This article is one of the Unity Classics written by legendary leaders of Unity. Some date back decades, even a century. That’s why the language may seem a bit formal, and the writers sometimes used masculine nouns and pronouns that were considered proper for their era.


Everywhere there is a professed need for guidance: for children, for marriages, for business. Yet if someone publicly suggests that he depends on divine guidance, he may be looked upon with distrust. Often it is seen to be mystical or some kind of magic.

There is an almost instinctive feeling in every person that there is something beyond his personal prejudices, something more than his worries, something that can be reached. However, all too often this something has been dealt with on the level of superstition: the flip of a coin, tarot cards, tea leaves, stars or a crystal ball.

We witness fantastic evidences of guidance in nature, and we call it instinct.

But if a person has such an experience, we call it ESP or Spirit guidance. Why do we refuse to accept as fact that: "... it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand" (Job 32:8)?

Perhaps it is because our religion does not deal with the whole person. We walk alone, unaware that we are all One. We live in a field of infinite knowingness, but we are deaf to the process. Emerson says: There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening we shall hear the right word.

We need to expand our thought of God to a real awareness of omnipresence, to know that the whole of Spirit is present in its entirety at every point in space at the same time.

There is no distance between God and man. There is nowhere to go to get guidance. We are in it all the time.

The expression, "voice of God," is misleading. When Moses heard God speak in the burning bush, it was a knowing so clear that it was as if God was speaking to him. He was told to take off his shoes, meaning to let go of preconceived notions and to become as a little child.

Jesus said: “… your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:8). God is present, and God knows. Knowing is, and it is at hand. It is now. The way out of the problem is at hand. But this knowing comes only to the uncluttered mind. If you know about a lot of things, it is difficult to know the Truth, to know the Knower.

A creative person may be so involved in knowing that he lets go of what he knows about, even if it may indicate impossibility. True creativity flows when the mind is unrestrained by a knowledge of the facts, for direct knowing transcends facts.

Few persons experience direct knowing in their prayer efforts because they are preoccupied with preconceived notions that they bring with them into their prayer time. The mind that is cluttered with images and goals successfully frustrates the process of direct knowing.

The highest form of prayer is not reaching for things but accepting allness.

It is to “be still and know” that Spirit is present as the Presence. The answer to your dilemma is present, here and now. There is nowhere to go, nothing to reach for, no one to contact or plead with. For that would imply absence, and direct knowing is Presence.

When we hear of instances of direct knowing, we tend to write them off as chance or special revelation or psychic intervention. Actually, many of our hunches and leadings evidence direct knowing.

We need to have more faith in the guidance process. For the presence of God, the activity of the Holy Spirit is always present where we are. It knows our needs and is constantly seeking to bring them into fulfillment.

There are not really thousands of things to learn in life. There is only one thing to learn: to know the Knower within and to acknowledge Him in all our ways. This is to understand the superconscious level of mind, to learn how to get and keep in the flow of guidance. Wherever you are and however urgent may be your needs, you can be still and know that you are in the flow. You will experience an effusion of light in the form of creative ideas, unerring guidance, and answers without ceasing.


Excerpt from Celebrate Yourself! by Eric Butterworth. For more about his teachings, visit EricButterworth.com.