The Twelfth Step

Do you believe that your Higher Power communicates to you at times through other people? If so, how do you actually know when that happens?

I ask these specific questions because of my recent experiences with an extremely devout Christian who felt quite strongly they were doing God’s work when speaking to me, which at one point even included speaking in tongues during a prayer with me. Yet I really never felt the presence of God coming through any of it.

In light of this and given the fact that I felt so spiritually drained and was left doubting myself each time I connected with this individual, it got me wondering how others truly know when God is providing them guidance through another. So, I began to ask other faith-based people this question and ironically, there was a common answer amongst all of them.

They usually felt loved, embraced, and better about themselves around the person providing spiritual guidance both during their time with them and after.

 With that being said, I can safely say without any hesitation, I didn’t feel that way during most of my time with this person. Rather, I felt judged, like I wasn’t good enough, that I needed to do more to gain God’s favor and that maybe I was resisting spiritual transformation. Thus, if God was really talking to me through this person, I can honestly say I don’t think I should have felt this way. But more importantly, I’ve also had a number of spiritual experiences throughout my own life with others where I truly did feel like God has communicated to me through them.

Take my best friend from Massachusetts for example. He’s been in my life now for 19 years and is one of the most devout Christians I know, yet never have I ever felt less than, beneath him, judged, or unloved whenever he has talked to me about God. In fact, it’s usually been just the opposite. Rather, I tend to feel far better and more energetic in life whenever we speak about our Christian faith and that feeling frequently lasts even several hours beyond our time together. The same principle has held true with my current therapist, with a spiritual teacher I followed diligently for five straight years now, and with several holistic practitioners I’ve utilized along the way as well.

That’s why I’ve decided that in the future whenever I have someone talking to me about God and offering guidance, that I’m going to ask myself if I’m feeling loved, embraced, and better about myself during it. If I’m not, then I’m going to make the assumption that it’s probably not God speaking through them. And if it’s not God speaking through them, then the only thing that’s most likely doing the speaking, is the one thing that tends to cause so many people in this world to avoid seeking a closer relationship to God in the first place and that’s the ego. And speaking from the ego about God will generally just create more doubt in others, which is precisely what I felt during my conversations with this devout Christian recently.

So, the next time you find yourself preaching about God to someone else, ask them how they’re really feeling inside when you’re doing it. If they say they’re feeling uncomfortable, judged on any level, or having doubt, there’s there a strong likelihood you’re not being a conduit for God’s guidance and instead you’re probably just allowing your ego to run the show…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

Why is it ok for a Christian to claim that some passages in the Bible were a sign of the times and don’t apply in today’s day and age, while other passages still do? I raise this question solely because of the inconsistencies I often receive from devout Christians like I did recently in regards to the subject of homosexuality.

What they said was that homosexuality is written in the Bible as a sin and because of that it’s against the will of God. But, at the same time when I asked them for example, about the many occurrences of wives needing to submit to their husbands, I was told those passages are outdated and were only a sign of what was going on back in those times.

This is one of the single most frustrating things I have with so many fellow Christians these days. Many of them will claim the Bible is 100 percent the word of God and constantly throw that in my face, especially when it comes to homosexuality. But yet they never seem to apply the same rules with the many other passages that really don’t make much sense in today’s day and age either.

Take for example the fact that if we were truly living 100% by the Bible that none of us should be wearing mixed material-based clothes, having ripped pants, sporting gaudy jewelry, brandishing tattoos, touching leather, eating shrimp, consuming pork, having a clean-shaven face, cropping our hair short, and doing a bunch of other strange things as well. But when I bring any of those things up, I’m presented with the argument that those rules were in the Old Testament and were there to help bring law and order to the people during those times. What’s ironic when that point is made though is how in the midst of all those rules is another one that just so happens to be about the sin of a man lying with another man. Yet somehow that reference is usually overlooked. So, whenever I draw attention to that fact, it’s normally at this juncture I’m immediately referred back to the New Testament and to Paul who wrote several times (three to be exact), that homosexuality was immoral.

But there again, how ironic is it that it was also Paul who said those things about wives needing to submit to their husbands, no matter what. You see, back in those days, even when a woman was being abused by her husband she was still supposed to submit to him. And she was also never supposed to be a leader in any capacity nor be allowed to have a voice in worship either. In other words, women were simply meant to be submissive to men back then. And this is exactly the precise moment when so many Christians I meet will begin to argue those passages being a sign of the customs for that period of time and that they don’t apply today. But that same logic never seems to be applied by any of them to the passages about homosexuality.

This is why I truly find it sad and disconcerting when I meet someone stating they know the will of God “because it’s right there in the Bible”, yet they never even see how they have one set of rules for one set of passages, and another set of rules for another set of passages.

Look, don’t take me wrong, even though I’m sure there are some who probably already have by reading this thus far. I’ve said it before in prior writings and I’ll say it again. I love the Bible and the many positive statements that can be derived from it. But I don’t believe the Bible is 100% accurate. Rather, I feel much of what was written in it is was a sign of the times and no longer applies, such as with the position of women in society, with homosexual relationships, and with a number of other things as well. Tell this to many of the devout Christians out there though, and you’ll most likely end up in a huge debate or in some type of an argument you probably won’t win.

The unfortunate reality I’ve come across with most devout Christians who have studied the Bible extensively is that they don’t want to know anything more about God except within the scope of the Bible itself. Thus, when something arises that appears to be outside that scope it usually triggers some sort of fear within them. Fear that often leads them into those debates and arguments and fear that tends to guide them into making those statements about how some passages were a sign of the times, while others still apply today.

Nevertheless, I really am nothing more than just a speck of dust on this planet who’s trying to expand his mind and see God in far more than just from a single book. But I still follow the teachings of Christ because not once did he ever say a man should never sleep with a man, nor did He ever say that a woman needs to submit to her husband either. Rather Christ said over and over again to love one another to the best of our ability. I only wish people who say they are a devout Christian would accept this simple truth, as their words often fall far short of that.

Regardless, I honestly believe the only thing that’s really going to matter to God when we die is how best did we do down here to love each other. As for all those debates and arguments and statements about how some passages in the Bible were a sign of the times and no longer apply while others still do, maybe all of that is just our ego’s attempt at overcoming our fear of ever being wrong…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson