Teach Us to Pray, by Charles Fillmore, [1941], at sacred-texts.com
Teach Us to Pray, by Charles Fillmore, [1941], at sacred-texts.com
MANY CHRISTIAN metaphysicians who are quite familiar with the idea of the omnipresence of God address Him in terms that imply His absence. Instead of talking direct to God, who is always right in our midst, we talk about Him. We are apt to say, "God strengthens both my soul and my body" instead of "Thy Spirit strengthens both my soul and my body."
Our words betray our dominant state of mind, although the logic of Truth may belie this. We see logically that there cannot be any separation in spirit between the Creator and the created, but the created has the power to think of itself as separate from its source, and this thought makes a mental vacuum in which there is a total absence of spiritual
attributes. The human family on this planet has set up this sort of a mental void, and unless we train our mind to think the truth, we find ourselves talking to God as if He were in the next room or in some faraway heaven in the skies.
We in our day and age are not alone in making God the third person in our conversation. Bible authors did the same. We should remember that the people who live today are the same people who lived in the past, in other words, we are people who thought ourselves separate from God life and thereby killed our body. We also are like some of the people who acted the part of the prodigal son, desiring to be again united with the Father.
However we should not forget that although the Father was "moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him," the prodigal was yet "afar off." No one save Jesus has fully bridged this gulf of separation, and we are excusable if we at times lapse into the old consciousness of absence from the Father. Jesus gives us the right cue when He affirms, "It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life."
"For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself."
We find that we must train our mind in trust, look persistently and continuously to God for all things, and rest in the assurance that what we ask and affirm in Spirit will surely come to pass. Jesus had such supreme confidence and faith in the Father
as the source of health and prosperity that His name has become the synonym and open door for the manifestation of those things. He said that whatever we asked of the Father in His name would be granted. Many persons get a very definite mental uplift and consciousness of Spirit by repeating audibly and silently the name of Jesus Christ. But the name does not represent the real character of the person unless it is known to us through our acquaintance with the person himself. Unless you have read about Jesus and tried to realize His love, wisdom, and supermind power, you have no conception of the meaning of His name. Paul urged that we let Christ be formed in us. That means that through the study of the life of Jesus and the discipline He gave His mind we shall put into our mind the same ideas that He had. These ideas will form in our mind a new kind of man, which is God's man.
When you turn your attention to Spirit your mind makes contact with a realm of ideas very much above the level of your common thinking; and when you strike this mental stratosphere you are tremendously lifted up. Then you make your statements of Truth and whatever you decree comes to pass. Job's friend Eliphaz said to him: