In the Book, we read, “Pray without ceasing”, and we recognize that only as we let that which is of the Spirit of Truth and the Fire of Divine Love, find manifest expression through us that we can fulfil that admonition. That unceasing prayer must be the expression of life; it must be the meditation of the heart; it must be the spirit of what we think, and say, and do.
It is our custom to conclude prayer with the words, in the Christ. I have sometimes wondered if the significance of those words was fully appreciated. If we are not in the Christ we cannot truly pray, and unless we are in the Christ we cannot receive the answer to our prayer. Only that prayer which is in the Christ has power, and only he who is in the Christ is in position to receive the answer to his prayer. Merely saying the words, “in the Christ” is of small avail. That which is signified by these words must be a reality in us if we are to know the power of God working in and through us on earth. What does it mean to be, in the Christ?
It is true that there are varying degrees of being in the Christ. An individual who may find himself engulfed in the whirlpools of darkness may, through response, find himself, in the twinkling of an eye, in the Christ, enfolded in Light, Love and Life, in Spirit and in Truth, so that he is lifted up into the Christ. Without attunement in the Christ, or actually being in the Christ, no individual can receive the answer to prayer, and the power of the Word in prayer is dependent upon its expression, in the Christ. Those who worship God in Spirit and in Truth, not merely with their lips, not merely with claims of belief, not merely by actions propounded by men, come to know what it is to live, in the Christ.
The direction of response is the direction of movement. What is it that controls us in any given deed, in any given act? That which, to the outer view, may seem to be a right act, to be condoned or encouraged or commended, may be done in a spirit and in an attitude, or for a reason, that makes it a wrong act. The reason for action, the motivation for the center of control, determines, basically, the rightness and the wrongness of action. So must the individual, through the Spirit, be attuned to the point of Higher Authority. That which we have called prayer is the process of maintaining that attunement.
There are tens of thousands of individuals on earth who sincerely, earnestly, seek to do the Will of God but obedience to that direction, in harmony with the central Will of God can be effectively made manifest only through those who act and receive, who speak and receive, in the Christ. Being thus tuned-in, they are a part of the expression of the Divine on earth, by means of which the Will of God is done on earth as it is done in Heaven. The instruments of accomplishment for the work of God on earth are comparatively few. Comparatively few are willing to devote themselves wholly, completely, entirely, to the accomplishment of the Divine Program on earth. The human mind can so easily find excuses for turning this way or that, so easily condone laxness of function in the Central Current of Reality.
What is the center of control in each word that is spoken, in each thought of the mind, in each act?—is it, in the Christ; or is it in the realm of human desire and human fancy? Prayer, to be prayer, must be, in the Christ, and he who is not in the Christ, or at least attuned in the Christ, cannot receive the answer to prayer. Moment by moment, day by day, we are either tuned-in or we are not. We are moving forward, individually and as a Unit. There is much in your unified endeavors and functions which I can properly commend, and I praise God for the fulfilment that is being made manifest in you and through you. To increase that fulfilment, to make that activity more effective that we may prove true to our responsibilities and worthy of those blessings which we have enjoyed, and do enjoy day by day, we need to be in-tune.
The Word that is spoken, in the Christ, must be received by reason of attunement, in the Christ. The Word of the Lord accomplishes that whereunto it is sent, but the fulfilment of that Word is, in the Christ. Human strength, human wisdom, in the human word not attuned, cannot avail in bringing fulfilment of the victory. The Word of God is sure and certain—in the Christ. The Power of God is absolute—in the Christ. And so it is that only as we worship Him in Spirit and in Truth can we know that attunement, in the Christ, by which we may come to abide in an expression of life abundant, in the Christ.
He came that our joy might be full, not to take joy away, not to subject us to slavery, but that we might enter into the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God, and that our joy might be full. And when human reactions are such that it sometimes appears as if human beings thought that God was trying to take away the joy of life and undertaking to establish some sort of bondage and slavery, the human being that begins to fight against the Spirit of God in order to maintain its independence and liberty, is, of all creatures, most truly bound by the chains of darkness, and subjected to imprisonment in the realm of the prince of this world.
When we speak or hear the Word, in the Christ, let us let it truly be so in us, for except we be in the Christ, the Word cannot find fulfilment in us. Only as we are in the Christ can we be members of that Body by means of which the Word is made flesh, to dwell among men and to draw them, by the irresistible cords of Love, into the Way, the Truth and the Life, that all who will may Worship God in Spirit and in Truth.
Beloved Master and Father of us all, we thank Thee that, through the outpouring of Thy Spirit, we are privileged to be in the Christ, so that Thy Word may accomplish that whereunto it is sent, in us and through us, for Thy Word shall not return unto Thee void, but shall accomplish that whereunto it is sent. In the Christ. Aumen
For long the earth has been a den of thieves, when it was created to be a House of Prayer. What is meant by the word “prayer”? If we do not know this how could the earth ever become a House of Prayer? Usually the view seems to have been that prayer is a way of petitioning some God for what is deemed to be desirable. Such an idea is very self-centered, to say the least. How could anyone assume that, if there really is a God, particularly a God of love, anyone would have to bend His ear to provide what those who were supposed to be His children really required? Of course this whole attitude is quite childish in itself. Children ask their parents for this and that, and so this attitude seems to be carried over by adults in their conversation with God, the idea being that what is needful hasn’t been provided apparently. This is telling God to smarten up, isn’t it, which seems rather a blasphemous sort of attitude and one which could hardly work in any case.
What is prayer? I think we could provide a rather succinct definition in this regard: Prayer is to be aligned with the creative process. To ignore the creative process and make demands upon some hardhearted God does not do any credit to human intelligence. I’m sure we all are well aware that abundant provision has already been made, not only here on the surface of the earth for the fulfilment of the creative process but everywhere throughout the whole universe. There is no lack. All is available that needs to be available in any given moment. This statement can easily be made—I am making it—but it is something that human beings particularly have opportunity of proving out. Obviously if we are intent upon making demands, whether upon God, or upon somebody else, or upon the earth itself, we will find ourselves out of sync with the creative process. No demands are necessary, and it is arrogance to make them. Of course the human mind looking around and seeing the lacks everywhere will dispute the fact that everything is already present that needs to be present. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-divine-organization-is-not.html]
The question arises as to what all that is present is to be used for. Why is it there? This planet has already proved itself to be immensely rich in a vast variety of substances, both mineral substances and living flesh. Human beings have evidently excluded themselves from an awareness of the reality of the creative process, in order to try to make things conform to their own desires and intents. The immense provision that has been available was certainly not designed to be so used. The earth is a den of thieves. Human beings are those thieves, who have laid claim to the riches of the earth, amongst other things, for their own designs and purposes. This is certainly not what the provision was made for. Insofar as the creative process is concerned virtually everything has been wasted, wasted upon human lusts. We have seen this more or less clearly in the larger picture, and in these days the chickens are certainly coming home to roost. It would be, and is, quite easy to decry what is occurring, but who is causing it to occur? It’s convenient to pin the blame on somebody else, but we know our own responsibility in the matter. This is presumably why we came to the point of questioning human behavior, even the best of it. I suppose the “best” of it was our own behavior! It usually is in the human view.
Having questioned what is taken for granted by human beings everywhere, we have gradually become aware of the fact that there is a creative process; there is something at work regardless of human beings. Having become somewhat acquainted with this we would, I’m sure, consider it very foolish to try to dissuade the creative process from moving in its appointed ways. If we were to succeed, actually succeed in this, the whole universe would be thrown into chaos. I don’t think that’s likely to occur by reason of anything that human beings could do. All that has happened is that human beings have thrown themselves into chaos simply by espousing self-centeredness, taking the attitude that “the earth is mine to do with as I please.” This is a general attitude on the part of people, but it’s a very specific attitude on the part of each individual, isn’t it? “I’m going to do what I think should be done.” Here we have this human-nature self exalting itself into the position which presumably should be held by God: “I’m going to run things here on earth.” And so it has been. But one would suspect that we are very close to the point where it may definitely be said, “There is time no more.”
For thousands and thousands of years human beings have had the opportunity to repent. It was brought very specifically to the consciousness of mankind at one point that “the kingdom of heaven”—whatever that is—“is at hand. Repent: for another state is available.” But no. Human beings have paid lip service to such ideas but continued on in their self-centered ways, making demands upon each other, making demands upon God, making demands upon the earth. The earth has been thoroughly raped in consequence. But now it seems there is some wakefulness coming, a recognition of the awful behavior of human beings the world around, particularly, I suppose you could say, in what is referred to as the civilized world. Civilized? It’s a destructive jungle. Is that judgment or simply observation?
“My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” What a very accurate statement. Our concern now is presumably to stop stealing for ourselves. Some people are more unselfish than others and they steal for others, as well as themselves. There is a tremendous hoopla going on now with this fine young man wheeling himself across Canada in his wheelchair to try to raise money, in order to deal with a human ill. But does anyone ever think about why that human ill is there? “Let’s behave in the same old way and continue to produce these things, and then find remedies for them.” That is thievery and dishonesty. But people enthusiastically follow out such schemes, imagining that thereby they are doing something very good, very charitable, when in fact it’s defying the creative process. “We’re going to behave contrary to the creative process and, suffering the results of so doing, we’re going to find the remedies for them, so that we can keep on doing what we’ve always done.” What a sad picture of the crowning creation on earth: rebellious, self-satisfied. Oh yes, it’s easy to see, but of course it’s not so acceptable, if anyone should happen to look in the mirror, because all mankind is tarred with exactly the same brush. Some have come to a point of revulsion that one could have participated in such a filthy condition. We can no longer excuse anyone, ourselves chiefly as individuals, for our supposed goodness in this evil world. All have behaved the same way. The den of thieves is everywhere.
What of the House of Prayer? What of the creative process, which ultimately will sweep mankind into oblivion unless responsibility is taken, at least by a few? From our standpoint, however many others there may be, we are responsible. We are as responsible as anyone else for the state of this world. We can blame our forebears; someone back along the way started the ball rolling. But every generation has picked it up, and we can’t go back anyhow. All we have is the present moment, and that is all that is necessary, because the abundant provision is present in the present moment. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-temple-of-light-is-here.html] The provision is for the creative process. If one is aligned with the creative process, then there is ample provision. There may not be all the things that human beings have become accustomed to, all the things they like, all the things they want, but everything necessary for human beings to play their part in the creative process is provided. But that remains an unknown experience if one rejects the creative process.
Outside of the creative process there is an immensity of lack. It was said in the Book of Genesis at the beginning of the creation of whatever: “The earth was without form, and void.” Well as yet it was outside of the creative process; the creative process hadn’t yet been initiated. Now human beings have removed it from the creative process, and so the void puts in an appearance: the state of emptiness, the state of lack. And people frantically try to design things so that everybody has everything they want. From the holler that goes up from people, all over this continent anyway, it would appear that nobody has everything they want, in spite of thousands of years of trying to get it! Isn’t it about time that somebody started to exercise a little common sense? Come into the creative process; come out of the lack of it. Good suggestion.
So there is the matter of praying without ceasing, of participating in the creative process, which never stops. It has always seemed to me an impossible task to pray without ceasing, according to the human concept of what prayer was. How would you do it? Well there are those who go around with their prayer wheels, and the wind blows them around. That’s praying without ceasing, according to their view anyway; others have beads. There are various methods, techniques, that have been devised to fulfil the requirement of praying without ceasing, but all of them have ignored the creative process. All of them have superimposed human views, human ideas, human concepts, of the way to do things.
But things are already being done by the creative process. Why not align with that and, thereby, finally come to the point of praying without ceasing? We don’t keep ducking out of the creative process whenever it happens to suit us. Of course at the time of ducking out we forget, apparently, that because we are doing that we are going to have to reap the consequences of doing it. The Law works, there is justice, everything is very fair. “Oh no, look at this, look at that, look at the other thing.” Well if you want to stay outside the creative process you can reap the results of so doing. But that’s fair; that’s very fair. And because mankind has been doing it collectively, it is being reaped collectively too.
We have to come back to the beginning, which is always with oneself. There is no other beginning point, as we well know. In any given moment there is no other beginning point but oneself. Whatever else may be going on, here is the only place where one can begin. I think we’ve all had sufficient experience of trying to make other people over, to realize that that doesn’t work. We can’t get the world to suit us. Let us accept the creative process, because the fact is we either accept it or else. We are free to reject it, and human beings have been doing that for a long time. The results have been apparent in every generation, but they are becoming much more widespread now, aren’t they? There are so many more human beings. And ultimately there is a point of finish. The results become so horrendous that nobody could survive. This has come over the horizon, hasn’t it? Always there was the expectation in the past that somebody was going to survive. But now, here we are, to pray without ceasing. Do you think that’s a tiresome business? Well it certainly would be if we had to do it in the old human way; but if it is simply alignment with the creative process, where is the problem? Well the problem is that I may still want to have my own way; I may still want to do my own thing; I may still want to achieve my own purposes—and of course we are all good people, so they are all good purposes. Such a state of affairs certainly takes one out of the creative process, and one can’t exist very long outside of the creative process. Everybody has been finding that out.
The lure of achieving something for oneself has been so strong that human beings have rejected the obvious way by which they might come to the point of life. It was said by someone who apparently proved it out: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Why are we come? To drain life away from ourselves, and from everybody else too? There are those who claim to love Jesus Christ. They evidently love they know not what, because where there is love there is the experience of the Way, the Truth, and the Life, which was revealed by Jesus Christ. One has to experience it for oneself. It’s convenient to say, “Oh well He experienced it; how nice. And that is salvation for us.” Nonsense. It is necessary to experience it for oneself: All the things that I do shall ye do also. The things that He did were done in the creative process; it was made abundantly evident. What about us? Where is the evidence? “Oh, we’re too humble.” Too arrogant, I would say. So we pray without ceasing, because we abide in the creative process. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2023/11/secret-of-power-2prayer.html]
I wrote down a few little—I don’t know whether they are gems or not—earlier this evening when I was thinking along these lines. And if I can read my small writing here, I will read what I wrote. This relates to prayer, by the way.
“Whatever arises”—and something is always arising in our experience moment by moment by moment—“whatever arises, let me dwell in the secret place of the Most High.” In the creative process the little word let always seems to occur: “Let there be light,” “Let there be a firmament,” etc. “Let me dwell in the secret place of the Most High.” The place is secret because it is my place. No one else can get into it. Someone else may have a secret place, fine; everybody does; if they would consider dwelling there they would find out. There is a place of stillness, a place of strength. So whatever arises, let me be there.
“Let there be a place of stillness in the midst of turmoil.” How? Because I am that place. That’s how it comes in the midst of turmoil. There is plenty of turmoil around; we don’t have to go looking for that; but how about bringing the place of stillness into it? Let me not become all excited and try to settle things, to straighten things out and get things the way I think they should be. Just let there be a place of stillness in the midst of turmoil. Too simple? Did you ever allow it to happen? If you did you know that it works. You may not have to say a word, you may not even have to do anything. Just let that place of stillness be present because you are present.
“Let there be a place of light amidst darkness.” There is plenty of darkness around. Most people are fascinated by it. A lack of understanding, a lack of awareness, of what it is that is really going on—darkness! We have come to an awareness of what it is that is going on because there some alignment, at least, with the creative process. That’s what is going on. All this folderol in the world of human beings means nothing. The creative process means everything. That’s going to prevail, after all. Do you think human beings could get away with their rebelliousness in this little pinprick of a planet in the midst of the universe which is governed by the creative process? Not on your life!
“Let there be a place of ease amid disease.” People everywhere are frantically grappling with disease, trying to eliminate disease without changing the cause of it one iota. The cause of it is the lack of alignment with the creative process. That is the cause of all disease, of all trouble, of all tribulation. Yet human beings insist upon maintaining their own determinations. Okay, one can do that; but don’t complain when the results come along! Complaining is one of the most popular sports on earth.
A place of order. “Let there be a place of order in the chaos.” Why? Because I am present. I am present, praying without ceasing, part of the creative process, aligned with it. Let it work. Stop imposing good human ideas on it. Oh most people daren’t stop doing that, principally because they have no idea that there is any creative process. We have come to the point of knowing better. Let us never deny that, but be true to the truth that we know. “Let there be a place of love and beauty in the midst of fear and ugliness.”
“Let my presence be a beacon of enfolding radiance in every circumstance.” Is that too much to ask? The creative process is doing it all the time, except human beings haven’t known it because they have blotted it out. Let us be willing to know it, that wherever we are we may bring life, and bring it more abundantly. This is a world of death. We cannot know life in a world of death. All we can know is dying. And that’s all human beings know. From the moment they are born, they are dying. The world that human beings have created, by their rejection of the creative process, is a dying world. In it, death is worshipped. Everybody is frantically trying to make something good come out of death. “Oh yes, after we die we go to heaven”—or the other place, as the case may be. I was going to say that’s not so hot, but it is!
So we pray without ceasing, aligned with the creative process, letting all the human efforts drain away, because we see so clearly where such efforts lead. Rise up into the experience of the creative process, which will occupy hearts and minds as they relinquish that human state of self. Then there is space, space to experience the natural flow of the creative process emerging through us, through anyone who will receive it, emerging through the consciousness of mankind to the extent that there is a willingness that it should, to the extent that there ceases to be persistence in glorifying the human self. The human self doesn’t belong on earth, and that will prove itself out in due course.
There is a truth that does belong in human form. Those who think of themselves as Christians are aware of two great commandments that were given in the past: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all”—with all. No one ever did that, did they? They were draining love off here and draining it off there. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all ... and thy neighbour as thyself.” This seems to have been taken to mean that it is proper that you should love everybody. But something specific was said here: “thy neighbour.” And there was an indication, a sort of definition given, as to who your neighbour was. The statement wasn’t: “You must love everybody.” It wasn’t that. “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” And I suppose the definition of a neighbor is one who, to whatever degree, is allowing the creative process to work in his or her life. When that is so, the fact is discernible by reason of spiritual discernment.
There is something which flows between those in whom the creative process is being allowed to work. It can be sensed. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2020/07/from-house-of-communion-martin-cecil.html] There is a communion in the spirit of love. If someone is closed to the creative process, nothing is flowing; there can be no communion of love. So it isn't a command to love the unlovable. That would be an impossibility, wouldn’t it? The command is to love those through whom some measure of the creative process is being allowed to flow. If one is letting it flow through oneself, one will sense the movement of that flow through another. No judgment is necessary; you don’t judge anybody. You just find out whether the flow is there or not. I said in the past—and somebody took me to task for it—that those who deny the creative process, deny my KING, mean absolutely nothing to me. Of course! There can be no flow. That’s the way it is. It is a foolish fancy to imagine that one can love everybody.
There are those who try it mind you. Most don’t. It isn’t a matter of loving everybody. It is a matter of loving the LORD with all, loving the creative process with all; and if the creative process is working through someone, that will be included, won’t it? So there is no contradiction here between loving the creative process in one’s own experience of it, and loving a perception of it as it moves through somebody else. It is all the creative process, all loving the LORD with all. Of course there is always an enfoldment of love. Love is always available. The creative process is always available to everybody. And there is nothing to say, “Well you can’t have it; you can’t experience it.” It relates to what happens inside a person as to whether they accept it or reject it. Let it work. Let them accept it or let them reject it—we’ll find out.
Let the creative process work, and all things on that basis work together to perfection. But don’t slip in your two bits worth of good ideas to fortify the creative process. It doesn’t need your contribution. It will work the way it works, and we begin to discover what that is as we let it work through ourselves individually. Then we know what it is because it is expressed in our living, and we know what we express. The truth is known only in that way.
So it is well to put human nature, the human self, on the spot, which I have sought to do a little bit this evening. I'm sure you've all joined with me in putting it on the spot, for it only means something when you do it with respect to your own human self. “Get thee hence, satan." The devil, it is said, was a liar from the beginning. He is also a thief. That says something about human beings. But our concern is to restore to the LORD what is His.
Keep your sticky fingers off the creative process! As that is done, the creative process has a chance to move within the range of one’s own immediate experience, so that there is an increasing awareness of that movement. Somewhere along the way you will find increasingly that your hands are necessary to the creative process, but on an entirely different basis, because there will be an entirely different person present.
And so, as we come to the hour of meditation on another Sunday evening, we will continue our basic theme of our morning meditation—and to the degree that you began to realize the great significance of the Words of the Master, as recorded in the first part of the sixth Chapter of Matthew, you have already recognized that here we are dealing with the Secrets of Power. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2023/11/secret-of-power-1alms.html]
The first half of our meditation this morning established the essential attitude, the basis of approach, to correct function. “That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.” And these are the words the Master spoke next: “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”
This classification of the heathen suggests that they do not all live beyond the boundaries of the United States of America. “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” This is one of the basic factors which must of necessity be cleared from consciousness if we are to experience the fulfilment of Being which the Master made available to us through these words. It is not by “much speaking.”
In another place, the Master said, “For your heavenly Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” So, we begin to see that prayer is not a means of telling God what to do, or making specific requests in the sense of trying to get something. True prayer carries the spirit of communion, but there must be a pattern of harmony, of relatedness, if there is to be true prayer. The person who takes the attitude of the “have not,” and begins to beg for that which he thinks he wants, is revealing by that very attitude that he is not in attunement with God. He feels separate from God, he feels segregated, and there needs to be an attunement, a closeness, a state of harmony, an agreement within the individual between God and man, an agreement on earth, in you, between heaven and earth, not seeking to escape from earth or the things of earth, not trying to get into some heaven, but letting the heaven that is at hand take form in our lives by reason of our living. And so, prayer gives us an opportunity of communion with God.
And what is it in prayer, in communion, which gives us the greatest possible opportunity to find that attunement? There must, of course, be the fulfilment of the Law—love response to God. But when the human being tries to respond to God, he finds that such effort does not bring him into attunement with God nor make him feel close to God. Such effort fails to achieve the desired result. In this consideration of the Secrets of Being, we are now opening the door to an understanding of the Secrets of Power, in life on earth, the means by which the effectiveness of our living may reveal the Divine.
If we, as human beings, try to be effective, we fail. We may go through the form of action, we may speak the words, but of themselves they are nothing. How shall we let the effectiveness be established in us, in our thoughts and words and deeds? By God, for true effectiveness must come from the Divine Source. If there is power in relationship to the Divine Design, and a correct pattern of agreement with God, our lives will bring forth something on earth. And here is the secret of bringing forth, of the actual manifestation. But before we proceed, we need to stop and consider the fact that, human beings, through impatience, generally prevent the manifestation of the blessing which God would release on earth through us.
In our meditation this morning we considered something of the Secret Place. “That thine alms may be in secret,” not merely secret from human beings but in secret. And the place that is secret from fallen humanity is the place of God's Presence, the place of God's Love, the place of God's Truth, the place of Eternal Life, all of which the Master said were “at hand”; in secret, at a level of consciousness which the human mind, of and by itself, is not able to comprehend, is not able to grasp or realize. The distinction between the form of action and the true action—right action for right action's sake, in the current of the Spirit of God—needs to be remembered. “He that dwelleth in the Secret Place of the Most High shall abide under the Shadow of the Almighty.”
The shadow is the evidence of the presence of something, and the Shadow of the Almighty is the evidence of the Presence of the Almighty—not of the weak, not a weak God—a strong, all-mighty God. And yet human beings live through the pattern of their lives seeking to worship God, seeking to follow our LORD, without ever coming into the Shadow of the Almighty, without ever coming into the evidence of the Presence of the Almighty, without ever revealing the reality of the presence of the Almighty. “He that dwelleth in the Secret Place of the Most High, shall abide under the Shadow of the Almighty.” The place where we abide is the place where we live. It is our dwelling place, the place where we are at home. “Shall abide under the Shadow of the Almighty”—under the evidence of the Presence of the Almighty, we shall live. And once we begin to actually realize this point and accept its significance in relationship to ourselves, we can begin to appreciate the wonder, the beauty, of the open door which the Master established on earth for us.
What is the Way of beginning the process of attunement, that we may have communion? It is the way of thanksgiving. Most human beings spend a remarkable proportion of their lives complaining about something, complaining about so many things they do not like. We may recognize that there are things that are not as we would that they should be, but if anyone here has ever complained about things that he or she did not like, did that complaining help any? Did it change the situation? Perhaps it aggravated it. I have known people who were legally married, a man and a wife, who did not act like they were married; who, in fact, were not, in spirit, married; and one way or the other, or perhaps both ways, there was nagging, fault-finding, complaining, always fussing at each other, always complaining at each other, finding fault one with another. And did that correct anything, did it change it, did it improve it? No. Never! The complainer either fails to do anything, or merely aggravates and makes a bad condition worse. It is not by complaining, fault-finding, by talking loudly of the things that one does not like, that we improve any situation.
If then, we recognize that, gratitude, thanksgiving, provides us the starting point with respect to drawing near unto God, for whenever the word of God begins to find expression in the consciousness of the individual, there is the invitation, “Come near unto me.” Come near unto me. And when the Lord calls, the responding one answers, “Here I am. Let Thy Will be done in me.” Here I am, without any reservations, without any bargaining, without any attitude that, “If you will do so-and-so, Lord, then I will do so-and-so.” If we would begin to actually experience that which is possible to us by reason of the Master's word, we must let the spirit of complaining, resentment, fault-finding, nagging, whatever form it may take, be removed, and there must be, instead, the Spirit of thanksgiving, the Spirit of appreciation, not merely appreciation in the heart, that never gets said, but appreciation that is expressed, that is given form through words and deeds—appreciation, gratitude, thanksgiving. And when there is true thanksgiving the individual's attention is taken away from the things he thinks he does not like, the things about which he is wont to complain, and his attention is centered in the things for which he is thankful to God.
Now the Master says here, “But thou, when thou prayest.” We must, then, of necessity, begin to recognize the process of prayer, the process of coming into attunement with God so that we may have communion with God. And without that communion, without that dwelling in the Secret Place and abiding under the Shadow, there will be no true prayer. I could give you the words of the secret, but if you did not ever pray, in actual fact, they would never mean anything to you. Each must do something about it, not just hear an idea and say, “Well, that sounds pretty good,” and go on and forget it. One must begin to be in position to pray. And so, the process of attunement must come first, when we pray, in actual fact, not by much speaking, not by many words, but to actually pray.
Does one have to actually form words to pray? We are admonished in another place, “Pray without ceasing.” Can one pray without forming words in one's mind, silently, or with one's lips, whispering, or audible expression? Must one form words to pray? One may form words in prayer, that is true, but we must not imagine that there can be no prayer without the forming of words, as such. We cannot go around all the time whispering or saying—“much speaking.” The Master said, “For the hypocrites use vain repetitions.” Well then, repetitions are in vain. They accomplish nothing. Repetitions are in vain, saying something over and over and over again. And if we imagine that we shall be heard by our “much speaking,” by our much forming of words, we have missed the point of prayer.
Now the Master here is talking about the actuality of prayer—not what man had thought it to be, but what it actually is—“when thou prayest.” Millions of people think they pray to God when they never do. They may say the words of a prayer, that is supposed to be addressed to God, but their prayers are to something else, to false gods. Now the Master is talking about prayer to God. Why have I emphasized this point about resentment, complaining, fault-finding, nagging, etc.? Because he who feels resentment is responding not to God but to the thing which he resents. If you resent something, then that which you resent is your false god. And the Commandment is, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” And if you are complaining, you feel keenly that about which you complain or you would not be complaining about it. If it made utterly no difference to you, if you felt nothing about it, you would not complain about it.
So, complaining always has a feeling current in it, and complaining is prayer to false gods. He who is a complainer, a fault-finder, who is given to nagging, is thereby praying to false gods, and such a person has no time to pray to God. Oh, he or she might take off three or four minutes sometime in the day to repeat the words of a prayer that is supposed to be addressed to God, but note how empty those words are of feeling. They want to get something. They want to tell God what to do. They are begging for something. That is not prayer. I have heard ministers on the platform give prayers which sounded as if they thought that God could not possibly run the universe, let alone take care of anything on earth, if said minister did not proceed to tell God just exactly what to do and how to do it, exactly what was wrong, virtually giving orders to God, begging for things and telling God what to do. Now, that was supposed to be prayer, but it was not. Prayer to God. If it could be classified as prayer it would have to be called, “prayer to false gods.”
So the Master's opening statement here is extremely significant. “But thou, when thou prayest.” Now, until we actually get around to praying, in fact, the rest of what He said means nothing. We need to begin to realize that most people do not pray to God. Their words may supposedly address the prayer to God, and they may close their so-called prayer with, “In Jesus’ Name we ask it,” or some expression, but it still is not prayer to God, because they do not know what prayer is. And the false concept with respect to prayer is so widely prevalent that it is seldom that any human being truly prays, it is seldom that any Christian prays to God.
And the Master said, “When thou prayest, do something.” When you get to the point where you are ready to truly pray, where you are ready to let something work out in your life, where you are ready to let the secrets of power have meaning in you so that something is actually done, then we will do thus and so, but first we must reach the point of praying. And it is not so much the words we speak, although the words are important and it is well to use words in prayer, but it is the feeling we have that counts, the attitude we have. And so, begging God for something does not bring us into attunement with God, it does not establish for us a communion with God. Telling God what to do, as if He were a great, all-powerful servant and we were the boss, is of no value. God is not our servant. We should be His servants, but if we are controlled by spirits that are not of Him we are not His servants in actual fact, although we should be.
Therefore, we must remember that the Spirit of thanksgiving must be in our hearts, in actual fact, not just a process of saying, “Well now, there are quite a number of things I could thank God for. Let's see. I could thank God for that. Of course, this is a bad situation over here. I don't like that. But He said I must be thankful to God, so what could I …? Oh, I could thank God for that. Oh, I do not like this over here at all.” Where is the feeling? In the words that are supposed to be thanksgiving? Oh no. They are trapped in the realms of that which the individual does not like, the things about which he is complaining within himself, the thing he is objecting to.
If there is to be a true prayer of thanksgiving, there must be the Spirit of Thanksgiving, not just words. “Heavenly Father, I thank Thee for this and that and the other thing, but now I need this, oh, so badly,” and on, finally getting over into the realm where you really feel something. What do you feel? Whatever is in your heart. That, you feel. As the Master put it, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” And we remember our two recent meditations on the subject, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” So, once we begin to actually yield to God in love response and to feel the Spirit of Thanksgiving, we will have a connecting link with God, not a connecting link that binds us to things that ought not to be.
The way you feel determines your connecting links. Hate is a connecting link which connects you with what you hate and identifies you with what you hate. Resentment is a connecting link which connects you with what you resent and makes you a part of it. Complaining, the spirit of complaining, is a connecting link which binds you to that about which you complain. And so, through hate, or resentment, or complaining, you are actually praying, not to God, but to that which you hate or fear, you are praying to that which you resent, you are praying to that about which you complain, for that is where your connecting links are. And if there is no real feeling of the Spirit of gratitude to God, you do not have a connecting link with God insofar as your consciousness is concerned. You are connected with God or you would not have any life, yes. But your consciousness of relatedness, of being connected, of attunement with God, that is important. And until you reach a point where you can begin to express the reality of gratitude in a true Spirit of Thanksgiving, you have no basis on which to pray to God.
Now, “when we pray” to God—that is, after we have reached a point of having a consciousness of a basis of relatedness, of attunement, a connecting link from our hearts to the heart of God—then we can begin to pray. Now here is a peculiar thing. Most everyone who has read these words has taken it as meaning, “If you intend to pray, if you think you are going to pray, then enter into the closet.” But did you notice that is not what the Master said at all? He did not say that. He did not say, “If you intend to pray, if you think you are going to pray, if you want to pray, then go and enter into the closet and pray.” He did not say that. He said, “But thou, when thou prayest”; in other words one has to be praying already before he can enter into the closet, not merely an intention, an expectation. The actuality of being in a state of prayer already. “And when thou hast shut thy door,” continue to pray. Pray to thy Father in secret. But the statement begins, “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret.” But the clear indication is, that we need to be praying in order to enter into the closet.
Now what is the closet? If we have a little room, a little place where we have an altar, that is well. It is good to have a sanctified spot. You should have—in your home, or in your bedroom, or somewhere—a little altar of your own, a sanctified spot where you can go for a few moments or a longer period, for this process of communion. A physical place is good and really very important. And if you do not have a little sanctified spot somewhere, you had better start finding one. It might be under an apple tree, it might be anywhere, but you need to have one spot that is particularly sacred to you. And you do not need to talk about it, about where it is, or tell people about it, particularly. There needs to be a sanctified spot for you in the physical sense, but is that room, or moving to that place, wherever it may be, entering into the closet? Not necessarily so. It can be, but it is not necessarily entering into the closet.
If you have a sanctified spot, some place that is sacred and holy to you, and you go to that place, it should be easier in that place for you to enter into the closet, but you cannot enter into the closet without praying first. Prayer is the gateway, the door, into the closet, the passageway. Now, let us consider something of these significant words, “But thou, when thou prayest,” after you have started to pray, and there has to be a deep feeling inside of you of that attunement with the Divine Source, of thanksgiving, of some yearning or longing, something, a feeling of relatedness, a connecting link, and when you begin to pray, you can begin to enter into the closet, and you can enter into the closet wherever you are. You can do it on a busy street, you can do it anywhere, at any time, when you learn how. But the closet is the Secret Place of God inside yourself, in your own heart.
When you have entered in to that closet, the Sacred Place, the place you keep sacred for God within yourself, and “when thou hast shut the door”—shut the door? Why shut the door? What does it mean? It means to shut out the feeling of attunement, connecting links, with all that would distract, with all that should not be controlling. It means to let go of attunement with false gods. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” We can have a sacred, sanctified spot outside of ourselves, but do you have a sacred sanctified spot within yourself, a place kept holy and sacred for God alone, for the Spirit of God, a place that you would not allow any feeling, any attitude, any situation to desecrate? It is so holy, so sacred to you, so sanctified, that no pressure from outside of yourself could cause you to desecrate it. That Holy Place is the closet, and if you have not found that Holy Place within yourself, in your own heart and consciousness, then you cannot enter into the closet, no matter what you do, until you begin to find it. “But thou, when thou prayest.” We have to start actually praying to God first, not by much speaking, not by repetitions which are so vain, so useless, so unnecessary, but “when thou prayest,” then “enter into the closet.” You can pray without being in the closet, but there is a transferring of the realm of one's being.
Can you, when there is noise and confusion around you, when vibrational patterns are disturbed, when things are going wrong and pressures are being heaped upon you, can you withdraw to a Secret Place within yourself, in your own heart, to a point where you do not even hear what is going on around you? Some people say, “Well, it has to be just so for me to meditate. I can't think; I can't meditate; I can't do this unless everything is just so. The radio has to be off, the people have to stop talking, or I have to be all by myself.” It is all right to be all by yourself sometimes and commune with God. I am not objecting to that. But can the noises around you keep you from having communion with God? If they can, then under that circumstance you are not subject to God, you are subject to the noise, you are subject to the pressure. And you worship that to which you are subject, always. You worship, whether you like it or not—you are in actual fact worshipping that to which you are subject.
Now, if that to which you are responding is not of God, do you say, “Well, I can't commune with God under this circumstance, the pressure is too great. I can't commune with God, the noise is too much. Things are not the way I want them to be so I cannot commune with God. If everyone would just shut up, the noise would stop. If everyone would do just what I want them to, or get out, then I could commune with God. Then I could let that which is of God come into my heart”? Suppose I took the attitude that, before I would enter into communion with God, enter into prayer in the Secret Place and begin to express to you the things of the Spirit, you would first have to be perfect, you would have to bring me a perfectly clear vibrational pattern, everything just right, and if you would all be just right then I will do something. No. I have received you into this room, regardless of whether you are right or not, regardless of your degree of attunement with God. Did that stop me from entering into the Secret Place, and communing with God, and expressing to you the words of the Lord? No.
How do I present that which is given to you in a Service or in a class? Something out of my mind, as such? O No. If it were, you would be wasting your time here. I use this principle every time I come before you—to enter into the closet and shut the door and pray. And what is the word here? “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door”—shut thy door—pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” And the word of the Father is offered to you. This is the secret here. This is the Way by which you can begin to let the Father do the works, to give you the open reward.
But, “when thou hast shut thy door”—if I did not shut my door when I come before you there would be distraction, and my consciousness, my heart as a man, would not allow that which is of God to come forth. But this is the process which I use, every Service, every class. And that which is given, the open reward, the reward that is given openly, those are the words you hear, the Spirit you feel. They are given openly from the Father to you, that you may heed them and respond and let them have meaning. Here is the Central Secret of Being which the Master revealed on earth. There is no Truth which He presented more important this. Here is the secret of my Ministry, and you are invited to share it, to share the ability to let this process take place in yourself so that the Power of God may actually work through you. In the process, as far as I am concerned, I have to do two things: first, enter into the closet and shut my door so that there is a pattern of attunement with God at work in me; but then I have to establish a pattern of attunement with you, individually and collectively, and as that pattern is built up you begin to share the open reward. “Pray to the Father which is in secret.”
Now I did not use a Devotional period tonight, in a specific sense, in opening this Service, for a very particular reason. It is good to have a Devotional period which has a specific aspect of prayer, but I wish you to begin to realize that the whole Service is prayer. We do not begin and close with a prayer, ever, in one of my Services. We may begin and close with a Devotional period, but the whole period is prayer; and if it is not, then it is of no value to you. Man has assumed that he had to be saying something to God, if there was to be prayer. Did it ever occur to you that it is real prayer when that which is of God is coming out through your lips? That the word of Truth is expressing through you? That the Spirit of God's Love and Life are flowing through you? That is prayer. “But thou, when thou prayest.” We have to be praying first, letting the Spirit of God control.
Prayer is letting the Spirit of God control so that you are subject to God.
Then you become a living prayer,
then your actions are a part of prayer,
then your thoughts are part of prayer,
then your words are a part of prayer.
The expression of the Spirit of God through you to man,
that is prayer.
That is prayer! Not you trying to somehow make God listen to you. But when you reach a point of being still, when you stop talking, stop forming words with your lips to try to tell God what to do, when you become still and begin to know the Reality of God, when you answer the Divine Command with a true response and a true listening, “Be still and know that I am God,” then when you are still, when you stop talking the words your human minds dictates, when you stop feeling the things that are in the circumstance round about you, when you stop being subject to that which is not of God, then you are beginning to pray because you are becoming silent in a true Spirit of thanksgiving, you have drawn near to the Throne of God, you have begun to find that secret, sacred, hallowed spot within yourself—your closet, the closet within your own being—and you shut the door so that that which is external to you cannot control you. You are letting God control, and you respond in love to the Father in the Secret Place, and immediately—oh, some things may not manifest for a time, but—in that instant—"and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
Every Service you have ever heard me give has been a proof of the reality and the Truth of those words the Master spoke, for it is the reward of the Father. As I have pointed out over and over again, that “the words which I speak unto you I speak not of myself.” If they were my words as a man you would be wasting your time here. If you think they are the words of a man, merely from me as a human being, then you are wasting your time, unless you begin to perceive that the words are the words of the Father—the open reward, “and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” And He has given me so many open rewards. What, just to me? Oh, no. It is what flows through me to you and to anyone else to whom I minister. That is the open reward, because it is open to anyone who will receive it. “He will reward thee openly.” That which is in expression then, that which takes form, that which is made manifest to you, or to anyone, through me, that is the proof of the word, “and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
Human beings have been lost in the idea that the Father's reward was going to be something just to them, that they would get—whether it was some money or something, they did not know quite what that reward would be from the Father, but—"when I get that reward that is one thing I will sure keep secret. I will keep that inside of me or I will hide it. The Father is going to give me a reward. Isn't that wonderful? I am going to get it.” Are you? Not the Father's reward, on that basis—you will get a reward, though, and you will not like it; but it will not be from the Father. He is not going to just give it to you. He is going to give it through you to all who will receive—not just to you—when you stop trying to get the reward but you let the Father begin to use you as a means by which He can give the reward to others. Now those who try to get it will not. But those who receive it, and let it manifest in the living of life, in blessing to others, they are the ones who will receive it, because they share in the giving of it.
Once you begin to actually dwell in the Secret Place of the Most High—where is that Secret Place? In some far-off sky? Oh, no. It is the closet the Master spoke of. The Secret Place of the Most High is that closet within your own being, that secret, sacred, hallowed spot in your own heart, the place which you would not desecrate for anyone, anywhere, at any time. But you have to find it first and let it be sanctified. And once it is there and sanctified, truly, it is always in harmony with God and the things of God, wherever they may appear.
Blessed Ones, here is the Secret of Power. We learned this morning that we must not go about blowing the trumpet, but when the Father begins to reveal the expression of His Being through you, let it appear, let it flow. If I did not participate in giving these words of Truth to you, I, in the outer sense, would not have them. I share them because I am an instrument in their giving, in the actuality of giving them to you and through you to others; for what you try to get you lose, and what you give you have. If you give happiness, you have it. If you try to get happiness, you never do. There is nothing more futile than trying to get happiness. But if you give happiness you begin to have it. And so with all the things of God.
Blessed Ones, remember the Master's word, “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret.” That is where the Father is. That is what the Master said, and you find it true. The Father is in secret, in the Secret Place of the Most High, available to you. “And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
“Shall reward thee.” A reward straight from heaven? No, not in the sense that human beings think. It is a reward of the Divine Expression through you, straight from Heaven, yes. But after that God gives through you, something begins to come from others back to you. But you have to let it be given through you first, in actual fact, not just a dream, not just an idea, not trying to do something, but the reality of your giving to others produces a response in them and they begin to give back to God through you. They received from God through you, and if that which they received from God through you is going to have any meaning they must give something back to God through you. If they say, “But I received this from God through you all right, but now I am going to give to God this way and that. I will not give back to God through you,” they will not have it. They are throwing it away.
If you receive something from God through me you must give back to God through me if that Blessing is to be yours. If I am capable of letting a Blessing of God come into manifestation to you, I am capable of letting that which you give back to God flow through me to God. It is not a one-way deal. There must be the giving, and there must be the returning cycle. And that is just as true of you as it is of me. If God gives through you, then those who receive must give back to God through you or that which they think to receive will not remain in them. And this is a part of the Secret of Power. Let it be a living thing in you and first begin to pray truly, and then find that secret, sacred place and begin to live in it, begin to know it, and begin to let God give something through you into the world, and so shall you share the Victory.
