A: And here too, there is no answer to that. Prayer is so individual. And to begin with, there is no knowledge of man that can be called prayer. When you rightly pray, it isn’t you that’s praying. You are the instrument in which, or through which, God is uttering His word, and that is prayer.
In other words, if you’re in the kindergarten of metaphysics, all right, it is to be expected that for a little while, you will pray to God and ask Him to open the eyes of your enemies, or to bring light into his consciousness, or to reveal Himself to the materialistic thought. And this will certainly lift up an individual to a higher sense of prayer, where the real prayer can begin. But for those at this level of consciousness, there should be no such thought about how to pray, not only in that way, but in any other way.
Because by now it should be clear that we do not pray in the sense of prayer as it is ordinarily understood in church; that whatever we do of praying in that way is only for the purpose of lifting ourselves up . . . for the real prayer. And the real prayer is the still small voice that utters Itself in our consciousness.
Now, is it not clear to you, that there are no words or thoughts on your part that is going to make God do anything for anybody? Is it not clear to you by now that God cannot be influenced by man, and therefore any praying of that kind belongs back to the middle of the nineteenth century and to those who are still living—from a religious standpoint—in the nineteenth century? For you, this must be understood: “I do not know how to pray. I do not know how to go out or how to come in. I do not know what to pray for. Speak Lord, Thy servant heareth. Let Thy Spirit make intercession with my spirit. Let Thy voice be heard in this earth. Thou utterest Thy voice, the earth melteth.”
And then bring yourself into an atmosphere of listening: “Speak Lord, Thy servant heareth. I will listen for Thy voice.” Then put yourself in the position of a person who has been called upon by some member of a family with the news that my wife, or my husband, or my child, is dying. Please pray for them and help them. Are you egotistical enough to believe that you would know how to pray to save a human life? Heaven forbid that anyone following this work should believe that they have such power, such wisdom, as to know how to pray. There is no way except the way of silence. “Speak Lord, speak Lord, let Yourself be heard in this earth. Voice Yourself through me. Speak to me. Assure me of Thy presence.” And it isn’t that God is hearing and going to answer. It is that you are preparing yourself for the voice that is already there. In other words, you are tuning in to an omnipresent voice.
The presence of God is always with you, and the only reason you don’t know it is that you are thinking and speaking. If only you could learn to stop thinking and stop speaking, you would be surprised at how quickly you would hear the still small voice; how quickly you would receive the assurance of God’s presence.
Try to come out from this old theological belief that there is some kind of a mysterious God somewhere that is going to do you a favor because you ask it, or your minister, or your practitioner. There is no God to do you a favor. There is no God to step out of its orbit and do something a minute from now that It wasn’t doing a minute ago. To receive God’s grace, you don’t start God in action; you become still and become aware of a divine Presence that is as close to you as breathing, and It is as near—It is nearer—than hands and feet. As a matter of fact, It is the divinity of your own being. It is your own higher Self, or higher consciousness, and it is the Christ that is as available today as it was two thousand years ago.
Only don’t believe for a minute that you have to ask favors of It, or that you have to direct It to do anything to anybody. All that you are called upon to do is learn to be still and know that I, the very presence of God in you, is God. Be still and know that I in the midst of thee is God. Be still and let It utter Its voice. Only then can the dead be raised, or the dying. Only then can these incurable diseases be cured. They can’t be cured by knowledge. They can’t be cured by discovering some new way to pray.
Why, in the literature of the world, prayers have been uttered in every way that man can possibly think, and it is too late now to think of new ways of praying, or new combinations of words and sentences, or new postures. It makes no difference to God whether you’re sitting in the lotus position or standing on your head. It makes no difference to God whether you’re lying down in bed or sitting up in a chair. In fact, it makes no difference to God whether or not you pray. But it makes a difference to you, and it makes a difference to those for whom you are seeking help, and the way is not through words and thoughts. That is back in our baby days of metaphysics. Any words and thoughts we use now in prayer or treatment, are merely temporarily used for the purpose of elevating our own consciousness, not with the purpose of influencing God. . . .
And then, it has to be spontaneous. It can’t be a combination of words written by somebody else. It has to be as spontaneous as your own expressions of love for your parents, or your children, or your husband or wife. I suppose, at some level of consciousness, it’s all right to send out these greeting cards that can be bought in the stores at Christmas or New Year’s, or Easter or birthdays or anniversaries, but to me they’re sad. They’re sad, showing the poverty, the spiritual poverty, and the love of poverty, of those who have to have recourse to a message that somebody else writes, as if I wouldn’t know how to write a message to my own mother or my own wife without somebody else putting the words in my mouth. How can they know what I feel? And how can I help knowing what I feel?
And so it is when I go to prayer, I don’t want to know how somebody else prayed. If they were somebody of the stature of a master, be assured of this, their prayer was inspired by their love. Whether they were praying for the servant of the Centurion or for the man born blind, you can be assured that the prayers of Jesus were inspired, not by what some Hebrew masters had written, but by what his love dictated from within his own being, very much like Peter and John.
Have you anywhere in literature read those marvelous words spoken to the man at the Temple Gate Beautiful, when he asks for alms, and the reply is, “Silver and gold have I none; such as I have, give I unto thee.” Now can you imagine anyone in the history of the world ever having said that before? And can you imagine the miracle that took place through that spontaneous prayer? The man jumped up leaping!
And so it is, when you pray, don’t look for formulas. Don’t think about how anybody else prayed. Be spontaneous, and you will be spontaneous if you are praying seriously. If you really want to help somebody, if you really have a love in your heart for somebody, or if you really have love for wanting to bring God’s grace to earth, the words will bubble up in you. The thoughts will bubble up in you, and they won’t be yours. They will be God’s, imparting themselves to you. You will be the listener. You will be the one listening for that still small voice, and then It will say, “What did hinder you?” Would you ever think of a prayer like that—”What did hinder you? Pick up your bed and walk.”? No. But try to use it and see if it will work for you, and you’ll find it won’t—not unless it spontaneously rushes through that your mouth without your even knowing that it is on the way.
Prayer must be spontaneous, and prayer must be motivated by love. I don’t know how we can pray for anything unless there is love within us that wants to see that something or other take place. And if there is that much love, all we have to do is go inside of ourselves with love, and probably beg and plead for a little while for our own consciousness to be opened, and then the very power of love will pray within us.
Now when I’m called upon for help, please be assured of this—that I do not use words or thoughts; that I do not go through any routine of treatment for prayer. I do sometimes have to remind myself of these Bible promises. I do often have to remind myself that this that is appearing to me isn’t a person or a condition, but a state of mesmerism, just a universal belief in two powers that has become so strong a belief that it acts mesmerically. I have to remind myself of that. I have to remind myself that evil in any form is impersonal; that it does not have its rise in man; that no man, woman, or child is responsible for the ills that befall them, except in the sense of their ignorance of truth—and that of course, we’re all guilty of. But aside from that, no one is responsible for their ills.
It is a metaphysical error to believe that you are the cause of your rheumatism, or that it is because of your nature, or your disposition, or your character. It has nothing to do with it whatsoever—nothing whatsoever! It can happen to the unborn child. It can happen to the newborn child that hasn’t begun to think anything. They talk about cancer being the result of jealousy and of hate, and just think of how many babies are born with cancer. One picture in the paper here the other day of a child two years of age with cancer. Do you believe it hated that much or was envious that much at two years of age to produce a cancer? That was all a lot of metaphysical mythology that had its origin up in Maine, long before it had a chance to be tried out in any wider sphere than a half a dozen people.
It is metaphysical superstition to believe that any individual is responsible for their sins or their diseases. Paul rightly said, “I do not sin, but there is still a sense of sin in me.” In other words, he himself had had the Christ experience, and therefore there was no trace of sin in him, and yet there remained in him some sense of sin that he knew about. But he knew he wasn’t responsible for it. It was a universal belief. Had Paul not made the mistake of believing that the carnal mind is enmity against God, Paul would have saved the entire world. By now, wars would have been so many centuries in the past that we wouldn’t even remember that they had ever existed. It was only the mistake of believing that the carnal mind is enmity against God. There is no such thing. There is no enmity against God, for there is no other power but God. God is omnipotence, and that rules out forever any power against God. And therefore, all that we are doing to constitute our humanhood is entertaining a sense of sin, or entertaining a sense of a power apart from God, or accepting the universal belief in two powers—that which drove Adam and Eve out of Eden, the belief in two powers.
Now, come on up to the twentieth century. Be awake, be alert, and realize this: that when evil in any form is presented to you, whether it appears as a person, or a condition, or a disease, or a strike, or a war, or an epidemic, don’t fight it. Don’t war against it. Stop. Stop where you are and smile. Smile at the very idea that we should entertain the belief in two powers. Smile at the very idea that this universal mesmerism can act with power when only God can give power, ordain power, express power.
No. Praying, in our sense of the word, and especially praying without ceasing, is a constant reminding of ourselves that there is but one power. And this that appears to me as an erroneous person, erroneous condition, erroneous circumstance, this is the carnal mind, which is not enmity against God. It is the arm of flesh or nothingness. It is temporal power or nothingness, since temporal power isn’t power. Only God is power.
Yes, there are material forces and powers, and there are mental forces and powers on the human level of life. And while you’re on that level of life, matter is always warring with matter, and mind is always warring with mind. But don’t ever believe that God enters the picture. Don’t ever believe that these war with God, and don’t ever believe that God wars with these, “For in Thy presence is fullness. Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.” There is no such thing as warfare where God is.
Therefore, do not battle error, but rise in consciousness to the realization that material forces and powers, and mental forces and powers, since they are temporal, are not power. They only act as power in the consciousness of those who accept them as power, and I can offer you ninety years of metaphysical demonstration as proof that this is true. Think of how many practitioners and teachers in the last ninety years have walked into bedrooms where infectious and contagious diseases were, and we have no record of any one of them coming out with the infection or the contagion. Think, think, think of how many practitioners and teachers in these last ninety years have exposed themselves to all the diseases of the world, and we have no record that any of them took them upon themselves.
Why? Because in the consciousness imbued with the Christ. there are no powers operating. There is only Presence operating, omnipresence, the presence of God, the presence of Christ. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is no opposition, no warfare, nothing of that nature. We do not war with principalities or powers. We war only with the belief within ourselves that there are powers, and there aren’t powers at all. There is just Presence. “In Thy presence is fullness, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
So remember that the Master would not have said, “Resist not evil,” if evil had a power. It wasn’t his mission on earth to get us into trouble, and he would have gotten us in lots of trouble by telling us not to resist evil, if evil were of power. Therefore, have confidence in the message and the mission of the Master, and resist the temptation to fight evil, to war against it, to rise above it, to overcome it. And always in the presence of it, relax in the assurance that it exists only as a mirage exists. It exists only as an illusion exists. It exists only as maya exists—as a belief in two powers.
1This excerpt is from Recording 316A: 1960 Denver Closed Class, “God – Prayer – Treatment.” It is posted with kind permission from the Estate of Joel Goldsmith, which holds the copy protection on the recorded classes and the copyright on the transcripts. The full transcript of this recording is available from The Infinite Way website or by calling 1-800-922-3195.