How I Used Truth - Lesson 11 - Annotation 2
What mental faculty (spiritual power) is of vital importance in the exercise of true prayer, and what is its function?
2. Faith is the mental faculty (spiritual power) that is of vital importance in true prayer because it is "the perceiving power of the mind" (Prosperity 43). It is this spiritual power, moving in our consciousness as a mental faculty, that enables us to "perceive" God as the one Presence and one Power of all good in and around man and all creation. Without this perception there would be no basis for prayer. It would be fruitless to pray if we did not recognize God as the source of the very good we seek.
"The power to see in Spirit is peculiar to faith. In its outer expression this power is sight; interiorly it is that wh^ch perceives the reality of the substance of Spirit/ Mental seeing is knowing; when we perceive the truth/of a proposition, we say, 'I see, I see,' meaning that (we mentally discern. . . . This illuminating power of faith covers the whole constitution of man, making him master of all the forces centering about spiritual consciousness. Faith and prayer go hand in hand" (Charles Fillmore Christian Healing 89). Jesus Christ had faith in God as the indwelling Presence and Power and referred to Him as "the Father." We have a number of instances in the Bible where Jesus emphasized the importance of faith to those who sought help concerning some problem. Without the perceiving power of faith, a prayer -- no matter how sincere -- can never be "true prayer," and results will be uncertain. In order that we may be consciously one with God and able to contact Him in prayer we must know that:
"Without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him" (Heb. 11:6).
Prayer enables us to perceive the good that is already ours in God's storehouse of substance. More than that, prayer keeps us steadfast in the claiming of this inheritance. In the quotation from Christian Healing cited above, Charles Fillmore says of faith:
"This illuminating power of faith covers the whole constitution of man, making him master of all the forces centering about spiritual consciousness."
A study of faith indicates how far-reaching this power or faculty is. Faith literally marshals all the forces of man's nature in the accomplishment of any demonstration. The greatest demonstration that any of us can make is the manifestation (showing forth) of our divine nature. Without the faith that we are spiritual beings and sons of God, we would be unable to take the first step toward this demonstration of divine sonship. The first step in any demonstration must always be prayer, and without faith in our divinity such an activity could not be "true prayer."
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Preceding Entry: What is true prayer as brought out in this lesson?
Following Entry: How can we say that good is the only reality in the universe?
