11. Prayer is the medium of miracles. It is a means of communication of the
created with the Creator. Through prayer love is received, and through
miracles love is expressed.
Prayer is a way of asking for something. It is the medium of miracles. But
the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have been
forgiven have everything. Once forgiveness has been accepted, prayer in the
usual sense becomes utterly meaningless. The prayer for forgiveness is
nothing more than a request that you may be able to recognize what you
already have. In electing perception instead of knowledge, you placed
yourself in a position where you could resemble your Father only by
perceiving miraculously. You have lost the knowledge that you yourself are
a miracle of God. Creation is your Source and your only real function.
As long as perception lasts prayer has a place. Since perception rests on
lack, those who perceive have not totally accepted the Atonement and given
themselves over to truth. Perception is based on a separated state, so that
anyone who perceives at all needs healing. Communion, not prayer, is the
natural state of those who know. God and His miracle are inseparable. How
beautiful indeed are the Thoughts of God who live in His light! Your worth
is beyond perception because it is beyond doubt. Do not perceive yourself
in different lights. Know yourself in the One Light where the miracle that is
you is perfectly clear.
Strictly speaking, words play no part at all in healing. The motivating factor
is prayer, or asking. What you ask for you receive. But this refers to the
prayer of the heart, not to the words you use in praying. Sometimes the
words and the prayer are contradictory; sometimes they agree. It does not
matter. God does not understand words, for they were made by separated
minds to keep them in the illusion of separation. Words can be helpful,
particularly for the beginner, in helping concentration and facilitating the
exclusion, or at least the control, of extraneous thoughts. Let us not forget,
however, that words are but symbols of symbols. They are thus twice
removed from reality.
As symbols, words have quite specific references. Even when they seem
most abstract, the picture that comes to mind is apt to be very concrete.
Unless a specific referent does occur to the mind in conjunction with the
word, the word has little or no practical meaning, and thus cannot help the
healing process. The prayer of the heart does not really ask for concrete
things. It always requests some kind of experience, the specific things asked
for being the bringers of the desired experience in the opinion of the asker.
The words, then, are symbols for the things asked for, but the things
themselves but stand for the experiences that are hoped for.
The prayer for things of this world will bring experiences of this world. If
the prayer of the heart asks for this, this will be given because this will be
received. It is impossible that the prayer of the heart remain unanswered in
the perception of the one who asks. If he asks for the impossible, if he wants
what does not exist or seeks for illusions in his heart, all this becomes his
own. The power of his decision offers it to him as he requests. Herein lie
hell and Heaven. The sleeping Son of God has but this power left to him. It
is enough. His words do not matter. Only the Word of God has any
meaning, because it symbolizes that which has no human symbols at all.
The Holy Spirit alone understands what this Word stands for. And this, too,
is enough.
Never forget that the Holy Spirit does not depend on your words. He
understands the requests of your heart, and answers them. Does this mean
that, while attack remains attractive to you, He will respond with evil?
Hardly! For God has given Him the power to translate your prayers of the
heart into His language. He understands that an attack is a call for help. And
He responds with help accordingly. God would be cruel if He let your
words replace His Own. A loving father does not let his child harm himself,
or choose his own destruction. He may ask for injury, but his father will
protect him still. And how much more than this does your Father love His
Son?
Remember you are His completion and His Love.
Turn to the Name of God for your release, and it is given you. No prayer but
this is necessary, for it holds them all within it. Words are insignificant, and
all requests unneeded when God's Son calls on his Father's Name. His
Father's Thoughts become his own. He makes his claim to all his Father
gave, is giving still, and will forever give. He calls on Him to let all things
he thought he made be nameless now, and in their place the holy Name of
God becomes his judgment of their worthlessness.
in this final section, we will
come to understand that we need only call to God, and all temptations
disappear. Instead of words, we need but feel His Love. Instead of prayers,
we need but call His Name. Instead of judging, we need but be still and let
all things be healed. We will accept the way God's plan will end, as we
received the way it started. Now it is complete. This year has brought us to
eternity.
Let every voice but God's be still in me.
Father, today I would but hear Your Voice. In deepest silence I would come
to You, to hear Your Voice and to receive Your Word. I have no prayer but
this: I come to You to ask You for the truth. And truth is but Your Will,
which I would share with You today.
I am surrounded by the Love of God.
Father, You stand before me and behind, beside me, in the place I see
myself, and everywhere I go. You are in all the things I look upon, the
sounds I hear, and every hand that reaches for my own. In You time
disappears, and place becomes a meaningless belief. For what surrounds
Your Son and keeps him safe is Love Itself. There is no Source but this, and
nothing is that does not share Its Holiness; that stands beyond Your one
creation, or without the Love which holds all things within Itself. Father,
Your Son is like Yourself. We come to You in Your Own Name today, to
be at peace within Your everlasting Love.
My brothers, join with me in this today. This is salvation's prayer. Must we
not join in what will save the world, along with us?
Conflicting wishes cannot be my will.
Father, Your Will is mine, and only that. There is no other will for me to
have. Let me not try to make another will, for it is senseless and will cause
me pain. Your Will alone can bring me happiness, and only Yours exists. If
I would have what only You can give, I must accept Your Will for me, and
enter into peace where conflict is impossible, Your Son is one with You in
being and in will, and nothing contradicts the holy truth that I remain as
You created me.
And with this prayer we enter silently into a state where conflict cannot
come, because we join our holy will with God's, in recognition that they are
the same.
the healer's prayer is:
Let me know this brother as I know myself.
Everyone who ever tried to use prayer to ask for something has experienced
what appears to be failure. This is not only true in connection with specific
things that might be harmful, but also in connection with requests that are
strictly in line with this course. The latter in particular might be incorrectly
interpreted as "proof" that the course does not mean what it says. You must
remember, however, that the course states, and repeatedly, that its purpose
is the escape from fear.
Let us suppose, then, that what you ask of the Holy Spirit is what you really
want, but you are still afraid of it. Should this be the case, your attainment
of it would no longer be what you want. This is why certain specific forms
of healing are not achieved, even when the state of healing is. An individual
may ask for physical healing because he is fearful of bodily harm. At the
same time, if he were healed physically, the threat to his thought system
might be considerably more fearful to him than its physical expression. In
this case he is not really asking for release from fear, but for the removal of
a symptom that he himself selected. This request is, therefore, not for
healing at all.
The Bible emphasizes that all prayer is answered, and this is indeed true.
The very fact that the Holy Spirit has been asked for anything will ensure a
response. Yet it is equally certain that no response given by him will ever be
one that would increase fear. It is possible that his answer will not be heard.
It is impossible, however, that it will be lost. There are many answers you
have already received but have not yet heard. I assure you that they are
waiting for you.
If you would know your prayers are answered, never doubt a Son of God.
Do not question him and do not confound him, for your faith in him is your
faith in yourself. If you would know God and his Answer, believe in me
whose faith in you cannot be shaken. Can you ask of the Holy Spirit truly,
and doubt your brother? Believe his words are true because of the truth that
is in him. You will unite with the truth in him, and his words will be true.
As you hear him you will hear me. Listening to truth is the only way you
can hear it now, and finally know it.
The message your brother gives you is up to you. What does he say to you?
What would you have him say? Your decision about him determines the
message you receive. Remember that the Holy Spirit is in him, and his
voice speaks to you through him. What can so holy a brother tell you except
truth? But are you listening to it? Your brother may not know who he is, but
there is a light in his mind that does know. This light can shine into yours,
giving truth to his words and making you able to hear them. His words are
the Holy Spirit's answer to you. Is your faith in him strong enough to let you
hear?
You can no more pray for yourself alone than you can find joy for yourself
alone. Prayer is the restatement of inclusion, directed by the Holy Spirit
under the laws of God. Salvation is of your brother. The Holy Spirit extends
from your mind to his, and answers you. You cannot hear the Voice for God
in yourself alone, because you are not alone. And his answer is only for
what you are. You will not know the trust I have in you unless you extend
it. You will not trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit, or believe that it is for
you unless you hear it in others. It must be for your brother because it is for
you. Would God have created a Voice for you alone? Could you hear his
answer except as he answers all of God's Sons? Hear of your brother what
you would have me hear of you, for you would not want me to be deceived.
I love you for the truth in you, as God does. Your deceptions may deceive
you, but they cannot deceive me. Knowing what you are, I cannot doubt
you. I hear only the Holy Spirit in you, Who speaks to me through you. If
you would hear me, hear my brothers in whom God's Voice speaks. The
answer to all prayers lies in them. You will be answered as you hear the
answer in everyone. Do not listen to anything else or you will not hear truly.