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"The
secret of prayer and its power in the outward life depends upon an
unconditioned faith in, and reliance upon this inner Presence. We
must enter the closet. That is, we are to shut out all else and
enter the Presence of Spirit, in quietness and confidence - believing.
Prayer has power, not through repetition, but by belief and acceptance.
Prayer is to be simple, direct and receiving. We are to believe
that God indwells our own life, that this Divine Presence is sufficient
for all needs. We are to believe that God will provide for and
bless us abundantly. And when we enter this secret place, we are
to leave all else behind; all hate, animosity and vindictiveness, for
only in so doing can we enter." -
Dr. Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind
In these few statements Dr. Holmes is giving us
great insight into our relationship with the Infinite Spirit. We
believe that God indwells our own life and that this Divine Presence is
sufficient for all our needs, by affirming that it is ... and
persistently affirming until we
"absolutely believe it". There is no power in
repetition. We may have to affirm only once to believe and accept
our Good, or we may have to affirm a thousand times ... repetition opens
our mind to believe ... and belief connects us, in mind, to the Power of
God. Dr. Holmes stresses that we are to leave behind all hate,
animosity and vindictiveness. In contemporary terms these include
prejudice, bigotry, homophobia, anti-Semitism, sexism and racism ... and
on an even more personal level, shame, guilt and blame. In
scripture this is stated as, "narrow is the gate, straight is the way, but
few are those who enter." We do not enter because of our
unbelief ... we have not left behind or eliminated duality in our minds;
Good and evil ... when in Truth, there is only Good, or God.
Truth is a straight line ... It is Absolute.
Charles
Haanel, in his classic 1912 book, "The Master Key System,"
writes something very similar to Dr. Holmes:
"Everything which we hold in our
consciousness for any length of time becomes impressed upon our
subconscious and so becomes a pattern which the creative energy will
weave into our life and environment. This is the secret of the
wonderful power of prayer. ... The real secret of power is consciousness
of power. The
Universal Mind (God, Infinite Spirit), is unconditional; therefore, the
more conscious we become of our unity with this mind, the less conscious
we shall become of conditions and limitations, and as we become
emancipated or freed from conditions we come into a realization of the
unconditional. We have become free! ... As soon as we become
conscious of the inexhaustible power in the world within, we begin to
draw on this power and apply and develop the greater possibilities which
this discernment has realized, because whatever we become conscious of
is invariably manifested in the objective (material) world, is brought
forth into tangible expression. ... This is because the Infinite Mind,
which is the source from which all things proceed, is one and
indivisible, and each individual is a channel whereby this Eternal
Energy is being manifested. Our
ability to think is our ability to act upon this Universal substance,
and what we think is
what is created or produced in the objective world."
And so we see that everything that we desire to
experience in our lives depends on mental attitude. Our mental
attitude is our personality. We all know people who have a
"wonderful personality" ... or a "persuasive
personality" ... we see them this way because of what they hold in
their consciousness. All metaphysicians understand that our
predominant thoughts, or mental attitude, attracts its own ...
"like attracts like" ... let's not let appearances deceive us,
"opposites attract" ... is a contradiction of spiritual law
and is an illusion. No matter how difficult it is to accept at
times, we always attract to us what we hold in our consciousness ...
that is the predominate beliefs we hold in consciousness. Someone
who has been robbed may ask, "does this mean I attracted this into
my experience?" And the answer is no, you did not ...
the belief that you have held in your consciousness about loss or
discord of some kind, attracted this. Not you, but the belief ...
and we have the ability to eliminate the belief.
There is only One Power,
and It is Omnipotent, and we draw on, or use, this Power, as we believe
and accept that nothing can oppose it, that we are Divinely supported in
accepting our Good. But, we must cease believing that we must
"learn" how to do it ... and instead, realize that all we must
do is "remember" that we can use this Power, that it is
available to us now and always. We have allowed what we have
learned in the world to create a veil of false belief to separate us
from God ... from Power. But as we daily go into the Silence and
let the Spirit stir up our remembrance ... and affirm that we now have
the "power to prosper" ... we shall prosper ... abundantly!
AND
SO IT IS!
Keep
the faith!
Rev.
Dr. Henry Lee Bates
Visit Rev. Bates BLOG: Living
the Science of Mind
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