Prayer Works

The Unity movement was founded on the power of prayer to heal and transform lives. Unity cofounder, Myrtle Fillmore, after years of daily affirming her divine nature and blessing every organ of her body in prayer, experienced a healing from what was then known as “consumption.” Today, we know it as tuberculosis. When others heard of her experience they came to her and wrote to her for help through prayer. Thus, the Society of Silent Help, known today as Silent Unity, was born 125 years ago. In Unity, we teach and affirm that “prayer works.”

We usually say “prayer works” when the thing we have prayed for demonstrates in manifestation. When we pray for a healing, and the one we prayed for is healed, we say “prayer works.” I have observed, however, that we typically don’t say “prayer works” when what we pray for does not happen.

So, if “prayer works,” what about when it doesn’t?

I suggest that true prayer always “works.” That we believe it doesn’t work is due to our misconception of true prayer. It is not the purpose of true prayer to ask God for something. The purpose of prayer is to align our minds with the God within in order that we may more fully know ourselves as the Christ expressing.

Unity cofounder Charles Fillmore stated,

“Quietly entering the inner chamber within the soul, shutting the door to the external thoughts of daily life, and seeking conscious union with God is the highest form of prayer we know.

The purpose of the silence is to still the activity of the individual thought so that the still small voice of God may be heard. For in the silence Spirit speaks Truth to us and just that Truth of which we stand in need.

Prayer is man's steady effort to know God.”¹

Remember, prayer does not change God; prayer changes us at the level of consciousness. When our consciousness is transformed, so is our life. As Unity’s third basic principle states, we experience life as a reflection of our consciousness.

Unity cofounder Myrtle Fillmore said, “Prayer, then, is to change our minds and hearts so that God’s omnipresent good may fill our minds and hearts and manifest in our lives.”²

She further stated,

“Prayer, as Jesus Christ understood and used it, is communion with God…This communion is an attitude of mind and heart. It lifts the individual into a wonderful sense of oneness with God, who is Spirit…Positive declaration of this truth of one’s unity with God sets up a new current of thought power, which delivers one from old beliefs…”²

I suggest the following prayer practice:

“Go into the secret chamber and close the door” (Matthew 6:6). Connect with the God of your being in the silence of your heart and allow your Divine nature to be revealed to you. Open to the realization of your soul’s greatest desire – to know yourself as the Christ expressing. Deeply feel the resonance of the Christed Self and allow the frequency to fill your heart and mind. Affirm your desire to awaken fully to knowing who you truly are. Affirm that you are attracting into your life only those people and circumstance that support you in living in alignment with your highest Good. Express gratitude for the conscious connection and claim your knowing. Release the prayer with a definitive “Amen” to ground the awareness in your consciousness.

“Prayer works” when we enter into it as a spiritual practice that connects us with the conscious awareness of our unity in God, rather than for the purpose of changing an external condition. That is not to say that prayer does not affect external conditions. It may, but external change is an effect, not the purpose of true prayer. I’ll talk more about that on Sunday.

Join us on Sunday at 10:00 as we explore further the reason we believe and teach that “prayer works.”

¹ Teach us to Pray

² Myrtle Fillmore’s Healing Letters