Listening To God

Today many people's experience of daily life is of feeling busy. In the midst of our business how can we stay in tune and be with God? This is what discernment is:the art of listening to God.

Discernment means in all of my experiences I learn to notice my thoughts and feelings, I test them to see if they are from God, and then I make choices and decisions trying to follow what God wants of me. But first I need to become aware of my thoughts and feelings

Listening to our Thoughts

Many people experienced in the spiritual life give some simple advice to those trying to listen to God: "Be watchful of your thoughts!" Our thoughts have the potential to lead us toward God or away from God. Cassian a Monk who lived in the desert taught his disciples to watch for this pattern. "First a thought will enter, you will start a conversation with the thought, a suggestion will be made to you, a temptation will follow, a struggle will begin and then "victory or consent." Hidden within this normal experience is the desires of God, and what is not of God, trying to work themselves out within us.

Its interesting to note how we sometimes feel sad and scattered (or happy and peaceful) and we wonder why. We even use the phrase "what got into me today?"

Spiritual Sleepwalking

Often we don't notice what is going on within and around us. We become spiritually blind to God because we are inattentive to our inner life. Cassian gives some further advice:

"Stand guard at the door of your heart, and ask every suggestion that presents itself, "Are you one of ours, or from the opposing camp?"

One young man after thinking about this replied with a question: Does this mean I have to examine every single thought that I have? Not quite. Sometimes when we are lonely or sad, busy or angry, particular thoughts will begin to play on us. It is at these times that Cassian would urge us to be particularly watchful.

Cassian encourages becoming watchful and self aware so as to develop an instinctual awareness of what is happening in our spiritual life, to be like a wine-taster sniffing the bouquet of a wine, to "sniff" an experience or thought to test whether it is a good one and from God. We soon ask ourselves a basic question of discernment: How do I know when some of my thoughts and feelings are from God or not from God?