Answer to prayer can come in many ways. Perhaps some answers are coincidental, if coincidence exists. However, some answers to prayer are so astounding, it's rationally impossible to categorize them as "coincidence". In order to determine the difference, what prayer is needs to be briefly mentioned, followed by an astounding, real-life answer to prayer.

I keep the Sermon on the Mount in mind when it comes to prayer. Christ taught how to pray during the Sermon on the Mount.  Therefore, a reading of Matthew, chapters 5-7 is highly recommended.

I've never been able to "preach like Paul" but for some reason and over the course of time, I have found that I can "pray like Peter", and I've witnesses many astounding answers to prayer, one of which I share in this hub article.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning in Denver. As I was getting ready to go downtown to meet friends for breakfast, I noticed my high school ring among other items in my jewelry box. Although I hardly wore it, I picked it up and for some reason, I was immediately compelled to pray for a classmate I hadn't seen or heard from since high school graduation. Nor did I keep in touch with anyone from high school, or anyone who knew my classmate. Being so spontaneously and strongly compelled to pray never happened before this time or since.

I was at a distance of 3,000 miles from my hometown on the East Coast and it had been decades since high school graduation yet, somehow I knew my classmate Molly needed prayers. Along with The Lord's Prayer, I asked God to please give Molly whatever she needed. I also committed to pray every morning for whatever her need was until I was as strongly compelled to the contrary, although I didn't know how that could come about without necessary knowledge. As I looked at the ring again I thought, "What the heck!" and wore it that day and for many days in a row.

I didn't have the Internet at the time so I didn't have that avenue in order to try to locate Molly. Nor did I know anything about the Internet at that time and how it worked, et cetera. I also figured Molly married and so her last name changed, anyway.

Still, I kept my committment to pray for Molly every morning--The Lord's Prayer, followed by the short, special petition--and I did so at the same time every morning and in the same place--my residence. Starting on Wednesday morning, I added a petition, if it be God's Will, that He would please guide me to locate Molly. I was more than a bit concerned for her.

I included a photo of the clock tower in downtown Mile-High City because of the astounding, synchronized timing of this answer to prayer event.

At around 11 AM the next day--Thursday--I was in my dentist's office for a check up. While waiting, I browsed through the magazine rack for something to read but nothing was of interest to me. Since it didn't matter one way or the other, I randomly picked a magazine I had never seen before, sat down and started flipping through it.

I could have been knocked over with a feather! There, in an advertisement in that magazine, was Molly's face looking back at me! I gasped out loud as the nerves ran wildly up and down my spine! The receptionist asked me if I was OK. I showed her the advertisement, told her about not being in touch since high school, and added that I had been praying for Molly since Saturday morning. The receptionist pointed to the 800 number in the advertisement and told me to call it. I knew I had to but, the thought crossed my mind that something terrible, unthinkable, may have happened. And just as I had figured, Molly last name was not her maiden name.

It took me until I returned home at 2 PM to completely calm down. I knew God had brought me to that moment and therefore, He wanted me to make the call. I also knew if Molly were still on the East Coast, that I had to call before 5 PM ET (2 hour difference) in case her 800 operators left work by then. I took a deep breath, asked God to please continue being with me, picked up the phone receiver, braced myself and entered the numbers.

An operator answered and I asked for Molly but Molly wasn't there. I gave the operator my name and told her Molly and I had been high school classmates, we hadn't kept in touch but, I had been praying for her since Saturday morning and I wondered if she were OK.

After a brief pause, the operator said Molly was OK but her 83-year-old father had suffered a stroke on Friday night and had gone into a coma. He had remained in a coma in the hospital.

"Ah, ha!", I thought. "So that's the reason!" Friday night was the night before the Saturday morning I was compelled to pray for whatever Molly needed.

I asked for and got Molly's business address. She was on the East Coast. I told the operator I was writing to Molly and I added, I will continue praying for both Molly and her father. The operator said she'd give Molly the message.

After I hung up the phone, I wrote Molly a letter and included my phone number in a concise but explicit narration of what had been happening with me regarding her, adding that I was also praying for her father. Then I took the letter to the main post office in downtown Denver where mail went out every couple of hours and the letter was on its way by 4 PM.

Molly called me on Saturday afternoon. She had received the letter that morning and the first thing she said regarding the event was, "The timing is astounding!"

She also said the doctors told her the day before that, because of her father's age and the length of the coma (one week), he wouldn't live; but if he did, he would be a vegetable. They told her not to hope for a good outcome.

Nonetheless, when she got the letter that morning, she took it with her to the hospital and, while the medical staff buzzed around the ward, she read the letter to her father and then sat down beside his hospital bed. About 30 seconds later, her father sat straight up and asked loudly and clearly, "Someone's praying for me?"

Molly's father made a very rapid recovery; in fact, he couldn't get out of that hospital fast enough and he returned to church after not attending for 60 years.

Three aspects that are usually inherent in actual answers to prayer are (1) the answers are spontaneous, meaning there is nothing humans can do on their own to get an answer or to block an answer; (2) new information is received, meaning answers tell us what we didn't know and most likely couldn't know; and (3) the timing is astounding.

Besides the obvious benefit wrought by this astounding answer to prayer event, it was another Supernatural experience that increased my faith immeasurably; and it appears to me to be God had that in Mind as well.

Want answers to prayer? Read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5-7); then read it again and again. Get so familiar with the Sermon on the Mount that you are one with it. Then, you will know how to pray and you also know the difference between "coincidence" and actual answer to prayer.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton established the teaching order that taught in my high school and she is also the first American Saint in the Catholic Church. She had been a convert from Protestantism to Catholicism.

And....I realize this may not sit too well with some other Christians, but....: my prayers TO God included a request TO Him that He allow the prayers of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton FOR my classmate Molly to be joined to my prayers FOR Molly. Therefore, this answer to prayer includes the prayers of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton FOR Molly and as such, this answer to prayer is another miracle attributable in part to the prayers of intercession of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.

Other parts of The Supernatural series are:

The Thanksgiving Miracle Story, from the Heartland of America, The Symbolic Dream,September 11, 2001 (9/11) and Private Prophecy, The Supernatural Being, The Supernatural Voice, Life After Death