Praying is not always successful. A lot of what I want doesn't get
here. How about you? I have been looking for a more "fruitful" way
to pray. My search has led me to the books and lectures of Neville
Goddard. Neville (1905-1972) digested a lot of esoteric teachings
and, having many corresponding mystical experiences, devoted his
life to preaching his particular spiritual perspective and method
of praying.
Neville's spiritual perspective is important. It is called
non-dualism. It is simply the Oneness of God, which means that
absolutely everything in the universe is in the "One" that is God,
and all without division. This does not mean that we are "in" God;
it means that we are God. This is a marked variance from
traditional "orthodox" Jewish and Christian views.
It turns out, though, that this non-dualistic view is indeed what
the Bible teaches. I believe Jews and Christians have seriously
and severely misread the Bible, and because we misread it, we
believe ourselves to be entirely separate and distant from a god
who is "Wholly Other". So we pray as unto a god who is entirely
separate and distant from ourselves, and there isn't one! Our
prayers go, quite literally, to nothing. No wonder they are not
often answered. If our prayers are answered at all, it is because
we accidentally do something right while praying.
The one, true Ineffable God would say, "I have become everything."
As he has become us, he cannot be separate and distant from us,
nor we from him. Neville frequently said, "God is playing all the
parts." If we would pray successfully, we must pray to God as
though he were our very being, because he is. God is himself our
salvation -- the provider of our needs -- and is our anointing -
- our constant connection with him and his universe. He is "the
the kingdom and the power and the glory," and he works through us.
The Bible tells us how to "God". Godding (David A. Cooper: God is
a Verb) includes proper praying, in which we do as God that which
we want God to do as us.
How does one God? Jesus Christ is the pattern. The Ineffable
desired form and intended its form to become though Man -- the
Man Jesus Christ. "Before the beginning, (the Ineffable) created
God, the Heavens and the Earth," which is code for the Man
(Genesis 1: 1; combining Cooper's and Alexander's translations).
Imagining the Man he intensely desired, the Ineffable became the
Man. That Man, Jesus Christ, is the face God whom we can know -
- because he has become us. We are the manifestation of Jesus
Christ, the manifestation of the Ineffable.
Everything has come into being through the Ineffable's imagining.
Praying is his imagining, or at least it should be. We mentally
"create" what God wants by imagining. Perhaps our incidental
imagining what we want while praying is why we have "answers" to
our prayers at all.
While you pray, vividly imagine the "end" you desire. Mentally
experience whatever would result from your desire having been
fulfilled. That is, if you now had what you desire, what would
imply that you do now have it? Experience this resultant "end"
as though it were your present.
Feeling is the secret to successful praying. The evidence
which would imply that your desire has been received, you
need to imagine as though you really, physically, and
presently have. "Believe ye receive, and ye shall have"
(Mark 11:24). Tactually feel, see, hear, etc., that
reality in your imagination as though you were there.
"Imagine it over and over again until it takes on all
the tones of reality, until you are thinking from it
instead of thinking of it," Neville repeatedly stressed.
"Enter the dream. When you come out of the dream it
should shock you that you are actually here and not there."
Neville likened the process to the creation of a play. You are
the producer, the author, the director and the actor of the play.
As the producer, you select the theme of the play. A play about
what? Well, what do you want? That is your theme. "Wouldn't it
be wonderful if . . . ," and you finish the sentence. What would
be wonderful? Remember, this is going through the filter of God's
nature, Jesus Christ, so aim high. Have wonderful, noble and
glorious thoughts. Good things. What would be great, beneficial,
peaceable, relieving, satisfying, empowering? "Shoot for the
moon," as they say.
As the play's author, you create the last scene. Just the last.
What would imply that you now have what you want -- that your
desired end has been fulfilled? Would you do or see or hear or
touch something? Would someone congratulate you or thank you?
Create a scene which implies your desired end has come to pass.
In it do, see, feel, and hear those things.
R. H. Jarrett (It Works!) suggests writing out the whole thing so
you can read it. Include in your last scene all the conditions you
would desire to exist in it. That is, you might desire a good job,
yes, but also to receive good pay for your work; you might want a
good spouse, yes, and also a happy and harmonious home in a good
environment, with good relations with in-laws, pride, satisfaction,
relief, etc. Write it all out so you can read it, and then read
it morning, noon and at night before going to sleep.
Neville gives as an example his desire for an early discharge
from the Army during World War II. He imagined himself sleeping
in his own bed at home, which he would certainly do if he were
discharged, and he added to the scene the feeling that he was home
permanently and honorably discharged and not just home on a
temporary furlough or discharged under less than honorable
conditions. Mentally paint in your scene all the tones you want
in your reality.
Gregg Braden describes such an authoring. As I recall, there was
drought in Colorado, and Gregg's friend, an Indian, offered to
pray for rain. His friend took him to a place that was sacred to
his family and stood there for a moment, and then said, "Okay,
let's go." "I thought you were going to do something. Aren't you
going to pray?" Gregg asked, expecting something more like a rain
dance. "I did," his friend replied. "I remembered my ancestors and
our connection to this place. I remembered what it is like to feel
the rain: I felt the drops falling on my face, I smelled the
fragrance of the wet earth, the coolness on my skin and the mud
squishing up between my toes. That's it. I'm done." By morning the
drought was over -- a man smelling imaginary wetness and feeling
mud squishing up between his toes had changed the world.
As the director of the play, you control the mind to keep it
faithful to the scene you have written. You keep the attention
focused and rehearse the actor in the scene over and over until
it is played right and becomes real to the senses. You make the
actor "get there", as it were.
The actor is your imagination. Imagination, our sense of being,
is our link, our continuity with God. (It is God, in fact: the
Spirit of God who "flipped" into becoming our consciousness also
then became our imagination, but thinking that it was us.) The
imagination enacts the drama, performing all of the predetermined
actions and experiencing the associated feelings over and over
until the scene feels right. Faith is the evidence that it is
real. Be loyal to your unseen reality. You may not yet see it yet,
but you know that you have it. The seed is now planted, and in
God's time it will blossom into physical reality.
Neville suggests achieving this "sensory" consciousness of your
desired end and then falling asleep in it -- while you are still
in the dream. "Time, times and half a time" (Daniel 12: 7), that
s, find the theme and last scene, rehearse the scene over and over
till you are conscious of thinking from it, and then fall asleep
in that state.
When you are satisfied that you are granted what you desire,
you do not need to keep drumming it up. If God has given it to
you, no power in the universe can keep it from manifesting in
time. Be grateful and appreciative to God for it, and get ready
to receive. And when it does come, you know that you have
found him, the one who loved you and gave himself for you, Jesus -
- in you!
This reminds me of one of my favorite verses in the Bible, Genesis
22: 14: "In the mount of Jehovah it shall be seen," which can be
translated, "Jehovah will see to it" or "Jehovah will provide",
the literal meaning of 'Joshua' and 'Jesus'! In the margin of my
Companion Bible, Bullinger gives the literal translation of the
Hebrew: "In the mount Jehovah will be seen." Enjoy praying in
the "mount."
Now, let's see if it works!
P.S.
Strong's says that 'Israel' means "he will rule as God," or "he
prevailed with God." Bullinger, though, in his note on Genesis
32: 28 (page 47) in the Companion Bible, observes that "out of
forty Hebrew names compounded with "El" or "Jah", God is always
the doer of what the verb means (cp. Dani-el, God judges)"
(emphasis mine). Would that not mean that 'Israel' really means
"God will rule as he" or "God prevailed with him"?