© 1988 William Wentworth
© 1988 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
Not long ago I had a conversation with a devout Roman Catholic who shared a house with a “born again” Radical Christian. He was disconcerted by the Radical’s habit of doing all sorts of odd things “because God told me to”. He eventually came to the conclusion that the Radical was using the conviction of divine guidance to justify his own prejudices and preconceptions, and to avoid doing the intellectual work of adjusting his ideas to the reality of his experience. Anytime a problem arose it would be dealt with by a direct and immediate appeal to God. The impulsive “solution” which then came to mind was invested with absolute authority (“God told me”) and further discussion of the question was rendered irrelevant.
It is not difficult to imagine some of the problems which could grow out of this kind of procedure. But nevertheless it has procedure may be summarized as:
I have a problem.
What does God want me to do about it?
Ask Him.
Receive His answer.
Put it into practice.
This seems a reasonable way of substituting God’s will for one’s own selfish will. Furthermore, a great many people have had experiences where this procedure works.
The difficulty with the procedure, however, is that there is no infallible way of distinguishing between di vine guidance on the one hand, and personal subconscious desires on the other. The discussion of “Erroneous Concepts of Adjuster Guidance” on p. 1207:7 makes clear the difficulties associated with interpreting divine guidance, and warns us to be extremely cautious of attributing impulses or opinions to that source. Guidance is rarely given in the precise terms in which it is sought, but rather in accordance with our “true needs” as assessed by our indwelling Adjuster, which in any case is limited by our inability to comprehend whatever message it may direct towards our conscious mind. To rely on divine guidance for specific solutions to specific problems is to run the risk of being greatly mistaken about God’s will. This is NOT to deny that there are times when this procedure may be appropriate, but rather to remind ourselves that it is a procedure of last resort, for matters of great significance, when all other techniques have proved fruitless.
Jesus taught that “The Spirit of the Father speaks best to man when the human mind is in an attribute of true worship” (UB 146:2.17) Worship, as opposed to prayer, implies the absence of any specific request for guidance. In other words, the divine influence is most effective when we are NOT seeking help for any specific decision.
On UB 37:6.3 a Brilliant Evening Star points out that the keynote of the education system of Nebadon is “character acquired by enlightened experience”. Having formed a definite desire to do God’s will, we augment character by acting upon that desire, by making decisions that we imagine God wants us to. But prayer and worship are not directly connected to specific decisions. Prayer and worship take place regularly, and the habit of communing with God is maintained, but specific decisions are taken without seeking for particular guidance over that particular decision. The attempt to achieve this augments character. We gradually evolve into beings whose desire and habit is to do God’s will. We gradually achieve that state where “It is my will that Your will be done”. (UB 111:5.6)
Our capacity for discovering God’s will, and our ability. to put our discovery into practice, thus gradually grow as our characters evolve. We gradually become characters who are capable of finding God as we increasingly cultivate behaviour and make decisions which are compatible with His creation. As we do so, the need to obtain specific guidance for particular decisions will diminish, and there will be progressively less need to run the risks associated with that procedure.
William Wentworth, Towamba, NSW
A smile is a curve that straightens out a lot of things.
We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.
Epictetus.