Affirmative Prayer

In our form of affirmative prayer, we are announcing. We are remembering what is true about the goodness of this life and declaring it to be so. We are particularizing the love of God, the energy of the Universe, in our own life.  ~Scott Awbry

Affirmative prayer is a major spiritual practice at Oakland Center for Spiritual Living. Everyone can learn to pray affirmatively.  Trained Licensed Prayer Practitioners choose to make affirmative prayer their mission. To find a list of all the Practitioners, Click Here.  Practitioners offer prayer to anyone at no cost.  Practitioners are also available to help you explore your beliefs and to help you align those beliefs with spiritual principle. 

There are a number of ways to receive prayer at Oakland Center for Spiritual Living.

  1. Fill out the form below with your request. This goes to the Ministry of Prayer who knows the Truth for you for several weeks.
  2. Call the Ministry of Prayer phone line, 510-547-1979 x-6, listen to the recorded prayer and leave your prayer request.
  3. Call a Practitioner.
  4. Attend Sunday Service and receive prayer in the Prayer Room after service. 

2 + 6 =

What is prayer?

Prayer, in its simplest form, is an active use of one’s intelligence to shift one’s consciousness towards God (the Good) and one’s union with that Good. Humans throughout time have turned to the use of prayers during times of perceived need as well as times of great rejoicing. First and foremost, prayer is an active means of communing intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually with the Divine, the Power Greater Than We Are, Creator of All, with which we can connect.

Within Ernest Holmes’ book, The Science of Mind: A Philosophy, A Faith, A Way of Life (SOM textbook), there is an entire chapter (chapter 9) on prayer. He writes that one common question is what the difference is between prayer (traditionally defined as a beseeching of a far-off God) and Spiritual Mind Treatment, or Affirmative Prayer as used within the Science of Mind. The crux of the question of whether prayer is the same as Spiritual Mind Treatment can be addressed with two quotes:

“If when one prays his/her prayer is a recognition of Spirit’s Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence, and a realization of one’s unity with Spirit, then one’s prayer is a spiritual treatment.” (SOM textbook, pg 149.2)

 

“When your prayers are declared in faith, in confidence and acted upon with common sense and in a practical way, you have then already the desires of your heart.”

– Rev. Dr. Daniel Lee Morgan (January 22)

Who May Pray? How May Prayer Practitioners Help?

Centers for Spiritual Living honors and endorses all forms of sincere prayer, recognizing that each is a shift in consciousness towards God. In addition, we teach a unique and scientific form of prayer called Spiritual Mind Treatment. This is a powerful, affirmative method of prayer that was developed by Ernest Holmes the founder of Religious Science. It involves a five-step process that embodies all elements of the creative process of Life itself. Our Prayer Practitioners are individuals trained and licensed in the use of Spiritual Mind Treatment on behalf of themselves, others, and our community. Anyone may contact a Prayer Practitioner for prayer support.

The purpose of Spiritual Mind Treatment is to heal or transform the mind of the person performing the prayer, even if the prayer spoken is for someone else. Because we all share One Mind, when we heal or transform our own mind, we also heal the minds of others. Following is an explanation of the five steps in Spiritual Mind Treatment (pulled from the Quick Start Guide to Religious Science):

1. Recognition: The term recognition means to re-cognize or “know again” or remember. In any healing we must first turn away from the appearances of the condition and then try to remember a greater good that can be experienced. The greater the good we can re-member the more powerful the Treatment will be. Since the greatest good that exists is God, we always strive to remember again, or recognize, the highest concept of God that we can.

2. Unification: The second step utilizes the power of Love, which is the force that draws us towards unity. Here we seek to unify ourselves with the concept of God, that we have recognized and declared in the first step. This becomes the realization that we are what God is, and God is all that we are. This condition was expressed by Jesus in the statement “the Father and I are One!” From this exalted position we speak on behalf of the indwelling Spirit.

3. Realization/Declaration: In the third step we declare what we have realized to be true about our relationship with God. We positively affirm that what is true about Spirit is also true about ourselves, or another. This is where we put into the Universal Mind a greater Truth about ourselves than we are currently experiencing. Then through the activity of the Law of Mind that Truth will come forth to be made manifest in our lives.

4. Thanksgiving: Nothing can be accepted into our individual minds against our free will. Therefore, we must make a conscious and willful acceptance that a greater Truth and Good exists for us. This may seem easy, yet it is often the most difficult part of the Treatment for many people. Feelings of guilt and unworthiness very often undermine our ability to accept our Good. The surest way to overcome this resistance is to accept your good in a mood of gratitude and thanksgiving.

5. Release: Throughout most of our lives we have accepted many false beliefs and opinions which must now be eliminated from our minds to allow replacement by a greater Truth. These old attitudes are often stubborn and unwilling to let go easily. However, they must be released. We can always detect their presence in the form of fear which creates a doubt in our minds that the Treatment will not work. So, the final step is to release all doubt and to conclude the Treatment with an expression of thanksgiving and assurance that the Law of Mind will produce the desired outcome that has been described within the prayer.

A Spiritual Mind Treatment for Good Health:

  1. There is only One Life. This Life is Good. This Life is God.
  2. This Life is my life, right here and right now!
  3. Because I know that I am One with this Life that is God, I therefore, know that I am One with the Good, the Wholeness and the Perfection inherent within it. I know that this Wholeness now expresses itself through me in the form of “perfect health” within my physical body.
  4. With an open, gracious, and joyous heart, I accept this Good, right here and now!
  5. I release any thought, belief, idea, or attitude that I might hold that does not conform with this Truth. In knowing that this is so, I let go, and I let God be the only presence acting now in my experience of life. Amen!

All may learn the five steps of Spiritual Mind Treatment and benefit from its use. Check out our Education page for classes.