Cooperating with God

How to Deliver God's Gifts to People

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Introduction: Living the Life Divine

Attunement: Hearing the Still Small voice of God

Allowing: Going with the Divine Wind

Surrendering: Doing It God's Way

Surrender: The Eternal Way of Divine Living

You: God's Plan for Humanity Salvation and YOU

1. Introduction: Living the Life Divine

"Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace." That beautiful prayer perfectly expresses the most heartfelt desire of every child of God. Doing God's work is our highest purpose, our true spiritual mission. But how can we FULFILL that mission? By learning to live a life in which God DIRECTS, and we DO. In that Life Divine, guided by the unseen hand of heaven, we follow Divine impulse; we deliver "God's mail" to people; we transmit Divine blessings. That graceful cooperation between Creator and creature IS our ultimate spiritual destiny.

In this article, we will consider how to actually LIVE that Life Divine. First, let's deeply consider the basics.

Without a doubt, the real Life Divine, the truly inspired spiritual life, is GOD'S life -- lived THROUGH human agents on earth. God literally depends on human beings -- people like us -- to deliver His mail and distribute His gifts of love, comfort, reassurance, healing. Our part is to act not JUST in accord with His will in a general sense, but ALSO under His present and specific guidance. Specifically, our part may be described as follows:

•

•

•

Convey God's Love TO those God picks out for us.

Move immediately with the spirit wind. And,

Deliver God's mail INTACT (that is, in the spirit in which it was given -- WITHOUT personal concern, impurity, or modification).

Such is the life of cooperation between man and God. In that life, we TRULY "let go and let God." To live His Way, we must get our ego stuff -- hyper-control, pride, selfishness, attachment, etc. -- out of the way. Then we must follow the Divine impulse FAITHFULLY -- in every sense of that word.

All three meanings are essential, but the last one deserves special attention.

The responsibility for high-fidelity transmission

You know the saying, "It's not what you do, it's how you do it." How we should do God's work is God's business, not ours. To live the Life Divine, we must do it GOD'S way, not OUR way. No one can cooperate effectively with God otherwise.

With every Divine prompting, God provides not only the WHAT, but also the HOW. In each instance, God knows exactly what to do, and exactly how best to do it. And God's HOW is subtle. Sublime details -- subtle nuances of tone, perfect timing, Godly intentions -- these factors make God's suggestions work marvelously. His guidance, if FAITHFULLY followed, is perfect -- unerring.

Consequently, when it comes to Divine guidance, God is perfectly clear and strong on the HOW factor. Yes, indeed! He doesn't just give the impulse to pat someone on the back for Him -- He also provides the tenderness, and the healing energy to give that little pat WITH. And isn't it OBVIOUS that a pat delivered God's Way is a particularly healing pat? That Divine HOW is PRECISELY what gives His pat on the back such marvelous healing power. Of course!

Now you know why, when it comes to following Divine inspiration -- or delivering God's mail -- we must do it God's Way, EXACTLY. Only if God's promptings are followed AS IS -- without modification -- can they be expected to work as God intends. Therefore, though this admonition seems daunting at first, we can't overemphasize this fact:

When it comes to doing God's bidding, changing the nature
or tone of the proposed action -- in any way -- is an error.

The mailman has no right to re-write the letter he conveys. The delivery person has no business modifying the gift. So let it be with God's "mail." Even withholding part of the ENERGY of God's action is an error. After all, God knows that both love and energy are required for healing. Therefore, once again:

To do it God's way -- exactly -- is the ONLY way
to deliver God's mail properly.

Who died and left you -- or me, or ancient scriptures -- boss?

Now you know exactly why the Life Divine can never be lived effectively as a matter of rote formula or mere behavioral patterns. Humans can write down and commit to memory ANY idea or theory of right living, but God -- the living God -- has the last Word. The last Word of God can't be found in an ancient scripture, because God is still alive and kicking, and He has not finished speaking. Moreover, He is not merely elsewhere; He is right here, right now. So, He can easily address the situations at hand -- and He DOES. In His infinite and exquisitely context-sensitive wisdom, He addresses the immediate conditions and meets the personal needs of His audience, individually, in real time. That's why Divine Rightness is not just right on the surface: it's deeply right, through and through.

So, again: God's last Word is His PRESENT Word, His present guidance -- whispered in your ear, right now. It's the word of the still small voice. THAT Word is the ultimate in rightness, in appropriate action, in healing power. Receive God's counsel fresh, and serve it while it's hot.

Relevance is time-specific, case specific

If the question is how to live a Godly Life, the answer is as follows:

1.

2.

3.

Listen for God's PRESENT instructions.

Do what God tells you to do -- AND

Do it exactly the WAY He tells you to do it -- insofar as humanly possible, of course. (We know this third point sounds like it's not a separate point from the second one, but when you see how important it is, and how much there is to say about it, this distinction will make sense to you.)

2. Attunement: Hearing the Still Small Voice of God

All who aspire to right action, remember this simple truth: The good works that we human beings perform on our own account -- using our personal energies and individual judgment -- are inevitably flawed. Even with our best intentions, our actions are limited in terms of how right, how beautiful, how uplifting, how appropriate, how relevant they can be. Consider the source! We mortals, in and of ourselves, are limited in the scope, depth, and subtlety of our understanding, and even, perhaps, in the purity of our best intentions.

God, on the other hand, has no such limitations. It should come as no surprise, then, that ultimately, cosmic rightness arises only from Divine nature, NOT from mortal nature. And accordingly, it makes perfect sense that Divine guidance is indispensable for any life Divinely lived. In this respect, the best and most effective action can ONLY be God-directed, Divinely inspired.

Creature power meets Divine power

God is always speaking, but who's listening? And even when we try to listen, our connection may not be clear enough for His messages to get through. If we want to do His will, we need to face this fact: God's guidance is useful to us ONLY to the extent that we are Divinely attuned. Fortunately, how attuned we are is totally up to us. We CAN tune ourselves up.

First of all, our personal effort at right living constitutes an indispensable prerequisite for Divine attunement. A morally dubious life not only disturbs the peace around us, but within us as well. Such a life agitates the mind, thereby drowning out the soft-spoken suggestions of Spirit. Consequently, as long as we indulge in wrong living, we're in no position to HEAR Divine promptings. Further, until we exert ourselves personally for goodness' sake, we remain ill-prepared to FOLLOW Divine promptings. For example, when we spend our days in self-created problems, the true goodness that is of God, and that characterizes all Divine promptings, feels more or less hypocritical to us. At such times, we can hardly RELATE to true goodness -- much less CONVEY it.

How attunement grows

In contrast, sensitivity to Divine direction grows quickly when we do our very best, as human beings with our own power, to do good. We CAN, for example, serve. We can try our best to address the needs of others as we see them. Through such dedicated efforts, we progressively escape the shadows of selfishness and unwillingness. We find, before long, that we spend FAR less time stewing over things. We find, eventually, that we are rarely troubled or defensive. We now spend practically no time planning our defense -- because we're not in trouble, nor do we expect to be. The mind has relaxed.

In that more peaceful mind, there's room to hear Divine promptings. And by now, the surrender and willingness we've developed by obeying our own conscience has prepared us to more consistently obey Divine direction. So, as we sincerely consecrate our will to the doing of God's will and more deeply commit ourselves to right living in that sense, we naturally begin to notice strong Divine impulses arising within us -- impulses we can clearly recognize as being of Divine ordination. Happy day!

Getting ready, willing, and able

After adjusting our ethics, the next increment of attunement results from further adjusting priorities. When it comes to following Divine direction, personal agendas rarely help, and almost always hinder. If you really want to sail by the Divine wind, you have to let go of whatever ELSE you have in mind, right now and right now. Imagine you are trying to dance AND, at the same time, to re-arrange the contents of your briefcase. Clearly, under those conditions, it would be difficult to elegantly and freely dance. Likewise, if you want to seamlessly follow God's lead, you can't be dancing to the beat of any OTHER drummer. That means, you must let go of your attachment to personal plans and purposes. You must be not only receptive, but also free, ready, and willing to respond to God's call -- and come down the fire pole ON CUE.

Separating the wheat from the chaff

Thoughts and inspirations abound in us -- some good, others not so good; some of ego, some of God. Clearly then, when it comes to inspired action, the first challenge is knowing WHICH inspirations to follow, and which to disregard. To act with confidence, we need to be SURE that the inspiration is coming from the right place -- from the right motivation and source. We simply MUST develop the ability to clearly distinguish between a true spiritual inspiration that SHOULD be followed, and egoic impulses (which, generally, SHOULD be ignored).

Here is a sure way to identify a true spiritual inspiration: It feels sweet and blissful when it first crosses your mind. It fills your body with a good feeling. And, conversely, an ordinary lower mind impulse -- like "I'd like to tell him he's an idiot" or even, "I'd like to jump his bones" -- feels problematical when it first arrives -- EVEN when it is accompanied by giddy excitement. Note carefully: We are best off judging the validity of the idea by the way it feels ON ARRIVAL. Intuition is 20-20, but as you can imagine, if we analyze it at length, who KNOWS what confused conclusions we could talk ourselves into!

Most importantly, if our spiritual discernment is to be keen, the METHOD we use for decision-making must SUPPORT keenness. Generally, the optimal method is light, bright, and brief. It is light enough to avoid interrupting Divine attunement and brief enough to allow inspiration to remain vibrant, alive and virtually unchanged AFTER the "processing" is done.

The optimal use of mind for Divine attunement is more of a feeling gesture of the higher mind than a process of cogitation in the lower mind. Accurate discernments result from intuitive recognition rather than ponderous mental processing. Accordingly, we do well to develop the intuitive ability to FEEL the rightness of what is right, the wrongness of what is wrong, and the neutrality of what is useless, unhelpful, insignificant and impotent. Developing feeling sensitivity avoids the pitfalls of excessive analysis, and speeds us reliably upward.

Reaching high enough to hold God's hand

The achievement of living SENSITIVITY to Divine prompting is no small feat: it fulfills the soul's search for Real Rightness. How sweet it is, to finally hold the hand of God! Though it may take some effort to raise oneself up to the level of clarity and vibrancy that provides such sensitivity, the benefits FAR outweigh the costs. You can use the following chart to guide your efforts to increase sensitivity to the still small voice of God within.

What to increase

What to release

Increase your commitment and alignment to Godly intentions. God's purposes are the best of purposes; God's intentions are the best of intentions. Take the time to sincerely align your spirit with the Spirit of God by making a real commitment to living His Way.

Relax and release commitment to plans and purposes of a lower order. It's my way (that is, the ego's way) OR the High Way (God's Way). There's no way to live a life that is both selfish and Divine. Consequently, letting go of selfish plans and purposes is essential. It frees up the energy and the will required to live God's way.

Increase your vibrancy. Do whatever energizes your body, and whatever lightens and brightens your spirit. That will bring you into higher consciousness -- to a level of sensitivity to the still small voice; to a level where you can feel, strongly, the movement of the Divine wind within.

Release bad habits that depress energy. Let go of depressing negative thought and draining self-conflict. Release the habits of wrongdoing that produce guilt and destroy peace. Let go of automatic reactions against higher energy when it arises. Let go of the judgments and fears that CAUSE resistance reactions, tightening, weakness, insecurity or refusal.

Increase your intention and attention in listening for the voice of God. Develop the skill and the practice of listening for the promptings of God within. Listen to the still small voice, recognizing that the still small voice communicates largely through feelings and through movements that are sublime and not verbal in nature.

Release lower distractions, attractions, compulsions, purposes. It's impossible to fill a full cup. To maximize receptivity to Divine inspiration, we must release lower-mind ideas, animal impulses, attachment-based drives, and lower desires of all kinds. We need to let go of impulses that come from lower mind -- including egoic preferences -- and release impulses and reactions of animal-survivalistic nature.

Increase your discernment in recognizing Divine prompting AS SUCH. Be non-judgmental and non-censorious of Divine promptings. Recognize that if the impulse is nectarian in nature, that's good enough. Understand that God is very broad and open-minded in the ways He plays on the keys of the human mechanism, working through life in innumerable ways, and utilizing every possible function of the human entity, not just whatever you think is sanctimonious and "appropriate."

Release the subtle arrogance inherent in EDITING God's promptings. Don't pass judgment on each and every prompting according to your personal perception of its nature, or your personal preferences. Abandon the intellectual narrowness by which you may be tempted to believe that God acts ONLY in certain ways, and utilizes ONLY certain human faculties. In truth, God can and does use every function we have. So let go of preconceptions about the range of possible movements of Spirit. Release all preconceptions that dim your recognition of God's prompting AS SUCH.

Increase your willingness to move with the Spirit -- both WHEN it moves, and HOW it moves. Build confidence in God's infallible guidance, and your ability to hear and obey it, by faithfully following instructions as received.

Release any and all resistance to going freely with God's flow -- regardless of its apparent cause or justification. Don't desensitize yourself to inner promptings by developing the habit of ignoring, dismissing, or rationalizing them away.

3. Allowing: Going with the Divine Wind

As well-intentioned human beings, as would-be lovers, and as willing servants of God, we stand at a crossroads. Exactly here, human realities and Divine Realities intersect. We feel the stirring of God within; we feel the Divine impulses. And of course, we also feel impulses of lower nature. What happens next? What IS the responsibility of a human being who stands at this intersection of powers? How do we HANDLE the various impulses we feel? And finally, how does our response to various impulses affect the quality of life?

A new way of taking responsibility

Allowing represents a new and higher way to take personal responsibility: to COOPERATE with God. As you know, whenever mortals think about responsibility, they tend to think in more or less PRODIGAL terms. For example: "How can I decide on the right thing to do, and how can I do right?" But, ironically, the tendency to "think for ourselves" -- APART from God -- is precisely what keeps us from being effective agents of God.

When the question arises in a mortal mind, "How can I figure it out? How can I do right?" The bad news is: "You can't -- absolutely not." But the good news is, you don't HAVE to act on your own. And, as long as you work in responsible cooperation with God, your effectiveness is Divinely guaranteed. This new, improved form of responsibility -- COOPERATIVE responsibility -- completely overcomes the problems of isolated decision-making, and the limitations of isolated action. This is God's solution for man -- and it works!

In the Life Divine, the human decision-maker may act in an assertive fashion at times, but he is primarily RECEPTIVE. With the help of Divine prompting, he makes correct decisions easily. And that's exactly how the child of God, functioning in direct cooperation with God, "takes responsibility."

From the point of view of ordinary, sovereign living, this cooperative idea of responsibility is NEW. It's not just evolutionary -- it's revolutionary. It means that the Godly decision maker is no longer stuck with, and limited by, that little "i." In virtually all significant decisions, such a person relies on a Higher Power for his Muse. This is good.

SOUL responsibility is never SOLE responsibility

The world's best and most reliable news is this: God is here to help. God WILL tell you what to do, from day to day and hour to hour. God will provide you with EVERYTHING you need to do His bidding. Everything, that is, except the willingness to do so. That comes from you, and you alone.

Trust God. God guides us completely, and perfectly. God knows PERFECTLY WELL what to do: when, how, and why. We need only to follow His blueprint: doing WHAT we're told, WHEN we're told to do it, in the spirit we're told to do it WITH -- and, last but not least, with the ENERGY that comes in the package. We only need faith in the fact that if we follow God's instructions, things will come out for the best. For if we lack that faith, our doubt will mess things up.

When we have FAITH that God will tell us what to do, and CONFIDENCE that what God tells us to do will work Divinely, we're RELIEVED of the burden of sole responsibility based on solo effort. "My yoke is light," says Christ. We bear a MUCH lighter load in taking cooperative responsibility. We no longer suffer the illusion that we HAVE to know everything, DO everything, etc. We simply need to know, based on faith, that we will be told the right thing to do. Then, we have no worry about coming up with the right mood and energy to pull it off. God's action will work -- no doubt! Every child of God can be supremely effective when faithfully following the promptings of the still small voice.

The first step of allowing: Vote yes or no

When it comes to FOLLOWING God's lead, God proposes, and truly, man disposes. We can and will decide what to allow, and what NOT to allow. At least in that respect, the buck definitely stops with us. And God is forever respectful of the free will of His children.

As persons entrusted with the power to vote for or against any Divine directive, we are like executives. We've got a thousand questions coming at us daily. In this case, those represent a myriad of Divine impulses to act on or not. Each decision is right now: Buy! Sell! Do! Refuse!

Too numerous to ponder for long, executive decisions are necessarily spontaneous, often made on pure intuition. Luther Burbank was a great executive decision maker. On his farms, he walked at full speed by row after row of trees, tossing a ribbon at every tree he deemed worthy of saving for its genetic promise: more fruit; more height; more leaves. With those speedy intuitive decisions, he bred the Santa Rosa plum, the Shasta daisy, the Burbank potato, cactuses without spikes -- hundreds of botanical improvements. Surely, the hand that threw those ribbons was guided by another, unseen Hand. We can tap into the same Genius that directed Burbank, if we just get out of the way.

The second step of allowing: Doing it His way

If we're going to implement on a Divine prompting and we want it to WORK, we've got to do it God's way. Fortunately, every inspiration, every Divine prompting comes complete with EVERYTHING needed to do it successfully:

The timing: WHEN to do it.

The tone or mood: HOW do it. The feeling or mood that is to be conveyed.

The energy: The POWER to do it with. Ample energy-wind that comes with true inspiration.

Our job is to implement on God's promptings EXACTLY AS THEY ARE. That's doing it God's way.

4. Surrendering: Doing it God's Way

The way we live is a "make-or-buy" decision. Make it our way, or buy God's Way. The best choice? Buy! Don't try to MAKE others happy; BUY the fact that God knows how to make them happy. So do it His Way.

As you know, it's not enough to hear the still small voice. It's not even enough to roughly implement God's inspirations. Usually, our mortal habits of thinking and doing get in the way of manifesting anything truly Godly. That's why our true mandate is to carry out God's promptings exactly as given. That's doing it God's way.

But we need a radically new approach to allow for the beauty God intended. We need real surrender. And we must get out of the way right from the start.

Low fidelity copies of Divine impulses

Normally, when we try to dance to God's tune, we can count on this: God proposes, ego opposes. God acts, ego counter-acts. God quickens, ego sickens. How quickly that meddling ego-I takes over, if given a chance! And, in everything it does, with every twist and turn, it degrades Divine inspiration.

If we feel intimidated by what God seems to be asking us to do, we'll naturally worry, "This is going to be hard to pull off." Or, "How should I do this?" Or, compensating for the worry: "I'm gonna DO this, come hell or high water!" But surely, ALL such thoughts are too much about me, and not enough about thee, to properly channel Divine love.

Shoe in heaven, shoe on earth. For every shoe in heaven, there's an earthly cobbler who would gladly remove its soul. That cobbler is the ego. Ego -- being faithless, fearful, and self-protectively controlling -- routinely engages in the bad habit of second-guessing Divine inspirations. The moment it gets involved, ego asks, "With this inspiration, has God has given me bad advice, and set me up embarrass myself?" Often, such doubts result in an outright refusal to obey the still small voice. But they may also lead, at times, to a bastardized attempt to comply: delivering the mail, but doing it differently than God suggested. Foolish move, that! Whenever ego edits God's action, it reduces the goodness. ALL egoic modifications of Divine action do that.

Hesitation is another side effect of doubt. Ego has no trouble selling us a tiny postponement -- for "safety's sake." But look at the cost: Even the most beautiful Divine purposes can be sabotaged with hesitation. One flow-stopping moment of delay, and what's valuable in the action disappears. Gone is the wave of inspiration. Gone is its living higher power, its nectarian tone. And certainly, if we try to follow a Divine impulse after we've let it wilt on the vine, we will be disappointed. It lacks the uplifting quality of the original Divine Intent.

Releasing concern

Possibly, concern is the most insidious -- and thus most troublesome -- obstruction to Godly action. It's so EASY to get concerned! Maybe we feel concerned about our ability to pull off our God-given mission. Maybe we wonder how we'll LOOK. We may doubt the recipient will respond well. But, no matter what form our concerns may take, or how reasonable they may seem, they ALL jeopardize our performance of God's work. When a Divine impulse arrives, it is pure, beautiful, sublime. A few seconds of chilling concern suffice to douse that flame -- losing much, if not all, of the healing power.

Concerns may be natural enough, but they're not SUPERnatural enough. The supernatural begins where the natural ends. God's work is supernatural, not natural. Do you want to cooperate directly with God? If so, no matter how "natural" concern may be, you must release it the INSTANT it appears.

How ego warns us about what it does

Ego doesn't mind if we understand the grave dangers of ego-influenced action. In fact, it wants us to -- so it can recommend that we refrain from acting on that account. Ego has a good point: Once a potential action has been polluted with fear, whatever happens thereafter will not be what God intended it to be. We still might go ahead with it -- recklessly, with little hope for success. But more likely, because of our uncertainty, we decide there's no sense proceeding -- and we take no action.

Beware! It's a trap! If we fall for it, we may feel totally justified in passing up most if not all of our Divine opportunities. In the good name of avoiding the bad effects of wrongness, we can always NOT act. But what about the marvelous possibilities of rightness? Surely, they will NEVER be achieved by choosing inaction.

We can agree with ego on this point:

Don't proceed in fear, only to create ugliness.

But with the following admonition, Spirit starts to diverge:

Don't collapse in fear, making no attempt
to deliver God's gifts whatsoever.

And this final assertion, the path of Spirit directly contradicts the way of ego:

Proceed -- in faith, joy, and confidence.
That ALONE allows us to participate
in the creation of Divine beauty.

You see, while ego doesn't want good to happen, spirit passionately DOES. No one who wishes to live God's way can rest content with a diet consisting exclusively of DON'TS. Spirit will never condone JUST avoiding wrongness. It WILL proceed -- RIGHTLY.

The ways and means of surrender

Surrender is our only hope to escape the pitfalls we've just reviewed. What is surrender? In Divine obedience, surrender means not changing God's messages or not modifying His gifts in the process of delivering them. It means not indulging in any amount or any form of egoic resistance. It means letting go of every intention or action that would prevent, complicate, distract from, or otherwise obstruct our Divine deliverance. In short, surrender is JUST doing, the way God would have us do.

Surrender is uncomplicated. And because it is uncomplicated, it can afford to be fastidious. Here, in a nutshell, is how to implement God's will properly:

Act immediately, unhesitatingly. Everyone knows that for best results, we must strike while the iron's hot. Particularly when it comes to Divine prompting, timing is crucial. The right time to implement on Divine prompting is NOW -- immediately! We are to go right with the flow.

Preserve the Godly tone and spirit. To serve Divine purposes well, we must be direct channels of Divinity -- not bumbling re-creators of Divine ideas. Don't allow the ego to undermine God's prompting by creating a poor, crippled facsimile of it -- as a concession, perhaps, to cowardice. Any time we take a lovely Divine impulse and crossbreed it with mortal fear, the offspring will be ugly -- or at least unsatisfactory. In that case, cosmic value is lost. For Godly results, we must implement God impulses faithfully -- just as they ARE.

Plug in to the "higher POWER." There's a good reason why the Higher Power is described as such: God is no wimp. God is FULL, POWERFUL -- cosmically PASSIONATE, even! But when we feel the Divine wind of inspiration, and tingle with a sudden influx of Heaven-sent energy, we may think that its power is "excessive" -- and pull our punches. That's NOT the way! Divine power God packs with each prompting is precisely the amount needed to get the job done. It's the energy required to heal, to inspire, to uplift. So, just as we should NOT change the spirit or tone of God's gift, we should not adjust (turn down) its power or volume. Convey the included power IN FULL. If God's inspiration is forceful, then let it be forceful! Don't turn down God's power -- USE it. That's an ESSENTIAL part of doing it God's way.

Let go and let God

"Let go and let God" -- often repeated, and half-heartedly practiced, but rarely mastered! Even so, "Let go and let God" IS the basic recipe for spiritual surrender. It's the ONLY way to deliver God's mail EXACTLY as He intends. So it's TRULY worth perfecting!

God's wondrous gifts can remain pure only if we LET GO of everything that ego adds and ignore everything ego recommends (including doubt, fear, and concern). And then, of course, LET GOD by proceeding DIRECTLY into active, surrendered deliverance. There's no other way to deliver God's mail AS HE INTENDED.

Here's a bit more explanation regarding LET GO and LET GOD:

Let go. HOW do we "let go"? The RELEASE aspect of surrender resembles physical relaxation. The massage therapist says to the patient, "Relax." The patient asks, "How? I don't know how to relax." The massage therapist replies, "'Relaxing' is not something you DO. But you will relax when you just quit trying to do anything else. So stop TENSING. Stop HELPING." We relax when we stop worrying and wondering, reacting and contracting, shying away and defending against whatever's happening. We relax when we are not controlling, manipulating, and meddling. The release aspect of surrender works exactly the same way.

Let God. HOW do we "let God"? The ALLOWING aspect of surrender is like going with the beat in dancing to music. But in this case, it is not the music that's moving you -- it's the power of God. Move with it! When the Divine force comes, go WITH it; don't go WITHOUT it. LET it move you. And let it move THROUGH you, TO others. LET Spirit work.

So you see, the process of surrendering is simply to let go, and to let go some more. When mind stuff arises, don't get into it. Instead, continuously release it. Let it all go. Shine it on, and proceed without it.

SurrenderING -- as a process -- is the way to achieve the condition known as SURRENDER. In surrendering, you simply let yourself go with the flow; YOU GIVE YOURSELF OVER TO IT. You surrender because you recognize that the Life Divine is God's work, God's activity. The Life Divine is truly, absolutely, a Divine Process. No human being is CAPABLE of being in charge of it. It is independently active, always. It is a Divine Invention, with its own Divine Intention -- complete with its own special pattern, process, and intelligence. It is, in reality, Pure Grace.

You can SEE the exquisite beauty that God is up to. You can SEE the sublime efficacy of His work. When you REALIZE that you can create beauty WITH God, you no longer prefer to act in that old sovereign way. You want to participate, but you also choose to remain surrendered as you participate. You continue on in the role of the detached observer, the happy servant -- and yes, the passionate lover. That way, God can continue on, having His perfect way with you. Thereafter, God is always busy having God's way with you -- and through you.

What to increase

What to release

Let God. Do as God would have it be done. Let God work through you, in the spirit of each original impulse -- without lowering it, modifying it, twisting, dismissing it. Do that.

Let go. Release the tendency to control or modify the Divine Impulse. Let go of any tendency to obstruct it, or resist it, or block it, or refuse it. Let go of the desire to save face. Let go of the desire to do it your way, and do it God's Way instead.

5. Surrender: The Eternal Way of Divine Living

A lot of people think they have to be perfect, or enlightened, or egoless to hear the still small voice. Not true! We need only be OBEDIENT. Surrender NOW; become a perfect person LATER.

You surrender, and then beyond that, you surrender, and beyond that, you surrender again. You surrender until something truly remarkable happens -- you ARE surrendered. Thereafter, you proceed AS surrender. Thus, surrender becomes your state, the condition of your existence on Earth. Surrender is the condition and state of ALL enlightened people everywhere.

The PROCESS of surrendering awakens that Divinely liberating process in which surrender becomes your constant realization, your ongoing life, your final state and condition. Surrender is the Eternal Way. It is the Undoing of the human-powered way that never worked. It is the merciful conclusion of the self-limiting propensity to try to perfect oneself as a prodigal son. Surrender liberates us from all prodigal tendencies -- not as a result of what WE do, but rather, as a Divine Response to our ongoing gesture of surrender.

The difference between surrendering and surrender

Note the difference between surrendering -- the verb -- and being surrendered. SurrenderING is something you do. And you keep doing it until you ARE truly surrendered. True surrender, on the other hand, is the conclusive realization of the condition of surrender. It is not an effort. It is not a gift that you have given, and are about to take back. A person who IS surrendered does not keep on actively surrenderING. That person is always ALREADY surrendered, you see? When surrender becomes continuous, surrendering ceases to be. SURRENDERing -- as a personal action -- is now obsolete.

In this sense, true surrender is the absence of surrendering. More precisely, it's the absence of the tendency to seize control in those old sovereign and prodigal ways, and then, on that basis, HAVING TO surrender once more. That need is undone once SURRENDERING has become SURRENDER.

Until then, surrenderING is the way. It is the ONLY path to the realization of the Life Divine -- the condition of SURRENDER.

What surrender is NOT

1.

Surrender is not going limp.

Spiritual surrender or surrender to Divine power is ACTIVE surrender to life. It's NOT giving up, or going limp. Total passivity is the opposite of going with the flow. Passivity actually stops the flow -- by giving it no place to go.

True surrender is an active, dynamic process.

2.

Surrender is not personal annihilation.

Surrender is not personality obliteration -- permanent or even temporary. It is irrational to fear surrendering to Divine power, any more than we fear going to sleep. In fact, surrendering to the Divine power is really much less radical than sleeping. Every night we throw ourselves into some cosmic void. Then, every morning, we mysteriously awaken. But during surrender, we remain fully conscious. Ordinarily, at no point in this fundamental process of "going with God" do we experience loss of personality awareness.

When a child is being thrown into the air squealing with delight, the child is very much awake, very much alert and alive -- continuing in full consciousness, full existence, and full delight. All of this happens concurrently with the experience of surrender. The child is neither non-existent nor resistant. More likely, the child is even demanding: "Do it again. Do it again. Do it again!" Yet, taken as a whole, THAT is going with.

Surrender is fully compatible with personality existence. How
could there be surrender unless there was an entity to surrender?

3.

Surrender is not the loss of sovereign power, control, decision, or choice.

There is no loss of control throughout the process of Divine direction. God has the go power, but the creature retains the no power, the veto. The creature can always direct the flow, and the creature can always stop the flow, at will. You go with it as long as you're willing; you stop it when you want.

So you see, when it comes to this cooperative relationship between man and God, God is at the effect of man. He stands at the receiving end of our decisions. We think of God's power as infinite, but paradoxically, we realize that we are in total control of that power -- by how much we invoke it, how much we deny it or control it, and how much we extend it into action.

Surrender is a conscious choice-a choice
that can only be made by the exercise of free will.

4.

Surrender isn't "hard work."

Surrender is not the kind of hard work that happens when we are trying hard to surrender, while resisting surrender at the same time.

In truly surrendered action,
the power comes less from human effort,
and more from Divine empowerment.

6. You: God's plan for humanity salvation, and YOU

With so many spiritual teachings proclaiming the need to get self out of the way, it's easy to get the wrong idea: that human personality, in and of itself, is a problem -- and that, consequently, spiritual progress means progressive self-annihilation. Heaven forbid!

Are WE, as individual children of God, fundamentally bad and wrong? Do we, as personality beings, need to disappear completely for spiritual enlightenment to occur, and for God to be pleased? Are YOU God's mistake? Is anyone ELSE God's mistake? NO! Nothing could be further from the truth. People are okay with God. The Creator does good work. And He LOVES His precious children, each and every one.

What unique beauty each one of us brings to the stage of life as the unique individuals that we are! Personality is an eternal value the universe always preserves. And what of God's love? God showers the same love to all, shines the same light on all, but at the same time, as a Divine parent, He takes special delight in each unique flower in His garden.

Consider your friends, each one. The fact that you see the significance and preciousness of each individual in your sphere can only mean one thing: You have the Heart of God. We all do! At funerals, people frequently recognize the unique eternal value of human personality value, saying, "We loved old Uncle Louis. There was never anyone like him, and there never will be again. Such a loss to this world, his passing!" Every human individual is like a unique species -- the ONLY living example of its kind. It would be an irreparable loss if the universe were to lose a single one of God's unique children.

Surely, then, the goal of evolution is NOT self-erasure. Yes, EGOTISM gets in the way. Of course, SELFISHNESS must go. But hold it right there! We should always make a clear distinction between the disease and its carrier -- the person who may, for the time being, be infected by it. Sure, the disease needs to go, but NOT the patient!

Remember, egotism has nothing to do with personality -- except insofar as ego HIDES true personality, and brings out negative aberrations of otherwise beautiful qualities. But once a person escapes the influence of lower tendencies -- including animalistic drives and egotism, we finally see who God had in mind. His child now shines brightly, as a unique and perfectly loveable personality. This is the perfect child that God created him or her to be. And every child of God has work to do -- GOD'S work.

Where you come in

This brings us to God's plan for planetary salvation -- which is exactly where YOU come in. In God's plan for global healing, human cooperation is ESSENTIAL. Indeed, there's a cosmic need for YOUR part. YOU have a part to play in the implementation of that plan that no one else can possibly play. YOU have a unique and indispensable contribution to make in the cosmic process of bringing the planet to a condition of light and love. Let us try to explain WHY.

Why both God and humanity have a cosmic need for YOU

Certain aspects of personality existence are EXACTLY what God needs to liberate a given individual from something. Here's a brief explanation of the reasons why YOU are needed to help in cosmic healing.

1. The significance of YOU doing it. People don't particularly care if an angel did some wonderful thing. Big deal! Angels always do wonderful things. But everyone is buoyed up if an ordinary person excels. Or hey, let's take an extreme case: What if some "jerk," some "nobody," some "ne'er do well" did a wonderful thing? Wow! THAT REALLY counts. IT spells HOPE! Just think: If THAT never happened, what could possibly revolutionize or upgrade a dismal view of people?

Perhaps some people would be cosmically RELIEVED if, by doing something beautiful, you prove them wrong about YOU (and perhaps, by extension, about every OTHER person they have categorically lumped in with you). Now THAT'S healing power.

In this respect, it's disability that counts: The more of a slacker you've been, or the more they've got you wrong, the more power and potential you have to show people the real truth about human potential -- and Divine mercy.

So you see, it takes all kinds to raise a planet. Without YOU, God is going to have a heck of time helping and healing the people that, quite possibly, only YOU can help.

2. Call us human, but as humans, we HAVE our biases and our preferences. Here's another reason why personality is crucial. Virtually everyone is more open to God's light when it shines through one form than another. While there are downsides to this matter of preference, preference has powerful advantages, too. And God is happy to put those advantages to Divine use.

For example, because humans prefer humans and listen to humans, Jesus appeared in human form. Similarly, most men prefer women, and most women prefer men. Even more specifically, a child is most open to his mother. And finally, we all prefer SOME persons over others, as illustrated in this familiar situation: "YOU talk to him -- he won't listen to me, but he'll listen to you."

Each individual is like a lens through which the light of God can shine. There is no such thing as a perfectly transparent -- or colorless -- individual. Rather, each individual imparts a unique color to God's light as it passes through.

Perhaps I enjoy the color of love that shines through the filter called BOB -- or MARY. Then Bob or Mary are uniquely qualified to help me, yes? I will drink of the sublime hue provided by those particular filters because it pleases my soul. You see, now, why the personality-being has a dignified and important role to play in the conveyance of God's gifts, in the outworking of Divine intention?

Eliminate, or illuminate?

True, selfishness renders humans almost opaque to the light of God. The light can barely shine through. But as selfishness recedes, what was opaque becomes transmissive -- translucent. We see the Divinity in someone, and we see THEM -- the magnificent spirit God created them to be. So, the quality of translucence doesn't ELIMINATE the personality uniqueness -- it only ILLUMINATES it. What can be more beautiful than the light of God shining through -- and indeed AS -- a human personality?

So, "Don't BE" is NOT God's Way. God's way is "Be YOU. Be the you I created." We need to be transmissive, but not perfectly transparent. In fact, it may be BEST for us to be translucent, because people need what we ARE.

That's why the inference that YOU, as an entity, are bad and wrong, is ABSOLUTELY erroneous. You be you. And let God's light shine through you. That's the Way of God.

Table of Contents

E-mail this article to a friend