Prayers to be successful must be Prayers claiming rather than begging.

So can’t you see why the millions of prayers are unanswered? Men pray to a God that does not exist. For instance: To be conscious of being poor and to pray to a God for riches is to be rewarded with that which you are conscious of being – which is poverty. Prayers to be successful must be claiming rather than begging – so if you would pray for riches turn from your picture of poverty by denying the very evidence of your senses and assume the nature of being wealthy.
“When you pray go within in secret and shut the door. And that which your father sees in secret, with that will he reward you openly.”
The ‘father’ is the awareness of being. The ‘door’ is the awareness of being.

So ‘shutting the door’ is shutting out that which ‘I’ am now aware of being and claiming myself to be that which ‘I’ desire to be.

Do not question the how of these things appearing, for no man knows that way. That is, no manifestation knows how the things desired will appear.

Consciousness is the way or door through which things appear. He said, “I AM the way” – not ‘I,’ John Smith, am the way, but “I AM,” the awareness of being, is the way through which the thing shall come. The signs always follow. They never precede. Things have no reality other than in consciousness. Therefore, get the consciousness first and the thing is compelled to appear.
“Seek ye first the kingdom of Heaven and all things shall be added unto you.” Get first the consciousness of the things that you are seeking and leave the things alone. This is what is meant by “Ye shall decree a thing and it shall come to pass.”
Mary was not a woman – giving birth in some miraculous way to someone. Mary is the awareness of being that ever remains virgin, no matter how many desires it gives birth to. Right now look upon yourself as this virgin Mary – being impregnated by yourself through the medium of desire – becoming one with your desire to the point of embodying or giving birth to your desire.
It is said of Mary (whom you now know to be yourself) that she know not a man. Yet she conceived. That is, you, John Smith, have no reason to believe that that which you now desire is possible, but having discovered your awareness of being to be God, you make this awareness your husband and conceive a man child (manifestation) of the Lord, “For thy maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; the Lord God of the whole earth shall he be called.” Your ideal or ambition is this conception – the first command to her, which is now to yourself, is “Go, tell no man.” That is, do not discuss your ambitions or desires with another for the other will only echo your present fears. Secrecy is the first law to be observed in realizing your desire.
The second, as we are told in the story of Mary, is to “Magnify the Lord.” We have identified the Lord as your awareness of being. Therefore, to ‘magnify the Lord’ is to revalue or expand one’s present conception of one’s self to the point where this revaluation becomes natural. When this naturalness is attained you give birth by becoming that which you are one with in consciousness.



Excerpt from:
AT YOUR COMMAND
NEVILLE GODDARD
1939