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April-June, 2008

Does Holy Spirit Provide Specific Guidance in the World?

by Regina Dawn Akers

Since I have been a student of A Course in Miracles (ACIM), I have noticed there is some disagreement about whether Holy Spirit provides guidance in the world or not. I can only speak from my experience, but my experience has taught me, “Yes, Holy Spirit provides specific guidance in the world.”

Some students of ACIM may ask, “Why would Holy Spirit provide guidance in the world when the world is not real?”

The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament (NTI) also teaches that the world is not real, and yet it is very clear in its teaching that Holy Spirit guides us in the world. NTI Matthew, Chapter 23 says:

“I am Truth and Light. Your salvation is found in Me. Look to Me, and I will guide you within the world, but I will guide you within it in order to lead you from it.”

NTI Luke teaches that the thinking we identify with as “my thinking” is ego, or thinking that comes from a false self. Holy Spirit guides us from identification with the false self to realization of true Self. Since it is our individual thinking that taught us we are the false self, we cannot trust that thinking to show us truth. We realize Self by surrendering individual thinking and listening to Holy Spirit, which is the inner-Voice of our desire to remember Self.

In order to remember Self fully, we must surrender self completely. That means that we cannot use individual thinking to guide us. NTI Acts, Chapter 16 says:

“If you leave all things to Me, I will guide you in all things. You will not need to give thought or care to anything you are to do or not do. I will lead you to know what to do and what not to do. All that you are left to do is to willingly do as I ask and enjoy the freedom that is expressed through you.”

I used to think that there were some things Holy Spirit would guide me through and some things that I had to handle or decide on my own. I thought some things were outside of His Interest. I was wrong. Thinking that anything is outside Holy Spirit’s Interest is belief in separation. I came to realize:

Either everything is one, and therefore all is part of the same Interest, or Something is outside that Interest, which means there is something other than one.

When I started trusting Holy Spirit to prompt me about what to eat, when to clean house, when to mow the lawn, etc, I started to feel clear prompts about all of those things. My life began to feel like a flow… a perfect flow from one thing to another.

I don’t know how specific tasks fit with everything for the good of all. But Holy Spirit does know, and when I surrender to Him for everything, I am guided in all things.

I surrender to Holy Spirit by staying in this moment without planning the next moment. For example, I am not planning what I will do next after I finish writing this article. Right now I am fully focused on this article as if it is the only thing I will ever have to do. When I finish this article, I will ask “What am I to do now?” and then I will know what is to be done next. By staying in the moment and focusing fully on this moment without planning the next moment, I am guided from one thing to the next.

I am guided in what to do. I am also guided in what not to do. I don’t always say “yes.” I am also guided to say “no,” and I trust my guidance to say “no” as much as I trust my guidance to say “yes.

NTI teaches us how to ask for, recognize and follow guidance within the world. There are about 50 places within NTI where Holy Spirit teaches us how to follow guidance. NTI isn’t the only spiritual guide that teaches us to follow guidance. As a student finishes the ACIM Workbook for Students, they are told:

“This course is a beginning, not an end. Your Friend goes with you. You are not alone.
“...follow Him Whom you accepted as your Voice, to speak of what you really want and really need…

“He will direct your efforts, telling you exactly what to do, how to direct your mind, and when to come to Him in silence, asking for His sure direction and His certain Word…

“We will be told exactly what God wills for us each time there is a choice to make…And so we walk with Him from this time on and turn to Him for guidance and for peace and right direction.

“In confidence we wait His answers, as we ask His will in everything we do…His love surrounds you, and of this be sure: that I will never leave you comfortless.” (Epilogue to ACIM Workbook for Students)

I’d like to share a story about some guidance I received a few days ago.

I live in North Carolina. I moved here from Massachusetts because I was specifically guided to move here. I’ve lived here 2 ½ years. A friend is staying with me right now, and every day she and I take my neighbor’s baby for a walk around the neighborhood. Usually we walk around the neighborhood three times. But last Friday, things unfolded a little differently.

After our usual three times around the neighborhood, I felt to go around the neighborhood a fourth time. My friend didn’t. She felt to go in the house. Since she is in transition right now, I assumed (ha ha) that maybe my feeling to continue was so she could have quiet time in the house alone. We joyously parted ways, and I pushed the baby’s stroller around the neighborhood a fourth time.

Shortly after beginning the fourth trip around the neighborhood, the baby fell asleep. About halfway around the neighborhood, I felt a strong prompt to stop and sit in the grass next to a small patch of tall trees. After a few minutes, I felt a prompt to lie down in the grass. I fell asleep for no more than a minute or two, but in that short nap a dream came. In the dream, a cowboy in a long winter coat told me, “Go to Pueblo.”

I awoke from the dream immediately with “Go to Pueblo” echoing in my ears. It meant nothing to me. “Pueblo?” I asked. And then I heard, “Pueblo, Colorado.”

I knew instantly that I was being guided to move from this place where Holy Spirit had asked me to come. I am being moved to a new place now.

What are my next steps? In each moment I am to ask, “What am I to do now?” Now, I am writing this article. However eventually when I ask about what to do now, guidance will come prompting me toward the move. Maybe I will feel a prompt to call a specific realtor, for example, and put this house up for sale. The last time we moved a realtor called me, and that is how I knew it was time.

Here’s what I know. I don’t have to make any decisions. I do have to do things, but everything that I do is done in the moment when the prompt comes to do it. And when the prompt comes to do it, the doing will be easy. It will be a flow doing through me.

I am very excited to follow guidance. I am excited to follow guidance because I know following guidance is my path of remembrance. I am not awakened through study of ACIM or NTI. Those tools are helpful, but I am awakened by following the inner Guide, and by trusting that Voice above the voice I mistakenly thought was me.

Here’s another excerpt from NTI about guidance. It’s a great way to close this article. This is from NTI Acts, Chapter 10:

“The guidance that God sends comes to you with one purpose. The purpose of this guidance is to lead you from the world of illusion back to God, where you belong. This is the only purpose of any guidance you seem to receive. Guidance from God can have no other purpose.

“Within the world of illusion, you have made yourself into what you believe you are. This self is wholly illusion. It is not what you are. And yet, it is what you believe yourself to be.

“Since God granted you freedom in the creation of your Self, you are free to believe that you are what you are not. But once you have recognized the desire to be again that which you are, you must be led from who you think you are to your truth. This guidance will come to you as what is always helpful for you based on where you stand, but this guidance may not always be what you expect it to be. For if God was to fulfill your expectations, which are based on who you think you are, He would be teaching you that you are what you are not. This is not a lesson that God will teach.

“He will reach out to you through His Holy Spirit, which is His appointed Messenger sent to you within your dreams. This Messenger, knowing who you think you are, will meet you there in your dreams and talk to you as if you are the one you think you are. But this one comes to you for only one purpose and with only one goal. His purpose is to awaken you by leading you from where you think you are to the remembrance of what you must be.

This is a holy purpose, and He comes to you in gratitude, grateful to meet you in your dreams and grateful to bring you Home. For there is nothing the Holy Spirit is not grateful for. He is grateful for all things, because He sees truly.”

© 2008, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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