The following article is an excerpt from this book.

Prayer is not only petition, it is also something more basic—it is soul to soul communication with God.  And this really must come first, before we ask God for anything.  For this is the heart of prayer.  Before we can expect Him to listen to our requests we must have made contact with His soul by our soul.

I got this idea from Jim Downing in his book Meditation, where he suggests that various passages in the Psalms (e.g. Ps. 62:5, 130:6, 25:1) “indicate that coming into contact with God involves the soul.”  And he stated that “Theologians in general agree as to the soul’s principle powers…the mind, the affections and the will.”

So I am suggesting that “coming into contact with God” with our souls is really what prayer is.  True prayer, therefore, will involves the mind, the affections (the…