OVERVIEW
So what’s your new Design for Living? Where to begin? Well let’s take a look at the practical side of things. What is the first actionable step you can take right now? You don’t need to leap the whole mountain in a single bound, every step leads forward, one summit at a time. It’s so exciting and wondrous to know that things are accomplishable and real change is present in your life.
TRANSCRIPTION
Speaker 1:
The Power of Prayer by Michael Kunnari.
Once upon a time,
Speaker 2:
Last fall
Speaker 1:
In a far away place.
Speaker 3:
Rogers Park,
Speaker 1:
A young woman,
Speaker 2:
Well young at heart,
Speaker 1:
Was in despair, desperate, dejected, disheartened, depressed, dismayed,
Speaker 3:
And that was just the DS
Speaker 4:
<laugh>.
Speaker 1:
Her financial situation was in the dumps.
Speaker 2:
There’s the DS again.
Speaker 1:
Her name was Connie. Connie didn’t know what to do. After trying everything she could think of as the last resort, she decided to ask for divine intervention.
Speaker 5:
Hello? Are you up there? Gone. It’s me. Connie.
Speaker 1:
More silence. Utterly despondent.
Speaker 5:
Again,
Speaker 2:
Maddis Ds.
Speaker 1:
Connie approached two friends who seem to have some experience with the whole prayer thing.
Speaker 5:
Um, hi
Speaker 2:
Connie, great to see you.
Speaker 5:
What’s up? Help. I need some help, please. I am so ashamed and scared. My fan finances are dismal. I’m behind in my bills. I, my rent just went up. My cat needs surgery. I’m helping my brother with uh, his tuition and I’m really stressed out.
Speaker 2:
Geez, I didn’t wanna say anything, but she looks like crap.
Speaker 5:
I know. I’m not eating. I’m not sleeping. I can’t afford to get my hair fixed. I’ve lost my venture card.
Speaker 3:
Okay. Okay. Come sit with us. Let’s take a deep breath. Now, let’s pray.
Speaker 2:
Dear God, we humbly be
Speaker 5:
[inaudible]. I already tried that. Oh, more than once doesn’t work. My no answer.
Speaker 3:
My spiritual community studies the teachings of a fellow named Ernest Holmes. He describes a really interesting way of praying. It involves five parts. I’ve been experimenting with it and it’s pretty cool. You wanna try?
Speaker 5:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Don was doubtful. A bit dubious, if you will.
Speaker 2:
Sounds complicated. Why not just talk to God?
Speaker 3:
What do we have to lose?
Speaker 5:
Eh,
Speaker 3:
The first step is called recognition. So let’s take a deep breath in this moment. I know there is one power and presence. One source of love, one source of strength, vitality, clarity, joy, and peace. It is good, whole, perfect, and complete. There is nothing separate from it. Nothing that can limit its action and nothing separate from its action. I know God is source. I know God is abundance. I know God is unlimited potential.
Speaker 2:
That’s it.
Speaker 5:
Do I have to memorize all that?
Speaker 3:
Absolutely not. This isn’t about rattling off a bunch of words by rote. We just wanna start by focusing our mind, our consciousness on the presence and essence of God. The goal is a clear mind and direct thinking, no wondering thoughts.
Speaker 2:
Okay. Then what?
Speaker 3:
Unification. We affirm our oneness with God. We consciously sense and declare ourselves as an expression of that divine presence. That there is no separation. That we are one.
Speaker 2:
Sounds a little hippy-dippy to me.
Speaker 5:
<laugh>, not to me. Uh, how do you say that?
Speaker 3:
Something like, I know that I’m one with this source, one with this abundance, one with this unlimited potential. Okay. And as this is true for me, I know it is also true for Connie.
Speaker 5:
Oh, nice. I like that.
Speaker 2:
Sure. Sounds nice. But how does it solve your problem? I say, dear God, please, please, please, please, please, please, kind. Please
Speaker 5:
Don’t. Please, please, please. I really do. I really do.
Speaker 3:
Wait, wait. Stay with me. Holmes says that we’re living in a spiritual universe. The ultimate reality, call it God, mind, intelligence, or spirit is the creator of all things and is all things. Now, here is the big important thing to understand. There is an impersonal law of mind. Holmes says, in the mind of God, there is a thought. That thought becomes manifest in accordance with the law. This law is the way and the means of God expressing.
Speaker 5:
What does that mean in English?
Speaker 3:
Simply put, I guess it means that God is not some power out there to fear or please or beg favors from we are expressions of God, not separate from God. So our thoughts are God thoughts and those thoughts take form becomes thi become things according to the law.
Speaker 2:
So you’re saying that if we focus on Connie’s lack of money, that’s what the mind of God will continue to create?
Speaker 3:
Exactly. What we declare in our prayer is God’s speaking word in us. God, being an active agent in our creation, what we focus on expands. When we focus on lack, we amplify lack. When we focus on abundance, we create an amplify abundance.
Speaker 5:
Like change your thoughts and change your life.
Speaker 2:
Well, that’s a new thought. Exactly. Wow. That puts the power in us instead of putting the power out there.
Speaker 3:
Exactly.
Speaker 2:
So the thoughts we think can put our lives in sync.
Speaker 3:
Say that again.
Speaker 2:
So the thoughts we think can put our lives in sync. I think he’s got it. The thoughts we, we think can put our lives, lives in sync. The thoughts we think can put our lives in, in sync, sync. The thoughts we, we think can put, put our lives in sync.
Speaker 3:
We’re not done yet.
Speaker 5:
Oh,
Speaker 4:
Let’s do
Speaker 3:
This for, let’s do this for Connie.
Speaker 5:
Oh, yes, please.
Speaker 3:
There’s an example for a money prayer in this book by Ernest Holmes, a new design for living. On page 2 55, all supply is of spirit and money represents a form of supply. Money is a divine idea. It flows to and from me enabling me to be comfortable, prosperous, and to enjoy the pleasures of life. God withholds no good from me. The mind which created me now stimulates my thought and effort into great greater right action. I am not in bondage to money. Instead, money now serves me as I serve life. Money is a symbol of God’s abundance, and I accept that which is rightfully mine.
Speaker 5:
I love that thought. I really like the energy and the conviction you had when you said all that, but it sounded as if there is no problem.
Speaker 3:
That’s one element that can be hard to wrap our heads around it. First it goes back to the law, and it’s at the core of effective prayer. The one bind acts in and through everything we declare in prayer at the level of our conviction, Holmes says, it is impossible to say too much about the necessity of declaration being a real conviction in the consciousness of the one, making it a complete belief in the truth of the statements. A yes one moment, and I know the next will hold us in the very position we want to get out of.
Speaker 2:
Our thoughts are that powerful.
Speaker 3:
I’ve come to believe so,
Speaker 5:
But what if I can’t get to that place of total conviction?
Speaker 3:
That’s why we pray with someone, A practitioner or prayer partner is so helpful. This may sound strange, but in my experience, when another person is praying aloud with me, for me, they can objectively identify the spiritual qualities that I need affirmed. Even better, they can declare the presence of those qualities with genuine conviction. A force that I can breathe into and absorb. Not to sound hippy dippy, but I It’s really powerful, even transformative.
Speaker 2:
Wow. Wow. What comes next?
Speaker 3:
Gratitude.
Speaker 5:
Go for it.
Speaker 3:
We are grateful for the firm fulfillment of this prayer, knowing it is done, knowing that that Connie is in command of the many resources at her disposal and that abundance and prosperity are her
Speaker 5:
Truth. Yes. I like that. Yes. Yes.
Speaker 3:
And now we release the prayer
Speaker 2:
Where
Speaker 3:
I release this prayer into the action of the law, which only and always says yes, knowing it is done. And so it is,
Speaker 2:
Huh? Okay, now let’s put the pieces together. Yes,
Speaker 5:
Please.
Speaker 3:
All right. Let’s take a breath.
And I recognize right here and now that God is abundance and generosity and divine right action. And I unify. I know that I am also these things that this abundance, this generosity and divine right action move through me and express as me. And I know the same is true for Connie. And from that place of oneness, I realize and claim that Connie is fully resourced, fully supplied, that she has all that she needs to meet her expenses and her desires. That she has enough money to share and to spare that she is fully supplied. And I’m so grateful, grateful for this truth, grateful to know that as I speak my word, it is done. And I release it into the law of the mind, into the law of action, knowing that it is done. And so it is.
Speaker 5:
And so it is. Wow, that felt good. I feel like something’s actually shifted. What should I do next?
Speaker 3:
I suggest that you keep praying, keep practicing. I promise it gets more comfortable over time. And I hope you’ll both all check out. Cityside, the spiritual community I attend. The people are fantastic and fun and diverse and welcoming, and more than willing to share their experiences and answer questions. They have practitioners available for one-on-one prayer and you can probably find a prayer partner to practice with.
Speaker 5:
Thank you so much, both of you. I feel a lot better.
Speaker 1:
Both Connie and Don took Krista’s suggestion. Before long they were experienced, moments, hours, and recently, occasionally days, a feeling energized, exhilarated, elated, eager, elevated, excited, enthusiastic. Evolent, ecstatic.
Speaker 5:
Reverend Aimee even thought that I was effervescent.
Speaker 2:
We’re on the E’s now?
Speaker 3:
Nothing wrong with moving forward. I say imagine the abundance and infinite potential we’re going to find in the rest of the alphabet.