Charlotte Spiritual Center
formerly Unity Spiritual Center of Charlotte
Affirmative Prayer & Healing
What does it mean to be healed?
Is it the absence of physical symptoms or the presence of vital wholeness?
Does physical healing release us from our mental distress?
Or is it the healing of mental distress that releases us from our physical disease?
A nurse I knew developed a sarcoma, an internal cancerous growth that began to claim her left lung. Through a combination of prayer and limited medical support the progression of the disease was halted. Several years later, as a part of a job change, she had a physical exam with a new doctor. On her health history form she listed sarcoma of the lung as a prior medical condition. The doctor ordered a follow up chest x-ray. Shortly thereafter she received a phone call from the doctor’s office questioning what she had written on her health information form. The x-ray showed no evidence of prior damage to the lung. If she ever had a sarcoma, she was told, there would have to be residual tissue and scaring. Her x-ray showed two perfectly normal lungs.
Charles and Myrtle Fillmore founded Unity principally in response to their need for physical healing. Myrtle had suffered with Tuberculosis much of her life and had been told she had about six months to live. Charles had a physical disability that caused chronic pain and required him to wear a leg brace and a three-inch lift under his shoe. The medical treatments of their time, the late 1800’s, were primitive and had actually caused Charles’ disabling condition. In such a situation where could one safely turn for help? The Fillmores turned to God and to Affirmative Prayer. Over a two-year period Myrtle not only fully recovered (she lived to be 86) she also developed a remarkable ability to help others heal. Over the years that Charles prayed and meditated his pain left and his deteriorated leg slowly grew and became strong. He often joked that the real miracle was not that his leg grew, but that it knew to stop growing when it had reached appropriate dimensions.
The practice of healing with minimal or no medical intervention has been present for thousands of years. Theories about how it works are diverse and vary widely depending on religious belief or healing tradition. I have personally experienced both instantaneous healing and the reversal of a chronic condition over time. I know many others who have had so-called spontaneous remissions and healings. One thing that many of these healings share in common is that some change in thought or belief preceded the change in physical condition.
The challenges most of us face in trying to find physical healing are multiple. Often we wait until we are both un-healthy and fear-filled before we give much prayerful attention to wholeness and healthfulness. Once we feel un-healthy we often direct much of our attention toward our dis-ease as we attempt to push it away. And, we often spend considerable mental energy trying to figure out what went wrong to cause our dis-eased condition. None of these are effective tools for finding our way to healing and healthfulness.
Unity and other similar healing traditions encourage a positive mind-based healing approach. In John 8:31-32 Jesus tells his followers that if they continued with his teachings they are truly his disciples, and they would know the Truth and that Truth would set them free. One part of the Truth that Jesus taught was the Truth about our identity and our relationship with God. Jesus offered a vision of God as a loving parent whom he called Abba (Papa) and who also had characteristics of a loving Mama. He saw in himself and in others the Spirit of Abba. And, in John 14:10 he reminded his followers that it was that Abba Spirit that “did the work” they saw happening around him.
We have the potential to become dedicated disciples, students that is, of the Jesus teachings and to explore and learn from them. As we do this we begin to connect with the same spiritual Truth that so illuminated Jesus’ mind that he would say, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (John 10:38) And, as we establish that level of God awareness within, our minds and bodies are transformed by an inner knowing of the Truth that goes far beyond words or intellectual ideas. One tool that Unity offers for making a Truth connection is Affirmative Prayer. Affirmations are powerful, positive, present tense statements of what is spiritually true, regardless of what outward appearances might suggest. Some examples are:
God’s perfect ideas of harmony, vitality and life are present and active in me now.
I am as God created me; whole, loving and innocent.
The Life of God, present in my mind and body, renews and restores me daily.
Affirmations work over time as you repeat them, feel them and quietly allow them to permeate your mind and being. When working with affirmations created by others, you may need to modify a word or two to make the affirmation have greater power and meaning for you. Prayerfully affirmed over time, you will literally begin to feel the truth and the power of your affirmative prayers; and not just intellectually but viscerally within your mind and body.
Each time you deepen your connection with the Truth, Truth itself begins to direct your mind and body and your healing takes place. Regardless of whether you feel healthy or in need of healing today the more you align your mind with Truth, the more life and health and joy and illumination you will experience both today and in the future. The more able you come to share the Jesus Christ understanding of God, the more connected and peaceful you will feel, regardless of outside circumstances. And the more you embrace that spirit and life of God alive in you, the more deeply you will know that you are the daughter or son of God, and that all that God has is yours... today.
May the wisdom and peace of God fill our minds, the life of God shape our bodies, and the love and joy of God be reflected in every part our lives. May we awaken to the Truth today. Amen.
Article by Rev Jim Fuller, created August 2013
Is it the absence of physical symptoms or the presence of vital wholeness?
Does physical healing release us from our mental distress?
Or is it the healing of mental distress that releases us from our physical disease?
A nurse I knew developed a sarcoma, an internal cancerous growth that began to claim her left lung. Through a combination of prayer and limited medical support the progression of the disease was halted. Several years later, as a part of a job change, she had a physical exam with a new doctor. On her health history form she listed sarcoma of the lung as a prior medical condition. The doctor ordered a follow up chest x-ray. Shortly thereafter she received a phone call from the doctor’s office questioning what she had written on her health information form. The x-ray showed no evidence of prior damage to the lung. If she ever had a sarcoma, she was told, there would have to be residual tissue and scaring. Her x-ray showed two perfectly normal lungs.
Charles and Myrtle Fillmore founded Unity principally in response to their need for physical healing. Myrtle had suffered with Tuberculosis much of her life and had been told she had about six months to live. Charles had a physical disability that caused chronic pain and required him to wear a leg brace and a three-inch lift under his shoe. The medical treatments of their time, the late 1800’s, were primitive and had actually caused Charles’ disabling condition. In such a situation where could one safely turn for help? The Fillmores turned to God and to Affirmative Prayer. Over a two-year period Myrtle not only fully recovered (she lived to be 86) she also developed a remarkable ability to help others heal. Over the years that Charles prayed and meditated his pain left and his deteriorated leg slowly grew and became strong. He often joked that the real miracle was not that his leg grew, but that it knew to stop growing when it had reached appropriate dimensions.
The practice of healing with minimal or no medical intervention has been present for thousands of years. Theories about how it works are diverse and vary widely depending on religious belief or healing tradition. I have personally experienced both instantaneous healing and the reversal of a chronic condition over time. I know many others who have had so-called spontaneous remissions and healings. One thing that many of these healings share in common is that some change in thought or belief preceded the change in physical condition.
The challenges most of us face in trying to find physical healing are multiple. Often we wait until we are both un-healthy and fear-filled before we give much prayerful attention to wholeness and healthfulness. Once we feel un-healthy we often direct much of our attention toward our dis-ease as we attempt to push it away. And, we often spend considerable mental energy trying to figure out what went wrong to cause our dis-eased condition. None of these are effective tools for finding our way to healing and healthfulness.
Unity and other similar healing traditions encourage a positive mind-based healing approach. In John 8:31-32 Jesus tells his followers that if they continued with his teachings they are truly his disciples, and they would know the Truth and that Truth would set them free. One part of the Truth that Jesus taught was the Truth about our identity and our relationship with God. Jesus offered a vision of God as a loving parent whom he called Abba (Papa) and who also had characteristics of a loving Mama. He saw in himself and in others the Spirit of Abba. And, in John 14:10 he reminded his followers that it was that Abba Spirit that “did the work” they saw happening around him.
We have the potential to become dedicated disciples, students that is, of the Jesus teachings and to explore and learn from them. As we do this we begin to connect with the same spiritual Truth that so illuminated Jesus’ mind that he would say, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (John 10:38) And, as we establish that level of God awareness within, our minds and bodies are transformed by an inner knowing of the Truth that goes far beyond words or intellectual ideas. One tool that Unity offers for making a Truth connection is Affirmative Prayer. Affirmations are powerful, positive, present tense statements of what is spiritually true, regardless of what outward appearances might suggest. Some examples are:
God’s perfect ideas of harmony, vitality and life are present and active in me now.
I am as God created me; whole, loving and innocent.
The Life of God, present in my mind and body, renews and restores me daily.
Affirmations work over time as you repeat them, feel them and quietly allow them to permeate your mind and being. When working with affirmations created by others, you may need to modify a word or two to make the affirmation have greater power and meaning for you. Prayerfully affirmed over time, you will literally begin to feel the truth and the power of your affirmative prayers; and not just intellectually but viscerally within your mind and body.
Each time you deepen your connection with the Truth, Truth itself begins to direct your mind and body and your healing takes place. Regardless of whether you feel healthy or in need of healing today the more you align your mind with Truth, the more life and health and joy and illumination you will experience both today and in the future. The more able you come to share the Jesus Christ understanding of God, the more connected and peaceful you will feel, regardless of outside circumstances. And the more you embrace that spirit and life of God alive in you, the more deeply you will know that you are the daughter or son of God, and that all that God has is yours... today.
May the wisdom and peace of God fill our minds, the life of God shape our bodies, and the love and joy of God be reflected in every part our lives. May we awaken to the Truth today. Amen.
Article by Rev Jim Fuller, created August 2013