Realizing God's Will Is Oneness

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Realizing God's Will Is Oneness

Trusting Outcomes with Holy Spirit

This past Saturday was the third anniversary of September 11th.  I felt guided to hold a morning of peaceful reflection and sharing on the experience of God at a nearby church where I co-facilitate some groups.  The pastor, although not participating, was supportive.  I sent invitations to all the other churches in the city using this church’s stationary which the pastor supplied.  Everyone I talked to about this idea seemed to think it was good on this day to focus on peace instead of victims and violence.  As it turns out, only two people showed up, and these were my co-facilitator at a Wednesday morning meditation group and a member of the group. 

The three of us has a beautiful peaceful morning.  At the end I thanked the persons present for coming and told them that it would not have been so long ago that I would have considered the morning a complete failure because the church was empty of human bodies.  I told them that I did not consider the morning a failure at all.  I had done as I was asked.  I put the idea out there.  I had to let go of results as measured by the ego standards.  For the persons present that morning, it was a wonderful Heaven experience.  We all agreed on that. 

However as I was driving home and later that day, I was a little puzzled.  Why was I asked to do something that seemingly people were not interested in?  I simply had no answers.  The next day during my regular prayer time, I was reminded that during one of the ministry courses, I experienced a meditation in which I was given the opportunity to look through two windows into the universe.  One window looked into the past, and the other looked into the future.  There were bouquets of white roses of varying sizes beside each window so that I could tell one window from the other.  It was the Inner Teacher who offered me this opportunity if I wanted it.  I said no to both windows.  I told the Inner Teacher that I would trust Holy Spirit about the past and the future; I would stay in the present with Him.

As I am reminded of this again now, I see how often I want to re-do the past because I live in regret.  If I had known how a circumstance or event would turn out, I might have chosen differently.  That thought brings me to not knowing the future, not knowing in advance how things will turn out - giving up control - because, of course, if I knew I would plan differently.  Both past and future are different sides of one coin, the ego thought system.  They are intertwined.  One is not better than the other.  Knowing the future is not better than knowing the past.  Neither takes me out of the illusion of time.  Only the present can.

When I first experienced this meditation four years ago, I felt so happy and trustful of the Inner Teacher.  I declined the use of time to my advantage from the ego perspective, and gave the use of time to Holy Spirit.  And yet, as He uses it, I simply do not understand what He is doing at times.  As I look from the ego perspective, the split mind, I just can’t understand.  As I open to the healed perspective in the right mind, there seems to be something, some understanding just beyond my grasp.  No matter how I try to still my mind and listen, I just don’t seem to quite get it.

I guess that is where trust comes in.  There are so many circumstances and events lately in my life where I have practiced following the guidance I felt, but to what end?  Certainly not one the ego liked, I’ll say that.  I have trusted, but I have to practice even more trust in Holy Spirit’s use of time.  I said I would forgo focusing on the past and future, but my ego mind wants to grab them back.  The ego wants certain outcomes and control over them, and yet this brings fear as well as fear of the unknown.  Where is the answer?  I wish to hear it loud and clear, as they say.

All I hear is, “Let go!  Let go!”  If I let it all go, where am I?  So many opportunities come up that the ego part of my mind really doesn’t want to do, and yet I do want to do them if I know the outcome is happy - happy by ego standards.  Yet, the Course says the outcome is always happy by spiritual standards.  The outcome is always Atonement.  Each step of trust leads there.  Each time I let go of past and future outcomes and trust Holy Spirit in the now moment, I am stepping toward true happiness, true joy, true peace, not the false sense of satisfaction with the ego.  There is no outcome which pleases the ego mind for more than a minute.  Why should I bother to look at future events as if a guarantee of a certain result brought peace?  And could I know what that could be in the big picture, in the long run?  What I wanted as a result a few years ago would not be the result I would want today.  That brings me back to trusting Holy Spirit.

And so today, I look at the windows to the past and future and affirm again that I give them to Holy Spirit.  I will not try to review outcomes.  I will not be curious or think them important.  I give the use of time and space to Holy Spirit and trust that He uses them wisely for healing, mine and others, all in one plan of healing.  Everything interwoven into one plan in ways I could not possibly understand, no matter how hard I try.  Today I relieve myself of the burden of trying.  I cannot understand and I accept I cannot understand.  I don’t know the wisdom of past and future outcomes.  I give this all to Holy Spirit who does understand history and possibilities and weaves them into a web of His own design that captures me and brings me home to the experience of Heaven.

In this moment, I can trust my life and my journey to Him.  I walk past the windows and turn to Holy Spirit.  In return He gives me peace of mind.  He gives me His assurance that all is well.  He gives me assurance that He understands the Mind of God, even if I don’t, and that He acts for me for my best interest always.  If I leave all outcomes in His capable hands, He will not fail me and He will not fail the world.  There is a happy rainbow, a happy ending, and I can have it right now if I want, if I but trust Him in everything.  Today, I can recognize that I have no meaning for anything and I can happily accept that statement without judgment.  I don’t understand, and that’s OK, because I can trust.

© 2004, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Barbara Kraetsch.

Ask.  Listen.  Follow.  Trust.

I had such an interesting experience lately while facilitating a weekend group.  The first day, some women in the group were into silly giggling with each other.  I felt guided by Holy Spirit to ignore it and felt peaceful about ignoring it, while realizing at the same time that others members of the group might be disturbed by their behavior.  After the group session, some members did come to me and ask why I had not addressed silly behavior that had disturbed others.  Then, I started to wonder about the wisdom of the guidance, but told them that I had gone to Holy Spirit during group time and I just followed what I had received.

The next day, one of the gigglers and I had a wonder healing conversation about the happy circumstances in her current life.  She related to me that some encouragement I had given her almost two years earlier had been very helpful to her.  She remembered well the loving words I had previously shared with her and I really felt the love she was sharing with me on this morning.  I immediately felt that Holy Spirit’s guidance the previous day had been entirely correct.  Then during the morning session, another of the gigglers sought me out for sharing and we had quite a conversation of healing insights.  Again I felt that the beauty and value of following Holy Spirit’s guidance was shown to me.  If there had been public attention given to their behavior the previous day, I’m not sure these healing sharings would have happened. 

Then in the afternoon of the second day, a young man was eating during the meditation.  I was unaware of this until afterwards when members of the group mentioned it during the group sharing time.  Some members of the group had incorporated this distraction as part of their practice of seeing Christ in their brother.  Later, I had a long conversation with the “cruncher” during which many wonderful healing insights came about.  Again, I do not believe this would have occurred if there had been any negative attention given to his behavior during group time or after.  Again, I felt confidence in Holy Spirit’s guidance to just let go of all silly behavior as no big deal.

The next day, I learned that some members of the group had given a negative impression to others about events that had happened during group time.  When I heard this my ego kicked right in.  I felt attacked.  I felt guilt.  I defended myself.  I immediately questioned whether in any way I had been acting from fear while facilitating the group - fear of disapproval, fear of seeming unloving or harsh, or fear of confronting others.  I wondered if I really had been listening to the voice of Holy Spirit, or had it been filtered by unconscious fear.  I felt like a poor facilitator.  I felt like a poor listener or a mistaken listener.  When I arrived home, I talked about the weekend with my husband as if the ego drama was all quite real.  I overate on suggary treats.  I drank two glasses of wine, and then couldn’t sleep all night.  Ego had me on a guilt trip.

In my wakefulness, I spent time meditating.  I watched TV.  In the morning I took a nap.  Then in late morning, I determind to sit with Holy Spirit until the truth would be shown to me, and it was.  I learned that in all of my doing, the most important part was the practice of asking, listening and following.  And then trusting and taking responsibility for following the guidance.  I had not been trusting enough.  I became aware that following the guidance, an act of kindness of overlooking silliness, appeared to others as a flaw.  That awareness showed me everyone can be mistaken about the behavior of another.  We have absolutely no basis to judge the behavior of another.  Another’s behavior may not meet our expectations of what appears good. Ours may not match theirs.

The real question was trust.  The real question came to me as, can I follow Holy Spirit’s guidance confidently and joyfully even if others think it seems wrong?  After all, whose’s disapproval am I worried about?  When there is a question of disapproval its only my ego looking to other egos for approval - only the insanity of the ego thought system.  I learned the importance of trusting the guidance given to me.  Holy Spirit only asks me to ask, listen, follow and trust.  I learned to let go of need for this to appear good in the ego thought system.  I learned the importance of trusting and when I don’t, it is only my broken record of ego thoughts that plays over and over the need for approval.  Its all about my willingness to totally trust what I receive as right for me and everyone else as well.

The whole circumstance showed me a lesson in practicing willingness to follow my own inner guidance.  As I was tempted to question my intent, motivation, and the outcome all by ego standards, I was a failure.  After all, doesn’t following Holy Spirit guidance mean peace and love visibly present?  I learned its not always present to body eyes or to ego understanding.  I learned I must trust what I am given and be ready to accept that in the ego world, the guidance may appear clumsy or be misunderstood.  I learned that I must trust more that I need not know the big picture.  I cannot account for how Holy Spirit works in the world of illusion.

All I can do is practice following what I am given and follow it through as best I can at any particular moment with trust.  And later, if my actions are questioned, to calmly rest in knowing that I practiced following what I was given at the time.  And doing this even though I can’t totally understand it either.  Although in this case, I can understand but am aware that others may not.  This has to be good enough.  The healing is in my own mind.  That is the only place I need it.

Now I feel again the surety of trust.  I can trust Holy Spirit to show me the way for me to be.  I trust He will show others the way for them to be.  It is for others to listen to their guidance in the way they will.  I can only be responsible for listening for myself and following.  Any problems perceived in this are all of ego resistance, of the illusion of separate bodies and minds.  My sole responsibility is to accept the Atonement for myself - to acccept that it is only in my mind that I need healing.  It is my responsibility to let go of ego thought and see only wholeness with the help of Holy Spirit.

I forgive myself any mistakes in listening.  As Holy Spirit overlooks my mistakes of listening, I overlook any perceived mistakes of others.  Maybe they are listening perfectly well and it only appears as a flaw to my mind because I am looking with ego judgment.  I have no way to know, no basis to judge.  And so I accept that others have no basis to judge how well I am listening to Spirit.  We all must just trust that everyone is on their awakening journey with Holy Spirit just as they should be.  Its all perfect, everyone is already healed, already forgiven.  Incidents of ego are only of time and time is temporary madness.  I can let it go and return again to the serenity that comes from trusting Holy Spirit at an even deeper level, learning more consistency and constancy in trust.

There underneath the illusion of upset is perfect trust in the wisdom of Holy Spirit.  I trust His plan of awakening for me.  I see His wisdom in showing me the parts of my mind that need healing, as I am willing to open to them.  Then He simply heals them.  And so there is the beauty of peace I have turned to again.  There is no need to explain or justify my guidance.  There may be no way to do so.  It does not matter.  There is only the following of it, knowing that it is for healing in some way for the ego thought system.  I can be content with that.  What a fine lesson to learn.  What a fine way for it to be shown to me.  I have confidence in Holy Spirit to know best and to guide always for healing.  I can trust more now and be sure of its rightness for me.  More than this I leave to Holy Spirit.  My one function is to listen to His voice as best I can in the moment and trust.  I trust others to do the same.

© 2004, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Posted by Rev. Barbara Kraetsch.

I let the Light do the work.

Let the light shine forth.  Be My love always, at every moment, in every hour, in every way.  Be in it.  Rest in it.  Ease forth from it.  Relax and let it do the work.  In this there is nothing to fear and everything to gain.  Fear not the words, actions and results that come from the light.  These shall mind themselves from the Mind of God.  Relax and let the love and light flow like a river from you.  Let it wash the world clean of unfaithfulness and forgetfulness.  Let it wash all darkness away.

Let the light bring My presence to all, to those who would listen and to those who know not to listen.  For in the path of love and light, they cannot help but be healed in a way I direct.  Your only task is to let it flow and be unconcerned with process, effects and results.  This shall all be minded by Me for the One.  My mind is your mind.  My heart is your heart.  My love is your love.  My light is your light.  There is nothing else.  Trust in this.  Live this, and paradise is yours.  I give it to you freely.  All you must do is to claim it as your own is to recognize that it belongs to you for you are already there with Me.  See this and you see all that is.  Feel this and feel My love for you is boundless.  There is no measure of love for you.  You have all there is.  Accept this gift.  Unwrap it and accept it.  Take it to your heart, and your healing shall know no bounds.  All else will follow.

The light shines even when the body’s eyes do not perceive it shining.  The light simply shines.  It shines on what we want to see and what we don’t want to see.  It shines on successes and failures alike, treating them all the same.  It lets go of all other seeking for truth and justice.  It rules supreme.  It guides the way through roses and rubbish.  The light merely seeks the truth of what is, but what we often cannot know.  It is a light that shines even in the dark, where it would seem to be quiet and silent, no where to be seen and appreciated.

Yet in quiet, silent times does it shout from the Heavens - See Me -  Hear Me -  Love Me -  Let Me Shine -  Let Me Live.  Let Me cast forth light upon the waters, upon the land, upon all that is there for you be be as I am.  Trust Me as the light.  Trust Me as the Guide.  Trust Me as the way to see.  Trust Me for the light to your way to be.  For I am all there is to see.  I am all there is to know and to love.  See Me only.  I am the light and the light sees only Me.  I am the light and the seen.  Focus not on the light as light.  Focus on Me.  I am there even beyond the light and yet closer than the light.  The light focuses on Me, yet I am not limited by the light.  The light is for you to see, not Me.  I see all without need of light, for I created the light for you.

There is Me even in the dark.  There is Me even in the midst of it all.  For there I am in it all, all there is and ever will be.  You are part of this.  You are part of the light and yet more than the light.  Vaster than the light.  I am not the light.  I am to be seen in the light.  Let the light show Me to you.  Point to others to where the light shines to show Me, so that others may see Me, too.  Be the light.  Shine it to show Me, where I am.  And they will see Me also.

© 2004, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice is included.

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Posted by Rev. Barbara Kraetsch.

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