Title: Do You Experience God? Author: Margaret Paul, Ph.D. E-mail: mailto:margaret@innerbonding.com Copyright: © 2004 by Margaret Paul Web Address: http://www.innerbonding.com Word Count: 800 Category: Spiritual Growth, Spirituality

DO YOU EXPERIENCE GOD? Margaret Paul, Ph.D.

Connor, a man in his late 40’s, has achieved everything he ever thought he needed to feel happy and secure. He owns a successful business, has a wonderful wife and two children, and a beautiful home. Yet when you look at him, he doesn’t look happy. He looks empty, with no sense of vibrancy about him.

His wife, Brianna. also has everything she ever wanted – a husband, children, financial security, successful work and a beautiful home. When you look at her, you see a person filled with aliveness and vitality, friendliness and joy.

What is difference? Why are these two people, each who have same outer things, so very different in their energy? The answer is that Brianna has a strong connection with God while Connor has no spiritual connection at all.

The longer I’ve worked as a counselor, easier it has become for me to tell difference between people who know and experience God and people who don’t. It is difference between Connor and Brianna. It is difference between being full from inside or inwardly empty.

It’s not that Connor doesn’t want to experience God. He says he really wants to. He sees difference between him and Brianna and he says he wants what she has. He sees his parents as empty and he says he doesn’t want to end up like them, with no sense of passion or purpose in their lives.

Word Count: 1731

Human beings are blessed with a unique gift: gift of prayer or petition to Infinite for our needs. A religious person would call it prayer; others may call it petition or meditation. There is a clear distinction between petition and meditation, however. Meditation is generally a passive process, but in a petition, we actively communicate with Infinite Source. The word "petition" itself conveys significance of process. In human law, once a suit is filed or a legal proceeding is initiated, certain processes are put in motion. Regardless of who we are or our station in life, legal process takes its course.

Natural laws operate same way, no matter who triggers them. As soon as we petition for our needs, we put into motion certain natural processes that will bring about manifestation of what we petitioned for.

If justified and done properly, petitions are always granted - always. Petitions are granted not on basis of our religious beliefs or affiliations nor on basis of righteousness or unrighteousness. Petitions can be conscious or unconscious. For majority of us, our unconscious petitions are granted more often than our conscious ones.

Why are our unconscious petitions granted more often? The answer is simply that in our conscious petitions - due to ignorance, lack of clear thought, superstition, or unconscious behavior - we tend to contradict ourselves and therefore prevent our petitions from becoming alive and manifesting things we petitioned for. To me there is no contradiction between terms "granting of petitions" and "manifesting our desires." If we create something that does not contradict cosmic laws, it manifests (and can be said to be granted) in accordance with those laws. And petitions that do contradict these laws are either returned to sender or ignored - not granted.

For petitions to be granted, they must be done properly, to conform to certain conditions:

· We must be sincere in our petitions. · We must be careful that what we ask for is actually what we need. · Our petitions must not be detrimental to others. · What we ask for must benefit not only us but others as well. · We must have knowledge that our petition will be granted. · Above all, we must release our petitions to Universal Mind for them to be manifested.

These conditions may sound philosophical, but personal experience will convince you of their truth.

Being sincere means we ask for something because we need it and not because we want to be like or better than someone else, prove something to world, or satisfy our ego.

Determining what we need is probably extremely difficult for most people. As an illustration, if you have no car, no money, no job, and face an eviction, what would you ask for? We must reduce our need to lowest common factor. By asking for wrong thing, we risk not receiving an answer or receiving something we may not be particularly happy with.

We must determine what is most essential for life, and we must trust in Universal Mind to provide it in best possible way.

If our petition would give us, for example, power to avenge prior wrongdoing by someone else or in any way allow us to harm or punish someone, chance of that petition being granted is very slim.

The more benefit our petition would bring to others, greater chance that it will be granted. But it is not up to us to say, "If my petition to win lottery is granted, I will do this or that for my neighbor because he or she needs it." As noble as it may sound, we must be careful about making such decisions regarding others. As I have pointed out, it is difficult enough to determine what we ourselves need much less what someone else needs.

Manifestation is not always obvious. Therefore, knowing when our petition has been granted is not easy and often requires a series of personal experiences that build confidence rather than just faith. If seeing is believing, then experience is knowing. We must have confidence that our petition will be granted until we have had enough experience to cause us to recognize that it has been granted.

The last condition is probably most critical. If all previous conditions have been met but you fail to release your petition to Universal Mind, you can be sure that your petition will not be answered.