A workshop called "Letting God Lead" on prayer and meditation at the Chisolm Trail Convention Plugerville, TX

My name is Norma. I'm a real alcoholic.

And excuse me, No, I'm fine.

Dave and I are going to take turns. I'm going to start out talking about letting God lead, which is the name of our workshop, and then he's going to come in and wrap it up at the end. So let's get started.

When I think of letting God lead, you know, I think of prayer, meditation and guidance because that's how we communicate with our higher power is in that way. Now he can communicate with us in many ways, but that's how we begin. And so you know what is guidance? The dictionary definition is to be guided as if you were blind. Not him but y'all.

And to get directions.

I bought Dave a painting one time and don't go there. But anyway I bought him a painting and it's of a ship on the waters. It's a really beautiful painting and I and with the painting I have a poem posted on our living room wall and the poem says this

one ship drives E, another drives W with the self sang wind that blow tis the set of the sails and not the gals which tells the way it goes.

So how I set myself every day going to determine which way I'm going to go. And for that I need my prayer, my meditation, my guidance, and my God.

So I've heard it said that prayer is talking, meditation is listening. The big Book talks about asking God to direct our thing. We sure don't want the world to go with enormous thinking. Because I'll tell you when I'm God, everybody dies, you know?

And what we learn is not just meditation, but there's a thing called guided meditation. There's a lot of different ways to meditate, but what meditation really is, is it's thinking about something and giving all your focus to that.

Do you know that worry is meditation? It's just meditating on something that has a fear base. It's obsession, but it's still a form of meditation. It's giving all your thoughts to that one person play situation thing that's troubling you.

The big book says that we were thinking of what we could do for others, what we could pack into the stream of life. We have to be careful not to drift and to worry, remorse or morbid reflection. Why? Every step tells you this because it would diminish our usefulness to others.

The difference between worrying and meditating is always the source. It's fear based or faith-based. And are we listening for the voice of God? Are we listening to those other voices? I know you have them.

And you know, the Big Book says that we became less and less interested in our little plans and designs. More and more we became interested in what we could contribute to life. God's plan, not mine.

And I don't know what God's plan is if I don't start my day by asking God to direct my thinking.

So what can you meditate on? Well, you can meditate on God, on your relationship with God. You can meditate on spiritual readings.

Some people just pick one sentence, one paragraph out of the big book and meditate on it for a while. And that's a way of gaining spiritual insight,

says we ask God to direct our thinking, and under these conditions we can employ our mental facilities with assurance. For after all, God gave us brains to you.

And you know, the first evidence that I have found of guided meditation or meditation is in Bills story when he's on the hospital bed. And Bill had just accepted God and experienced surrender and he had his first real and spiritual experience. And he says, while I lay in the hospital, the thought came that there must be thousands of hopeless Alcoholics who might be glad to have what was so freely given to me.

How did that thought come from Bill? Or did it come from God? I don't think we would all be here today if it was all up to Bill.

And so our recovery life, our very recovery life began with Bills surrender, his prayer and his meditation. And later in the book it talks again about this kind of thinking. It says

those of us who live in large cities were overcome by the reflections that close by. Hundreds are dropping into oblivion every day. Many could recover if they had the opportunity we have enjoyed. How then shall we present that which is being given so freely to us? So the people who wrote the big book were reflecting and thinking, and you know about those that they could help.

On page 85 it says, How can I best serve thee? Thy will not mine be done.

These thoughts. Let's go with us constantly. We can exercise our willpower along this line. All we wish it is the properties of the will.

And then on page 159, it talks about constantly thinking how you can present your recovery, your discovery to some newcomer people coming into a meeting, experiencing, you know, all the brightness, the hope, the life of a A and when they leave, they're thinking, how can I present this to someone else?

That's what they recorded back in the

1st 100 when the 1st 100 wrote the book.

Now,

why do you think we need meditation?

Well,

one reason is it says I thought like will be placed on a higher plane when our thinking is clear to wrong motives. Anybody have wrong motives in here?

OK, get away from her. No,

I don't trust my own motives. I have never been able to trust my own motives. It's amazing how warped our thinking can get. Past experience shows me that I have to have God, you know, and I want my thinking not to be on Norma plane, but on God play. And you know, freedom is never doing whatever I want. We've already proved for freedom of self Will got us. You know

my best thinking. Hey, freedom is really

doing what is the right thing, but I can't do that without guidance from God. That's just the raw truth.

And, you know, guidance is not self knowledge, it's intuitive knowledge. Self knowledge we've already found that, you know, goes only so far. We have to be directed by an intelligence that is not our own and it can't be manufactured within me of my own will,

the Big Book says. In thinking about our day, we may face indecision.

We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration and intuitive thought or a decision. We relax and take it easy. You know, if you're trying to wrestle satisfaction and happiness out of life, you can't relax and take it easy. If you're still thinking that you're in control and that it's up to you,

you can't relax and take it easy. You have to be convinced

that there is a power beyond your own that can and will come into your life situation and guide you to do what is the right thing. We don't struggle. We're often surprised. I don't know why, but we are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this froy walk. You see, there's two worlds. There's the world of fear and self will, and there's the world

of the great reality.

And you know,

if I'm looking at life, their eyes of fear,

we have, you know, the disease of perception. If I'm looking at my situations through eyes of resentment, if I'm looking through eyes of self pity and victimization,

then I have a warped reality and I desperately need the great reality that is God.

And so it says, if we have carefully followed directions,

we have begun to sense the flow of His Spirit into us to some extent. We have become God conscious. We have begun to develop this vital 6th sense

and the bottle $0.06

is, you know, we can perceive much of the world through our ordinary senses, through our eyes, ears, you know, through our mind. We gain a lot of information. We can read a lot of books, we can watch a lot of movies, you know, and that's, that's book knowledge, that's self knowledge. But the knowledge we get from God is very different, comes from a different source. It is not earthly. It is not worldly.

It is something much closer to what I'd like to call wisdom,

and it is what our literature terms intuitiveness or guidance.

So

how do you know that what you get is from God?

Well,

all I can say is it Ted's experience,

and you will get to know the voice of God. It will become familiar and it talks about, you know, what used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind. You know, we are partners in this thing. We live in the world of the spirit. You may think you live in a material world. I think it's an illusion.

Albert Einstein said that to think that we are all separate

is an illusion. I think we are all connected through our spirit and through the Spirit of God.

Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable we are going to be inspired at all times. We might pay for this presumption of all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration.

We come to rely upon it

and you know, there's a quite into 12 and 12 that says

quite often

the thoughts that seem to come from God. Actually, it's just our unconscious rationalization, well-intentioned, but you know, it's really distorted, distorted so-called guidance. Dave can court that better than I can later on, but it's really wishful thinking. That's what it is and it's really important when we think we have something from God. Go check with your sponsor.

Find out exactly what kind of a good idea it is. You know,

so

it says after the promises

that the promises will always materialize if we work for them. This thought, What thought,

the work, the directions. This thought brings us to step 10, which suggests we continue to take personal inventory. That's the work and set right any new mistakes as we go along. That's

vigorously commence this way of living. As we cleaned up the past, we have entered the world of the Spirit.

Our next function is to grow and understanding and effectiveness. And how? Well, two ways I think, you know, continuing your inventory, your prayer, your meditation and your service. That is how I grow in understanding effectiveness. I'm not going to spiritually grow sitting at home in front of the TV. You know, we have to get out in the world. We have to be around other people.

This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime. Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once

I want to remove them. We do get discuss them with someone immediately. We make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. It looks like that part of growth has to do with how fast we take the action. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help.

That's step 12. But it says turning our thoughts, so isn't some of that meditation as well? How can I best serve thee?

Love and tolerance of others is our code. I always wondered why they put that in. Well, it's because we're around sick people, not well people, and that's going to take some love and tolerance. We need to keep the doors of a A open, not slam them shut with our criticism, our intolerance, and our inability to put ourselves back in that place where we first came in. That's humility. We have ceased fighting anything or anyone,

even alcohol, for by this time sanity will have returned. Remember when Bill was in the hotel room

and there was the bar and the girls in the bar and the jingling of glasses and, and here he was, you know, he was not in a good position that day. You know, he couldn't even pay his bill in the hotel room and things had gone wrong and he really wanted to drink. And he was pacing back and forth

and he took some action

and a minute he took that action, his Santa to return that he thanked God. And then,

you know, our way of life began.

So

I, I want to talk a little bit about what keeps you from hearing God.

There's a lot of challenges, you know, here we are, irritable Russians and discontent or supposed to meditate, right? We don't know how to sit on the couch for 5 minutes. But you know,

there are some challenges to developing a relationship with God. And there are four that I, I see in my own life. And one of the challenges is our lifestyle. Today we're very busy. We're hurry. Our life can be cluttered

physically or mentally, and we're activity junkies. You know, some people can be service junkies to the bad end of it, not the good end of it, because they lack finding that balance between what you can do and what you should do at this time in your life. We was just talking about that for the meeting, you know, finding the right balance for you at this time in your life. That's not saying not to do service. It's saying there's lots of different kinds of service and there's responsibility levels. You know, I don't agree with putting

very new in a position where there's a lot of responsibility, where if they fail at those responsibilities, they're too embarrassed to come back into the fellowship, you know,

But anyway, we, we, our greatest challenge is to keep a simple life, one that is focused on developing character, not content, not too many things to do. But are you good at what you're doing now because you have made the time for it? Effectively? The next challenge is finding time alone.

Most of us don't know how to be alone. We're constantly with other people,

with our family, with our kids. True, you know, that's part of life. But you know, the hustle and the bustle, making the demands to be here and there to meet with this person or that person. And some of us are scared to be alone. It's uncomfortable

to be right there with the thoughts in your head, but until you have that experience of trying to find God through prayer and meditation, all you're going to have is your own thoughts. You know, it's kind of like swimming. You got to jump in and do it sometimes. And so

in the midst of a busy life, finding that time alone, you have to plan for it and finding quite where. A noisy lot, you know, radio, CD flavors, iPods, CVS, telephones, videos, DVD's, and people. You know. I'm a kindergarten teacher. I know about noise. Okay,

so when was the last time you had a time and a place for New York, silent and alone, that you could sit down and hear the voice of your God

does have to be planned or it's not going to happen. And then there's being able to surrender control of your life, you know? If you sit and you pray, but then you go off and do it your way, you know,

then you're not letting God lead. And

we have to surrender to something besides ourselves, besides our fear, or it's just not going to happen. There's a quote out of the 12:00 and 12:00 that I love.

For you

says, and this is

about step 11, now and then we may be granted a glimpse to that ultimate reality which is God's Kingdom, and we will be comforted and assured that our own destiny in that room will be secured for so long as we try, however false early, namely, to find and do the will of our own Creator. As we have seen, self searching is the means by which we bring new vision, action and grace to bear on the dark

side of our nature. It is a step in the development of that kind of humility which allows us to receive God's health.

What are the things that are going to allow you to receive from God?

These are the kind of things that we're talking about.

My experiences with prayer and meditation. I've gotten a lot of comfort from God

and trying time.

I know I've heard many people talk about they were having difficulties, some people even when they were first getting sober. But it doesn't always have to be then. And we would go to God with that.

And then we would feel a piece

or a concert or just that knowing that you can just be still enough, that there is a God.

And

I have sometimes gotten an inspiration of exactly what to do in that moment. That I needed some real guidance and a situation where I needed to make a quick decision and I can call on God and expect to get an answer.

And there are times where I heard something I didn't want to hear from God. You know, one time I was

being dishonest with my husband.

Don't tell me you've never been dishonest with someone, because I'm not going to believe it. OK? No. And I had it. It had to do with money, with finances, because he had the checkbook and I didn't. And so he would give me money for groceries, for gas. He would buy me lots of nice things, but I didn't have any of my own money. You know, girls, you understand this, don't you? And so

he's not understanding the problem. Plus he wants to spend all the money on the card and the motorcycle. Well, I want to spend the money on other things, you know, my new skirt, stuff like that. So I'm making fun of this. But this is a serious division between us.

And I remember in sitting in front of the fireplace, praying, meditating, wanting to hear from God. Because you see, in the midst of this resentment, I started hoarding money that he didn't know about because he is blind. So, you know, he can't read the mail, can't read my paycheck. He doesn't know what extra stuff is coming in, you know? So here I was

in my anger, being dishonest, not telling him everything

and kind of, you know, making a big mess of things. And I had talked to my sponsor at the time about it. She said, you know, you need to tell him. And I said, I'm not willing to. She said, well, then you need to pray about it. So that's what I was doing. And in this guidance, loud and clear

came the direction. Go tell your husband

and I loud and clear out loud said no.

But there is one aspect to your relationship with God, and that is not to have selective hearing,

but to have willingness to trust Him. But if you hear from God and you know that you hear from God, how many of you have had this little urges, those little things in your heart that told you not to do something and you went ahead and did it anyway? Then you have to drag your butt over to God and say, Oh, sorry,

oh, you told me. Well, this was one of those times. And to be willing to be honest, to be able to make amends. And so I went in and it was hard. I'm not. I'll be honest with embarrassing, humiliating have to go tell him what I have been doing

was very kind

and he said, you know, I'm sorry I could put you in this position because

in the past I have had other people drive me practically bankruptcy with their use of finances. But I haven't given you a chance to prove it any other way and I can't do the checkbook. And I went wild for about 3 months.

And then I came to my senses and what I meant was I spent a lot of money on me and not, not very much on our family. But then I began to ask him, well, what do you need? You need some new T-shirts to need a new harmonica. You know

what what, what money should I put aside? And I found the balance between responsibility and privilege. But it started with guidance, with seeking counsel for Mother People, my sponsor of the day, and for being willing

to follow through.

And one time I did guidance with a girlfriend. We were both having a difficult time. I was having some problems with one son and she was unable to find work for about a year. She couldn't find work and we called every every morning. We called each other and did guidance and prayer together. I've done that more than once with friends and it is an incredible experience of what we both heard. Each heard from God and shared that

it was needed support.

I utilize, I utilize prayer and meditation. It is a working part of my life. I humbly rely on God for strength, guidance, resources, inspiration, all those things. And Bill Wilson and Doctor Bob, I'm not going to go into this, but they had a way of prayer and meditation and it was guided meditation that they did every single morning with their family.

It's two way prayer. And so, you know, the more you do this

meditation,

you have a lingering sense of the presence of God in your mind and heart. There's an intimacy there and it's a very residual effect. If you don't get it, do it regularly. What you get is a residual effective cell and self will. So

at this point,

I'm going to now bring Dave in to talk about his experience, strength and hope on letting God lead and hopefully he will talk about how you pull together 1011 and 12. Are you or whatever. OK. Thank you.

It'll be good. Whatever.

Cool.

And getting ready to do this workshop, we did not compare notes or talk to each other, so

you may hear some of the same things.

It is good reinforcement,

but before I'm blind Dave. Oh I was going to say for the tape but it OK.

Alcoholic y'all. Amen.

Letting God lead. That's what they asked us to speak on,

which naturally most people is going to interpret as meaning our Step 11,

improving your conscious contact with God, getting in a place where what's becoming talked about a lot is guided meditation. As I was preparing for this, what I felt like God wanted me to really emphasize and and if you want to look at page 100 of the big book, second paragraph, you don't have to turn there if you don't want to. I'll read it to you, but it says both you and the Newman must walk day by day in the path of spiritual progress.

If you persist, remarkable things will happen

when you look back. Or when we look back, we realize that the things which came to us when we put ourselves in God's hands

was better than anything we could have planned.

Follow the dictates of the higher power and you will presently live in a new and wonderful world no matter what your present circumstance.

So we have here where it talks about following. Now we're talking about letting God lead and it says here, follow the dictates of your higher power.

And it's very important for us to know what those are because it's the same for everyone of us. This is not talking about what does God want me to do today? Let's that's not what, believe it or not, that's not what this is talking about. And I'm going to cover that first of all, because

it says the things which came to us when we put ourselves in God's hands. There is a process of putting yourself in God's hands that has to transpire before there's any leading and following.

So I want to talk about that some a little bit. So the big book says this in chapter 4. It says here are thousands of men and women, worldly indeed.

They flatly declare that when they come after they've come to believe in a power greater than themselves, to take a certain attitude toward that power, and to do certain simple things. There's been a revolutionary change in their way of living and thinking.

In the face of collapse and despair, in the face of the total failure of their human resources, they found a new power. Peace, happiness and sense of direction

flowed into them.

So there it is, the power piece, happiness and sense of direction

after

they took a certain attitude toward that power and did certain simple things. And those are the things required to put yourself in God's hands before even this experience of, of, of a sense of direction and a power and a peace and sense of direction will come to you.

So I'm going to talk a little bit about, first of all, putting yourself in God's hands.

And it begins with Step 3, the first paragraph, I believe on page 63, Step three, we made a decision to turn our will and life over to the care of God as we understood Him.

When we sincerely took such a position, all sorts of remarkable things followed. Now, didn't we read back on page 100 that that all sorts of remarkable things were going to happen?

Well, it began right here, step three. When we sincerely made this decision to turn our will and life over to the care of God, all sorts of remarkable things followed. We had a new employer being all powerful.

He provided what we needed, if there's a price,

if we kept close to him and performed his work well.

And if you ever sit and listen to me speak on any subject, I'm going to start here or I'm going to bring it back to here.

Because everything this all powerful being bringing all his power to bear upon my life to provide whatever I need and to remove all my difficulties is for a reason

that I can bear witness to those I'm the help of his power love and of his way of life and and the the decision that I'm supposed to make except that at step three is he will do this if Oh hi,

he will do this if I will agree to do this

now heard Regina speak yesterday how her her thing with God all in the time of past as always, if I do this, God will do this for me. If I be good, God will do this. You know, and, and we know that don't work,

but this is not what we're talking about here. But step three is about us entering into an agreement with God. That's what your decision is. Do you want to agree to these terms? Page 28 of the big Book says all of us, whatever our race, creed or color, our children of a living creator with whom we may form a relationship upon simple and understandable terms as soon as we are willing and honest enough to try. There are terms to forming a relationship with God,

and they're right here on page 63. God makes it clear I do this. If

you agree to do this,

so the ball is in your court.

And what what I have to decide if I want to agree to is if I'm going to agree to keep close to him and perform his work well, which paraphrases into our primary purpose to stay sober and help another alcoholic to achieve sobriety. But you know, and I've had people say, Dave, that's all you talk about. You bring everything back to that. And I said that's because there ain't nothing else.

Read it

everything that all powerful will provide for me. And his promise to do so is connected to this big if

I've had people say Dave, there's I have issues outside the scope of this program. I said what is outside the scope of this program? Read it again. All powerful will provide whatever if

I will keep close to him and perform his work well and there's nothing else.

But now we need to look at what those two things are. Keep close to him and perform his work well

and, and it goes on right after that and say, established on such a footing, I better be established on the clear understanding of what the terms of my experience with God are based on

and nothing else.

Established on this footing,

we become less and less interested in ourselves, our little plans and designs. See, that's why I quit running the show.

More and more, we become interested in seeing what we can do to contribute to help out around here. Why? Because all powerful has agreed to manage my life if I've agreed to do that.

So of course, if I want all that benefit,

I better start caring about you a little bit. I learned that what I got on the giving end of you, I got on the receiving end of God

and established on this footing. We become less and less interested ourselves more and more. We become interested in seeing what we can do to contribute. And it says as we felt new power flow in,

as we enjoyed Peace of Mind, as we discovered this is how you face life successfully, as we became conscious of His presence,

we begin to lose our fear of today, tomorrow, or the hereafter.

I want you to know that fear has a voice.

I want you to know that

the presence of God and His serenity has a voice also.

Before you ever put a voice to fear, you feel it, don't you? And if you sit there and feel it for a while, you start hearing all kinds of thoughts.

And when you feel the presence of God in His serenity,

thoughts will come out of that. It has a voice. So what I need to do is be able

to feel that power, peace, happiness and sense of direction flow in. It has a voice,

So what I've agreed to is to keep close to him and perform his work well and there ain't nothing else.

But there's a lot to that

and what I've agreed to do spend the rest of my life learning what that is and how our next function is to grow an understanding and effectiveness. I can spend my lifetime growing and keeping close to him and performing his work well.

So that was my step three decision, and I want you to know that the rest of the steps

is my training and teaching and education and how to do that.

I do steps 4 through 9. That's my initial effort, just to get close to God,

to clean up, clean house and and remove the things that that would blot me from this experience.

Steps 4 through 9 get me close to God.

Step 1011 and 12 are the steps by which I keep close to Him and perform His work well. Steps to 11:00 and 12:00.

So my third step agreement was to agree to get through these steps and then learn how to live on a daily basis in step 1011 and 12. That's what I've agreed to do.

So I commenced out on this, you know, step four and five, cleaning house, removing the blocks.

And when I'm work doing fist step with my sponsees, One of the things I tell them, I say, first of all, let me tell you this. The big book says Bill Wilson said belief in the power of God, plus enough willingness, honesty and humility to establish and maintain the new order of things are the essential requirements. All of the steps are designed

as an ego deflating process

because when I deflate my ego, I let God in.

When I inflate my ego, I push God out.

And I said right here at step five, you're happy. You're having the biggest ego deflation experience in your step work so far.

And I said, And because of that,

you and God are starting to draw closer together in proximity. Whether you feel it or not, it's happening

and I said so right now as we do your 5th step, I want you to know that you're getting, you're becoming closer and closer to God. Your prayers are going to start from this day forward to have more effect.

Don't take prayer lightly.

So I always say we're going to pray for the people who, you know, sometimes in our deep dark secrets, we drug people into it with us. Are they drug us into it with them? I said, so anybody that that was in Partners in Crime, you know, I said, we're going to pray for those people that God would begin to start some kind of a process to help them get free from all the guilt and shame and and fear that they live in as well.

So Step 5 for me is a is a prayer time

that I involved then in and a lot of their healing takes place in praying for those people.

But that's because Step 5 is a deflating my ego and me and God are getting closer together and the promises after step five, you know, in there says we we begin to feel the nearness of our creator. We may have had certain spiritual beliefs, but now we begin to have a spiritual experience.

See this thing about a new power piece, Happiness and sense of direction is starting to happen through the steps. And then it says, we thank God from the bottom of our hearts that we know Him better.

And then we do some more work and we make that a men's list and we get over here to step 8:00 and 9:00. And now they're getting ready to make amends. And I say, now look here on in step nine. It says on page 77, it says, at the moment we are trying to put our lives in order. But this is not an end in itself. Our real purpose is to fit ourselves, to be of maximum service to God and the people about us.

Have you ever wondered, you know, when I did step Now, I thought, yeah, I'm trying to put my life in order and clean up the records from the past. And all of a sudden the big book says, yeah, but that's not really the big thing that's going on here.

The big thing. It seemed pretty big to me, but

the big thing that's going on here is that somehow this process is further equipping me to be of maximum service to God, the people about me. And I didn't understand that for until I got over to page 79.

And in Page 79 it says although these reparations take innumerable forms, there are some general principles which we find guiding clue in on the word guiding.

There's some general principles which we find guiding.

I'm trying to remember how it goes on from there.

Somebody turned to page 79 real quick. There are some general principles got

Yeah, reminding ourselves that we have decided to go to any lengths to find the spiritual experience. Step 9 is about going deeper into this spiritual experience.

There's reminding ourselves that we've decided to go to any links to find the spiritual experience. We ask that we be given strength and direction

to do the right thing, no matter what the personal consequences may be.

We may lose our position, our reputation or face jail, but we are willing.

This is about going deeper into this experience of feeling God's guidance, getting to know the voice of God. And I tell them, I say back there on step five, I said you were having to muster the most willingness, honesty, and you know that you've had to muster so far. And because of that, you were getting close enough to God that you your prayers was going to start having more effect. I said that's all true up until you get step nine. I said when you, when you have to go and make face to face amends with people, you're going to,

I'm not talking about groveling, I'm talking about humility. I'm talking about having to get gut level honest with yourself about your part and what you need to say. And I said, and because of the depth of willingness, honesty, and humility that it's going to take for you to make these amends, you are now getting even closer to God. Because of the state of humility,

Now you can begin to feel His guidance.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to school yourself in in your immense process The whole thing is about. We have provided a state of humility and willingness and honesty here for you to get close enough to God to get your first taste

of the voice of intuition, the voice of God.

This is where you, you might begin to say, oh, there it is. Don't ever go out and start making amends that you don't sit down. I love the talk yesterday about the amends. I always want to say ask God, ask God. And I don't tell my sponsors. I might let them bounce it off of me later, but I say you ask God. You sit there with pen and paper and let God get involved in this with you. God, who should I do first?

OK,

when should I? When should I go? What should I say?

You will

if you've got the willingness, honesty and humility to do this. You will feel God come into that with you. And and so step 9 is really where you begin to train yourself to, to get familiar with the voice

of the presence of his presence.

And that experience will go with you. And some of us have a mountain of amends that have to make, no doubt. And it's a scary mountain to climb. But I want you to know if you do it right, you're going to be climbing the mountain of God.

And when you get to the top of that mountain and you saying, OK, I'm not going to step 10, it's no wonder it says you have entered the world of the Spirit.

We vigorously Step 10. This thought brings us to step 10, which suggests that we continue to take, yeah, continue to take personal inventory and continue to sit, right? See that, that, that amends stuff

is what keeps you in a state of being able to receive God's guidance.

See, putting yourself, I'm talking about putting yourself in God's hands and then letting God lead this humility, this, this, this making amends thing and asking God, what do I need to say? How do I need to go about this? You know you can screw up in a man's

and you can do a beautiful immense too. That will be a spiritual experience.

It comes down to you get how much do you let God into it

and so we continue to take personal inventory and continue to sit right any new mistakes and long and that as we go along and that continues to put me in a place

to continue to grow in this experience of getting to know God's voice.

So now we're at step 1011 and 12 and here's how we keep close to him and perform his work well. We vigorously commence this way of living. As we cleaned up the past, we have entered the world of the Spirit.

Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty and resentment. If you if you let that go,

forget about hearing from God.

And when we do these guidance kind of things, you know, these step 11 kind of workshops, everybody wants to come and learn how to hear the voice of God. And I said, we're going to talk about making amends. How good are it's sad

how many people in recovery have put the importance on making the amends? Forget it. You ain't going to learn to hear nothing from God

until you have first established how to continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right. Because without that, the egos back in it.

So we continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. We continue to