Recording 461A, “The Preparation of One Power” was used as source material for Chapter 4, “This Is Immortality,” and Chapter 5, “God Is Omnipotent,” in The Altitude of Prayer.
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This is the third session in this 1962 Los Angeles class on prayer, in which Joel teaches that if we want to engage in true prayer, we must prepare for it, and he takes up the ways in which we can prepare to ensure that our prayers are answered.
In the first session of this class, Joel spoke about the requirements for humility, benevolence, forgiveness, and praying for the enemy in order to purify and open our consciousness to the inflow of Spirit so that we can receive impartations of truth from the kingdom within.
In the second session, he addressed the need to understand the nature of prayer and the nature of the Christ, or the I of our being. He spoke about “As ye sow, so shall ye reap,” explaining that as we practice humility, benevolence, forgiveness, and praying for the enemy, we are sowing to the spirit of truth and love, and thus preparing to reap truth and love in the form of spiritually answered prayer. He talked about “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils,” pointing out that putting trust and faith in people who are the channels of our supply is sowing to the flesh, or to man, whose breath is in his nostrils. But when we put our faith and trust in the Infinite Invisible, or the kingdom within our own being, we are sowing to the Spirit, and then we live not under the law, but under grace. He also cited “I am come that ye might have life more abundant” to emphasize that we must not rely on externals for our good, but on the Christ within, the I of our being.
In this third session of the class, Joel teaches another essential step in preparation for prayer, which is the step in which we surrender the belief in two powers and settle back in the truth that I alone am power; I in the midst of you am the only power. There is no power that can be used, and in fact, you do not even need power. If there is only one power—God—there cannot be another power to fight or to overcome. But if we pray to God to do something for us, or to overcome some power, or to change an evil condition into a good one, we are exposed as believing that there is some power other than God operating, and that God can overcome that power. This is not praying aright because it acknowledges two powers—God, and something other than God. True prayer that results in answered prayer must be based on the omnipotence of God, the truth that God is the ONE and ONLY power, and that power a creative, maintaining, and sustaining power, not an overcoming power.
Review of the Class
Why Do We Pray?
Joel says, “There is nothing in all of the world as important as the subject of prayer, more especially an understanding of prayer, to everyone who is seeking some measure of freedom, of peace on earth. The world in general has not known of the value of prayer, so they spend little time on it, and they miss not only the joys of life, but the freedom of life.” Why does he say that prayer is so important?
Joel teaches that we have no idea of what the God-life can be until we have contacted our inner source, the fountain of life. A human life span is just a parenthesis, a short interval inside the real life, but not the real life itself. If you live only inside of the “parenthesis” that begins at human birth and ends at death, you are missing the real life—the eternal, infinite, immortal structure, in which we discover God’s creation, God’s life, God’s love, the life and love of each other. You will only discover that God-life through prayer and meditation, as you learn to be taught of God, to receive impartations of spiritual wisdom, and that is what makes prayer so important.
Prayer is our contact with the infinite Source that maintains the harmony, the peace, the wholeness, and the completeness of mankind. If we really understood the function and practice of prayer, and if we knew how to pray aright, we could avoid the discords of human existence and fulfill our nature. This capacity for fulfillment exists within each of us, and the purpose of life on earth is to bring forth those capacities; to bring forth the divine beauties, harmonies, and graces into lives of joy and fulfillment. But we lost this capacity when we began to search around the world in the outer realm for the Holy Grail. We lost it when we lost the ability to turn within, to “open out a way to let this imprisoned splendor escape.”
Joel reminds us that Scripture exhorts us to continuous prayer:
When we begin to practice true prayer, it does begin to restore harmony in our lives in health, abundance, and relationships. But the real aim of prayer is that we discover the nature of our real life, our eternal life, so that right here on earth, we can encompass the totality of spiritual, divine, ageless existence.
The fruitage of praying aright is that we begin to find the kingdom of God. By living through the Soul, we come to know the Presence that formed this world and animates it, the divine grace that puts leaves, blossoms and fruits on a seemingly barren tree. It is the supreme joy to live with this Presence, watch It function in our experience, and bring fruitage to our lives. We begin to discern the real nature of every individual; we see through the human limitations, and divine love comes to the heart. We begin a life of spiritual love, spiritual sharing, and spiritual grace.
The Third Step in Preparation for Prayer – Acknowledgment of One Power
We will not get this life of spiritual love and grace by praying to God to give us things, or to destroy our enemies, or to make us healthy, wealthy, and wise. We must prepare for prayer in the ways that were taught in the first two sessions of the class. But there is yet a further step, without which there is no way to receive God.
To reach the height of prayer, you must know not only that there is no power in matter, but that neither is there power in mind or thought. Why is there no power in mind or thought? Because you can use the mind for good or for evil, and therefore it is not of God. Because it is not of God, it is not power. The truth is that God is the only power, and beside God there is no other power. This universe is governed by law. God is the only lawgiver, and so the only true law with power is spiritual law.
This truth must be reflected in our prayers:
Thank you, Father. We do not need any powers on earth. There are no powers on earth for You to destroy, for You to overcome, for You to remove. Thank you, Father, that Thou art Spirit, and Spirit only is power. Thy law alone is power, and Thy law is a spiritual law governing all creation. Thank you, Father. We are not turning to You to destroy evil. We are turning to You in gratitude that we have learned that evil is not power—material evil or mental evil. We are turning within in peace, because now we have nothing to fear.
All fear departs from us in this truth: “God has no pleasure in your dying.” God is not the author of death or of any destructive material or mental law. Any such belief is a lie. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”—freedom from sin, disease, lack, and limitation—not because God is a power over other powers, but because God is light, and where light is, darkness cannot exist. Light does not remove darkness. It proves there is no darkness, for darkness doesn’t go anywhere. In spiritual discernment, disease and sin do not go anywhere. The light reveals the absence of sin, disease, age, lack, limitation, hates, jealousy, and animosity.
Thought that can be loving AND hateful, or pure AND sinful, cannot be of God. But when thought is imparted to you from the Spirit within, it is always a spiritual thought. It is neither good nor evil. It is just truth. It is spiritual, harmonious, eternal, immortal, infinite. In prayer and meditation, you do not think thoughts of evil or thoughts of good. “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Instead, in prayer you receive thoughts of God, and when you hear the still small voice, the earth of error melts. Thought is not power; it cannot turn disease into health or health into disease. But the Spirit of God in you reveals divine harmony where sin, disease, death, lack, and limitation appear to the human senses, to the one who believes in good and evil.
So in prayer, instead of taking thought, you become receptive to God and settle into an inner peace, knowing that there are no powers other than the God-power that creates, maintains, and sustains the universe; that there are no material or mental powers. You are in prayer only to commune with God, to receive God’s grace and light. You are not looking for a power to overcome anything. Your prayer becomes a peaceful listening: “Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth. Thy grace is my sufficiency in all things. In Thy presence is fulfillment.”
Reflection and Practice
How Do I Respond to the Appearance of Two Powers?
This class gives us an opportunity to reflect on how we respond to the appearances that would tempt us to believe in two powers—God, and a power other than God. We all have experiences that seem to validate the belief in a power other than God. For example, we, or someone we love, may bump into a discordant physical or mental issue. We hear about wars being waged in the world and people dying. We learn that government officials are behaving in ways that compromise integrity or responsibility. We hear about rampant poverty, and we are bombarded with requests to help alleviate it.
So it can be helpful to ask ourselves: