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Teach Us To Pray
Healing through the Prayer of Faith
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[Teach Us To Pray]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Is any among you suffering? let him pray. Is any cheerful?
let him sing praise. Is any among you sick? let him call
for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him,
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the
prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord
shall raise him up.--James
THIS IS A very definite and wonderful promise. According to
the record, it was undoubtedly acted upon by the disciples
and proved to be very effective for hundreds of years. That
this mighty promise still stands is proved by unnumbered
thousands of Jesus' followers today. Faith healing through
prayer has become a practice founded on principles that
never fail when rightly applied. Those who seek the kingdom
of God and His righteousness are having all things added,
as promised. When we "take with us words" and attempt to go
into God's presence, our faith in Him is the power that
swings wide open the gate that leads into the inner kingdom.
But in order to keep the gate ajar it is a daily necessity
to withdraw into this deep stillness of the soul. Listen
first to the innate voice of faith; then
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through the centers within the subconsciousness you can
appropriate the life, substance, and intelligence of Being.
Man builds up an enduring state of faith by repeated
realizations of Truth. The illumination thus gained comes
forth in man as spiritual understanding expressed in sound
words.
Faith draws upon substance. Dynamic, creative, transforming
power is roused to spiritual action when man affirms his
unity with Almightiness and his undaunted faith in its
power.
"Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live; and so Jehovah,
the God of hosts, will be with you, as ye say." "Concerning
the works of my hands, command ye me."
Man must not only be submissive and obedient to the divine
law; he must also realize that he is the offspring of the
ruler of the universe.
When asking the Father for that which belongs to the Son
under the divine law, man should assume the power and
dignity of the Prince of Peace. He should not crawl and
cringe before an imaginary king on a throne but rather feel
that he is the image of an invisible being who has created
him to represent His mightiness as well as His
loving-kindness. We should affirm with conviction those
mighty words uttered by Jesus: "All authority hath been
given unto me in heaven and on earth."
The prayer of faith is not supplication, a begging God to
give things to man. Prayer at its highest is the entry of
the ego through faith into a realm of
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mind forces that when rightly contacted change the
character of every cell in brain and body. One who has
mastered even the primary technique of prayer has made
contact with the spiritual ethers that connect all minds,
high and low, and by means of which great reforms for the
good of man can be projected into the world's thought ether.
When Jesus prayed, sometimes the whole night long, He did
not plead with God over and over to do what He asked.
Through positive faith Jesus was laying hold of new ideas,
which through His spiritual understanding He incorporated
into His consciousness, which included both soul and body.
Through this mental process He became a living
demonstration of spiritual man.
Today Jesus Christ is our helper and teacher. Every man
when he prays should recognize and take advantage of this
truth. He can profit much by realizing that the same Spirit
is in him that was in Jesus, who became the Christ. Paul
wrote, "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from
the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus
from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies
through his Spirit that dwelleth in you."
Jesus is teaching us today that to pray effectively we must
believe and know that there is a dispenser of the thing
asked for and that by reaching out in prayer we can receive
it from the one great source. This is truly the prayer of
faith. "All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe
that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."
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Faith, the conviction of a higher providing source, is
based upon spiritual logic or innate reason and on the
certainty that an all-wise and all-powerful Creator's plan
includes necessary provision for His offspring. Among even
the primitive forms of nature this providing law is active.
The insect stores food in the egg for the sustenance of its
progeny. When man emerges from his animal consciousness and
feels within him the stirring of Spirit, he finds that it
is supremely logical and true that Spirit has provided for
his supply and support.
When we have achieved spiritual realization of our prayer
and our innermost soul is satisfied, we have the assurance
that the thing is accomplished in Spirit and must become
manifest.
We may continue in our realization of faith until the whole
consciousness responds and the instantaneous demonstration
takes place.
Spiritual Truth, psychology, and science tell us that
visible things come from the invisible and are dependent
upon the unseen for their existence. The sense mind cannot
conceive of this.
"But there is a spirit in man,
And the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding."
Before man can fully appreciate and work the spiritual law,
he must cultivate a consciousness of reality. When he does
this, he finds he is automatically working with God,
through Christ, and that he can say with Jesus, "My Father
worketh even
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until now, and I work."
Prayer is impotent and unfruitful when the one who prays is
without the firm belief that his petitions are answered.
When man turns wholeheartedly to God, the prayer of faith
brings forth abundantly. Healing currents of life are freed
and flow into and through soul and body, healing,
redeeming, uplifting the whole man. Since the prayer of
faith is the activity of divine love, let us pray without
ceasing, knowing that God hears and grants our petitions.
Truly the Lord is in the midst of us. When we turn toward
the omnipresent light of Spirit in faith, our eyes are
opened to the astonishing fact that this seemingly material
body and these temporal surroundings conceal the immanent
God. We come to understand what Jacob meant when he said,
"How dreadul is this place! this is none other than the
house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."
In prayer attention is the concentration of the mind upon a
statement of Truth. Attention is focalizing the I AM or
inner entity upon a word of prayer, until the inner meaning
is realized and the soul is aware of a definite spiritual
uplift. As a lens focalizes the sun's rays at a given
point--and we know how intense that point of light may
become--so concentration focalizes the mind on a single
idea until it becomes manifest and objective.
In concentration the Holy Spirit works through the divine
mother substance to bring forth the fruits of Divine Mind.
The Holy Spirit is the teacher. The teacher and the student
use the same principles;
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but the teacher arouses and inspires the student to greater
achievement. The Holy Spirit today is urging us to greater
spiritual effort.
When we direct the mental powers upon a definite idea,
faith plays its part; it is involved in concentration. As
we give attention to the idea through one-pointed mind
concentration, we break into a realm of finer mind
activity, called faith or the fire of Spirit. Thus faith
opens the door into an inner consciousness, where we hold
the word steadily in mind until the spiritual ethers
respond to our word. Earnest, steady, and continued
attention along this line is bound to bring forth the
fruits of the Spirit in abundant measure. A steady,
unwavering devotion of heart and principle to Spirit
develops in us supermind qualities.
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[Teach Us To Pray]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
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