Open to the spirit

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How do you know when you are being guided by the spirit?

I am having to make some decisions that will affect my family as well as myself. I have been advised to be open to the spirit and go where the spirit leads.

But how do you know when you are being lead by the spirit and not being lead by your own will?
 
good question, and I would also like to know about this in order to answer others. 🙂 Personnally, sometimes I know sometimes I don’t know if I am following my own will or God’s will. It depends on case by case.

The main question I would ask is whichever decision I make, it must be for God; however, even if it is for God, it might not be His Will. Because of that, I pray this prayer:

Thomas Merton’s Prayer:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I k now that if I do this you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the sahdow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
 
How do you know when you are being guided by the spirit?

I am having to make some decisions that will affect my family as well as myself. I have been advised to be open to the spirit and go where the spirit leads.

But how do you know when you are being lead by the spirit and not being lead by your own will?
I pray and ask the Lord to make the decision for me…to make it so clear that I don’t have any option but to follow His direction.
 
One thing that I consider is the fruits of the Holy Spirit:
  • Charity
  • Joy
  • Peace
  • Patience
  • Goodness
  • Generosity
  • Gentleness
  • Faithfulness
  • Modesty
  • Self-control
  • Chastity
If a decision would lead me toward an increase of those qualities (either in my personal life or in the world) then I think the Spirit is leading me. If a decision would lead toward a decrease in those qualities, then I think it is not of the Spirit.
 
How do you know when you are being guided by the spirit?

I am having to make some decisions that will affect my family as well as myself. I have been advised to be open to the spirit and go where the spirit leads.

But how do you know when you are being lead by the spirit and not being lead by your own will?
First off, pray.

When following God’s will, doors will fly open and you’ll receive a feeling of peace about the decision.

If its not God’s will, stumbling blocks will prevent you from moving on and if you force it, you will not feel at peace but at conflict.

Fr. Green has a good book on discernment, “Weeds Among the Wheat Discernment: Where Prayer and Action Meet.”

I used this book when I went through discernment for the Diaconate.

Jim
 
All the previous are excellent.

I will add one that has worked wonderfully for me this year.
I will do the open the bible at random and read whereever your eye is drawn. I usually do this three times so I get 3 readings. Usually I do this in front of the blessed sacrament after I have asked for something in particular like guidence. But not always.
I have been keeping a log and it has been amazingly helpfull and I have gotten more than I ve asked for.

One funny but powerfull time I was at my desk and was holding a letter from my church. It was a greeting signed by the paster, deacon, music director, all the employees. On a whim for no reason apparent to me I opened my bible at random to chronicals or something but it was a list of all the musicians that played when David brought the arc to Jeruselem. To me it was like God was telling a joke and proving that he was really speaking to me.

Another time when I was concerned about what I should be adding to my spirituality and asked; the verse ai opened to began It pleases God to… and it was direction that served me well.

Anyway it is one of the main ways I currently get direction and consolation. It has been wonderful.

God Bless,
Jim
 
Many others in similar confusions regarding important decisions have found the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius helpful.

THREE TIMES
FOR MAKING, IN ANY ONE OF THEM, A SOUND
AND GOOD ELECTION

**First Time. **When God our Lord so moves and attracts the will, that without doubting, or being able to doubt, such devout soul follows what is shown it, as St. Paul and St. Matthew did in following Christ our Lord.

Second Time. When enough light and knowledge is received by experience of consolations and desolations, and by the experience of the discernment of various spirits.

Third Time. The third time is quiet, when one considers, first, for what man is born – namely, to praise God our Lord and save his soul – and desiring this chooses as means a life or state within the limits of the Church, in order that he may be helped in the service of his Lord and the salvation of his soul.

I said time of quiet, when the soul is not acted on by various spirits, and uses its natural powers freely and tranquilly.
If election is not made in the first or the second time, two ways follow as to this third time for making it.

THE FIRST WAY
TO MAKE A SOUND AND GOOD ELECTION

First Point. The first Point is to put before me the thing on which I want to make election, such as an office or benefice, either to take or leave it; or any other thing whatever which falls under an election that can be changed.

Second Point. It is necessary to keep as aim the end for which I am created, which is to praise God our Lord and save my soul, and, this supposed, to find myself indifferent, without any inordinate propensity; so that I be not more inclined or disposed to take the thing proposed than to leave it, nor more to leave it than to take it, but find myself as in the middle of a balance, to follow what I feel to be more for the glory and praise of God our Lord and the salvation of my soul.

Third Point. To ask of God our Lord to be pleased to move my will and put in my soul what I ought to do regarding the thing proposed, so as to promote more His praise and glory; discussing well and faithfully with my intellect, and choosing agreeably to His most holy pleasure and will.

Fourth Point. Fourth: To consider, reckoning up, how many advantages and utilities follow for me from holding the proposed office or benefice for only the praise of God our Lord and the salvation of my soul, and, to consider likewise, on the contrary, the disadvantages and dangers which there are in having it. Doing the same in the second part, that is, looking at the advantages and utilities there are in not having it, and likewise, on the contrary, the disadvantages and dangers in not having the same.

Fifth Point. After I have thus discussed and reckoned up on all sides about the thing proposed, to look where reason more inclines: and so, according to the greater inclination of reason, and not according to any inclination of sense, deliberation should be made on the thing proposed.

Sixth Point. Sixth, such election, or deliberation, made, the person who has made it ought to go with much diligence to prayer before God our Lord and offer Him such election, that His Divine Majesty may be pleased to receive and confirm it, if it is to His greater service and praise.

THE SECOND WAY
TO MAKE A GOOD ANY SOUND ELECTION

**First Rule. **The first is that that love which moves me and makes me choose such thing should descend from above, from the love of God, so that he who chooses feel first in himself that that love, more or less, which he has for the thing which he chooses, is only for his Creator and Lord.

Second Rule. The second, to set before me a man whom I have never seen nor known, and I, desiring all his perfection, consider what I would tell him to do and elect for the greater glory of God our Lord, and the greater perfection of his soul, and I, doing likewise, to keep the rule which I set for the other.

**Third Rule. **The third, to consider, as if I were at the point of death, the form and measure which I would then want to have kept in the way of the present election, and regulating myself by that election, let me make my decision in everything.

Fourth Rule. The fourth, looking and considering how I shall find myself on the Day of Judgment, to think how I would then want to have deliberated about the present matter, and to take now the rule which I would then wish to have kept, in order that I may then find myself in entire pleasure and joy.

Note. The above-mentioned rules for my eternal salvation and peace having been taken, I will make my election and offering to God our Lord, conformably to the sixth Point of the First Way of making election.

catholicfirst.com/thefaith/catholicclassics/ignatiiusloyola/spiritualexercises2.cfm
 
How do you know when you are being guided by the spirit?

I am having to make some decisions that will affect my family as well as myself. I have been advised to be open to the spirit and go where the spirit leads.

But how do you know when you are being lead by the spirit and not being lead by your own will?
In my case, I would discuss it with my Spiritual Director. YMMV
 
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