Beyond Words: Exploring the Power of Prayer, Part I with Carol Wilke

[00:00:00] So tonight I want to talk about exploring the power of prayer and really dive into how

[00:00:12] prayer becomes really powerful when we go beyond the words.

[00:00:18] Since the beginning of time, people of all civilizations have prayed from prayer beads

[00:00:24] to prayer wheels from solemn Gregorian chants to foot stomping gospel music from fervent worshippers

[00:00:32] vlogging their backs with ropes to the seeker quietly sitting cross-legged atop a mountain.

[00:00:39] There are as many ways to pray as there are people who pray.

[00:00:44] And when human circumstances seem overwhelming, I think we instinctively turn to prayer.

[00:00:52] There is something so comforting about taking time out to commune with a higher power.

[00:00:59] The human soul seeks the experience of raising itself to a spiritual level where it can think

[00:01:05] and feel from a place of connection with God.

[00:01:09] It's in these heightened moments that give us the strength to go forward in the comfort

[00:01:15] to ease our sorrows.

[00:01:17] Prayer in its simplest form is any conscious attempt to experience the presence of God.

[00:01:25] Prayer is a deliberate activity, one of seeking to recognize our oneness with God,

[00:01:30] of opening ourselves up to the power of God or the universe or spirit as it moves

[00:01:36] through us.

[00:01:38] Ernest Holmes in It's Up to You says, God must be universal mind.

[00:01:45] God must be the power by which we think, will and know.

[00:01:49] Therefore it follows that prayer to God is communication with that inner life, with the

[00:01:55] divine indwelling spirit which is everywhere present, omnipotent and all-powerful.

[00:02:03] And just as a separated drop of ocean water eventually makes its way back to the sea,

[00:02:09] there is always something within us that draws us back into our awareness of the oneness

[00:02:15] that we share with God.

[00:02:17] The drop of water might evaporate, might be drawn up into the clouds to be blown by the

[00:02:22] wind and then fall as snow on the highest mountain peak.

[00:02:26] But eventually that snow will melt and that drop will become part of the trickle

[00:02:29] and then a stream and then a river until it finally returns to the stream and then

[00:02:34] ultimately to the ocean.

[00:02:36] And so if we could suspend reason for just a moment, it might seem at various points

[00:02:42] on its journey that that drop may pray to melt or to be a part of the trickle or it

[00:02:47] may pray to join a stream or a river.

[00:02:50] But what it really wants is to find the ocean again and ultimately that is where

[00:02:56] that water ends up going back to and so it is with us.

[00:03:00] Our emphasis is always that we are healing through knowing this truth about us, through

[00:03:06] knowing this connection that that indwelling spirit is always present within us.

[00:03:13] And the reason that we can be healed is that in truth we are already whole, complete and

[00:03:19] perfect.

[00:03:20] We have faith that with God all things are possible and that God as the healing

[00:03:26] power within everyone is greater than any appearance of illness or ill fortune.

[00:03:33] And so we simply look beyond the appearance then to the truth that we are spiritual beings

[00:03:40] made in God's image.

[00:03:42] We affirm and claim wholeness as part of our divine birthright.

[00:03:47] And so this is what I mean about prayer being an inner attitude, not a certain outward

[00:03:53] posture or position.

[00:03:55] Prayer makes no demands concerning timer location.

[00:03:59] Right where you are, your place of work, on the street, in your home, you can pray and

[00:04:05] you can pray effectively.

[00:04:07] The presence of God is everywhere at all times.

[00:04:11] The spirit of truth is eternally within you.

[00:04:16] There's no need to beg God for anything because we already have access to all that

[00:04:22] God is.

[00:04:23] So prayer becomes a way to express our thanks for life and its blessings, those we already

[00:04:29] have and those yet to come.

[00:04:32] This is sometimes referred to as affirmative prayer because it acknowledges the truth

[00:04:38] that God is present in us and in every situation and therefore the potential for us is beyond

[00:04:46] anything that we can humanly imagine.

[00:04:50] Affirmative prayer is a type of prayer or metaphysical technique that is focused on a positive outcome

[00:04:56] rather than a negative situation.

[00:04:59] For example, if a person who is experiencing some form of illness would focus the prayer

[00:05:04] on the desired state of perfect health and affirm this desired intention as if it

[00:05:11] had already happened rather than identifying the illness and then asking God to eliminate

[00:05:17] it.

[00:05:18] When most people think of prayer, they think of asking God for something.

[00:05:22] For example, if we were to pray traditionally, we might say, please God help me find a job.

[00:05:29] By contrast, an affirmative prayer might be, I am now guided to my right and perfect

[00:05:36] employment.

[00:05:38] The secret here though is that if we pray for a job and then complain to others

[00:05:43] that we don't have one, we are completely undermining our prayer.

[00:05:50] There is this beautiful tradition that the ancient, aborigine people of Australia have

[00:05:56] and it's this unique concept of dream time which is this ancient time in which the

[00:06:03] continent of Australia was a formless, pristine expanse and these enormous, powerful

[00:06:10] animals roamed over this pristine landscape bringing its very form into existence.

[00:06:18] And so bringing every hill, every river, every boulder and every tree and red ochre

[00:06:24] which is a very sacred element to the aborigines is said to have been the blood of these

[00:06:30] ancient creatures.

[00:06:32] And so they would dig the ochre out of the earth and paint it on rock surfaces

[00:06:36] and even apply it to their own skins to capture the essence of these powerful ancestors.

[00:06:46] But before you were allowed to dig this ochre out of the ground, you had to follow the

[00:06:51] path of these ancestral animals and they called this walking the song line.

[00:06:58] Will Hunt in this amazing book called Underground describes this as these song lines are paths

[00:07:06] marking the trail of a dream time ancestor as they moved across the primordial landscape

[00:07:12] bringing this land into existence and thousands of these song lines crisscross Australia like

[00:07:19] strings on a violin.

[00:07:21] And so the song line is a physical path but at the same time it's a story recounting

[00:07:29] the ancestor's sacred journey.

[00:07:31] It'd be like if the Bible or any sacred text wasn't a book but a collection of paths on

[00:07:37] the earth and instead of reading them we walked their length singing out the story and the

[00:07:45] rhythm and the pace of our walking matching the rhythm and the pace of the story.

[00:07:50] And it felt to me like there was a correlation to prayer in all of this.

[00:07:55] What if we walked our prayers in our day-to-day world?

[00:07:59] And what if we became the living embodiment of our prayer not only through our words but

[00:08:05] through our feelings, our actions and how we lived our lives?

[00:08:11] That prayer would therefore become an opportunity to discover ourselves as individual expressions

[00:08:17] of the universe.

[00:08:19] It's not something we do to God or that God does to us.

[00:08:23] That kind of thinking is based in separation but it's a thinking that prayer is a self-realization

[00:08:31] and self-expansion.

[00:08:33] So once we understand that prayer is an inner attitude then I think it's really powerful

[00:08:39] and important to look at the science of prayer.

[00:08:44] New thought leaders began asking the question, is it conceivable that prayer could be

[00:08:49] a science?

[00:08:51] And if we studied the science of prayer and came to understand the principles involved,

[00:08:56] would we not then be able to pray consistently and more effectively?

[00:09:01] Ernest Holmes saw that prayer wasn't only a mystical activity reserved for those who

[00:09:07] feel inclined to express themselves religiously but he saw prayer as a normal activity

[00:09:13] of the mind and the heart of everyone who desires to be a better person to understand

[00:09:19] life and living and to live more richly.

[00:09:21] In other words, he understood prayer as really those song lines of our lives.

[00:09:28] Ernest Holmes said, effective mental treatment is propelled by a consciousness of love

[00:09:34] and a realization that the creative spirit is always at work.

[00:09:40] A treatment should be given in a calm, expectant manner and with a deep inner conviction

[00:09:45] of its reality without any fear or any sense that the human mind must make it.

[00:09:53] And so just to recap our science of mind treatment, we have five distinct steps that

[00:10:00] form the basis of science of mind treatment.

[00:10:03] The first is recognition, knowing that God is all there is.

[00:10:07] The second is unification, knowing that we are one with God.

[00:10:11] There is no separation.

[00:10:14] Three is the realization stage where we state the circumstance that we want to manifest.

[00:10:20] When we've experienced this deep richness and a deepening as a result of the first two

[00:10:25] steps, then this third step is a declaration of the truth that we've realized.

[00:10:31] We're not asking for anything.

[00:10:33] We are declaring and affirming the truth and stating that it is already done.

[00:10:39] The fourth step is Thanksgiving.

[00:10:41] We express our gratitude for the successful completion of our affirmation.

[00:10:47] We believe it and we surrender to its unfoldment.

[00:10:51] And finally, five is the release step and so it is, knowing that the universe or God

[00:10:57] is unfolding the prayer and allowing it to go.

[00:11:02] And so again, the prayer or the treatment is not done to change God.

[00:11:05] It's done to change us.

[00:11:08] To lift us into the experience of the presence of God in our lives.

[00:11:14] And so we can create all the affirmations in the world that we want, but we have to really

[00:11:19] look at our core values and our beliefs.

[00:11:22] If we say affirmations for increased abundance and prosperity in our life, but hold firm

[00:11:27] to the belief that there's not enough good to go around, then we will see no change

[00:11:32] in our financial affairs.

[00:11:34] Greg Braden has a great video called the Five Modes of Prayer and in it he talks about a study

[00:11:39] done on prayer.

[00:11:41] In 1972, 24 U.S. cities were used to conduct an experiment where people were trained and

[00:11:49] coached to pray and during that prayer to feel the feelings of peace in a very specific

[00:11:56] manner.

[00:11:57] People were placed in these cities and in each city that had a population of over

[00:12:02] 10,000 citizens.

[00:12:05] During the time that the people were feeling the feelings of peace beyond them and beyond

[00:12:10] the buildings that they were physically present in, the communities experienced statistically

[00:12:17] measurable reductions in crime, violence and traffic accidents.

[00:12:22] This led to another study which is documented in the 1988 Journal of Conflict Resolution

[00:12:27] which was called the International Peace Project.

[00:12:31] In this study, they actually documented a mathematical formula which determined the number of people

[00:12:38] statistically required to jumpstart this effect of peace.

[00:12:43] The minimum number was the square root of 1% of a given population.

[00:12:50] The square root of 1% of a given population.

[00:12:54] So if we take Denver with a population of 5.6 million, 1% of that would be 56,000

[00:13:01] and the square root of that would be about 240 people.

[00:13:05] This is the threshold number to begin the effect of peace and interestingly enough, that

[00:13:11] is almost identical to the number of practitioners that we have here at Mile High Church.

[00:13:18] In our world of 7 billion people, that number is only 8400.

[00:13:24] That's all that is required to feel the feelings of peace in our hearts for peace

[00:13:29] to be present.

[00:13:31] So just think about that for a minute.

[00:13:33] The power of prayer is so profound and so as we move into prayer tonight, I'm going to

[00:13:40] start with a quote by Eric Butterworth.

[00:13:45] Eric Butterworth says,

[00:13:46] The universe is calling us to awaken to oneness.

[00:13:52] The weary pilgrim journeys forth to church, to shrines or to the meccas of the world

[00:13:56] in search of God.

[00:13:58] But you do not have to go to a church or any sacred place to get close to God.

[00:14:03] There is nowhere in the world where you can get any closer to God than right where you

[00:14:08] are.

[00:14:09] God is present in his entirety within you.

[00:14:14] No one can be any closer to God than you.

[00:14:19] And so as we take a deep breath and move into that space, that space beyond words,

[00:14:27] that space of our heart, we just allow ourselves to recognize that there is a power and presence,

[00:14:37] a divine energy that is always present.

[00:14:45] And when I imagine this glorious Rocky Mountains that we experience here in Colorado, I see

[00:14:52] the magnificence of the presence of God in the snow-capped peaks and the majesty of

[00:14:59] the forests.

[00:15:02] And allow myself to just unify with that, to know that that same energy that created those

[00:15:09] mountains is always moving in through and around me in every moment, that there is no separation.

[00:15:15] There is only oneness.

[00:15:18] And so with every breath I take, I move into that powerful space of connection with the

[00:15:24] divine, feeling then that infusion of creative intelligence, of divine source, infusion

[00:15:33] of using every cell of my body, knowing that I am an amazing emanation of spirit.

[00:15:42] I know this for every person on this planet.

[00:15:46] We are all connected in that one heart, in that one mind.

[00:15:51] And as we feel the feelings of peace and move beyond our outer circumstances and

[00:15:57] situations, we simply allow ourselves to remember the truth.

[00:16:03] The truth that all is God, the truth that all is well, the truth that there is unlimited

[00:16:08] potential and abundance and good always flowing to each and every one of us.

[00:16:16] And so we become the walking songlines of our prayer, moving through our lives, our

[00:16:23] day-to-day activities infused with this powerful indwelling presence of spirit.

[00:16:32] And in the space of divine recognition and unification, I give great thanks, great

[00:16:42] thanks for all the many blessings in our lives, great thanks for that powerful presence of

[00:16:52] God.

[00:16:53] And I know that as I release these truths into that beautiful alchemy of love and

[00:16:57] law that all is well, because all is God.

[00:17:01] And so it is.

[00:17:02] Amen.