Barriers to Inner Guidance
Written by Barbara Dutcher
BARRIERS TO INNER GUIDANCE
If it is true (and I know it is) that we are all connected to higher knowledge – what I call The Guide Within – then why are we not all receiving guidance all the time?
What stops YOU from hearing the voice for love inside?
The greatest barriers to recognizing and hearing God’s voice within us are the same things we hold up to prevent our good in any area of life from coming to us – that is, doubt and fear.
First of all, we doubt that it’s possible to actually receive inner guidance. Many of us were told at an early age that God’s will is unknowable to humans, or at minimum, higher knowledge is only shared with certain people – maybe priests, or pastors - who then have to pass on God’s messages to us. More recently, certain authors and teachers have apparently been able to have actual conversations with God, but they are among a select group of special people, or so we may think.
Then again, we may doubt that we are worthy of communication with God. Or, we doubt the information we’re receiving, or we doubt that the message we think we heard is really something that can be trusted.
Fear of what we may hear also erects a barrier to The Guide Within. What would we hear if we really heard from God? Maybe God is angry with us for something we’ve done, and we’ll get a scolding if we listen within. We don’t want to be scolded, so we don’t listen! Or, we may be afraid that we’re only fooling ourselves with all this ‘going within for guidance’ talk. We fear we’ll lose control of our rational mind. We fear that what’s inside is not worth exploring, or is not something we want to admit about ourselves, so we resist self-discovery.
In actuality, we are all getting messages all the time, and if we can recognize doubt and fear for what they are, we can open up and begin to recognize and receive those messages. All the doubts and fears we use as barriers to hearing our inner guide have one thing in common, and that is that they are all just thoughts about reality. We are the ones who have given these thoughts all the power they have over us. We can remove that power at any time and regain our birthright of communication with The Guide Within.
If you recognize that God is just a thought away, you’ll be open to listening and watching for all the ways Spirit is communicating every day. Intuition, feelings, and hunches are excellent ways to get information that is for your highest good. In fact, any kind, loving and wise words, feelings or thoughts are straight from God. The other kinds aren’t!
In your desire to communicate with The Guide Within, remember that anything that you erect to prevent communication is just a thought. Thoughts have no power or meaning except the power and meaning you give them. All your doubts and fears cannot stop you from hearing the voice for God within. These are all just thoughts. Accepting the truth about your thoughts will help you to go beyond them and notice the many ways Spirit is already communicating with you everyday!
Article author
About the Author
Barbara Dutcher, MA, is a teacher, writer, workshop leader and certified spiritual counselor. She teaches a method for reliably accessing inner guidance, and also receives kind, loving and wise answers from Spirit for her personal counseling clients. Her website is www.theguidewithin.org.
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