Spiritual Madness

Spiritual Madness

Near the end of the last gathering, someone pointed out that there have been numerous people who believed they heard the voice of God commanding them to do various things that was very harmful, including murder.

Because of such deception he voiced his opinion that Abraham could not have been commanded by God to sacrifice his only son and that we should reject any such thing if we think we hear God commanding us to do something bizarre.

It is definitely true that there are some strange and unbalanced people out there who hear voices and commandments that are definitely not from God. But does this mean that all supernatural directions and communications are erroneous?

After all, most do believe that Jesus received a very difficult commandment from God to yield himself to the cross to demonstrate power over death.

Anyone claiming such a commandment in this age would be deemed unbalanced indeed.

DK has also taught about the fourth initiation where the disciple must sacrifice all that is held dear to the lower personality; and gives the sacrifice of Jesus as an example of this that we must all pass through at some time.

Question:  Suppose you hear or sense the voice of God directing you to do something very difficult, strange or even dangerous. How should you handle such a thing?

Is there a time to say no, even to God or the Spirit?

How do you know if you are hearing the true voice?

If you have received something difficult from what you thought was God, the soul or His Spirit and acted on it please relate and tell us if your action was correct.

Let us start with the last part of the current question:

“How do you know you are hearing the true voice?”

Reader Comment: I myself have experienced “good feelings”, which were so close to the “real thing” (as you call it), that I could not tell the difference. It was only the passage of time, which showed me the error of my ways. I also know of others that have experienced similarly.

JJ: This is indeed a major problem and you are two steps ahead of most seekers for just recognizing it. Many who hear any voice at all automatically assume it is from God and will follow it to the death without questioning.

Another reader gives good advice in finding the true voice:

But, I repeat, it is possible to learn how to tell the difference. It’s like tuning a guitar string. You have to keep adjusting it. And, yes, you do need to look at the fruits. You always need to look at the fruits. But each time you look at the results of having followed what you thought was a spiritual prompting, you go back and look at the original prompting. Look at how you felt when the choice was right vs. how you felt when the choice was wrong. Use that feedback for the next time you are prompted to do something. One must do some fine-tuning until they get it right. We do have a promise: seek and ye shall find. It doesn’t say seek and ye shall be left in doubt. There is certainty available to us.

JJ:  Good advice. Let me comment on your last sentence: “There is certainty available to us.”

This is true and I know you are talking about a certainty through the soul, but we must keep in mind that there are two types of certainty.

(1) A certainty about a conclusion that is not correct but based upon an embraced illusion. For instance, many people were certain that Planet X was going to show up last spring, yet it never came. They thought they knew, but didn’t know that they did not know.

(2) A certainty based upon true reality and spiritual contact. This falls in two categories.

(A) Logic and common sense. I am certain the sun will come up tomorrow. I have good reason to be certain of this. This person knows and reasons that he knows.

(B) Soul Contact: The person has broken through the veils that disguise the soul energy and finds and registers true spiritual contact. He finds this contact to be the most real and infallible source there is. Only his interpretations of it are subject to error.

This person knows and knows that he knows.

We all seek to know and know that we know so let us cover the points we need to know to arrive at this. We will make a list beginning with the first one today.

In this direction is a truism that I just added to the list which is:

“You find what you are looking for.”

Question: How is this a key to understanding why some people hear a deceptive voice?

Since we find what we look for then what do we need to look for to avoid deception?

Napoleon Hill

Question: Will you share with us what you told me about the possible Napoleon Hill-DK connection? Thanks.

JJ:  When I was younger I read all of his books. He wrote a lot more than “Think and Grow Rich.” It seems like I bought about six of them altogether, but the only one I have in my current library is Think and Grow Rich.

I do not have the book where he talks about the “Brotherhood” but I found a couple quotes on the web.

In his book “Grow Rich with Peace of Mind” he reports the visitation of a presence speaking in a voice that “sounded like chimes of great music,” (bells?) This visitor stated: “I come from the Great School of Masters. I am one of the Council of Thirty-Three who serve the Great School and its initiates on the physical plane.”

This School of Masters is “Sometimes known as the Venerable Brotherhood of Ancient India.  It is the great central reservoir of religious, philosophical, moral, physical, spiritual and psychical knowledge. Patiently this school strives to lift mankind from spiritual infancy to maturity of soul and final illumination.”

I’ve just ordered the book again from Amazon to make sure I can get the full story.

“All love that has not friendship for its base, is like a mansion built upon sand.” Ella Wheeler Wilcox, O Magazine, February 2004

Sept 15, 2004