Becoming a Friend of God







This is an excerpt from my book Healing From Within. I reprint it here because it is so clear that it might bring about an awakening of understanding in the searching reader.



Most of our problems—health, mental, spiritual, and emotional—are a result of conflict. The conflict has three aspects: conflict with self, conflict with others, and conflict with conscience.

By far the most critical conflict is our conflict with conscience. The proper resolution of this conflict will begin to resolve the other conflicts as well. So, we will look in turn at each of the types of conflict, beginning with conflict with conscience.

Conscience is another word for intuition: what we wordlessly know deep down. Intuition is how the soul knows. The soul that is close to the Inner Light of Truth is near to God. God sends His Light, and it shines within. In this Light we see and know, and it is an infallible guide. It keeps us from error and steers us along the lines that the Good Lord had in mind for us. Intuition is our guide and our lifeline to God. Through intuition, we realize, discover, and are imparted understanding.

Those people who follow their intuition become inventors, explorers, discoverers, geniuses, and mystics. To a greater or lesser extent, anyone who develops their own God given talents and uses them for the good of others according to God’s purposes is following intuition. Without knowing these individuals personally, I think it is safe to say that people like Albert Einstein, Tiger Woods, Winston Churchill, and Ansel Adams followed their intuition and the pattern waiting to unfold for them.

There is a pattern waiting to unfold. Sometimes we get a glimpse of it in advance. Sometimes we remember that we once saw it ahead, like deja vu. Other times we are warned of danger about to occur, and we avoid it. When we walk in the light of conscience, mostly we live moment by moment, playing one note at a time, and we are shown enough to live that one moment properly.
A lifetime of moments lived properly lead to character and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
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announcement
Roland's new book Becoming a Friend of God - Finding Peace of Mind and Courage in an Age of Anxiety is now available.
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The amazing thing is that intuition is there for all of us. But we fail to follow it, we doubt it, we ignore it, and then we can’t find it. We listen to the so called experts on the outside. We let their voices out shout the still small voice within. We follow our teachers, professors, medical men, and other experts instead of intuition. And when they lead us into error, we resent them. When we fail to develop our own pre-ordained pattern, because we cop out to others, we develop conflict with ourselves and our conscience. We sense something not quite right about the way we are proceeding.

When we fail in the moment, we retreat into the images of imagination, where we relive the past and plan for the future. We listen to the voice of the serpent (the same one that got Adam and Eve kicked out of the Garden of Eden) still whispering ego supporting notions in our thought processes. We think the notions are our very own thinking and so we follow them. But we are being misled.

After listening to the permissive voice, we fall into error. The morning after the night before, intuition returns as conscience (twenty twenty hindsight). We wonder why we listened to others instead of heeding the wordless hunch that tried to warn us.
Alas, most of us continue to believe the lies about being ambitious and striving to have it all. We want personal glory, and if not glory then wealth. If not wealth, then many things to distract us from conscience. And if not many things, then relief from guilt and a cure for our ills. So we keep reaching for a goal in one form or another.
Only when we have been led into great error and when we hit rock bottom, are we forced to stop, and take a good look at ourselves. For those of us who are blessed, we finally begin to believe our intuition, and we regret having doubted it and followed the pied pipers who led us astray.

All of this is to say that when we ignore or fail to follow our intuition, we develop conflict with it. You see, the pattern of good is always there, waiting to unfold. But when we do not heed and follow it, it remains a latent pattern. We sense the inner light as conscience when our present predicament makes us aware of the discrepancy between the potential good and the present deviation.

Intuition is unwavering because there is a force behind it: love. You see, your intuition, being from God, contains both wisdom and love. When we are disobedient, and rebel against it: we come into conflict with God’s love, which we feel as conscience.

Were we, at any point, to have a change of heart, and instead of running from conscience, permit it to overwhelm us and show us our error, we would experience regret, pain, shame and sadness. Then would come relief, as we are reconciled to conscience, intuition, and the God Who loves us.

Were you reconciled to intuition, you would once again begin to move intuitively. Moreover, a process of redemption and justification would take place, whereby your thinking, your emotions, your body, and your life would be brought back into harmony with God’s purpose.
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Conflict with conscience would cease. You would become friends with conscience. Conflict with God would cease, as you would now welcome His involvement in your life and welcome His guidance.

Now a friend of God and a friend of truth, you begin to learn how to relate to other people. You discover that anger and resentment not only set up road blocks to honest and kind communication, but anger and resentment also hurt ourselves. Seeing its wrong attitude (pride) and how it uses the handmaiden of anger to judge others and survive pridefully, the now wiser soul gives up anger and weans itself from what supports pride.
Likewise, the now wiser (enlightened) soul sees how resentment is another survival mechanism of pride. When the pride is forced to see a truth it hates, it resorts to resentment to maintain itself.

Seeing the error of resentment, the enlightened person realizes that resentment must be given up. And when resentment and anger are given up, the pride is weakened and begins to let go of its grip on the person. Now the person finds that he or she is able to relate to others humbly and honestly. The new found kindness and courage have a healing effect on relations with others.
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A simple reconciliation with Truth and continuing to abide in that Truth (by a daily commitment of proper meditation) lead to a cascade of right choices and good relations. Conflict with God and unhealthy and harmful conflict with our fellow humans cease.

Conflict with ourselves is basically when we are pulled in two or more directions. We don’t know what to do, so we follow others. We are lead in many conflicting directions that go nowhere.
Another thing. Not being yet committed to what is right, we are double minded. We are torn between what is right and what is selfish. We may have wanted to do right, but we were afraid of missing out on selfish advantage.

Fortunately, the meditation exercise will permit you to stand back and observe. And it will give you the power to make a free choice: to go the familiar old way that always leads to pain, or to quietly say no to the old way.

Before locating and becoming friends with intuition, we always doubted it. We listened more to friends, authorities or so called experts. And there was often a conflict between the quiet inner way of discovering, and the struggling ambitious way they challenged you to.

Often their advice was just plain wrong. Other times, their advice may have been technically correct (such as when our parents give us good counsel), but their timing was off, their energy was wrong. So naturally we resented them and rejected their advice. Or they taught us to go about doing things with the wrong energy. For example, they often challenge us to be good or try harder, but when we use effort and will to achieve even a good end, it leaves us guilty because it conflicts with the inner way of grace.

A good example of using the wrong kind of energy to accomplish something that causes conflict with self is the way we have been taught to go about trying to get better when we have physical symptoms. We usually resent our body for failing, and try to force it to get better. We look for symptom relief instead of the real cause. We grow impatient with our body, and turn to chemicals, poisons and other crude invasive techniques. Where is the love?

But when the soul is attuned to the inner Light, it has access to wisdom and love. The soul, now blessed with grace, becomes a kind master for the body. With understanding, the soul listens to the body and then intuitively finds the way. Graced with intuition and a clear perception, the person will find the right path, often discovering how to unblock what was preventing healing.
Sometimes we do need the help of medical professionals, and their skillful technology and knowledge. If we do, our intuition will help us find the doctor who has understanding and the right kind of treatment that really helps the body.

Mostly, when we learn to give up harmful negative emotions, unhealthy environments and unhealthy practices, our body will be able to rally naturally. Perhaps with a little help from our medical professional to weather the emergency, our body is able to rally and begin to recuperate.
Conflict leads to inhibition and fear. Lack of understanding leads to confusion and worry. Unable to relate to ourselves, our bodies, and our fellow human beings properly, we sense a growing despair.

The door to all this negativity closes when the soul learns to be still and come before its Creator. Conflict with God ceases. We gain a right relationship with God, the wellspring of all that is good. And by giving up judgment, anger, and selfish advantage, the soul learns to obey Him and gain His approval.

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