The Art of Spiritual Listening

The Art of Spiritual Listening

Like any other art, the art of spiritual listening comes with practice. If you’re like me, you’ve always wished you could stop paying attention to all the negative thoughts that come and find a way to just think about the good things.

Well, it is possible to learn the art of listening for our spiritual guidance. Sometimes it really does seem like the cartoons where a character has a devil sitting on one shoulder and an angel sitting on the other and has to choose which one to listen to. We may laugh at that, but I think the reason we laugh is because we feel it’s all too true.

Since I was a young girl, I always desired to be able to hear God more – to be more spiritually minded. I knew that it wasn’t right to be thinking bad or negative thoughts – even if I didn’t say them out loud.

Something that helped change my view on how we should behave and think came from studying Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Jesus spells out for us exactly how to act and how not to act. We shouldn’t judge. We shouldn’t even hold grudges. Wow! How can we go through life without even holding grudges!

After studying over and over the Sermon on the Mount, I realized I HAD to choose where my thoughts were going to be. I could either let myself become angry, upset, hurt, etc., or I could force myself to stick to the truth. And by “truth” I mean it was my job to see everyone and everything as God created them.

Doesn’t the Bible tell us God made man in his image and likeness? That leaves no room for anything unlike God, good. Instead of holding on to the negative things about people or situations, it was my job to practice the forgiveness that Jesus taught. I had to see my neighbours (everyone) as God sees them.

So, how does God see His children? Good question. God could only see His children as the complete, perfect, spiritual image and likeness of Him. That means, in reality, each of us has no choice but to be complete, joyful, satisfied, harmonious, healthy, spiritual, and thousands of other good qualities

We have to make the choice – are we going to stick to the negative, un-Godlike thoughts, or are we going to make sure we are listening to the good, pure, true thoughts of divine Love, God?

Practicing this has made a huge difference in my life. I am now able to forgive so quickly. The past is in the past and things just don’t bother me like they used to because I know I need to live by what Jesus taught – forgiveness, love, compassion, etc.