A FUNNY NAME FOR PRAYER

Every group has some jargon that makes it both unique and peculiar.

In a church I once attended, the pastor continually used words that I’m sure he learned in college, but they meant nothing to me, and as a result, his sermons meant very little to me either. They seemed wonderfully filled with high emotion, but they made no sense. I think they came from Greek, and they were certainly Greek to me!

When I worked in telecommunications, we had a huge vocabulary of jargon in Engineering, but I found there was a completely different set in Marketing, and when I got into Operator Services, which after all is the oldest department of any telephone company, the jargon was almost impenetrable. (Until you have measured the AWT on the SOST boards, and compared it to TOPS or to the Relay Positions, you have no idea what to put on your TDR reports!)

Meanwhile, back in Engineering, WebMethods is the integration engine in the Network Architecture, while Operations relies on Seibel for its Call Centres.

Everybody with me so far?

What’s this got to do with anything? It is no surprise that we in our church organization also have our share of jargon, and if you listen to us, or read us, you’re bound to encounter it. Trust me, it does mean something, and we’ll be happy to take a stab at explaining it if you ask.

For example, Spiritual Mind Treatment, or just Treatment, seems like a funny name for prayer. Relax, let me explain.

If you cast your mind way, way back to the Book of Genesis, or Guinnessis, as one small boy called it, it starts out by describing the process of creating both Heaven and Earth. After this very busy week is over, it says that God saw that it was good.

We believe that. We believe that this whole Earth, and all that is in it, is basically good. In fact, we believe that since Spirit, or Universal Mind, is all there is, and everything exists within It, then everything is created whole, perfect, and complete – at the level at which it was created. That is, it partakes of the wholeness that is its Source, at the level of that Source. This Oneness or Wholeness forms the background quantum reality for everything - the Energy (Matter) and the Intelligence.

But, you say, I’ve got the flu, my left leg hurts, and my doctor says my blood pressure is up. How in Heaven is that Whole, or Perfect?

Good Question – glad you asked.

There are at least two levels to our being – possibly more. The two levels we talk about are Spirit and Material – which you might say represent Heaven and Earth – or Mind and Matter.

We are not one or the other – we are both at once. We are one with all Being at the level of Spirit, or Mind, and we are individualized, or separate, at the level of Material.

Don’t expect to get this at a deep level right away – people take classes for several years to get into the meat of this.

The Spiritual level, or the level at which everything is completely at one, is the true reality. Unfortunately, we do not tend to experience it. We experience the thought-matrix of individualization and separation.

We experience the level of Individualized objects, or the material world, as we call it, because that is where our attention is placed during much of this thing we call life. This level is a carefully constructed ILLUSION, which allows us to roam apart from the Oneness of things, and pursue separate challenges and have separate experiences. The separation causes us to forget where we came from, until we gradually learn it again. Until then, we are trapped in the physical illusion – a player in the game of life.

Spirit is the cause to all things. Our physical experiences are the effect. When we want to change things in our life, we can work at manipulating the effects – that’s what most people do – or we can work at the level of cause, and direct our thoughts to the Spiritual field of omnipotent Oneness. Where you place your conscious awareness determines the level at which your thought will act.

The Psalm says, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” Lifting up your eyes means lifting up your MIND – to the level of awareness of your oneness with all things.

The Science of Mind began as a healing teaching, so we started by using healing terminology. When something is wrong with your body, you treat it until it restores itself to its normal state, or you ask the doctor to treat it.

We believe that the normal state of our life is one described the qualities of Spirit. Wholeness, Abundance, Harmony, Joy, Peace, and whatever other good you can imagine. Remember what is said in Genesis – God saw that it was good.

Anything you could possibly want out of life - that is, anything you fee is missing - could be described as a deficiency in one of the Transcendent qualities of Spirit. Now that’s impossible. If God is everywhere– in everything- then there cannot possibly be any deficiency in reality – so there must simply be the appearance of a deficiency.

We alter an appearance by altering our mind – that alters our perception, and our perception IS our experience.
So, whatever appears to be wrong in your life is the appearance of a deficiency where none can exist, unless God is on vacation!

So we do Spiritual Mind Treatment – that is, we move our mind to the level of a realization of Oneness, and of our own Oneness with All things.

We lift up our eyes unto the hills, and then we declare, no begging, not bargaining, not beseeching, but with the boldness of a definite knowing, that all is well, that we have what we need, that God is with us now, and the Power pours through us, sweeping away all false illusions of lack, of illness, of loneliness, of inability.

We are Spiritual beings, and the Most High is our source, now and always!

Then, to complete our treatment, we allow the feeling of that knowing to flow, as joy, as gratitude, as the confirmation of our healing.

This applies whether it is the healing of our body, the healing of our finances, the healing of our family life, the harmony of our relationships, our dealing with neighbours, in business, or around the world. The power of Spirit knows no limits, no constraints, and no barriers.

Jesus said, "Whatsoever you desire, believe you have it, and it shall be added unto you."

Feel the joy of having this loving Power flowing in and through you, smoothing the way for your life, protecting you, whispering to you of love and encouragement. Feel it wash away all your fears, all your hesitation, and all your feelings of smallness.

In any crowd you operate in, you plus God make a majority!

Now, with your mind uplifted, with your confidence restored, your fears flushed away in the swirl of enthusiasm, now is the time to let it all go. Release it. Don’t feed your doubts by hanging on. Turn it over, knowing that the message has been delivered – the wheels of the entire universe have been set into motion.

That is Treatment – simply the restoral of your birthright – that’s what the story Jesus told, of the prodigal son, is telling us.

Jesus told about two sons – one was discontented with his lot and was not comfortable at home. The other was helpful, obedient, and hardworking. So the father divided all his wealth between the two, and sent the unhappy one on his way.

Well the fortune was soon spent, and the son wandered till be became a beggar. He was mistreated, until he ended up on a pig farm, where he had to live with the pigs, and share the swill that was brought to them.

You have to understand the context of this story. For a Jewish man, this represented the lowest level of degradation. The teaching is that pigs are the filthiest, most unclean of all creatures. He had sunk to the lowest of the low.

Yet, when he finally had enough, when it finally got to him, he decided to try going home. He changed his mind! And even before he arrived, when the father saw him coming, he sent servant out to him with clean clothes, with water for washing, he ordered a grand feast to celebrate, and not only that, he expressed the desire to once more share his wealth.

Now most of us are like the other son. We play the game by the rules, and we expect to be rewarded. Then when some smelly bum, some rebellious renegade, some maverick, gets rewarded the same as us, why we are indignant! That’s how the other son reacted, in the story. He complained – in fact, he was a bit of whiner.

The father pointed out that love is unconditional. In fact, there is something marvelous about someone who has had to turn his life around, and has taken that step.

Treatment is just a tool for changing your mind – to align it with that Master Mind that represents Oneness with all things. You can only go against the universe for so long – then it’s time to come home, and be welcomed with open arms – with love, and with abundance.

We call it Treatment because love and abundance is our normal state. The universe has been arranged to support us, and still we think we have to struggle, and manipulate, and grit our teeth and bear up under a burden.

When we see people who don’t do any of that get rewarded, sometimes greater than we have been, we think that’s unfair – but we just need to change our mind about what life has to offer us. To change our own minds, we do Treatment.

We treat our minds to see the good that has been placed before us. We treat ourselves to see the opportunities that abound. We treat so our bodies repair themselves like they were meant to – that our immune systems work like they were created. We treat to know the Kingdom of Heaven that is right within us, waiting to be discovered.

One more time – these are the steps:

• Understand the Oneness
• Know you are a part of It
• Know the Truth for yourself
• Feel the joy and gratitude
• Release it – Let Go and Let God do the driving.

That is Treatment.

DG