what followed the awakening as a quality of inner guidance, not guidance in the sense of

53:27

53 minutes, 27 seconds

an audible voice or a series of clear directives, something more like a continuous orientation, a consistent

53:35

53 minutes, 35 seconds

sense of inner direction that does not derive from the analysis of circumstances or the application of personal strategy. This guidance

53:44

53 minutes, 44 seconds

functions differently from how the old creature made decisions. The old creature reviewed its options, assessed

53:51

53 minutes, 51 seconds

its risks, consulted its history, and chose the path most likely to produce its desired outcome. This process is not

53:59

53 minutes, 59 seconds

wrong. In many situations, it is entirely appropriate, but it operates entirely within the horizon of what the

54:06

54 minutes, 6 seconds

personal self knows and what the personal self wants. The new creature,

54:11

54 minutes, 11 seconds

the identity that has emerged from the dissolution of the old creature's agenda, acts from a different source.

54:19

54 minutes, 19 seconds

Actions still occur. Practical decisions are still made. Movement through the world continues, but the orientation of

54:27

54 minutes, 27 seconds

that movement is not determined by fear of what will happen if the wrong choice is made. It is drawn forward by

54:34

54 minutes, 34 seconds

something more like recognition. A sense that this is the direction in which the next step lies arrived at not through

54:42

54 minutes, 42 seconds

analysis but through a quality of inner listening. This listening is not passive. Goldsmith was consistent in

54:49

54 minutes, 49 seconds

saying that the new creature is not a creature of spiritual bypass. The recognition of spiritual wholeness does

54:57

54 minutes, 57 seconds

not excuse you from the practical responsibilities of human life. What it changes is the interior from which you

55:05

55 minutes, 5 seconds

meet those responsibilities. You still speak to the doctor, but you do not speak to the doctor as a frightened,

55:12

55 minutes, 12 seconds

self-seeking rescue from a body that has betrayed you. You speak to the doctor as a consciousness that recognizes health

55:19

55 minutes, 19 seconds

as its fundamental nature and is cooperating with the human process of allowing that nature to become visible

55:26

55 minutes, 26 seconds

at the level of the body. You still address the financial situation, but you do not address it as a self in lack

55:34

55 minutes, 34 seconds

trying to produce surplus. You address it from a place that has recognized supply as a permanent quality of

55:42

55 minutes, 42 seconds

spiritual consciousness and is allowing that recognition to organize the practical circumstances in whatever form

55:50

55 minutes, 50 seconds

is appropriate. This distinction may seem subtle. In practical terms, it makes an enormous difference because the

55:58

55 minutes, 58 seconds

quality of the presence you bring to a situation determines what becomes available within that situation. A

56:05

56 minutes, 5 seconds

presence organized around fear closes down the field of possibility. A presence organized around recognition

56:13

56 minutes, 13 seconds

opens it. And this opening is not manufactured. It is the natural fruit of having moved through the entire journey

56:21

56 minutes, 21 seconds

this article has been tracing from misunderstanding through disappointment through the dissolution of hidden agenda

56:29

56 minutes, 29 seconds

through surrender through silence to recognition. Every stage prepared the ground for this quality of presence.

56:37

56 minutes, 37 seconds

Nothing in the journey was wasted. Not even the formula, not even the disappointment. Here is something that

56:45

56 minutes, 45 seconds

consistently surprises people who have moved through the stages this article has been describing. The transformation

56:52

56 minutes, 52 seconds

that follows genuine recognition does not always look dramatic from the outside. And sometimes the most

56:59

56 minutes, 59 seconds

significant changes are not the ones you were praying for. This is one of the quieter and more important truths of the

57:06

57 minutes, 6 seconds

contemplative life and one that does not make for popular spiritual teaching precisely because it cannot be packaged as evidence of the formula working.

57:17

57 minutes, 17 seconds

Elena sitting in her November silence was not cured of her love for Marcus.

57:23

57 minutes, 23 seconds

She was not given an instantaneous resolution of his addiction. What changed was something far more interior

57:30

57 minutes, 30 seconds

and far more permanent than either of those things. What changed was the relationship between her consciousness

57:38

57 minutes, 38 seconds

and the fear that had been running her prayer life for 5 years. And from that change, everything else in her interior

57:46

57 minutes, 46 seconds

life reorganized itself. When Goldsmith spoke about the transformation that follows recognition, he consistently

57:54

57 minutes, 54 seconds

pointed to this quality of reorganization.

57:58

57 minutes, 58 seconds

The circumstances of a life may shift dramatically or they may shift subtly or they may not shift in the specific ways

58:05

58 minutes, 5 seconds

that were prayed for at all. But what always changes is the relationship between the person and the circumstances.

58:14

58 minutes, 14 seconds

The circumstances no longer have the same authority over the quality of consciousness experiencing them. This is

58:21

58 minutes, 21 seconds

not the same as the circumstances not mattering. Physical suffering matters.

58:26

58 minutes, 26 seconds

Material need matters. Broken relationships matter. The claim that recognition of spiritual wholeness makes

58:34

58 minutes, 34 seconds

these things irrelevant is not the teaching of the contemplative tradition.

58:39

58 minutes, 39 seconds

It is a misunderstanding of it. one that Goldsmith consistently corrected. What he said was more nuanced and more honest

58:47

58 minutes, 47 seconds

than that. He said that the circumstances retain their character as human experience while losing their

58:54

58 minutes, 54 seconds

capacity to determine the fundamental orientation of the one experiencing them. Pain is still pain, but the self

59:03

59 minutes, 3 seconds

in pain is no longer the same self that it was before the awakening. Because the self is no longer defined primarily by

59:11

59 minutes, 11 seconds

the pain. It is defined by a recognition that exists at a level the pain cannot reach. This is not escapism. It is in

59:20

59 minutes, 20 seconds

Goldsmith's view the most realistic possible relationship to human experience because it is a relationship that is not built on the fragile premise

59:30

59 minutes, 30 seconds

that conditions must be favorable for consciousness to remain grounded. The transformation nobody announced is this.

59:37

59 minutes, 37 seconds

Not the dramatic healing or the sudden provision or the restored relationship.

59:43

59 minutes, 43 seconds

Though any of these things may occur and may be received with gratitude. The real transformation is the one that happens

59:51

59 minutes, 51 seconds

in the one doing the experiencing. The shift from a self that is perpetually at the mercy of its circumstances to a self

59:59

59 minutes, 59 seconds

that can remain grounded in something deeper than any circumstance while continuing to engage honestly and

1:00:07

1 hour, 7 seconds

lovingly with all the textures of the human life it has been given. This is what the verse ultimately produces. Not

1:00:14

1 hour, 14 seconds

a better set of circumstances for the old creature, a completely different quality of consciousness in the new creature. And from that consciousness,

1:00:23

1 hour, 23 seconds

life continues. Not perfectly, not without challenge, but from a different ground. We return now to the verse. But

1:00:32

1 hour, 32 seconds

we are not the same person who first encountered it. Mark 11:24.

1:00:38

1 hour, 38 seconds

Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Reading it now after this entire

1:00:46

1 hour, 46 seconds

journey, the verse does not mean what it meant at the beginning. It does not describe a transaction. It does not

1:00:53

1 hour, 53 seconds

promise that the correct performance of belief will produce the desired outcome.

1:00:58

1 hour, 58 seconds

It does not offer a formula for the spiritual management of circumstances.

1:01:03

1 hour, 1 minute, 3 seconds

It describes a movement of consciousness. A movement that begins in the ordinary human experience of need and longing and desire, moves through

1:01:13

1 hour, 1 minute, 13 seconds

the honest application of those longings, encounters the inevitable disappointment of technique applied from

1:01:19

1 hour, 1 minute, 19 seconds

the wrong level of identity, descends into the dissolution of hidden agenda,

1:01:25

1 hour, 1 minute, 25 seconds

enters the genuine silence of a self that has released its insistence on a specific form of resolution, and arrives

1:01:33

1 hour, 1 minute, 33 seconds

at the recognition that what it was asking looking for was never in the future. The asking was always real. The

1:01:41

1 hour, 1 minute, 41 seconds

prayer was never wrong. The longing was a genuine expression of the soul's recognition of its own wholeness,

1:01:48

1 hour, 1 minute, 48 seconds

reaching toward a completeness it sensed but could not yet see clearly. The disappointment was not God's failure to

1:01:56

1 hour, 1 minute, 56 seconds

respond. It was the old creature's technique reaching its natural limit,

1:02:01

1 hour, 2 minutes, 1 second

which is the limit of the old creature itself. And the believing that the verse invites, the believing in the past tense, the believing that the receiving

1:02:10

1 hour, 2 minutes, 10 seconds

is already complete. This is not the first act of the journey. It is the fruit of the journey. It is what

1:02:18

1 hour, 2 minutes, 18 seconds

consciousness discovers when it has moved through every stage of honest engagement with the prayer and arrived

1:02:24

1 hour, 2 minutes, 24 seconds

at a place of genuine emptiness. In that emptiness, the recognition becomes possible. And in the recognition, the

1:02:33

1 hour, 2 minutes, 33 seconds

verse fulfills itself. Not from the outside in, from the inside out. Joel Goldsmith spent his life pointing toward this. He did not offer a simpler path.

1:02:44

1 hour, 2 minutes, 44 seconds

He offered an honest one. He said that the truth of spiritual reality is not hidden. It is not withheld. It is not

1:02:54

1 hour, 2 minutes, 54 seconds

reserved for the unusually spiritual or the specially gifted. It is present in the consciousness of every person who

1:03:02

1 hour, 3 minutes, 2 seconds

has ever knelt in genuine need and reached towards something larger than themselves. What is required is not more

1:03:10

1 hour, 3 minutes, 10 seconds

effort. What is required is a willingness to be transformed by the prayer rather than simply answered by it. A willingness to let the asking

1:03:19

1 hour, 3 minutes, 19 seconds

strip away everything in you that is not true about who you are. a willingness to arrive at the silence and wait there

1:03:28

1 hour, 3 minutes, 28 seconds

without an agenda until what was always present becomes finally impossible to miss. When that recognition arrives,

1:03:36

1 hour, 3 minutes, 36 seconds

something shifts. You stop living in the future event you were praying toward.

1:03:41

1 hour, 3 minutes, 41 seconds

You begin inhabiting the present completeness you were always being pointed toward. And the world, the same

1:03:48

1 hour, 3 minutes, 48 seconds

world, the circumstances, the same circumstances carries a different quality. Not because it changed, because

1:03:56

1 hour, 3 minutes, 56 seconds

you did. This is what happens when you believe this. Not what you expected,

1:04:01

1 hour, 4 minutes, 1 second

something deeper, something that could not have arrived any other way.

1:04:05

1 hour, 4 minutes, 5 seconds

something that was waiting for you on the other side of every disappointment,

1:04:10

1 hour, 4 minutes, 10 seconds

every dissolution, every moment of letting go that felt like loss and turned out to be the beginning of the only freedom that cannot be taken away.

1:04:20

1 hour, 4 minutes, 20 seconds

Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it. You have, you always have. The recognition of that

1:04:28

1 hour, 4 minutes, 28 seconds

truth is the prayer that was always being answered. There is nothing more to add to what has been said. And that

1:04:35

1 hour, 4 minutes, 35 seconds

perhaps is the first sign that something true has been touched. The journey this article traced is not a system to be

1:04:43

1 hour, 4 minutes, 43 seconds

implemented. It is not a sequence of stages to be completed efficiently. It is a description of something that

1:04:50

1 hour, 4 minutes, 50 seconds

happens when a sincere person sits long enough with this verse and with the silence behind this verse to let it work

1:04:58

1 hour, 4 minutes, 58 seconds

on them in the way it was always intended to work. You may be at the beginning of this journey, still holding the verse as a formula, still certain

1:05:07

1 hour, 5 minutes, 7 seconds

that the right kind of believing will eventually produce the right kind of result. That is a completely valid place

1:05:15

1 hour, 5 minutes, 15 seconds

to be. Nothing in what has been said is meant to disrupt that stage before it has completed itself naturally. The

1:05:24

1 hour, 5 minutes, 24 seconds

stage has its own necessary work to do in you. You may be in the disappointment sitting with the gap between what the

1:05:31

1 hour, 5 minutes, 31 seconds

verse seems to promise and what your experience has produced. That gap is not evidence of your failure. It is the

1:05:40

1 hour, 5 minutes, 40 seconds

beginning of the most important movement in the entire journey. Stay in it. Do not rush to resolution. Let it ask its

1:05:48

1 hour, 5 minutes, 48 seconds

questions of you without answering too quickly. You may be somewhere in the dissolution feeling the loosening of the

1:05:56

1 hour, 5 minutes, 56 seconds

agenda you did not know you were carrying. This is disorienting and it is also the most honest place you may ever

1:06:03

1 hour, 6 minutes, 3 seconds

have stood in your prayer life. Trust the honesty. Trust the disorientation.

1:06:09

1 hour, 6 minutes, 9 seconds

Something real is happening there. Or you may be in the silence sitting without demand in the early morning or the late night. No longer certain what

1:06:18

1 hour, 6 minutes, 18 seconds

you are praying for. aware only that something in you is still present and still open. That openness is not the

1:06:25

1 hour, 6 minutes, 25 seconds

absence of prayer. It is prayer in its purest form. Wherever you are, this is an invitation, not into a technique, not

1:06:34

1 hour, 6 minutes, 34 seconds

into a revised understanding to be applied into the silence that this verse has always been pointing toward. The

1:06:42

1 hour, 6 minutes, 42 seconds

silence in which what you have already received begins very quietly to make itself known. Stay there a moment before

1:06:50

1 hour, 6 minutes, 50 seconds

you do anything else. What truly happens when you believe this may not be what you have been waiting for. It may be something you could not have asked for.

1:06:59

1 hour, 6 minutes, 59 seconds

Something that was always already here waiting for you to stop asking long enough to notice. If something in this

1:07:06

1 hour, 7 minutes, 6 seconds

contemplation has moved in you has touched something beneath the level of technique and above the level of theology. If something in Joel

1:07:15

1 hour, 7 minutes, 15 seconds

Goldsmith's approach to this verse has felt more honest than the versions you have heard before, then let this moment

1:07:22

1 hour, 7 minutes, 22 seconds

continue in your inner life rather than simply adding it to your collection of spiritual content. Like this video if it

1:07:31

1 hour, 7 minutes, 31 seconds

found something real in you. Not because the like is important, but because the act of acknowledging what is true is itself a small practice of recognition.

1:07:42

1 hour, 7 minutes, 42 seconds

subscribe to continue receiving teachings drawn from the contemplative depth of Goldsmith's work. Not

1:07:49

1 hour, 7 minutes, 49 seconds

techniques, not formulas, not promises of better circumstances, only the consistent pointing toward what was

1:07:57

1 hour, 7 minutes, 57 seconds

never absent. And in the comments, leave three words, only three. The three words that describe where you actually are

1:08:04

1 hour, 8 minutes, 4 seconds

right now in your relationship with this verse, with prayer, with belief, with whatever this journey means to you in

1:08:12

1 hour, 8 minutes, 12 seconds

this moment, not where you think you should be, where you actually are. Those three words may be the most honest

1:08:19

1 hour, 8 minutes, 19 seconds

prayer you offer today. And that honesty, Goldsmith would say, is exactly where the recognition begins.

Sync to video time

​

"Thank You for being a Purchase-Partner in our "Great Commission Ministry of One, Outreach"

prayer changes when you know God is spirit joel goldsmith

 

Instead acknowledge spirit is divine love. Perfect love fills all consciousness. This love is

47:41

47 minutes, 41 seconds

not dependent on human behavior. It is the nature of spirit itself. where spirit is recognized,

47:49

47 minutes, 49 seconds

love is present. I acknowledge this truth about this relationship. I see both of us as expressions of spirit. I

47:57

47 minutes, 57 seconds

see love as the reality underlying all appearances of conflict. Do you see the pattern? You are not asking God for something you do not have. You are

48:05

48 minutes, 5 seconds

acknowledging what already exists in spiritual reality. This shifts your consciousness from lack to wholeness,

48:12

48 minutes, 12 seconds

from problem to presence, from desperation to recognition. And this shift in consciousness is what prayer is really about. Not changing God's mind,

48:24

48 minutes, 24 seconds

but transforming your awareness.

48:26

48 minutes, 26 seconds

Practice this daily. Choose one truth to acknowledge. Spirit is life. Spirit is

48:32

48 minutes, 32 seconds

love. Spirit is intelligence. Spirit is peace. Spirit is wholeness. Whatever quality you need to recognize,

48:42

48 minutes, 42 seconds

spend 10 minutes simply acknowledging it. Not trying to make it true, not trying to force it to manifest. Just

48:50

48 minutes, 50 seconds

quietly, peacefully acknowledging that this is true in spirit. This is the prayer of acknowledgement. The second technique is the prayer of listening.

49:00

49 minutes

Most prayer is talking. talking to God,

49:03

49 minutes, 3 seconds

telling God what you need, listing your problems, expressing your feelings. But Joel Goldsmith discovered that real

49:11

49 minutes, 11 seconds

prayer is not talking. Real prayer is listening, not with your ears. Listening with your consciousness, creating silent

49:20

49 minutes, 20 seconds

space for spirit to reveal itself. How do you listen in prayer? You begin by getting quiet. Sit comfortably. Close

49:29

49 minutes, 29 seconds

your eyes. Take a few deep breaths. Then instead of beginning to pray words,

49:37

49 minutes, 37 seconds

simply become still. Do not think about your problems. Do not rehearse what you want to say to God. Do not try to figure

49:45

49 minutes, 45 seconds

anything out. Just be still. Just be present. Just be aware. At first, your

49:52

49 minutes, 52 seconds

mind will race. Thoughts will come flooding in. This is normal. Do not fight the thoughts. Do not try to stop

50:00

50 minutes

them. Just notice them and let them pass like clouds moving across the sky.

50:06

50 minutes, 6 seconds

Underneath the thoughts is something deeper. A stillness, a presence, an awareness that is aware of thoughts but

50:13

50 minutes, 13 seconds

is not itself a thought. This is what you are listening for. This is spirit.

50:19

50 minutes, 19 seconds

You are not listening for a voice. You are not waiting for words to appear in your mind. You are not expecting visions

50:25

50 minutes, 25 seconds

or supernatural experiences. You are simply resting in the awareness that is present before thoughts arise. This is what it means to know God as spirit.

50:36

50 minutes, 36 seconds

Spirit is the consciousness in which all experience occurs. When you rest in pure consciousness without agenda, without asking for

50:45

50 minutes, 45 seconds

anything, you are dwelling in spirit. Do this for 10 minutes every morning. Just

50:51

50 minutes, 51 seconds

sit. Just be still. Just listen. Not for words. Listening to the silence itself.

50:59

50 minutes, 59 seconds

Listening to the presence that is always here. At first it may feel like nothing is happening. That is fine. You are not

51:07

51 minutes, 7 seconds

trying to achieve anything. You are simply being present with presence. You are communing with spirit without words,

51:15

51 minutes, 15 seconds

without thoughts, without trying to get anywhere or accomplish anything. Over time, something profound happens. This stillness begins to permeate your day.

51:27

51 minutes, 27 seconds

You start to access it even in activity.

51:29

51 minutes, 29 seconds

You can be working, talking, moving through your day. And underneath it all is this awareness of presence. This is

51:39

51 minutes, 39 seconds

the awareness of spirit. And when you live from this awareness, your prayers are no longer desperate petitions. Your

51:46

51 minutes, 46 seconds

entire life becomes prayer. Your consciousness becomes aligned with spirit. and aligned consciousness produces harmonious experience. The

51:56

51 minutes, 56 seconds

third technique is the prayer of presence. This is about recognizing that you are not praying to a God who is somewhere else. You are recognizing God

52:05

52 minutes, 5 seconds

as spirit that is right here right now as the very life you are living. You are not trying to reach across a distance to

52:13

52 minutes, 13 seconds

contact God. You are acknowledging the presence that is already present. Think about it this way. A fish does not need

52:21

52 minutes, 21 seconds

to search for water. The fish is already in water. The fish is surrounded by water. The fish lives in water. The fish

52:29

52 minutes, 29 seconds

could not exist without water. In the same way, you are already in spirit. You are surrounded by spirit. You live in

52:37

52 minutes, 37 seconds

spirit. You could not exist apart from spirit. So prayer is not about finding spirit. Prayer is about recognizing the

52:45

52 minutes, 45 seconds

spirit in which you already exist. How do you practice this throughout your day? Pause periodically and simply acknowledge I am in spirit right now.

52:56

52 minutes, 56 seconds

Spirit is present right here. Not somewhere else, not in the future, not after I pray hard enough, but here now.

53:06

53 minutes, 6 seconds

The consciousness that I am experiencing this moment is spirit. The life that is living me is spirit. The intelligence that is operating through me is spirit.

53:16

53 minutes, 16 seconds

I am not separate from this. I am not outside of this. I am in it. It is in me. We are one. 

Instead acknowledge spirit is divine love. Perfect love fills all consciousness. This love is

47:41

47 minutes, 41 seconds

not dependent on human behavior. It is the nature of spirit itself. where spirit is recognized,

47:49

47 minutes, 49 seconds

love is present. I acknowledge this truth about this relationship. I see both of us as expressions of spirit. I

47:57

47 minutes, 57 seconds

see love as the reality underlying all appearances of conflict. Do you see the pattern? You are not asking God for something you do not have. You are

48:05

48 minutes, 5 seconds

acknowledging what already exists in spiritual reality. This shifts your consciousness from lack to wholeness,

48:12

48 minutes, 12 seconds

from problem to presence, from desperation to recognition. And this shift in consciousness is what prayer is really about. Not changing God's mind,

48:24

48 minutes, 24 seconds

but transforming your awareness.

48:26

48 minutes, 26 seconds

Practice this daily. Choose one truth to acknowledge. Spirit is life. Spirit is

48:32

48 minutes, 32 seconds

love. Spirit is intelligence. Spirit is peace. Spirit is wholeness. Whatever quality you need to recognize,

48:42

48 minutes, 42 seconds

spend 10 minutes simply acknowledging it. Not trying to make it true, not trying to force it to manifest. Just

48:50

48 minutes, 50 seconds

quietly, peacefully acknowledging that this is true in spirit. This is the prayer of acknowledgement. The second technique is the prayer of listening.

49:00

49 minutes

Most prayer is talking. talking to God,

49:03

49 minutes, 3 seconds

telling God what you need, listing your problems, expressing your feelings. But Joel Goldsmith discovered that real

49:11

49 minutes, 11 seconds

prayer is not talking. Real prayer is listening, not with your ears. Listening with your consciousness, creating silent

49:20

49 minutes, 20 seconds

space for spirit to reveal itself. How do you listen in prayer? You begin by getting quiet. Sit comfortably. Close

49:29

49 minutes, 29 seconds

your eyes. Take a few deep breaths. Then instead of beginning to pray words,

49:37

49 minutes, 37 seconds

simply become still. Do not think about your problems. Do not rehearse what you want to say to God. Do not try to figure

49:45

49 minutes, 45 seconds

anything out. Just be still. Just be present. Just be aware. At first, your

49:52

49 minutes, 52 seconds

mind will race. Thoughts will come flooding in. This is normal. Do not fight the thoughts. Do not try to stop

50:00

50 minutes

them. Just notice them and let them pass like clouds moving across the sky.

50:06

50 minutes, 6 seconds

Underneath the thoughts is something deeper. A stillness, a presence, an awareness that is aware of thoughts but

50:13

50 minutes, 13 seconds

is not itself a thought. This is what you are listening for. This is spirit.

50:19

50 minutes, 19 seconds

You are not listening for a voice. You are not waiting for words to appear in your mind. You are not expecting visions

50:25

50 minutes, 25 seconds

or supernatural experiences. You are simply resting in the awareness that is present before thoughts arise. This is what it means to know God as spirit.

50:36

50 minutes, 36 seconds

Spirit is the consciousness in which all experience occurs. When you rest in pure consciousness without agenda, without asking for

50:45

50 minutes, 45 seconds

anything, you are dwelling in spirit. Do this for 10 minutes every morning. Just

50:51

50 minutes, 51 seconds

sit. Just be still. Just listen. Not for words. Listening to the silence itself.

50:59

50 minutes, 59 seconds

Listening to the presence that is always here. At first it may feel like nothing is happening. That is fine. You are not

51:07

51 minutes, 7 seconds

trying to achieve anything. You are simply being present with presence. You are communing with spirit without words,

51:15

51 minutes, 15 seconds

without thoughts, without trying to get anywhere or accomplish anything. Over time, something profound happens. This stillness begins to permeate your day.

51:27

51 minutes, 27 seconds

You start to access it even in activity.

51:29

51 minutes, 29 seconds

You can be working, talking, moving through your day. And underneath it all is this awareness of presence. This is

51:39

51 minutes, 39 seconds

the awareness of spirit. And when you live from this awareness, your prayers are no longer desperate petitions. Your

51:46

51 minutes, 46 seconds

entire life becomes prayer. Your consciousness becomes aligned with spirit. and aligned consciousness produces harmonious experience. The

51:56

51 minutes, 56 seconds

third technique is the prayer of presence. This is about recognizing that you are not praying to a God who is somewhere else. You are recognizing God

52:05

52 minutes, 5 seconds

as spirit that is right here right now as the very life you are living. You are not trying to reach across a distance to

52:13

52 minutes, 13 seconds

contact God. You are acknowledging the presence that is already present. Think about it this way. A fish does not need

52:21

52 minutes, 21 seconds

to search for water. The fish is already in water. The fish is surrounded by water. The fish lives in water. The fish

52:29

52 minutes, 29 seconds

could not exist without water. In the same way, you are already in spirit. You are surrounded by spirit. You live in

52:37

52 minutes, 37 seconds

spirit. You could not exist apart from spirit. So prayer is not about finding spirit. Prayer is about recognizing the

52:45

52 minutes, 45 seconds

spirit in which you already exist. How do you practice this throughout your day? Pause periodically and simply acknowledge I am in spirit right now.

52:56

52 minutes, 56 seconds

Spirit is present right here. Not somewhere else, not in the future, not after I pray hard enough, but here now.

53:06

53 minutes, 6 seconds

The consciousness that I am experiencing this moment is spirit. The life that is living me is spirit. The intelligence that is operating through me is spirit.

53:16

53 minutes, 16 seconds

I am not separate from this. I am not outside of this. I am in it. It is in me. We are one.