"I have been all things unholy.  If God can work through me, He can work through anyone."  - St. Francis of Assisi

In the book, “A New Design For Living,” written by Dr. Holmes and Willis Kinnear, Dr. Holmes defines 4-Steps of spiritual mind treatment, or affirmative prayer.  Each step begins a process in mind to shift our consciousness toward G-d, or the Good.

• Recognition:
  I know that there is One Presence, One Power, One Life, One Intelligence, One Substance. It is perfect, whole, complete, and harmonious. It is the source of all things and is in and through all things. There is nothing separate from It. There is nothing that can limit Its action, there is nothing that can be separate from Its action. It always knows what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. It is the limitless source of every good thing. It is all joy, all happiness, love, harmony, and perfection in all that It is and does.
  

• Identification:
  There is One life , that Life is God, that Life is perfect, that Life is my life, now. There is nothing in me or in my experience separate from God. "I am that which Thou art, Thou art that which I am." What I am is God in me as me. I now rid my mind of any and all ideas of isolation and separation from God, and know that as I now turn to Him I permit and Partake of an increased flow and influx of the Divine nature as what I am. I am one with God--all that is. My mind is a focal point, an individualization, of the Mind of God, the One Creative Power. The word I speak, the declaration I make is the word of God going forth through me into new tangible creation. In accord with the Law of Mind my word is its own fulfillment.
  

• Declaration:
  This word I speak is for me, about me, is the truth of me. There is nothing in my mind, or the mind of another, that can deny it. Its action and fulfillment cannot be delayed, deferred, or hindered. I know, affirm, and declare that Divine Intelligence, the Mind of God, now guides and directs my every thought, my every action. I know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Every good idea I have carries with it the knowledge of the ways and means for its achievement. I am vigorous and whole. I possess the vitality of the Infinite. I am strong and well. God's Life is my life, now. His strength is my strength. His power is my power. My whole being is renewed, invigorated, made alive. There is peace, a Divine harmonious, dynamic, creative action at the center of my being. Every breath I draw, every beat of my heart, is the perfect rhythmic action of Life Itself. The expression of the One Perfect Life in me as me is now perfectly maintaining every atom, cell, and organ of my body. My body is a Divine idea in the Mind of God and no thing, no situation or condition can prevent Its full and complete expression in and as me. God created my body, knows how to maintain it, to remove what doesn't belong, and to rebuild it. This is occurring right now. Without reservation I know I now manifest and experience in all fullness and completeness God's perfect idea of me, and in all respects, every action, function, and structure of my body now conforms to it. There is perfect assimilation, circulation, and elimination. All that I am is one with the One Perfect Life. All the joy there is, all the happiness, all the beauty are now mine. I am born of the Spirit. I am in the Spirit. I am the Spirit made manifest.
  

• Acceptance:
  I now accept the creative action of the words I have spoken as the law and the thing whereunto they are directed. They go forth into immediate fulfillment. Right now are they fully manifest. There is no delay, there is nothing that can prevent them from now being fully and completely fulfilled in my experience. They are words of power and of good. I accept them, I know they are the truth of that which I am. In and through them God goes forth anew into creation. It is now done, it is now complete. For this knowledge, for this understanding, I am grateful. I give thanks that all this is so. I know and accept that there is One Life, that Life is God, that Life is perfect, and that Life is my life now. Right now.
  And so it is.
  
  

The Dynamics of Spiritual Mind Treatment /  Affirmative Prayer
     Spiritual Mind Treatment - also called "spiritual treatment" or simply "treatment" - is affirmative prayer.  It is effective prayer.

      Affirmative prayer is a definite act of the conscious mind, setting the Law of Mind in motion for the idea specified in the prayer.  The person stating an affirmative prayer believes that their word is operated upon by an intelligent, creative Power which has at Its disposal the ways, the methods, the means, and the inclination to make manifest their prayer at the level of their faith in It, creating those circumstances which are the logical outcome of the ideas embodied in their prayer.
 
        If we wish to demonstrate supply (money), for example, we would not say, "I am a millionaire," but we would seek to realize that Infinite Substance is limitless supply.  We would say,
         "I am surrounded by pure Spirit, God, perfect Law, Divine Order, and by limitless Substance, which intelligently responds to me.  It is not only around me, but it is also in me; it is around and in everything.  It is the essence of perfect action.  It is perfect action in my affairs.  Daily I am guided by Divine Intelligence.  I am not allowed to make mistakes.  I am compelled to make the right choice at the right time.  There is no confusion in my mind, no doubt whatsoever.  I am certain, expectant, and receptive."

       As a result of statements such as these we re-educate our mind, re-creating and re-directing the subjective state of our thought.

CONVICTION:  In giving a spiritual mind treatment, or praying effectively, we proceed in a definite and scientific manner.  It is necessary that we have as our initial premise an absolute conviction that there is a spiritual Law of Mind which molds our thought into tangible form.  But back of this intellectual and mental conviction there needs to be added a spiritual conviction of it - a spiritual conviction that our world is impulsed by love, governed by reason, controlled through law, and that it is primarily a unity; that there is a Divine urge toward self-expression; and that God Himself is infinite Being, creating by Self-pronouncement.  The intellectual conviction is one of law and order.  The spiritual conviction imbues the world of law and order with warmth and color and emotion.

      We start with the intellectual and emotional conviction that the manifest universe is a thing of law and order, that it is primarily an expression of Spirit or God-Mind.  Back of the physical world there is a mental or spiritual world.  The physical world is visible ... the spiritual world is invisible.  Whenever any given "cause" is established in the spiritual world it tends to create a physical correspondent in the objective world.  Thoughts become things.  Mental states, aggregations of mental states, become objective conditions.

INTENTION:  The next aspect after absolute conviction is definite intention.  It is natural for us to have conviction, for us to believe there will be a result to our prayer or spiritual mind treatment, or else we would not undertake it to begin with.  However, too often a definite intention is not included because we may feel that what God wants us to have He will give us.  But we would not say:  "What God wants us to have He will give us, therefore we will not harness electric energy.  What God wants us to have He will give us, therefore we will not cultivate the desert.  What God wants us to have He will give us, therefore we will not bother to invent an automobile or a steamship or an airplane."  Of course not!

        We have to have a definite intention regarding what we are going to do with the Power.  Since the Power tapped by prayer may be used in one instance to heal someone, ten minutes later we may use it to make someone happy, and the next time it may help someone secure a job, we must be clear about what our particular intention is in any given circumstance.  It we give a spiritual mind treatment for the healing of someone's physical ailment, that treatment is different, although it is founded on the same principle, form the kind of treatment we would give if we were treating someone who wished employment.

CONSCIOUS APPLICATION:  If we are going to make definite use of the Principle involved we must not only have conviction and intention, but we must also use conscious application - this is the next aspect.  For instance, we capture the energy of the waterfall and we intend that it shall light a building.  But we must consciously apply it to that purpose.  Likewise, with spiritual Energy, even if we believe in it and have clear intention, it will never produce an actual effect if it is unused.  This is where people often fail to use the Principle intelligently and scientifically, therefore their results are haphazard, chaotic, spasmodic.  In order to make a scientific use of this Power, we must first believe that it is, know exactly what we want to use it for, then state that it is now operating in a particular place, for a particular purpose or person, at a particular time.

A TREATMENT IS SPECIFIC:  The process of spiritual mind treatment begins with this concept:  Perfect God, Perfect Man, Perfect Being.  That is the basis of the conviction we must have.  The person who needs our help is a part of this "Perfect God, Perfect Man, Perfect Being."  The only thing "wrong" with that person or our self, is a certain experience through which they are passing.  There is nothing fundamentally wrong with anyone; everyone is a Perfect Person.  That is the truth about everyone, and the revelation of this truth through the intellect - definitely conceived and consciously spoken for specific purposes - demonstrates the supremacy of spiritual thought over the apparent - and only apparent - material or physical resistance to a person's innate Perfection.

          In our endeavors we naturally meet this argument in our thought:  "Maybe God is perfect, maybe your spiritual being is perfect, maybe the Kingdom of Heaven is perfect, but look about you at the earth on which you live ... and weep."  Remember, however, that the Master Mind Jesus said:  "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."

        The earth and sky do not meet, the railroad tracks do not come together, any horizon is merely the limit or our present vision.  And so we must destroy this argument, recognizing that it arises our of a false belief.  We need to know that there is no lack, no want, no limitation in the Reality of ourselves, and that Reality is a present experience, right now.  We must recognize that any argument contrary to this is neither person, place, nor thing.  It has no power.  It is not the law of our life.

CONCLUDING A SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT:  In concluding a spiritual mind treatment, after having gone through the stages of conviction, intention, and conscious application, we must believe that it is the law unto the thing whereunto it is spoken.  A person who gives a spiritual mind treatment that is based upon conviction, has a clear intention, and is consciously applied, must then believe that something has happened, that the result of the treatment is now  making its appearance in the physical world.

     So we find the following process necessary in the actual practice of giving a spiritual mind treatment.  We start with conviction:  Perfect God, Perfect Man, Perfect Being.  We move from conviction to definite intention:  "I am now going to use Divine Power for this particular purpose [and here you name the purpose]."  Next we move from definite intention to conscious application:  We make statements specifying that the Power is now operating for the purpose we intend.  Then we believe and accept that what we intend has happened and that it will continue to happen, for we have dealt with actual Reality.

      Anyone who can do this can give successful spiritual mind treatments.  This is all a person has to know about it, though experience will gradually teach one how to give better and better treatments, how to meet certain arguments, how to handle certain situations, how to heal certain conditions.  Naturally one's technique will improve with experience just as in any other science, but one need not wait for some "far-off Divine event."  

     There is nothing more real, tangible, or concrete than a spiritual idea.  To be able to work the apparent miracle of spiritual mind treatment within our own imagination and thought, and to know that it leads to the creation of an objective circumstance in our life or in the life of someone else, is the beginning of the knowledge and the wisdom which shall show each one of us that Spirit within us is independent of time and space, of circumstance and condition, that it is not conditioned to anything whatsoever, that it is eternal, alive, awake, aware, free, and immortal!
 ... taken from the writings of Dr. Ernest Holmes

Please contact Rev. Dr. Henry Lee Bates with any questions or comments:
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** PRAY FOR MILITARY MEN AND WOMEN **
U. S. Military Deaths - War in Iraq:  U. S. Fatalities
               Faces of the Fallen
   Portraits of U. S. service members who have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war.

Thank you Father for blessing each and every person who makes their earthly transition in what the world calls war ... may they find their great peace with You and be blessed always.  Thank you Father for sustaining and maintaining soldiers all over the world who are doing that which they believe to be right, just and in service to the greater Good.  I am knowing that this prayer is met with its perfect result ... all praise to God" ... And So It Is... Amen.

HEALING MEDITATION
PRAYER WORK/SPIRITUAL COUNSELING SERVICES

The Prayer of Faith by Hannah Moore Kohaus
Prosperity Treatment (Prayer) by Dr. Ernest Holmes
3 STEPS In Healing by Dr. Joseph Murphy
The PRESENCE by Emmet Fox
THE SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH by Wallace D. Wattles