Prayer is, in essence, talking with God. When we talk to someone, it is mostly a one-way discussion. We may pray like that telling God what we want and not waiting for His response. However, when we talk with someone, it is a two-way discussion; we speak and then we listen for the response, and so on.

Swedenborg explains that when we truly talk with God, He responds and opens our interiors to His love and wisdom for our lives. Then, as we listen with our hearts and minds open, we will “hear” God’s answer and He can bring us guidance, hope and confidence. See Arcana Celestia 2535 for more understanding of prayer.

Those who pray merely piously not from the heart or pray only in desperation are often just talking to God, not with God. They may believe God doesn’t hear their prayers because their hearts are not open to His response. He tells us in Matthew 7:21 that “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” When we try to do the Lord’s will, our hearts open more and more to His voice. And we open ourselves the most to the Lord when we pray, "Thy will be done" and trust that His will is always better for our eternal happiness than we can imagine.

For a much more extensive discussion of Prayer, see the book, Prayer and Providence, by Rev. Michael Gladish where you will find 14 chapters about prayer.

(Reference: Apocalypse Explained 411; Arcana Coelestia 2535)

2535. 'He will pray for you' means that it will thus be revealed. This is clear from the meaning of 'praying'. Regarded in itself prayer is talking to God and at the same time some inner view of the things that are being prayed for. Answering to this there is something akin to an influx into the perception or thought of the person's mind, which effects a certain opening of his internals towards God. But the experience varies according to the person's state and according to the essence of whatever he is praying for. If his prayer springs from love and faith, and if they are wholly celestial and spiritual things about which and for which he prays, something like a revelation is present within his prayer which manifests itself in the affection of the one praying in the form of hope, comfort, or some inward joy. This is why 'praying' in the internal sense means to be revealed. Here such a meaning is all the greater since it is a prophet who, it is said, will pray, and 'prophet' is used to mean the Lord, whose prayer was nothing else than an internal speaking to the Divine, and at the same time revelation. That there was revelation when He prayed is evident in Luke,

It happened, when Jesus was baptized and prayed, that heaven was opened. Luke 3:21.

In the same gospel,

It happened, when Jesus took Peter, James, and John, He went up on the mountain to pray. When He was praying the appearance of His face was altered, and His clothing became dazzling white. Luke 9:28-29.

Also in John, He said when praying,

Father, glorify Your name. Then a voice came from heaven, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. John 12:27-28.

Here it is evident that the Lord's praying consisted in a talking to the Divine and at the same time in revelation.