How do I it’s God and not my own thoughts?
In my efforts to help people with communicating with God, this question and variations thereof are asked most.
This is not a simple question to answer. I have written several essays on this topic and will most likely write more.
The reason I say this is that communicating with God is an individual experience. It cannot be otherwise. For me to define in specific terms what communicating with God is for you is to put myself in the place of God – and for you to accept that would be YOU putting me in the place of God. I will not take God’s place and I ask you not to put me or anyone else in God’s place.
Remember that God is Spirit. You and I are spirit as well.
Communicating with God therefore takes place on the level of spirit. We are so inundated and stimulated with the constant noise of the physical that it makes it very difficult to even be aware that spirit exists. In order to have clarity it seems best to silence the “noise” from the physical plane. This is what being still is all about.
When you still the body, quiet the mind, and focus on the spiritual connection you have with God, more than likely you will have thoughts come to mind.
Some of those thoughts may be “from God” and some may not.
Now, here is where you get to decide.
Your expectations of God will play a large part in how you determine which thoughts are from God.
Your “image” of God will have an effect as well. You see, we each have some ideas about how God speaks, what God says, etc. These ideas whether true or false define what we accept as “coming from God”.
You may study the Bible extensively and that is good. The ideas about God you develop from your study will also impact how you define what is “from God”.
These constraints and others determine what you will “allow” as thoughts from God.
You may find someone that would be happy to tell you which of your thoughts come from God but ultimately whether you believe them or not is up to you anyway. As helpful as that may seem, remember that individual has expectations, ideas and other constraints that impact what they see as thoughts from God.
Is this cause for alarm?
Absolutely not!
There is absolutely no need for anyone to have some sort of definitive scale to measure what is “of God” and what is “not of God”.
The desire for that sort of thing – even though we may feel it’s needful at first blush – gives rise to all sorts of religious systems of control and oppression that ultimately push people farther away from God than they were in the beginning.
Fortunately we are dealing with an unlimited, infinite God. No system we could ever develop could possibly allow for the infinite possibilities that God is.
Treat your thoughts with care. Don’t be too hard on them or yourself. You may not always know precisely which thoughts are from God, but you can get a pretty good idea as you practice stillness and learn to allow your spirit to communicate with Infinite God.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
This was awesome! You are so right that everyone’s relationship with God is very unique and individual depending on our past experiences and how receptive we are to being open to unlimited possibilities. We do indeed have a God of infinite potential so we should never underestimate His abilities and varying methods of reaching out to us and actually communicating with us. The challenge is to take that step of faith and believe that it is really HIM speaking to us…and of course then to determine how we will respond! Our daily challenge is to make it a two way street by believing we hear from Him and then stepping out in faith to respond and obey!!!
It is a mystery to me how I communicate with God or how to describe how He communicates with me. I have found my greatest source of comfort or turmoil was when I started to journal about my feelings. I discovered many feelings resurrecting from within me that I was afraid to face and denial had been my friend and comforting me for a very long time. Sometime around the beginning of my journaling I attended a retreat at an Abby in Missouri. I arrived with no plan, no expectations and no hope for any kind of miracle that would heal the pain I was in. There was a storm raging in my head that I could not control and did not understand. During the weekend I spent much time in prayer filled gatherings but it was from the times I spent with silence I was hearing the words that kept repeating themselves to me “I am here and I love you.”. My only prayer in response was “Thank you.” “Thank You” was the only prayer I was able to say.
Communicating with God feels like I am wandering through a maze. The more I feel, the more I write, the more I write the more I question and most often I am finding the answers lie within the questions themselves. Someone once told me that I am only expected to show up. I thought that meant I was to show up at church and I was doing that pretty often. Imagine my surprise when one day it came to me it had nothing to do with church. I GET IT! I just need to show up for the dawn of a new day, open my heart and say thank you for His generous gift to me.
Thank you Robert for for continued words of wisdom, you always have very helpful things to say. Keep them coming. May God continue to use you and to lead people to your website!
God bless.
Stew,
Vancouver B.C.
Alice, Kathleen and Stewart,
Thanks for your kind comments. You all have added so much to my blog and I thank God for you.
When I started I wondered….. maybe even doubted a bit in spite of feeling like God was directing.
You and many others have helped me. Thanks for sharing of yourselves, your experiences and your walk with God.
Love Unconditioned,
Robert
Robert,
I just read yoiur latest blog, and I find it an awesome insight into so much that people cannot grasp about God. I feel I am very blessed, above my greatest expectations, and have discovered God in a whole new dimension. I feel your insights have strengthened my own in communicating with God in various ways, and it is amazing how utterly simple it was. It just requires a willing heart and total surrender to the faith that so many claim as their own when calling ourselves “Christian”. I thank you for the continued messeges. They always arrive in my inbox at the perfect moment.
His Forever,
Jim
Hi Robert,
I love your blog, you know it! You always seem to attend to subjects or question which are the ones that really matter. Thank you for that! I’d like to respond on above article. As you say in the first alinea, indeed no one can put himself in the shoes of God or the other person. because god is unique and the relation between God and a person is unique.
Still.. I want to ask for more elaboration on this subject or some direction. If you have more on this of course.
Again, thank you so much for what u share!
grace,
Eelke
Hi,
Thanks for the insight on effective communication with God. This was one subject i always wanted to know more about bcos i ve never been able to effectively communicate with God and know His will many times when serious decisions had to be taken in life, specially those which involved emotions and varied ideas from other believers. I now believe that its not impossible to know what God wants to say.The desire, and quietness/stillness of mind and also a clear concience obtained after faithful repentance are the simple prrequisites. thanks once again
Hi Robert,
Wonderful post, and I loved reading the last para – it carries so much of insight. I have been “trying” to communicate with various means (writing, talking etc since an year and not satisfied with it because our “requests or cry for help” and other day-to-day expectations comes in the way). In my very limited experience and from what you have written, it appears that we don’t need to ‘push to try’ – we just need to be with him during the calm of “stillness and universal love” something of that sort which you have rightly indicated. The so called “communication” is a natural experience of feeling loved by the God, the world and all the creations in it and therefore in that state realizing the ability to discriminate the thoughts – which of the thoughts are from the god and which aren’t. Well, it appears that “stillness” is where the solution to communicate lies.
Miles to go for me on developing the “stillness” (I just do not get consistency on that). I am sure connecting with great people like you would help.
Enjoyed reading your very insightful post. Thanks a million.
Hi Robert, It’s amazing how God blesses you,to be a blessing to me i truly enjoy everything you share with me,i think it over i try hard to remember the things you say so i can share them with others.I love to listen for god to speak to me,and a lot of times when he speak to me it’s with a burning sensation that i feel in side me and i can’t help but speak it when he tell me to, thank you so much for your love toward me that you take the time to share your spiritual walk with me. i truly count it as God is yet communicating with me i look forward to hearing from you.