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Teach Us To Pray
Face to Face with God
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[Teach Us To Pray]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Thy Spirit strengthens both my soul and my body, and I rest
in the peace of wholeness and health.
Every anxious thought is stilled. Thy mighty confidence and
Thy peace infold me. Omnipresent Spirit substance fills my
mind, and abundance is everywhere manifest.
MANY CHRISTIAN metaphysicians who are quite familiar with
the idea of the omnipresence of God address Him in terms
that imply His absence. Instead of talking direct to God,
who is always right in our midst, we talk about Him. We are
apt to say, "God strengthens both my soul and my body"
instead of "Thy Spirit strengthens both my soul and my
body."
Our words betray our dominant state of mind, although the
logic of Truth may belie this. We see logically that there
cannot be any separation in spirit between the Creator and
the created, but the created has the power to think of
itself as separate from its source, and this thought makes
a mental vacuum in which there is a total absence of
spiritual
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attributes. The human family on this planet has set up this
sort of a mental void, and unless we train our mind to
think the truth, we find ourselves talking to God as if He
were in the next room or in some faraway heaven in the
skies.
We in our day and age are not alone in making God the third
person in our conversation. Bible authors did the same. We
should remember that the people who live today are the same
people who lived in the past, in other words, we are people
who thought ourselves separate from God life and thereby
killed our body. We also are like some of the people who
acted the part of the prodigal son, desiring to be again
united with the Father.
However we should not forget that although the Father was
"moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and
kissed him," the prodigal was yet "afar off." No one save
Jesus has fully bridged this gulf of separation, and we are
excusable if we at times lapse into the old consciousness
of absence from the Father. Jesus gives us the right cue
when He affirms, "It is the spirit that giveth life; the
flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto
you are spirit, and are life."
"For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to
the Son also to have life in himself."
We find that we must train our mind in trust, look
persistently and continuously to God for all things, and
rest in the assurance that what we ask and affirm in Spirit
will surely come to pass. Jesus had such supreme confidence
and faith in the Father
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as the source of health and prosperity that His name has
become the synonym and open door for the manifestation of
those things. He said that whatever we asked of the Father
in His name would be granted. Many persons get a very
definite mental uplift and consciousness of Spirit by
repeating audibly and silently the name of Jesus Christ.
But the name does not represent the real character of the
person unless it is known to us through our acquaintance
with the person himself. Unless you have read about Jesus
and tried to realize His love, wisdom, and supermind power,
you have no conception of the meaning of His name. Paul
urged that we let Christ be formed in us. That means that
through the study of the life of Jesus and the discipline
He gave His mind we shall put into our mind the same ideas
that He had. These ideas will form in our mind a new kind
of man, which is God's man.
When you turn your attention to Spirit your mind makes
contact with a realm of ideas very much above the level of
your common thinking; and when you strike this mental
stratosphere you are tremendously lifted up. Then you make
your statements of Truth and whatever you decree comes to
pass. Job's friend Eliphaz said to him:
"Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace:
Thereby good shall come unto thee . . . .
Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established
unto thee;
And light shall shine upon thy ways"
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[Teach Us To Pray]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
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