Tag: spiritual guidance

The Prayer of Guidance

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Spiritual guidance is obviously a very important aspect of meditation and prayer. It is also a very misunderstood subject that requires some rethinking in our approach to the subject.

We often think of spiritual guidance as a means of navigating from where we are to a place we want to be. Quite often that “place” involves the acquisition of a material object, a position, a relationship or a new lifestyle. What is often missed in this process is the state of being we hope to achieve with our acquisition. Our thinking is that the attainment of a thing will make us feel better about ourselves.

What is keeping you from feeling better about yourself now? What is keeping you from feeling complete in this very place you stand in your life today? The answer is simple. Only your belief that you are incomplete, that you need something added to become happy or that you need to be in some other place keeps you at a distance from the very thing you seek.

The prayer for guidance involves the release of all groping for answers outside yourself, a letting go of all sense of inadequacy that can only be addressed by adding something new to yourself or your life. Spiritual guidance leads you first to your point of strength, that inner center of light and peace that pines away for nothing more than a deeper revelation of this divine connection.

What are the dreams and goals of a spiritually fulfilled being? To be sure, they are different from the dreams and goals of a spiritually unfulfilled being. When you find yourself in need of guidance, start with the idea that your first need is to open yourself to your own wholeness. Let go of the self that fears or feels inadequate. Find your inner point of strength and know that you are being guided now to act, not out of fear and weakness, but out of the power, love and intelligence of Spirit.

All spiritual guidance leads to the holy ground of the place you now stand. The fulfillment you seek is present. Seek this first and you will know what to do next.

 

Meditation and Prayer

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“On the path to spiritual understanding no practice is more important in terms of spiritual transformation than the practices of meditation and prayer.”

Because the terms meditation and prayer tend to evoke different meanings, we treat them as two completely separate practices. Meditation is often thought of as the art of listening to God while prayer is thought of as the act of talking to God, usually in the form of a request. In my book I treat these practices as two halves of a single process. Meditation provides an infilling of inspiration from our inner resource and prayer is the act of directing this inspiration into specific areas of our experience.

Let’s say you have a healing challenge. In meditation you still your mind, releasing all images of yourself as incomplete. You pull your thoughts from the appearance of illness and open your mind and heart to your spiritual wholeness. This opening process is not a blind groping for something you do not have but a receptivity to your spiritual reality. Regardless of the condition of your body you are whole and complete right now. You invite this wholeness to come forth, to become part of your conscious reality.

Thus inspired, you engage in prayer by releasing all negative energy around this appearance and then directing affirmative statements to your body, particularly to the affected area. Think of meditation as an inhaling and prayer as the exhaling of divine energy, two parts to the single activity we call breathing.

The basis of this approach is the understanding that as a spiritual being you are already whole and that you are right now fully immersed in the presence of God. You don’t ask God to make you whole, you acknowledge your wholeness. You don’t ask God to act as your healer, you acknowledge that God as your source is your wholeness. You are aligning yourself with the presence and action of God in and as you.

In the following weeks we will further explore both aspects of this spiritually aligning process.

Resolving the Enigma of Divine Order

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When we seek spiritual guidance, we usually do so from one of two states of mind. We’re either seeking spiritual wisdom to implement a plan of action, or we’re clueless about our current state of affairs, and we’re asking God for ideas. In either case, it’s a good practice to remind ourselves that all things are unfolding in divine order.

But what does this mean? Does it mean that if we don’t affirm divine order, chaos will ensue? Does God need our reminder to initiate the highest process of order to ensure the best, most successful outcome?

It’s been said that we don’t affirm a thing to make it true; we affirm it because it is true. The declaration that, My life is now unfolding in divine order is a statement that aligns our understanding, our expectations, with the truth that that which is best and highest for the expression of our soul, is now taking place. Whether we’re in the process of pursuing a dream, or we feel completely lost, adrift in a sea of uncertainty, we experience the peace of knowing that all is well.

Though this may not seem to be true, the feeling of being lost is foreign to the soul. It’s the self-image that experiences the opposites of certainty and uncertainty. The soul is grounded in the Infinite. Our spiritual core never becomes lost in the weeds of circumstance. Nor is the soul’s worth based on our successes and failures.

The self-image tends to read its ever-changing circumstances like tea leaves. We hope that the patterns left by the grounds in the bottom of our cup will give us some indication of what we should do. The problem here is that we will read into appearances exactly what we want to see. We’re like dooms-day advocate that sees that latest volcanic eruption, hurricane, political scandal, or violent outbreak in the Middle East as the signs that the end is near.

When you affirm divine order, do so with a deep feeling of certainty that your soul’s purpose is now being fulfilled. Pursue your plans and move through your circumstances with the understanding that all things are working together for your highest good, and for the highest good of all. In those moments of uncertainty, turn your attention away from circumstances and re-establish your faith in the truth that your life is now unfolding in divine order.

 

Resolving the Enigma of Divine Order

Click for audio: Resolving the Enigma of Divine Order

When we seek spiritual guidance, we usually do so from one of two states of mind. We’re either seeking spiritual wisdom to implement a plan of action, or we’re clueless about our current state of affairs, and we’re asking God for ideas. In either case, it’s a good practice to remind ourselves that all things are unfolding in divine order.

But what does this mean? Does it mean that if we don’t affirm divine order, chaos will ensue? Does God need our reminder to initiate the highest process of order to ensure the best, most successful outcome?

It’s been said that we don’t affirm a thing to make it true; we affirm it because it is true. The declaration that, My life is now unfolding in divine order is a statement that aligns our understanding, our expectations, with the truth that that which is best and highest for the expression of our soul, is now taking place. Whether we’re in the process of pursuing a dream, or we feel completely lost, adrift in a sea of uncertainty, we experience the peace of knowing that all is well.

Though this may not seem to be true, the feeling of being lost is foreign to the soul. It’s the self-image that experiences the opposites of certainty and uncertainty. The soul is grounded in the Infinite. Our spiritual core never becomes lost in the weeds of circumstance. Nor is the soul’s worth based on our successes and failures.

The self-image tends to read its ever-changing circumstances like tea leaves. We hope that the patterns left by the grounds in the bottom of our cup will give us some indication of what we should do. The problem here is that we will read into appearances exactly what we want to see. We’re like dooms-day advocate that sees that latest volcanic eruption, hurricane, political scandal, or violent outbreak in the Middle East as the signs that the end is near.

When you affirm divine order, do so with a deep feeling of certainty that your soul’s purpose is now being fulfilled. Pursue your plans and move through your circumstances with the understanding that all things are working together for your highest good, and for the highest good of all. In those moments of uncertainty, turn your attention away from circumstances and re-establish your faith in the truth that your life is now unfolding in divine order.

 

Spiritual Guidance

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“Is there a man among you who will offer his son a stone when he asks for bread, or a snake when he asks for fish? If you, then, bad as you are, know how to give your children what is good for them, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:9-11).

If we apply this logic of Jesus to the notion of spiritual guidance, we can know that our need and request for guidance is being fulfilled at this very moment. This is true even when it appears we’re being given a stone rather than bread, or a snake rather than a fish.

Stones and snakes are not really stones and snakes. They are more likely answers to our prayer for guidance. They just don’t look like the bread and fish that we’re expecting. When we ask God for guidance, we are to believe that we have received the guidance we seek. This means that everything we do, everyone we encounter, every new unfolding circumstance is part of the solution to our desire for guidance.

In some cases, our circumstances may take an unexpected turn that seems to have no relevance to the greater good we seek. But Jesus also cautioned against judging by appearances. This is good advice, because intellectually, there is no way we can have all the facts about unfolding events. Neither will we fully encompass all the possible scenarios that can present themselves. While we’re looking in one direction, our answer can sneak up behind us.

Think of how many times this has happened. You get something fixed in your mind, but the actual solution unfolds in a very different way. What may look like failure or a misstep from one angle, turns out to be the exact right thing for the whole picture.

Paul reminded us that all things work together for good for those that love God. We can reframe this thought to all things are working together for our highest good, as we trust that God’s guiding wisdom is fully in play, right now. Our every step is the right step, our every move, the right move.

Hold this thought. Know this truth. At this very moment, God is guiding you to the highest and best solution to your need.

 

The Goal of the Goal

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“For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice” (John 18:37).

This passage represents a partial response of Jesus while under interrogation by Pilate. When Pilate asks, What is truth?, Jesus makes no reply. Among Christian theologians, however, there is no shortage of answers as to the nature of truth, and Jesus’ purpose on earth.

Stripping this statement of its theological implications, we can see Jesus is simply saying that he understands the purpose of his incarnation as that of giving full expression to his soul, unhindered by the restrictions of the body-based self-image. Pilate, firmly established in his own position-oriented identity, could not grasp the profound implications of Jesus’ statement.

Think of Jesus as a window who is saying he is here to let in sunlight, to bear witness, not to himself as a window, but to the truth of the sun. The window may be dressed and beautified in a variety of ways, but always its purpose is to bring sunlight into the house.

You and I are designed to bring the light of our soul into everything we do. Our desire for greater freedom is the warmth of the spiritual sun shining from our innermost depths. We feel this warmth and we are inspired to find new ways to express it. All our endeavors become the means to the end of bringing forth the light. Our window can be as complex as a career or as simple as a kind word or gesture.

Try beginning your day with this thought: I enter this day with the single purpose of bearing witness to the truth of my soul. In all that I do, I let the light of God shine through. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth of who and what I am as an expression of God.