Scripture: John 19:30
BY REV. DORAL PULLEY, Today’s Church Tampa Bay
As a child, you probably were taught to pray by bowing your head and closing your eyes. You may not have had any idea why prayer had to begin that way. You probably never asked the questions, “Why do I have to bow my head? What is the purpose of closing my eyes?” You most likely went along with the program.
Bowing your head and closing your eyes is more than physical activity. They have spiritual significance. Bowing your head symbolizes your conscious choice to exalt the Christ in you over your ego. Closing your eyes represents taking a break from your external experience so that you can focus more on your internal reality.
In the text, Jesus was on the cross, saying one of his final prayers. He bowed his head in submission to God’s will and closed his eyes to see with the eyes of his spirit. He cut through his pain and suffering by envisioning his oneness with God.
One of the ways to powerfully use the scriptures in your life is through finding scriptures that apply to an experience that you are having. Once you find the appropriate scripture, you can speak it with power along with a denial and an affirmation to build your consciousness around the ideas of health, harmony in relationship, and wealth.
Denials disempower your fears, doubts, limiting beliefs, faulty perceptions, and worries so that you can speak your affirmation with power and authority. The combination of quoting scripture together with denials and affirmations forms a Prayer Tool that helps you communicate what you desire to bring into manifestation. Think of a hammer. Quoting Scripture is the handle, the Universal Truth. Denials are the claw pulling up old ideas and limiting beliefs that are firmly planted and nailed into your consciousness. Affirmations are the head that securely fastens the good desires of your heart.
Using the Prayer Tool of Quoting Scriptures, Denials and Affirmations as symbolized by the Hammer, recite the following throughout the week:
Scripture (handle) – “He said, It is finished, and he bowed his head and closed his eyes (John 19:30).”
Denial (claw) – What I see with my natural eyes is not all that there is.
Affirmation (head) – I see with the eyes of Spirit and I bow my head in submission to God’s will.
Rev. Doral Pulley is the senior pastor of Today’s Church Tampa Bay, 940 5th Ave. S, St. Petersburg (Staybridge Suites) and 5107 North Central Ave., Tampa.
