A: What I hear in your short sentence is a question
regarding the voice of
God, and how to hear that Voice within yourself.
Many of us have been instructed that God is within
us, and The Urantia
Book expands and enlarges this concept
beautifully. We learn in its
teachings that this spark of Divinity within is
called the Thought
Adjuster, and that it is an actual fragment of the
Father himself:
(148:6.10)
...the Father...speaks within the human
heart as a still, small voice, saying, `This is
the way; walk therein.'
Do you not comprehend that God dwells within you,
that he has become
what you are that he may make you what he is!"
Here is another quote regarding the voice of God-
within:
(110:7.9)
While the voice of the Adjuster is ever within
you,
most of you will hear it seldom during a lifetime.
Human beings below
the third and second circles of attainment rarely
hear the Adjuster's
direct voice except in moments of supreme desire,
in a supreme
situation, and consequent upon a supreme decision.
And this:
(101:1.2)
The Thought Adjuster has no special mechanism
through
which to gain self-expression; there is no mystic
religious faculty for
the reception or expression of religious emotions.
These experiences
are made available through the naturally ordained
mechanism of mortal
mind. And therein lies one explanation of the
Adjuster's difficulty in
engaging in direct communication with the material
mind of its constant
indwelling.
The divine spirit makes contact with mortal man,
not by
feelings or emotions, but in the realm of the
highest and most
spiritualized thinking. It is your thoughts, not
your feelings, that
lead you Godward. The divine nature may be
perceived only with the eyes
of the mind. But the mind that really discerns
God, hears the
indwelling Adjuster, is the pure mind. "Without
holiness no man may see
the Lord." All such inner and spiritual communion
is termed spiritual
insight. Such religious experiences result from
the impress made upon
the mind of man by the combined operations of the
Adjuster and the
Spirit of Truth as they function
amid and upon the ideas, ideals,
insights, and spirit strivings of the evolving
sons of God.
We see by these quotes that the best way to find
this voice within is
through our highest thinking, as that is where the
combined Spirit of
God (the Thought Adjuster) and the Spirit of Truth
(
Jesus) work
together for our highest good.
Even though it may seem difficult from the above
quotes to actually
experience the hearing of God's voice, we are not
left only with
difficulty. A very practical way that The Urantia
Book helps us to find
and hear
the Divine voice, is through the prayerful
practice of conversing with
our "alter ego." Consider this quote:
(91:3.7)
Enlightened prayer must recognize not only an
external
and personal God but also an internal and
impersonal Divinity, the
indwelling Adjuster. It is altogether fitting that
man, when he prays,
should strive to grasp the concept of the Universal Father on Paradise;
but the more effective technique for most
practical purposes will be to
revert to the concept of a near-by alter ego, just
as the primitive
mind was wont to do, and then to recognize that
the idea of this alter
ego has evolved from a mere fiction to the truth
of God's indwelling
mortal man in the factual presence of the Adjuster
so that man can talk
face to face, as it were, with a real and genuine
and divine alter ego
that indwells him and is the very presence and
essence of the living
God, the Universal Father.
Basically, we can "talk to ourselves," a practice
that we all naturally
learn to
do as children, when we have inner conversations
with an imaginary
companion. As we grow, and as we desire closer
communication with God,
we may ennoble that concept to become the reality
of a
conversation with God-within.
Please click
here
for the entire section on Prayer and the Alter-
Ego.
