Unity Church of Castro Valley
Sunday Message for March 30, 2008
Prayer
Today we will be talking about prayer. Prayer is what Unity was based on from the beginning. It was through prayer that Myrtle Fillmore healed herself of tuberculosis. It was through prayer that Georgina Teyrovsky is still with us. In the The Revealing Word, Charles Fillmore defines prayer as 'Communion between God and man.' This communion takes place in the depths of our being. It is the only way to cleanse and perfect our consciousness and heal our bodies. Prayer is the most highly accelerated mind action there is. It intensifies our state of mind until our consciousness synchronizes with the Christ Mind. It is the language of spirituality. When we develop our prayer life we become masters in the realm of creative ideas.
Prayer is more than a request. It is an affirmation of Truth that already exists, but which has not yet come into consciousness. We establish it in our mind through affirmations.
WHAT IS PRAYER
When Jesus' disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray He warned them about making a display of their praying in order for others to see them. He told them to go to their "inner chamber" and pray to the Father who sees in secret and rewards openly.
Then he said to pray like this. The Lord's Prayer was given as a sample, not to be followed literally. According to Fenton's translation it is a series of affirmations. Let me read you his version:
"Our Father in the Heavens;
Your Name must be being hallowed;
Your kingdom must be being restored;
Your will must be being done, both in Heaven and upon the Earth.
Give us today our tomorrow's bread;
And forgive us our faults, as we forgive those offending us,
for You would not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from its evil."
So in praying for divine help we are free to use any words we choose, or to use no words at all. Actually, every impulse or desire of the soul for life, love, or light is a prayer.
Job gave a prayer formula when he said (Job 22:28) "You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you." Jesus put the same idea in these words, (John 14:13) "I will do whatever you ask in my name." Whatever you earnestly desire and persistently affirm will be yours, if you don't give up, if you don't become discouraged. When we place our desires before our indwelling Lord, we are intelligently using the supreme law of God in bringing into manifestation that which He has implanted in us.
But, it isn't just words that we put out - a prayer without desire in it, a prayer without sincerity in it, a prayer without soul in it, a prayer without Spirit in it is a fruitless prayer. When Greg Braden asked the Tibetans about their method for praying, he said, "I can see what is happening on the outside, I can see the prayer flags, I can see the posture you assume - but what is happening inside?" They answered 'compassion.' So we don't need any fancy words in our prayers. We don't have to worry about stating our prayer correctly. But we need the right attitude. We need to have desire, sincerity, and most of all compassion. God has given us all potentiality. "With God all things are possible." "All things whatsoever the Father has are mine."
Fillmore said, "We have been so persistently taught that prayer consists in asking God for some human need that we have lost sight of our spiritual identity and have become a race of praying beggars." But God is Spirit in whom we (Acts 17:28) "live and move and have our being." We are the offspring of this Spirit and can make conscious contact with it by turning our attention away from material things and thinking about Spirit.
As we practice this kind of prayer our innate Spirit showers its life energies into our conscious mind and a great soul expansion follows. What we need to know above all else is that there is a place within our soul where we can consciously meet God and receive a flood of new life into not only our mind but also our body. This understanding shows us that prayer is more than asking God for help in this physical world; it is in its highest sense the opening up in our soul of an innate spiritual umbilical cord that connects us with the Holy Mother, from whom we can receive a perpetual flow of life. This is the beginning of eternal life for both soul and body, the essential teaching of Jesus, which He demonstrated in overcoming death.
Unity has earnestly sought to know and tell others how to pray. Language has not yet been invented to tell all the wonders that you will find when you begin opening your minds to the Spirit in prayer. The body can be so charged with spiritual life through prayer that it will overcome death, as promised by Jesus Christ.
THE SEVENFOLD CLEANSING
In the fifth chapter of 2nd Kings there is a story of how the prophet Elisha healed the Syrian, Naaman. Naaman was an army general and a leper.
Naaman's wife had a servant girl who had been a captive that the Syrians had brought back from Israel. (2 Kings 5:3) This servant said to her mistress, "If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy."
(2 Kings 5:8) When Elisha the man of God heard of this, he sent a message, "Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel."
So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. (2 Kings 5:10) Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean." Naaman was really put-off by this; after all he was an important commander in the Syrian army. (2 Kings 5:11-12) He went away, saying, "I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Are not the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?" Then he turned and went away in a rage.
But his servants came to him and said, (2 Kings 5:13) "Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, "Wash, and be clean'?" So Naaman went and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan River and the leprosy was gone. This story demonstrates a healing method that we can all use.
Elisha is often referred to as a forerunner of Jesus. Elisha was an incarnation of the Christ as Jesus was. But Jesus was a fuller manifestation of the same Christ. We also are a manifestation of the Christ, about whom Jesus said, "this too you shall do, and more." So these healing powers are common to all of us.
If you look at the metaphysical representation of this story, you see that Naaman (the will) is looked up to by men. And because he is so exalted, his personal ego ignores any power higher than itself. This egotism will stop the flow of spiritual life in our body and let atrophy set in. Pride and ambition cut the invisible channels that connect soul and body with the great river of life. Decay follows and Naaman became a leper. The remedy for the starved body is giving up the will's assumed dominion. We need to affirm, (Luke 22:42) "Father, not my will but yours be done."
Intuition (the Israelite servant) points the way to God's prophet. But personal will goes to the simple prophet with servants, horses, chariots and presents of silver, gold, and rich clothing. He expects the prophet to make a big display of healing him, waving his hands and calling on God. But the prophet just sends a messenger to tell him to bathe in the Jordan River seven times. Naaman is enraged because he is not being recognized as the great man he is, he is not being given special attention, and he is being asked to do such a childish thing.
Unity Truth Teachers run into this same egotism in their students. People are used to the intellectual approach to things, to studying many books and memorizing all the details. So the simple methods of Truth are often considered childish. In the medical profession a person might be dosed, drugged, X-rayed and much more. But Jesus healed by simply saying, (Matthew 9:2) "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven." Jesus said he accomplished this through the faith of the patient and the faith of those who brought the patient to him. So there must be faith action before the body can be restored. And, in fact, there are doctors who understand that they are merely there to distract you while you heal.
When we pray and affirm the Truth, we distract ourselves from the negative condition and allow nature to restore the natural harmony existing between spirit, soul, and the body. So when Naaman got past being offended and actually did the simple thing he was told to do he was healed of his leprosy.
So the first step is always faith, but the next is receptivity. Naaman had to be humbled before he could be healed. But there was a deep undercurrent of Spirit power at work in Elisha, even though he did not show up physically for Naaman.
I would like to close with the Sevenfold Cleansing from the book Teach us to Pray by Charles & Cora Fillmore. Naaman was told to wash seven times in the river Jordan. Seven is a universally used mystical number. There are seven centers in our bodies that need to be cleansed. The first five are obvious. There is seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, & touch. But there are two in addition to these, which are intuition and telepathy.
These centers of light have been dimmed by sin, or error. Interestingly, there are also seven classifications of sin. There is pride, anger, lust, covetousness, envy, gluttony, & sloth. So we allow the great river of life to wash away these sins and their leprosy in the body.
So just get comfortable in your seat, close your eyes, and allow yourself to be cleansed sevenfold.
The eye represents the discerning capacity of the mind, so allow your prayer to be: My eyes are no longer darkened by thoughts of deception, concealment, or lust. The cleansing life and light of Spirit makes pure and clean these eyes, and through all-seeing Mind I have spiritual vision.
The ear represents the receptive capacity of the mind, so allow your prayer to be: My ears are no longer stopped by the sensitiveness and willfulness of the little self. I am no longer bound by personality. I now bathe in the great ocean of life, and I am free in boundless Spirit. I hear the voice of Truth only and rejoice.
The nose represents the initiative capacity of the mind, so allow your prayer to be: he cleansing life of Spirit frees my mind of all thoughts of fear, timidness, and incapacity. I am bold, free, courageous Spirit, and I can do all things through Christ.
The tongue represents the judging capacity of the mind, so allow your prayer to be: Sense appetite no longer clogs the clear discernment of my spiritual judgment. The cleansing life of Spirit quickens and cleanses my taste, and I eat and drink only what my body requires under divine law.
Feeling represents the loving capacity of the mind, so allow your prayer to be: I am no longer in bondage to the thought that sensation is in matter. The cleansing life of Spirit dissolves all fleshly lust for sense pleasure. I am Spirit, and I desire the clean, pure currents of life to flow through every part of my body, so that all may be made clean.
Intuition is the natural knowing capacity of the mind, so allow your prayer to be: The cleansing life of Spirit purifies my heart, and I trust the "still small voice" within my soul.
Telepathy is thought interchange, so allow your prayer to be: The cleansing life of Spirit clears my mind of ignorance and materiality, and I see the activity of ideas and understand their import, independently of human language. As God gave Daniel "knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and… understanding in all visions and dreams," so He gives me and all His children the original ideas of His great mind to use as we will.
Amen - You are now cleansed.
SCRIPTURE: 2 Kings 5; Luke 22:42; Matthew 9:2; Job 22:28; John 14:13; Acts 17:28
REFERENCE: The Revealing Word Charles Fillmore; Teach Us to Pray Charles and Cora Fillmore
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Last updated
April 1, 2008
