Sunday Message for October 22, 2023

BASIC UNITY PRINCIPLES - #4

I would like to talk about the Basic Unity Principles today, as I have done for the last three weeks. There are 5 of them and they are:

1. There is only one Presence and one Power active as the universe and as my life, God the Good.
2. Our essence is of God; therefore, we are inherently good. This God essence was fully expressed in Jesus, the Christ.
3. We are co-creators with God, creating reality through thoughts held in mind.
4. Through prayer and meditation, we align our heart-mind with God. Denials and affirmations are tools we use.
5. Through thoughts, words and actions, we live the Truth we know.

So, I'm going to be covering these for the next two weeks, one principle a week.

COMMUNION WITH GOD
Let's talk about the fourth principle today. Through prayer and meditation, we align our heart-mind with God. Denials and affirmations are tools we use. On the children's poster it is stated this way: Through affirmative prayer and meditation, I connect with God and bring out the good in my life.

Prayer is creative thinking that heightens the connection with God-Mind and therefore brings forth wisdom, healing, prosperity, and everything good.

Prayer would seem to be the simplest and most familiar of spiritual concepts. Even little children understand it. Prayer has been practiced by human beings throughout the ages, in many different forms, addressed to Gods of many different names. And yet this is where confusion often sets in regarding the five principles.

Think about the first three principles in the context of prayer.

1. God is all there is, everywhere and absolute good. This transcendent God is not an old man watching from a cloud, showering us with blessings or discipline when the mood strikes, but is the field of intelligence, love, and creative energy in which we live. We can never be separate from the divine Presence.

2. We are expressions of God, like waves in the ocean, and we are divine at our core, at the very center of our being. God is within us.

3. We create our own experience when we focus on something and, consciously or not, draw it forth from a field of limitless possibilities, or God-Mind. In this sense, we are co-creators with God.

So if we're already creating whatever shows up, then why pray it all?

Prayer puts our belief in the first three principles to the test. It forces us to find new concepts and new language for the divine, our relationship to it, and our role in creation. This is not easy. Many people - even those who understand the Law of Attraction and know that their thoughts manifest in their lives - cling to the idea of God as a daddy who will take care of them. They believe they can petition God for favors, behave well enough to deserve blessings, and be protected from the hardships of life. This belief often rationalizes life's challenges as a test of faith "sent" by God to build our character. "God won't give you more than you can handle," they assure each other.

But this God cannot be defended. This is the God who "allows" war and starvation, who heals some and not others, who protects the favored few. Watch the news after any natural disaster or violent incident. Those who escaped harm will often credit God with saving them. Does that mean that God didn't love the others? They weren't worth saving? This is the caricature of God that turns people into atheists, a God that doesn't make sense. This God lets bad things happen to good people and does nothing.

The problem, however, is not with God but with our image of a supreme being whose behavior - by our own description - is arbitrary and only sporadically loving. We humans have assigned these traits to God then spent centuries bemoaning that God is not kinder and more protective. And we have continued to pray for kindness and protection against all evidence.

We've got our theory wrong. God is not the one pulling the strings, making things happen or not happen, keeping us safe or not. We are the ones deciding what shows up in our lives, through our focus, our thoughts, our words, and our allowing. We are creating our own experience whether we know it or not.

Praying from the level of co creator and tapping into our own divinity to create outcomes can be mind-boggling. This new concept of prayer may require a complete overhaul not only in our understanding of God but in our beliefs about ourselves and who we truly are, as well as why things happen. That has been the work of the first three principles.

In the book Effectual Prayer, Francis Foulkes writes, "To acknowledge that we ourselves have brought into our world everything less than good and to forgive ourselves for all the blame we have ever attached to God or to others for the sorrows and sufferings that have come to us are very important steps in preparation for prayer."^a

Our ideas about God have to change, but this too can be challenging. We have to understand that the power within is more than our personality. Our ego-self is not our entire Self, and our conscious thoughts are not our only source of answers.

We always have access to all the attributes of God. And we need to cultivate an understanding of the power of the word.

"In the beginning was the Word," the book of John begins, "and the Word was with God and the Word was God."^b

The Greek logos is translated "word" in the Christian Bible but means much more. The original definition of logos implies the conscious intent behind the spoken word; it implies the creative power of the thought. Even Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines logos as "divine wisdom manifest... in the world."

Our words contain their own creative power, just as God's words created the earth. "Let there be light..."

Prayer is where Spirit meets language. Of course the universe does not need our words; it responds to energetic vibration. Words resonate within us; we say them for our own sakes. They clarify our thoughts and intentions. They are the voice by which we call forth what we want from the field of possibilities. When we speak consciously, we release our words as if shooting an arrow at a target. We refrain from saying anything we don't want to see in our lives.

That's what Jesus meant when he said, "Ask and it will be given." Asking is not begging or beseeching, as many of us were taught. It is focusing our thoughts and aiming our intentions. Prayer is the time we take to focus, to align ourselves in oneness with the divine and affirm that whatever we need is already ours. This is affirmative prayer.

Like the other principals, affirmative prayer - declaring that our needs are already fulfilled - sounds presumptuous to any who were taught that humans should grovel before God. We may fear that claiming we attracted whatever shows up in our lives drives God out of the process or fails to acknowledge our gifts and blessings. But remember Principle One: It's all God. Jesus taught us to pray in this manner. "Your father knows what you need before you ask him,"^c he said and "whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."^d

Whatever we need or want already exists for us. It is already ours. We can't get ahead of God.

In affirmative prayer, we're remembering who we truly are as expressions of the eternal life force on earth, and we are taking time to align our thoughts and feelings with our highest good. We affirm our well-being, that our needs are filled and that there is no lack in the universe. Because the universe senses our vibration, prayer is more than the words we utter between "Dear God" and "Amen." Every thought, every feeling, is a prayer.

And the response is always yes.

Prayer is a very personal activity and because none of us knows the whole truth about God, we conceive of prayer in many different ways. Prayers are not really "answered" at all because every possibility already exists in the quantum field. This is the universal yes. We pull from the field of pure potential according to our vibration or focus. This focus may come from the level of personality, where we want all sorts of whimsical things, or from the soul or higher Self, where our deepest desires and intentions are known.

This is why we so often mislabeled the events of our lives. This is why so many people declare - later - that getting fired or having cancer was the best thing that ever happened to them. Their deepest desires were addressed, although in an unexpected way.

If prayer seems to go unanswered, it is not a decision by God to deny us what we want. It is one of two things:

1. We are attracting from an unconscious, deeper desire, or
2. We are blocking the answer we want.

The two actually may be the same. Many women say that they want a man in their lives. They think they are focused on attracting a man, but they are focused on lack-of-man. A lot of them talk about how much trouble a man can be! So, does the universe give them the man they say they desire? Or does it answer their vibration of lack? Or does it respond to their fear of being hurt or inconvenienced? They are blocking their own good.

Blocks are made of fear, doubt, and feelings of unworthiness. Those seeking more money may not feel they deserve it. Those who want to conceive a baby may doubt that it will ever happen. (that's lack-of-baby thinking. It is often remedied by adoption, which is why so many couples conceive after adopting. With a baby in the house, they are no longer stuck in lack-of-baby consciousness.) Those who want love may fear a broken heart, another divorce or attracting another abuser. Whatever shows up - or doesn't - is not God intervening in our lives but our own process of attracting or blocking what we want. We are, even in prayer, the creators of our own experience.

AFFIRMATIVE PRAYER
The process of affirmative prayer begins with a shift in consciousness, then in words. It is praying from a consciousness of God, from a higher Self that is in constant contact with the divine. Deepak Chopra describes it in his book The Third Jesus:

"At a deeper level everything is unified and whole. When you ask for anything, the One is asking the One, God is asking God. And there is always a response... In this case, "response" doesn't mean a yes or no from God. There is no judge deciding whether you are worthy or not. Those perceptions were born of separation. When Jesus told his followers that God sees and knows everything, he was describing the complete intimacy between the self and the intelligence that pervades the universe. Since you could not exist without being part of that intelligence, praying to God is circular, a feedback loop."^e

Affirmative prayer simply means to remember that whatever we ask for in prayer is ours already. We affirm its availability. No matter what is happening at the moment, look past the appearance and speak only about what you want. This is how we focus an intention in our own minds. This is how we call forth any given outcome from the field of possibility.

The Greek and Hebrew words that are translated ask in the Christian Bible imply a demand or claim. "Give us this day our daily bread" assumes that our wish will be granted, just as we might say "please pass the salt" with no doubt the salt will be handed over.

Does this turn God into Santa Claus granting our every whim? No. It makes us co-creators, playing our part in creation. It gives us responsibility for what shows up on our planet and in our lives. It reminds us that we have been entrusted with divine power.

Charles Fillmore said,"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."^f

The most effective prayer of all is just a period of silence so that we might align ourselves with God and with our true Selves. The Buddhists call it samadhi, a place of perfect stillness to make room for inspiration. The Tao te Ching says, "Bide in Silence, and the radiance of the spirit shall come in and make its home."

When Jesus spent time alone, and he often withdrew from the crowds, he presumably realigned his consciousness with the divine so that he could continue to express the Christ, the perfect idea of humankind. Each of us is imbued with the divine, and Jesus said we could do anything he could do. Taking time to remember our divine connection and reaffirm our intentions is as necessary to humans as food and sleep.

Affirmative prayer is not the hope that things will get better but the certainty that they already are better. God is already here. Good is already here. We look past appearances, ignore outer circumstances, and affirm the truth of God in every situation.

The specific words used in affirmative prayer are not as important as the intention to affirm what already exists, even when we can't see the results yet, and give thanks for it in advance. The attitude is completely positive. It's as if we are praying from the other side of the problem, where all is well. We project ourselves into that place of pure, positive energy and pray from a consciousness of God, of oneness or alignment. We see the people or situation through the eyes of Source.

We also remember that God is within us. There's no need for praise or supplication. Instead, we become still enough to feel the presence that is always within and around us and to know the love in which we live.

Prayer is not to solicit God but to solidify us. It is to refresh and realign our minds and hearts with the divine. It is to affirm the absolute good of the universe. It is to move from ego to soul, to contact the Christ of our being, and begin to live again from our best selves. We do not beg God for favors but call forth that which is already ours, the abundance of a universe built on love, seeded with intelligence, and responsive to our every thought. Prayer brings about miracles because we are the miraculous expression of the Infinite.

Through prayer and meditation, we align our heart-mind with God. Denials and affirmations are tools we use.

Let it be your way...