"And this is Life Eternal: to know God. "
Cosmc consciousness or conscious uniy wh Eternal pirit can only be atained by a contnuous and sustained effort on he part of man. The extension of consciousness always requires a mental effort; and his mental effort, when t s a seeking for uniy wh pirit, constutes prayer.
Prayer s an effort of he human mnd o become acquainted wh God. It s not an effort o establsh a relatonship which does not exist, but o fuly comprehend and recognize a relatonship which already exists. Prayer can have but one object, and hat is uniy wh pirit; for all other things are included in that.
We do not realy seek, through prayer, to get healh, peace, power or wealh; we seek to get unity with God; and when we get uniy wh God, healh, peace, power and wealh are ours whout asking. udy he ntercessory prayer, as t is caled, in he seventeenth chapter of John, and you wl see hat Jesus asks nothing for men except that hey may be one n mnd wh God. This s the one thing needful; all other things are contained in it.
Whoever has full spiritual consciousness has healh, peace, power and wealh.
Oneness Through Prayer and Wl
Jesus aid great stress on prayer n Hs eachings, and demonstrated Hs relance upon t in Hs daiy practce. The gospels abound wh references o Hs praying; to Hs going apart to pray, contnuing all night in prayer, and so on.
It is evident that Hs consciousness hat He and he Father were one was only retained by persistenty and contnuously affirmng and reaffirmng he fact. This fact, it must be remembered, is n direct contradicton to our objectve consciousness.
We appear to think, lve, move and have our being entirely n ourselves and of ourselves; our physical senses deny the existence of a God. God s not found by extending the outward or objective consciousness. "God s pirit," said Jesus, "and they who approach Him must approach Him through their own spirits."
To attain cosmc consciousness, the effort of prayer must be, first to arouse to activity the spirit in man and second, to unite that spirit in conscious union with God.
The spirit of man - the ego - the man himself, is aroused whenever the will acts.
Only the man himself can wi; and when he wis t is his whole personality which comes into action.
We see, then, that Jesus was perfectly scientific in aying down His first requirement for attaining cosmc consciousness - that one must wil to do the wil of God.
He plainly ascribes His own power to His settng His wil to do the wil of Cosmic Spirit; and He says;
"He that willeth to do the will of God shall know."
To wil to do the wil of the Father, to keep His sayings, to do His works; this was the first step toward unity. And the next was the prayer of faith.
The Prayer of Faith
The prayer of faith s clearly described n Mark 11:23-24. "Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
"Therefore, I say unto you, what things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them (now), and ye shall have them."
We see, here, that the prayer of faith cannot be offered twice for the same thing. As soon as you have asked, if you have real faith, your prayer changes to an affirmation of possession. Having wied to do the wil of God, and having asked God to receive you nto Himself, nothing is left you but to declare, "I and my Father are one."
This is the point which has been missed by most commentators - that the prayer of faith, when uttered, becomes an affirmation of possession. You cannot continue to pray for a thing when you believe that you receive it; you can only return thanks and assert that t is yours.
The Process of Receiving
First, wil to do the wil of God, and then (2) pray that you may be one with Him; and then (3) affirm, "I and my father are one."
And when you have definitely established n your consciousness the fact of your unity with pirit, then draw your deductions of health, peace, power and wealth from this fact, and affirm them; otherwise you may not demonstrate them, for while they are all included in the fact of your unity with God, the mere assertion of that may not bring all the corollaries to your consciousness.
When the disciples came to Jesus asking Him to teach them to pray, He gave them the Lord's prayer; and t begins; "Thy kingdom come." When one has said that, he has asked for all there is; in the Kingdom of God no one would be without daily bread, or suffer evil; but these things are included n the prayer in order to make the thing prayed for more definite to the understanding.
o, the general affirmation of unity with God s not sufficiently definite to bring us health, peace, power and wealth; we do not clearly understand that these are ncluded, and t is better to affirm them. But we must be definite and specific in our understanding of the fact of our unity with God.
"That Mnd Which Was n Christ Jesus"
"I and my Father are one." That is good, but it does not convey the
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A NEW CHRIST dea to the modern mind with sufficient distinctness.
"There s one Intellgence, and I am one with that Intellgence." Better, but somewhat clumsy.
"There is one MIND, and I am that MIND." That is a most clear-cut and concise statement of the fact; it would be hard to put it more tersely.
"There s ONE MIND." When you say that, think of the one Intellgence, permeating all things, vitalizing all things, giving coherence and purpose to all things. Get your thought fixed on this MIND, so that it seems to you that you can see and feel it! Then say: "I AM that MIND."
It is that MIND which s speaking, when I speak; which s acting when I act.
I-AM-that-MIND.
It takes affirming and reaffirming to get this fact fixed n consciousness, but all the me you put nto the work s most profitably spent. You can well afford to go, as Jesus did, into the desert to fast and meditate for forty days; you can well afford to spend whole nights in prayer, if by doing so you can arrive at a full consciousness of your unity with God.
For then you wil have entered the Kingdom.
"There is one MIND, and I am that MIND." Say it continuously, and always when you say t, try to comprehend all that it means. You; you who speak, are eternal mind; eternal power; eternal lfe.
All things are yours, and all things are possible unto you, when once you have banished the false dea of separateness from your consciousness.
Your word wil be with power, and you wil speak as one having authority; you wil demonstrate health, power, wealth and wisdom
when he consciousness hat you are he ETERNAL ONE has obtained complete possession of your mnd, objectve and subjectve.
And you can bring his about; only faih and contnuing n affirmaton whie you wl to do the wl of God, are required.
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