Before I could write this segment, I had to purge my life of books and tapes and other things that stood for beliefs that no longer serve me. I no longer need to be taught or to teach things like “25 secrets to answered prayer”, “7 secrets of prosperity”, “The Gospel Way to Abundance”, “The Secret To Victorious Life”. Jesus taught us simply and clearly in “The Sermon On the Mount”….seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall follow after you…When you leave your nets to follow Him and truly put seeking the Kingdom in first place in your life…asking nothing…you will be taken care of. Joel Goldsmith says it’s like joining the military. From day #1 you, your family, your housing, your food, and your healthcare, are provided for. We don’t need a seminar or a book to tell us how to achieve them.
The presence I encounter is very real. It envelopes me…it comforts me. I find it most often in “The Silence”, but I’m aware that its always with me. I ask it for nothing …and I lack for nothing. I’m reluctant to call it God because the word God conjures up things in which I no longer believe. I like Goldsmith’s term “Infinite Invisible” or Andrew Greeley’s “Something Else Altogether”….I’ll probably stick to “the presence” for now. The presence and I are not wholly One yet…(we are, but have not yet manifest in my reality as one, yet)…our relationship is one of warmth, love, comfort, ease. This presence covers me in love…gives me wisdom when I need it. I welcome it’s company. Eventually we will manifest as One…and I will become complete. Until then I will cherish our visits…our time in the silence. This is what the Divine is to me…today’s version, at least.
AHHHHHHHH….So glad to purge out all those books along with all the stress!!!
It’s funny to me how so many of us who are on the same journey are also in such different spots. I agree with you on so much of this, as I too like to find God (the Presence, or whatever you may call Him… or Her) in my silence. But I am also finding Him in my questions as well, as I just wrote about that on my blog and in my book. Even as I too am purging myself from so many books that I used to follow, as you said. To find myself, at home with myself and with my God enough to finally ask whatever still needs to be asked for understanding. And yet knowing full well that He will supply all my needs even without the asking. As my freedom includes both – the freedom to ask and the freedom to not ask. Because God even understands that I have a need to ask from time to time, so I can be made aware that He’s still there. I think that’s maybe why, in Scripture, He encourages us to, although I also know that we don’t have to, ASK. Because it’s in the asking that we find Him. And yet, He knew this still, even before the all those questions ever came to be. Every single last one of them, and has provided for us Himself or Herself (since God is both and yet neither gender), beforehand as the only answer we will ever truly need. Thanks for posting!
“I’m reluctant to call it God because the word God conjures up things in which I no longer believe.” I hear ya ….