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Oasis Rising Center 8125 West Sahara Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89125

Enjoy another wonderful text by Rev. Phil Smedsted, minister Emeritus of Oasis Rising Center

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Phil Smedstad's texts are one of the ways Oasis Rising Center supports members.

A Positive Path for Spiritual Living

Oasis Rising Center Spiritual Center
Oasis Rising Center 8125 West Sahara Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89125
(702) 804-8189
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“You CAN Hear Your Guidance” 

By Rev. Phillip Smedstad
           
Here at Unity, our mission is to transform lives.  What we mean by that is to have a different experience of ourselves.  We all grew up believing “I’m only human.”  Now, through Unity, we discover that isn’t true at all!  We’re actually divine beings having a human experience.

To know our divinity is to experience our oneness with what I like to call “God’s four main aspects” – love, power, wisdom/intelligence, and aliveness.  This past Sunday, I focused on the aspect of our divine nature called “divine wisdom.”  This means that we are always being guided.

Jesus’ primary message was one of personal transformation.  Sometimes he referred to transformation as “being born again.”  This is especially true of the account found in John 3:1-8, which is his conversation with Nicodemus.  You may want to read this account at this point.  It’s so easy to find by “Googling” John 3.

One important piece of this story is to know that when Jesus spoke of the wind, he wouldn’t have said, “No one knows where it comes from or where it goes.”  They could feel the wind, just as we can today.  What he would have said is, “No one knows how it starts or why it stops.  So it is with a everyone born of Spirit.”

On Sunday, I asked people to stand for a moment and visualize themselves as tall prairie grass.  The wind was gently blowing, and they swayed as they could feel the breeze moving them.

According to Jesus, this is the major way to tell whether or not our lives have been transformed (whether or not we are born again).  Do we let Spirit guide us?  Or do we think our intellect is in charge of our life?  Do we practice having a Source beyond our conscious mind?

A Course In Miracles  tells us, “A healed mind does not plan.  It carries out the plans that it receives through listening to wisdom that is not its own.  It waits until it has been taught what should be done, and then proceeds to do it.”  (W. 135.11.1-3)

The way I used to make decisions was to do my best to “figure it out” and to “weigh the pros and cons.”  I tried to think my way through life.  (I call this “the illusion of being in control.”)
It wasn’t until I learned that I have an inner Source, and that I can learn how to ask that Source for guidance, that life began to be much easier and lots more fun.  In fact, Spirit is constantly speaking to each of us, so why is it that so many of us believe that we can’t hear our guidance?

By far, the biggest barrier to hearing our guidance is “not asking.”  A Course In Miracles says it isn’t that we can’t hear our guidance.  It’s just that our ego minds are insulted that we should have to ask in the first place.

The second barrier to hearing our guidance is being unwilling to hear a certain answer.  This is an aspect of a larger barrier called “the fear of God and God’s will.”  I couldn’t say too often that God, or Spirit, doesn’t want anything from us.  Spirit only wants things for us.  God never asks for sacrifice.

The third barrier I shared on Sunday is “mind chatter.”  I asked them to all speak at once, and that I would play the role of their “still, small voice.”  While they talked to their neighbors, I said things like, “You are completely loveable, innocent, powerful, and wise.  You are a whole and complete expression of all that God is.”  Of course, they couldn’t hear me say those things until they got quiet.

I then shared with everyone that meditation is a major how-to in hearing our guidance.  It helps us slow down our thoughts enough that we can hear Spirit speak.

The other day, someone came into my office and said, “I have a big decision to make.  How can I know whether to say yes or no to this possibility?.  In answer to this, I shared three ways I have used to hear my own guidance.

1.  The first how-to is to use our body as a tuning fork.  The way we do that is to say both (or all) the possibilities out loud, and then ask ourselves, “How does each of these feel in my body?”

As a small example of this idea, I asked them to say out loud (after making sure there was no one present named Harold), “My name is Harold.”  Then I asked them to say their own first name aloud.  They could feel a difference in their bodies.  When they said their own name, it resonated.

2.  The second how to is to write a letter to and from God.  In the letter to God, we begin, “Dear God/Spirit/Source,” and then simply pour out our heart about this issue – our thoughts, feelings, concerns, and so on.  Then we sign the letter something like, “Your loving son/daughter (our name).”

Then, we go to the place in us where we can channel Spirit (we all have such a place), and begin a new page, “Dear (our name).”  Then we simply begin to write what we hear or sense Spirit saying.  At the end, we close it with, “Your loving Source, God (or whatever our word is for the Divine).”

I’ve led dozens of workshops where people have done this, and I’ve listened to lots of  such letters from God.  I have never heard one which doesn’t sound like God speaking.

3.  The third method is to “try on” both or all the alternatives.  For example, if it looks like one possibility is to go one way, and the other to go another way (or to do nothing), what we’d do is to give ourselves a day, three days, or a week (depending on how much time we have to make a decision) and “try on” that we are going one way.  Then we ask ourselves what thoughts and feelings we have, and what reflections we are receiving from others and life (even though we don’t actually tell people what we are doing).

Then, we do the exact same thing with the other possibility.  The important thing is that for each length of time, we inwardly get off the fence.  This is often a great way to get clear on our guidance for a major decision.

The late Eric Butterworth, one of our beloved Unity ministers, once did a lesson called “How to Never Make a Decision.”  This is the way we all deserve to live.  “A healed mind does not plan.  It carries out the plans that it receives through listening to wisdom that is not its own.”

Let this week be all about the practice of asking for and listening to your guidance.