanced. The intricacies of karma, brought over from countless incarnations, make it impossible to establish absolute rules. The vrittis (vortices of energy) in the spine are no simple matter to dissolve. We can't neutralize them by meditation alone until we attain high spiritual advancement. It is divine grace, ultimately, that rescues us, entering our temples when we have swept and cleaned them and done our part to make them holy places. Meanwhile, the important thing is to go to God, and not worry about all those kinks and obstacles you have churning about within you, blocking your progress toward absolute freedom.  Jesus Christ gave the world a wonderful statement: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Make it your priority to discharge your highest duty, to find God, and God will do the rest.  The modern way to "perfection" is very different. It is to try to work out our psychological kinks through counseling sessions. This is good up to a point, certainly, provided the counselor is wise, and provided that all one wants to address are the most pressing and immediate issues. But if our goal is "the kingdom of God," remember that those kinks may well number in the billions, including the myriads of (vrittis) spinning away in the subconscious. To seek perfection through a purely psychological approach is like trying to submerge a shirt in water when you're washing it by hand. A bubble forms, and you push the shirt down at that point only to see the bubble move off to another part of the shirt.  Go straight to God. He will take care of the rest. Work on those kinks which particularly trouble you, but above all offer them to God. It is from the higher part of our consciousness that true understanding comes. By working on ourselves from the superconscious level, we find that it becomes actually a blessing to discover faults in ourselves. Each one gives us the joyful opportunity to offer something more to God.   Your job is to perfect yourself by divine power, not by ego power. Self-effort is essential. Jesus said so, too, in his statement, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).

The Right Use of Prayer

What is the right attitude for one who is bent on achieving liberation from ego? My own recommendation is this: Be stern with yourself on the big issues, but not too heavy on the smaller ones. Your spiritual life should be a joy. Don't agonize, for instance, over whether it is wrong to pray for snow, if you want to go skiing. At the same time, remember this: Many thin strands make a rope. Don't pray too often even for little things for yourself.  When I say pray, I don't mean supplicate. I mean simply to share my thoughts and wishes with God. What I also do is ask God, "Is it all right to pray for this blessing?"  If, in my heart, I receive a negative response to that question, I obey that response.  I will pray if the welfare of others is concerned, but generally speaking I won't pray for my own welfare.   If I won't pray for myself, it is to avoid ego-involvement.  I consider it much more freeing in any case to offer the big tests up to God and let Him (Her) decide the outcome.  It is true that superconsciousness is demonstrated outwardly by a person's mastery over matter.  It is also true that such demonstrations are sometimes helpful.  It is not wrong for someone who is still aware of himself as an ego to pray for personal healing.  Take care only that it not cause you to give undue importance to the ego.  Here are a couple of stories that may be worth relating:

One Sunday morning, some twenty-five years ago, I was to give the service at our temple at Ananda Village. Suddenly I had a kidney stone attack. "Attack" is the right word: My whole body trembled from the pain like a leaf in a high wind. At no other time have I suffered anything remotely like it. Someone insisted that I be taken to the local hospital, but the mere thought of that forty-five-minute drive on winding mountain roads was too much for me even to contemplate. Unable to speak, I could only ignore the well-meant advice. But I still wouldn't pray for myself. All I prayed was "This body is Yours. Do with it what You want."

After more than an hour, I glanced at my watch and saw that the service was scheduled to begin in fifteen minutes. I'd been in extreme pain all that time. Now I prayed, "If You don't want me to disappoint all those people, make this body well."

The results were amazing. Within five seconds, as though someone had waved a healing wand over my body, the pain vanished completely. As excruciating as the pain had been earlier, it was now replaced by a divine joy equally intense, so much so that this joy, too, rendered me almost speechless.

I have asked for God's help many times in my service to Him (or, as I put it, to Her). Many people have called the responses to those prayers miraculous.

In every case, what made these "graces" possible was the attraction of energy, by will power, from the surrounding universe. Even my walking, when X-rays showed me incapable of doing so, was due to "grace" of a kind. For faith itself must be dynamic, not passive. By offering it to God, we focus it better. But in any case, it is the divine energy we use, whether we ask for it specifically or direct the energy ourselves. Half-hearted prayer brings at best a half-hearted response. Effective prayer demands that we offer it up with strong will power, with complete confidence in the rightness of the outcome, and with an awareness of the energy required for results.

To put this principle to most effective use, try sending energy out through the Spiritual Eye, the seat of will. You will actually feel that energy as a force flowing out through your forehead.

Another technique is to draw energy to your palms by rubbing them together briskly, thirty to sixty times. Then raise the hands high above the head, palms forward, and send the energy that you feel tingling in the hands to those for whom you are praying. Feeling the energy entering through the medulla and out through the palms, chant AUM three to twelve times, holding each tone as long as you can do so comfortably.

The important thing, here, is to realize that: 1) the human mind is part of an infinitely greater consciousness; 2) the more one offers one's life up in service to God, the greater one's power to accomplish whatever one sets oneself to do; 3) this self-offering must be dynamic, not static, and must summon up all one's will power and enthusiasm; and 4) an unspecific prayer will often have greater results than praying for something definite. God knows our true needs better than we do; and 5) meditation will make your whole outlook on life dynamic, forceful, energetic, and enthusiastic. Success and well-being will come to you as a matter of course. You will attract them by your developing magnetism.  http://www.anandaseattle.org

 Through the Ananda Seattle Healing Prayer Ministry we offer daily healing prayers for others.  If you or a loved on is in need of healing prayers, please see our Healing Prayer page.  Let us know, too, if you would like to have a copy of a more complete explanation of the technique described above.  A short version can be found in the article Divine Will Healing.  Copyright 2010 Hansa Trust