It’s Time to Upgrade Our Prayers

However, early in his ministry he couldn’t understand why it was that people came to him and were healed from illnesses, poverty, addictions and many other life issues, and yet he was so poor that he didn’t even have enough money to ride the bus.

He had a conversation with God and it went something like this…“God, I’ve prayed and prayed asking you to prosper me and yet still I don’t have enough money to meet my needs. You don’t seem to be doing anything about my problem.”

It was then that the answer came to him that God had already provided him with everything he needed for this world; he just had to learn to use it.  Hearing this, he began to affirm that he already had prosperity. Day after day, and even when bill collectors called, he continued to think and say and feel that he already had “all that the Father has.”  It was a month before the first money came in.  He praised and blessed it and continued his new-found way of praying. Before long all his bills were paid and he had no more struggles with lack of money for the rest of his life.

From Supplication to Affirmation

For most of us, prayer has been a supplication to a God that is not where we are. Or as Eckhart Tolle says, “Duality is implied in the usual prayer. It implies that there is God, and here is me, asking God. That duality is ultimately an illusion, because you are an expression of God. You and God merge.”

John 16:24 gives us some additional insight:  “So far you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

It’s interesting that the word “ask” in this passage is the Greek word “aiteō” which means “to make a demand upon something due.” “Making a demand on something due” is a very different kind of asking and a very different kind of prayer.  It is knowing that since we are one with God, our asking becomes a claiming of that which is already ours.

Here we are on planet Earth having a human life experience, but we are beings of Light and Love and Presence.  As Spirit, we are, in essence, embodied consciousness, created in the image and likeness of Divine Consciousness, our Creator.  It doesn’t make sense that we would be here without any power to affect our circumstances for the better.  Love wouldn’t do that. I, as a parent, do everything I can to help, provide, and give to my children because I love them. I want them to have everything they need and to be happy, healthy, prosperous and fulfilled.

Our divine heritage is an all-providing Love. As Jesus said in Matthew 7: 9-11: “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him.”

Steps to Upgraded Prayer

As we allow our hearts to open to the All Providing Presence of Spirit within us, we can then pray from our oneness, instead of from our separation. And when we pray, we will claim with thanksgiving what has already been given us because it is already within us, as Divine Consciousness. Here are five steps that you can use in your prayers.

God is all there is.  It’s helpful to visualize an all-encompassing ocean that represents God’s Presence everywhere.

I am one with God.  See yourself as a wave of that great ocean; made out of ocean and inseparable from it.

I affirm the good that I desire.  Here you affirm your desire. The only caveat is that it be good, a blessing for yourself and/or others.  For example, if you are ill, your affirmation might be, “I am whole and well in every way.”

I give thanks for it.  Give and feel your thanksthat God has already provided for you in every conceivable way, including this desire, and it is now taking form with ease and grace.

I release it. You might say “And so it is. Amen.”

As we make this way of prayer a daily practice, we become witnesses to the glory of God and of God’s love in our lives.

John 10: 10: “I come that they may have life and have it abundantly.”