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Divine Truth Hub Forum Board (NOW CLOSED) • What should we focus on?
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What should we focus on?

Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2015 8:50 pm
by Abram
I wonder where our focus should be while on the Divine Love path?

Throughout my journey on this path I have recognized that at times I am super focused on trying to identify negative emotions. I have spent a lot of time focusing on my past to process negative emotions. I'm concerned that I am too focused at times on the negative and not allowing myself to sit with the positive emotions. I know it is important to focus on our passions and desires, gratitude, and our priority should be on developing a relationship with God.

Does anyone have some guiding principals with regards to where our focus should be?

Re: What should we focus on?

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 4:13 am
by Teresa French
Hi Abram,

I have been in the past confused about where to start, as I feel I have a "shopping list" of stuff I want to work through and check off. This became overwhelming and quite a struggle.

Jesus has said to focus first on building our relationship with God. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all else will be added unto you" - or words to that effect.

What I have found is that in working on building a personal and personable relationship with God, working on how I would build a relationship with God as my best friend, is that all sorts of stuff comes up that stops me having, or even wanting, that relationship. This has been the clue to me that this stuff, whatever it is that comes up, is where I need to focus. Whatever it is that comes up first when I want to get closer to God, that's the thing for me to focus on first.

I have found that makes it simpler. Not always (ever!) easy, but definitely simpler - it has helped remove the confusion, when I am being humble.

cheers
Teresa

Re: What should we focus on?

Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2015 9:14 am
by Nicky
Hi Abram

This may seem obvious but for me, it's all about spending as much time as possible with God. By that I mean talking to God, praying to God, thinking intellectually about what God's Truth is on certain matters (while my soul is in error on these subjects) and opening up to potential reasons why I perceive that I have differing feelings to God.

The whole point of the Divine Love path is all about building and developing our own personal relationship with God, right? I used to get intellectually bogged down in thinking "arghhh I have to feel emotions" and I never really got far doing this. I have now started following some of my passions and desires (e.g. creating this forum), and emotions are kind of automatically being triggered for me in the process whilst following these desires which is really cool.

The step to start following desires and passions is a pretty huge one to take due to certain fears keeping us locked up in a place of inaction. I guess I only decided to take a "leap of faith" due to the times I previously connected to God and received God's love - without that, I'd have never taken the initial leap.

For me, I believe God would really like us to engage in certain desires and passions as this would give God something to work with. I reckon this would make us more in tune with our own soul on a daily basis - and following desires is a pretty fun and exciting process! Further to this, if we remain in truth with the people around us, it will trigger many of our own fears.

Always try the big experiment - by that I mean ask God to receive her love (when you start feeling a desire to receive love). If it doesn't come, then I'd suggest to pray to God and ask what the block(s) is/are and then carefully look at what the Law of Attraction brings you.

Cheers

Nicky

Re: What should we focus on?

Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 9:24 am
by Amanda Stracey
Hi Abram

I'm interested in talking about confusion because I've found that I've been incredibly confused about Divine Truth teachings and resistant to applying them sincerely in my life, It took me quite a long time to even realise or admit how confused I've been. For some people it has seemed really easy or easier anyway to get on with prayer and receive Divine Love and address addictions and all that. I've found it much much harder, have been pretty hard on myself about that and got stuck there. The point I want to make about confusion though is I feel it is a cover or a place to live in that helps me avoid some fears so I suppose that means its an addictive feeling place. When I've lived in confusion I've noticed that I get to avoid the following:

Making mistakes as I'm doing nothing
Feelings of being rejected by God
Many issues in my life such as

Not facing the truth of how I really feel about God and Prayer
Not facing the truth about my lack of faith in God and myself

Feeling my resistance to or wilfully looking away from what the Law of Attraction is bringing me already
Not seeing how much I want my addictions and not wanting to feel or not caring how they affect those around me and me and any possible relationship with God
Acknowledging and accepting the role my family have played in my damage
Acknowledging and accepting the role I have played in my family's damage


I've become very attached to this song as a great reminder of how lost I've felt and how much I've tried to cover that up by some semblance of knowledge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y_KJAg8bHI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zuez10JnBI

I think many of us have focussed on Divine Truth teachings as a goal of emotional processing rather than having a personal loving emotional relationship with God, ourselves, others and our environment and a journey of coming to see/feel how God sees, feels and thinks.

There are a number of questions I would ask myself such as how much time do I spend praying and am I forcing myself to do that or am I passionate about it? How do I feel about asking for God's love or anything else? If I'm not praying why do I feel that is and what can I do about that - i.e. what is the process of sincerely and permanently changing a feeling in me? Do I feel any love towards God and want to give it? Basically what can I do to increase my desire for God?

I've just taken this extract from this talk for example (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/241300)


"Only by developing desire and the prayer is about developing desire. So when we talk about the prayer in more detail in a minute you’ll see that it is about developing desire and understanding what’s going on within yourself, and how God connects to you. So that’s what the sample prayer is really all about. So my suggestion is to allow these desires to build and develop. Many of you have heard the information eighteen months ago about connection with God but many of you are feeling really frustrated still about the connection not happening for you. It seems to be happening for some people but obviously for many of us, it’s not happening. Now there’s a lot of reasons why and next week we’ll be having a talk about “Emotions of Self-Deception,” and there’ll be a whole big area there, where you’re preventing your connection with God, that we’ll talk about. So the key is to
understand those things, but the primary understanding that needs to get to us at the soul level, is this understanding that God loves you, God is a real person, a real being who loves you. God is going to be, for many of you, the closest relationship you will ever have. And when you have God as your closest relationship every other relationship will be enhanced because of that relationship. Your relationship with your soulmate for example will be enhanced."

I've quoted that passage as I was feeling from your postings about your interaction with your family/children that the relationships have become more difficult and fraught since you've heard about Divine Truth teachings so you may not believe as many of us don't that "every other relationship will be enhanced because of that relationship". I certainly have had the belief that people will ridicule and hate me for even wanting to know anything about God. That is directly related to some childhood stuff about the hatred of one parent for the other and being projected onto God. As if my desire for God has got to be my dirty little secret.

Also telling myself God's truth that God is showing me in my life right now the next thing to address but for some reason I'm not sensitive to it. I find this clip very useful to ponder especially about wanting a written instruction manual:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYvQdJYNq7c

Also I've just become aware of this audio on the Divine Truth website which you might find useful

https://www.divinetruth.com/www/en/audi ... nation.mp3

There is a load of helpful truth and insight in there.

Re: What should we focus on?

Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 9:59 pm
by Abram
Teresa, Nicky, and Amanda,

Thanks for the guidance. You all really emphasized the primary focus being having a relationship with God. I think that at times I have I felt so distant from God and so I would try for a little bit (praying, talking to God, asking for guidance, etc.) and then after a while would feel hopeless about it as I didn't feel any divine love. As a result I would focus on my negative emotions and distorted beliefs related to my law of attraction, as they are what is blocking my relationship with God, but I would then get out of the habit of trying to connect with God. I have gone back and forth in this cycle.

I can see how my law of attraction, pursuing my passions/desires, and living in truth is how God communicates with me, gets to know me, and helps me understand where I'm in truth and error. I haven't completely made the connect that these are ways to have a relationship with God. When others talk about "Divine Love" it seems like it is something that will feel undeniable and will be obvious. I've never felt this to my knowledge so it feels like I don't have a relationship at all with God. So is it fair to say that even though I don't recognize this feeling I am still having a relationship with God through the examples I just discussed (law of attraction, passions, truth)?

I can see now how my confusion can be an addictive feeling place of avoidance of the truth and the feelings associated. I feel this makes so much sense and is a pattern for me. Amanda, I will spend some time following the links to further understand your points. Thanks again all of you for the tips. Now I need to do it and stick to it!!!!

Re: What should we focus on?

Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 2:14 am
by Teresa French
Hi Abram,

As an illustration of what I was saying, your last sentence gives you a clue of somewhere to start perhaps.
Abram wrote:... Thanks again all of you for the tips. Now I need to do it and stick to it!!!!
A suggestion would be to ask yourself, and ask God as you would ask a trusted friend for guidance, why you "need" to do it and "stick to it" rather than it being something that comes naturally to you.

This could lead you to some emotions that are keeping you from what you want. I remember Jesus saying in a talk once about emotions being like a string of that pearl seaweed you find at the beach - you can pull one up and then you find an entire string of them to follow.

Cheers
Teresa

Re: What should we focus on?

Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 7:45 pm
by Amanda Stracey
Abram

As Teresa says it's good to pay attention to the words we use. I don't know what your relationship with your parents was/is like - but mine was/are very emotionally distant and I've certainly felt completely hopeless about ever ever having a relationship with God. I've found (much to my annoyance at times) that there is no other way to feeling closer to God or even on the right track or a bit more hopeful about God existing than allowing space and time for the hopelessness, the loneliness, the misery and the feeling that I'm the only person I know who doesn't have a relationship with God - that God does not care less whether I live or die in fact God would prefer it if I had died. So if those are our real feelings its not surprising we have no real longing for God at all. Also I don't want to give you the false impression that I've got it all or anything sorted at all but I was very miserable, angry at myself and confused about most things. I feel I've turned a small corner and things are changing a bit......

One other thing that came to me today as well was that when we really want to know what to look at next or the biggest issue preventing our progress we will see it somehow or other.

Sorry to add to your list of videos to watch but I thought this one might help about priorities - how Jesus prioritises issues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV9CJzOtmeA