Prayer - Who needs it?

Two dear friends of mine recently gave me very challenging food for thought regarding religious beliefs; one asked me how a Christian knows when God is talking to them and the other told me of their struggle to understand why it is necessary for prayer groups when surely a solitary prayer would suffice to gain the ear of God.
I tried to offer reasoned responses to both these questions but the truth is I haven’t a clue!
How do I for instance know when God is telling me something – if indeed He ever has?
I have never certainly heard the voice of God in thunderous rapture or quiet repose but every fibre of my body tells me that God has often ‘spoken’ to me during prayer, whilst asleep, sometimes before the contemplation of sin and sometimes after contrition. To the non-Christian mind I suppose I am describing conscience but quite often our consciences whilst having the facility to be pricked are rarely pierced in the same way as the overwhelming certainty felt when we listen, and follow, a course of action that continues to nag away at us and almost always causes us to sacrifice in some way. Conscience is a powerful thing but it can often bring remorse and misgiving as to whether our chosen course was ultimately the correct one – a directive from God will always bring forth fruit.
So how do we know the difference?
Well there are clues and sometimes even clear signs but at the end of the day there must always be an uncertainty – it is the nature of faith I’m afraid – but what is absolutely certain beyond question is that any course of action in defiance of what an individual believes to be a directive from God will ultimately cause misery and pain. This is not to say that those with mental health issues are right in killing a fellow human being in the name of the voice of God. The good Lord, the God of love, would never ask any of us to kill another human being and that in essence should serve in itself as a clue that all such messages are from the devil.
Many Christians experience deep spiritual revelations which stay with them continuously and they do not waiver from their path when the new day dawns – this is a massive clue.
Some Christians try an alternative course of action from that which their spiritual core is screaming at them. Often this course bears no fruit, and quite often pain and guilt, and the righteous path when ultimately followed might soon bring forth surprising feelings of wellbeing and satisfaction – this too is a massive clue.
For myself I tend to listen to my hidden voice during prayer and quiet contemplation and I will try and analyse the ramifications of any actions I might want to take. When I follow the wrong path I ALWAYS turn off this mechanism and simply follow my human gut instinct and it inevitably leads to pain and misery. When human beings make decisions to glorify themselves then the outcome of these decisions will be measured in human terms – a transient feeling of accomplishment or high but with the inevitable down following at some point.
The simple truth is that humans often ‘know’ right from wrong but choose the safe option, the short term fix. They feel their bodies and souls are fragile and cannot cope with sacrifice – they crave spiritual chocolate and very often know that it is not a remedy and they will soon crash to earth but they have no mechanism, no support facility – prayer, Christian fellowship, church, Bible.
I’ve often heard the question why do we need to pray in groups, indeed I am quite sure I have asked the question at various times in my life. The local priest will ask his congregation to pray for the sick and the recently departed. Of course we don’t know for sure why this might be more powerful than a solitary prayer but we do know that the Bible tells us to pray regularly and this act of faith surely goes some way to building a relationship with our maker.
I have always thought that a truly righteous person (yes I know there is no such thing) will almost certainly have the ear of God over and above the pious hypocrite and so the law of large numbers is a factor in the power of prayer. This is a personal opinion and not part of Christian doctrine but I strongly also believe that whilst we pray for each other we also experience a sense of satisfaction that perhaps OUR prayers will be the ones that save the day and this feeling is an essential part of spiritual growth. Community prayer is an overwhelming energy force and this alone should answer the question – haven’t scientists proven that collective thought can almost work miracles?