Life of Prayer I - Lesson 3: Healing Through Prayer

 

Segment #5 from Wings of Truth video.

Eric Butterworth opens this segment by reflecting that the greatest contribution Unity has to offer religious people is that "You always have a choice." That we have a choice to be healthy is difficult to know when when we encounter apparent illness and sickness.

Consider the following points made in this video. What do they mean to you?

  1. You've been told that it's God's will and you have no choice ... [but they] can't make me think anything I don't want to think (Eric).
  2. In Truth you really are a whole person (Dorothy).
  3. In Unity we have this notion that life is to be lived from the inside out (Sharon).
  4. The nature of God is wholeness, completion, perfection, pure life ... and that naturally translates into our own life because we are made in the image and after the likeness of God (Jim).
  5. The Unity movement began as a healing movement. Charles Fillmore and and Myrtle Fillmore, who founded it, needed healing; both of them needed healing (James).
  6. The healing of Myrtle Fillmore ... indicates a swing from the conscious awareness of life as coming from the from the outside to a new insite of life coming from within (Eric).
  7. The meaning of it and the implication was something that came from within her ... it was an encounter with the presence of God for her (Jim).
  8. Do you mean to say that after all this time I've been reading the words of Jesus and the works of Jesus and I missed all along how it is that I could be healed? (Sharon)
  9. So she refocused her attention on the idea of life force flowing from within and ... she was healed completely (Eric).

Reading:

  1. How Prayer Healing is Done
  2. The Healing Word
  3. The Spoken Word
  4. Thou Shalt Decree
  5. Healing Through the Prayer of Faith
  6. Cheerfulness Heals
  7. Joy Radiates Health
  8. (Supplementary) The Healing Light — Agnes Sanford
  9. (Supplementary) Mysteries of John — Chapter 1
  10. (Supplementary) Mysteries of Genesis — Chapter 1

Introduction

  1. First know that "with God all things are possible."
  2. In order for healing to take place, faith is essential.
  3. There must be a recognition on the part of the healer and on the part of the patient that God is present as an all-powerful mind, equal to the healing of every disease, no matter how bad it may appear.
  4. Silent Unity has proof that there is nothing that is incurable.
  5. To begin a time of prayer for healing you might want to use the Lord's Prayer. Many persons do. Keep in mind the five steps we practiced in Lesson 1.
  6. The object of your prayer time is to raise your mind to the Christ consciousness, through which all true healing is accomplished.

1. Logos:

  1. Define and explain.
  2. The "God said" of Genesis — creative power of God.
  3. Understanding the Logos reveals the law under which all things are brought forth into manifestation
  4. Logos covers both the spoken word and the underlying thought ... "The Word was with God and the Word was God."
  5. Why speak the Word. The Word gives shape and form to the idea and reveals it.
  6. Speaking the affirmative Word. Our words have power. What do we decree for ourselves?
    1. Negative thoughts - negative results.
    2. Positive thoughts - positive results.
  7. Ask largely and receive largely.

2. Permanent Healing Vs Temporary Results

  1. Laying on of hands.
  2. Do we believe that God heals one time and not at another.
  3. Remember that God's healing power is always available.
  4. There is no limit to this power.
  5. Speaking the healing prayer of affirmation is not pretending. It is stating the Truth about your true nature.
  6. Anyone can speak the healing word. Anyone can be a channel or agent for healing.

3. Cheerfulness And Joy

  1. "Laughter the best medicine."
  2. "A glad heart maketh a cheerful countenance."
  3. "These things have I spoken unto you that my may may be in you, and that your joy may be made full."

4. Practice The Presence

— end with a brief meditation time.

Here is a healing meditation by May Rowland from May Rowland - Healing Workshop - Tape 3. It will play for about 20 minutes. This is May Rowland at her best. Find a comfortable place, relax and allow God to bless you with this recording from May Rowland.

Here is a another May Rowland meditation. This one is from I Feel The Presence of God. It is a healing meditation that includes many of Unity's best-loved affirmations, many of them originating from Charles Fillmore, others emerging out of May's fifty-five years at Silent Unity. They convey some basic principles of effective prayer: finding a quiet place, relaxing the body, speaking affirmations, actively listening to the words until we feel their power, letting go and allowing them to transform our life.

I'm including it here because Mary Rexroth has stressed cheerfulness and joy as a most important aspect of physical healing. Note that May talks of joy as being one of the twelve powers. I believe she does this because May always focuses on the positive feeling of each power. It may be that she associates joy with strength. My hunch is that joy is the positive feeling that comes from order. What do you think?