Ken Wilson - Mystically Wired: Exploring New Realms in Prayer

Praise for Mystically Wired

Smart, savvy, candid, credible, unafraid, self-effacing, and shot through with passionate love of Jesus... yes, hands down, this is the best book on prayer that I have ever read.

Phyllis Tickle
Compiler, The Words
of Jesus: A Gospel of the
Sayings of Our Lord

I confess, I dont normally like books on prayer, but MysticallyWired is a big exception. While this book is incredibly practical, I was routinely blown away by the intuitive genius of Kens view and application of prayer. Page after page, thinking I knew what was next, I was surprised with fresh insight and unique perspectives on connecting with God. Being an evangelist, I was excited to realize I could also send this to spiritual friends who dont follow Jesus as a way to introduce him.

R. York Moore
National Evangelist
InterVarsity Christian
Fellowship USA

It began the day Jesus disciples came to him and asked, Lord, teach us to pray. Ever since, Christ-followers have been wanting to learn the ways of prayer. Ken Wilsons Mystically Wired is an extraordinary contribution to that learning tradition. Its a wonderful read that leaves you feeling, Yes, this is for me. Yes, I can do this. Yes, its within reach.

Brian McLaren
Author/Speaker/Activist

I wandered away from religion because religion thought it had all the answers. Pastor Ken Wilson, though, understands that life and faith are really about having the right questions. If you want to pray for favors, put this book down now. If you want the answers, the help here is only partial. But if youre looking for a wide-ranging inquiry, and a path that can bring you closer to the mysterywithout the mumbo-jumbodelve within.

Carl Safina
Author, Song for the Blue
Ocean and The View From
Lazy Point

Mystically Wired was a breath of fresh apologetic air for me. I pray and I experience God, and I find fixed hour prayer deeply meaningful, but this book shows that God made us to do such things and our brain is wired to communicate with God.

Scot McKnight
Karl A. Olsson Professor in
Religious Studies
North Park University

In my library there are scores of books on prayerby legends and modern guides as well. It is not easy to make a genuine contribution to this body of literature. But Ken Wilson has done so. Mystically Wired manages to bring together the best of the sciences and philosophies of mind, brain, and consciousness with deep spirituality and candid personal reflection. While it will happily fit my on my shelf, it fits best in a heart yearning to pray.

Todd Hunter
Anglican Bishop

Ken Wilsons new book is fascinating intellectually and engaging spiritually. Its theme is a great discussion starter with Christians and non-Christians alike!

Dr. Joel C. Hunter
Senior Pastor
Northland, A Church
Distributed

MYSTICALLY
WIRED

MYSTICALLY
WIRED

Exploring New Realms in Prayer

KEN WILSON

2009 by Ken Wilson

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Published in association with Kathryn A. Helmers, Creative Trust, Inc. Media, Entertainment &Literary Management, 5141 Virginia Way, Suite 320, Brentwood, TN 37027.

Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEWINTERNATIONAL VERSION. 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used bypermission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked kjv are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

Scripture quotations marked nkjv are taken from the THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked nasb are taken from NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Usedby permission.

Scripture quotations marked alter are taken from the Alter Translation of the Bible, Genesis:

Translation and Commentary by Robert Alter, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 1996.

Scripture translations marked tniv are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, TODAY'S NEWINTERNATIONAL VERSION. 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society. Used by permissionof Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wilson, Ken, 1952
Mystically wired : exploring new realms in prayer / Ken Wilson.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-8499-2001-1 (hardcover)

1. PrayerChristianity. 2. Mysticism. I. Title.

BV215.W49 2010

248.3'2dc22

2009051810

Printed in the United States of America

10 11 12 13 14 WC 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Nancy,
who taught me what love is,
and to Dr. Sam Tickle,
whose love for the outsider
opened my heart.

By love he may be caught and held, but by thinking never.

THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING

My own heart let me more have pity on;let me be to my sad self here after, kind.

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

Contents

I wish to acknowledge, first and foremost, the members of my home church, Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor, for teaching me about prayer, and for their patience with my learning curve. I am grateful for Matt Baugher, Jennifer McNeil, Stephanie Terry, and Julie Faires of Thomas Nelson, as well as Tami Heim, a woman of prayer. And for Kathy Helmers, who suggested I write this book and believed that I could. I am grateful for the influence and encouragement of Berten Waggoner, John Wimber, and many pastor colleagues in the Vineyard, A Community of Churches, who have provided a faith environment that rewards curiosity and welcomes the Spirit as a real someone.

I am indebted to Carl Safina, whose book, Song for the BlueOcean, reminded me that the earth is a sacred place and that science can open the eyes of the heart as well as the mind.

My children have been a powerful inspiration for me to keep learning and questioning.

I am thankful for Don Postema, my spiritual director, and for Phyllis Tickle, who first put me on to the possibility that prayer involves going somewhere as much as doing something.

PART ONE
Understanding That You
Are Mystically Wired

ONE
You Are Mystically Wired

You are mystically wired. Yes, you. That is, you are adapted or designed to reach beyond the limits of the ingrown self to connect with the wonder of life beyond the self, including the life of God. If that sounds too good to be true, consider the possibility that it may be too good not to be true.

This has enormous implications for your understanding and practice of prayer. We live in a time when the landscape of prayer is shifting dramatically. Not long ago, many for whom science is the most reliable form of knowing viewed prayer as a holdover from our nave past. The mystical modes of prayer were thought to be symptoms of mental disease. Many of historys contemplatives were retroactively diagnosed as the unfortunate if happy victims of a seizure disorder.