How to Manifest Anything

Do the ideas around manifesting talked about in New Thought spiritual circles ever feel “woo woo” to you? They certainly did for me at one time. I remember meeting a woman named Lena when I first came into a New Thought community some 21 years ago. Lena spoke with absolute conviction about her prayers, so much so that at first I thought she was arrogant. “How could she be so sure?” I thought.

The beauty of affirmative prayer is that we learn the power of our words in prayer, and, even more so, the power of our words spoken with conviction and with a deep felt sense. We learn that there is a universal subjectivity that is always receiving our thought stream whether we are consciously praying or not. Who would have thought that Aunt Mabel was so right when she implored us to be mindful of what we say?

It turns out that our words are very powerful; creative, in fact. We are co-creators of our lives with universal spirit. How we look at life and talk about it, and what we believe about ourselves and life is utterly important in determining the overall content of our experiences in life. Those thoughts and beliefs that have strong feelings associated with them are the ones that have the most power to manifest in form in our lives as something that directly corresponds to the thoughts and beliefs.

The discovery that our thoughts, beliefs, and words have power is what led to the development of affirmative prayer. After all, if our words have power, then it behooves us to harness them for something good, rather than just allow our unconscious thought streams to create our experience.

Here’s how to consciously use your thoughts, words, and consciousness with affirmative prayer:

Step 1 (Recognition): Recognize that there is one power and intelligence that moves and creates everything. That one impulse is animated and expressed as love in action.

Step 2 (Unification): Know that you are one with the one power and intelligence. Allow yourself to feel the significance of the truth that infinite power and intelligence reside within you, that the love within you aligns you with divine creative intelligence.

Step 3 (Realization/Declaration): Speak your word affirmatively and in the present tense, accepting and claiming that which you want as an already accomplished fact in your life.

Step 4 (Thanksgiving): Give thanks for the one creative power that is operating in your life. Give thanks for your awareness. Give thanks for the manifestation of what you have declared in step 3.

Step 5 (Release): Release your words of prayer to the universal subjective creative medium that receives the words you have impressed upon it and makes them manifest.

The steps above are from the Science of Mind philosophy of Ernest Holmes and are the basic structure of Spiritual Mind Treatment, the type of affirmative prayer taught by Holmes.

Affirmative Prayer Example

I close by offering you a sample prayer that you can repeat to yourself. This is a prayer for prosperity. Speak it with feeling and conviction.

I recognize that there is only one power with no opposite. This one power moves with infinite intelligence. It is love in action. It is the creative intelligence that created the entire universe and all that is.

I am one with this infinite power, intelligence, and love. My very life and being is an expression of the one divine life that moves through and as all that is.

In the consciousness of oneness, I speak my word. I declare and know that there is no lack or scarcity in the infinite divine life, and that this is also my truth. I am one with the source of all abundance and prosperity and I now accept abundance in my finances and in all areas of my life. I am prospered in all that I do. Divine perfect action takes place through me and all around me. I am in the flow of life. I have money to meet my needs, to share, and to spare.

I am so grateful for this truth, for my awareness, and for all of the abundance I am experiencing in my life.

In gratitude, I release my words to the universal subjective medium of life, knowing it is done as I have declared. I let it be. All is well. And so it is. Amen.

Enjoy the journey.