So give Your servant an understanding mind and a hearing heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge and rule this Your great people?

— I Kings 3:9 

The Amplified Bible

“Providential Guideposts”

Faith In God … p. 66

We speak of having faith in God. And, every now and then, we are saddened to learn of people who have lost their faith.

Is yours a God who, as a result of your earthly behaviour, judges that you be either saved or condemned? Or is yours a disinterested and ever-loving God?

Is faith in God a coat of many colours, designed to fit each of us in his or her own way?

When all is said and done, no matter the God we believe in or how or why our faith is engendered, by a definition common to all, faith in God is a divine sense of knowing that God lives in us and we in Him.

Is it possible that our capacity to lose faith has everything to do with how we view God, as opposed to that ill which may have befallen us in the moment? 

Faith in God transcends the workings of the mind. Such faith wells up from within, a product of the soul. It is a life-long journey: one that affirms our true inner spiritual Being.

— Garry D. Kilbourn

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

— St. Matthew 13:44

King James Version of the Bible

“Providential Guideposts”

Becoming … p. 65

’Tis commendable to feed the soul, to enrich our spirituality. What may at the outset appear a lonely, no less a daunting task — for who among us early learned that God is our soul — becomes a source of inner peace when we at once question our purpose and seek answers. Were we, upon awakening each day, to take but a moment to commune with God, to acknowledge His presence, and to ask: What am I Becoming? That is to say: Am I being true to myself? Am I able to accept my own innate Goodness and to share it with others?

Becoming is hopeful, a process of change and, above all, a spiritually transcending experience. With God’s Grace, it is a never-ending joyful process.

— Garry D. Kilbourn

Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.

— Proverbs 8:10

King James Version of the Bible

“Providential Guideposts”

Choices 

We Make … p. 64

We are, each of us, blessed with the power of reason and its natural concomitant, will power: Through reason we make choices for good or ill as they affect our life. And, in accordance with our will, we act on them.

The choices we make as they relate to our day-to-day activities and our physical well-being are apparent to all, a manifestation of outward appearances all too often belying the truth. Be that as it may, attendance to worldly matters pales beside the need to acknowledge and to come to terms with our own oft-neglected spirituality.

If ever we are to know peace within, to be certain of the path we walk, we must consciously quiet the turmoil of the mind to allow the soul to emerge and play its proper role in our life. This involves no less than a choice to be made in accordance with rational thought, while at once exercising our will to act on it. Thus may we come into the presence of God such that our spiritual awareness manifests His Goodness; hence, our overall well-being.

— Garry D. Kilbourn

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

— Psalm 139:14  more 

King James Version of the Bible

“Providential Guideposts”

God Is 

Our Soul … p. 63

God is our soul: He is within and everywhere around us. This certain knowledge of God’s presence is based upon faith made real when we embrace God’s Goodness in all that we do. And in the doing, we hunger to come ever closer to God. We want to feel His presence, to all but touch Him.

Through faith we become one with God and, as a result, one with our fellow-man, doing unto others as we would have them do unto us.

We pray and give thanks to God with ever-growing Kinship: His light within a suffusion of all-encompassing Love and Goodness; our spirituality His. No longer is it we, it is God treading the earth through us. His will obtains in all that we think and do. We cannot see God, although we visualize Him as the Light within. Our prayers to God have become those of God, our whole being entrusted to His care.

— Garry D. Kilbourn

Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water.

— St. John 4:10

King James Version of the Bible

“Providential Guideposts”

A Journey That 

Will Set You Free … p. 62

Fear not to go within in search of the real you. It will come at a low point in your life when you are at a loss, not knowing where to turn. It is precisely this combination of events that will enable, nay, even compel you to make this journey. And it is one that will set you free.

Discovery of one’s own self is not an intellectual exercise, something to be reasoned in the mind. By its very nature, it is a spiritual revelation; one that reveals our primary purpose in life, that of coming to know God.

Though the journey may be life-long, we soon come to know a quieting of the mind coupled with a sense of inner peace. Even more, we learn to love our self and we become enlightened with the knowledge that we can do no better than to love both God and our neighbour. Ever mindful of God’s presence, we manifest His Goodness and enrich the lives of others.

— Garry D. Kilbourn

Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of ?

— Isaiah 2:22

King James Version of the Bible

“Providential Guideposts” 

Sixth and 

Seventh Senses … p. 61

Quite unwittingly we all too often fail to apprehend the true nature of another when we ignore our own spirituality, that which embodies our sixth and seventh senses, namely, intuition and understanding.

Albeit, to the great misfortune of many, if not most, our upbringing pays little attention to our life-giving spirituality, tending instead to favour our physical well-being. We are taught that we have only five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.

Perceptive only to the intuitive spiritual mind (the 6th sense), unexpressed thoughts and emotions of another, be they conscious or unconscious, are sensed and made known. To enable this spiritual awareness and understanding (the 7th sense), the listener becomes one with the speaker by at once remaining silent and exposed. Of a sudden, an unspoken trust between two people is born. Thus is forged the basis of a rich and enduring relationship; one that we otherwise would never have known.

— Garry D. Kilbourn

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

— Romans 8:9 

King James Version of the Bible 

“Reflections From Infinite Mind”

Finding Our 

True Self … p. 41  

Were we for a moment to consider that age-old admonition “Know Thyself,” it is reasonable to assume our thoughts would be directed to our bodily senses; those that govern the routine of everyday life. Thoughts so directed, however, would be of no avail. The “self,” the true self, is not to be found in mortal mind or body. The true self is one with Divine Mind: A oneness with God. The act of knowing ourself is a process of spiritual enlightenment stemming from an earnest desire to know God. It means a conscious admission in the presence of God that we know nothing; that we humbly surrender to God our errant willfulness, asking that His will be done. As we come to know that God lives in us and we in Him, we sense a transformation within: We are on His path, at peace.

— Garry D. Kilbourn