Unity Metaphysics 2 (Tan Book)
03 Recognizing Guidance
3A TWO WAYS:
"There are two ways to get understanding. One is to follow the guidance of the Spirit that dwells within, and the other is go blindly ahead and learn by hard experience. These two ways are open to everyone" (Keep a True Lent 45).
"It is easier to seek the Truth willingly and be watchful and obedient than it is to be forced by some severe experience. Hard experiences are not necessary if we are obedient to the Truth that saves us from them. Time should be given to prayer and meditation daily. We cannot grow without them, and no man who neglects them will successfully develop his spiritual powers" (Jesus Christ Heals 125).
One of the most helpful realizations in making the effort to receive and recognize divine guidance is to remember that God always provides opportunities for choice and gives us freedom of choice. We are always given opportunities to choose to commit our lives to Spirit or not to. We are always free in these opportunities for choice. But the moment a person freely chooses to commit himself and his life to spiritual truth, a wonderful thing happens to that person. He and his experience come directly under two great spiritual laws:
- the Law of divine guidance
- the Law of divine protection
The person will somehow be made aware of this. But he retains his freedom of choice. If he chooses protection, the Law will always provide it. If he chooses divine guidance, the Law will always provide it.
3B LEARNING BY EXPERIENCE:
"To trust Spirit we must know if its guidance by experience. By those who have not learned the guidance of Spirit, that experience must be acquired. Man is spirit and must find himself before he can communicate with universal Spirit" (Atom-Smashing Power of Mind 28).
"Practice the presence of God until you open your consciousness to the inflow of the omnipresent, all-knowing mind, then affirm your unity with that mind until you know and fully realize, through the many avenues of wisdom, just what you should do. This acquirement of a knowledge of the divine will is not the work of an instant; it results from patient and persistent spiritual study, prayer, and meditation" (The Twelve Powers of Man 107).
Divine guidance does not eliminate the necessity for experience, but it does free a person from total dependency on the acquiring of experience in order to know what to do and how to do it. Experience and direct guidance should be combined in a person's life, but many people experience unnecessary difficulties simply because they have not yet opened themselves to the higher dimensions of Being which bestow direct divine guidance.
3C DIVINE LAW:
"Divine law is the universal something in us of which we all are conscious, and which tells us when we are doing right and when we are doing wrong. It may be defined as the innate knowing of right and wrong, and this knowing may be quickened. The quickening does not come by the study of material things, but by concentrating the mind on the Christ. Man does not make the law; the law is, and it was established for our benefit before the world was formed" (Keep a True Lent 158).
"We must look within for the law and not without. The laws we find in the outer are the secondary laws" (Charles Fillmore Prosperity 73).
What Mr. Fillmore so accurately describes in this paragraph on divine law what is called in some systems of metaphysics "REAL CONSCIENCE." There is Real conscience (divine law) and acquired conscience (human opinion and custom). There are times when we are very much in tune with Real conscience. Other times it lies buried under all sorts of illusions, excuses, and justifications. Part of the work of Truth study is to keep divine law (Real conscience) on the level of conscious awareness at all times.
3D NATURE OF GUIDANCE:
"When we discover in ourselves a flow of thought that seems to have been evolved independently of the reasoning process, we are often puzzled about its origin and its safety as a guide. In its beginnings this seemingly strange source of knowledge is often turned aside as a daydream; again it seems a distant voice, an echo of something that we have heard and forgotten. One should give attention to this unusual and usually faint whispering of Spirit in man. It is not of the intellect and it does not originate in the skull. It is the development, in man, of a greater capacity to know himself and to understand the purpose of creation" (The Twelve Powers of Man 90).
Mr. Fillmore plainly connects divine guidance very closely with the voice of intuition. Divine guidance and intuition are so interwoven that they can be spoken of as almost the same things. The main thing that interferes with recognizing divine guidance is the failure to listen to the voice of intuition, and this failure is most often caused by our own inner mechanical talking. The voice of the mechanical "self" drowns out the soft and gentle voice of intuition. Practice of inner stillness and silence are essential in developing the skill of recognizing divine guidance. Also, Mr. Fillmore mentions that "it does not originate in the skull." We do become aware of it in the skull (brain) but it does not originate there. It originates in a dimension of our own being which is on the invisible side of our nature (Spirit).
3E LANGUAGE OF GUIDANCE:
"If you ask me about the language I use in communicating with God, I am not able to tell you; because you are talking from the standpoint of using words to convey ideas, while in the language of God ideas in their original purity are the vehicles of communication." (Jesus Christ Heals 32).
"Compared with audible language, communion in mind can be said to be without sound. It is the 'still small voice,' the voice that is not a voice, the voice using words that are not words. Yet its language is more definite and certain than that of words and sounds, because it has none of their limitations." (Jesus Christ Heals 33).
If the language of Spirit is not sound, what is it? We have no word for it. "Silence and stillness" are as near as we can come. But we do have words for the language of Spirit when it enters the human consciousness. Here it becomes pure knowing and pure feeling. On this level one does not need audible definitions or explanations. One knows and one feels. The faculty which can translate pure knowing and pure feeling into word language for the intellect is intuition. Intuition translates the language of Spirit into the language of humans.
3F UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE OF SYMBOLISM:
"Spirit imparts its ideas through a universal language. Instead of being explained by words and phrases as used in ordinary language, the idea is formed and projected in its original character. This system of transferring intelligence is called symbolism. It is the only universal and correct means of communicating ideas" (The Twelve Powers of Man 77).
A person who does not have an intuitive recognition of the meaning of symbols probably will never feel comfortable with metaphysical Bible interpretation. He will constantly worry about their "correctness," and whether or not metaphysical Bible interpretation is simply "making up things that the writers did not intend." But once the significance of symbols is grasped and appreciated, it becomes clear that it does not matter whether or not "the writer meant it to be interpreted that way." What matters is the validity of the interpretation itself. Does it stand on its own merits or not? The same holds doubly true for metaphysical interpretation of life itself.
3G EMOTIONS AND FEELINGS:
"Words and sounds are attempts to convey a description of emotions and feelings, while by the language of mind, emotions and feeling are conveyed direct. But again you must transcend what you understand as emotion and feeling in order to interpret the language of God. This is not hard. It is your natural language, and you need only return to your pristine state of purity to achieve it entirely." (Jesus Christ Heals 33).
The saying "follow your heart" states much of what Mr. Fillmore is saying in this paragraph. The heart is the symbol of love, and love is the purest of feelings and human emotions. When the attention is given to the heart center, there is a recognition of true feelings. This greatly helps the intuition in its work of translating pure feeling and knowing into recognizable guidance.
3H DISCRIMINATION:
"We are told that we must take heed what we hear. Many of us have found that as we develop this inner, spiritual hearing, we hear voices sometimes that do not tell the truth. These deceptive voices can be hushed by affirming the presence and power of Lord Jesus Christ. As you unfold your spiritual nature, you will find that it has the same capacity for receiving vibrations of sound as your outer, physical ear has. You do not give attention to all that you hear in the external; you discriminate as you listen. So in the development of this inner, spiritual ear take heed what you hear: discriminate" (Atom-Smashing Power of Mind 57).
In this paragraph, Charles Fillmore writes about using discrimination in our "inner hearing," but he does not tell us where these "inner voices" are coming from. Is it simply mental suggestions contained within race consciousness? Are there certain entities in the astral realm who speak to us? Or is it from our own deeper level of subconsciousness, our own soul memories? In any case, the point is that in the inner world, as in the outer world, there are both illusion and deception.
3I KNOWING AND DOING:
"You may know by simply holding the thought that you know. This is not egotism, but spiritual knowing. When you declare divine understanding, you sometimes meet your old line of thought and are disappointed. Right then continue to hold to your declaration for KNOWING. Judge not by appearances. Do not act until you get the assurance; if you will keep close to Spirit by affirmation, the assurance will come. Will it come by voice? No! You will know through the faculty of intuition. Divine knowing is direct fusion of mind of God with mind of man" (Charles Fillmore Christian Healing 114).
"If you get a good strong perception of something that your inner mind tells you is true, act upon it, and you will find that it will come true" (Jesus Christ Heals 102).
We should always remember that KNOWING is a divine idea. It is synonymous with UNDERSTANDING, and is one of our twelve powers. When any divine idea is affirmed sufficiently it becomes our experience. We can experience greater KNOWING simply by believing it and affirming it.
Transcribed by Rev. Sherri James on March 11, 2016.
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