Learning to live a spiritually minded life is like learning a new language. ‘Spirit’ is by its very nature invisible, in the realm of intuition, faith, feeling and energy and we use different senses to learn and work with this side of life. Not the well-known senses of sight, hearing, taste and smell but beyond these, on the subtler levels of life.
The spiritual life is one step removed from the material life, we are working on the level where ‘things’ are still thoughts/ideas/dreams, and our new language is the bridge between these invisible things and the ‘real material’ world.
This invisible side of our nature is always operating whether we want to listen or not, but when we tune in and integrate this part of our lives, it enhances us by giving a new way to look at our lives, a new understanding of the energetic, rather than material truths of the world. We see more clearly cause and effect (what you reap is what you sow) and understand the energetic truths like ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is within You’ and ‘Love thy God(Spirit) with all thy heart and mind’.
For me, it wasn’t until I integrated this part into my life that I really felt I was living a balanced life and my life really made sense, and more importantly it was working. I could see the results in my life.
When we begin living this way, tuning in, taking some quiet time to commune and listen with our inner senses we begin to learn how this new language works for us. From this space some people get a sense of something to do, not to do, for others a voice for others just a quiet certainly or feeling of truth but what is the same the world over is the Validation we get when we follow through on our promptings/intuitions/truths and it works out. We learn through experience that it was true for us.
I was at a talk the other day by a retired bishop and a lovely young guy asked: I am not quite sure who I am praying (inwardly communing) to? Is it some God out there, or something within myself? Good question I thought, and the bishop had the perfect answer. The biblical quote is: ‘By their fruits you shall know them’. Only by experience and the products of our spiritual work in the real world we live in can we really see and know that this invisible relationship is working for us.
Another biblical quote is ‘Faith without works is dead’. We all know people who expound all the ‘truths’ of the spiritual life but whose practical lives are not working or they are ungrounded and their words are not seen reflected in their lives. I have had times earlier in my spiritual life where I would get a clear message but not follow through thinking (I knew better)…..hang on, I still do that sometimes!!! In these cases, we see the opposite of validation and we can look back and say ‘Yes I knew the truth about that situation but I didn’t follow through and I see how I had to correct later, try again, be tested again’ – this time to take the true and correct option.
The outer validation is important. It substantiates our inner work.
With practise we learn that when we follow our truth, our inner knowing, our certainties we see the result of this in our practical material lives. The invisible energetic spiritual truths show outwardly in our lives and we just know, and can see we have done the right thing. We are validated and the ‘fruits’ show through.
A small example in my life; a wee while ago I had been working hard with my prayer work but also wanted some things in my life that were not forthcoming. I felt the stress about this and it was making me uneasy. I was on my way to work one day and just had the feeling not to leave ‘just yet’. I wasn’t in any huge hurry and so mooched around at home, read a little bit of my spiritual book and then just sat on the bed. In the sitting some tears came with two pieces of very clear information. One about my personal life and another about a work situation. Both very clarifying and the truth. Not necessarily what I wanted to hear with my human wishes but I knew it was the truth for me.
I had cleared from the uneasy, anxious striving to the eternal truths of the situation and there was a relaxation, clarity and sureness with this.
I went onto work and on the way stopped in at a café to grab a drink. I was sitting in my car just about to leave when a friend made me jump out of my skin by knocking on my window! The timing was perfect. She got in, we had a chat and this clarified and validated the earlier truths I had received.
People may say, that is just coincidence and to outer appearances it may look that way (and sometimes it just is!) but there are no external tests in the spiritual life, only inward knowings, flowing and validation. When we know, we know internally and it shows and is validated by experiences outwardly in our lives.
Practise it for yourself and see. It is only by experience we can learn and know and see the unfoldment of this subtle spiritual work in our lives.
There is a spiritual life that we all have access to that can enhance our lives if we take the time out to ‘learn the language’. Through our learning there will be validation points along the way, the fruits of our new knowledge and we can trust and rely on these as we continue the journey.
‘Tis all Growth, Learning and experiential presence in Eternal Love.