Highway of Holiness

Soul Journey

Lawrence

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781498271202
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

You were born on earth in holiness but as you walk along life's road and become buffeted with life's trials you lose the knowledge of the holiness with which you were born. Join Judith Lawrence along her soul journey as she considers God's grace, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the abundance of Christ's love, and many other blessings received along life's road. Discover your soul's qualities, discern your soul's voice, and follow your soul's leading along your spiritual pilgrimage. Become a contemplative without a cloister, keep God at the center of your life, and find God's open doors along your pilgrim way. This book will take you through paths of prayer and assist you to become aware of your soul's presence within; it will guide you towards a unique relationship with God, take you along your path to spiritual maturity, and give you a realization of your holiness and oneness with God. The spiritual journey is one of awakening to your soul's presence, rediscovering the holiness with which you were born, and being transformed into spiritual beings.

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Awareness of Our Spiritual Pilgrimage

Spiritual Exploration

As human beings we have a sense of longing within us. At first, we do not understand that this innate longing is from the soul. We search for fulfillment, we search for something that we feel we need to make us complete. We may presume, especially when we are younger, that we are looking for the perfect mate so that we will be a perfect couple and later a family. This is part of our earthly, physical pilgrimage and it is the way in which most of us, though not all, travel through our lives.

As we get older, whether we are married or not, we begin to be aware of our spiritual side and our soul starts to make itself known; or perhaps it is that we become more attuned to the soul within and begin to listen to its voice. We are aware of a desire within us to come to know God at a deeper level and our spiritual pilgrimage begins in earnest. We are all longing for something; and we are all seeking that for which we long. We must open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit in order to discover our personal spiritual path.

Do you feel as if you have been brought to the edge of possibility, that here before you lies your new spiritual day, the day that is the expression and discovery of God’s Spirit within you? This is your soul making itself heard, beckoning you on. You are about to take the next step in your spiritual journey. You will not know what lies ahead of you but you can be sure that God will keep you safe whatever comes for it is through God’s calling that your spiritual journey is mapped out for you.

Allow yourself to be open to God’s newness of spirit in you; open yourself to the next stage of your spiritual exploration. Accept the gift of new life from God, whatever it may be. Look to God and be totally confident that all will be well. You have no idea of what is to happen but you can feel quiet and confident in God’s Holy Spirit. There will be pitfalls but God will hold you safe. Rely on God and be open to the leading of the Sacred One. Look for guidance from your soul.

Today is the first day of your new life in God. The new vision that God has for you will be unbelievable, at times overwhelming, and always truly wonderful. You are on your spiritual pilgrimage; you will have the journey of your life on this Highway of Holiness. Hold on tight to God’s hand and enjoy each moment.

Pilgrims

What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord, who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. (Ps 84:5)

A pilgrim is one who journeys to a sacred place or a future life. Those of us who are set on this journeying process towards a sacred place are joyful. When we walk with God we discover that the journey and the arrival are one and the same; being on the journey and arriving at the journey’s end is one and the same moment in time. God is the journey and its arrival; God is the path and the attainment of its goal. Our home is in God and our journey is with God.

We are all pilgrims on life’s road. What is the modern day pilgrim seeking? What are you seeking? What is God seeking from us? God desires that we come to know the Lord’s love for us and that we understand that God’s love is within us; we are to love God and ourselves, and to share God’s love with others.

There may be times on your journey when you wonder why you are in a particular place; you may wonder why you would have chosen to work in such an odd line of work or such an out of the way part of the country. God is the reason you are there and you may never know what that reason is. You are there because God needs to be there and God has chosen to be there through you. When God asks you to help someone, you must try to be generous; if God needs you to receive from someone, you must try to be appreciative of that person’s generosity, remembering that the gift is from God.

At times on the journey we will need a drink of water and at other times God will ask us to provide a drink of water for someone else. We should take what is offered with thanksgiving. We must not be choosy from whom we will receive a gift, nor be selective of the person who will receive the cup of water from our hands. We should give to and receive from the one who is present to us now and the cup will be replenished for the next person. If we wait for another opportunity to give or receive the offering, the water will evaporate or spill and the cup will become empty. We shouldn’t wait for some future moment to do the job that needs to be done; the journey is now, the joy is now.

Needs of a Spiritual Pilgrim

If we are going on a physical pilgrimage we will likely plan ahead. We would need a place to stay overnight; we would need a map; we would pack a bag with traveling necessities.

The spiritual pilgrim also has traveling needs.

Daily Quiet Time and Place

Every day of your life you are on a spiritual pilgrimage and every day of your life you need to spend preparation time with God for the strength needed for your journey.

One of the most important requirements of the spiritual pilgrim is a daily quiet time and place. In order to focus fully on God throughout your spiritual pilgrimage you need to put aside time each day for quiet prayer and meditation. This daily time is where you get rest and renewal for the coming day’s journey toward spiritual maturity.

The scriptures tell us that God indwells us (1 John 2:27; 4:13, 15, 16) and now, in this quiet time of meditation, in this time of silence and stillness, we reinforce the truth of the promise of these words and come to understand the meaning Christ’s words have for us in our daily life. During our quiet time, the mind’s knowing becomes the soul’s reality as we begin to understand the meaning of the words, “For in [God] we live and move and exist” (Acts 17:28a).

Through the day it is difficult to hear God’s voice with all that is going on around you. Having a daily quiet time will assist you to become more attuned to hearing God’s voice and seeing the Sacred One in your surroundings throughout the day. In your quiet time you grow more open to hearing God’s voice and so your ability to see and hear the Lord during the rest of the day grows also.

You will begin to see God all around you in nature, in work, at home, in family, and in other people. You will begin to live a life of gratitude, making a point of thanking God each time you notice something good that has come to you.

As you proceed along the gratitude journey you begin to be thankful, not only for joys and beautiful things, but also for sorrows and difficulties; things you once thought ugly and undesirable, you now realize can bring you closer to God.

Practice is what makes this come about and the practice begins in your quiet time and place with God each morning. As you read the scriptures and meditate on their meaning for your life; as you read other spiritual books and journal your spiritual pilgrimage; and as you pray and intercede for others, you begin to note that God seems to have a purpose for you in all that happens to you. As you discover that God has a purpose for you in this life you discover that your soul also has a purpose; and that purpose is to help you unite with God and follow God’s purpose for you.

It is in the silence that you come to be aware of God’s purpose in everything you experience; it is in the morning silence that you come to grow in spiritual maturity and in gratitude for God’s love and the Lord’s indwelling; and it is in the early morning silence that you respond in love to God, grow in love to God, and begin to experience a mutual love between God and your soul.

How Much Time Does God Need?

It is not how much time God needs from you that is at issue but how much time you are able and willing to give to God and to yourself to prepare for your daily spiritual pilgrimage.

At first, when you consider taking up a meditation practice or think about setting aside a time for quiet prayer, you may feel that you really don’t have the time for it. Your life is already filled up with a hundred and one things to do and you know that you don’t have the time to fit them all into your day as it is. How then can you possibly fit in any time for meditation? What about an hour? Impossible! How about a half-hour? Too much! Would ten minutes be possible? Well, maybe. Perhaps you could give that a try.

Would it mess up your day badly if you sit for ten minutes and say a prayer to God to guide you through your day? Would it be so difficult to take a few minutes to read the psalm and scripture readings for the day and jot down a few words that strike you as relevant to your life? At first, yes, it will be difficult to slot this time into your regular routine. It will require an adjustment to your morning hours. Are you willing to try?

You may need to get up a little earlier in order to work prayer time into your early morning routine. What can it hurt to try for a week? Before you know it, with this morning practice, you begin to find yourself less hurried in your life rather than more rushed as you thought you would be. You may want more than ten minutes and you try twenty minutes and, later, half an hour then, perhaps, even more.

Your days become less rushed and, even though the meditation time leaves you with less time to do the same amount of work, you seem to get through the tasks just the same and perhaps with more peace than before.

In your time of meditation and quiet with the Sacred One, you glimpse God and receive God’s love and light. As a relationship with your special partner grows by being with that special person, talking with that special person, spending time quietly with that one special one, so does your relationship with God grow by making time to be with the Lord. In so doing, you grow in the ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Awareness of Our Spiritual Pilgrimage
• Chapter 2: Pilgrimage Process
• Chapter 3: Starting Our Spiritual Journey
• Chapter 4: Meeting Others on the Journey
• Chapter 5: Walking through Darkness and Light
• Chapter 6: Expect Hills and Valleys, Rivers and Deserts
• Chapter 7: Finding Open Doors Along the Way
• Chapter 8: Continuing on the Soul Journey
• Post-Script
• Bibliography