The dilemma of knowing what to do

[AlFike]

In a recent email conversation with a fellow Divine Love follower, I wrote something which I think is a pertinent comment for most of us who are seeking the next steps in our lives and spiritual journeys. Do we have a destiny and a prescribed path to follow? Is God's Will fixed and available to our soul consciousness to discern? How do we get from A to B without messing up the plan? Pretty deep questions which are not easily answered but worth talking about. Being a little lazy, I've excerpted some of my letter. Here it is;


[ "Timing is everything M............ You are a willing and eager soul who wants to get on with it. I’ve carried that feeling for 40 years and am now just seeing my way to this becoming a reality. It seems that we have to comply with God’s Will in these matters, not our own. Then there is the issue of second guessing ourselves and discerning what is our thinking and what is Divine Guidance. It takes a few trial runs at this to get good at it. I don’t know how many times I’ve misinterpreted some bit of guidance so badly that I land up at a dead end or with some unforeseen consequence. My conservative first response to you is an attempt to help you not to make these same mistakes. Although practice makes perfect and all is grist for the mill as we learn to see clearly and trust our soul perceptions. Everyone has to go down this road, find their way beyond their ego driven desires and emotional needs to a place of clarity and harmony. Soul cleansing and growth comes in many forms and in exercising our free will and moving forward as best we can, we get there eventually. To be truly detached and live in faith is the goal but few succeed completely. On top of it all is the understanding that there are no wrong choices, just some which will get us to our goal faster than others. In this light, the angels will not interfere with our free will. They will give us hints and guidelines to follow but rarely detailed directives. Every choice and act has the potential to grow our soul. The prize is determined by what door you pick. That choice hopefully is one informed by your soul perceptions. Life then becomes a cascading flow of options, guidance and learning opportunities with no preordained path but many fluid choices. Scary, I know, because we then cannot have someone else choose for us but through our own choices we grow our souls as the Divine Love permeates our consciousness and life takes its twists and turns. This is God’s perfect creation and plan for each soul willing to climb on board and drive their own bus. God’s Will be done, absolutely, but first we must discover the power of our own will, let go of our attachment to it and then adopt a whole new perspective which comes from the transformative power of the Divine Love. Without soul growth through the Love and our own learned lessons, the goal of following Divine Will will not be obtained. You cannot put the cart before the horse and expect that with Divine Love, all knowing and wisdom will manifest without it being forged with the fires of our own life experiences . Trial by trial, choice by choice we make our way up that mountain to greater vision and understanding. Its work and often tedious but necessary for growth."



I believe that in time, life becomes a co-creative effort between our soul and God's soul. He taking the lead and we following up with action. Action discerned through soul perception and wisdom working together to perfect God's universe. Of course, we are all a long way off from that goal but have taken the first few steps. Walking that delicate path between being influenced by the human condition both internal and external or seeking with humility, discernment and trust the righteous path which is in harmony with God's Will and Laws is enough to make one's head spin. It is the angelic perspective. Our head should stay out of much of this as it is contaminated with so much error from our past. This indoctrination does not speed our soul growth much. It is that slow infusion of the Love which will expand our awareness enough to make those right choices. To be able to hear, see and discern the right choice or Divine Will is far easier when the soul awareness can be accessed. The mind invariably plays a part but the root of action needs to originate with the soul. These tensions between mind and soul, mind and awareness of God's Will and mind and our sure knowledge of truth is what causes me so much consternation. I am struggling to get to that clear meadow of grace each day. I get glimpses but rarely stay for longer than a short while. At least I know it exists and have tasted its peace and beauty. So few have in this world . Our job in many ways is to help facilitate for others a journey to this light filled place. At least to be a witness to them in order to prove its existence.

I think that I have gone on enough here. Lots of heady conjecture but I believe good fuel for the fires of our own explorations. Please feel free to comment and add to this. I'm sure there is a lot more to say about it. Much love......Al

[DennisT]

"Knowing what to do" is a natural dilemma for all, for who truly "knows" exactly what to do. You said beautifully how our lives are co-created with God leading the way, and we take free will action. It's those choices in action that gets me every time

I think I read somewhere that some people get so hung up on making a decision that they do nothing at all, then they accept that whatever happened must have been the will of God.

I know I generally state that I'm not mediumistic, but sometimes I "know" by a "gut instinct", which I now believe is more likely the guidance you mentioned. Is this gut instinct the soul discernment that you speak of? I don't know, but since I've been on this path it appears that many times that I needed to "know" what to do, I've found it easier to simply ask myself, "Self, what would be more harmonious with God's laws?" More times than not, I get a gut feeling what the answer should be.

Sure, there are other things I would LOVE to be doing right now in an effort to spread the word about this tremendous gift of His Essence! However, I have a gut feeling that I need to finish some things first before taking the next step. Is this soul perception or just common sense? I really don't know, but I thank you, Al, for brining this topic to the forum so we can discuss it, each learning from the other in an effort to figure out our place on this Path Divine!

Love and hugs,
Dennis

[Connie]

Dear friends,
To know what to do, is to trust your gut feeling, your intuition. That is God speaking to us through our soul. To get to know God and to be able to listen, you must trust your feelings, this is the way God connects to us, the way our Soul is connected to Gods great soul. Often we do not listen, and do what our mind tells us to do, which seems right in the eye of societys norms. But we have moved so far from love and Gods truth that you cannot act what is right in society and live Gods laws at the same time. You must be willing to do whatever it takes, whatever your feelings and emotions soeaks to you to get back into Gods loving arms. Are you willing to do that?

We are living in a sick society and I feel that one of our main problems is, that we as humans are so disconnected to our feelings and emotions that we cannot feel ourselves and therefore we cannot feel God. And even if we feel ourselves, we often choose to disregard those feelings, out of fear of the consequences it would have in our lives. We choose to stay in unhappy relationships, jobs, homes etc. even if we know we are unhappy. We dare not take the consequences of our own inner knowing which is actually God speaking to us. It is truly a blessing that God is patient and ever loving and never gives up on us. God just keeps on loving us, speaking to us, sometimes in words but always through our feelings.

My best advice to someone who asks what to do in any given situation is, how do you feel about it and the answer to that question is THE answer.

Love always, always love
Connie

[Terry Adler]

Dear Connie,

I have to confess I haven't had time to read carefully through Al's comments that began this thread and probably won't for another couple of days. But I did want to respond to your post, which I see as being in alignment with what Dennis says about asking himself "what would be harmonious with God's Laws" and going with his gut instinct.

When you say that you listen to God speaking within you, guiding you through feelings, I think this is what Dennis does too. It is certainly what I do. I am wary of talking about listening to my feelings though, because often my feelings are linked closely to my thoughts, especially negative ones.

I guess I acknowledge two different types of feelings; one being those generated by my mind and its thoughts, the other type being the innermost "feelings" generated by my soul, or that still place within where the Love resides. That type is more a state of "knowing" than an emotional/feeling state, and it is a soul-knowing rather than a mind-knowing.

I really appreciate what you say about society being sick and our needing to look within instead of looking outward to society's norms for guidance.

And of course, it is receiving God's Love that grows our capacity for inner knowing. The more our soul is connected to God's Great Soul through Love (as you so beautifully put it), the more certain is our inner guidance, the clearer is the voice of our soul.

You speak truth, dear Connie!
Thanks for being here!
Love,
Terry

[AlFike]

Guts are good. They do not lie. Thanks Connie and Dennis for reminding us of this fact. As Terry says however, we can't always rely on just feeling. Actions require a co-operation between the mind, soul and emotions and are molded by this interplay. My gut often tells me what I shouldn't be doing and when I am doing the right thing it is my barometer and confirmation device but it rarely motivates me to do something. It's more my canary in the coal mine although I hope that my soul doesn't resemble a coal mine .Having all those parts of us working in harmony, being in touch with those important feelings and going to God on a regular basis will steer the boat. Emphasizing one over the other, and ignoring a crucial part of us is deadly. Loving our whole selves with God's Love reflecting into everything can bring the results required when we are asking what is next. Knowing that God will reach us in more than one way is a comfort. How we interpret these communications remain a challenge and a learning curve. Surely it must come from our souls first then hopefully processed and solidified by our minds in a way that does not distort the guidance too much and then confirmed by our gut. May God's Love reflect on everything as we go through this process. Much love......Al

[TimJ]

Hi All!

An Image came to mind as I read through your posts and I thought I’d share it:

Imagine an ocean deep, there’s water in every direction and your objective is to swim to the nearest shore. You can’t see it from where you are, but the body of water is perfectly round. The surface seems to be the fastest method of travel, so you try to stay afloat, but without testing the depths, you’re not sure that you’re getting any closer to land. It’s so deep where you are that the sun and wind are your only references. You resolve to choose a direction, put the wind at your back and stick with it.

As you travel, you get so tired that you yield to your own weight and it causes you to sink. Your fear of drowning overcomes you and panic ensues. For a moment, you’re mad at yourself that you don’t have enough strength to make it all of the way. Cursing everyone and everything outside yourself for the situation you’re in, you cast blame elsewhere because you were given an impossible task.

Then a strange thing happens: on your way to the bottom, you discover that you’re still breathing under the water, despite what you’ve been told. Now that you realize that you cannot fail, your fear melts away. After a short rest, you resolve to continue swimming and soon you’re on the surface again. Eventually, it becomes clear that the water is no longer as deep as it was when you started and so, you continue the planned course. Night falls, but now you have both the stars and a moon to follow. The sun rises again and progressing confidently, you discover land, although distant, is now on the horizon and there’s no longer a need to focus on anything else for direction.

What I think is being said here is that for most of us, there is no clear path at first and all we can do is choose with our best available references. These references change over time, experience and relative distance from where we start. Applying wisdom helps, but eventually love comes into view and when you use that as a guide in your decision-making process, it becomes difficult to move in a wrong direction.

I can certainly understand the desire to change our place (perspective) sooner than later. We, as individuals, are the agents of change and we set our own pace. It may seem obvious to say that change doesn’t happen until we so desire (will) it and then make the choice to act upon that desire; however, before we can desire something, we first need to be aware that a different state exists and seeing the difference isn’t always possible.

Love and I hope you’re having a great day, wherever you are!
Tim

[Joseph]

Dear Tim,

Thank you for sharing the profound image. You pictured it well! You're a good writer!

It reminded me of a time that I experienced a dilemma to such a degree that I had no other way except to use an image similar to the one you described. This happened to me back in 2006 when I first came across the message of Divine Love through reading the Padgett Messages on Geoff Cutler's website. It caused such an upheaval in my life that I thought I was dying. It is difficult to explain even now, 8 years later.

What I did was that I wrote about my experiences. I wrote daily in a journal. Later, in 2010, I used what I wrote in my journal in 2006, as an introduction to a book. The book was titled "The CHOICE." Perhaps you have read it. Here is a quote from the journal, which is found on pages 13-14 in my book:

Day One
Notes from my Journal – June 28, 2006

I have journeyed across a large and vast land and have arrived at the shore of the ocean.
Have the voices of my own imagination brought me here? Or have guides and angels led me to this place?
I am standing at the edge of the ocean and to me it feels like a great abyss.
Am I being led to walk forward into the water?
I am entertaining the possibility that my spiritual journey has led me to this location in order to paint a picture of a massive transformation taking shape within me.
Am I being asked to merely turn around and return the way I came? Is this experience teaching me that there is nowhere to go but back to my old life?
But a different view emerges within me.
Am I being asked to let loose of everything I have ever known and be willing to venture forward into something completely new?
If this is true … am I being asked to die?
Something within urges me to move forward.
Instead, I hesitate; and stand immobilized at the edge of the abyss.

The notes continue, and the allegory unfolds ... I go forward into the ocean and days go by and lessons are learned ... in "The CHOICE." Yes, I was in a tremendous dilemma, what I call doubt. I made the choice and here I am 8 years later, a rather happy fellow with many experiences of the inflowing of Divine Love.

With love and hugs to all,

Joseph

[TimJ]

Hi Joseph,

Thanks for commenting. I haven’t read “The Choice” yet, but I’ve been all over your blog (although I haven’t taken the time to comment, I’m sure I eventually will) and I’m sure I’ve read excerpts. I did get a hard-copy of “life in the world unseen” through your efforts, so I’ll take the opportunity to relay a side-note of thanks for that too. It’s nice to be able to share a physical book when it comes time to do so.

I can fully relate to the feeling of upheaval after encountering Divine Love as I went through a similar experience. The internal conflict lasted quite a while. I recall an episode in my car during a commute, usually a personal time, where I was at a crossroads, broken down, very upset and asking for some direction. Sometimes I get cues, but I don’t recall anything but the sound of the car. It was the classic silent treatment, where it’s painfully clear that it’s time for me to take responsibility for my own choices. Well, I guess I had heard prior that you’ve got to tear the old house down to the ground before you can build a new one, but I didn’t imagine the extent of the mess it created. There was lots of clean-up and I’m sure there's still stuff that hasn’t been squared away.

We hear that it’s much more difficult for someone in Spirit to change their perspective. With just a taste of that kind of change here, I’ve gained a new respect for anyone going through that without the firewall of a physical body.

Anyway, the original image of the swimmer I saw was two dimensional, a cross-section of a body of water, the bottom ascending toward shore, almost pixilated like a video game (which I play often) with the swimmer drawing a zig-zag path (undulating surface to bottom) toward shore. It was bizarre enough that it caused me to stop and think about it. From there, I started writing about it, and I’ll admit that I felt funny about sharing it. But, after holding on to what I had written for a day, thinking on it some more, I decided to let it go and I’m now glad I did.

I was just trying to apply some perspective (opinion) on the original problem of how to face dilemma, but this caused me to think about several things: first, the fact that we cannot fail, even when most of us don’t realize this because we, as a people, are cultured to fear failure. We’re all in God’s hands, no matter how much we’d like to believe otherwise.

It also evoked a phrase that rolls around in my head from time to time: Focus on (Trust in) God and everything else will fall into place. I don’t know exactly when it started appearing there, but I like it. It’s something I aspire to, but it’s also a reminder to start your problem solving with one of the best tools you have: prayer.

Regardless of your personal approach to problem solving, I don’t think anyone can truly begin until the problem is clearly defined. This is “The problem with problems” . Without a clear target, we may create a misguided solution or perhaps multiply the original task.

All for now, and have a great day all!

Love,
Tim

[Marga M.]

Dear Al, Dennis, Joseph, Connie, Tim J, & Terry,

Thank you, Al for sharing what you've written to another. I love what you have opened up here, and you are so honest about the way you've arrived at this perception of not always knowing what to do, etc. Great responses too from all those that have contributed here. I too would like to jump in, but like Terry, I don't have the time to dive into this from a proper soulful perspective which I believe that it deserves due to other pressing matters that I've put off too long, and now have to take care of. Please know that I plan to come back and give it a go. Also, know that I love you all and that I'm still so happy and encouraged from the 100th Anniversary celebration.

IMHO: This is some very deep and important points that all of you have brought into the light here.

Much love and respect,

Marga

BTW: Dennis, thank you very much for helping me with editing and getting my picture on the forum.

[AlFike]

Great commentary here Jim and Joseph. If there is one thing that we can count on , it is having to make tough choices in our lives. I like how you both visualized this from your own perspectives and I think that your souls gave you these visions and allegories. I think that is how the soul bypasses the mind filters which insist on logic and one dimensional thinking. As we trust in the process and the new perspective, our faith grows as does our confidence that what emerges in this way has validity.

At times I receive lots of visuals, vivid dreams and commentary while either meditating or in a semisleep state. Half the time I cannot make sense of it while at other times it seems pretty clear and directive. I don't think that the fuzzy stuff is invalid or not useful but it takes more discernment to recognize the guidance. I've always been a visual person, intuitive and emotionally sensitive. I think that these aspects make it easier to accept what comes. Those who rely on their brains to discern their way through life and remain emotionally distant will have a tougher time to accept or be receptive to guidance of this type. Unfortunately most men of my generation lean more towards the former rather than the latter which may be considered the more feminine approach. We have both of these characteristics within us and the challenge is to balance out the different approaches. As our souls grow in the Love, I think that this happens naturally and we are more comfortable with whatever aspects come into play. I find that with age, I am more accepting of myself and have come to realize that there is no ideal to live up to , just manifesting all that you are in the light of God's Love. So much of my inner conflicts have been around feeling inadequate because I am not the man which our cultural expectations dictate as the ideal. The macho man eludes me and the sensitive guy comes forward in most cases. The macho is in there, it peeks out every once in awhile but I am more comfortable with the other. It is more my personality or at least what I have learned by experience that it works for me. I am beginning to see now how fortunate I am to be made up in this way as this has been a boon to my spiritual endeavors. It is one less obstacle in the way of listening to my soul and the listening is clearer because of that receptive, open stance which comes from allowing the intuitive and the emotional side to be honored. We are all different and unique but we also have the same emotional, intuitive and mental components all be it in different measure. How that is expressed should be honored for each individual. Some will see the truth from one perspective while another will see it slightly differently. God's garden is full of many different expressions of beauty. All valid and loved equally in His eyes. How blessed we are to have that special nourishment which is God's Love. I think that it makes us bloom .

God bless for now.......Al