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April-June, 2020

How Do We Find God’s Voice?

by Revs. Mary & Robert Stoelting

To find God’s Voice, we need to spend time in quiet listening to our true Spiritual Source. We need to give our attention to God. In the Course we are given a helpful way to do this so that it becomes a part of our important daily practice:

“Three times today, at times most suitable for silence, give ten minutes set apart from listening to the world, and choose instead a gentle listening to the Word of God. He speaks from nearer than your heart to you. His Voice is closer than your hand. His Love is everything you are and that He is; the same as you, and you the same as He.

It is your [true] voice to which you listen as He speaks to you. It is your word He speaks. It is the Word of freedom and of peace, of unity of will and purpose, with no separation nor division in the single Mind of Father and of Son. In quiet listen to your Self today, and let Him tell you God has never left His Son, and you have never left your Self.” (W-pI.125.7-8)

What our body’s eyes and ears see and hear are merely illusions that interfere with what our true Self is communicating in every instant. Your eternal Self remains united with God, eternally extending Love.

This practice will help free us from the ego’s interference, which would keep us believing we are limited and alone. It will help us break free from believing we are a body so we can experience the fact that we are Love as Love created us — and nothing else. As we daily, hourly reinforce the truth of our eternal Identity in God, the false ego (separate self) thought system we have bought into gradually fades away.

God sees His Son as innocent because He sees his Son as one with Himself. Whenever we perceive guilt in another or our self, we are perceiving wrongly. We are believing we are a false image of what God created us to be. This does not affect God’s knowing of His Son as guiltless. But it does make us unaware of our eternal unity with our Creator.

The choice to accept the ego belief in separation is the crucifixion of God’s Son by denying our true Life in God. The Holy Spirit teaches us to choose the oneness of Love, to choose the Life we live in God. This is the choice for happiness because joy is an attribute of Love. Today we practice letting Love be our Guide in all that we do, say and think because we want to be happy.

One helpful way to apply this during the day is to practice noticing when you do not feel at peace. The Course helps us with this by encouraging us to:

“Permit no idle thought [of separation] to go unchallenged. If you notice one, deny its hold and hasten to assure your mind that this is not what it would have. Then gently let the thought which you denied be given up, in sure and quick exchange for the idea we practice for the day.

“…let Him teach you what to do and say and think, each time you turn to Him. He will not fail to be available to you, each time you call to Him to help you.”
(W-pI.rVI.5:2-6:2;7:2-3)

We already have the peace of God. But we don’t know it because we have accepted the ego thought system of fear and guilt. We’ve taught ourselves that the ego’s lies are true. The Course offers us a loving and gentle journey to let go of the thoughts that hide God’s peace and Love from our awareness. This lesson is another step to help us train our minds to recognize the thoughts that interfere with peace and let them go.

Each time we release a fear thought by offering it to the Holy Spirit for His correction, we take another step forward in the healing of our mind. This step is taken in two parts. First we remind ourselves that we do not want the ego’s thought. Then we declare that we want the Holy Spirit’s correction instead. This practice leads us Home to the Heaven of God’s Love.

Our Gentle Path to Awakening

“…what you need are intervals each day in which the learning of the world becomes a transitory phase; a prison house from which you go into the sunlight and forget the darkness. Here you understand the Word, the Name which God has given you; the one Identity which all things share; the one acknowledgment of what is true. And then step back to darkness, not because you think it real, but only to proclaim its unreality in terms which still have meaning in the world that darkness rules.

“Use all the little names and symbols which delineate the world of darkness. Yet accept them not as your reality. The Holy Spirit uses all of them, but He does not forget creation has one Name, one meaning, and a single Source which unifies all things within Itself. Use all the names the world bestows on them but for convenience, yet do not forget [all things] share the Name of God along with you.” (W-pI.184.10-11)

The Course offers us a gentle path to awaken from the dream of separation, guilt and fear. It is designed to not trigger fears of loss and death, but to show us the peace and Love that is our natural Home beyond the dream. It teaches us how to live in the world while waking up.

In the world all things are images, each with its own name to distinguish it as separate. We use these names to communicate. At the same time we need to practice holding the awareness that words are only symbols and therefore not real. Beyond the symbols is the eternal presence of Love’s oneness.

To keep in touch with Love’s Reality, we need to take time each day to go to the center of peace within, where the Holy Spirit reminds us that we are God’s Son, united with Him eternally. Each time we touch base with God’s peace helps us loosen our investment in the world’s symbols. The dream becomes less real and our reactions to perceptions of the symbols softens. We experience consistently deeper levels of peace. Things that used to upset us no longer trigger our guilt. We see more frequently through the eyes of Love. The veil of separation gets thinner and thinner. When our forgiveness is complete, we awaken to our Home in the oneness of Love.
Another Helpful Process to Practice

We have used this process over many years to help us stay on track with Holy Spirit’s plan for our gentle awakening:

1. Have a pen and paper ready. Quiet your mind and ask Holy Spirit for three key words that will help you now in your life. Write each word down, leaving space after each word. (Don’t judge the words. Just write each one down.)

2. Then ask the Holy Spirit for a sentence that will elaborate on each of the three words you received. Write each sentence next to each of the three key words.

3. Slowly read what you received and let it soak in.

Mary: This is what I received when I did the process above:

1. Patience —  Everything you need comes in perfect timing.

2. Openness —  Practice being open to receiving Inner Inspiration.

3. Love —  Let your Inner Teacher fill your awareness with Love.

When I read this, it calmed me deeply. I realized I had been worried about having enough money to cover all our expenses for maintaining our printing equipment and the Pathways website. It reminded me to take everything to Holy Spirit, no matter what. If I worry about anything, I am thinking I am on my own again. And practicing #3 has brought me happiness at ever increasing levels.

Practicing consistently all the areas above in this article has brought us a beautiful, gentle awakening that is still in process.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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