One Man's Story and Example of Affirmative Prayer

Classes were once a week for several months. They centered around what Holmes called "scientific prayer" or Spiritual Mind Treatment. This turned out to be a five-step method/technique of affirmative prayer. Not just "positive prayer," the five steps to a Spiritual Mind Treatment and how that's taught constitute a course in how to think and how to verbalize. Their main theme: "To change your life, change your thinking." Taking this class wound up being one of the wisest things I ever did.

The five steps basically stack up like this:

1. Identify and affirm the Oneness of God. 2. Unify with that Oneness. 3. Speak your word about a need or want or desire. 4. Be grateful, have an attitude of gratitude. 5. Release the prayer completely, giving it to God.

This may sound super simple, but believe me, it isn't. I say that because what sounds like "same-old" actually involves deeply felt beliefs and habits from a lifetime of mouthing words that seldom mean what you think they do. I encourage anyone to take this class and experience for yourself how word meanings and what you feel deep inside yourself can be worlds apart. When you pray, the key is to center whatever you do in Divine Order, not my will but Thy Will. You visualize the truth of existence as the Oneness God is, the one power, the one presence, the one mind, the one strength. You identify with that power for in truth you and God are one. You are in God, with God, from God, as God now and forever more. And, in your oneness with The One, you express whatever need or desire exists at that moment, affirming and knowing that healing occurs, that what is true and just and perfect within Divine Order comes to pass according to the Highest Good of All Concerned. You know this. You know your words carry power, the power of the Source of Being, The One God. You express thanks, knowing that it is God who is in charge, for what is truly needed, what is truly wanted or desired, is accomplished according to that Higher Mind. You release your prayer. Surrender completely to that Power greater than you. Amen. Amen.

No, I am not some kind of prayer teacher. I'm simply sharing some ideas, some feelings, that fit in accord with this five-step healing prayer. The key is to convince yourself that the truth of your prayer isso, that healing has already occurred even as you speak, already done in the Mind of God. God knows only perfection, the truth behind and through all that is. Most of us equate what we see around us as reality. Not so. Just ask any near-death experiencer or someone who has had an impactful transformation of consciousness. There really are deeper, more expansive levels to what seems to be true. Learning how to think and how to speak this truth is not only important, it is life-changing!

Still, I struggled in class. I couldn't quite "catch on." My attempts to write a spiritual mind treatment seemed bogus, superficial, hollow. We'd write our prayers, turn them in to the ministers when done, andwhen we'd return the following week, we'd get them back. I'd find comments smeared across each of my pages saying how I could do this better or different or, how I had missed the main message.

My turning point came when I decided to pray for a pair of shoes. They had to be sturdy oxfords, attractive, and cost only $15 because that's all the money I had for such a luxury. This kind of prayer is

not meant to "get things." Still, at this point in my class, I needed a demonstration, proof, solid proof, that this method of prayer worked in the practical everyday world. Soon after establishing my prayer astrue and real, I had to run an errand for my boss which necessitated that I walk through downtown Boise. My route took me right past the most expensive shoe store in town, a place I had never visited. Just as I was about to pass the store, I felt two hands grab me by the shoulders, turn me to face the door,and push me inside. I looked around but no one was there. Well, someone WAS there, because the hands that grabbed me were very strong. Maybe a disincarnate? Maybe an angel? To this day I do not know "who" did it. As I turned to hurry out, a shoe display caught my eye. The shoes atop the display were exactly what I was looking for. I reached for a pair and tried them on. Perfect fit. I put them back, sighing to myself about what surely must be a large price tag, and headed for the door. "They're on sale today," a man shouted. "Fifteen dollars." I turned in disbelief. Fifteen dollars? That couldn't be true. This place was out of my price range. Fifteen dollars? I hurriedly paid the man and asked that they be put in a plain paper bag.

I took that bag to our next class and placed it in the middle of the table. When my turn came, I read my prayer, then opened up that bag. There were my shoes, exactly as prayed for. I received a round of applause. That prayer changed me, not because I got something from it, but because of the way I could move through the words of my prayer into a feeling mode that empowered me to see and feel and taste and smell and touch and know that truth really is true. God really is One, and God and I really are in Oneness together as we have always been, and that whatever seems less than or harmful or scary or wrong or of concern or in need of correction and healing, whatever appeared real could be turned around or altered by recognizing the presence of what really existed. I thought at that time that I could not afford a new pair of shoes, much less an attractive pair. Thanksgiving for me came when I surrendered what I thought and opened up my life for what could exist and obviously did exist at the next highest level of thinking and feeling. Those shoes were my demonstration, my proof, that to change my life I needed first to change the way I thought, spoke, and felt. I needed to "let go" and grow.

Ernest Holmes put into perspective why we often miss the guidance we most need:

"Since the whole secret of divine guidance lies in the ability to accept it, today I affirm that I do accept it. I do believe that the Spirit goes before and prepares the way. I do know that every thought and act is governed and guided by a superior Intelligence. There is something in me that knows what to do. It not only knows what to do, It impels me to act upon what It Knows. This very acceptance flows forth into action through me. Always, there is an inner, quiet, persistent confidence, a non- resistant but complete acceptance, an inward flowing with the stream of Life, knowing that It carries me safely and surely to my destination, and to the accomplishment of every good purpose. This is divine guidance, and I surrender to it."