Ask: What does listening to the Holy Spirit entail?
“I hope this
isn't a silly question but listening to the Holy Spirit entails what?
Are we listening
to an audible voice, or a deep knowing of what is right, our intuition etc. How
does it actually manifest when we've heard the Holy Spirit?...” – AS
This
is most definitely not a silly question. It is an essential question.
We
speak of “hearing” the Holy Spirit (the part of your mind that is aware of
Truth) but It does not always come into your awareness as a Voice. (If you do
hear a Voice It is, of course, within
your mind. If It seems to come from outside of your mind and no one is actually
speaking to you, you are hallucinating!). Often the Holy Spirit’s answers and
guidance come in unformed thoughts, or, as you said, a deep knowing or
intuition.
The
Holy Spirit is in every mind and people hear or feel It all the time without
identifying It as the Holy Spirit. The ego (personal thought system) in your
mind has many voices and causes many feelings so once you make the conscious
decision to hear and feel the Holy Spirit it can take a while to discern It
from the ego. Also, once you do hear the Holy Spirit the ego will try to mimic
It with words and ideas that it thinks would come from the Holy Spirit. This is
why it takes a while to be certain that you do hear the Holy Spirit.
The
hallmark of hearing the Holy Spirit is a feeling of liberation from guilt or
fear or a dropping of boundaries. You feel a lifting up and out. You feel
“lighter”, both in the sense of gaining clarity (less dark) and in feeling less
weighed down. This is at the moment that you hear or feel the answer or
guidance. Later, when you return your attention to the ego, you may feel guilt
and fear that you heard the Holy Spirit or over what you heard. And this
characteristic of hearing the ego. When it is the ego guilt and fear either do
not change or they increase, even when the ego says something that you find
emotionally satisfying.
When
you do hear a Voice It may sometimes seem to come from the depths of your mind.
Other times It will seem right here
within you. It is “still and quiet”; It has no emotional charge. If you feel any emotional charge upon
hearing It, it is uplifting joy.
If
you ask for guidance and are uncertain if you have heard the Holy Spirit or the
ego let it go. I find that if the guidance is from the ego the idea will just
fall away from me. If it is from the Holy Spirit it will quietly persist in the
back of my mind. Sometimes I will just later have a quiet knowing of the
answer, often when I wake up in the morning.
>>>>>
Do you need help discerning the Holy
Spirit? This is one of the things with which I help my clients. You can set up
an appointment with me at Liz@acimmentor.com.
Learn more at www.acimmentor.com.
If you have a question the answer to
which you think will help others email it to me at Liz@acimmentor.com
and indicate that you want it answered in the newsletter/blog.
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