Spiritual Solutions

When Jesus talked to God, he aligned himself with God. He said, "The Father and I are one," and "He who has seen me has seen the Father." To differentiate in a simple way between prayer and meditation, we often say that prayer is talking to God, and meditation is listening to God. But for Jesus, prayer was talking to God in a special way. He prayed and spoke not just to God, but from a consciousness of God presence, a consciousness of oneness with or in God.

When Jesus gave us the guidelines for prayer, he helped us to focus upon that truth and he used affirmative prayer. He didn’t use begging prayer. Any time you read the words of Jesus, you discover that he never begged God. He thanked God, and he believed in God. He believed the answer was already there, he gave thanks that the answer was already there. And when he was speaking from his Christ self, or God self, he said "I am the resurrection and the life. I am the bread of life. I am the true vine. I am the way, the truth, and the life." He focused on the "I am" presence of God within him.

Remember when Moses was in the wilderness and came upon the burning bush, he asked God’s name. And God in response within Moses’ own consciousness came to him, "I am that I am."

The "I am" is the very presence of God in us, and when Jesus spoke from his Christ self he affirmed the truth of his being, "I am the bread of life." In the scriptures, wherever you read those statements, you’ll find that Jesus also performed some kind of miracle as an expression of that particular truth. When he said, "I am the bread of life," it was very close to the feeding of the five thousand. When he affirmed "I am the resurrection and the life," it was very close to the raising of Lazarus. He was focusing upon the truth of his being. And that’s what affirmative prayer is all about. It’s not making yourself into something that you’re not, but it’s affirming the truth of what you already are. And that’s an important distinction and an important realization.

Jesus was not someone that God specialized in, but God was what Jesus specialized in. It’s an important distinction. So often we think of Jesus being the special person that God ordained for this particular purpose. But as well as saying "I am the light of the world," Jesus said to us, "You are the light of the world." His whole focus was on us, realizing for us the truth of our own being and encouraging us to bring it forth into expression.

So in our prayer time, if we can move away from some of the old ways of prayer and move toward the affirming of our oneness with God’s good, then we’ll begin to realize that good in our lives.

Eric Butterworth had an idea that I’d like to share with you, about developing a workbook for yourself in dealing with any particular
problems you may have. He suggested that you have a notebook and write in it some challenge that you are facing or some problem you may have. Write down all the description of the problem or challenge and how it’s affecting you, whether it’s a health challenge or a relationship challenge or whatever it is. So you write out the problem.

Then the next thing you do is write down how you feel it ought to be, such as "I ought to be feeling well." "I ought to be in touch with that healing power within me." "I ought to be expressing the truth of my being," or "I ought to be feeling at peace with myself in this relationship." Whatever it is, write down how you feel it ought to be. Eric Butterworth called it the "oughtness" of it.

Then, he said, take that one step further and write it as an "I am" statement as if it were already true. "I am expressing the healing power of God’s presence." "I am one with the divine flow of love in my life and my relationships are whole and healthy," and whatever it is that you want to add to it. Let the affirmations come from your own being.

So you can use this as a workbook, your own personal prayer book, your own personal book of common prayer. But it’s your own; it’s coming from your own self. Eric says you might want to call it your "ought-to-be-ography." Whatever you call it, it’s a workbook for you that you can use to come forth with your own affirmations. They don’t have to be words that you read from the Silent Unity prayer sheet or from the Daily Word, but let them come from your own consciousness. It can be something very simple.

My wife and fellow Unity minister, Kathryn, was counseling with a person who is now deceased, but when she was working with her the lady wanted an affirmation for healing. Kathryn wasn’t going to be able to see her for two or three weeks, so she said to her, "Look, I’m going to give you this prayer for healing and I want you to keep repeating it every day." It was something like "Divine love is flowing through me now, healing me now, bringing me into wholeness, freedom and strength, right now." She had the lady repeat it several times.

Then Kathryn was away for a few weeks and met with the lady again when she came back and asked her, "Well, how are you doing?" She said, "Oh, I’m doing fine, thanks." "Oh," Kathryn said, "I see you must have used that affirmation then." She said, "No, I forgot the affirmation, so I just said: ‘Oh, hell, I’m well!’"

But, you see, that came from her own consciousness, didn’t it? That was her affirmation. And she was, indeed, well. So that was the truth of her being.

The idea is to practice the presence of God. Open yourself up to God’s presence, and say "Here I am, use me. Live yourself through me with your healing power, your guiding presence, your prospering expression of rich abundance." Whatever it is: "Live yourself through me." And do that in every moment of every day.

The Sanskrit word for prayer is "palal," and it means "to judge oneself as wondrously made." That’s what prayer is all about, to judge yourself with righteous judgment, as one being wondrously made. You were made in the image and likeness of God. You might say that you have the realization of being one with God, you are one-derful! Tell yourself, "I am one-derful! I am one with God. I am wondrously made." Begin to realize that truth, and it brings you into the consciousness of oneness with God.

That’s how you to talk to God; you claim your inheritance of good that is already waiting for you. Instead of begging, coercing, making shopping lists, align yourself with the cosmic flow of God’s presence that is always seeking to be expressed in you and through you and as you. Then you talk to God and God talks through you, in all that you are and in all that you do.

God is blessing you right now!
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Rev. Alan Rowbotham, a Unity minister for thirty-five years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

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