If you happen to be reading this book, and are not a Christian, then it is important that I make this next point.

I do not have any use whatsoever for generic prayer; prayers not directed to anybody in particular, prayers to anyone other than Jesus Christ.

I am not a spiritualist. I do not pray to anybody but Jesus Christ.

I don't pray to the Virgin Mary. She is dead, and in heaven, and is oblivious to everything going on down here on earth. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes 9 said, "The dead know not anything." The saints in heaven have no knowledge of what is going on in the earth. The same chapter says that the dead "hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun." Saints are very much alive in heaven, but they are prevented from participating in earthly matters. You are wasting your precious time praying to saints. And you are offending God. Not one single scripture in the Bible suggests in any way that we should pray to Mary or anybody else for that matter. Why go to her, anyway? Jesus is the answer.

I don't pray to Buddha, or Krishna, or Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.

I don't burn incense to elephants with a dozen arms. I don't pray to the sun, the moon or the stars.

There is NOBODY out there who cares about me but Jesus Christ. He is the great Creator, and He is the ONLY true and living God.

Now, I realize that there are many, many - countless - spirits out there that would LOVE for you to believe that THEY are the answer to all your problems.

If you want to buy Sylvia Brown's books, (or those of some other soothsayer) and let her teach you how to talk to your dead great-grandfather, you are really, really getting into deep waters - and deep trouble with God.

The Bible clearly teaches that there are impostering spirits out there that would love to catch you in a trap of believing in them. That is the enormous trouble that King Saul got into when he went to the witch of Endor. This gal allegedly pulled up the spirit of the prophet Samuel for Saul. But make no mistake about it. That was NOT Samuel. And that mistake cost Saul both his kingdom and his soul.

If you think Almighty God is going to leave the sanctified spirits of His best saints at the beck-and-call of demon-possessed witches, you really don't understand the way God operates. Those are called "familiar" spirits. They are devils who closely pay attention to things that men and women do, and they act to deceive people and distract them away from God.

The great, great tragedy is that those demon spirits can wow and bamboozle an uninitiated person into believing that they have just discovered the power of God. We have an entire generation that is fascinated with SPIRITS, but despises GOD, their Creator! That is the most dangerous thing you could ever do in the world.

Stay away from ANY spirit that is not of God. Do not believe every spirit. Try the spirits and know whether they are of God (1 John 4:1). If they don't meet crystal-clear Biblical guidelines, get outta there fast! Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

And last, but not least, I don't pray (or make confessions) to the local priest. For nearly two-thousand years, that crowd has raped and deceived multitudes of men and women who just wanted to find God, and instead got sucked into a Pandora's box of lies and perversions and unspeakable corruptions. Don't go there. If you need something from God, go straight to God.

If you want some godly saint to agree with you in prayer, or if you want your pastor to say a prayer for you, that is fine and good. But don't ever think that any man is going to meet your need.

Here's the deal. Jesus is the answer. Jesus is all you need. He has all power in heaven and earth, and He can do what no other power in heaven or earth can do. He is the great physician. He is the wonderful counselor. He is the mighty God.

What else could you possibly need? You can call on His name. Jesus.

Demons tremble at the sound of that name.

I know of a Pentecostal woman who was standing in her garage in a Houston, Texas suburb when an intruder approached her with the intention of burglarizing her house. He was armed with a .38 caliber pistol. I don't remember the details of what provoked him, but apparently he was not expecting to find anybody at home. For whatever reason, he decided he would just shoot her.

The moment she realized that this man was about to kill her, she screamed, "JESUS!!" The bullet hit her in the chest. It literally bounced off her body and fell onto the pavement.

The burglar was dumbfounded! He turned and fled. Her miracle was featured on the nightly news in Houston.

Prayer doesn't have to be elegant. But it does have to be in the name of Jesus.

Paul said that everything we do in word or deed should be done in the name of Jesus.

I had some dear friends pastoring a church in the Dallas metro area. The pastor's wife had traveled to Lufkin to attend a Ladies Conference. After the conference, she was driving back to Dallas in a blinding rain. Up ahead of her, heading in her direction, a car had hydroplaned, and was rocketing into her lane. She was seconds from a high-speed head-on collision. Directly behind her was a large motor home. She could not slam on her brakes without being rammed from behind. She screamed "JESUS!!" and closed her eyes.

Moments later, she found herself parked on the shoulder of the road. She turned around to see where the on-coming car had gone. It had collided head-on with the motorhome.

The driver of the motorhome was climbing out of his vehicle to examine the wreckage. He saw the preacher's wife sitting in her car, parked on the side of the road.

"WHERE DID YOU GO?? LADY!! WHERE DID YOU GO? That car was headed directly toward you, and you suddenly disappeared!! Where did you go??"

You don't have to believe that story, but she believes it. God moved her car out of the way of that potentially fatal accident.

You can call on that name. It only takes a second. Say it.

JESUS.