Listen and Learn
When you become God-conscious, you realize that your Spirit Teacher is continually trying to communicate with you. It is doing all it can to awaken you to spirit realities and to guide you on a path of spiritual thinking and spiritual behavior. Its divine objective is to transform you into a spiritual being without interfering with your free will.
Read: God Consciousness
Most religions recognize the positive, inner workings of this guiding Spirit, this fragment of God that forever encourages us to walk a spiritual path—to live a virtuous life. And there are many ways to achieve this.
Hinduism encourages its followers to follow the Three (or four) Paths to God, which include devotion, work, knowledge, and mind training. Confucianism advises its devotees to follow the Five Virtues: benevolence, honesty, knowledge, faithfulness, and correct behavior. And in Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path extols right speech, right intention, right understanding, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation.
In Christianity, followers are exhorted to live according to the will of God, a path not as clearly defined, but a useful parallel would be the “fruits of the spirit,” which are nine attributes of character observed in those who follow God’s guidance—love, joy, peace, tolerance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. But there is much more to it than that.
Read: What Does the “Will of God” Mean?
Underlying all these religious traditions is the belief that living a dutiful and moral life—following a virtuous path—is what constitutes a spiritual life. But this life must be more than acting out virtues in a pretentious manner. The best approach is to make an honest, genuine, and unequivocal attempt to follow the directions of the indwelling Spirit. Walking the Spirit Path is always more than just doing something—it is being something. It is being good, being truthful, being patient, being graceful, and so forth.
We make progress by following the guidance of the Spirit Within because we are not yet perfectly spiritual and, therefore, possess no inherent or spontaneous spiritual wisdom. We simply ask for divine direction in our lives, and then our task is to be still and receptive, to listen and learn.
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says.
– Revelation 2
God is trying to spiritualize our thinking, not control it. We may not be entirely conscious of the process because it occurs primarily in the superconscious realms of the mind. Nonetheless, we need to give our conscious consent for this Divine Guide to function. With our permission and cooperation, the Spirit can achieve considerably more than it could in a stubborn or reluctant mind.
While your spiritualization may be an unconscious process, the proof of this superconscious activity is in your own religious growth—your transformation into a loving, caring, and helpful person who is attuned to the Spirit Within and completely dedicated to a life of goodness, beauty, and truth.
By tuning in and harmonizing with divinity, you are refreshed, comforted, and inspired. Everyday challenges, rather than being insurmountable barriers to your progress, become unique opportunities for you to express your spirituality by loving others.
Never underestimate the power of the Spirit to adjust your thoughts and transform your character.
God is not the mere invention of man’s idealism; he is the very source of all such superanimal insights and values.
– The Urantia Book
