Leadings and Nontheism

Leadings and Nontheism

“Quakers and many others who are practiced in prayer and meditation have had the experience of an insistent inner voice which moves them towards a specific course of action. In the silence this voice is at first soft and gentle, but if it is not heeded it can become stronger and stronger until the course of action is clear. Quakers call this a ‘concern,’ and it is this which is the source of many of the testimonies that are later adopted by the whole of the Quaker family.”

God Knows and Loves You Personally

God Knows and Loves You Personally

“How we respond as individuals to the idea of being led, and how we respond to the actual leadings of the Holy Spirit when they come upon us, is closely related to how we feel about our own worth in God’s eyes; whether we can see ourselves as God’s beloved creations and human beings for whom Jesus Christ lived and died and lives again. In those times of my life when I have felt worst about myself and my life to date, I have been about as responsive as the rock mentioned in my journal passage: not believing that God cared, I did not believe that he would bother to lead me to say or to do any specific thing. More recently, as I have come to know God’s personal love for me experientially, I have also come to believe in and experience personal and specific divine leadings in my daily life.” 

The Grace of God Deepens our Faculties for Insight

The Grace of God Deepens our Faculties for Insight

“Most of us are given some common little jobs every day of our lives. To a very few comes the call to do something extraordinary, some great task. The world abounds in men and women who find happiness and opportunities for self-expression in being faithful in the humble stations of life which are theirs at a given time.”

You Are Never Without a Living Sense of Guidance

You Are Never Without a Living Sense of Guidance

“Turn therefore inwards, and all that is within you will demonstrate to you the presence and power of God in your soul, and make you find and feel it with the same certainty as you find and feel your own thoughts.” 

Follow Whithersoever You Are Led

Follow Whithersoever You Are Led

“One day walking alone, I felt myself so inwardly weak and feeble, that I stood still, and by the reverence that covered my mind, I knew that the hand of the Lord was on me and his presence round about, the earth was silent and all flesh brought into stillness, and light went forth with brightness, and shone on Great Britain, Ireland, and Holland, and my mind felt the gentle, yet strongly drawing cords of that love which is stronger than death, which made me say, ‘Lord! Go before, and strengthen me, and I will follow whithersoever thou leadest.'”

Spirit May Speak Gently

Spirit May Speak Gently

“May we come with hearts / and minds prepared / seeking to be still / and seeking to listen.”

What Disturbs My False Rest

What Disturbs My False Rest

“Thus I continued still in vanity and folly, with intervals of deep distress and mournings, a short space longer, that is, till the winter of the year 1770, when, being about nineteen years old, I became more fully and clearly convinced, and that very much by the immediate operations, illuminations, and openings of divine light in my own mind, that this inward something, which had been thus long and powerfully striving with me, disturbing my every false rest, confusing every false and sin-flattering imagination of flesh and blood, or of the grand adversary, and enjoining it upon me to give up all, and walk in the ways of virtue and true self-denial, was the true and living spirit and power of the eternal God.”

Knowing We Need to Change Is Not Sufficient to Compel Change

Knowing We Need to Change Is Not Sufficient to Compel Change

“No one is forced to pay attention to what the Light exposes. Just as we can close our outward, physical eyes to those things in the ordinary world that we find unpleasant and don’t want to see, we have the ability to close our inward, spiritual eyes and turn away from what the Light of Christ reveals inside us.” 

Friends Explain Quaker Discernment

Friends Explain Quaker Discernment

“For me, discernment is the core technology of Quakerism. It is the thing that we learn to do and that our faith supports. And that is to thresh through the complexity of life and find the kernel, find the root, find the way: the way for me today, at this moment.”

That True Vibration Inside of You

That True Vibration Inside of You

“You think that you have a leading, but your ego takes over, or your will takes over, and you need community to be with you to help discern what is really coming through. Not for the community to tell you what’s coming through, but to reflect back to you what they’re hearing. Because you’re the one that needs to determine what that true vibration is inside of you.”

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