Chapter 5
THE OMNIPOTENCE OF PRAYER
Charles Fillmore
Jesus Christ Heals
TO A PERSON in the understanding of Truth prayer should be an affirmation of
that which is in Being.
What is the necessity of the prayer of affirmation if Being already is? In
order that the creative law of the Word may be fulfilled. All things are in God
as potentialities. It is man's office under the divine law to bring into
manifestation that which has been created or planned by the unmanifest.
Everybody should pray. Through prayer we develop the highest phase of character.
Prayer softens and refines the whole man. A prominent skeptic once said that the
most unattractive thing in existence was a prayerless woman.
Prayer is not supplication or begging but a simple asking for that which we
know is waiting for us at the hands of our Father and an affirmation of its
existence. The prayer that Jesus gave as a model is simplicity itself. There is
none of that awe-inspiring "O Thou" that ministers often affect in public prayer
but only the ordinary informal request of a son to his Father for things needed.
"Father . . . Hallowed be thy name." Here in the Lord's Prayer is a
recognition of the all-inclusiveness and completeness of Divine Mind. Everything
has its sustenance from this one source; therefore "the earth is the Lord's, and
the fulness thereof."
We need supplies for the day only. Hoarding for future necessity breeds
selfishness. The Children of Israel tried to save the manna, but it spoiled on
their hands.
The law "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" is here shorn of
its terrors. If we forgive others we shall be forgiven, and the penalty of
suffering for sins will be eliminated.
It does not seem possible that God would lead us into temptation. The
statement about temptation follows closely that regarding the forgiveness of
sin, and it is evidently a part of it. "Let not temptation lead us" is a
permissible interpretation.
Jesus advised asking for what we want and being persistent in our demands.
People ignorant of the relation in which man stands to God wonder why we should
ask and even importune a Father who has provided all things for us. This is
explained when we perceive that God is a great mind reservoir that has to be
tapped by man's mind and poured into visibility through man's thought or word.
If the mind of man is clogged with doubt, lethargy, or fear, he must open the
way by persistent knocking and asking. "Pray without ceasing," "continuing
instant in prayer." Acquire in prayer a facility in asking equal to the
mathematician's expertness in handling numbers and you will get responses in
proportion.
We give our children what we consider good gifts from our limited and
transitory store, but when the gifts of God are put into our minds we have
possessions that are eternal and will go on being productive for all time.
Undoubtedly the one thing that stands out prominently in the teaching of
Jesus is the necessity of prayer. He prayed on the slightest pretext, or in some
such manner invoked the presence of God. He prayed over situations that most men
would deal with without the intervention of God. If He was verily God incarnate,
the skeptic often asks, why did He so often appeal to an apparently higher God.
To answer this doubt intelligently and truly one must understand the
constitution of man.
There are always two men in each individual. The man without is the picture
that the man within paints with his mind. This mind is the open door to the
unlimited principle of Being. When Jesus prayed He was setting into action the
various powers of His individuality in order to bring about certain results.
Within His identity was of God; without He was human personality.
The various mental attitudes denoted by the word prayer are not comprehended
by those unfamiliar with the spiritual constitution of man. When the trained
metaphysician speaks of his demonstrations through prayer, he does not explain
all the movements of his spirit and mind, because the outer consciousness has
not the capacity to receive it.
When we read of Jesus spending whole nights in prayer, the first thought is
that He was asking and begging God for something. But we find prayer to be
many-sided; it is not only asking but receiving also. We must pray believing
that we shall receive. Prayer is both invocation and affirmation. Meditation,
concentration, denial, and affirmation in the silence are all forms of what is
loosely termed prayer.
Thus Jesus was demonstrating at night over the error thoughts of mind. He was
lifting the mortal mind up to the plane of Spirit through some prayerful
thought. The Son of man must be lifted up, and there is no way to do this except
through prayer.
One who exercises his thought powers discovers that there is a steady growth
with proper use. The powers of the mind are developed in much the same way that
the muscles of the body are. Persistent affirmation of a certain desire in the
silence concentrates the mental energies and beats down all barriers.
Jesus illustrates the power of such affirmative prayer, of repeated silent
demands for justice, for instance, by the case of the widow bereft of worldly
protection and power. To the widow's persistence even the ungodly judge
succumbs. The unceasing prayer of faith is commanded in the Scriptures in
various places.
If a man's prayers are based on the thought of his own righteousness and the
sinfulness of others, he does not fulfill the law of true prayer.
Self-righteousness is an exclusory thought and closes the door to the great
Father love that we all want. We are not to justify ourselves in the sight of
God but let the Spirit of justice and righteousness do its perfect work through
us.
That God and angels and heaven exist is accepted by all who believe the
Scriptures, but there is wide diversity of thought about their character and
abode. Those who read the Bible after the letter have invented all kinds of
imaginary notions as to the conditions under which God and His angels live and
as to the location of heaven. Their minds being fixed on things, they have not
conceived of the realm of ideas, and they are therefore totally ignorant of the
true teaching of the Scriptures. To understand the Bible one must know about the
constitution of man. This is the key to all mysteries, the knowledge of man's
true self. "Know thyself."
Man is spirit, soul, body. These are coexistent. God is the principle of
being as an axiom is a principle of mathematics. God is not confined to
locality. Is a mathematical principle confined to a particular place and not
found elsewhere? "The kingdom of God is within you." God is the real of man's
being. It follows that all the powers that are attributed to God may become
operative in man. Then we live right in the presence of God and angels and
heaven. What seems a desert place is filled with angelic messengers, and like
Jacob we know it not.
Man sets into action any of the three realms of his being, spirit, soul, and
body, by concentrating his thought on them. If he thinks only of the body, the
physical senses encompass all his existence. If mind and emotion are cultivated
he adds soul to his consciousness. If he rises to the Absolute and comprehends
Spirit, he rounds out the God-man.
Spirit is the source of soul and body, hence the ruling power. Its works are
so swift and so transcend the limitations of matter that the natural man cannot
comprehend them and hence calls them "miracles." But all things are done under
law. "Prayer was made earnestly of the church unto God for him," and Peter was
delivered from prison by an angel. The earnest prayers of the devout believers
in the power of supreme Spirit brought about the result. The history of
Christianity is full of instances of so-called miracles wrought through prayer.
The hour-long prayer of Luther by what was supposed to be the deathbed of his
friend Melanchthon is a famous instance of importunate pleadings. It was
Luther's firm belief that Melanchthon's years of continued life were the direct
answer to his prayers.
Mighty things have been wrought in the past by those who had mere blind faith
to guide them. To faith we now add understanding of the law, and our
achievements will be a fulfillment of the promise of Jesus "He that believeth on
me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he
do." The prayer of Luther and its results are now being duplicated every day. As
we go on in the exercise of the spiritual faculties we shall strengthen them and
understand them better, and we shall cease to talk about anything miraculous.
All things are possible to man when he exercises his spiritual power under the
divine law.
When man directs the power of exalted ideas into his body, he exalts the
cells, releases their innate spiritual energy, and causes them finally to
disappear from physical sight into the omnipresent luminous ether. This is what
Jesus accomplished at His ascension. The promise was that all who follow Him in
the regeneration of the body would do likewise. It is true that even the
followers of Jesus have not always understood the scientific import of His
doctrine. They have mentally absorbed His exalted ideas and looked to their
fulfillment in a faraway heaven in the skies. By thus projecting their ideas
toward a fulfillment outside of the body they have separated their soul or mind
consciousness from its companion, the body, and the deserted cells have been
resolved into their mother principle, the earth.
The mind of man is constantly projecting thought energies or waves through
brain cells into the ether or space element in which we live. Every person lives
in an environment of radiant energy that circulates through the cells of his
organism like bees in a hive. Ordinarily we cannot see the radiations of the
mind, but we almost universally feel them. When a discordant mind impinges upon
our mind radiations we instinctively shrink away. But we are radiantly happy in
the presence of an exalted mind.
"No man hath beheld God at any time." Seers, prophets, preachers, and holy
men and women in all ages are a unit in saying that they have become acquainted
with God through prayer, expressed in the spirit of their minds.
This testimony to God's spiritual presence is so unanimous that no one seeks
His help in any way other than through the spirit of the mind; and the fact that
we know God with our minds and not with our senses proves that God is Spirit.
In its higher functioning the mind of man deals with spiritual ideas, and we
can truthfully say that man is a spiritual being. This fact explains the almost
universal worship of God by men and makes possible the conjunction of the heaven
and the earth by those who understand the underlying laws of prayer. Jesus
stated this emphatically in John 4:24 (margin): "God is Spirit; and they that
worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
Then the real foundation of all effective prayer is the understanding that
God is Spirit and that man, His offspring, is His image and likeness, hence
spiritual.
Such a concept of God gives man a point of contact that is never absent; in
all places and under all conditions he has the assurance of the attention and
help of God when he realizes the Father's spiritual presence and comradeship.
When it has a spiritually poised mind to work through, Spirit is not limited
in its power by any material environment. "With God all things are possible." To
make this strong statement of Jesus come true we must study the laws of God and
strive to carry them out through a quickened consciousness.
The Bible is replete with situations where men and women seemed beyond any
material help, but through faith and prayer they triumphed right in the face of
seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The author of the 11th chapter of Hebrews
builds pyramids of faith demonstrations. Hear the climax:
"And what shall I more say? for the time will fail me if I tell of Gideon,
Barak, Samson, Jephthah; of David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith
subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths
of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from
weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of
aliens."
Paul might have added to his pyramid of faith the long list of miraculous
healings of diseases and many superhuman works recorded in the Bible, among
which are the restoration of the leper Naaman and the resurrection of the
Shunammite's son by Elisha; the control of the elements by Elijah; the
overcoming of gravity in the floating of the workman's axhead from the bottom of
the Jordan by Elisha, and Moses' causing the water to gush from the rock.
The majority of people think that great spiritual faith is necessary to get
marvelous results. But Jesus taught differently. "The apostles said unto the
Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of
mustard seed, ye would say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou rooted up, and be
thou planted in the sea; and it would obey you."
The mustard is among the smallest of seeds, and the comparison would indicate
what a tiny bit of real faith is necessary to cause motion in material things.
Paul and Silas in the Roman jail prayed and sang until their bonds fell off, the
doors flew open, and they walked out, both free men. On the day of Pentecost the
followers of Jesus prayed and sang until the ethers were so accelerated that
tongues of fire flashed from the bodies of the worshipers, and they were
miraculously quickened in mental ability.
Prayer liberates the energies pent up in mind and body. Those who pray much
create a spiritual aura that eventually envelops the whole body. The bands of
light painted by artists around the heads of saints are not imaginary; they
actually exist and are visible to the sharp eye of the painter. The Scriptures
testify in Luke 9:29 that when Jesus was praying "his countenance was altered,
and his raiment became white and dazzling." After Moses had been praying on the
mountain his face shone so brightly that the people could not look on it, and he
had to wear a veil.
Thus prayer is obviously dynamic and actuates the spiritual ethers that
interpenetrate all substance. Prayer is related directly to the creative laws of
God, and when man adjusts his mind and body in harmony with those laws, his
prayers will always be effective and far-reaching. The activity of the mind that
is named the understanding is essential in righteous prayer. Spirit is
omnipresent, but the individual consciousness gives it a local habitation and a
name.
If in thinking about God we locate Him in a faraway heaven and direct our
thoughts outward in the hope of reaching Him, all our force will be driven from
us to that imaginary place and we shall become devitalized.
"The kingdom of God is within you." The pivotal point around which Spirit
creates is within the structure of consciousness. This is true of the primal
cell as well as of the most complex organ. The throne on which the divine will
sits is within man's consciousness, and it is to this inner center that he
should direct his attention when praying or meditating. David called this
spiritual center of the soul "the secret place of the Most High," and all the
defense and power of the 91st Psalm is promised to the one who dwells in the
consciousness of the Almighty within. Paul says, "Know ye not that ye are a
temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
In the 6th chapter of Matthew, in giving His disciples directions for prayer,
Jesus called attention to the God center in man in these words: "But thou, when
thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut the door, pray to
thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense
thee." He also told them not to use vain repetitions: "For your Father knoweth
what things ye have need of, before ye ask him."
If Divine Mind knows our needs, why should we have to ask to have them
supplied? We do not ask expecting God to hand us the things we want, but we
realize that He has made provision in the very nature of things for our every
need to be fulfilled. When we realize this and go about our work in perfect
confidence, the fulfillment of the divine law of support and supply is often
demonstrated in ways we had not dreamed of.
Do not supplicate or beg God to give you what you need, but get still and
think about the inexhaustible resources of infinite Mind, its presence in all
its fullness, and its constant readiness to manifest itself when its laws are
complied with. This is what Jesus meant when He said, "Seek ye first his
kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
We all need a better understanding of the nature of God if we are to comply
with the laws under which He creates. We must begin by knowing that "God is
Spirit." Spirit is not located in a big man called God but is everywhere the
breath of life and the knowing quality of mind active in and through all bodies,
"over all, and through all, and in all." The highest form of prayer is to open
our minds and quietly realize that the one omnipresent intelligence knows our
thoughts and instantly answers, even before we have audibly expressed our
desires.
This being true, we should ask and at the same time give thanks that we have
already received. Jesus expressed this idea in Mark 11:24: "Therefore I say unto
you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them,
and ye shall have them." Before He broke the miraculously multiplied loaves and
fishes and fed the five thousand He looked up to heaven and gave thanks. When He
raised Lazarus He first said: "Father, I thank thee that thou heardest me. And I
knew that thou hearest me always." Then He commanded Lazarus to come forth.
We observe that all things come out of the formless, but our knowledge of the
formless is so limited that we do not conceive of its infinite possibilities.
When we think or silently speak in the all-potential ethers of Spirit, there is
always an unfailing effect. "Whatsoever ye have said in the darkness shall be
heard in the light; and what ye have spoken in the ear in the inner chambers
shall be proclaimed upon the housetops."
Silent prayer is more effective than audible, because by silent prayer the
mind comes into closer touch with the creative Spirit. James says, "The prayer
of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up."
Countless thousands are applying this faith prayer today and are being healed as
men were in the time of Jesus.
The strange thing is that this very important proof of the Spirit's work in
Christian healing should have been neglected for so many hundred years when
Jesus gave it as one of the signs of a believer: "These signs shall accompany
them that believe; in my name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak with
new tongues; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it
shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall
recover."
The history of the Christian church records that during its first three
hundred years the followers of Jesus healed the sick by prayer and that healing
was gradually dropped as the church became prosperous and worldly. A layman from
a rural district was being shown, by a bishop, the riches of a cathedral. The
bishop said, "The church can no longer say, 'Silver and gold have I none.'"
"No," said the layman. "Neither can it say, 'Take up thy bed, and walk.'"
It is found by those who have faith in the power of God that the prayer for
health is the most quickly answered. The reason for this is that the natural
laws that create and sustain the body are really divine laws, and when man
silently asks for the intervention of God in restoring health, he is calling
into action the natural forces of his being. Doctors agree that the object of
using their remedies is to quicken the natural functions of the body. But
medicine does not appeal to the intelligent principle that directs all the
activities of the organism, hence it fails to give permanent healing.
However a conscious union with the natural life forces lying within and back
of all the complex activities of man gets right to the fountainhead, and the
results are unfailing if the proper connection has been made.
The first step in prayer for health is to get still. "Be still, and know that
I am God." To get still the body must be relaxed and the mind quieted. Center
the attention within. There is a quiet place within us all, and by silently
saying over and over, "Peace, be still," we shall enter that quiet place and a
great stillness will pervade our whole being. Jesus Christ said, "Peace be unto
you. . . . Receive ye the Holy Spirit." That is, He spoke to the within. He said
also, "whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may
be glorified in the Son."
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith
Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." This verse from Isaiah
gives us an insight into the difference between the mortal thinker and the
divine. Divine Mind is serene, orderly, placid, while sense mind is turbulent,
discordant, and violent. We can readily understand from this comparison why we
do not get divine guidance even though we strive ever so hard for it. The best
of us are subject to crosscurrents of worry that interfere with the even flow of
God's thoughts into our consciousness. Jesus warned His followers not to be
anxious about what they should eat, drink, or wear. In all literature there is
no finer comparison than that given by Jesus when He pointed to the flowers and
said: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither
do they spin; yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these."
If God so clothes the lilies, shall He not much more clothe His children?
This argument holds good with reference to all human needs. There is a natural
law whose chief purpose is to take care of the human family. But the divine
order of creative Mind must be observed by man before he can receive the
benefits of his natural inheritance.
Metaphysicians, who study the mind and its many modes of action, find that
when they refuse to let thoughts of worry, anxiety, or other distraction act in
their minds, they gradually establish an inner quietness that finally merges
into a great peace. This is the "peace of God, which passeth all understanding."
When this peace is attained, the individual gets inspirations and revelations
direct from infinite Mind.
Any method that will hush the external thought clamor will achieve unity with
the inner peace. When we are in peaceful sleep, the outer clamor of thought is
stilled and the great Spirit of the universe communicates its higher vision to
the inner consciousness of man.
The ancient peoples seem to have been more open than moderns to revelations
in sleep. Long ago Job wrote in the 33d chapter of his book:
"In a dream, in a vision of the night,
When deep sleep falleth upon men,
In slumberings upon the bed;
Then he openeth the ears of men,
And sealeth their instruction."
It is written in I Kings, chapter 3, that the Lord appeared to Solomon in a
dream and said, "Ask what I shall give thee." Solomon did not ask for riches,
for honor, or for the glory that kings usually seek, but in meekness he asked
the Lord to give him an "understanding heart" so that he might discriminate
between good and evil and be a wise judge of his people. Riches and honor
followed of course, as they always do when a man is earnestly striving to be
honest and just in all ways.
We get our most vivid revelations when in a meditative state of mind. This
proves that when we make the mind trustful and confident, we put it in harmony
with creative Mind; then its force flows to us in accordance with the law of
like attracting like.
The agonizing, supplicating, begging prayer is not answered, because the
thoughts are so turbulent that Divine Mind cannot reach the pleader. Jesus
prayed with a confident assurance that what He wanted would be granted, and He
established a mode of prayer for His followers that never fails when the same
conditions and relations are attained and maintained with reference to the
Father-Mind.
Through His spiritual attainments Jesus formed a spiritual zone in the
earth's mental atmosphere; His followers make connection with that zone when
they pray in His "name." He stated this fact in John 14:2: "I go to prepare a
place for you." Simon Peter said, "Lord, whither goest thou?" Jesus answered
him, "Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow
afterwards."
When Jesus had purified His body sufficiently, He ascended into this "place"
in the spiritual ethers of our planet. In our high spiritual realizations we
make temporary contact with Him and His spiritual character, represented by His
"name." But we, like the apostles, are not yet able to go there and abide,
because we have not overcome earthly attachments. We shall however attain the
same freedom and spiritual power that He attained if we follow Him in the
regeneration. But we should clearly understand that we cannot go to Jesus'
"place" through death. We must overcome death as He did before we can be
glorified with Him in the "heavens," the higher realms of the mind.
We should not cease to pray to the Father in the name of Christ Jesus; He
said that man should "pray always." Prayer lifts our thoughts on high and sets
us free from the narrow limits of matter, just as the electromagnetic impulse is
lifted and carried by the ether and caught by any receptive station.
Spiritual-minded people are being united today, as in the past, by zones of
spiritual force that will eventually become the permanent thought atmosphere of
the planet. In Revelation this is typified as the New Jerusalem descending out
of the heavens into the earth.
Jesus said we could ask whatsoever we wished in His name and it should be
done unto us: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, If ye shall ask anything of the
Father, he will give it you in my name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my
name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be made full."
Jesus taught in parables because the people did not understand that spiritual
forces, acting through mind, make race conditions. But He told them: "The hour
cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in dark sayings, but shall tell you
plainly of the Father."
The time prophesied by Jesus--when we should plainly understand the character
of the Father--is now at hand, and it behooves all Christians to come out of
parables and to realize that scientific laws govern the material, mental, and
spiritual realms of Being.
"Pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks," wrote Paul to the
Thessalonians. The idea is that we should be persistent in prayer. We know it is
always the will of the air to give us all that we can breathe into our lungs.
Jesus compared the Spirit to the air in describing the new birth to Nicodemus.
It requires lung capacity to breathe deeply of the oceans of air; so it requires
spiritual capacity to realize how accessible and ready omnipresent Spirit is to
fill us full of itself. The lack is in us. God is more willing to give than we
are to receive.
To acquire the mind that is always open to Spirit we must be persistent in
prayer. It is written in the 18th chapter of Luke: "And he spake a parable unto
them to the end that they ought always to pray, and not to faint." He then told
of the judge who feared not God nor man yet who was worn out by the persistency
of a woman who demanded justice.
By experimentation modern metaphysical healers have discovered a large number
of laws that rule in the realm of mind, and they all agree that no two cases are
exactly alike. Therefore one who prays for the health of another should
understand that it is not the fault of the healing principle that his patient is
not instantly restored. The fault may be in his own lack of persistency or
understanding; or it may be due to the patient's dogged clinging to discordant
thoughts. In any case the one who prays must persist in this prayer until the
walls of resistance are broken down and the healing currents are tuned in.
Metaphysicians often pray over a critical case all night, as history says Luther
prayed for the dying Melanchthon and brought about his recovery.
Persistency in prayer awakens the spiritual consciousness and sets into
perpetual glow the core of the soul. When this has been accomplished, one is in
a constant state of thanksgiving and praising, and the joy of a conscious union
with creative Mind is realized.
