{"id":425,"date":"2008-10-13T10:26:41","date_gmt":"2008-10-13T10:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/10\/does-god-give-us-directions.html"},"modified":"2008-10-13T10:26:41","modified_gmt":"2008-10-13T10:26:41","slug":"does-god-give-us-directions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/10\/does-god-give-us-directions.html","title":{"rendered":"Does God give us directions?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I would like you to consider the possibility that most of the world’s people hold an inaccurate belief about God. Consider the possibility that the truth about God is something that most people can’t even imagine.
\nFor instance, wouldn’t it be interesting if there was no such thing as the Will of God? Wouldn’t that change a lot of things?
\nDo you think that it’s God’s Will that the world is the way it is? And if it’s not God’s Will, is God powerless to do anything about it? And if God is not<\/em> powerless to do anything about it, why isn’t God doing something about it? And if God is<\/em> doing something about it, why isn’t God succeeding?
\nSome say it’s because humanity isn’t letting Him. Humanity is standing in the way of God getting What God Wants. Actually, more than a few people believe this. According to this doctrine, God is unable to achieve What God Wants<\/em>, and humanity is at fault. Yet unless there is something that humans don’t understand about who and what God is, isn’t there a breakdown in logic somewhere?
\nPerhaps here is where Satan comes in. It’s as good a place as any, and it’s a convenient place for sure. Perhaps this whole business is all part of God’s battle with Satan for men’s souls. Perhaps it’s God Himself who allows things to happen that are against God’s Will, in order for the struggle with Satan to be played out. Yet if that is true, then it’s God’s Will<\/em> that God’s Will be violated…in which case God’s Will is not being violated at all. <\/em>
\nCould it be that God’s Will is always being expressed, simply in differing form?
\nSo what, then, IS God’s Will? And how can we know it?
\nHere we go again. How can human beings know What God Wants?
\nPerhaps it’s time for a more pointed question. Do you think it’s possible that we’re simply making this all up? At the very least, do you think it’s possible that there’s something we don’t understand about God, the understanding of which could change everything?
\nI believe the answer to both questions is yes. And here is what most humans and most religions are afraid to look at: Perhaps what it is that humans don’t understand about God is that God is not at all what people have thought.
\nPerhaps God is not an old man in the sky with needs and desires, a personal will and personal fears, and all the inner conflicts, contradictions, turmoil and emotional turbulence of humans. Perhaps God is the Sum Total of Everything–truly, the “All in All,” the “Alpha and the Omega”, “That Which IS”–and perhaps nothing stands outside of this.
\nIf that is true, then YOU do not stand outside of This, and This does not stand outside of you. This means that what you want, God wants. It means that your will for you is God’s will for you.
\nYet what happens when we are of the consciousness “…not as I will, but Thy will be done?” What happens when we make a choice to make God choose for us, and God is saying, “You may do as you wish”? What happens to the will, to the idea, to the request then, if we say to God, you choose for us, but God is saying, you choose for you?
\nWhen you make a choice to have God choose for you, you have essentially taken down the sail, let go of the rudder, and set your boat adrift on a stormy sea. This is because God really and truly does choose for you what you choose for you. Or, to put this all another way, if God did have a preference, this, in fact, would be it: that you get to choose.
\nNow if you do not want<\/em> to choose, if you want someone else<\/em> to do the choosing for<\/em> you, we have a small problem here. You can, of course, give up your future to fate, but the winds of fate, as you must surely have learned, can take you in either of two directions: into safe harbor, or into a shoal, and certain shipwreck.
\nThat is because “fate” is a marvelous acronym for “From All Thoughts Everywhere.” And that includes all of your own previous thoughts, as well as all of the thoughts of others.
\nFirst will come your own.
\nThe first thing that will happen is that your personal creative Self will turn for direction to your own most powerful thought–which is often found in your subconscious. That is, you are not consciously aware of it. You will then produce an outcome. You simply won’t do it consciously. You’ll do it unconsciously, then claim that what happened was “fate,” or “God’s will.”
\nIn addition to your own thought, your future will also be impacted by the collective consciousness of the world around you; that is, the other human beings who people your life, with whom you travel on your journey, and, to some degree, all the people of the earth, whose combined attitudes too often create the collective experience of the lot of us.
\nNow, since many of the thoughts belonging to these other people may be strikingly different from each other, you may find yourself battered a bit. This will manifest itself as your feeling “torn” over what to do.
\nIn life, indecision only breeds more indecision–and then, ultimately, a decision that is made for you. That is because, as you will soon discover, not to decide is to decide. The truth is, you are always deciding, it is just a matter of how you are doing it. You are always creating. It is merely a question of what method you use.
\nMy recommendation: make a conscious personal choice about everything.
\nIf you leave the choices about where the world at large is headed to the world at large, the collective consciousness of humanity will set the course and direction of your planet’s future. You can either follow the collective consciousness, or help direct it.
\nIf you are looking to God for direction in all this, you may want to consider the powerful questions raised here. What if your will for you is God’s will for you? And what if the same is true for the collective will of humanity? What if God will empower humanity’s collective will, but will not alter it?
\nThink about this.
\nThis idea has enormous implications.
\n(Today’s entry here, as well as yesterday’s, are excerpts from the book What God Wants, available from Atria Books.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I would like you to consider the possibility that most of the world’s people hold an inaccurate belief about God. Consider the possibility that the truth about God is something that most people can’t even imagine. For instance, wouldn’t it be interesting if there was no such thing as the Will of God? 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