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“This
week we are in week #6 of a 6-week prosperity series of lessons that I
am giving so that each of us have an opportunity to "discover"
the way in which we can increase our measure of prosperity and financial
ease. [previous lessons in Archived
Messages ] I am presenting these lessons via the web site text
messages, on the Sunday morning radio program and on the 6-Wednesday
evening radio programs. The first step to realizing greater
prosperity is "commitment to prosperity" and so to
"activate" our commitment to prosperity, I am suggesting that
after each lesson, everyone is to send $1 to Rev. Bates at P. O. Box
1173, Palm Springs, CA 92263 ... I will also accept non-U.S.
currency
... write on the outside of the envelope "#6"
.. to reinforce, in our mind, our commitment to prosperity as we
gain a "conviction" that we can experience a more prosperous
life, now.
If you are just beginning this week to respond to this exercise in
prosperity, write # 6 on your envelope.” -
Rev
Bates
"Decisions
give Life meaning. Your growth is the result of your conscious
decisions. They represent how you are directing your creativeness.
Adjusting yourself to situations over which you have no control does not
bring spiritual growth. Such experience would develop tolerance,
patience, and forbearance; but it merely accepts the status quo and
disallows your opportunity for conscious choice."
- Dr. Robert H. Bitzer, Minister, Author
This week's "prosperity lesson"
covers "affirmative prayer" a.k.a. "spiritual
treatment." Before we begin with affirmative prayer, we must
make a decision about what we want to accomplish; to have, to do, or to
be. Our prayers become a treatment when we are specific and
definite about what it is that we expect to realize as a result of our
prayer. Our decision then, must be as definite and specific as
possible in order for our faith to be energized to the level of
acceptance and gratitude. Yet, often we are not always aware that
our state of mind as we pray is a great determining factor in whether
our prayer will produce the results that we seek. It is always of
the utmost importance that we are aware of this so that our prayers are
in alignment with Spiritual Law.
When we turn to G-d, we are recognizing that
there is a Power Greater than us that is all-present, all-power, and
all-knowing Intelligence. This Intelligence is infinite in Its
capacity to do what we ask of It; that is, claim that It can do, for us,
through us. This is why the Master Mind Jesus said if we have the
faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, we can move mountains ... and
he wasn't talking about physical mountains ... but, the things that
overwhelm us; debt, loneliness, poverty, illness, unemployment, etc.
So, it is not that G-d, through the action of Love and Law, is incapable
of doing anything, but It must do whatever It does through us ...
that is, through our faith and belief in Its capacity to do what it is
that we desire. It is therefore dependent upon us to develop the
"mental equivalent" of the result that we seek.
"The
Law of Life acts through your affirmations. Nothing can hinder Its
working but yourself. There is no more of It on the desert than there is
on the busiest street corner, and It will not respond any more quickly
because we go up into the temple. It is everywhere, therefore It is
where you are, and, most of all, It responds where you recognize
It." -
Ernest Holmes, This Thing Called Life
After we "recognize" what G-d
is to us ... not what we have been told about G-d, but what we truly
"believe" G-d to be ... our next step is to
"identify" with G-d. In the Book of Genesis in the Holy
Bible we can read that we are created in the "image and likeness of
God" ... and the Master Mind Jesus said that we are "children
of God" ... meaning "offspring." This is why Jesus
could say, "when you see me, you see the Father" ... and in
truth, this is true for all of us. Dr. Ernest Holmes wrote in The
Science of Mind: "I believe in the unity of all life, and that the highest God and the innermost God
is one God."
Using
our divine imagination, we too can see or get a sense of, the image and
likeness of what we choose to experience. And so before we begin
to affirm what it is that we claim for ourselves, let us pause and
"use our imagination" to image what it is that we want to do,
to be, or to have. And this means to spend the time necessary to
bring the thing that we choose for ourselves "alive in our
imagination." As we give life, in our mind, to that which we
seek to experience, often something more from our inner mind will be
revealed to us about the thing that makes it even more appealing to us.
As we see these images or pictures in our mind, then we "speak our
word" about what we see and declare that that which we see in our
mind, is ours now, right now. This is powerful simplicity.
Dr. Henrietta Smith of the City of Angels Church, reminded me, that
"you will "be it" when you "see it." And
this is true for all of us.
Let us review this dynamic method of
affirmative prayer:
first - we "recognize" G-d as
All-in-All; Power, Presence and Intelligence ... or whatever you believe
G-d to be.
next - we "identify" with G-d and
unify with the Power and Intelligence that is in and through all of Life
... identify with G-d's peace, love, joy, harmony, intelligence, and
beauty.
next - we get still and use our
"imagination" to get a sense of what it feels like to have
that which we are choosing to have ... we let these images and the
likeness of what it is, to come alive in our mind to the point that we
see our self in it, being that which we choose to be, having that which
we choose to have, and doing that which we choose to do.
next - we speak the words of possession ... we
describe what is filling our imagination and claim it as ours, now ...
knowing that G-d responds to us through Love and Law to bring all things
together for our good.
lastly - we firmly establish in our
consciousness that this is what we accept: "I live in the
consciousness of success and prosperity and I give thanks to G-d that
this is so, now." ... or whatever words that create an acceptance
and feeling of gratitude in our mind.
From the mystical Emma Curtis-Hopkins: "Be not anxious. Worry about
nothing. Be satisfied with the estate whereunto you are called. Learn
one basic Truth of Life, and abide by it. Believe in this law: "Seek
ye first the
kingdom
of
God
and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."
As we take the time to think about, imagine, and speak the words that
affirm our acceptance of our heart's desires, we are acknowledging that
the "kingdom of heaven is within me" and it is mine to
experience, right here, right now, right where I am.
AND
SO IT IS!
Keep
the faith!
Rev.
Dr. Henry Lee Bates
Visit Rev. Bates BLOG: Living
the Science of Mind
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Rev
Bates on the Radio
