Inner Guidance (2 page)

We each are Soul, and we are always connected to God—and yet we can become distracted from that in-timate relationship by the routines of life. That was what Mom helped me understand. We must listen to hear the call and find our way. God is speaking to us all the time.

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Learning to Listen to God:

How to Discover Inner Guidance

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My farmer friend told me that if he had ever known how to talk to God, he had long forgotten. We built a friendship in our little talks that summer, and it filled my days with happiness. He made me feel safe asking questions and validated my quest. He told me that children probably stand a better chance than any of us to get in touch with God. Both of us seemed to want to keep that connection alive.

I wanted to fulfill my unique, individual potential and not forget who I was and what I came here to do.

In my early search for knowledge, truth, guidance, and direction, the farmer and my other friends continued to talk to me. They also wanted to hear the Voice of God.

M
y mother emphasized that in order to be able to talk with God, I would have to learn to listen better.

She told me I would have to sit quietly and really pay attention.

Listening was not my strong point, especially as a child. But I began to work at it.

I began to hear the distant thunder as God’s commands, the wind in the trees as God’s whispers. I began to experience the breath of God moving the curtains in my bedroom. This was a first step, and years later when I began studying the teachings of Eckankar, I was happy to hear Sri Harold Klemp speak of God’s voice being heard as sounds in nature—running water, thunder, the song of birds. The Sound of God comes through in all these ways; and as a child, just beginning this practice, I heard these sounds and assumed God wanted to talk to me just as much as I wanted to talk to God. So I listened.

Perhaps when we have a sincere, loving desire, we Inner Guidance_CH 01-05.p65

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Inner Guidance: Our Divine Birthright

can begin to connect more fully with the Divine. Gradually, I began to hear the Voice of God as insights that came from within, as well as in outer sounds. I began to receive small ideas and directions about my life.

Because I was listening, I could hear God’s Voice speaking to me more and more clearly about both the important things and the smallest details of life.

Sometimes this communication came as an inner voice; sometimes I heard messages in the words of others or in the world around me. If things were not going well, I might hear words of encouragement. “Just wait,” the voice would say inwardly, and I would know that help was on the way. Within minutes, the phone might ring, and there would be my dear, upbeat Aunt Joyce, offering a chance to go out on an adventure for the day.

My trust in this inner voice grew. It gave me an exhilarating sense of the interconnection of all life.
What
could happen next?
I wondered.

A
s we learn things, we make mistakes. We venture into areas that bring us intense lessons. It happened for me.

Trying to
make
things happen became my interest—

not to simply listen for the guidance, but to direct it myself, to command it. This may be a stage we all go through. It gives us a heady sense of power, but it takes away love, and eventually it may stop the inner guidance.

Rather than remain in a happy frame of mind, expecting good things to happen and doing what I could to facilitate that, I tried to turn it into a magician’s game.

Fortunately, the guidance I received instructed me about this as well.

One day, I heard a stern warning: “This is
not
a game.”

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Learning to Listen to God:

How to Discover Inner Guidance

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At a young age, I was learning that we receive those things with which we align ourselves. When we align ourselves with our highest spiritual good, we come into harmony with it and allow that which already exists to manifest in our world.

We do not try to connect with inner guidance so we can manipulate life or others. We defeat our higher purpose if we try to use this gift in that way. I am grateful to have learned this lesson early.

By expecting the best and surrendering this image of the best or highest good to God, we receive much more than we ever dreamed.

So as we express our desires, our greatest prayer might simply be, “Thy will be done.” That is what we do if we want the greatest good for ourselves and others, and it is the way to avoid limiting ourselves and our potential. Always, our greatest good is God’s will, even when it may not seem to be what we want.

Eventually, it became apparent that keeping my heart open is the way to hear God’s loving voice.

Divine Spirit leads us perfectly,
if
we surrender to this amazing benevolent power. And this surrender is not like waving a white flag of defeat; it is saying, “I accept my highest good in this lifetime! I accept a greater outcome than any I might ever have envisioned on my own.”

A
s a barefoot girl playing on the red earth of South Carolina, living in the quiet farmlands of the South, my future may have seemed somewhat limited.

But my inner guidance told me I would have a beautiful and fulfilling life.

God’s voice reaches us uniquely, often through the people in our lives. My mother knew I needed to go to Inner Guidance_CH 01-05.p65

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Inner Guidance: Our Divine Birthright

college, for example. “Life is not easy, and your education will help take you places,” she insisted. So I kept that goal in mind as I grew up. My life was about to present more challenges, more refinement in learning to listen to God.

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Leaving the

Church of My Childhood:

Inner Guidance Brings a New

Spiritual Direction

The search for God requires a deep yearning.

Soul hears the Voice of God and wants to return
to Its home in heaven. In the meantime, it’s up
to Soul, in one way or another, to find a path that
gives the help It needs to take this step. When you
graduate from one level of education in the spiritual works, God provides a step, then another and
another.

No matter what path you are on or what faith
you follow, be the best there is in it, be the cream
of the crop.

—Harold Klemp

The Secret Teachings
³

M
y family belonged to a Southern Baptist congregation. As a child, going to church

was a highlight of my life. There, I could

feel a sense of love and bathe in the feeling of being closer to God.

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Inner Guidance: Our Divine Birthright

But by the time I was a teenager, those teachings no longer rang true for me, and I could feel the call to something else. It was a deep yearning I had to follow.

I remained a single-minded seeker, always striving to find a closer personal connection with God.

When I was sixteen, I lived in Europe with my family. Because I could not speak the language well enough to clearly follow what was going on, I attended church services with a sense of openness to the spiritual feeling
within each church I visited.

In some of the places of worship, I noticed a tangible sensation of love that seemed to emanate from the very walls of the buildings. Even before the services began, I could sense it. I was moved by this experience and sought it out in churches wherever I lived and traveled.

After high-school graduation, I returned to the United States to attend college. In the midwestern town where I went to school, I settled into a small congregation in a Methodist church. There were many things I enjoyed about this church. The people were friendly and loving, and the music was joyful and uplifting. I even became friends with the minister, whose words were positive and insightful.

Yet I continued to feel a divine discontent—a nagging feeling, a sense there was something more. I wanted to connect more strongly with my inner guidance. My desire to have a closer, more personal relationship with God was growing. Maybe it is a desire we all have as Soul, to connect more deeply with God and to understand the divine plan.

O
ne Sunday morning, while sitting quietly in church, I began to receive an inner message. It was a booming inner proclamation—not a voice exactly, but Inner Guidance_CH 01-05.p65

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Leaving the Church of My Childhood:

Inner Guidance Brings a New Spiritual Direction 9

rather the
sense
of a voice delivering a distinct message loudly and clearly.

This new inner message shot straight to my heart.

It was a message of pure love, a characteristic of inner guidance that I have come to know and trust.

“There is something much greater than this, and you have earned the right to it. You must rise now and leave the church forever.”

“Leave the church!” I whispered to myself incredulously.
I love church!
I began to panic.

I might not have liked what I was hearing inwardly, but I was certain of what was being said. This message meant that I was to end attending church as I knew it.

With this realization, I inwardly challenged the voice, asking, “But what will I do if I leave the church?”

The answer came swiftly. “Go sit among the trees, contemplate God, and await further instructions.”

I could hardly believe what was happening, but I found myself rising from my seat. As I looked around, everyone else in the church was standing too. Surely we did not
all
get this message! Ah, no, I realized—the service had ended.

Happy people streamed out of the church into the bright sunlight of this beautiful day. I trailed behind, savoring what seemed to be the closing moments in a long chapter of my life that had meant so much to me.

Those life-changing words were ringing in my ears. I was being instructed to go and seek God and to “await further instructions.”

An odd message indeed. Yet there were two things I could not deny.

One, I was experiencing a heightened state of awareness. Two, the promise of truth within this message was compelling and inspiring. If there was some-Inner Guidance_CH 01-05.p65

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Inner Guidance: Our Divine Birthright

thing greater, and I had earned the right to it, I wanted it! As a result, it was easy to accept what I’d heard. My inner guidance was carrying me above and beyond the clatter of any fear I might otherwise have harbored.

The minister was shaking hands with members of the congregation as they filed from the sanctuary. This Sunday I was the last person in line. The pastor smiled broadly and said that he wished to speak to me privately for a moment.

We stepped away from the others who were milling around at the church doors. He beamed at me and said,

“Anne, I would like you to join me next Sunday, meeting people at the door after the service. You know that from time to time I invite someone to join me to have a word with our church members. I would be pleased if you would like to take part.”

On any other Sunday, his invitation would have delighted me. Now it was too late.

“I just wish you had asked me before, because I would have loved to join you. But now I can’t.” Somehow I had to find the words to explain. “I am really honored,”

I continued. “But, as a matter of fact, I can’t come back to church at all.”

He was completely taken aback by my response.

“Are you moving away? Is that what you mean?” He looked disappointed.

I was reluctant to tell him what had just happened—

embarrassed even. Yet a part of me actually wanted to share it with him. I wondered if he might somehow be able to accept it, though I presumed he would argue heartily.

Gathering my courage, I began.

“I heard an inner voice at the end of the service. It told me that ‘there is something much greater than this,’

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Inner Guidance Brings a New Spiritual Direction 11

and the voice said that I had ‘earned the right to it.’ Then I heard that I must ‘rise now and leave the church forever.’ I was directed to ‘go sit among the trees, contemplate God, and await further instructions.’ I believe I should follow this guidance.”

He would try to talk some sense into me, I was certain.

This kind, God-loving clergyman took my hand and moved us another step or two further away from any prying ears. “I don’t pretend to understand what happened for you today, Anne. I, too, am sorry that I did not ask you to join me earlier. But in truth, I wish that I could join you.”

His response took me by surprise! I opened my mouth to respond. He was quick to clarify.

“I don’t really want to leave the church or this congregation; that’s not it. I know that at this point in my life, I can’t. It’s just that I often wish I could find my own way—and I do believe there is something greater than this. You have a special path that is clearly waiting for you. That’s quite a message you received. Impressive.”

“I thought you would try to talk me out of it—out of leaving the church!” I exclaimed.

He smiled at me. “Some might say that is part of my job,” he said, “but that’s not what I feel in my heart.

If you are being instructed by God, who am I to interfere? I would not want to, and I would not even try. I encourage you and wish you well.”

My final blessing from this admirable man, it was delivered with a hug and a smile.

As I left his side, I realized what a great gift I was being given on this sunny Sunday morning. It was a portal to greater spiritual freedom. When I made the Inner Guidance_CH 01-05.p65