Spiritual Guidance, a deeper look

I would like to talk about spiritual guidance. And I would like to talk about it from a perspective that Jesus gave us, that I think is very interesting.

He said, If you had a child who asked you for bread, you wouldn’t give him a stone. If he asked you for a fish, you wouldn’t give him a serpent. When we ask for spiritual guidance, do we think that God might give us a serpent or a stone? Should we think of something less? Or should we think that when we ask for guidance, we’re actually getting it? Is that a revolutionary idea?

When we ask for guidance,  we put something in motion. The first thing we put in motion is our expectation. Our expectation is extremely important because, if we don’t expect something, we’re not going to be able to see when it does occur.

When it does occur, it goes right past us. So, we don’t see it.

When we ask for something, we are to expect that we have received it. This is the principle of prayer. If we don’t expect to receive it, why would we? How could we see it? How could we know that it is unfolding through us?

If we expect to see it, then we will look at every situation, every person, place and thing, every situation that is unfolding in front of us right now. We’ll look at that and think, and understand that spiritual guidance is actually happening. The things that we think should occur, don’t always. The things that do occur, do occur. It’s happening now. Maybe they’re not like we expect. Is that wrong? Is our prayer not answered because things don’t unfold as we expect they should?

That’s the self-image. That’s the part of us that tries to manipulate, the mind of God.

How can we manipulate the mind of God? How could we think we could possibly, intellectually, grasp all the possibilities that might be unfolding through us right now? We can’t see them because we’re so focused on certain ideas. We think, This is how it’s gotta be. We think this is the only thing to happen to make me, or to make me free.

But the Infinite is truly… infinite. The Infinite sees all possibilities. We see what is in front of our eyes, and we hear what is in front of our ears. We don’t know, what is possible. And so we say this is what has to happen. I have to have this happen to make it … right. This has to happen to be the answer that I’m seeking.

Sometimes things unfold in ways that are totally opposite of what we’re thinking. We’re looking for the answer in one way, and it comes in some entirely different way.

Haven’t you ever experienced this? You’re looking for an answer in one way, but it comes in a different way. This has happened to me so many times, I’ve lost count.

Spiritual guidance doesn’t come necessarily as a message. It comes as the events in our life.

We say, “Well, this is not the event I’m looking for. So I must not be guided. This must not be true, this must not be real. This must be something other than an answer.”

How many times has this happened? It happens all the time. We’re looking for one thing and it comes in a different form, but we don’t recognize it, because we’re not prepared to recognize it.

Paul said that all things work together for good for those who love God. He didn’t mean that, because we love God, God is going to do special favors for us. What he meant is if we recognize that there is a higher intelligence working through us now, and always … when we acknowledge the guidance of God, then everything begins to fall in place.

We’re not just randomly floating through space. We’re not here on this planet randomly. God is helping us out. Every one of us. It’s very easy to lose sight of this truth. Very easy. It’s very easy to look out at appearances and to see and to listen to things around us, and think that they are working in ways that are not for our highest good.

But we’re probably wrong. We’re expecting one thing, but we’re getting something else. We don’t always know what we need. We don’t always know what is best for us. We don’t know what is best and highest for us.

We think we know, because we’re looking at it from the level of the self-image, this thing that we have created that we call “I”, we call “me”.  We put it on this planet, we’ve dropped into this world, and we’ve tried to force the world to make it work for this self-perception. But it doesn’t work that way.

Spiritual guidance is something we never lose. It doesn’t go away. It’s not here today and gone tomorrow. It’s always with us. And whether we accept it or not, it is happening.

We get very lost. We get feeling like we are very lost and we are off on some thing that makes us feel like we’re from, maybe another planet.

We’re not. We’re not from another planet. There’s no planet that would rather have us than earth. And we’re here. We made it. This is probably the fulfillment of some very beautiful dream. We’re here.

We’re asking for guidance because we’ve forgotten why we came here. We’ve allowed ourselves to forget.

That’s not a bad thing. Our job is to remember.

You say you can’t remember. I can’t remember either. So I hope you’re in good company.

Our purpose on this planet, is to be who we are. You’ve heard this a million times, and it probably means absolutely nothing at this point. But all of this will pass. Everything you see. All that you think you are … is going to pass. What’s going to be left is the you, that you know you are.

You’ve never been without spiritual guidance. You’ve never been wandering in a far country. Your self-image has, your ego has, but you have not. You have never been without the guidance of God. Never. Ever. It can’t happen. Because you are an expression of the Infinite. You can’t get out of God.

This very moment, you are totally connected with God. Do you think God has abandoned you? Is that possible? It’s not.

You are an expression of God. Your soul is an expression of God. You’re created in the image and after the likeness of God. This is a biblical statement you’ve heard so many times, you will probably discount it. You may have forgotten what it really means. Most of us have. This writer, this Hebrew writer, so many thousands of years ago, got who you are. He got who I am. The image and likeness of God is not this body, this flesh and blood entity. This is not going to regenerate and live eternally. It’s not going to be here forever. Someday this body is going to die, this person that you see in the mirror is not going to be here anymore. But I will always be here. The I that I am, whoever I am, in whatever form I may take, I will always be here.

So, I pray for guidance. I’ve got some issue in my life. I don’t know how to resolve it. I need help. God help me. How big of an issue is this, in terms of our cosmic reality? It’s not very big. How many of these have we had? How many times have we been so backed in a corner that we don’t know what to do, with ourselves, with our life, with our situation? Totally lost. We need answers.

And if those answers don’t come, what happens? The universe stops spinning! Really?

So far, no problem I have had ever stopped the universe from spinning. It’s threatened to. But it’s actually never worked. I thought it would. I thought that if the issue I was involved in wasn’t resolved, that I life would come to an end. Not only my life, but the whole universe was going to come to an end. It never happened.

What am I looking for with spiritual guidance? I’m looking for a solution to some issue that is here today, right now. It’ll be gone tomorrow. Or the next day. Or maybe, it’ll take a week. But I know it’s going to be gone. It doesn’t feel like it’s going to be gone now, but I know it will be.

All things are working together for my highest good. That what Paul thought. For those who love God, all things work together for the highest good. This doesn’t mean that God is doing special favors for us. To love God is simply to acknowledge, that we’re expressions of God, that what we are is God being God, as us.

We’re not a drop of water from the ocean. As Rumi said, we’re the ocean expressing as a drop of water. A very different perception. It’s the holographic universe, the whole contained in each part. All that God is, is expressed through me. Is this part of God that I am, ever been lost? I don’t think so.